Winter Olympic Roundup – February 24, 2010
Japanese American speedskating star Apolo Anton Ohno and 18-year-old Korean American Simon Cho both qualified in the men’s 500 m short track event yesterday. The Koreans have dominated speedskating in Vancouver thus far; Si-Bak Sung, Ho-Suk Lee, and Yoon-Gy Kwak all placed first in their races to join Ohno and Cho in the quarterfinals. Canadians Charles Hamelin and [...]
Winter Olympic Roundup – February 23, 2010
The Koreans continue their dominance in speed skating, but only by a stroke of luck and the misfortune of Dutch skater Sven Kramer, who was disqualified after an illegal lane change. Korea’s Lee Seung-hoon, who already claimed a silver medal in the men’s 5000 meter event, added a gold medal today after he set a [...]
Chan Ho Park signs with Yankees
Relief pitcher Chan Ho Park, the first South Korean baseball player in MLB history, has signed a $1.2 million contract with the New York Yankees yesterday. Park made his MLB debut with the Dodgers in 1994 and stayed with the LA club until 2001. From there he spent three seasons with the Texas Rangers (2002-05), [...]
Winter Olympic Roundup – February 22, 2010
Chinese American veteran forward Julie Chu and the U.S. women’s ice hockey team trounced Sweden today to make it to the finals. The U.S. scored nine goals in the semi-final game and held Sweden to a single goal. 20-year-old Monique Lamoureux earned her own hat trick, with two of her three goals scored in the [...]
Asian Figure Skating Queens
Watch out for 19-year-old Japanese figure skater Mao Asada, who will compete in the ladies’ short program on Tuesday. Asada, currently ranked third in the world, believes that she her placement in the skating order will be an advantage over reigning world champion and Korean rival Yu-Na Kim, also 19. 22-year-old teammate Miki Ando will skate last.
Watch the [...]
Winter Olympic Roundup – February 18, 2010
American figure skater Evan Lysacek pulled out the biggest performance of his life, edging out reigning Olympic champ Evgeni Plushenko by 1.31 points. Daisuke Takahashi became the first Japanese man to win an Olympic medal in figure skating, coming in third behind the Russian skater and winning a bronze medal.
Several other Asian athletes had impressive [...]
Winter Olympic Roundup – February 17, 2010
American Shani Davis edged out Korean Tae-bum Mo in the men’s 1000 meter speed skating event today in Vancouver. The Korean skater beat Japanese American Apolo Anton Ohno and Filipino American J.R. Celski earlier last week to win a gold medal in the 500 m. Both Ohno and Celski have qualified in the first heat [...]
Sho Nakamori aiming for 2012 Olympics
In a recent interview with Examiner.com, Japanese American gymnast Sho Nakamori talked to Blythe Lawrence about his recovery from an ACL tear, his experience studying abroad in Japan, and his career goals. Nakamori fell short of his Olympic dreams in 2008, but bounced back to captain Stanford’s gymnastics team, leading them to an NCAA Championship [...]
10 Questions: Jen Chang
by SMC
The 2010 World Cup is upon us this summer in South Africa. We caught up with ESPN Soccernet writer Jen Chang for his thoughts on the World Cup, soccer and his career as a writer for ESPN.
Winter Olympics: Simon Cho, Graham Watanabe, Sho Kashima
The Washington Post recently published an in-depth article on 18-year-old Korean American speed skating prodigy Simon Cho. After a disappointing 2008 season, Cho returned to speedskating and surprised everyone–including himself–by qualifying for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic’s U.S. squad.
Despite fierce competition like five-time Olympic medalist Apolo Ohno and world-medalist J.R. Celinski, he rose to the challenge and [...]
Harvard School of Basketball & NPR’s Tell Me More
We included this article as a link on one of our earlier posts on Jeremy Lin, but it’s actually a four-page spread in Sports Illustrated featuring an in-depth article by Pablo Torre on the Harvard basketball club and captain point guard Jeremy Lin. To find the article online, read “Harvard School of Basketball.” To download [...]
Pacquiao named fighter of the decade
Several news sources reported today that Filipino boxing phenom Manny Pacquiao was named fighter of the decade by the Boxing Writers Association of America, as well as claiming his third fighter of the year award–a feat matched only by Muhammad Ali and Evander Holyfield.
Pacquiao seems to be collecting these accolades left and right; he was [...]
Anthony Kim’s LA favorites, Northern Trust Open
LA Times recently featured 24-year-old Korean American golfer Anthony Kim talking about how he likes to hang out, eat, and shop in Los Angeles. To read the article, check out “Golfer likes hot dogs, hoops, and fancy suits.” Along with Kim, 18-year-old Japanese teen phenom Ryo Ishikawa will make his 2010 PGA Tour debut.
Kim and [...]
Mirai Nagasu prepares for Vancouver
LA Times published an article about Rachael Flatt and Mirai Nagasu, who placed first and second at the 2010 U.S. Figure Skating championships in Spokane Washington to win the two sole berths to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver next month. Both competitors are young and relatively inexperienced, especially as they go up against figure [...]
Figure skating: Asada third at Four Continents
Mao Asada of Japan, who is ranked third in the world for women’s figure skating, is currently competing at the Four Continents championships, her last chance to polish her routines before the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
USAToday.com: “Asada to test triple axel before Olympics”
Japan Times: “Four Continents offers Mao last chance to polish moves”
After the [...]
“Ballers of Another Color”
San Francisco Chronicle columnist Jeff Yang recently wrote an article with his take on sports promoter Don Lewis’s recently announced All-American Basketball Alliance, designed specifically to be an all-Caucasian league. Yang broadens the topic, particularly as it relates to the growing support of Harvard guard Jeremy Lin by the Asian American community. Undoubtably, he [...]
“Yi feels the eyes of a nation on two continents”
NBA.com’s Scott Howard-Cooper recently penned an article featuring Yi Jianlian, center for the New Jersey Nets. With Houston Rockets’ Yao Ming about to undergo foot surgery–and despite the Nets’ notoriously poor season–Chinese basketball fans are keeping a close eye on Yi’s career since he is now the only Chinese player left in the NBA.
Howard-Cooper calls [...]
Zhang: Big Man on Campus
Check out this article about Max Zhang, the 7′3″ center for Cal Berkeley’s men’s basketball team. Zhang, the sophomore from Yantai City, China, is continuing to improve his game, helping the Bears out with his scoring, rebounding, and blocking abilities, especially in their conference-opener against Stanford, which they won 92-66. For more about Zhang’s popularity [...]
Zheng Jie, Li Na to quarterfinals of 2010 Australian Open
China’s Zheng Jie was the first player to make it to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open in Melbourne, defeating 31st-seeded Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko. Zheng’s fourth round victory makes her the Chinese tennis player to make it this far in the tournament. She is also the first Chinese player to reach the semifinals of the [...]
2010 Australian Open: China’s Li Na and Jie Zheng survive to third round
At the 2010 Australian Open in Melbourne, both Li Na and Zheng Jie–China’s top tennis players–made it past their opponents to make it to the third round. Along with Li and Zheng, Taiwanese American Vania King pulled off a minor upset by beating 23rd-ranked Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova, only to be defeated in the second round by [...]
Confessions of a Jeremy Lin fanatic
by SMC
Beyond Badminton reporter SMC caught up with the Jeremy Lin fanatic who was featured in Diamond Leung’s ESPN College blog.
Hong Kong Tennis Classic 2010
In Hong Kong, Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova faced off in an exhibition match against China’z Zheng Jie. Zheng, who is currently ranked 35th in the world, put up a formidable fight, coming back from a 3-1 deficit to take the first set in a tie breaker. Sharapova (now ranked 14th in the world) came [...]
“Lin’s Asian-American fans have arrived”
Keeping up our recent coverage of Harvard guard Jeremy Lin, here is an article from ESPN about Lin’s Asian American fans and the attention that his basketball career is garnering, especially in the Bay Area. Read here and here.
The changing face of sports
Check out this review of the past year by The Rafu Shimpo, an LA-based Japanese news source. The article highlights accomplishments by Asian and Asian American athletes in 2009, including Ichiro Matsui, Kurt Suzuki, Yu-Na Kim, Ryo Ishikawa, Lyoto Machida, Manny Pacquiao, and Hines Ward. Proof that Asians and Asian Americans really are changing the [...]
