Per ESPN, a former Army officer is planning to separate from another, much less formal, branch of U.S. service. Mike Krzyzewski told ESPN’s Andy Katz that next year’s Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will be his last as head coach of Team USA men’s basketball. The team is 75-1 under his guidance, including unbeaten runs to Olympic gold in 2008 and 2012, as well as a win in 2014’s FIBA World Cup. Prior to that last trophy, Krzyzewski brought his team to his alma mater, the U.S. Military Academy, for a daylong tour capped off by a nationally televised split-squad scrimmage. He…
Browsing: Olympics
Five quick midweek military sports links, starting with an appreciation: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCliUYT6PQc[/youtube] 1. NFL Films and sprint football. Steve Sabol, president of NFL Films, son of its founder and one of the reasons so many people watch professional football on Sundays, died yesterday at 69 after a long fight with brain cancer. Read more about him from our friends at USA Today here. The video above, a 2004 NFL Films short on sprint football, features an Army-Navy showdown and showcases the NFL Films style football fans have come to love — up-close action, a soaring soundtrack, eyeball-gripping interviews, seamless edits, all…
A loss to Hungary’s Tamas Lorincz in the quarterfinals knocked Army Spc. Justin Lester out of the gold medal hunt. But Lorincz’s win in the semifinals put the American 66-kilogram Greco-Roman star back into Olympic medal contention. Lester, part of the Army World Class Athlete Program, received a bye in the qualification round and defeated Japan’s Tsutomu Fujimura in his first London match Tuesday. The soldier won the first period of his quarterfinal match against Lorincz 2-0 before being swept 1-0, 2-0 and knocked out of the gold-medal bracket. Lorincz reached the final and will wrestle South Korea’s Hyeonwoo Kim…
Two Army sergeants first class came up short of the Olympic podium in London on Monday — one on the wrestling mat, the other on the shooting range. Sgt. 1st Class Dremiel Byers, making his second trip to the Olympics, was knocked out in the quarterfinal round of the 120-kilogram Greco-Roman bracket, falling 1-0, 1-0 to Turkey’s Riza Kayaalp. Kayaalp went on to lose in the semifinals, which eliminated Byers from bronze medal consideration. It’s the second Olympic trip for Byers, who also reached the quarterfinals in Beijing. He won two matches in China to reach the round of eight,…
The wife of an Army marksman came within two points of reaching the first medal podium of the London Olympics. Jamie Gray, wife of Staff Sgt. Henry Gray of the Army Marksmanship Unit, finished fifth in the women’s 10-meter air rifle event Saturday, posting a score of 499.7 over her qualifying and final rounds. China’s Yi Siling took the gold with a score of 502.9. Poland’s Sylwia Bogacka led after qualifying and ended up with the sliver, and China’s Yu Dan took bronze with a two-round score of 501.5. Get full results here. Gray, who took fourth in the air…
A handful of quick military-sports hits for the middle of the week: Olympic fever. Want the basics on the military men and women who’ll compete in London beginning later this week? Click here for our OFFduty preview, including capsule profiles on all 16 of them, plus the dates they’ll compete. For a more complete view of the games, head to USA Today’s site here (and a full Olympic schedule here). The 2012 Summer Olympics kicked off today with women’s soccer contests — a perfect reason to catch this video Q-and-A with Navy women’s soccer coach Carin Gabarra, a member of…
A dirty dozen military-themed sports links from a busy weekend (non-MMA notes after the jump): 1. Kennedy recap. Special Forces soldier Tim Kennedy lost in his second try at the Strikeforce middleweight title Saturday night in Portland, Ore., falling to Luke Rockhold via five-round unanimous decision — the same way he lost his 2010 title bout against Rolando “Jacare” Souza. Read the After Action review, with video, here. Click here for full coverage from our good friends at MMAJunkie. 2. Now what? Read Sherdog’s suggestions for Kennedy’s next fight, including what could be a make-or-break rematch with Souza. 3. From…
After Action has told you about the soldier-wrestlers heading to London. And we’ve filled you in on the soldier and sailor shooters, too (so have our friends with Military Times OFFduty; check out Jon Anderson’s piece here). But with Olympic opening ceremonies closing in, it’s a good time to meet two more Army World Class Athlete Program members who’ll represent their service and country in London. For more on these and other WCAP members, visit the program’s official website. Name: Staff Sgt. John Nunn Event: 50-kilometer race walk Olympic experience: Second trip (competed in the 20-km race walk in Athens in…
A half-dozen quick hits for a Monday morning (non-wrestling news after the jump): 1. Big time for the little guy. Army Sgt. Spenser Mango recently had his turn as the feature subject of “100 Olympic Hopefuls in 100 Days,” a series put together by our good friends at USA Today. Click over to read about the Greco-Roman Olympian’s path into the Army World Class Athlete Program, his Army duties when he’s not wrestling or training, and how much weight he has to cut to make the 55-kilogram (121-pound) limit. 2. Lester’s homecoming. Mango may have received the national press, but…
A half-dozen quick hits for a Friday morning: 1. Painting sports history. LeRoy Neiman, famous for his paintings of sports action and portraits of athletes, died Wednesday at age 91. His link to the military — according to his New York Times obituary, Neiman served in the Army during World War II as a cook in the European theater. His link to military sports comes here: A painting of the final play of the 1946 Army-Navy game entitled “Defending Victory — 1946.” Click that link for more on the painting itself, which was commissioned as part of the rivalry’s centennial…
