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The Score
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Twenty-four hours a day in every city in America, you can hear shock jock radio types screaming their outrage at the latest sports scandal, and the din has become loud and steady. Diana Nyad, on the other hand, is thirsting for the poetry, the sociology, the philosophy of sports. On "The Score," she tells poignantly inspirational stories, covers the broad spectrum of characters who play parts in the sports world and lifts listeners to feel the same passion for sports that she has.
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Eight Belles: Tragic Lesson
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I've often wondered if the thoroughbred left to Nature, left to run like the wind across the hills of Big Sky Montana with wild Mustang cousins, is as fragile as the thoroughbreds lined up at the nation's starting gates. It's an absurd question in that thoroughbreds don't run wild in Nature. They are genetically-engineered marvels, bred for two centuries for speed….and for our wagering pleasure...
Pistorius Not Able
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Research and Development divisions throughout the world of sports are pushing the technology envelope to make athletes more aerodynamic, to lessen impact on tumbling floors, to increase power in racquets. With 100 days to go before the Beijing Olympics, the biggest story to date has been the new ultra-streamlined swimsuits that have helped swimmers break an uncommon number of world records over the first few months of this year. It is the ultimate irony, then, that one athlete has been banned from this summer's Olympic Games because his equipment is evidently too technologically evolved. The irony comes with the fact that this athlete is physically disabled…
Ben: A Track Athlete
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The winningest Division I coach of any sport, with 42 national titles, 30 national coach of the year awards, 23 Olympians under his tutelage, is retiring at the end of the school year...
LeMond Hard Times
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Before there was the hero Lance Armstrong, there was the hero Greg LeMond. LeMond, with his muscled style, his bon-vivant party-all-night, ride-the-Alps all-day fervor, with his three Tour de France victories back in the late ‘80's, brought a passion for cycling to America and brought respect for an American cyclist to Europe. He was the first American to win the prestigious Tour. He was the first to win it on an American-made bicycle...
The Tiger Paradox
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The fabled Masters golf tournament is under way as of today down in Augusta, Georgia. Tiger is of course the story. Tiger. The greatest crossover sports star since Mohammed Ali. Tiger. The paradox of today's sports world. He's both the greatest element of this era of golf, and he's what's wrong with this era of golf...
China, Wrong Choice?
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Back in the summer of 2001, the International Olympic Committee was reeling under revelations that the members who traveled the globe to select Olympic host cities had been more expert at accepting bribes than discerning world-class sports venues and adequate public transportation...
Immaculata
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A note about March Madness. The night of the men's final, April 7 in San Antonio, 2008's class of inductees to the Basketball Hall of Fame will be announced. Along with the legendary, tall likes of Patrick Ewing and Hakeem Olajuwon, a fairly short woman named Cathy Rush has been nominated, the lone woman for this year's class…
Beijing Baseball
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Yesterday the Boston Red Sox boarded a plane in Florida, bound for Japan and their season-opening games against the Oakland A's. Last minute, confusion ensued as to what the Red Sox staff of coaches and trainers would be compensated for the trip. The players had earlier agreed to $40,000 each and they had in good faith believed that sum would be distributed to everybody in the organization. When it was learned yesterday that only the players would be paid, they decided to boycott the trip...
American Skiers Excel
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The world's best alpine skiers started careening down the slopes of the world's winter wonderlands late October. This week they're culminating their season in Bormio, Italy, and the top man and woman are on the verge of entering American record books. It's been 25 years since Tamara McKinney and Phil Mahre were the last Americans to win the World Cup overall titles the same year...
Favre Farewell
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Green Bay is a dedicated cheese-head town. Lambeau Field borders on a place of worship. Thousands of fans come out for practice sessions and those days are as special as game days in other towns. The players emerge from the locker room and ride old cruiser-type bicycles over to the practice field. Kids hop on the handle bars, skip along next to their favorite guys, get their autographs, get their pictures taken on their broad shoulders. When the players dismount their bikes at the field, they're in no rush to get away from their fans. They amble along, talking to anybody and everybody. It's a small town on the map but the team they adore, their Packers, render them a big town in terms of fame and stature and pride...
I Miss Boxing
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The Paralysis Project of America just hosted their annual fundraiser, an evening here in Los Angeles whereby legends of sport are feted and brave individuals coping with spinal cord injuries talk about the hope of one day standing out of their chairs. A woman named Julie Alban, shot point-blank in the back by her boyfriend, a crime that severed her spinal cord, eloquently expressed the daily summoning of courage to focus on what she has, not what she's lost. The famous athletes in the room were duly humbled...
Beijing Olympics
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Steven Spielberg withdrew from his position as Artistic Advisor to the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics last week. Spielberg's statement was that he could not square his conscience with China's continued financial support of the Sudanese government, given the ongoing genocide in Darfur. Individuals and groups around the world have long been urging China to cease selling weapons to Sudan and to stop purchasing two-thirds of Sudan's oil sales. But now the Olympic ideals are held as high as the Olympic torch and used as the backdrop for these political protests...
Clemens Not the Point
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It's been a dismal season for Knicks fans. That's grossly understating it. It's been an abysmal season. So how uplifting it was Tuesday night to see that standing-room-only crowd at Madison Square Garden roar their grand appreciation. And how ironic that they were standing and cheering not for the big men but for a little guy. Not a point guard but a hound named Uno...
Bobby Knight
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So Bobby Knight called his Hall-of-Fame coaching career quits this week. If the win/loss record is the final measurement of Knight's success, then he's a genius. In fact, he's the winningest coach in college basketball history...
Tsonga Fever
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It's hard to surprise a true fan of a sport. When you follow the characters year in, year out, you know the young hopefuls. You have a good sense of who has tremendous potential, even if they've suffered setbacks. That's a phrase that aptly describes a 22-year old French tennis player named Jo-Wilfried Tsonga...
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Host
Hall of fame swimmer Diana Nyad’s inspiring and insightful stories about sports heroes and villains.
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