Aperçus of This Sporting Life

September moon and the winning threat of absence

Ethan Switch - Monday, 27 September, 2004 - 18:41:31 - print it raw

Season 2004/05 of the National Basketball League is about to slide into full scale motion and the mind games and territorial land rights have already started between cross city rivals the West Sydney Razorbacks and reigning champions, the Sydney Kings.

Making a guest appearance at Cabramatta's Moon Festival yesterday, three players from the Sydney Kings—along with some radio DJ from The Edge 96.1 running under the moniker of Sharpy—where on show for the main stage surrounded by moon cakes, dancers and little children walking around with lighted (and flammable) paper lanterns.

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Blind see well, the sighted just look away

Ethan Switch - Friday, 24 September, 2004 - 17:58:47 - print it raw

On the seventh day of paralysed competition in Athens, Greece, the pressure continues for the other sports to keep on their funding toes as search engine Google celebrates the birthday of Ray Charles, despite the singer/songwriter having been dead since June this year.

With the AFL grandfinals looming extremely soon on the weekend and the NBL to start up not far from now, tactics are getting desperate and highly questionable for the much forgotten, largely ignored Paralympians winning and losing medals and breaking their own world records.

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Paralympics and the pumping of flames

Ethan Switch - Sunday, 19 September, 2004 - 00:03:49 - print it raw

With no shows from the legged basketballers (still out of the play on Spain's not so intellectually disabled Paralympians at Sydney 2000), day one of the twelfth Paralympic Games closed out with medals from the likes of shooting, fencing, judo and cycling.

Aiding a few thousand here and there in the backwash, acid drops and dragon runs to capture an expected surrealism to the opening ceremony was lost. Peacocks playing Country (Celebrity) head leading countries and their players into the cauldron of aired out sweat. An extremely massive tree sitting in the middle of the stadium waiting to be engulfed by the spark and flames of the torch lighting and celebrations. A Daft Punk feel to an opening number and this is what the viewers across the globe via less than half of the Olympic broadcasters were served.

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Greased all over, they win gold medals for this

Ethan Switch - Wednesday, 1 September, 2004 - 23:59:34 - print it raw

Welcomed home amid a throng of flashbulbs and uncontrollable tear ducts, the Australian athletes of the Athens 2004 Olympics. From one campaign to another, their first steps onto terra firma were into and alongside the arms of the greasy politicians set now into day three of Election 2004.

Cheesy grins and handshakes whole hearty, the players in the game watched in awe as the tussle to brace their full set of front teeth rattled the other. Howard over Latham, Latham over Howard; the sparks were bright and gloss sheens high in the afterglow of such a raw performance.

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Run out of town, headed toward China in 2008

Ethan Switch - Monday, 30 August, 2004 - 17:45:58 - print it raw

Running the people out of Athens, Greece, the closing ceremony of the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad nailed the last rivet in the stadium. Sighs were heard from the Australian Olympic Committee as IOC President Jacques Rogge delivered his closing speech. Sweat dripped off their brow as the Sydney Games hold still onto the mantle of being "the best Games, ever" by a man named Samaranch, soiled by liver spots and filled with a self-love of imaginary syllables.

Terrorism missed many an opportunity, taking a holiday much like the Greek citizens throughout the sixteen day affair. Even the flag bearing procession with pointed athletes from around the globe failed to ignite in bloodshed. Instead, the fanatical cause was left to supposed Irish priest, Cornelius Horan. Freshly insane from the Silverstone track in last year's Grand Prix—where he ran onto the track in fine crazy style—Horan pushed Brazil's marathon runner, Vanderlei de Lima out of gold and into the arms of Pierre de Coubertin and a bronze.

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Pittman runs out of steam, boost juice lacking

Ethan Switch - Thursday, 26 August, 2004 - 18:14:03 - print it raw

Busted like a knuckle, Jana Pittman, 21, of the Australian athletics track team, wobbled into fifth with her matron hairdo, placing out of medal contention by more than one in the women's 400 metre hurdles.

Distraught to an emotional level following the soda popping of her right knee only a few weeks before the race, Pittman is now considering moving toward the flat track; the event Cathy Freeman won back in Sydney.

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