Friday, August 22, 2008

Christine Brennan - My Olympic Hero

I'm sure most of us feel like we've been hit by an Olympic-sized 18-wheeler for the past 2 weeks with the barrage of media around the Games. In the spirit of keeping this blog fresh, I'd like to be able to comment on the Games without boring you with the same details you've been hearing from fresh-faced Bob and his NBC crew every time you turn on the TV.

I will admit that I hadn't even heard of Christine Brennan before a few weeks ago. But apparently she's been around for a while, and she's kind of a big deal. The nut shell of her life: she is considered one of the pioneers of women in the sports reporting world. She got her journalism degrees (B.A. and M.A.) from Northwestern, then went onto become the first female sports writer for the Miami Herald. She moved to the Washington Post in 1985 (this is all compliments of Wikipedia) and then she blew up on the scene and started broadcasting for all sorts of major media outlets. She landed a sports column at USA Today, wrote some books, and now she's considered one of the most influential women in the sports media field. Not too shabby, Ms. Brennan.

I decided to check out her Olympic blog and I have to admit, I am totally in love with her. Why? Because her posts are informative, relevant, and everything that NBC has failed to draw attention to in their narrowly focused broadcasts. She's covering her 13th, yes, 13th consecutive Olympic Games. She covers all the topics that I actually want to read about, and she makes her posts concise and easy to digest.

Here are a few of my favorite posts over the past few weeks. Every single one of them is worth a read. For real.

IOC washes away softball for no good reason
Rising soccer stars romping into hearts of fans
Chinese long to embrace Games if only their government would let them

And one that relates to my previous post about women's gymnastics (I LOVE this post):
A gymnastics final for the ages

Even after watching all the nail-biting events and goosebump-producing races, this woman still tops all the athletes as my personal Olympic hero this year.

Enjoy the reading.

1 comment:

Gambler said...

Thanks for the post on Christine Brennan. I applaud you for your blog and love having another place to read about sports from someone who doesn't just care about the men!