​Will Chris Froome three-peat this 2017 Tour de France? And is Le Tour still one of the most essential sporting events worldwide, or has it slipped - because of sleazy drugs and slimy cheating - to a b-list happening?

Anyway, down the road, the future of supreme bike road racing may belong to another Britisher, Adam Yates. The guy won the white jersey – defined as the best placed finisher under the age of 26 - in the 2016 TDF. He placed 4th when all was said and done.

But the future is now, and if the 2016 Tour de France was any indication - with Froome front and centre in debate and in anticipation of success - or failure – in this 2017 edition, at least 100 channels will air it to at least 190 countries to be watched by 3 BILLION.

(By the way, in stage 1 of this 2017 Tour, Chris came 6th, and he has happily announced he's signed on for 3 more years with Team Sky.) 

Despite Chris's latest results and news, undoubtedly these TDF numbers would be higher but the stench of Lance Armstrong’s chicanery looms over every facet of the bicycling endurance race and Froome’s Team Sky and British Cycling being investigated by UK Anti-Doping sure hasn’t helped...

Nevertheless, between 10 to 12 million spectators, if not scaring the daylights out of the riders by jumping onto the route waving their arms wildly, will, for sure, loom over the route and press against the edges.

But is La Grande Boucle as edgy, unpredictable, and pressure packed as riders and fans tout? Sure crashes erupt helter skelter, but a glance at previous winners shows, often, repeat, consecutive wins. If it was as iffy and chancy as proponents aver and was truly competitive, would not more individuals have won - with individual cycling dynasties a rarity rather than commonplace?
​
Of course many will retort that cream always rises to the top and that past greats like Indurain, Hinault, Merckx, LeMond, and Froome rose to their natural, expected, excellent level, predictability be damned.

For sure, there’s pressure to piss. Sitting and straining for hours per day, with only 2 days rest over the 21 stages, means riders have to “go” and like “now.” Some pull over en masse to do the deed; others fiddle with their shorts to do it whilst upon the bike! Amazing, that.

Even as amazing is that it is illegal to urinate in a stream or river. Stick to the tree and try to let the riders behind you know that, so they don’t shamelessly pass you by.

Most amazing still, Mark Cavendish admits to pissing himself if the weather is chilly.

For sure, while youngsters adulate these cycling cyborgs, they should know life as a professional bicycle road racer isn’t all peaches and cream. For starters, the starting pay of £35,000 or $45,150 USD - isn’t that great. And life on the road, racing and travelling to races, sounds somewhat monotonous and definitely irksome. You’re not with loving family and best friends, you’re with teammates - some likeable, some loathsome.

But The Tour de France isn’t all agony. Sure this year’s edition promises a climb as steep as sin to La Planche des Belles Filles, but when not huffing and puffing upwards, the peloton will find its members either daydreaming or casually chatting to fellow rivals, talking about Paris, or talking about future events on their racing calendars.

Alas, however, for 3 weeks the casual fan tuning in will, if the TV is mute, be hard pressed to recognize a particular rider, any rider, save for their faves in winning jerseys. Basically, helmets have removed any chance of easy facial recognition. Indeed, apart from stage-winning jersey wearers, the only standout from the crowd might be Alex Howes – because he wears funky sunglasses.

Howes et al will begin the Great Loop in Düsseldorf, Germany, with a did-you-see-that-blur–whizz-by 14 kilometer individual time trial.

But let’s put the brakes, right now, on one trend, shall we? We know the cyclists in the 2017 Tour de France, to a man, will be in awesome shape. But to the casual ballsy beau mansplaying at home, don’t imitate the professionals and don Lycra when you get off the couch to pedal and peddle your wears and wares about town. You’re chubby in all the wrong places and you’re contributing to blight and visual pollution. The Lycra look, for you, is not good. Scrap the spandex and stop MAMIL’s (Middle-Aged Men in Lycra.)

Where were we?

Yes, Froome, the favorite, going for his 4th win in 5 years. This Nairobi born road racer certainly thrives in the suffering of training and racing. He might even admit, to himself at least, that he enjoys it. After all, roads in Kenya, whilst adequate for marathoners, were hardly conducive to a kid dreaming of elite cycling. Conditions there were, to be generous, Spartan – But Chris had no complaints...

To copy the feel of alpine climbing where such terrain didn’t exist Chris would pull his breaks to create the necessary struggle and resistance...He admits in his early days (around 2006 by this point) his technique was terrible “crash Froome” - but he had “an engine” - an engine later stricken with Bilharzia, a parasitic disease harmful to red blood cells – the means to transport oxygen.

He also admits his first TDF back in 2008 was a huge learning experience with the speed seemingly 10 kilometers per hour faster than any race he had been in previously. He was 1 of 4 riders for his 9-man team, to finish. In the 2012 Tour de France he had to take a back seat to teammate Bradley Wiggins, causing some discomfort for himself, Wiggins, and the team. In the 2014 race he pranged up his left knee, left wrist...right thigh, leaving the contest prematurely. He had to fight suspicions of doping...

And just this year, in May, he was deliberately knocked off his bike in a hit and run: the bike was mashed, but Chris was unhurt. (The road rage driver remains at large.)

But, and this is a big but, until finishing 4th in June’s Critérium du Dauphiné, he hadn’t raced competitively since April, and his running of his own schedule has undoubtedly caused  Team Sky some consternation.
​
Thus, come this July, the world will watch and wonder again if Chris will be the best bet overall in climbing, descending, time-trialing, and cross wind cycling – blessed with a, oh my, peak oxygen uptake twice that of normal humans - enabling him to hit the breathtaking heights of yet another Tour de France win.
 

​Can Jason Dufner, The Duf, win the 2017 U.S Open at the Erin Hills GC in Wisconsin? This laid back man, who looks kinda like the Tasmanian devil with Teddy bear thrown in, is hot, having won the Memorial a couple of weeks back. Now ranked 27th worldwide, Dufner won't feel as much pressure, having won a Major, the PGA Championship in 2013, as will the United States Golf Association, with that body's reputation on the line to tweak Erin Hills as playable, not lamentable, for the pros. The USGA wants the winner to be around par. Golf Digest ranks this venue as the 2nd best of the more than 500 golf courses in that state, behind Whistling Straits.
 
Anyway, if the putting surfaces are as atrocious as the "fine fescue" grasses were at Chambers Bay, back in 2015, all the competitors will ape Justin’s Dufnering (more on that momentarily) - while the USGA crawls into a hole - no matter how great these Erin Hills bentgrass greens are purported to be.
 
Gotta love Duf Daddy because he doesn't put on airs. He gives us ordinary blokes hope. He proves that dedication to his craft (despite his common-man physique) can make a beginner who struggled on the tour, taking nine long years to break into the top 100 golfers in the world - a winner. He's a poor man's John Daly - and like John he's been rumored with life problems of the wife. Specifically, according to the National Enquirer – who scooped the slimy pol, John Edwards and extra-marital squeeze Rielle Hunter, “love child” tawdriness - the Dufner was said to have been part of a not-at-the-same-time sexual tryst between him, ex-wife Amanda, and some guy named Tiger Woods - with Lindsey Vonn an unplayable lie at the time.
 
Sex games and machinations aside, will Erin Hills, just 45 minutes north-west of Milwaukee, suit Jason’s game and deliberations for this 117th edition of the U.S Open? Mike Davis, USGA Executive Director, given the botched job at Chambers Bay, swings for the fences, declaring that this golf course is “...worthy of identifying the game’s very best.”
 
So there.
 
And given that Dufner is at his best right now...he might be able to survive the 608 yard, par 5, 1st hole and the 613 yarder, 14th. Dufner, however, off the tee is ranked around 99th at 290.0 yards. Dustin Johnson, whom Bodog has odds on as winning (compared to its ranking of Jason as 22nd best chance) leads driving length at 319 big ones. Dufner’s putting is even more average. He candidly confesses "I've been putting bad for 17 years...” This week he ranks 112th. So how could he possibly win this U.S Open? His play from the fairways is better, ranking 46th, but his compact, torso-based swing is consistent. Indeed for a man with a soft round belly - when he isn't a Thinny Minnie - and with a physique and musculature, no matter his overall weight, resembling a Sunday duffer, it's amazing the guy plays as well as he does - and it's astounding his torso is running the swing. Heck, he set a 36-hole record in winning Jack Nicklaus's tournament.
 
To continue, there are lots of sand traps, pot bunkerish - which will test Dufner and his 157th sand save ranking - and others who will find themselves sometimes hitting out sideways or backwards – there is lots of fescue grass between tee to greens, fringing the latter, and alongside - and surrounding - fairways to boot.  The course may be relatively new but its foundations of rolling hills were formed by glaciers 10 thousand years ago. And, for the past 7 years, 1,815 tons of sand have been used as top dressing on the 40 acres of fairways...

This links public course features lots of wind. Great ball striking is a must. Dufner, with his cute pre-shot waggles, has that attribute, epitomized by wondrous wedge play. Undoubtedly assistant superintendents Alex Beson-Crone and Adam Ayers and 1 of 3 course architects, Dana Fry, are engagingly concerned – and have been since 2010 when they were awarded the 2017 date, with getting the place “just so.”

For what it’s worth Eric Steimer, Championship Manager, for the 2017 U.S. Open calls it a tremendous property. The USGA believes in the site – lionizing it as a field of dreams...For many players it will be their first time playing this course. For the 35,000 fans following the pros over the 8-mile long course, it will be their first time seeing their stars live. For the 135 million pumped into the local region, it will be their economy on the gravy train. For us watching on TV, it will be panoramic vistas coupled with minimalist design - combining to have the best handle, or mishandle the rough...

Back to Jason. During an interview on the Kelly & Michael show he brought out the Wanamaker PGA Trophy. (The top comes off – and it can hold, 47 beers.) He, of course was amiable, and forthright. When asked to comment on his putt, that if sunk, would have set an ALL-TIME golf record Majors’s score of 62, he called it the worst effort he made all week.

Which brings us to the ALL-TIME coolest move called Dufnering. Asked to explain how Dufnering came about Duf explained he had sat Indian style for 30 minutes, at J. Erik Jonsson Community School in Dallas in a charity appearance, mused that he had already been in the second grade, wondered to himself when this event was going to be over, wanted it to get done – for his body’s sake, and, before the session ended, while the teacher talked about relaxation, breathing, and how to get ready for tests, he sorta “checked out” and relaxed his sore frame via Dufnering, sitting legs straight out, arms draped at the sides, leaning against a wall. He smiled shyly, saying the Dufnering international craze “turned out good.” Dufnering, he added, wasn’t premeditated, wasn’t meant to be disrespectful, was a natural moment, but didn’t impress his then wife one bit – “...because she sees it all the time. Apparently I do it all the time.”
​
And Mr. Dufner, The War Eagle from Auburn University, with the Tasmanian devil face and teddy bear countenance, wins big tournaments some of the time. And if he doesn’t “check out” and does keep up with his new military-style breathing regimen to prevent batting and battling the ball around the green, who is to say he can’t become the next U.S. Open winner?

​Ingenuity meets insanity at the Summer X Games with every competitor an artist, acrobat, gymnast, and stuntman. As the X denotes – the very nature of their disciplines dictates they push boundaries to extremes. Or, as the X Games Twitter site proclaims: Spreading the shred in action sports since 1995.
​
For Baby Boomers who don’t understand what Generation X or Generation Y see in the Summer X Games stuff, don’t worry: your offspring – all 106 million of them, in 121 countries will, via TV, watch the 2017 Summer X Games coming from Minneapolis and explain same to you.

X Games competitors and wannabees, however, sandwich some wonderful traits between the crusty edges of inventiveness and craziness. For example, in skateboarding kids looked to Tony Hawk’s and Mark Gonzales’s tricks, styles, and mannerisms. They’d try to emulate Tony Hawk’s 900. (But they’d better be prepared for a lot of persistence before meeting excellence. It took Tony Hawk “The Birdman” his 12th time to final successfully land the 900.) They’d try to copy the Gonz’s shoes. They’d assimilate and incorporate the masters’ moves into their routines. They’d extrapolate, synthesize, re-evaluate and - through these processes - come up with new stunts.

Alas, nowadays, given today’s stiff-as-a-board political correctness, they’d be accused of cultural appropriation to be sure, and possibly ageist appropriation too. Thus the X Games must be stopped! And all skateboarders younger than Hawk and Gonzales, who can be shown to have used elements of the former's in their skating – must undergo sensitivity training.

Ok, let’s forget such puerile politics for now (and hopefully for ever) and return to the virile characteristics of the X Games, generally.

Specifically, skateboarders are said to have been “shredding the vert ramp” Basically, they shred here, they shred there, indeed, the word shred has an even more altruistic purpose too, with the Shred Hate campaign to reduce bullying in American schools. Don’t know if bullying equals hate, and don’t know if 10 million kids are bullied each year in schools there, as the website page says, but their heart is in the right place even if their correlation and statistics are both a bit off...
​
It should be said: the X Games doesn't test athletes for drugs. This is probably just as well, despite it pissing off the likes of the World Anti-Doping Agency. 90% of these competitors gotta be high on something, or a cocktail of somethings, to even contemplate the stunts they do, let alone put them into practice. Or they could be high on life. It happens.

But let’s taunt WADA with a certifiable, undeniable fact. Didn’t Pierre-Luc Gagnon “PLG” admit after a heavy night partying, that lots of water and a few Excedrin can get him back on the skateboard? So let us have WADA scrutinize PLG’s NOLLIE HEELFLIP VARIAL INDY 540, why don’t we? Or have that body inspect Kevin Robinson’s pulling a Double Flair back in 2006 or study his world record ramp-to-ramp 84-foot backflip at the age of 44.
 
Actually the X Games and its athletes should be examined, not for foreign substances, but for unworldly creativity. For instance, who thought that some competitors would run their bikes brakeless? Moreover, have hockey, baseball, football, or basketball come up with any radical new wrinkles in the past few years?

Extreme sports has, at its core, the seed of imagination wherein whatever happened before can be grown upon, spreading a canopy of daredevilish deeds, more bold and brassy and outlandishly outrageous than ever before. Its trunk has rings, not of ages, but of new ways of doing things on skateboards, bikes, and motorcycles. (And gotta love the names for tricks, though we conventional old fogie types would scoff and sneer at the seemingly endless plethora of over-the-top monikers such as the Topside No-footed CanCan; One-handed 540; Switch-blade flip; Flare Double Whip; Downside Tail Whip...)

Speaking of whip or whippersnappers, what should we say about 50-year old + BMX rider Dennis McCoy? Simply that he is his sport’s equivalent to hockey’s ageless Jaromir Jagr. Didn’t he, smooth and dialed in, pull a 900 at the ripe old age of 49?

And what about Bob? Remember skateboarder Bob Burnquist’s 98 score in ‘99? When he did at least 4 moves the commentators either had not seen, or did not think were possible? And for us largely unfamiliar to X Games and skateboarding, but totally familiar with Olympic greatness and gymnastics, say – let’s equate Bob’s stunning run that X Games, to a stunning routine of the best male gymnast in the world, Kohei Uchimura.

One must quickly look at the downside of this sporting genre. Injuries can be numerous and mind numbingly severe. Let's admit it, some watch X games events for the wipeout factor, as do Indy 500 fans watching car races for crashes. Travis Pastrana once suffered a dislocated spine...18 broken bones...and had 8 surgeries – at a minimum! Can’t forget Jake Brown’s fall from 45 feet up, can we, resulting in a broken wrist, broken vertebrae, a bruised lung and liver, a concussion - and a ruptured spleen?

“Best Trick” has been a great spectacle but at the cost of serious injuries. Heck, even watching promo videos of skateboarders – with no helmet or other padding - gives one the willies. Because they are so amazing they’ll take the risk of crumbling onto pavement, tumbling down stairs, and going ass-over-teakettle over railings. But mistakes do happen: ever seen the video of Chris Joslin flying over 20 steps or so, only to tumble and roll over his tail-bone hard?
​
But pains and aches aside, it seems even these setbacks never stop each new X Games from getting better year after year, because every entrant knows the other will be bringing new and freaky-fabulous moves to the table. All will make this Summer X Games, coming up in Minneapolis this July, an extremely excellent exhibition of courage and character to view, where attitude meets amplitude, or put more simply – to be THE BEST SUMMER X GAMES YET.

Si Woo Kim at work is calm, cool, collected, and intermittently shockingly successful. Good for him. Perhaps the military of South Korea, who has rights to his life, will make best use of this soon-to-be trooper.

Then again, can’t they make an exception and grant the kid an exemption from military service? The guy stunned the world and himself, being a 400-1 bet going in, when he became the youngest player EVER to win the Players Championship. Or, listen, if he must serve, make sure he’s not on the front lines, the 160 MILE LONG DMZ, where kooky North Korea and its leader, even kookier Kim Jong-un, might serve up a brand spanking new Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile, or some such thing. Maybe make golfer-Kim a killer-sniper; he can certainly place his shots.

Alas, there’s no way around it: Si Woo has to serve two years in the ROK Armed Forces, assuming he doesn’t renounce his citizenship and dodge the draft. Compatriot Sang-Moon Bae found out, through the court of law, there’s no way to avoid conscription in that country. (If Si Woo, was an Olympic medal winner, or a gold medal winner from the Asian Games, or a geezer older than 35, he’d get a pass – but as a young burgeoning star winner on the PGA, no dice.)

Amazing as his win was, being just 21 years of age, let’s remember that he and other South Korean men, while notable and noteworthy, must take a back seat to the front-driver domination of South Korean women on the LPGA. Recall that Lydia Ko won her first professional golf tournament, the New South Wales Open, at 14.

This is not a misprint. 14.  Nor is it an error to point out that the women of South Korean heritage have been at the top of the money list(s) and rankings for years, now. OK, so why do these gals ace the game of golf? And does Si Woo Kim have it in him to improve, and become an elite pro on the PGA to perhaps equal these women in stature back home?

The magic female formula, written by R.G., in the Economist, distills the awesome anomaly of top golfers worldwide being invariably Korean to: heavy parental discipline, dished out especially by the Dad’s; the competitiveness of Korean society as a whole; the prevalence of players’ hitting millions of balls in driving ranges, what with space at a minimum and golf course availability at a premium; repetition as the best means to become the best; and a seemingly inherent gene of Koreans to follow the lead - trends: once Se-Ri Pak led the pack, everybody and their sister picked up a stick. And Ko sticks with her sticks, putting in between 30 to 50 hours per week working on her game.

Back to the boys. Alex Myers of Golf Digest, take a bow. Back in January of 2016 you wrote of the potential of Si Woo. And American academic, and Director of the Asia Institute, Emanuel Pastreich, who specializes on Korean studies, please continue pontificating on why a forced stint in the military, rather than being a drag, is, in fact, a boon. There, as exemplified by the 3rd Engineer Brigade, the moral of the story is: no blame, no complaining, and be of an optimistic attitude. Also, live clean in manners and in habits. Paging John Daly...

Given that Si Woo appears to be in somewhat good health, chances are he’ll be put into Active Duty Service as opposed to Public Service. He’ll face five weeks of basic training, for starters. True, he has had back and wrist problems – at 21, that is SO NOT a good sign, and a physical will reveal the extent of those pains. (He just withdrew from the Byron Nelson on account of his wonky back.) Let’s hope he isn’t subjected to bullying or hazing, not from Byron Nelson fanatical fans, but from fellow soldiers culturally and historically imbued in the two year rite of passage in matters military. The military pay’s not great – it sucks, truly, under $200 USD, monthly – and way under the country’s minimum wage for civilians – you know, the folks not putting their lives in their hands each and every day. He’ll have to get his head shaved. He’d better carefully shuffle and hide his $1,890,000 won at the Players from his army mates in his duffle. Some of his more intimate, personal effects will be put in a box. The parents will get this keepsake in case the worse should occur with death while serving...

One keepsake that puts Kim ahead of the pack is the fact that he earned his PGA Tour Card when he was just 17.  One keepsake we, watching highlights of the Players - “the Fifth Major” - was noting how smooth, controlled, and slow his swing was. While a slow swing contravenes the idea that only a fast swing can bring the utmost power to one’s game, his tempo works wonders for him.
But will a two-year hiatus from his profession cause irreparable damage to his game? He’s done himself one huge solid in winning the Players – as he now has a five year exemption on the tour – so that gives him three years to get the kinks out of a rusty golf game once he leaves the military.

Another advantage of military service is that this young fellow’s idle time will not be replete with drugs, thieving, lollygagging, or with other loser-like thuggerish acts. A youngster’s measure of possible success, remember, isn’t simply how he or she performs at work, but is how he or she performs during times of leisure. Si Woo Kim, in his win at TPC Sawgrass, had that look of discipline – and had way more than a veneer of self awareness and wherewithal to beat back, not only faltering veterans on Sunday, but to blow away, by any standard, no pun intended, par-for-the-course acts of self destruction that often arise in the mid twenties, or in the case of J.B. Holmes’s (84) and Kyle Stanley’s (75) in their mid thirties to late twenties.
​
Mid twenties to be for Si Woo? This kid could be a super shooter forever.

Wladimir Klitschko, please hang up the gloves. You’ve had a brilliant-bestest boxing career but at 41 years of age, with 2 losses in a row, it’s time to take stock. You’ve earned the respect of the boxing world, by your going unbeaten for 8 years, by your formidable lead hand jab, and by your cerebral, sensible no-unnecessary-risk approach in the ring.

You’ve also got a PHD in Sports Science so there’s a career, you’ve got your foundation “bringing dreams to life” that could probably use your full time attention – and you speak Ukrainian, Russian, German, and English and all those societies would sure love the likes of you with your good works and vast potential outside of boxing to boost their collective consciousness from decency to excellence.

Geez, even if the above avenues don’t appeal you could go down the slimy road of politics. Isn’t brother Vitali mayor of Kiev?

Anyway, Wladimir, AKA Dr. Steelhammer, be proud you’ve held the: International Boxing Organization World Heavyweight, WBA Super World Heavyweight, IBF World Heavyweight and the WBO World Heavyweight titles. Although no sane, rational person has been able to keep up with why heavyweight boxing had to have its belt-title-organization multiply bifurcate – to be top dog with these groups, is impressive.

You, Volodymyr Volodymyrovych Klychko even after losing in the 11th round before approximately 90,000 Wembley boxing fans – the biggest gate there, in London, England - in 8 DECADES - to Anthony Joshua, stand tall, even taller than your 6’6”. You, literally and metaphorically, fought the good fight against this 27-year-old IBF World Heavyweight champion opponent and you didn’t, for the most part, fight tomato cans while retaining your title(s).

But against Anthony you hit the deck, the canvas, 3 times. True, you knocked him off his feet, hitting his chin for an 8-count - for the first time in his 19-pro-fight career (with Anthony’s trainer Rob McCracken thinking his man was a goner) but YOU going down repeatedly has to tell you – despite the contractual right to a rematch against Joshua, to not exercise that provision - and to spend the rest of your life exercising, where the chances of you facing and sustaining brain injury is nil. Remember this fight as a losing effort – but you gave it your all. In your previous fight, a loss to Tyson Fury, you only landed 52 of 231 punches thrown - a 23% clip.

What counts for more than your 2 losses in a row, however, is that you are still – for any age – a man in excellent physical condition. Put it simply, you’re jacked. Congratulations. Most of us start losing tone from 20 on – and you’ve proven to millions that one can keep superb physical form and looks into their forties. Well done.

And kudos for your supreme, classy act, after the loss, via Twitter. You tweeted respect and congratulations to the victor. You’re a gentleman. None other than Oscar De La Hoya tweeted that Klitschko “...will always be a great champion.” Lennox Lewis and Sugar Ray Leonard also tweeted compliments. The world needs more - via the speaking circuit, perhaps - to learn of your winning habits.  

You are capable of introspection. We could, individually and collectively, all use a healthy dollop of that. Your frank confession that Corrie Sanders cleaning your clock in a knockout in the second round back in 2003 made you analyze, from A to Z, your situation. You added that this drubbing made you a better fighter, and man - - - and the whole process was a tremendous lesson for your followers. To admit failure was remarkable – to shed insights into that that flopping was golden.

You are also capable of off-beat, counter intuitive views. Being born in Kazakhstan, conventional and national wisdom says you should deplore the comic Sacha Cohen whose movie, “Borat”- many from Kazakhstan feel - depicts its citizenry in a bad light. To laugh at one’s own perceived or real faults – is another nugget-example of knowledge from which your existing base, and potential world of followers, awaits more of, should you tell of your insights, full time...

Speaking of movies, perhaps you could use your footwork, network, and family experiences to be the subject of another movie. After all, recall, Sebastian Dehnhardt did direct you and Vitali in the, Romy 2012 best documentary winning flick: Klitschko – Fighters Legends Brothers.

(For us unfamiliar with the documentary you two brother pugilists were tracked and taped, for a couple of years, in travels through the Ukraine, The States, Germany, Canada, Austria, Switzerland and the good old, there’s no place like home, Kazakhstan.)

And rest assured Wladimir, the media lefties like your views. ESPN as an employer is not a far reach. Back in 2014 Boxing News said: “...Klitschko, is an articulate and magnanimous ambassador for his sport. He holds liberal political views, regards the lack of women in politics as scandalous and shames racists and homophobes all over the world.”

Wladimir, you’ve won a ton, 64 wins for those that are counting such things, and have, incredibly, won the hearts of detractors in the process of losing a few bouts. You’ve kept perspective, expanded boxing’s horizons deep into Europe and yet have kept your kin and karma simple and succinct in promising your mother (ok it was her wish-command) that you would never fight your brother professionally. You’ve done it all. With class.
​
Take a bow, leave the ring now. And please ignore boxing promoter Eddie Hearn's spin that a rematch between you and Joshua is 50-50 proposition and please rebut potential pleas from your manager Bernd Boente to fight again.

​Arnold Palmer is golfing’s god. And mere, though magnificent, mortals Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson, and Phil Mickelson aren't playing in the Arnold Palmer Invitational? WTF?

This will be its first running since Arnold’s passing and these stars, perhaps for reasons of scheduling conflicts, an aversion to the course, or other tribulations, well, let’s hope they rue and regret their decisions – once they think, for a moment, or for a year, what “The King’s” overall impact on the game of golf has been.

Spieth, Johnson, and Mickelson wouldn’t be playing for the purses they do, if not for Arnie, and heck, might not have even taken up the sport if not for Arnie’s army – and Palmer, plus Gary Player, and Jack Nicklaus  put the game on the map – so guys, you should have connected the dots and shown up on the spot on Thursday March 16th at Bay Hill.

Arnold’s death was world news. Tributes flowed and deservedly so for Palmer, and though he wasn’t as great as the Golden Bear or Tiger were – he was undoubtedly, thanks to his charisma, thoughtfulness, and bold play – making golf known, and popular, to the masses.

Look, it’s hard to cite and call out Spieth and Mickelson – they’re good guys. And Dustin Johnson, the current number one, while perhaps not as media friendly and likeable as even-keel Jordan and ever-smiling Phil, does give back to the game with his foundation, which backs kids and teens in their quest to learn and play the game.

Yet, guys come on, where was your perspective?

This is Arnold we are talking here. 

Spieth is a student of the game, knows its roots and historical impact – witness him playing in garb and gear worn by one Scot, Mr. Tommy Morris to celebrate that golfing prodigy from the 1800’s... Jordan, couldn't you have juggled the difficult tour schedule – one that Ernie Els, who will appear for the 22nd time in Arnie’s tournament, feels was THE culprit for the no shows – and played?

Defending champion, Jason Day, not surprisingly, will play...Rory McIlroy will too, and John Daly, thanks to a sponsor exemption, is also confirmed to play - or put on some kind of show!

Tiger also wanted to play, regrets that he can’t, but he’s got a legitimate reason – his body (back) won’t let him.

The biggest excuse is that these professionals might be playing four to five weeks in a row – and that grind may chew them up. Thus the API loses top players.

Folks - top players - this isn’t mixed martial arts, it's GOLF.

For the big and best kids on the block it’s not like they’re living out of suitcases, sleeping in the back seat of their hand-me-down-A-to-B beater, scratching and scraping to qualify. Surely they could have found the inner fortitude to tough it out and play for Arnie and yes, even if that screwed up their preparation for the Masters – the year’s first major – they should have taken the chance and respected Mr. Palmer as the MAJOR factor in golf’s popularity.

Spieth, however, marches to his own drummer. He declined to play for the USA in the Rio Olympics. (By the way, 9-time Major winner, Gary Player, with his killer 15 million miles world-travel touring schedule in his heyday up until now, has gotta be shaking his head at tour scheduling potential problems.)
​
Of the three perhaps Mickelson, assuming there was no dire family, personal, or caddy (Jim Mackay - “Bones” - had to quickly withdraw from the bag in Mexico leaving brother, Tim Mickelson, to pick up the slack and clubs) reasons to not play - - - should have played.

Unlike Johnson, who has won the Genesis Open this February and the WGC-Mexico this early March, and who wants a second major...and unlike Spieth, who has carved himself out an almost approaching Tiger-like comparable extraordinary career at 23 – they are the only two to have won 9 PGA tournaments before turning 24 (post 2nd World War) - and who probably wants to focus on Augusta to make up for his back nine catastrophic collapse leading to Danny Willett’s win last year – Phil is past his prime. He’s still great, he finished in T7th in Mexico, but he’s basically, for the most part, shot his bolt. Could have bit the bullet and done it for Arnie...

Besides, Phil, you need to focus on winning the US Open to get your majors grand slam. So you could have played the API and worried not how it would have affected your game at Augusta in April.

As for Arnold Palmer, named THE ATHLETE of the DECADE for the ‘60’s in a national Associated Press survey, and whose swing from the tee was never pretty but whose stance on, and for, the game was as sweet and strong as it gets - would probably be peeved, but would have risen above that and shown the public that genial, classy outlook that his followers recognize and love.

But he’s not here to defend his name and his tournament – wherein he INVITES the players to participate. The top pros, in missing this event, didn't stick up for Palmer, and didn't support by attending, recognition and respect for all he’s done for the game.
​
Should have been an easy decision. For each player, this shouldn’t have been about them; it should have been about putting their problems, peccadilloes, and particulars aside and properly putting Arnie on a pedestal while playing. You know he’s, for now and ever, golf’s greatest attribute.

Those missing stars: get a grip.

​Who willingly hurtles themselves into the air, for 100 yards or so, at 99 mph, but has the flight – not go right – in fact, go awry - to then torso twist and land slam-bam on their tailbone and not only survive - but get up...to then, a scant two weeks later, set the world alive – by setting an all-time sports record?

Unmatched.

EVER.

No one.

No one except Erik Guay.

So, who is this guy, Guay?

He’s a skier, a Canadian, 35 years old. He, for the last 9 years, has raced downhill and Super-G. He looks 25 – and this despite being the doting dad of three young girls. Heck, his beautiful smile can move mountains. Yet, theoretically, despite his self professed drive and determination; he’s human. The man from Montreal, Quebec who lives in Mont-Tremblant, missed all of the 2015 season. In 2011, however, he won the World Downhill Title.

But he hasn’t missed getting bested by ski courses everywhere. Prior to his stellar, mind-blowing Super-G win in early middle age, a couple of weeks ago, he’d faced, and come back from 6 – SIX - knee injuries.

Nobody does that.

Except Erik Guay.

And let’s put Lindsey Vonn in this special: no-matter-the-harm-no-matter-the-hurt-or-WTF-happenstance...category she, and Erik, are the cream of the crop, that somehow, through perspicacity and a little insanity do magnificently, to us awe-struck observers, forcefully and inevitably, rise to the top. (And, astoundingly he believes he has a cautious approach to skiing. And he credits that trait to having helped him become Canada’s best alpine skier.) 

Check out his wipe out in the downhill in the German Bavarian Alps just prior to his Super-G win and his silver in the downhill at St. Moritz.

Still alive? Unbelievable, huh?

And what’s most incredible is his revelation that he’s been ailing with pains and ailments since 2011. That’s 6 years. Most of us wilt after a 2 week cold, never to return to our full form – but this guy?

Ok, so, really, who is this guy?

Nobody knows. Ok, Wikipedia, doesn’t know, or at least - in its listing of oldest professional athletes by sport – doesn’t even cite skiing, let alone slot Erik Guay.  That’s how tough, how unusual, how risky, elite alpine skiing is.

And, at 35 years old, Erik Guay is the king of the castle.  

Yet Erik’s down to earth. He praised, not surprisingly, his physiotherapist(s) and doctor(s) for getting him back on the straight and narrow path to victory – and most importantly, helping him boost his confidence to find his line, and belief he could win again - after his titanic tumble in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and, he’s probably got a god somewhere to have blessed him with powerful legs, legs that even Canada’s cyclist, Curt Harnett, would respect – all of which factors mattered in his climbing back up  the steep slope to stardom in the Super-G.

And he’s erudite, polite, and a great interviewee.

Generally, he probably takes lots of sustenance and surely some succor from his younger brother who coaches him - and from his mom, a ski instructor - and from his dad, a ski coach. So he’s got that going for him as well.

He’s also a team player, attributing his amazing Super-G win on the Team Canada 2017.  

Good looking, intelligent, athletic – none come better than he, in Canada – yet he still has to earn a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame. Olympic champion Nancy Greene of the 1960’s...and the Crazy Canucks of the 70’s - 80’s have that distinction of being the only skiers so honored.

Guay trains with the B2Ten group. OK, factually, he started skiing at 18 months, navigating the Poma lift at Mont-Tremblant. What’s the B2Ten? It’s a force organized back in 2006 by Canadian businesses to spend big bucks (30 million so far) on nurturing Canadian athletes – individually - to help them singularly, realize their dreams, whether they be skiers, rugby players, or high jumpers.

In fact, the only thing missing from Guays’ resume is a medal from the Olympics. Oh, he’s come close, with two fifths and a fourth, but as he points out it’s tough to peak for one race that happens but once every four years and it’s tough not being allowed to practice on the course, and it’s tough not being able to control the weather that day and it’s tough not having a say in your starting slot...He says he values World Cup victories more than Olympic successes. In fact, he called the Olympics “...a Mickey Mouse show.”

Nevertheless, despite his impolitic talk, he’s willing to have another go at the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang. But, he avers, if he gets but one more knee injury between now and then, he’ll retire.
​
But no matter how, or when, he retires from skiing, he’ll forever be a champion and an inspiration – that’s what you get when you are the oldest man EVER to win an alpine skiing event.

​Let Lindsey Vonn ski against men. The alpine ace wants to meet and beat the guys at Lake Louise in 2018. And who is against this delightfully, delicious idea? The FIS Women’s Race Director! Will Lindsey be beat back by a bureaucrat? Of course – no oddly enough - he’s a guy, but of course, being a man maybe’s he’s got a weird form of penis envy going on.

Hold it. What’s a guy, one Atle Skårdal, doing running that organization? Surely a woman can do this job. He’s been doing it for 12 years. (It took Vonn a scant 9 years - 2008 to 2017 - to become the best woman skier ever.) It took him but a few seconds to become the biggest dunce, with less imagination than a sleeping turtle when it comes to stirring interest in his sport - ever - when he said:

“It doesn’t mean it’s a good idea, just because it’s of interest to one racer.”

One racer? Is that the best he could do to describe Lindsey Vonn, SKIING ICON, ruler of skiing’s citadel, the ungodly athlete who has run the table in the 5 skiing disciplines and who has trained with men, knows their times, respects them for making her an even better skier; one racer - that’s it from this bloke ?

Listen, does one also-ran-man’s jealousy bring him to such a low-ball depiction? Sure the guy, with two Super- G world champion winning seasons and a World Cup Super-G winning season, is no hack, but his career, compared to Lindsey’s, wouldn’t allow him to wax her skies. Geez, Louise.
He then goes whole hog and digs a deeper hole:

“I haven’t heard on any other sport being dragged into this kind of position.”

Dragged? We’re talking the best skier, other than perhaps Ingemar Stenmark, of all time. She’s done all she can do against women, why not take a run at, and with, the men?

As a marketer, Atle makes a good skier...As a skiing promoter he makes carbon out of diamonds.

Which brings us back to Louise, Lake Louise – Lake Lindsey. The course for men and women is the same. Vonn knows her strengths (18 wins there will give one those insights) can obviously pick her spots and Lake Louise in Alberta, Canada, in the Canadian Rockies, is HER PLACE. She absolutely kills there. Back in 2015 she pulled an ace out of her sleeve with her 3rd hat-trick, two downhill wins, with one Super-G victory.

A week or so ago, she notched her 77th World Cup win. While this is incredible, what makes it unbelievable is that it was notched in her second outing after coming back from a left-knee injury and a badly broken humerus bone in her right arm, the latter occurring just this past November. She followed up her win with a fall “I’m happy to still be in one piece” - DNF - in the Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italian downhill.

She’s got to be disappointed, especially because this site is where she got her first podium position 13 years ago, but found solace in the fact that Tennis’s Roger Federer took his 18th Grand Slam, winning the Australian Open, beating Rafael Nadal. Both men, like Lindsey have scratched, crawled, and climbed their way back to the elite ranks after suffering injuries. If they can do it, she’s gotta figure she can do it.

Sure, there’s a very good chance Lindsey won’t race faster than top-notchers like Dominik Paris, Aksel Lund Svindal, or Peter Fill - should her 2018 test against the best be realized. She knows this. But for sure, what probably is more guaranteed to happen will be an outflow of hurt and shame amongst those men who race against her – and are beaten.

Back to Lindsey, singularly. Who does this? Who comes back from multiple injuries, survives and thrives after a relationship with Tiger Woods, all the while keeping her cool, keeping calm, while somehow stoking that burning furnace of desire and hunger to come back and be the best again?
Nobody. Nobody other than Kildon, Don Don, The Don, Lindsey Vonn.

Atle, be a somebody, back her in her quest to vie against the guys – give your sport, whose popularity is sliding – no pun intended – a BOOST. Normally Lake Louise hits a worldwide TV audience of 173 million people. Imagine the reaction, and potential viewership, should Lindsey go against the men. She deserves the chance. If not her, who? If not in 2018, when?

Lindsey’s intent in this instance may fit the bill where her desires outmatch what she can accomplish. But so what? What’s wrong with dreaming big and shooting for the moon? George Bernard Shaw once opined: “As long as I have a want, I have a reason for living. Satisfaction is death.”

And, as Lindsey says: No Excuses. You Can Always Find a Way.
​
Atle, find the way. Make her aspiration come true. Let her seek new fans for the sport and have them bestow accolades and applause upon her. Let her try for yet another possible podium finish and let her put skiing as a sport once again, at the very top of the Vonn-vaunted hill. 

Can Mary Keitany three-peat the NYC Marathon, 2016 edition? Definitely.

Queen Mary “gets” road racing, has good technique, a winning attitude, a positive self image, and an aptitude for peaking, says Brother Colm O’Connell “The Godfather of Kenyan running” - who has coached 25 world champions and 4 Olympic winners.

For Kenya’s Keitany, her 2015 NYC 2:24:25 victory, at 33, made her the first woman to defend her title there since Paula Radcliffe in 2008. Norwegian Grete Waitz, now deceased, won 5 in a row from ’82 to 86. She’s the record holder for most consecutive wins.

Here, besides Colm’s points, are a few other reasons Keitany’s successful: she is motivated by other Kenyan running greats - her favorite being 4-time Boston Marathon winner, Catherine Ndereba - and she believes that, despite her being a distance runner - SPEED is KEY. Take those, and toss in Kenyan foods such as Ugali, a cornmeal porridge, Ndengu, a mung-bean stew, Chapati, a wheat-flour bread, and Sukuma wiki, a collared green - and you’re looking at Mary being crowned with, not olives, but an olive wreath for winning this 2016 NYC Marathon.

And all this heavy-duty training and triumphing is done while raising son, Jared, and daughter, Samantha. Admittedly, she gets a ton of child-rearing help from her husband, Charles Koech, who, when not looking a little bit like Usain Bolt, has taken to being Mary’s understudy - by being the family-first-guy. He knows the sites she’s running in and also knows where, physically, mentally, and metaphorically their family is coming from.

So, yes, he backs her, takes a back seat - cares for the family when she’s overseas, and keeps things under control (as much as can be controlled with 2 kids.) He’s the motivator, the manager.

But, Keitany knows, as does any world-class athlete, that they are only an injury away from leaving the limelight, exiting their sport. Thus she, like her parents who raised cattle and grew vegetables, leads an unostentatious life on her farm. She’s also scrupulous about savings and serious about investments and, to those ends - oversees and pursues business ventures. Mary and Charles have many interests in agriculture but their hotel ownership of an 86-room, Five Star Hotel, AKA: Hotel WinStar – A Passion for Excellence on Eldoret’s Sosian St - is the jewel. So far. 
   
Speaking of pursuits, most of us fondly remember our first time on an airplane. Maybe we went to visit family, maybe we went to a tourist attraction, maybe we moved – but for Mary, in 2006, her first plane ride was to Seville, Spain – to compete in the half marathon, building upon her junior career of running the 1,500 and 3,000.  She won - and this despite having her world rattled due to an almost life-altering passport snafu - before even getting out of Kenya. (A few years later, before a half-marathon race in Birmingham, she and others, on the way to a press conference, were stuck in an elevator for 50 minutes. She won that race too!)

Nothing has come easy for Keitany.

In 2008, her racing came to a screeching halt – baby Jared was born in June. Just a scant 11 months later, in India, she set a personal best in the 10K, 32:09.

Back to marathon-type races. In her 2010 NYC Marathon debut she finished 3rd and said it would be her last marathon (paraphrasing) because it paralyzed her body. But Mary’s one tough cookie.  

Her tough stuff was honed, not only in rural toil, but in the conscious decision she made to enroll in - - - "The National Hidden Talents Academy" an institution for orphans and the destitute. This was, she thought a, no pun intended, step up.

In 2011 she shattered the half-marathon record, in the Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon, finishing in 1:05:50 via a solo break-from-the-pack attack.

For winning the 2015 New York Marathon she took $100,000 prize money and another $25,000 for running under 2:25.

Now what of this NYC marathon generally?

Despite the guide runners that help the blind, despite the first responders and volunteers everywhere, and despite big-time celebrities such as singer-songwriter, Alicia Keys, in the 2015 race, somewhere(s), and despite a lovable set of competitors who down a beer in each borough,  and despite some competitors wearing outrageously non-marathon-type gear, and despite motivational music throughout the course - all of whom, and all of which, give - if only for a day, the impression that New York City cares – there might be signs about that speak to (and give the essence of) the NYC state of mind.

“If a marathon was easy, it would be called your mother.”

Happily, however, this marathon believes in gender parity. Prize money for women is equal to prize money for men. And there’s some global participant parity too, with an estimated 40% of the entrants being citizens from abroad. In the 2015 running, 125 countries were represented.

Right now, Keitany, who got into competitive running thanks to an older sister, is leading the way. But she’ll grow older. We all do, and when she does we must ask: will she be able to top the time of 5:40:23 set by Agnes Roest-Bomers from the Netherlands?

What’s so special about a 5-hour + time? Nothing – save for the fact that Agnes Roest-Bomers was 84 when she set that mark last year.

But this year, let’s celebrate Mary’s successes in private and public life and laud her performances and perspectives. And let the world, and the upcoming November 6th TCS New York City Marathon, yield to Mary Keitany, a wonderful winner, on and off the road - as she strides and strives for a three-peat.

Pete Willett despises American Ryder Cup fans. To his credit he doesn’t go all namby-pamby, he goes all in – doesn’t mince words. Brother Danny Willett, playing for Europe, was initially dismayed:
Here are Pete’s thoughts, shortened a bit:

“Team USA have only won five of the last 16 Ryder Cups...For the Americans to stand a chance of winning, they need their baying mob of imbeciles to caress their egos every step of the way. Like one of those brainless bastards from your childhood, the one that pulled down your shorts during the school’s Christmas assembly...a giggling group of reprobates...[Europe] - They need to silence the pudgy, basement-dwelling, irritants, stuffed on cookie dough and pissy beer, pausing between mouthfuls of hotdog so they can scream ‘Baba booey’ until their jelly faces turn red. They need to stun the angry, unwashed, Make America Great Again swarm, desperately gripping their concealed-carry compensators and belting out a mini-erection inducing ‘mashed potato,’ hoping to impress their cousin. They need to smash the obnoxious dads, with their shiny teeth, Lego man hair, medicated ex-wives, and resentful children. Squeezed into their cargo shorts and boating shoes, they’ll bellow ‘get in the hole’ whilst high-fiving all the other members of the Dentists’ Big Game Hunt Society.”

Phew, thank you, Sir, for reminding us the British are still peeved at post WW2 USA power and prestige, and thank you, Sir, for reminding us that sibling rivalry still peeves, pre-and-post all wars.  
 
I have never attended a Ryder Cup. So I haven’t seen or heard the worst of the worst (or the best of the best, depending on your point of view.) But I have never attended a soccer match either, but global media splays English fans (Yobs) as crude in display – and that’s just leaving Britain. When they land in Europe, well, from what witnesses say, we’re talking WW3.

Simply, all countries have boors – for us Canucks, some might remember Alan Eagleson’s finger to mother Russia in the 1972 hockey duel.

Moral equivocations aside let’s deride, in no particular order, Saint Peter’s pontifications.

Accusation: Pissy Beer. Answer: Beats room temperature British beer.

Accusation: Cookie Dough. Answer: A pale replica of the Scottish diet Trifecta. The Macaroni Pie, Munchy Box, and Square Sausage.

Accusation: For the Americans to stand a chance of winning...Answer: The Yanks had better ensure, first, that Britain (Europe didn’t join into the Ryder Cup until 1979) come out alive - first - by, uh, lending a hand to beat the Nazis in WW2, allowing the Ryder Cup that started in 1927 and ran up to 1937, to continue after the war - saving Peter from having German as his first language - though funnily enough Peter seems, in language-loathing of the “Other”, a wee bit Nazi-like, doesn’t he?
​
Accusation: Baying mob of imbeciles. Answer: Can’t answer – as a dumb Canuck I didn’t even know baying was a word. But I have heard tell of the word "imbeciles" – and so far as I can reckon the new definition of imbeciles is: the media, academic, and political “elites” in the United Kingdom who thought Brexit would never happen.

Accusation: ...the one that pulled down your shorts during the school’s Christmas assembly...Answer: I took this slightly out of context; in its entirety, it doesn’t improve - so bear with me when I respond with the FACTS that: the Britain’s Rotherham Sex Scandal of some 16 years had not only the shorts and skirts down of young girls, it left the skirts and shorts - and pants - down of British political and police officials - who allowed this filth to start – and thrive – and all because of political correctness and because of a mindset to ignore complaints - because five perpetrators found guilty were, ahem, from the Religion of Peace.  

Accusation: “They need to stun the angry, unwashed, Make America Great Again swarm, desperately gripping their concealed-carry compensators and belting out a mini-erection inducing ‘mashed potato,’ hoping to impress their cousin.”     Answer: it is powerful writing. But uh, unfortunately, Pete has used a colloquialism that many on this side of the Atlantic might not understand (i.e. WTF ‘mashed potato?) Now, true, American rockabilly star, Jerry Lee Lewis was so impressed by his cousin, he married her. But that was decades ago, and his career suffered badly because of it. Now compare that to today’s problem in Britain of many - again from the Religion of Peace - marrying their cousins - with many kids there, therefore, suffering from genetic illnesses...

Accusation: obnoxious dads, with their shiny teeth...Answer: Is this the time to insert the depiction, thanks to Austin Powers, of British dads, and their gorgeous teeth?

Hey, we can forgive Pete his rant. And we can admire the man for not standing down. In fact he doubled down. Pete tweets: He means every word. Good for him. His observations have some humor, some sanity, a lot of ludicrousness, and some prose - some might suppose.

And you know what? With one fan taunting “suck a d---” to McIlroy – perhaps some of Pete’s points are, if not worthy of fulsome debate, at least worthy of pondering. (And Pete could add how Phil Mickelson noted that Scottish fans treated the leftie wonderfully at the 2014 Ryder Cup, in Scotland. For his part, Rory said 95% of the American fans in Minnesota were fantastic)
​
As for Danny? Well after going pointless in this 2016, and after taking in the audience ambiance-antics, he now says some fans proved his brother was, in fact, correct.