Posts for 'Famous Women In Sports' Category

When the buzzer sounded Sunday at the end of regulation at in the bronze-medal match at the FIBA Americas championship in Cuiaba, Brazil, the Canadian women's basketball team felt they had qualified for the 2010 world championships.

Video replay postponed the celebration. A buzzer-beater by Cuba's Yulizeny Soria was ruled to be a three-pointer, levelling the score and forcing overtime in the elimination match. Canada regrouped, held Cuba to just one point in the extra session and won 59-49, earning a second trip to the worlds in as many tournaments. Teresa Gabriele played 42 minutes for Canada and led the attack with 15 points and 11 rebounds. The veteran from Mission was part of the Canadian team at the 2006 worlds and 2000 Olympic Games.

Gov. Sarah Palin surprised state legislators Wednesday by indicating she is willing to negotiate how much the state taxes natural gas in order to attract oil companies to a pipeline project.

"We are open to changes in the state's fiscal structure to allow this project to happen. ... We are open to whatever it takes to make sure that this project happens for our state and for our country," Palin told reporters.

Palin's comments came as she defended her approach to trying to secure a natural gas pipeline to the Lower 48. She's reacting to critics in and out of the Legislature.

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Ivanovic will officially kick-start her campaign Down Under on Monday night when she plays her first-round match at the inaugural Brisbane International.The tournament drawcard will face Czech teenager Petra Kvitova, the world No.50, at Pat Rafter Arena after the centre court was set aside for her in the opening night session almost a week ago.

Ivanovic has been training on the Sunshine Coast for the past fortnight to prepare herself for an assault on the Australian Open.The statuesque 21-year-old, currently world ranked No.5 after an injury-hit end to last year, is motivated by her 2008 final loss to Maria Sharapova at Melbourne Park.

"I really want to take it one step further this time and hopefully win it," she said at the Queensland Tennis Centre on Saturday."But I think it's important not to think too much about the final and take it step by step and enjoy every match."

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A year ago, Justine Henin and Maria Sharapova played one of the best finals in the 36-year history of the women’s season-ending championships.That match in Madrid, which Henin won, was a three-set tribute to controlled aggression, lunging defense and focused ambition.

With the Sony Ericsson Championships, the WTA Tour’s season-ending event, set to begin Tuesday in Doha, Qatar, neither Henin nor Sharapova is in the eight-woman field. The current world No. 1, Jelena Jankovic; the French Open champion Ana Ivanovic; Venus and Serena Williams; and the Olympic champion Elena Dementieva and her Russian compatriots Dinara Safina, Vera Zvonareva and Svetlana Kuznetsova are this year’s qualifiers.

Henin jolted the tennis world by retiring in May while still ranked No. 1 by a large margin. Sharapova, who looked dominant in winning the Australian Open in January, has not played a competitive match since early August because of shoulder problems.“Things have certainly changed a great deal since Madrid,” said Karim Alami, the tournament director in Doha.

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Aleksandra Wozniak of Blainville, Que., beat Romanian Edina Gallovits in two sets Tuesday to advance to the second round of the $175,000 Bell Challenge Tier III tennis tournament.

Wozniak, the tournament's fifth seed, beat Gallovits 6-4, 6-3.

 The Canadian will face American qualifier Carly Gullickson, who downed Romania's Ioana Raluca Olaru 7-6, 6-1 on Tuesday, in the second round.Stephanie Dubois of Laval, Que., fell 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 to American Angela Haynes in Tuesday's late match.

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Julie Coin yesterday caused one of the biggest upsets in U.S. Open tennis history a few weeks after contemplating quitting the sport.

The French qualifier, ranked 188th in the world, dumped the top seed and French Open champion out of the final Grand Slam of the year. Ana Ivanovic's second-round exit was the earliest for a women's No. 1 seed since the Open era began 40 years ago.

Coin, in her Grand Slam debut, beat the Serb 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Rafael Nadal, the men's top seed, advanced against American qualifier Ryler DeHeart while Serena Williams beat Elena Vesnina of Russia. ``I just kept thinking `just play your game and put your first serve in and do your best,''' Coin told reporters at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York.

Only four female No. 1 seeds have lost prior to the semifinals since 1968. Billie Jean King's retirement from a third-round match at the 1973 U.S. Open was the previous earliest exit for a top seed, while the last No. 1 to lose so early in a Grand Slam was Justine Henin of Belgium, in the second round of the French Open in 2004.

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The Russians are coming to the Rogers Cup women's tennis tournament next week in Montreal, hoping to knock off top players Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic of Serbia.

The singles draw for the women's event at Uniprix Stadium was set on Friday.

Ivanovic and Jankovic were seeded 1-2, followed by six Russian-born players.The top eight players at the tournament receive a bye into the second round.

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She served under three presidents and eight athletics directors and helped manage a department that became one of the finest in its conference.

She coached and mentored more than 1,000 athletes and befriended dozens of colleagues.

She received local, state, regional and national recognition.

Now, after 31 years 41 counting her experience in Connecticut she has moved on to the next phase of her life.

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Usually race drivers and hospitals only come together during times of crises, but a different relationship has emerged between Stefany Malanka and the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario.

It began because Malanka has embraced a family passion for the sport that began with her father, Bruce, well before she was born.

The Embrun resident also has visions of becoming a pediatric surgeon. Four months shy of her 22nd birthday, she has already completed four years of undergraduate studies at the University of Ottawa, majoring in biochemistry. She plans to return soon for a master's degree, then take a shot at med school.

CHEO is also visible on the hood of her new car, which she hopes to race for the first time this Saturday at Capital City Speedway near Stittsville.

Malanka and her team are searching for sponsors and sponsorship money, and she gives a percentage of that income to CHEO. Her only sponsor so far is OCC Painting, but she says she's on the verge of signing more.

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Women have scaled the heights of Mt. Everest, they have gone into space and come back. They have achieved the pinnacle of success even in male bastions, such as Wall Street and Big Business. They have scorched their path to dizzying heights of excellence in science, medicine, mathematics, engineering, economics, banking, nuclear science, and many more other fields. There are famed writers, doctors, scientists, economists, bankers, sportswomen who have scaled the peaks of success.

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