One Step Closer to the Olympics (U.S. Edition)

Trey Hardee, Shotput (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

With just over a month to go before the Olympics, countries around the world have begun selecting their teams. This week happens to be both the US Track and Field and the US Diving Trials (probably on NBC, albeit severely edited, this weekend), which are two of my favorite pre-Olympic events: Track and Field because I was raised by a track geek, and diving because it’s just really cool to watch, and you always know when someone REALLY screws up.

Pictures of striving Olympic hopefuls, and a lecture to the wire service caption writers, after the jump.

IAAF World Championships in Athletics: Oh, Stop Being Snooty and call it Track and Field

In one of my earliest posts here at Ladies…, I confessed my deep and abiding love for track and field.  (Also, holy crap — that was a year ago?)  Well, I have once again proven my track nerd bonafides by not only watching last weekend’s coverage of the World Championships in Berlin (such as it was, since I don’t get Versus and had to make do with the two hours a day NBC could tear away from the “Dew Tour”) but getting into a giddy text message exchange with my brother immediately after watching Usain Bolt’s smashing of his own 100m world record.  (My brother, by the way, believes Usain can break 9.4 before he retires.)

10 Reasons I Love Track and Field

1. Usain Bolt, Fastest Man Alive

Source: Reuters via the Telegraph (UK)

I believe you might have heard of him. (Click on the picture to read the accompanying article; it’s hilarious.)

2. The Style. Usain’s gold shoes (see above). Sanya Richards’s arm sleeves. Gail Devers’s fingernails gave me nightmares as a child. And let’s not forget Flo-Jo. Even if there was an equivalent to the LAZR swimsuit in track and field, the athletes would probably find some way to make sure theirs looked different from everyone else’s.