Lindsey Vonn was named Associated Press Female Athlete

Lindsey Vonn was named Associated Press Female Athlete. Lindsey Vonn Named AP Athlete of the Year Val d’Isere, France - Olympic gold medalist and three-time Audi FIS Alpine World Cup overall champion Lindsey Vonn has been named the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year for 2010.

nThe announcement on Saturday came on the heels of Vonn’s stunning downhill win in Val d’Isere earlier in the day to regain the World Cup downhill lead. On Sunday Vonn won the super combined in Val d’Isere to take the overall World Cup lead as well. Long-time AP journalist Howard Fendrich, who has covered four Olympic Games, including Vancouver caught up with Vonn earlier in the week for her comments on the award. She is the first skier to be nominated, and therefore awarded the prestigous honor.

Created in 1931, the AP honor is the original Athlete of the Year award in America and is well known for recognizing both female and male athletes since its inception. Vonn received more than double any other nominee.

The awards are voted on annually by a panel of AP sports editors from across the United States. Past winners include Joe DiMaggio (1941), Billy Jean King (1967, 1973), Michael Jordan (1991-93), Lance Armstrong (2002-05) and Serena Williams (2002, 2009).

“Just being nominated means a lot to me but it’s truly an honor to receive the award, especially knowing all the incredible athletes who have come before me to make sports so amazing for fans,” said Vonn. “Honestly, when I found out, I was pretty speechless.”

Twice in the awards history, the panel couldn’t decide on a single athlete and therefore named an entire team. In 1980 it was the men responsible for the Miracle on Ice and again in 1999 when Mia Hamm and company captured the FIFA World Cup in front of 90,000 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.

Vonn’s stunning year included capturing a historic first women’s downhill gold medal at the Olympics before adding bronze in super G. She would go on to land an American record 11 World Cup wins in a single season en route to her third consecutive overall and downhill titles. Additionally she defended her title for super G and added a super combined title. To date, her career 35 World Cup wins is the most of any American, male or female.

“I always love the journalists from the AP, I see them every single weekend and they do such a good job telling the story of alpine skiing,” added Vonn. “Win or lose, their stories are always fair. Really, they’re one of the biggest ambassadors of our sport in the world.”

By: First Tracks | Online Media

Lindsey Vonn, Clark Up for Top ESPY Honor

Lindsey Vonn, Clark Up for Top ESPY Honor Los Angeles, CA - Olympic gold medalist alpine skier Lindsey Vonn and fellow gold medalist snowboarder Kelly Clark comprise an unprecedented half of the Female Athlete of the Year ballot for the 2011 ESPY Awards, which air live Wednesday, July 13 at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN.

The ESPYs are determined entirely by popular vote. The Athlete of the Year category is the highest individual honor for women with Vonn as the incumbent. Her 2010 victory was the first time a snow sports athlete had won the top honor in the ESPYs’ 18 year history. Vonn and Clark are up against WNBA star Lauren Jackson and NCAA hoop standout Maya Moore. Vonn, the 2010 Olympic gold medalist for downhill who resides in Vail, Colo., rocketed through last winter to capture three more Audi FIS Alpine World Cup titles to bring her career total to 12 – more than any other American skier – male or female. She also boosted her career World Cup win total to 41, also a U.S. record.

West Dover, Vt.’s Clark paved the way for snowboarding in 2002 when she became the first athlete to win the ESPY for Best Action Sports Athlete after winning the Olympic gold medal for halfpipe. Two years later the award was split into a male and female category. She is also nominated for Female Action Sport Athlete along with Canadian freeskier Sarah Burke.

Clark’s record-breaking winter included a clean sweep of the Burton New Zealand Open, the O’Neil Evolution, the Burton European Open, the Killington Dew Tour, X Games in Aspen, the Burton Canadian Open, the Snowbasin Dew Tour, the Mammoth Grand Prix, the Burton U.S. Open and the European X Games. She placed an exclamation point on the 10-win season by landing a 1080 in the X Games at Aspen – a first in women’s snowboarding history.

Fellow snow sport athletes up for 2011 ESPYs include two-time Olympic gold medalist Shaun White, of Carlsbad, Calif.,who is nominated for Best Male Action Sport Athlete along with French freeskier Kevin Rolland. Super G World Champion and four-time Paralympian Chris Devlin-Young, of Campton, N.H., is up for Male Athlete with a Disability, while teammate and double 2010 Paralympic gold medalist Alana Nichols, of Farmington, N.M., is nominated for the women’s honor.

By: First Tracks!| Online Media

Lindsey Vonn Up For Best Female Athlete

Lindsey Vonn Up For Best Female Athlete: 2011 ESPYS. The 2011 ESPY Awards will be live this Wednesday, July 13, at 7:00 p.m. MT on ESPN. Host duties will go once again to Seth Myers, so there's a chance that there will be some good jokes throughout the show. None of the Colorado Sports teams is up for an award, but Vail, Colorado's Lindsey Vonn is up for "Best Female Athlete."

These are her 2011 accomplishments for the category, from ESPN:
- Won the Super G, Super-Combined and Downhill titles in 2011.
- Finished the season with eight race wins.

She won the 2010 award for her Winter Olympics exploits, as well as 11 race victories. She's going up against a tough crowd in this year's competition. Snowboarder Kelly Clark, WNBA star Lauren Jackson and UConn star Maya Moore are all up for the award.

The safe bet and likely winner is Maya Moore. Her 22.8 points and 8.2 rebounds per game and becoming the fourth-leading scorer in NCAA history are astonishing. If Moore wins, she will join Rebecca Lobo, Chamique Holdsclaw, Diana Taurasi and Candace Parker as basketball players who have won the award.

By: Russ Oates | Jul 11

Lindsey Vonn Celebrity Golf Classic

Lindsey Vonn Celebrity Golf Classic Olympian and World Champion beauty on skis Lindsey Vonn made the rounds yesterday on the gold course for the ESPY Celebrity Golf Classic. According to the check Vonn and fellow celebrities like 24's Dennis Haysbert and Criminal Mind's Joe Mantegna are holding in the picture above, the Golf Classic raised over 1 million dollars. The money raised goes to the V Foundation for Cancer Research.

Photo above from Lindsey Vonn's Facebook Page

Founded by EPSN and Jim Valvano, The V Foundation has been around since 1993 and has been raising millions of dollars to fight cancer.  Since we are all not like the celebrities who were there to play golf and donate to the V Foundation's cause, don't fret. You can donate right now on the V Foundations website RIGHT HERE.

Now, the skiing golden girl is getting dolled up for the awards happening in a few hours. I wonder if Vonn will be wearing a dress as colorful as her golfing shirt. I sure hope so!

Lindsey Vonn-Justin Bieber

Lindsey Vonn-Justin Bieber wins Best Female Athlete ESPY, requests photo with Justin Bieber

Lindsey Vonn talks on the red carpet before the 2011 ESPY Awards in Los Angeles.

On Wednesday evening at the ESPYs, Lindsey Vonn went out and captured another title in the Best Female Athlete category. That makes two straight victories, and if she's able to get one more next year, we can pretty much go ahead and rename it the Lindsey Vonn Award (and make the trophy a gold-plated likeness of her head).

Though, come to think of it, Maria Riesch might have some objection to that -- especially since Riesch, as you may recall, finished ahead of Vonn in the overall World Cup standings this year.

But enough of us being a buzzkill with such subtleties as actual scores of the World Cup standings. Because if we bring up World Cup standings, we have to mention the fact that weather cut short the end of the season last year with Vonn just three points behind Riesch, and we don't want to mention that (though technically speaking, we just did).

In any case, this is not meant to be an airing of grievances; it's supposed to be a celebratory moment for Vonn. And with that in mind, let's allow her a moment to enjoy it:
Insert moment here. Good. Now that we've settled that, we'd like to discuss the other notable takeaway from Vonn's evening at the ESPYs: the three-time overall World Cup champ is a Belieber, a fact that she confirmed by asking Justin Bieber if she could take a photo with him for her Facebook page.

By: Matt Stroup | Universal Sports

2010 Vancouver Olympics: A dozen reflections

1. Gold medal hockey game: USA vs. Canada

The USA did not truly 'stun' Canada by beating them in an earlier round. Canadadian fans just had an unfounded sense of entitlement. It was obvious that the Canadians, Russians, or Americans all had a great shot at gold.

The championship game was epic. Needless power plays were not called by the refs and the players stuck to hockey more than fighting. The Canadians looked a little old but also a little more skilled and disciplined. That is why it helped that they were able to attain a 2-0 lead. But the Americans hung in there and Zach Parise scored the game tying goal with their goaltender pulled and only 24 seconds left in the game!

The game went to overtime and the four on four skating format was interesting. It made the overtime more about scoring and did not allow teams to sit back and play checking defense. The more aggressive team on offense clearly was going to have an advantage. In Canada's case it helped to have a guy like Sidney Crosby who has a rocket wrist shot. He scorched the game winner past USA net minder, Ryan Miller. Miller was the MVP of the tournament, but it was the Canadians who were celebrating on their home ice.

This was easily the biggest game in hockey history since the 1980 Lake Placid miracle game of the 1980 Olympics.

2. An unsafe course results in the death of Olympic bobsledder.

The Death of Georgian bobsledder Nodar Kumaritashvili was shocking. But perhaps more shocking is that in this day of architectural innovation, that it was possible for him to fly off of the course and into a cement pillar when it was known that these guys would be flying down the court at ninety miles per hour.

3. Medal Counts

With national pride at stake, medal counts are watched in every Olympics. Fortunately the prowess of the individual athletes overshadowed the count. But still we love our medal counts. The Americans won a Winter Olympics record 37 medals but perhaps more remarkably, the Canadians proved that they truly are winter pioneers by winning a record 14 gold medals. That is an impressive feat for a country of only about 37 million people.

4. Russian ice dancers do not cave to political correctness

Media outlets have no problem playing up political correctness to get readership up. In these Olympic games, the media outlets cried wolf over Russian ice dancers, Oksana Domnina and Maxin Shabalin costumes that portrayed Canadian aboriginees. The Russian skaters made some modifications, but ultimately gave the pretend do-gooders the finger. Although they did not get gold for their performance, they do get the Shots Heard gold medal for courage.

Shots Heard condemns the media for automatically portraying anything and everything that interperets or celebrates other ethnicities as 'offensive.' Just because the media went and found a couple Canadian aboriginees that did not like it, does not make it offensive. If something is not apparently offensive to at least a strong minority of our diverse populus then there is a reason for that. If we are going to celebrate 'diversity' then we cannot expect people walk on egg shells. It is ridiculous and again Shots Heard condemns all media outlets that ran with this supposed controversy.

If a small group of people want to cry about something that truly does not matter then I will give them the same advice that is often given to children when they cry: Suck it up!

5. 'Clean living' Torah Bright Olympic heroics in stark contrast to the Tiger Woods era of shame

Noted Mormon, Australian snowboarder, Torah Bright won gold in the half pipe and she is expected to make at least a million dollars in endorsements after winning gold at the 2010 Olympics. Other outlets believe she will become the highest grossing Australian athlete ever.

The lame stream media will sell the idea that the world is starving for a clean living athlete. And maybe that is true, but really?. Even in the wake of starting to clean up Major League Baseball, we see the media pushing the angle of fans lamenting the moon shot homeruns. Also, the fact that she is hot and athletic are certainly bigger factors than her seeming purities.

Nonetheless, Shots Heard strongly endorses the value that society should put a much higher premium on the character of people who are getting endorsement deals. Nike continued their endorsement deal with the dog killer, Michael Vick. They simply made a calculation that they would sell more shoes with him than without him. The millions of people they were alienating by keeping him on the payroll did not even enter into the equation.

And what about Kobe Bryant? He committed adultery and quite possibly rape. The media tells us that we've forgiven Bryant. But do we really agree with rewarding him with huge endorsement deals that ultimately drive up the prices of our products? Shots Heard would submit that the answer to that question is an emphatic NO!

Recently Proctor And Gamble CEO, Robert McDonald said that they would not be advertising with Tiger Woods (for now) because neither party needed the "attention." Apparently the lying, adultery and apparent cheating via steroids was not enough for Mr. McDonald to make a value judgment. This is coming from the largest supplier to families, mind you! ESPN and the rest of the lame stream media had no problem giving Mr. McDonald a pass on his weak minded reasoning.

If Proctor And Gamble had any sense they would immediately announce the signing of athletes like Torah Bright and the permanent parting of ways with Tiger Woods. But companies like Proctor And Gamble actually believe that winning (even if it means cheating) is everything. They are hoping that the world 'forgives' Tiger Woods soon enough and that they can get back to business as usual. They do not care to indict bad decisions, they care about their bottom line.

6. Shawn White is the new Tony Hawk

Shawn White was clearly the best snowboarder in the 2006 Olympics. But it was still close back then and he was barely able to squeeze out a gold medal in the half pipe in those Olympics. In 2010, he was getting way higher than any other snowboarder. As a result, he was able to pull of tricks that no other snowboarder could pull off. Or should the tricks be called illusions?As Gob Bluth says it, "Tricks are for whores." Well it was no illusion, Shawn White is for real and he has taken his place as the new Tony Hawk of our generation.


7. Apollo Ohno becomes the most decorated American Winter Olympian

Speed skaters have a relatively short shelf life compared to athletes in most other sports. The best skaters are usually in their late teens or early twenties. At 27 years old, Ohno was a grandpa on the ice! He knew he would have to come to the Olympics as prepared as possible if he would want to continue enhance his glorious Olympics career. And he did just that by doing three a day workouts and following a strict nutritional program. In five months he says he could lift twice as much could when he started. He lost 20 pounds while taking his body fat percentage down to 2.5 percent.

In the 1500 meter final, in the last couple of laps Ohno found himself competing against a trio of South Koreans. Historically, the South Koreans are very envious of Ohno's dominance and have been verbal about it. It was obvious that they would do what it took to obstruct him from gold and their legal interference was working until the last turn when two South Koreans wiped out. Ohno was able to dodge the crashing skaters. Second place was never so fun.

In the 1000 meter race, Ohno overcame a slip to get bronze. 'Overcoming' was a heavy theme for Ohno in the Olympics. In many races he started in the outside spot and would finish in the top two spots (out of four) to advance during various rounds in competitions.

In the 500 meter race, Ohno was disqualified from a silver medal on what should have been ruled incidental contact against Canadian skater Francois-Louis Tremblay. Asked about whether he thought it was a bias call, Ohno wasted no time stating that he believed it was a hometown call. To his credit, he voiced his displeasure with a smile and did not oversell it. That can be tough to do in the heat of the moment. Many athletes say 'no comment' to avoid the idea of being perceived as 'sore loser.' Ohno was able to walk a fine line though.

In the 1500 meter team race, Ohno was invaluable to the American team. Although he was unable to make one of his patented comebacks on the last two turns, he did have enough savvy to make sure that he held onto third place for the bronze. And earlier in the race he saved the American from disaster when the American skaters missed an exchange, he quickly stepped in and skated that leg of the race. Had he not been Johnny on the spot, the Americans would have been to far behind to even medal.

Ohno's three medals in the 2010 Olympics brought his total to eight medals, giving him the most for any American Winter Olympian. Ohno may or may not be around to add to that record at 2014 in Sochi, Russia. Shots Heard believes that he will ultimately be the Brett Favre of speed skating. Do not expect him to stay away. Ohno has taken a year off from speed skating before and was unable to stay away though.

8. Minnesota Native Lindsey Vonn defies the odds to become the greatest American women's alpine downhill skiier of alltime

Minnesotans are proud of their native sons and daughters. Ask them to name famous Minnesotans and they will easily rattle off names like Charles Lindbergh, Prince, Judy Garland, Sean William Scott, Jessica Biel, William Mayo (Mayo Clinic), Charles Schulz, Betty Crocker (fictional), Paul Bunyon (fictional), Bob Dylan, F Scott Fitzgerald, Joe Mauer and the Andrews Sisters. Add Lindsey Vonn to the list.

There is a strong geographical reason that hockey players come from Minnesota and not downhill alpine skiiers. There are a lot of frozen lakes and no big mountains to ski down.

The Land of 10,000 Lakes is actually the land of 11,842 lakes. The combination of being in the northern latitude of the country and the winds that blow off of those lakes creates colder temperatures. The dense forestry also helps to prevent snow from being quickly dried up by the sun. As a result, Minnesota is the coldest state in the continental United States. Consequently hockey players enjoy many months of hockey weather on the lakes and local outdoor ice rinks. Neighboorhoods are built with ice rinks that look like vacant rodeo playgrounds in the summertime, but in the winter they are getting plenty of use.

In most parts of the state, it is hard enough for a kid with a sleigh to find a 20 foot hill to slide down. Naturally skiiers have similar struggles in finding down ski areas. Minnesota's highest point is in the boondocks of Northern Minnesota on Eagle Mountain. The lowest point is Lake Superior at 607 feet. Simple math tells us a Minnesotan would be hard pressed to find a 1500 foot drop to ski down. Therefore it is going to be a rarity for people that grow up in Minnesota actually succeed at dowhill alpine skiing on the world stage.

Vonn grew up in Burnsville, Minnesota, located only about eight miles south of Minneapolis. Burnsville is the site of Buck Hill, which is one of three ski areas in the Twin Cities metropolitan region. As someone who has literally laughed at the idea that the hill with a ski lift existed while driving past it on the 35 Interstate, I can personally relate to how remarkable it is that the 'greatest Amerian woman skiier' grew up practicing at a ski range that is smaller than the bunny hills at many ski resorts.

But how much of a disadvantage it was to grow up in Minnesota is debatable and probably marginal. Shortly after winning a Junior Title in Italy at age 14, her family moved to Vail, Colorado. The move allowed her to train in more traditional surroundings. Later in life, she did some of her training with fellow gold medalist Julie Mancuso in the majestic mountainry of the Lake Tahoe, California area.

10. Bode Miller - The party boy partially atones for his 2006 Olympics antics

At the 2006 Olympics, Bode Miller was more concerned about partying than living up to his potential. He failed miserably in all five of his events. He had been considered by many experts to be the skiier with the most potential at the time.

Miller did not come to the 2010 Olympics in great shape, but he was serious while he was there. Notably, he never did explicitly express regret for his actions in 2006. He just tried to purvey that he was taking this Olympics seriously. He earned gold, silver and bronze medals. Nothing will ever bring back 2006, but for his sake he did show that he could win on the big stage.

The media was fond of selling Miller as being a changed man that had matured. They were fond of talking about how he had changed after having a two-year-old daughter. But Miller had the daughter out of wedlock and their is little proof that her birth made him more serious as a skiier.

Likely what Miller probably cares most about is securing at least another six figures in endorsements and a little more street credit in the party scene. Afterall the babes have to love a gold medal. We will probably never know exactly what his motivations are, since Miller is more tight lipped about his excesses these days. Instead he is more diplomatic in his approach and Shots Heard certainly cannot fault him for that.

11. Johnny Weir proudly represents America

At the 2006 Olympics, figure skater, Johnny Weir was abrasive and self centered. By the 2010 Olympics, Werr still had his flamboyance, sexual ambiguity and quirks like being a committed Russofile (person that loves Russian culture).But Weir was more subdued and more precise in his skating. And he was more professional in explaining himself during interviews. In other words, he was much more mature.

The media still tried to play the sexual identity card. They did their best to create stories about perceived homophobic people within the media or general population. They played up the is he gay angle like we were living in 1999. Their coverage overshadowed his valiant efforts to do be a quality skater that proudly represented the United States.

In Shots Heard's book, Johnny Weir is great if only for wearing fur despite the potential threat that PETA might throw blood on him at any time.




12. Two major streaks are over

- For the first time in 62 years, the Americans were able to win the Gold in four man bobsedding. Do I hear a call for Cool Runnings Two (movie sequel)? Afterall did we not just see four bad-ass mothers that took crap from nobody? Feel the ride, it's bobsled time!

- For the first time since 1964, the Russians did not win the gold in the figure skating pairs event. That seemed destined to happen once the judges were taken off of the Russian payroll. The Russians were caught bribing a French judge in 2002. The bribery gave the Russians an undeserved gold medal that year. They had been suspected of bribing judges for decades.

Picture 1: A Canadian audience celebrates Canada's 3-2 championship overtime win over the USA in hockey.

Picture 2: Georgian bobsledder, Nomar Kumaritashvili's fatal crash.

Picture 3: Russian skaters, Oksana Domnina and Maxin Shabalin unapologetically wear their Canadian Aboriginee costumes.

Picture 4: Australian Mormon snowboarder won gold at the 2010 Olympics.

Picture 5: Shawn White proudly and fashionably wears an American flag styled bandanna.

Picture 6: Apolo Ohno poses with two of the three medals he earned at the 2010 Olympics.

Picture 7: When she was not crashing, Lindsey Vonn was winning medals at he 2010 Olympics. She won a gold and bronze medal. She crashed in her other three events.

Picture 8: Bode Miller displays the cockiness that brings him good attention from some groups and scrutiny from his detractors. He is shown using two giant snowballs to represent his manhood.

Picture 9: Johnny Weir, American figure skater

Picture 10: Johnny Weir believes in modern facial treatments as well as other more enhanced grooming techniques.

Picture 11: The American bobsled team is excited after their gold medal run.