SOME people say that Missy Giove is intense. Others say she is
downright weird.
Giove is among the USA's top mountain bikers, a hard core group of
competitive cyclists who careen down precipitous hills and race along
rocky trails and wooded paths. In a sport that calls for large amounts
of aggression, Giove is the most aggressive of all.
At last year's Reebok Eliminator, the sport's flagship event, Giove
crashed on the final turn while among the leaders and had to get 22
stitches in an arm. The previous year, she was disqualified for spitting
in the vicinity of a race official.
''I did spit,'' said Giove, ''but she was downwind. I think she was
just horrified that I'm a woman and I spit. After my suspension I came
back and won three races in a row. It was my way of saying, 'You can't
get rid of me.' ''
They can't get rid of her and they can't fail to notice her. Giove
wears her hair spiked and dyes it purple ''or whatever I feel like in
the morning.'' She wears a ring in her nose, carries a dried-out piranha
fish named Gonzo around her neck, and has a habit of sprinkling the
ashes of her cremated dog, Ruffian, around mountains where she competes.
For all that, Giove insists: ''I'm not an idiot. You have to be
grounded, down to earth.''
* THE unusual is commonplace in the USA, but by anyone's definition
dachshund racing is downright unusual.
Possibly that's the reason why it is catching on. One recent event
drew 1000 entrants, while another, staged during half-time at a San
Francisco 49ers football game, received rave reviews.
The idea gained momentum following a television beer commercial which
featured strange sports ideas. Now dachshund races are being staged in
40 cities and have even gained a following at some greyhound tracks.
Larry Sorenson, president of the Dachshund Club of America, claims the
little dogs can really fly. ''They flex their backs and catapult out
like an inch worm.''
But the sport may be destined for a short lifespan. ''There's no money
in it for them,'' says Sorenson sadly. ''Not now, anyway.''
Some players
don't add up
JACK Chambless is a man that baseball players are either going to love
or absolutely detest, depending on who they are.
Chambless is an economist at Valencia Community College in Orlando,
Florida, who has figured out a way to calculate how much a professional
player is worth to his team.
Using an algebraic equation, Chambless calculates how a player's
on-field exploits generate income from spectators. Obviously, by then
seeing how much that player is being paid, an idea can be gained of
which side is getting the better deal, the player or the team's owner.
Len Dykstra, of the Philadelphia Phillies, may have greatest cause for
complaint. He earns a mere $2.87m a year from his team, but generates
$10.69m for them. Similarly, Barry Bonds, of the San Francisco Giants,
receives $4.2m, but produces $9.83m.
Then, of course, there's Darryl Strawberry, the man who has alienated
many fans with his drink and drug exploits. He is paid $3.8m, but
generates just $772,000. Time to renegotiate?
* BRITISH royalty has long enjoyed great popularity in the USA, and
the Princess of Wales firmly is at the top of the heap.
The promotions people at Prince Sports, makers of tennis rackets among
other things, were particularly intrigued when they saw a photograph of
the princess holding a Prince racket in front of her face in order to
shield herself from photographers.
Creative geniuses that they are, someone observed that she had traded
in her frog for a real prince, and an entire promotional campaign was
born.
Last week the company began swopping tennis rackets for frogs. The
first 200 children sending in anything related to frogs will receive in
return a Prince Junior tennis racket.
All of the frog stuff will be donated to the Toys for Tots programme.
So, even though she may never know it, the Princess of Wales' story had
a happy ending.
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