From Denver to Calgary to London to Belgrade and all points in between, here’s a few quick hits spanning eight or so time zones: Oh? Canada? Air Force 2nd Lt. Spencer Armstrong’s college football career barely took off — the wideout missed five games his junior season with a hamstring injury, then broke his leg three games into his senior year, rejoining the Falcons in December for the 2008 Armed Forces Bowl (and that cool picture on the right). The Canada-born Armstrong was drafted by the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League in 2009, but as with other aspiring…
Browsing: London Olympics
Team USA shooting qualifications wrapped up Monday at Fort Benning, Ga., and the final qualifier wasn’t a surprise given the setting. Army Sgt. 1st Class Jason Parker, a member of the Benning-based Army Marksmanship Unit, qualified for his fourth Olympic team by taking top honors in the 50-meter three-position rifle event. He’ll join fellow Army Sgt. 1st Class Keith Sanderson, who earned a spot Friday in the 25-meter rapid-fire pistol event, on the now-complete, military-heavy U.S. shooting squad. Check out these posts for more about U.S. shooters, or click here for the full team’s bios on the USA Shooting website.…
The London Olympics are officially a family affair for Team USA shooting. Navy reservist Sandra Uptagrafft took top honors in the 25-meter pistol qualifier at Fort Benning, Ga., on Tuesday, earning the only U.S. Olympic spot available in that event — but not the only one in the Uptagrafft household. Her husband, Army Sgt. 1st Class Eric Uptagrafft, will shoot in the 50-meter prone rifle event. This will be the first Olympics for Sandra Uptagrafft, an information systems technician first class, according to a USA Shooting release outlining the results from Benning; her husband made the 1996 games but hasn’t…
Two spots on the U.S. Olympic pistol team are spoken for, and Army Sgt. 1st Class Daryl Szarenski has one of them. But adding another one couldn’t hurt. Szarenski, already en route to his fourth Olympics after earning a berth in the 10-meter air pistol event, will compete for a 50-meter free pistol spot at the Olympic qualification event at Fort Benning, Ga., beginning Thursday. He took 14th in the 50-meter event at the Beijing games last year. The qualifier, which will decide four open spots pistol spots and three smallbore rifle spots for the London games, runs through June…
When it comes to Olympic shooting, champs don’t get a free pass. Sgts. Vincent Hancock and Glenn Eller, reigning gold medalists in skeet and double trap, respectively, will have to qualify for the 2012 team this week in Tucson, Ariz. USA Shooting has previews of the skeet and trap events, which will run through the weekend. Staff. Sgt. Josh Richmond, the 2012 World Cup double trap champ, already has a spot locked up for London (read more about the World Cup win here). Sgt. Jeff Holguin, another 2008 Olympic team member and the 2011 national double trap champion, will compete…
Some quick Olympic updates while you attempt to schedule a therapy session after watching the latest Tim Kennedy video: 1. Hosting the secretary. It’s the setup to the oldest joke in the book: Some wrestlers, a racewalker, a bobsledder and the secretary of the Army walk into a cafeteria … No, seriously — Army Secretary John McHugh made the trip to Colorado Springs, Colo., to chat with soldier-Olympians and Paralympic athletes over lunch May 2, giving him a close-up look at competitors who’ll represent his service on the world stage this summer. Tim Hipps of the Army’s Installation Management Command…
Spc. Spenser Mango (blue) claimed an Olympic bid with a win over Max Nowry on Saturday in Iowa City in the 55-kilogram Greco-Roman final. (Getty Images photo by Matthew Stockman)
For two soldiers, it’s a return to the grandest stage in athletics. For another, it’s his first chance at his sport’s highest honor. For a fourth, all of that was just out of reach. Sgt. 1st Class Dremiel Byers and Sgt. Spenser Mango did what was expected of them over the weekend in Iowa City at the Team USA Olympic wrestling trials, winning their weight classes with 2-0 sweeps of their respective best-of-three championship finals. Byers had a bye to the 120-kilogram final and was without his highest-profile competition after Rulon Gardner decided not to weigh in, stalling his comeback…
The London Olympics are less than 100 days away, and while some military athletes have already punched their tickets (and keep checking here for new Army qualifiers), the trials have yet to start in earnest. That changes this weekend in Iowa City. About 30 wrestlers with military affiliations will compete in the Greco-Roman and freestyle (men’s and women’s) tournaments to determine who’ll represent the U.S. on the mats. Click through for a quick guide for the once-every-four-years wrestling fan — the troops, the favorites, the story lines, the TV coverage and, of course, the flying squirrel.
Three quick hits from around the web on a Wednesday morning: 1. Proctor resigns: Bill Wagner at The (Annapolis, Md.) Capital broke the news yesterday — Navy quarterback Kriss Proctor, who finished his senior season with a win over Army in December, has resigned from the Naval Academy and will not graduate. The resignation hasn’t been accepted, according to the report, but it likely will be, and was reportedly triggered by an alleged honor code violation. 2. Falcon free agents: Frank Schwab at The (Colorado Springs, Colo.) Gazette brings better news, reporting on the pro football dreams of Air Force…
Wrestling’s rarely looked at as a team sport, especially at the elite level — one on one, no substitutions, no help beyond shouts from the sidelines. But Olympic qualifying for Team USA wrestling may be the ultimate team sport — still one on one, still no substitutions, but if a wrestler earns a qualifying bid in his weight class, it doesn’t go directly to that individual: Slap “USA” into the Olympic bracket for now, and whoever wins the U.S. qualifier in Iowa City next month gets the golden ticket. Need somebody to fight for their country, not just themselves? Find…
