Today, my 1,000 free swim went well, missing only one flip turn. Timing was 19:53. Afterward, I did some 50 yard (2 laps) sprints:
Not sure I’ll have a better timing if I sprint before the 1,000.
Btw, my Xiaomi/Mi Band timer is kaput: it records time only but not the laps, which I need.
Australian Open is soon to begin (Jan 17-30 @ Melbourne). Who’s going and who’s not, is being reported, almost daily, due to covid-19 pandemic/omicron, at this very moment. Joker was last year’s champ, by defeating Daniil Medvedev. (Later, the two met up in US Open final, and Joker lost.)
Here is CNN timeline. I think he first said not going, due to vaccination issue who refused to indicate if he has done. Then he was going. Then this ‘jail’ episode happened after he landed: Djokovic is being held in an inner north Melbourne hotel while he awaits a court challenge to his visa cancellation.
Serbia issues a BRUTAL warning to Australian government as Novak Djokovic’s visa battle escalates: ‘He was LURED to Australia’
“Lured”!!! Oh boy… and his father has staged a rally. I think the whole thing is a little over reacted. Let’s see a few vital info
… while Joker’s vital info
Saying he’s his small nation’s top dog is an understatement. Perhaps these two sets of info explains the reaction of foreign affairs ministry, and that of his father, who may consider himself the king maker of small and young Serbia.
‘Starovic emphasised that the Serbian public has a strong impression that Djokovic is a victim of a political game against his will, and that he was lured to travel to Australia in order to be humiliated,’ the ministry statement said.
‘They’re keeping him in captivity. They are trampling on Novak and thus they are trampling on Serbia and the Serbian people,’Djokovic’s father Srdjan said at a news conference in Belgrade on Thursday.
澳洲摊上大事儿了. 塞尔维亚最值钱的国宝被关在墨村的一个旅馆里. 塞国的外交部发出严重警告. 他老爸也气势磅礴的聚众, 曰 {‘他们将他关押在囚禁中. 他们正在践踏诺瓦克,因此他们正在践踏塞尔维亚和塞尔维亚人民,”德约科维奇的父亲斯尔詹周四在贝尔格莱德的新闻发布会上说.} (谷歌翻译) 上纲上线, 这过硬的逻辑. 2020年 塞国人均收入 $7,497, 而他网球场上的奖金是$6,511,233 不包括广告代言之类的. 他老爸是不是有些国父的感觉? 最好笑的是塞国硬称他是被引诱去的. 澳洲有这闲功夫陪你玩? 小题大做 丑人多八怪.
无论如何 他老婆漂亮
Timeline of Serbia:
I finally got to circle the Lake Harmony, on New Year Day. I would have do it again but the oar is bit too short, that getting myself wet.
The lake is privately owned, about 2.5 miles long; serene and the glacial water is very clear.
As I was paddling the small kayak, I thought about Alan Kulwicki (1954-93) whose trade mark was “Polish victory lap“, which is going clockwise after winning the race. We attended a nascar race here, in the Poconos in 1992. Unfortunately, Kulwicki died in an airplane crash the following year.
The sound of crashing the thin ice ⇓ sounds like music to me -:)
Here is my 2.5 miles circling of the lake ⇓
A gloomy morning: two staff at the pool have tested covid-19 positive, so they closed the building down. Be vigilant and be mindful.
Wishing everyone a save holiday season!
Apparently, Peng Shuai has come out to deny the sexual assault accusation. This becomes funny …
In any case, wish her safe and sound, and wishing everyone safe and well.
Chinese city’s tennis ambitions imperilled by Peng Shuai scandal
By Syndicated Content
Dec 18, 2021
By David Kirton
SHENZHEN, China (Reuters) – Hosting the Women’s Tennis Association Finals was supposed to put the Chinese technology hub of Shenzhen on the sporting map, but the suspension of the tournament in the wake of the Peng Shuai scandal has left its ambitions in limbo.
China’s “miracle” city, best known as the launchpad of the country’s 40-year economic transformation, is among China’s wealthiest and is home to tech giants including Huawei Technologies and Tencent Holdings.
In January 2018 the WTA announced that Shenzhen had trumped rival bids from Manchester, Prague, St Petersburg and former host Singapore to stage what would “easily be the largest and most significant WTA Finals” in its history, its chairman and CEO Steve Simon said at the time.
The city of more than 17 million that neighbours Hong Kong had promised a state-of-the-art stadium, while local real estate developer Gemdale Corp put up $14 million in prize money – double the pot of the previous finals – winning the right to stage the event from 2019 to 2028.
But early this month, Simon announced the WTA would suspend tournaments in China over the treatment of former No.1 doubles player Peng Shuai, who was not seen in public for nearly three weeks after accusing China’s former Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli of sexual assault. [L1N2SN04V]
“Unless China takes the steps we have asked for, we cannot put our players and staff at risk by holding events in China,” Simon said, taking a stand that drew support from the global tennis community but embarrassed Beijing as it prepares to host the Winter Olympics in February.
Doubt over the tournament’s future highlights the clash between China’s global sporting ambitions and western criticism of Beijing’s authoritarianism. A handful of countries led by the United States have announced a diplomatic boycott of the Olympics – meaning they won’t send government representatives.
China hosted nine WTA events in 2019, but the WTA confirmed on Dec. 7 that the traditional season-opening Shenzhen Open, an event separate from the WTA Finals, will not take place in the first half of 2022. China has been all-but-shut to international visitors during the COVID-19 pandemic. [L4N2SS1I0]
A spokesperson for the Shenzhen government said he did not know whether the WTA would return. The Florida-based WTA said it remained hopeful that China would do what it asked in allowing for a direct line of communication with Peng.
“That is why this is a suspension at this point, not a cancellation,” a spokesperson said.
MISSED SERVE
For Shenzhen, the WTA Finals were to be a boost to its cultural and sporting prestige.
In late 2017, then-mayor Chen Rugui personally lobbied Simon to host the finals, saying Shenzhen is a young and open city and the tournament would help “take sports to a new level”, according to an official report.
Chinese media were effusive.
“It’s not just a major event for Chinese fans and tennis, but a fantastic chance for Shenzhen to become an internationally renowned name,” the Shenzhen Evening News said.
The WTA Finals is the most prestigious women’s event after the four Grand Slams, and the Shenzhen prize money was $5 million more than in the equivalent men’s ATP Finals, ensuring a star-studded draw. World No.1 Ashleigh Barty of Australia won the first Shenzhen WTA Finals in 2019.
“It’s the biggest tournament outside the Grand Slams, it’s massive, it’s hard to overstate the importance of that in terms of the prestige and the level of the players and the money involved,” said Mark Dreyer of China Sports Insider.
POLITICAL GOODWILL
Shenzhen’s tennis hopes also underscored the confluence in China between sports and the now-struggling property sector.
Nine of the 16 teams in China’s troubled top soccer league, which became notorious for splashing out millions of dollars for global stars, are majority-owned by companies linked to the real estate sector, including debt-strapped China Evergrande Group and the Kaisa Group, which owns Shenzhen’s club.
Gemdale, which sponsored the tournament, operates several tennis facilities in Shenzhen including an “international” training academy.
“Their business model is not to get it back in ticket sales and all that sort of stuff, it’s political goodwill that they get from the Shenzhen government,” Dreyer said.
Gemdale declined to comment.
As for the stadium, the plan is to preserve the facade of a 1985 arena – historic by Shenzhen standards – in a 3.6 billion yuan ($566 million) renovation that would expand its capacity to 16,000, according to announcements and a person with knowledge of the matter.
Work continues as the stadium will host other events, said two people with knowledge of the matter. For now, it remains a dusty construction site in the central Futian district.
(Reporting by David Kirton; editing by Tony Munroe and Richard Pullin)
I’ve to take a break from tennis earlier this year (March 2021) and began to swim in June when it seemed unlikely that I’ll return to the court any time soon. My time for 1,000 yard free style has been improving, from initial 32:00 plus minutes. My only race was at Harry Barr Memorial Meet in 1997, and my three heats, all in free, were: 50 @ 39:04; 500 @8:42:57, and 1000 @ 17:47:47. Now 24 years later, my 1000 is …
Here are some tips on how to make flip turns and LI Thanksgiving Invitational; newsletter.
My other timing
This NYMag article is by far the best on the on going saga. Wishing best for Peng but I’ve a few questions:
1. Has anyone considered that she was forced to make the complaint – a political struggle – to humiliate Zhang and his factions? 有没有人认为她是被迫投诉——政治斗争——是为了羞辱张及其派系?
2. In her decade long affair with Zhang, she knew well he’s married. What kind of force she was under to take up this affair to begin with, or her total disregard of the wife… even out of love? She’s a successful player with nearly $10m prize money from wining tourneys (not counting the endorsements).
3. WTA threatens to pull out of China. But it was only a few years ago, 2014 USOpen semi final, to be exact, they allowed Peng to prolong her injury time out to 20 some minutes: it showed Peng had poor sportsmanship and USTA terrible regulation. The injure time is usually 3 or 4 minutes. It was super unfair to Peng’s opponent and to us, the spectators. So seven years on, WTA is willing to leave China? What’s behind this decision – MeToo movement or more?
The article ⇓ Women’s Tennis Had to Stand Up to China
By Caira Conner
Photo: VCG/Visual China Group via Getty Images
Before the Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai went missing on November 2, the most notable sources of tension between Western sports leagues and China usually ended with those leagues doing their best not to offend the rising superpower.
In December 2019, after former Arsenal footballer Mesut Özil tweeted about the country’s inhumane treatment of the Uighurs, the club quickly released a statement reminding everyone that the club had always “adhered to the principle of not involving itself in politics.” (Though it has seemed perfectly fine with publicly supporting other political causes.) Nevertheless, within two days of the tweet, a Chinese state-run TV network pulled an Arsenal match from its schedule. They were eventually allowed back on the network, but no commentator would say Özil’s name out loud — and his name and image all but vanished from the country. When Özil was left off Arsenal’s Premier League and Europa League teams last year, some speculated that his China infraction was part of the reason why.
In the U.S., it’s the NBA that has most vividly experienced the consequences of crossing China. Two months before Özil spoke out, Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted (and later deleted) his support of the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. The NBA released a statement explaining that while the league recognized different countries would have different viewpoints on political matters, ultimately, it was “not the role of the NBA to adjudicate those differences.” A few days later, Morey tried to clean up his remarks. But the damage — and it was a lot of damage — was done. By January of 2020, the NBA was on track to lose up to $400 million in revenue as a result of the tweet, as Chinese business partners abandoned deals with the league.
In October of this year, Boston Celtics player Enes Kanter posted a video to Twitter in which he spoke for nearly three minutes in support of Tibetan independence, calling Xi Jinping a “brutal dictator.” Tencent, one of China’s largest technology companies and streaming platforms, swiftly pulled the live broadcast of the Celtics–Knicks game off the air, and removed all replays of Celtics games from the platform. After considerable backlash over its handling of Morey’s tweet, the NBA has chosen not to publicly cave this time, and Kanter says Commissioner Adam Silver has expressed support for his views — in private. Still, the NBA has not made a statement defending Kanter’s speech, or suggesting that anything in their business relationship with China will actually change.
Of course, there is a critical difference between these players’ stories and that of Peng Shuai: None of them disappeared.
A brief summary of recent events: On November 2, Peng posted a lengthy message to the social-media platform Weibo describing how she’d been sexually assaulted by China’s former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli, 40 years her senior, three years earlier. Peng detailed the pain and confusion she experienced in their decade-long relationship, which at times had been consensual.
The post was deleted within the hour. Peng’s Weibo account disappeared. Internet searches within China for her name and “tennis” were blocked.
Suddenly, the Women’s Tennis Association, the organizing body of professional women’s tennis, was in uncharted waters. Peng wasn’t just associated with the organization; she was recently a fairly major star. In 2013, Peng was the first Chinese player to win the WTA Tour Championships. The next year, she and her doubles partner were ranked No. 1 in the world, making Peng the first Chinese tennis player of any gender to hold the top spot.
At first, the WTA took a familiar, cautious approach. The organization waited 12 days after Peng was first presumed missing to release a statement. When it finally did, on November 14, the WTA called for a comprehensive investigation into the allegations against Zhang, and for the end of censorship against Peng. Social-media users blasted the organization for taking nearly two weeks to speak out. But over the next few days, instead of slinking further into the background, or refusing to get involved in a political matter, the WTA doubled down in its efforts to intervene in China’s policies on transparency. And the narrative of sports leagues treading carefully with China took a dramatic turn.
When China state-affiliated media CGTN tweeted a copy of an email allegedly sent by Peng to Steve Simon, the head of the WTA, explaining that she was “fine and resting at home,” Simon was swift to respond, countering that the questionable email “only raises my concerns as to her safety and whereabouts.” On social media, the WTA pressed on, joining in the #WhereisPengShuai movement with a tweeted photo of the star. Simon has said that the WTA was prepared to pull out of 2022 tournaments in China should Peng’s safety not be verified. Consider that in 2018, the WTA landed a ten-year partnership with China for Shenzhen to host the WTA tour finals each year, including a record-shattering $4.7 million prize for the 2019 champion. This is no small threat.
On November 21, the president of the International Olympics Committee, Thomas Bach, said he spoke with Peng in Beijing via video chat, and that she seemed relaxed and “wished for privacy.” No mention was made of the sexual-assault allegations against Zhang Gaoli, Peng’s deleted social-media accounts, or why she hadn’t been heard from in 19 days. Apart from state media releasing a couple of videos of Peng out with friends — it could not be determined when they were shot — this was the closest the public had come to knowing if Peng was, in fact, okay. Bach has a major incentive to promote the “nothing to see here” line, with the Beijing Winter Olympics coming up in February.
The WTA didn’t budge. In an email to Reuters, a spokesperson for the WTA said that while they were glad to see photos of Peng, a video call with the IOC did not “alleviate or address the WTA’s concern about her well-being and ability to communicate without censorship or coercion.” Furthermore, they still wanted a “full, fair and transparent investigation” into Peng’s allegations.
Tennis players are effectively self-employed. They have access to health insurance and pension plans through the WTA, but these programs are voluntary, not mandatory. It is only once players are ranked in the top 250 that are they required to pay an annual fee. There is no legal mandate within the WTA in which the organization has to protect its players, or a structure guaranteeing players the safety and assurances of full-time employment. In this sense, Simon’s ongoing, insistent ownership of Peng, demand for her safety, and willingness to irrevocably risk millions of WTA business dollars for the cause is remarkable.
It also feels unavoidable. Up to this point, sports leagues could uncomfortably look the other way when it was only a matter of an individual criticizing the Chinese government, and being censored in return. The cost of complicit public silence on “political matters” would pale in comparison time and again to the profits lost by an organization pushing back. But for the WTA to not have taken a stand — to have stepped aside and let China’s state media continue sending out staged photos and phony reassurances on Peng’s whereabouts, to have shouldered the reputational fallout at the cost of preserving financial security as the world’s biggest tennis stars have made increasingly forceful statements about Peng’s plight — would have been more disastrous than any financial fallout. At least, that’s the calculation Steve Simon has made.
Yet even now, Simon is on a lonely path. The IOC is no stranger to overlooking human-rights abuses, but what about the NBA, Premier League, or ATP, the governing body of men’s tennis, which has not gone nearly as far as its counterpart? The tenuous status quo of how to deal with China seems more fragile than ever.
Should Peng resurface in the coming weeks, the WTA will have to decide on its course of action for 2022. Right now, it feels plausible that Steve Simon could actually steer the organization the way of LinkedIn, and out of China altogether. That would be a true inflection point, and one that has been a long time coming.
2400 Hempstead Turnpike
Elmont, NY 11003
2021.12.10, Genesis concert
It has a sticker price of $1.5 billion, opens for business on Nov 20, 2021, Empire State Building is putting on the colors to celebrate. As a side note, Islanders has not yet to win a home game (as of Dec 12, 2021).
Our first venture there, December 10, 2021 for Genesis concert. ⇓ There seems four entrances: three are for special guests/corp sponsors, the privilege few. Dime (Savings Bank) Club, Amex, etc. The main gate for us, is next to the bar, Belmont Hall. The seats are comfortable.
The food courts look substantial. Next time I think I’ll skip the Belmont Hall, head to the food courts/markets directly. There is a Chinese booth, MoGu Modern Chinese Kitchen. One of the items they sell is “air baked popcorn wontons’ which uses air fryer. A staff is doing the explaining, which I think is less effective than giving out samples. Ok, what do I know.
新球场虽然还没有完全竣工 但是已开始使用了. 比以前的好很多… 但岛人直到目前尚未赢一场 😂 不知是不是王嘉廉下了诅咒🤪
球场里的东西花样多也好吃过酒吧里的. 居然看到一家中餐 用 air fryer 炸混沌. 有个男人在解释 – 不如送些品尝 会不会更有效?
自从大麻合法后 质量明显的提高了好多 闻起来香香的 😁
A huge and gigantic YES to the world and beyond that #FINA 2021 Will Explore Doping History and Awarding Proper Medals.
From 1973 to 1989, DDR East German swimming program had systematically #doped their athletes. Their female swimmers looked like men with manly low voices. American swimmer Shirley Babashoff (1957-) had voice her doubt but was shut down by the media and even some American coaches(!!!), labeling her as the ‘Ugly American’ and ‘Surely Shirley’.
As it turned out, #ShirleyBabashoff WAS absolutely RIGHT. The E German coaches came out, admitting doping in 1991.
She was a very gifted swimmer, doing sprints 100m to distance 800m. Her three sibling (Jack Jr., Billy and Debbie) are or were swimmers too. BUT very unfortunate for her that she didn’t have the Gold to have endorsements. Her life could have been much different and probably better … As she said, ask Tiger Woods what endorsement can do for you.
I’m wondering, what has FINA and IOC been doing all these decades? Even after the admission of doping in 1991? Those governing bodies are jokes.
