Just when you thought the abortion controversy was trying to steal the media spotlight another women’s issue comes into play via sports media. Lindsey Vonn made the cover of Sports Illustrated but — that has one female blogger throwing a hissy fit. Nicole LaVoi claims that the SI cover is just another example of women being “sexualized” in the media.
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Kiira Korpi (more on her here) is a Finnish figure skater who hopes to make an impact at the Olympics. This past week, she’s been competing at the 2010 European Figure Skating Championships in Tallinn, Estonia. Korpi was ranked second heading into the finals on Saturday but ended up finishing fourth overall.
Korpi performed her routines in a yellow dress, black dress, and an awesome stripper-cop outfit. Let’s hope that she makes it to the Olympics so we can see more of her. After the jump, we have 20+ pics from Kiira’s recent performances in Tallinn.
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People don’t care about the hockey, so we occasionally attempt to drum up interest in the sport. The NHL still creates some of the most jaw-dropping highlights around. Except they don’t have a TV deal with ESPN and, as a result, get zero coverage.
This highlight comes our way thanks to Ryan Miller. It may be news to you that Mr. Miller may very well be Team USA’s #1 goalie in the Olympics in a couple months. In this clip, he proves exactly why he’s under consideration. First, he makes a key save on a shot from a bad angle. Miller is hugging the post and the rebound kicks out into the slot off of his leg pads or stick. Then the American goalie makes an all-out post-to-post dive to deny a rebound chance by Rod Brind’Amour. The ageless Brind’Amour thought he was shooting on an empty net until Miller shuts the door with his glove. Hopefully Miller saves some of his magic for Vancouver 2010.
Michael Phelps is building quite the reputation as a ladies man. We heard about his alleged fling with Miss California Carrie Prejean, his penchant for Balitmore strippers, and the Vegas cocktail waitress he romanced. Turns out that there was another girl in the mix… and it was another Miss California.
Turns out America’s gold medal sensation was banging Nicole Johnson a couple years ago. Phelps must not discriminate when it comes to beauty queens because he dated her when she was just Miss Westlake Village 2007. Since then, Johnson has ascended all the way to Miss California 2010.
The newly crowned beauty queen is using her throne as a platform for famewhoring. Come on, Nicole. Do you really need the publicity that badly already? Johnson told TMZ that she dated Phelps for just over a year. Though, this may not really be news. TMZ had shots of the two love birds in October 2008. You can see pics of Nicole at the Miss California pageant after the jump.
Tags: beauty queen, carrie prejean, girlfriends, michael phelps, miss california, miss california 2010, nicole johnson, olympics, pageant queen
We liked Nastia Liukin because she had a wholesome quality about her. Well, it appears as if Nasty Nastia has gone totally L.A. on us. The gymnastics star was spotted in LA over the weekend sporting an extreme West Coast look.
The paps caught Nastia leaving the Kitson store in Los Angeles last week. Nastia clutched two Kitson bags while wearing extremely ripped jeans and a semi-see through white v-neck. It’s just not quite as appealing a leotard and a tight ponytail.
Hopefully, the cute Normal Nastia returns to us soon. You can check out 10+ pictures of Ms. Liukin after the jump.
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Don’t worry. It’s only a few months until you’ll get to see Tanith Belbin in high definition. For now, you’ll have to settle for these low resolution pictures.
The beautiful Canadian-American ice dancer recently appeared in Men’s Health. It’s one of the most scatterbrained shoots I’ve ever seen. She’s wearing a jacket with and old school camera in one. Then in leather pants next to a motorcycle. Then 95% nude lying prone on a bed. Then sitting on a cube with a remote control or mp3 player in her hand. Oh, then just a picture of her legs and a guitar. I guess they wanted to use all of the props in the studio.
At least Tanith’s hair is looking better than it was before. It’ll be nice to see her strut her stuff in Vancouver this year. Until then, check out the pics after the jump.
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It’s no secret that tickets to the Olympics are hard to come by. Much like other super major huge sporting events, the secondary ticket market AKA scalpers are your best bet. But how do the scalpers get the tickets if they’re not yet on sale to the general public? Well, that’s what has the Vancouver Organizing Committee so peeved.
Unsurprisingly, many of the scalped tickets come from insiders and corporate sponsors. That has Dave Cobb, deputy CEO of the VANOC, making idle threats. Cobb says that they have the power to cancel all of the scalped tickets “with the push of a button.” That seems more like a threat than a solution as it could also punish those who purchase the tickets. Those in the secondary market are unfazed. One owner of a sports travel company said this about Cobb’s threats:
“It’s always been a joke. They put threats out there and everyone in the event world says, ‘Whatever.’ “
There’s only one ticket dealer in the United States that’s sanctioned to sell Olympic tickets. So it’s clear that Cobb has every right to attempt to control the secondary market. However, it seems counterintuitive to punish end consumers, who are paying well above face value to see the games, just to preserve the monopoly they’ve created. CoSports, the official ticket provider in the United States, and owner Sead Dizdarevic stand to make tens of millions of dollars off of ticket sales. Except CoSports paid the VANOC to slap consumers with a markup.
The other issue at hand is the family of those in the Olympic Games. One third of the tickets sold go to Olympic Family buyers at face value. The VANOC is trying to avoid “family” scalpers by flagging suspicious orders. In an ironic twist, they’ll also have to buy tickets from the ticket brokers in order to figure out who sold them into the secondary market in the first place.
It’s doubtful that the VANOC will be able to put a big dent in the scalping business. Rules and regulations do very little as the secondary market is fueled by supply and demand. The VANOC would probably be better off with a more sophisticated pricing and ticketing program rather than passing it off to a random slimy dude. Thanks for screwing over your neighbors, douchebags.
Tags: business, cosports, dave cobb, olympics, scalpers, Sead Dizdarevic, tickets, vancouver 2010 olympics, vancouver organizing committee, vanoc
Kiira Korpi is a Finnish figure skater that most recently competed in the Nebelhorn Trophy competition in Germany. She skated to the song “Caravan” by Ikuko Kawai — which is one of my faves. Her father, Rauno Korpi, used to coach the Finnish women’s ice hockey team. If you can’t tell, there’s a lot to like about Kiira. She’s only 21, so maybe we’ll see more of her in the Olympics some day. We’ve got a collection of 66 more Kiira pictures after the jump.
Tags: figure skating, finland, gallery, kiira korpi, olympics
Katarina Witt is one of the hottest figure skaters of all time. She even posed for Playboy in 1998 — and the issue sold out. Witt also attempted an acting career appearing in Ronin and Pamela Anderson’s V.I.P.
Most recently, she appeared on the German talkshow called “Riverboat.” I’m not sure if it’s themed or something, but she seemed to be dressed as a beer wench. The host also seems to be the roided out German version of Ryan Seacrest.
Witt’s white and burgundy outfit also displayed her ample cleavage. She actually looks great considering she’s 43. The full gallery from her appearance on Riverboat is below.
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Franziska van Almsick used to be a world class swimmer. She was Female World Swimmer of the Year in 1993 and has won 10 Olympic medals. She retired in 2004 and has been modeling in her spare time. I think she has a bright future ahead of her. You can see the full gallery below.
Tags: bikini, Franziska van Almsick, models, olympics, swimming
Tanith Belbin stepped into the spotlight during the 2006 Winter Olympics. Belbin, along with Benjamin Agosto, won the silver which was the highest an American team has ever placed. In addition to being an ice dancer, she’s also ridiculously good looking.
Belbin and Agosto (who I will not mention anymore) are busy gearing up for the 2010 Olympics. I wish she’d ditch her lame partner, but instead she’s gotten rid of her gorgeous locks. Belbin is sporting a new shorter haircut and has somewhat absurd looking bright blonde hair. It looks like her highlights went crazy and she decided to go all out blonde. She still looks good, but it’s just not the same anymore. I thought we had something, T-Belb. More pictures are after the jump.
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After stepping down as Phoenix Coyotes head coach and director of hockey operations, Wayne Gretzky isn’t very busy. That’s why Steve Yzerman is going to give him a call to see what his future plans are. Yzerman is currently the executive director of Hockey Canada, a position that Gretzky held during the 2002 and 2006 Olympics. I speculate that Gretzky will be given some token position. Because there’s no way Stevie Y is giving that job up.
Tags: 2010, hockey, NHL, olympics, team canada
