After Atalanta

It's hard to believe that I am scooping amateur on doping news. But here it is: in the past two days, two separate stories have appeared about doping offenses in professional tennis. The one that seems more credible--or rather with the least amount of unknowns--is the case against Mariano Puerta , 2005's French Open finalist. This is his second offense and has warranted an 8-year ban by the ITF--a light sentence given that it could have been a lifetime ban. Either option ends his career however as he is 27 and the only 35-year old playing today is Agassi and Puerta is no Agassi. According to reports, Puerta ended up with the banned substance, etilfrine, in his system because it was in his wife's medication for hypertension. But it was such a trace amount that it could not have enhanced his performance--and he did lose to Nadal after all. So many questions still though. Why is Puerta's wife on hypertension medication anyway? Is there something about being married to Pue...

Doing some holiday shopping this afternoon, I stopped into Barnes and Noble to take a look around (and to use the bathroom which is nicer than the mall's facilities--a potentially interesting observation to explore further for those who do bathroom studies). Because I was just casually browsing I was sucked in rather easily, as they knew I would be, by the display table simply with the sign SPORTS on it. What did I see? Lance Armstrong, Toger Woods, boxing, golf, Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods, football, football, football, baseball, baseball, and misc. No women anywhere. I have read all the studies about lack of media coverage and the general disinterest in women's sport. But I was still surprised nary a woman graced the table. Perhaps because I have been immersed in writing on women's sport--some of which warned me in some way that that table in B&N would not represent women--I have been living in a false reality, also known as academe. In a (near) Olympic year one woul...

I was giddy with schadenfraude this past weekend when I flipped on ESPN and saw a special piece on the new accusations against Rene Portland , head coach of the PSU women's basketball team. They interviewed fairly extensively (enough to draw out some tears) a former player who was forced off the team in the early 80s because Portland threatened to reveal her homosexuality. Another player --not gay, but sister is--from the 90s has also come forward to dicusss the homophobic comments and atmosphere Portland made. PSU students are starting to protest. [Alas PSU is not playing at my Big Ten university this season so we cannot stage a protest here.] Jen Harris's lawsuit has finally set off all the furor over Portland's overtly discriminatory ways that should have been dealt with years ago. I am buoyed by this activism yet also cautious as I think about all the coaches who are not as obvious as Portland and harm just as many people who, because of the often covert homophobia in a...

I am just too tired to review last year. We all know what happened. So here are my thoughts on 2006. The Comeback Kids? Martina Hingis is staging her comeback this year. It’s in the back of Kournikova’s mind . And Monica Seles is thinking about it as she trains 5 days a week at her Florida home. As much as I would like to see Seles return to the game, I think she should cut her losses now. I wish she could have gone out on her own terms but I don’t think it is meant to be. If she does come back my prediction is she will play one grand slam, lose before the quarters and call it quits. As for Hingis—well this should be interesting. Just because she beat Martina N. (her namesake—I wonder which Martina cringes more at that) handily this summer in World Team Tennis does not mean she is ready to play with the big girls again. My prediction—third round loss at the Australian. And if she sticks it out, 4th round at French—after all clay is the equalizer, though it is also the one Grand Slam sh...

It wasn't an exceptionally interesting year on or off the court in men's tennis. Roger Federer dominated--again. I predict similar things from him next year--maybe a few more of the top ten men will have flashes of brilliance, like Safin at the 2005 Australian or Nalbandian at the year-end Master's, and knock out a win or two. But no one will beat Federer's record which is a product of his superhuman consistency. This prediction could all fall apart however if Federer actually gets a full-time coach. Off the court, well no one really cares about Federer's off the court life. But just in case there are some passionate Federer fans out there...I think something will happen on the long-time girlfriend front; perhaps a pregnancy or a proposal. Probably the most interesting thing that will happen this year is Andre Agassi's retirement. And if it doesn't actually happen his deteriorating performances (not that there's anything wrong with that) will certainly b...