Jenni Carlson NewsOK.com Blogging Community

Hope you have a chance to check out the sports pages of Thursday’s Oklahoman.

We look back on the 40th anniversary of the Olympic black power salute. The picture of American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos standing on the medal podium at the 1968 Olympics, black-gloved fists raised, remains one of the most iconic images in all of sport. It had a profound impact then, and it still resonates today.

In working on the project, I had a chance to catch up with Smith as well as ‘68 Olympic wrestlers Bobby Douglas and Wayne Wells. All three had great stories, but the funniest came courtesy of Wells, the former Oklahoma wrestler who is now an attorney in Edmond.

An admission: it has nothing to do with the ‘68 Olympics.

As Wells tells the story, the year after the Olympics in Mexico City, the U.S. freestyle wrestling team trained for the world championships at the New York Athletic Club. The famed facility long known as the home of the Heisman Trophy was at that time part gym, part dorm, part gathering spot for the Manhattan elite.

The wrestlers were training there, eating there and staying there.

A couple days into their stay, the coach gathered the wrestlers around him.

“Guys,” he said, “we’re going to have to start doing some things different.”

The wrestlers looked at each other.

“There’s been a lot of complaints about y’all coming in the front door.”

Apparently, the high-society members of the club weren’t taking so kindly to the sight of the wrestlers in training.

“We were practicing twice a day, so we were walking in there without shaving and in our old, scruffy, comfortable clothes,” Wells said, laughing. “They decided we needed to come in the kitchen.

“White or black, that year we had to come in the kitchen.”

Our fair state has a good number of connections to the Olympics.

Few of the athletes, though, are Oklahoma born and bred.

Konawa native Chad Vaughn is among that small group. The weightlifter made his second Olympic team, and at the age of 26, he was expecting a good showing. He had a disappointing performance instead, failing to finish a lift in the clean-and-jerk portion of the competition.

Vaughn shared his thoughts on the blog “Three White Lights” earlier this week.

It’s worth your time to check out. He speaks candidly about his disappointment in Beijing, about his test of faith and about his future in weightlifting. Rarely do we find athletes being so genuine and so honest about their feelings. Vaughn really lays his on the line for all to see.

After reading about his heartbreak, you’ll find it hard not to pull for the guy to make it to London for the 2012 Olympics.

He’s an Oklahoman; you can bet he’s got some fight left in him.

This past weekend, I realized the true glory of these Olympic games.

While changing channels Saturday afternoon, I clicked across ESPN. The screen showed a commercial, but my handy dandy digital cable told me that Little League Baseball was on.

I kept right on clicking.

Watch my latest video commentary or keep reading below:

Most summers, the Little League World Series has these early days of August to itself. Football has yet to start. Baseball has yet to reach its fall fever pitch. That means if you want to watch games that actually mean something, you usually have to watch the Little League World Series.

Time was, I didn’t mind adding to the event’s TV rankings.

Now, I’d just as soon donate the money in my 401K to Donald Trump.

The Little League World Series has gone from a fun, kitschy event to a microcosm of just about everything that’s wrong with youth sports these days. Pushy parents. Demanding coaches. The boys find themselves in pressure-packed situations where the pressure is high and the scrutiny is intense. Winning is everything.

And here I thought Little League baseball was supposed to be about having fun.

The good news is, the Little League World Series isn’t even close to being the biggest sporting event happening right now. The Olympics have given us wall-to-wall sports for more than a week, and they still have a few more days to go.

Granted, the Olympics aren’t perfect. There’s doping. There’s cheating. But at least I don’t get a nasty knot in my stomach every time I watch them.

That’s what happens anymore when I watch the Little League World Series.

Thank goodness it’s not must-see TV this summer.

Olympic wrestler Daniel Cormier is never at a loss for words.

And before the former Oklahoma State standout left for Beijing, I discovered that he’s never at a loss for answers either. He was front and center today in The Q&A, and here is more from my conversation with him:

Jenni Carlson: Didn’t I hear something about you having a key to your hometown of

Daniel Cormier: Yeah, yeah, I’ve got a key to the city. It’s in my trophy room.

JC: Pretty cool.

DC: I like it. It’s nice, too. It’s gold.

JC: So, how does that happen? Big ceremony?

DC: They called me after I made my first (Olympic) team. It was the city councilman, and we started talking, and he said, “Daniel, we want to do something special for you.” They had a big ceremony at the courthouse, and they handed me the key. It was pretty sweet.

JC: Do you go back to

DC: I normally go once a year. You know … the beginning of my senior year was the ’96 games, so I would sit there and I would watch. I got to see Kurt Angle win a gold medal, I got to watch Kendall Cross win a gold medal, and I got to see Tom Brand win a gold medal. I was like, “Wow, wouldn’t it be amazing to meet these guys?” Now I think to myself, “I can go back to

JC: I would think seeing you makes this possible for kids, too.

DC: It makes it real. Instead of being just a figure on the TV screen … I know these guys. I’ve talked to them. I’ve shook their hands.

JC: You and Steve Mocco wrestle the same day at the Olympics. Any advantage in that?

DC: It’ll feel good because he’s my friend, knowing that he gets to win on the day he gets to win. But in terms of training, it doesn’t help that much because we don’t train together.

JC: Now you’ve got me wondering — who’s your training partner? Who’s the guy that has to go against you all the time?

DC: Kurt Backes is going with me this year. A hundred and ninety-seven pounds for

JC: How do you get hooked up with a training partner?

DC: You try to find someone that’s going to meet your needs, somebody that’s going to be willing to do whatever you need them to do. Normally, I’d take someone from

JC: Not exactly a confidence boost.

DC: It’s not like (Kurt) and I have wrestled much, so it’s not like he knows exactly how to wrestle me.

For more on Cormier and his Olympic hopes, check out Wednesday’s edition of The Oklahoman and our Olympic coverage on NewsOK.com.

Haley DeProspero scrimped and saved for the trip to Beijing.

Once her fiance, Jonathan Horton, made the U.S. Olympic men’s gymnastics team, she was ready to buy her plane ticket and make her hotel reservations.

He said no.

“I’d worry about you the whole time,” Horton told DeProspero.

She argued, but he insisted. So, instead of watching in person as Horton led the Americans to the bronze medal and finished ninth in the all-around this week, DeProspero watched from Norman.

“I would love to be there to celebrate with him,” she said after the team finals. “But … I don’t want to distract him. I want him to be comfortable, and for him to be comfortable, that was to have me here.”

Horton worried about DeProspero’s safety in China, and that point was driven home over the weekend. The U.S. men’s volleyball coach’s in-laws were stabbed by an unknown attacker. His father-in-law was killed, his mother-in-law seriously wounded.

Horton called DeProspero when news of the attack broke.

“Especially now,” he told her, “I’m so glad you’re there.”

Horton also tried to convince his parents to stay in the United States, but they decided to make the trip to China.

“I’m a little bit of a worrier when it comes to my family,” Horton said before leaving for Beijing. “We’ll be taken care of in the village, but I’ll be worried about them the whole time.”

DeProspero will watch from afar again when Horton competes in the high bar finals. She still isn’t thrilled with the fact that she’s in Norman instead of Beijing, but with Horton being only 22 years old, this might not be his only Olympics.

The 2012 Olympics are in London.

“We’ll just pray that he goes to London, too,” DeProspero said. “I’m going to London.”

Jonathan Horton has been big news in these parts for awhile.

Now, the former Oklahoma gymnast is making headlines in other parts of the world. After leading the United States to an Olympic bronze medal, Horton is a popular subject. His performance paired with his personality have media types buzzing.

Los Angeles Times columnist Diane Pucin writes today about a fun exchange before the Olympics between Horton and his mother, Margo.

Boston Globe writer Shira Springer also weighs in on Horton. The headline — Horton was loud, proud — should give you a pretty good idea about the story’s focus.

Horton might really grab the headlines if he wins a medal in the all-around competition later this evening. The competition starts at 10 a.m. Beijing time on Thursday, which means it begins in Oklahoma around 9 a.m. Wednesday.

Stayed up last night to watch the U.S. men’s gymnastics team try to pull off the upset of the Olympics.

I suspect I wasn’t alone.

I know at least a few other folks were awake watching former Oklahoma star Jonathan Horton and the rest of the Americans in Beijing. I spent the evening at a watch party in Norman.

The watchers: the OU gymnastics teams.

I’m sure it was louder at the arena in Beijing, but I’m not sure how it could have been.

The current and former Sooners went nuts every time Horton hit a routine or stuck a landing, and last night, that meant they were going crazy pretty much all the time. The 22-year-old from Houston was on. He stuck landings on big routines four consecutive times, and for a time, the Americans looked like they might just win the silver medal.

No one thought it possible without the Hamm twins.

Horton almost made it so.

I’ll have more about Horton as well as his biggest supporters back in Norman a little later this morning on NewsOK.com. Check back later this morning for an early web exclusive.  

The diagnosis might be premature, but I suspect I’ve got a serious case of Olympic spirit.

The biggest symptom: an undeterred sense of hope.

Some might even argue it’s an unreasonable, irrational sense of hope. That’s sure how it feels when it comes to the U.S. men’s gymnastics team.

Watch my latest video commentary or continue reading below:

The Americans, as everyone knows by now, have been hit by not one but two major injuries. A week or so ago, Paul Hamm pulled out of the Olympics because of injury. Then last week, just days before the start of the Games, his twin, Morgan, did the same.

In the span of a few days, Team USA went from gold-medal hopeful to podium cast-off. The popular sentiment was that the Americans wouldn’t even have a chance to win a team medal of any color.

Tonight, we’ll find out.

The team finals in men’s gymnastics starts at 10 a.m. Beijing time on Tuesday, which means it will be in prime time in America tonight. The Americans made the finals by finishing fourth in the team preliminaries over the weekend. Led by former Oklahoma standout Jonathan Horton, they showed that contrary to popular belief, they aren’t dead yet.

In fact, I’m here to tell you that Team USA is going to win a medal tonight.

The Americans, all first-time Olympians, turned in a heck of a performance in the team preliminaries. It was a heck of a performance if you think about the nerves that each of them must have been going through. Heck, two of the guys didn’t even know they were going to be competing when they packed their bags for Beijing.

That’s pressure.
And Team USA delivered.

With the experience of the prelims under their belts, I have a feeling that they’re going to perform even better in the team finals. If the Americans win a medal, it would be an amazing turnaround. Just two years ago, they finished 13th at the world championships.

Thirteenth.

Finishing 13th in the team prelims at the Olympics wouldn’t have even been good enough to get them into the team finals.

This team has come a long way, and I suspect they’re going to take one more big step tonight. Maybe it is foolish to think so. Maybe it is completely irrational to believe that this group of Americans can bring home an Olympic medal.

My self-diagnosis: sometimes having a case of Olympic spirit isn’t so bad.

The U.S. men’s gymnastics team will compete in the Olympic team finals starting at 10 a.m. Beijing time Tuesday.

Former Oklahoma standout Jonathan Horton figures heavily into the Americans’ hopes. He will compete on five of the six apparatus, and with a three-up-three-count format, every score matters. Every gymnast who competes will have their score count toward the team’s final score.

No other American gymnast is competing on more events than Horton.

No gymnast, then, will be counted on more by Team USA than he will.

Here’s a look at the Americans’ lineup for the team finals:

Still rings: Raj Bhavsar, Jonathan Horton, Kevin Tan

Vault: Bhavsar, Horton, Justin Spring

Parallel bars: Bhavsar, Horton, Spring

Horizontal bar: Joey Hagerty, Horton, Spring

Floor exercise: Spring, Hagerty, Horton

Pommel horse: Tan, Bhavsar, Alexander Artemev

American weightlifter Chad Vaughn is headed to the Olympics for the second time.

Still, there were times that he considered ending his career.

Here’s more from The Q&A with the Konawa native:

Jenni Carlson: When did you turn a corner and start to believe in your weightlifting future?

Chad Vaughn: I didn’t start (lifting) until I was 17 1/2, and usually, you start a lot younger. The junior level of weightlifting, 20 years is the cutoff, so I never did make any junior world teams. Nobody ever really at that point expected a lot out of me as far as being able to make world championship teams or Olympic teams. Actually on the 2000 junior world team, I made it up to the alternate position. It made me a little bit hungry, but I didn’t really believe I could reach the Olympics probable until 2003. I had recently won the Pan American Games. I finally admitted to myself that, “Hey, I can actually make the Olympic team.” A year later, there I was.

JC: So, you go from a junior team alternate in 2000 to Olympic team in 2004?

CV: Looking back, the past four years, I don’t want to say it’s a struggle, but any improvement has been a lot harder to come by. I look back on those first six years, and it was a lot easier and funner. You could almost go in and do any type of workout, and as long as you’re dedicated enough to stick with it enough, you don’t have any way to go but up and improve.

JC: Sounds like golfers who improve easy at first, then have trouble shaving off even a stroke after they get to a certain point.

CV: No doubt. You get to a point whether it’s a certain age or whether it’s a certain level, and any improvement is just harder to come by. In those first six years, I wouldn’t have really seen it that way, but looking back on it now, it definitely makes me appreciate it a lot more.

JC: Take me back to the 2004 Olympics. You finished 17th. How do you look back now on that?

CV: You learn something from every competition whether you do good or whether you do bad, but especially when you don’t do as well as you’d like, you always learn more. Being the Olympic Games, being the biggest meet anybody could have, it was the biggest learning experience also. Being through that already, it’s priceless. Nobody can take that experience away from me. I’m definitely better for it.

JC: The folks at USA Weightlifting really look at you as a leader of this team. What are your thoughts about heading to Beijing?

CV: As far as being a leader, I like that roll to be honest with you. I have the urge to help anybody who wants it. I’m definitely willing to do that, and I want to do that, but I’m not wanting to push it on anybody. I know that people tried to tell me things coming up, and I’ve always had an open mind and tried to listen, but it doesn’t really mean anything unless you experience it yourself. I think most people learn a lot more on their own when they go through things, so I’m there for them to do whatever I can, but I think most people are just going to have to take their experinces on their own.

JC: What about your hopes heading into the Olympics?

CV: I definitely have goals. My main goal is to break the American record in the clean and jerk again. Not only that, but just making as many lifts as I can. The competition against yourself is really what this is all about. To me, just showing up there and lifting more weight than I ever have, whether that be one kilogram more or 10 kilograms more, that to me would be worth everything really.