After years of the ‘Florida Or Ohio?’ game making criminals and ridiculous people easy to geographically identify, it looks like the people of Ohio are getting it together — on the heels of the most inspiring Ohio elementary school field day of all time comes the story of West Liberty-Salem High junior Meghan Vogel, a state champion in the 1,600 meters who turned her burned-out 3,200 meters performance into the best acts of sportsmanship you’re likely to see.

Vogel was last, the 15th runner on the track, with about 200 meters to go when she noticed the runner directly in front of her, Arden McMath of Arlington, was struggling.

McMath, a sophomore, fell to the track, got up and began to fall again when Vogel picked her up and carried McMath across the finish line, making sure to keep McMath ahead of her.

“I don’t really remember much about it,” Vogel said. “It was kind of a blur. I just remember picking her up and trying not to injure her as I crossed the line. She deserved to be in front of me.” (via USA Today)

Video of the finish is below. Keep it up, Ohio.

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If Fourth Place Medal‘s headline had been the end of the story (“Usain Bolt dumped his girlfriend to focus on London Olympics”) I would’ve disagreed with his decision, but I would’ve understood.

News reports suggest Bolt’s break up with Lubica Slovak, 28, was because of his desire to repeat his double gold/world record Olympic performance in London. The Jamaican swept the sprint events in 2008 and set the world marks in each race.

A source close to Bolt told the Sun, “He will have plenty of time for relationships. At the moment he’s concentrating on his running career and doesn’t want anything to distract from that.”

Being a peak Olympic athlete is an every-second-of-your-life dedication that requires unimaginable sacrifice, no matter how much faster you are than everyone already and no matter how foxy the Slovakian fashion designer you’ve been dating for six months is. An athlete’s heart is a deep ocean of secrets, or whatever. “Sorry, I can’t love you, I HAVE TO RUN A LOT.”

Sadly, that doesn’t appear to be the end of the story. Some sources are saying that the Olympics had nothing to do with Usain calling it quits and that he broke up with Lubica because she’s white, he has a “white woman complex” and couldn’t deal with the backlash from a picture of them kissing. Because if a black guy and a white lady are dating for six months that’s fine, but if they kiss … that’s just too far.

Here’s the pic in question:

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Illegally touched ball.

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The headline reads “Report: Smoking may be beneficial to long distance runners”. Some of the reasons presented?

-Serum hemoglobin is related to endurance running performance. Smoking is known to enhance serum hemoglobin levels and (added bonus), alcohol may further enhance this beneficial adaptation.
-Lung volume also correlates with running performance, and training increases lung volume. Guess what else increases lung volume? Smoking.
-Running is a weight-bearing sport, and therefore lighter distance runners are typically faster runners. Smoking is associated with reduced body weight, especially in individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (these folks require so much energy just to breath that they often lose weight).

In the discussion, [author Ken Myers] goes on to point out that:

Cigarette smoking has been shown to increase serum hemoglobin, increase total lung capacity and stimulate weight loss, factors that all contribute to enhanced performance in endurance sports. Despite this scientific evidence, the prevalence of smoking in elite athletes is actually many times lower than in the general population. The reasons for this are unclear; however, there has been little to no effort made on the part of national governing bodies to encourage smoking among athletes.

Disclaimer: This study was posted in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, so it could be completely wrong. You know how they are in Canada. Don’t start smoking and send me an angry e-mail when you’re on your knees in the middle of the hurdles throwing up your guts.

Of course, when you dig a little deeper you find out that this was written less to advocate smoking for runners and more to prove that you can prove anything with a review article. I’ve been arguing this for years. Eventually you learn that everything in recorded history is wrong and the science we’ve been raised to believe as fact has been erased and rewritten every hundred years. And people are always like, “oh, no, this is true, I proved it with a bunsen burner” and I’m like “RAHHH PEOPLE USED TO PROVE THE EARTH WAS FLAT WITH A BUNSEN BURNER SHUT UP”.

Regardless, it’s a compelling argument. Next, he should prove how eating more will boost your metabolism and help you be skinny. Yeah f**king right.

I love my A Guide to Recognizing Your Mascots feature, especially now that I’m getting into the leagues where I have pictures of myself with things like the “Ballapeño,” the baseball-loving jalapeño, but they aren’t really setting the blogosphere on fire. Blogofire? Anyway, instead of a long, esoteric feature with too many words, here’s a funny video of a mascot going for a high five and getting completely shut down. Maybe they thought he was waving at them? That happened to me with Tweety Bird once at Six Flags.

I’m not sure why a track and field team needs a bear mascot, but I won’t complain. I’m the dork whose favorite picture of all time is his girlfriend high-fiving the Phillie Phanatic. Next time I go to an indoor track meet (which will be never), I’ll keep an eye out for the dejected-ass foam Muppet wandering around in the background.

[via HotClicks]

Yelena Isinbayeva is the greatest female pole vaulter her sport has ever seen.  The first and only woman to clear 5 meters, she has dominated her field for the last five years, a feat that continues this summer.  She needed just one jump in the rain on Friday to win the Golden League meet in Paris and keep her in the hunt for a $1 million dollar prize (the Golden League Jackpot goes to whichever athlete or athletes can win their event in six straight European meets — Isinbayeva is one of four athletes in the running after four meets).

Pictured below is Isinbayeva at the Golden League event in Rome earlier this month, which she also won (obviously).  Pictured above?  Well, that one’s from a couple years ago, but it’s one of my favorite shots of her.  It’s a flattering angle, I think.