Author: Beau Dure

The guy who wrote a bunch of soccer books and now runs a Gen X-themed podcast while substitute teaching and continuing to write freelance stuff.
sports culture

Rugby rules could spice up NFL extra point

Posted on by Beau Dure

The NFL’s proposal to move the extra point back 23 yards has landed like a lead balloon.

As it should. It’s silly. It messes up the flow of the game, moving everyone back to the 25-yard line (unless they’re going for two, which would still be at close range).

Here’s an idea: Think back to why a touchdown is called a “touchdown.” American football’s history is intertwined with rugby, where the equivalent of a touchdown (inexplicably called a “try”) requires that the ball literally be touched down.

And the location, from left to right, matters. The placement of the ball on the try determines where the kicker will attempt the conversion. That’s why you’ll see rugby players cross the line but then run toward the center of the field before touching the ball down.

So why not try that in the NFL? Throw for the corner? Congratulations — you’ve left your kicker a tough angle.

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olympic sports, winter sports

The Games go on, Paralympics edition

Posted on by Beau Dure

We should probably dispense with the idea that Vladimir Putin timed the mess in Ukraine to occur after everyone left Sochi. Another wave is coming in right now for the Paralympics.

And while we in the USA don’t pay quite as much attention to the Paralympics as other countries do — though, in contrast to the Olympics, NBC’s networks will air the opening ceremony live and offer much more live action in the early morning hours — this is a large event that will be taking place under a large shadow.

As difficult as it may be to separate the geopolitics from the inspiring stories of athletes overcoming great challenges, we’ll have no shortage of the latter.

– The BBC offers up some global stars to watch.

– FasterSkier.com checks in on U.S. hopefuls in biathlon and cross-country skiing (yes, the USA has quite a few).

– NBC’s OlympicTalk has the full U.S. roster.

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soccer

International soccer games are overrated

Posted on by Beau Dure

From the laboratory that is European soccer comes another idea to spice up the game, this time adding another international tournament on top of World Cup qualifying and European qualifying.

The idea: Get rid of (most) friendlies and play even more endless round-robin tournaments, this time with promotion and relegation schemes like the Davis Cup.

At Pro Soccer Talk, Nicholas Mendoza raises a few issues — fewer opportunities for the USA to play European countries, fewer chances for new blood to be tested in friendlies, etc. All worthy objections.

I’ll add another: We don’t need more international soccer games. We need fewer.

International soccer games are supposed to be All-Star games. Making them the focus of one’s soccer career is inherently unfair to the players. Born in Northern Ireland or Liberia? Sorry, Mr. Best or Mr. Weah — you’re stuck with it. Good player who simply doesn’t fit the style or personality of your current national team coach? Have fun watching from your couch.

Club soccer is the real deal. Managers put together rosters regardless of nationality (work permit and visa rules permitting) and mold those teams accordingly.

The promotion/relegation scheme isn’t bad. Why not use that for World Cup qualification or maybe European qualifiers?

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olympic sports

Monday Myriad: It’s back

Posted on by Beau Dure

The daily recaps during the Olympics were so successful that we (I) have decided to revive the Monday Myriad, featuring the best, worst, funniest and most interesting news from the world of Olympic sports and elsewhere.

Most interesting upset: Afghanistan’s cricketers beat Bangladesh.

Best U.S. cyclist, perhaps with the exception of Katie Compton: We don’t pay a lot of attention to track cycling in this country, and yet Sarah Hammer keeps winning World Championship medals. In fact, we pay so little attention to track cycling in this country that it’s difficult to find anything about Hammer winning the omnium title without the headline “Trott misses out on omnium gold.” Britain absolutely loves track cycling, so if you want a full roundup, check out the Monday link roundup at Frontier Sports. (Which you should do anyway.)

Best comeback from the Olympics: Kikkan Randall keeps on winning …

Best Iditarod dog name:

Best “No, I’m not saying I should’ve gone ahead of Lolo, I’m just saying …” response: Katie Eberling, who lost out in the difficult choice of U.S. women’s bobsled push athletes, has decided to cast her lot as a driver.

Best U.S. biathlon result:

Best moguls skier: Still Hannah Kearney.

https://twitter.com/ESPNOlympics/status/440053808584880128

Quotes that probably seemed more humble when they weren’t in print: You’ll want to know the name Elizabeth Price, the gymnast who was an alternate for the 2012 Olympics and 2013 World Championships but is coming into her own now. She won the American Cup in my old stomping grounds of Greensboro, N.C., and said the following: “To add this title to a list of many, it’s pretty cool.”

Then this: “Hopefully I can soon say that I’ve won even bigger meets than this one.”

Most pointless doping case: Latvia may have to vacate its eighth-place finish in the Olympics if a second player is found guilty of doping. The first offered up the “club doctor gave me supplements — maybe they were contaminated” excuse, which is often true but not an excuse in the eyes of the IOC and WADA. In any case, the doping doesn’t explain how Kristers Gudlevskis made 55 saves against Canada.

Most irritating winter storm: Come on — not during the U.S. Curling Championships!

Worst house / best impression of the episode of The Drew Carey Show in which half the house is missing: Shaun White’s digs in Sochi.

Worst sports: German bobsledder Manuel Machata didn’t make the Olympic team. He loaned some his own equipment to Russia’s Alexander Zubkov. Germany, after seeing its own team flop while Zubkov won both gold medals, suspended Machata for a year.

Other recaps of the weekend: Frontier Sports and TeamUSA

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medal projections, olympic sports, winter sports

2014 medal projections: Some excruciating details

Posted on by Beau Dure

How did the Olympic results compare with all the things we could use to predict them? Glad you asked:

[gview file=”https://duresport.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/2014-projection-analysis-as-m-dh.pdf”%5D

And this:

[gview file=”http://www.sportsmyriad.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/2014-projection-analysis-AS-M-SG.pdf”%5D

Basically, I’m comparing three different types of results:

1. Majors: How skiers fared in the last Olympics and the last two World Championships. The number in “Majors” is a median — it ignores any null results, and the 2013 World Championships are counted twice so that they’ll be weighted more heavily.

2. Cup: Median of the last four World Cup seasons, with the last two counted twice so they’ll be weighted more heavily.

3. 13-14: The 2013 and 14 World Cups and the 2013 World Championships. A simple median this time, with no extra weighting.

Then for each skier, I calculated the difference between those numbers and his Olympic finish. Then I took the top 10 from the Olympics and calculated the absolute value of each difference. (In other words — I just want to know how far away from reality it was, so finishing four places higher than projected would be the same as finishing four places lower.)

So at bottom right, I took the median of each of the groups of differences. And that gave me a way of comparing which group of numbers was better for projecting medal results.

For the downhill, the 2013-14 numbers were better than the World Cup results, but the Cup results were much better than the majors. For the super-G, the majors were better, but I think that’s skewed by what I will refer to by a name I hope will catch on in statistics — the Weibrecht factor. That’s Andrew Weibrecht, who took bronze in 2010 and did little else in the intervening years before taking silver in 2014.

This is really too much to do for every event, but I think this exercise has pointed me toward a points system I’ll use for predictions going forward. I may do a few more winter events to refine the points system — it’ll have to be adapted for sports that don’t do World Cups and World Championships on the typical winter sports schedule, anyway.

But the next step, starting in a month or so — 2016. And we’re going to have easy-to-read charts of each athletes’ past performances, all leading to a predictive index.

Should be fun. Keep reading.

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olympic sports

Break up the OIympics?

Posted on by Beau Dure

First reaction to the idea of adding surfing to the Olympics, maybe with an artificial wave pool: “Hey, let’s see if we can make the Olympics more expensive to host! Maybe we can build more single-use venues!”

Wrestling had to fight to stay in the Olympics, and all they need from a physical point of view to host that is a gym in which they can put down some mats. Baseball and softball are out, and they only required some dirt and some bleachers. The post-Games use for those venues could be everything from more baseball to pastures for cows.

So in the current climate, with the Summer Games at maximum capacity by any measure, surfing simply can’t be added.

Key phrase: “in the current climate.” So we would need to add a wrinkle somehow, and that brings us to a radical idea I’ve kicked around in my head a bit.

Suppose you added another Olympics beyond the Winter and Summer Olympics. Or a couple of offshoot Olympics.

You could have a Modern Summer Games, adding skateboarding, roller sports and sport climbing while shifting a few sports lost in the current Summer program — trampoline and other non-traditional gymnastics, synchronized swimming, rugby sevens, etc.

And you could have an Ocean Games. Sailing is always stuck by itself, nowhere near the rest of the Olympic venues. Why not surround it with wakeboarding (which bid for 2020 inclusion), surfing and a few other ocean or beach events? Maybe have open-water swimming at those Games so swimmers would have a better chance of swimming in the traditional pool in the traditional Summer Games and then shift gears for open-water races.

The current Summer Games are far too big. The options are to cut them or spread them out. Those of us dreading the 28-month gap between Olympics would prefer the latter. So would surfers, surely.

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soccer

An offbeat proposal for NWSL 2015

Posted on by Beau Dure

We can’t be too surprised by this report:

Equalizer Soccer – Documents: Canada to withhold players from NWSL before World Cup; Herdman stresses player health.

We can get a good laugh over John Herdman’s complaint about players getting too many games on artificial turf when they’ll be playing the Cup on the fake stuff (hopefully better fake stuff than in most NWSL facilities), but the fact is we’re looking at a difficult scheduling question here. The World Cup runs from June 6 to July 5. Women’s national teams are even more insistent than men’s national teams when it comes to getting their players together ahead of a major competition.

So are we looking at an NWSL season in which the national team players will miss half the games? Yes.

So what do we do about it?

Option 1: Just deal with it and play a season in which the best players aren’t around most of the time.

Option 2: Forget player loans, both incoming and outgoing. Extend the season into September and maybe October. Loans out to Australia or in from Europe won’t be practical any more, which will limit the player pool a bit, but the league could take a bit of a break for the Cup and still play a significant number of games.

Option 3: A split season. (I did say “offbeat,” didn’t I?) Here’s how it works:

First of all, with all apologies to the Algarve Cup, the league can’t put everything on hold so you get full representation from the USA in World Cup years. The NWSL season starts in early March. The first half of the season runs 8-9 weeks, with all the national team players on board. If the league is up to 10 teams in 2015, then that’s time to play each other team once.

The top team in the first half of the season is automatically seeded into the playoffs.

The second half, without the World Cup-bound players, is a new season of sorts. Once again, play 9-10 games over 8-9 weeks. And the top team in the second half is automatically seeded into the playoffs.

In mid-July, once everyone has taken a one-week breather from the Cup, we return to NWSL play. Two teams have qualified for the playoffs. The other eight try to qualify. Split into two four-team brackets — probably two-leg aggregate series, with the team with the best overall record hosting the second leg. (Even better: the Page playoff system I’ve long sought for MLS, giving significant advantages for top seeds while giving most teams at least one home game.)

The disadvantage for the top two teams is that they’ll be sitting idle while all this is going on. Why not spend that time having an international tournament? Invite the Champions League winner and Japanese champion for a four-team tournament.

So by August 10 or so, we would have four teams ready for the NWSL playoffs: The winner from each season, and the winner from each four-team bracket. Wrap it up by Sept. 1 so players can go out on offseason loans. And the USSF could still do its revenue-friendly “Victory Tour” from September to November in which they’ll examine the player pool for the Olym– … yeah, I nearly said that with a straight face. In reality, of course, they’ll send the Olympic players around to play easy friendlies and sign autographs. It’s easy for us to laugh, but it makes money from women’s soccer, and the sport can’t afford to pass that up.

Too complicated? Too whimsical? Too sensible to happen in real life? What do you think?

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olympic sports, winter sports

Where are they now: Women’s ski jumping litigants

Posted on by Beau Dure

In 2009, a handful of women’s ski jumpers took their frustrations to court, attempting to sue their way into the 2010 Olympics. They found some sympathy from the court, but the legal case was always a long shot:

(The court) didn’t rule in favor of the plaintiffs because the Olympic program is set by the IOC. With that in mind, Canadian law against discrimination can’t apply because VANOC can’t stage an Olympic ski jumping event without the IOC.

In theory, the court could find in favor of the plaintiffs and force VANOC to give up on ski jumping altogether, cancelling the event or moving it to another country. No one expects that to happen. The idea of the suit, Corradini says, is to force the IOC to add the women’s event to save the men’s event.

Though they incurred the wrath of condescending Canadian IOC-crat Dick Pound, women’s ski jumpers finally made it to the Olympics in Sochi. Then a few days after the Olympics ended, I did a massive purge of filing cabinets (long story) and came up with a folder that included the complaint in question — Sagen v. Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

So what happened to the plaintiffs in the suit? How many made it down the ramp in Sochi? Here’s a look:

– Anette Sagen (Norway; misspelled as “Annette” on the complaint): Dominant in the mid-2000s, Sagen was injured in 2012 and didn’t get back in form to make the Norwegian team. She went to Sochi as a guest of the Norwegian federation.

– Daniela Iraschko (Austria): Now Daniela Iraschko-Stolz, the 2011 world champion won the silver medal in Sochi.

– Jenna Mohr (Germany): Retired/pushed out of the sport in 2012 after losing form and financial support.

– Lindsey Van (USA): The 2009 world champion hasn’t been in great form lately but finished a solid 15th.

– Jessica Jerome (USA): One of the leaders in movement to get ski jumping in the Games finished 10th.

– Ulricke Grassler (Germany): The runner-up to Van in the 2009 World Championships recovered from an emergency appendectomy in August to compete on the World Cup circuit and in the Olympics.

– Monika Planinc (Slovenia): Retired in 2009.

– Marie-Pierre Morin (Canada): No results in FIS database.

– Karla Keck (USA): Last competed in 2006.

– Nathalie De Leeuw (Canada): Last competed in 2009 World Championships.

– Katherine Willis (Canada): Retired in 2009.

– Jade Edwards (Canada): Not active; no results in FIS database.

– Zoya Lynch (Canada): Last competed in 2008 Continental Cup.

– Charlotte Mitchell (Canada): Still only 19; competed in 2014 World Junior Championships.

– Meaghan Reid (Canada): No results in FIS database.

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sports culture

Can we separate athletes from their appearance?

Posted on by Beau Dure

Fiona McCade makes the case that the age of social media has been especially cruel to female athletes:

Can it really be true that in the hideously sexist, discrimination-riddled Seventies, it was easier than it is now for a woman to triumph without her looks being an issue? Or was it just because I was so young that I never noticed Martina Navratilova’s FHM underwear shoot?

It’s an interesting question without a simple answer. No, Martina never appeared in an underwear ad or swimsuit issue as far as I can recall — and yes, I was alive then. On the other hand, you can’t deny that Chris Evert built a big fan base in part because she was the blonde peppy alternative to a lot of the top tennis players of her day.

The Seventies just had a different vibe. We didn’t see much leering over female athletes, but we didn’t see many female athletes at all. And everyone was pushing the envelope a little — today, it’s hard to imagine a soccer player, male or female, baring all as the Cosmos’ Shep Messing did. (“You said you wanted exposure!”)

ESPN’s Body Issue is restrained by comparison, notwithstanding the dubious photo selections from the Hope Solo shoot. It’s a celebration of the athletic build. And athletes tend to be attractive — they’re fit, and they usually carry themselves with a charismatic confidence. Walking around the Olympics means walking around with beautiful people. Not that we sportswriters feel self-conscious by comparison. (At least, not at the Winter Games, where we’re all hiding under thick coats and hats, anyway.)

And male athletes get their share of ogling. I’m still scarred from watching Oprah early in the Chicago Bulls’ dynasty era and seeing a female crowd collectively lose its grip as they gazed upon these fine basketball players. Tom Brady’s TV appearances, from Family Guy to Saturday Night Live, are a little embarrassing.

Brady embraces it, with little harm to his career. Female athletes have a tougher choice. Heather Mitts rolled with ESPN’s “Hottest Athlete” tag and helped keep women’s soccer in the news during some lean years for the sport. But when you think of Anna Kournikova these days, do you think about her status as one of the best doubles players in the world for a few years? (Seriously — look it up.)

And McCabe gets into the darker side of modern media:

Social media has a lot to answer for. If people in the past felt that sportswomen weren’t gorgeous enough, they probably said so quietly, over a pint and just to their mates. Now, they can say it in so many globe-traversing ways that the sportswomen themselves can hardly avoid finding out about it.

The Internet undoubtedly requires a thick skin. Any public figure is going to face some share of cruelty. But it seems only fair to remind people to grow up a little bit and think about what they’re tweeting, doesn’t it?

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olympic sports, winter sports

Was Dominica’s Olympic ski team a fraud?

Posted on by Beau Dure

What would you do to participate in the Olympics and get a nice wave of publicity?

Would you gain citizenship in a small foreign country? Would you go to the Games knowing that your best performances had barely pushed you over the very low bar to qualify in a couple of events?

And would you do all this knowing you’re going to come under such heavy scrutiny that people would end up doubting the injury and illness that kept you from competing?

It’s easy to shrug off the Deadspin report on “Dominica’s fake ski team” — Gary di Silvestri and Angelica Morrone — given Deadspin’s basic mission as a sports site for people who want to feel superior to athletes. But Deadspin has been turning up some sound investigations recently, and the byline here belongs to Dave McKenna, the intrepid D.C. journalist whose work for City Paper infuriated Washington NFL owner Dan Snyder to the point of legal intimidation tactics.

And McKenna turns up details that haven’t been seen elsewhere, digging into di Silvestri’s claims about his high school wrestling and college rowing exploits.

Other aspects of the di Silvestri story might be piling on. Angelica Morrone’s role in Fiat’s questionable tactics in lobbying for events in Italy seems less interesting to me than it does to McKenna — a parenthetical, perhaps, but not much else. A land deal in Turks and Caicos is a little more interesting, but the evidence of wrongdoing isn’t conclusive at this point.

For Olympic organizers, the bigger question is this: How did these two get into the Games? And veteran Olympic reporter Mark Zeigler dug deeply into that question. Everyone who competes in the Olympics has to qualify somehow, but is the bar too low in places?

I had this discussion during the Games with Ken Childs, the North Carolinian who tracks sliding sports in vivid detail. He lamented the limited Olympic quotas on skeleton and bobsled while certain ski events have just about anyone who can put on skis. And he has a point about keeping dedicated, qualified sliders out of the Games while the gallivanting di Silvestris walk in the Opening Ceremony.

But the low bar in a few events has a noble purpose. In the Summer Olympics, you’ll see scores of small countries represented in track and field’s 100 meters or perhaps a short swim race. Judo also opens up to more than 130 countries. The FIS (skiing) criteria designates the less risky Alpine races and a couple of cross-country races with low qualification standards for countries to get one male athlete and one female athlete into the competition.

And you’d hate to see that open door slammed shut. For every couple that games the system and gets a dubious invitation to the Games, there’s a guy from East Timor who inspires his nation just by getting through a brutal slalom course that tripped up roughly two-thirds of the skiers. He can go the rest of his life telling people he beat Ted Ligety.

The moral of the di Silvestris is this: If you have anything questionable in your past, you might want to address it before you let yourself become a feel-good Olympic story. The spotlight isn’t always a happy place.

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