Showing posts with label olympics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label olympics. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Racism in a Miniclip Game?

I just found myself in front of Miniclip - something that I haven't done since my addiction to Sushi-Go-Round. Not that Miniclip is a bad site or anything. It's just that sites like Kongregate and Armor Games are more to my taste.

Anyway, I went to see what's new in the casual games arena, and came across a game called China 2008 - a quick Olympics game for those who miss this genre of games (like me). The game is pretty cool, but that's not the point. After a quick game, I went back to the opening screen, where you have to choose your player. The game presents you with 4 athletes with stupid names, but the thing that caught my attention was this. The only Afro-American player of the four, was curiously named "Outsider". Hint? Coincidence? Racism? Who knows. Here's a screenshot, so you can see for yourself:




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Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Flo Jo: A True Olympic Legend



Everybody is talking about the Olympic Games these days. It's a wonderful sports event, that's usually worth waiting for. Politics and current events sometimes mar the glorious event, but the drama and competition usually make up for it.

Even the Olympics needs heroes, though. Names like Carl Lewis, Ben Johnson, Greg Louganis, Nadia Comaneci, Jesse Owens, Mark Spitz, Johnny Weissmuller, Emil Zatopek and more. Those super-stars shine above all and make the games far more interesting and dramatic.

For me, one star was the brightest of them all. Despite controversy, question marks and doubts. She was glorious, amazing, dramatic, flaring, powerful and graceful. When I think about "Olympics" - I think about her. Florence Griffith Joyner. A true legend, that blazed through the Seoul Olympics and left us all breathless and awed. She was amazing - a real star - and I don't remember any other Olympic moment that thrilled me more than watching Flo Jo run.

Florence Griffith Joyner won 3 gold medals in the 1988 Seoul Olympics: in the 4X100 meter relay, the 200 meter race and the all-important 100 meter. She also won one silver medal, in the 4X400 meter relay. The world record that she has set in the 100m run still stands unbroken - 10.49 seconds.




Her career was short and blazing. She had real style and if you saw her running - it was something that was very hard to forget.

Flo Jo died in her sleep in 1998 - she was 39 years old. Another legend that has died young.

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