“I am thrilled to be a part of the Olympics celebration,” McLachlan said. “The games will provide the perfect opportunity to share with the world the hometown I love!”

Here’s a video of McLachlan’s song, ‘One Dream.’

Some are saying that a well timed call from Nicole Kidman pushed the Australian men to win a gold medal in 470 class sailing. I say it probably had a lot to do with the skill and determination of the men manning the boat. What do you think?

The Australian duo says they name their boats after Nicole's movies but, they believe they won their gold by skill, training
and good conditions — but they were very happy to hear from her none the less.

"I
was getting breakfast and thought, 'Ah, I just don't want to talk to
her today,' so I bumped it, then two seconds later there was a message
from Nicole wishing us good luck," the Aussie athlete said. But, like a sane person, he called her back before the race. "Yes, I ended up returning her call," Page said. "She was very happy."

We love Nicole, but she doesn’t have telekinetic ability. The credit’s all theirs. Well done guys!

Source 

Photo 

But what do you do when your kid says to you — as my seven-year-old said to me last month — "I don't want to do swimming anymore"?

There's an interesting article in The New York Times by Alina Tugend about quitting, one that acknowledges how difficult it is to respond to this kind of statement from our children.  After all, the first instinct is to "tell him to stick with it because he’ll appreciate it when he’s older, or he made a commitment (and we spent the money), or because we fear that letting him give up this time means he will give up on anything when it gets a little tough.  And in this age of instant gratification, we don’t want to teach our children
that just because something is difficult means it’s not worth pursuing.
We want them know the joy of mastery, of accomplishing an arduous task."

But, as important as these lessons are, it's equally important to recognize the reason why your child wants to give up the activity.  Is there a problem with the coach, instructor, or other kids?  Maybe it's just not the right activity for your child.  After all, I don't like to swim very much, and even after months of training for a triathlon, the swim was still by far my worst event.  Why should I require my daughter to embrace this sport?

Still, I'm not giving up.  Pretty much for all the reasons Tugend lists above, I'm resorting to bribery to keep Erika from quitting swimming.  Namely, if she joins the swim team again next summer, she can also do horseback riding camp (something I've been resisting for reasons too numerous and irrelevant to go into here).

What do you do, or what do you plan to do, when your kid says no to piano, to soccer, to ballet?

There's an interesting article in The New York Times by Alina Tugend about quitting, one that acknowledges how difficult it is to respond to this kind of statement from our children.  After all, the first instinct is to "tell him to stick with it because he’ll appreciate it when he’s older, or he made a commitment (and we spent the money), or because we fear that letting him give up this time means he will give up on anything when it gets a little tough.  And in this age of instant gratification, we don’t want to teach our children that just because something is difficult means it’s not worth pursuing. We want them know the joy of mastery, of accomplishing an arduous task."

But, as important as these lessons are, it's equally important to recognise the reason why your child wants to give up the activity.  Is there a problem with the coach, instructor, or other kids?  Maybe it's just not the right activity for your child.  After all, I don't like to swim very much, and even after months of training for a triathlon, the swim was still by far my worst event.  Why should I require my daughter to embrace this sport?

Still, I'm not giving up.  Pretty much for all the reasons Tugend lists above, I'm resorting to bribery to keep Erika from quitting swimming.  Namely, if she joins the swim team again next summer, she can also do horseriding camp (something I've been resisting for reasons too numerous and irrelevant to go into here).

What do you do, or what do you plan to do, when your kid says no to piano, soccer or ballet?

So he's a gold-medal winning father, and has been keeping a blog at drewginn.blogspot.com.

It seems like there are more parents competing at the games this year, but it's possible that there always were and I just never noticed. One of those, "now that I have children I see parents everywhere" kind of things.

My wife asked me if I would keep a picture of the kids with me if I were competing in the Olympics. The fact that she would compare me to an Olympic athlete is one of the many reasons why I love her.

image: nbcolympics.com

source: abc.net.au

But, since every other Muslim sends women to the Olympics, this view on female athletes is clearly not endemic to Islam. As a blogger at Muslimah Media Watch notes, “Considering that most Muslim countries allow women to participate, Saudi Arabia and Brunei have no excuse to exclude women, other than misogyny of course. And in the meantime, all Muslims will once again be labeled as misogynist.”

Some activists within Saudi Arabia, such as Wajeha Al-Huwaider, have started a grassroots movement to end the ban on female participation.

Do you think that Saudi Arabia and Brunei should be banned from the Olympics until they allow women to participate, or would such a move be a denial of religious freedom? 

Photo: Jezebel

While watching a live rehearsal of the Olympics opening
ceremony, a high-ranking Chinese official decided that the seven-year-old
singing the national anthem was not cute enough to make a live
appearance, in part because she has crooked baby teeth. (Right, because only
seven-year-olds with perfect teeth are cute.) So, at the last minute, the government picked a child actress who does TV ads (pictured) to lip synch to the other girl’s voice.

“Nine-year-old Lin Miaoke becomes instant star with
patriotic song,” read the headlines in China the next day. There was no
mention of Yang Peiyi, the real singer of “Ode to the Motherland.” The truth
came out when the ceremony’s music director spoke to Beijing Radio. “She doesn’t
deserve to be hidden,” he said of Yang, although he ultimately defended the decision
to put the “best voice” with the “best performance.”

If this is China’s
way of putting its best foot forward while the world watches, I for one would
prefer it stop trying so hard.

Photo: AP/Zhou Liang

This is
actually nothing new – the first Olympics to test for sex was the
Mexico City Games, in 1968.  Officials feared Eastern European
countries might be fielding disguised male athletes in the women’s
events.

This whole thing sounds crazy to me.  The first step is a
completely subjective, stereotypical selection of females of
“questionable” appearance (read:  butch). This is followed by blood, genetic and hormone tests.  Certain chromosomal abnormalities can cause women to fail these tests – which happened at the 1996 Atlanta games, when eight female athletes failed.  Upon direct physical examination, however, all the athletes were declared, in fact, to be women.

So why not skip the expensive and time consuming blood tests, and just make all the athletes drop their drawers for a brief, non-invasive exam?  That way, no one is singled out or judged for her appearance, and no cheaters will be missed because they look appropriately feminine.

And if you think that simply checking out the equipment won’t catch transsexuals, you’re right – but that’s okay, because transsexuals were cleared to compete in the Olympics in 2004, for the Athens Games.  Regulations require that transsexual athletes have been on hormone treatments for at least two years prior to participating, which officials claim reduces the physical advantages of muscle mass and testosterone levels that males have over females in athletic competition.