Thursday, June 15, 2006

Summer Sports..........

While we all know that the Winter Olympics this past year was our major entertainment this past year and now summer is here where sports gets really very interesting.....and then we can talk of the Summer Olympics of 2004 that was held in Athens, Greece.

So many fun things happen during the Olympics where they have the athletes compete who have been training all their lives and we get a good look into their professional lives and off course sports life....we also have to keep one thing in mind and that is there are some unfortunate incidents that happen behind the scenes......seems like there are always so many controversies going on during the Summer Olympics.....there was one that came into mind that happened to Nancy Burpee during that year....

Nancy Burpee is a world class paralympic swimmer who attempted to participate in the Paralympic games in 2004 held in Greece. The United States Paralympic team was already selected at the United States Olympic trials and Ms. Burpee had set world records in the 50 and 100 yard freestyle at the trials held in Minnesota.

At the Paralympic trials, Ms. Burpee was disqualified by an Australian referee on a procedural technicality. The law firm, Simmons, Jannace & Stagg then represented Ms. Burpee on a pro bono basis as soon as Nancy Burpee phoned Kevin P. Simmons; one of the partners at the law firm. She wanted to have the disqualification removed. The law firm stated that the Australian referee showed bias against Ms. Burpee and that the Australian referee did not want Ms. Burpee competing against an Australian paralympic swimmer. Ms. Burpee's attorneys also argued that the United States Paralympic swim trials were not held in accordance with the paralympic rules. Unfortunately an independent arbitrator ruled against Ms. Burpee and as a result did not force the United States Olympic Committee to name her to the Paralympic Team.

Nancy Burpee still continues her career in swimming....

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