Family Forum / Parenting / Adoption / February 2006

The "Birthdate In Question" part is interesting

http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/winter_olympics/article/0,2585,BDC_24862_4456149,
00.html

Bloom: Miller's comments 'crossed the line'
By Camera wire services
February 10, 2006

TURIN, Italy - One of the two most famous members of the U.S. ski
team publicly rebuked the other here Thursday, when former University
of Colorado athlete Jeremy Bloom said Bode Miller had "crossed the
line" in a "60 Minutes" interview in which Miller told stories of
skiing drunk and said the risk of serious injury would not deter him
from doing so again.

In the interview, Miller, last season's World Cup Alpine champion,
said, "It's like driving drunk, only there's no rules about it."

Said Bloom, a freestyler specializing in moguls, "I think he really
crossed the line when he talked about driving and skiing. He has a lot
of kids that look up to him. Sending that type of message is completely
wrong."

Miller later apologized for his comments.

Birth date in question

Toby Dawson's biography lists his birth date as Nov. 30, 1978, but the
U.S. moguls skier isn't sure.

"It's a gray area," he said.

He was born in South Korea and was adopted by a Colorado couple when he
was 3. In between, he said, his orphanage selected the Nov. 30 birth
date.

So long as that date wasn't certain, he said, his adoptive father
wanted to change it to a summer birthday, so Dawson could enter school
one year later and get a competitive advantage in case he wanted play
high school football.

His adoptive mother vetoed the suggestion, he said.

Eight skiers suspended

Eight Olympic cross-country skiers, including two Americans, were
suspended after they were found to have excessive hemoglobin levels,
the International Ski Federation announced Thursday.

The suspensions last five days from the day the tests were
administered. The U.S. Ski Association said on its Web site that tests
were taken Wednesday, meaning the athletes will be barred from
competition until at least Monday.

That would keep the skiers out of the first cross-country events of the
Olympics - the men's and women's pursuit on Sunday.

The suspensions mark the first hint of a drug scandal at this year's
games, where the IOC has said it plans to conduct some 1,200 drug
tests. As of Tuesday, more than 100 IOC drug tests had been conducted
with no positive results.

The American athletes are Kikkan Randall, 23, from Anchorage, Alaska,
and Leif Zimmerman, 22, of Bozeman, Mont. The others are: Sean Crooks
of Canada, Sergey Dolidovich of Belarus, Jean Marc Gaillard of France,
Aleksandr Lasutkin of Belarus, Natalia Matveeva of Russia, and Evi
Sachenbacher of Germany.

Rahlves shines

After easily handling the notoriously treacherous Olympic downhill
course on a training run, Daron Rahlves said the competition now
basically boils down to just one man.

Daron Rahlves.

Rahlves, the last man to win a World Cup downhill at Sestriere in 2004,
was riding high again on Thursday. His time of 1 minute, 49.46 seconds
on the first day of official training bettered World Cup downhill
champion Michael Walchhofer of Austria by more than a full second.

"Obviously, if I'm leading by 1.2 seconds, I like this hill," Rahlves
said. "This race comes down to me. I'm my biggest challenger. If I
allow myself to ski well and relax, I have a great chance to win."

Bode Miller, the reigning downhill world champion who could as easily
medal in all five Alpine events as he could crash and burn, finished
16th, 2.75 seconds back.

No Olympic reprieve

Seven months after being kicked out of the Olympics, baseball and
softball struck out again on Thursday, both sports losing votes for
reconsideration. They will be Olympic sports for the last time at
Beijing in 2008.

Baseball, needing 45 votes of 88 cast, got 42 - with 46 members
voting against. Softball, needing 46 votes of 90, got 43 - with 47
against. Two more IOC members took part in the secret electronic
balloting for softball than had voted just minutes before on baseball,

Notable

The Olympic torch was diverted Thursday on its first day through
Turin's streets because authorities feared protests along the route
could turn violent. ... Georg Hackl's long and illustrious Olympic
slide is nearing its finish. Hackl, a three-time gold medalist in luge
from Germany who has been plagued by nagging injuries during the past
year, will retire following the Turin Games.