US Olympic diver David Boudia On How He Preps… by uSports

David Boudia, a 27-year-old Olympic diver for Team USA, has qualified for the finals in Rio. He will be competing in the 10 meter individual and 10 meter synchronized dives. The men’s 10 meter synchro finals are today at 3:00 p.m. EST and he will be competing with his teammate Steele Johnson. Boudia discussed with uSports how his training regiment is different than some may expect and how mental preparation is so important for him before competition.

US Olympic Volleyball Player April Ross by uSports

April Ross, 34-year-old Team USA beach volleyball player, is in Rio preparing to play for gold in the next two weeks. London 2012 Olympics Ross and her teammate at the time Jennifer Kessy, in a USA-USA final against Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings. This year Ross and Jennings are teammates as each of their teammates decided to retire and they are going for gold. Ross discussed how she got her start in outdoor and her pre-match routines with uSports.

Four days away from the opening ceremonies at the Rio Olympics and many of the details of the show have been leaked. According to the Daily Mail, the information was leaked on social media by spectators that were watching the dress rehearsal last night in Rio. There were three thousand guests and they were asked not to take photos or reveal details of the show.

Although Rio is an hour ahead of the Eastern time zone, according to Bleacher Report NBC will not begin televising the event until 8 pm EST. NBC Sports Group Chairman Mark Lazarus addressed media members in a pre-Olympic presser last week that the event will be shown on tape delay.

International model Gisele Bundchen is going to strut her way into Maracana Stadium. No doubt she’s be fabulous, but there is a bit of a plot twist. Bundchen is going to be robbed during the opening ceremony of the Olympics to portray the reality of living in Rio de Janeiro. A chase will ensue around the stadium for the assailant and then ultimately he is caught and ‘justice will prevail’. As Bundchen walks down the catwalk a “The Girl from Ipanema,” a song popular in the 60s, will be playing in the background. Ipanema is a seaside neighborhood in Southern Rio.

Brazil will show off it’s rich arts culture but will not shy away from bringing forth the problems it faces as a third world country. There will be 300 professional dancers that will dance to show the history of Brazil. There will also be a replica 14 Bi flyover, the first biplane built by Brazilian aviator Santos Dumont.

Director of the show Leonardo Caetano says the show is not a chronological piece, but a reinterpretation of Brazil. The first part of the show demonstrates how Brazilians greet people, then it goes on to show that Brazil lives on the largest green reserve in the world and it’s importance. The third part of the show symbolizes how Brazil can make something out of very little. Caetano noted that Rio Brazil doesn’t have anywhere near the budget London did in 2012.

There are 12,000 costumes made from 22 miles of tissue.

Each country’s team will walk into Maracana Stadium behind its own samba band. Each athlete will be contributing to the green space of Brazil and will plant a sapling in a totem which will grow to 12,000 trees in Deodoro Olympic Park.

British actress Judi Dench will read a poem that talks about global problems with Brazilian film and TV star Fernanda Montenegro.

Former soccer great Pelé is expected to light the Olympic flame inside the stadium. Pelé is known as “the Black Pearl” and the greatest soccer player of all-time. At the age of 15 he began playing for Santos FC in São Paulo and played there from 1956 – 1974. He also played for the Brazilian national team and the New York Cosmos. Throughout his entire career he scored 1,283 goal which includes unofficial friendlies and tour games. He still holds most goals scored in a career in the Guinness World Records.

Team USA Olympic Gymnast Aly Raisman on Training by uSports

Aly Raisman, a 22-year-old on the Team USA 2016 Olympic gymnastics team will be competing in a few weeks in Brazil. She is the captain of the squad that is projected to win gold in the overall gymnastics program. She discussed her training and pre-competition rituals with uSports.

Raisman took a year off in after the 2012 London Olympics and had to really dig deep to get back into gymnast shape.

Working out is her job and she takes it seriously. She frequently works a 7.5-hour-day, with the hours are split up for rest in between. “Everyday I workout from 8:30 am to around 11:30 am and then I go back [to the gym] from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm at night,” Raisman told our parent site uInterview. “I do a lot of conditioning and strength and flexibility and then I do a lot of routines.”

When it comes to competing she has a few tricks that help keep her calm and mentally prepare.

“Before a competition I always like to call my parents just to talk to them,” she said. “Normally, I’m not with them because I’m traveling with the National team so I’m normally in another country. To hear their voice and just to have them give me a couple words of advice is really great,” Raisman said.

After talking to her parents and before competing she doesn’t over analyze her events or competition and trusts that she is prepared enough. “I like to just listen to music just to relax and do my hair and make-up and not really think about it too much,” she said.

Fans have been let down time and time again. Athletes so highly revered that are caught taking performance enhancing drugs in turn, have medals taken away and lose respect of many, all in one blow.

What’s the point?

The dream of being the best, untouchable. Olympic cyclist Lance Armstrong admitted to using banned substances and intimidation on teammates that didn’t want to dope because he wanted to win by any means necessary. That’s the point, to win.

Cheating to win can’t feel good, but athletes do it to stay competitive because they know their competition is doing it. If everyone is taking them, everyone should stop taking them and they will still be competitive. Fortunately or unfortunately, it’s human nature to want to be better, faster and stronger.

It takes the fun out of watching a race when swimmers or sprinters line up on the board or blocks respectively and I wonder which (or if all) of these athletes is doping. It’s sad to think that world record holder of the women’s 100 meter dash, U.S. sprinter Florence Griffith-Joyner probably cheated, but now we’ll never know. Instead of being excited about the Olympics, I’m skeptical. All excitement, anticipation and hope that any of this is reality is ruined. Athletes competing honestly without performance enhancers get painted with the same brush.

Performance enhancing drugs have been used in modern Olympic Games since 1904, this isn’t anything new we are grappling with. Drug testing at the Olympics began in 1968, but it’s not as easy to detect drug use nowadays with advancements in technology, or conspiring, that can make it nearly impossible.

Now that Russia has a potential blanket ban from Olympic competition in Rio, it begs the question how many other countries should be banned. A report confirmed athletes representing Russia for the 2014 Olympics in Sochi were required by President Vladimir Putin and the Russian government to take performance enhancing drugs. This information was leaked by a Russian whistle-blower.

According to The New York Times Russia’s former antidoping lab director Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov said he covered up the use of drugs as per orders of the Russian government. Urine samples were tested on all of the athletes during the Games, but the incriminating evidence was covered up with the help of the Russian intelligence service.

Canadian lawyer hired by the World Anti-Doping Agency Richard McLaren, wrote nearly 100 pages of a report as proof of Rodchenkov’s claims. IOC President Thomas Bach was shocked.

Since the report was confirmed only a small sample of Russian athletes have had their specimens reexamined. To figure out how many athletes benefited from doping will take even more time and money, if there is any available for it. Even if they can get that far, the IOC would have to determine which runners-up would receive new medals.

In a doping scandal in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson had his gold medal stripped for taking stanozolol, an anabolic steroid, and gold was then awarded to the runner-up U.S. sprinter Carl Lewis who had also tested positive for banned substances before the Olympics but was allowed to compete through a caveat in the rules. The winner and the runner-up, both doping! 

The World Anti-Doping Agency will continue to find new ways to test for banned substances and athletes and doctors will work to find ways around it.

Half of all Olympic athletes in London in 2012 were tested for banned substances, some got caught and I’m sure some didn’t. Rio’s drug tests will be arduous I’m sure, and I’m willing to bet that some athletes that top the podium in Rio don’t really deserve to be champions at all.