NYRR News Service

Flanagan Cites NYC Rivals as Key to Confidence

July 16, 2012 at 01:00pm EST | by Barbara Huebner, NYRR News Service

In a Google + “Hangout” video interview on Friday, Shalane Flanagan said that her runner-up performance in the 2010 ING New York City Marathon, which was her debut at the distance, gives her great confidence going into the Olympic Games.

“New York is one of the toughest ones, so I wanted to go in, throw myself to the world and see if I could survive,” Flanagan said, citing the fact that neither the New York race Read More

Categories: Pro Athletes

300 Pounds and 10 Years Later: A New Goal

July 10, 2012 at 01:00pm EST | by Barbara Huebner, NYRR News Service

The traditional gift for a 10th anniversary is something made of tin or aluminum.

A marathon finisher’s medal should be close enough.

In October 2000, Rick Salewske, of Dallas, TX, weighed 538 pounds and had a 66-inch waist. The steering wheel of his car rubbed holes into several pairs of trousers. He couldn’t sit in ordinary chairs, squeeze into stadium seats, or take an airplane trip.

The CEO of the company for which he worked took him aside Read More

Categories: Human Interest

5 Tricks for Interviewing Foreign Athletes

July 12, 2012 at 03:15pm EST | by Barbara Huebner, NYRR News Service

For journalists covering the upcoming Olympic Games, the Tower of London might as well be the Tower of Babel. More than 200 countries will be sending athletes to London, and every one of those athletes will have a story. So, all of you English-speaking “scribbly liners”—as a late and beloved Boston Globe copy desk chief used to call reporters in the days of that antique tool known as the pencil—open your notebooks. Or turn on Read More

Categories: Human Interest

Running, Jumping, Throwing, and Learning

July 13, 2012 at 11:00am EST | by Barbara Huebner, NYRR News Service

In the Developmental Track & Field Series, a partnership between the NYC Department of Education’s Office of School Wellness Programs and New York Road Runners, children in grades 3–8 are introduced to the basics of sport, but that’s not all they learn. They learn that events come in a certain order, and that you need to be ready on time. They learn about self-control . They learn that older kids can help teach younger kids.

They Read More

Categories: Human Interest

Cherobon-Bawcom: Still Nursing a Dream

July 11, 2012 at 01:00pm EST | by Barbara Huebner, NYRR News Service

Among the “American Dream” stories that will soon be coming out of the Olympic Games, the tale of Janet Cherobon-Bawcom should have a place of honor.

The oldest of eight siblings who their mother raised alone in Kenya, Cherobon-Bawcom was 19 and walking to a bus stop on the way to visit an aunt in the hospital when a stranger offered her a ride. With little money to spare for bus fare, she accepted. The stranger Read More

Categories: Pro Athletes

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QUOTED

“Our races are to our sport what Wimbledon and the Australian, U.S., and French Opens are to tennis, and what the Masters, U.S., and British Opens and PGA Championship are to golf. Each race has the history, the tradition, the honor roll of legendary champions, and a special place in the eyes of all to make them stand apart from the other events.” Mary Wittenberg