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PAGE 4B
CONQUERS from 3B
compete in three different
Olympic sports.
“The judge asked me,
‘What’s your personal rela¬
tionship with this man?’”
Taormina remembered.
“None. I don’t know him.
“The judge says, ‘You
must have had a one-nighter
at least.’
I said, ‘Your Honor, I
don’t know the man.’
“He says, ‘I’ll give you
one more chance to tell me
the truth.’
“I say, ‘I don’t know how
to say it another way. I don’t
know him.’”
In May 2003, Conyers
was sentenced to a Michigan
prison for a max' of five
years. Athens came and
went. Taormina retired from
Boldin demands trade
Cardinals’ receiver
says team reneged
on contract promise
By Scott Bordow
(MCT)
Five years ago, USA Today asked
several NFL rookies to reveal their
secret ambition.
This was Anquan Boldin’s answer:
“To turn our organization around
and make people believe we’re win¬
ners.”
Now we know what Boldin really
meant:
To make as much money as I can,
and if I don’t get what I want I’m
going to stomp my feet and be mean
to everybody.”
Did you catch Boldin’s latest rant?
He told the NFL Network that he no
longer has a relationship with
Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt
because Whisenhunt allegedly stuck
his nose where Boldin didn’t think it
belonged, in his contentious contract
negotiations with the team.
“At this point we have no rela¬
tionship, and I don’t see that chang¬
ing,” Boldin said. “... If you ask me,
coaches should be coaches, manage¬
ment should be management, and I
don’t think those lines should be
crossed. But when you cross those
lines, you put yourself in position for
things like this to happen.”
According to Boldin, Whisenhunt
sat in on a meeting in which owner¬
ship promised he’d have a new deal
before this season. Evidently, that
makes Whisenhunt a co-conspirator.
“Well, here we are a year later
and still no new deal,” Boldin said.
Let’s be clear: The Cardinals are
not innocent victims here. General
manager Rod Graves led Boldin to
believe his contract would be renego¬
tiated. That was his first mistake. The
second was not following through on
his declaration.
But the incendiary comments
from Boldin at the start of training
camp and then to the NFL Network
on Monday? Those are the words of
a diva, not a player who seemed to
embody all the right values his'first
few years with the team.
Boldin’s latest blast is clearly a
Drew Rosenhaus production.
Rosenhaus’ clients often start foam¬
ing at the mouth when they’re unhap¬
py. Chicago linebacker Lance Briggs
ripped coach Lovie Smith, Cincinnati
wide receiver Chad Johnson took on
the entire organization, and now
Boldin is trying to force his way out.
It’s blackmail, pure and simple.
We’re going to make your life so
miserable you’ll be happy to get rid
of us.
Except the Cardinals aren’t going
to buckle. If they trade Boldin just
because he’s mouthing off, there will
be a long line of malcontents lining
up outside Graves’ office.
What we have here, then, is a
stalemate. And a very messy public
U.S. men Australia in basketball
By Mark Maloney
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
BEIJING — Kobe Bryant scored
25 points as the United States
rolled into the semifinals of the
Olympic basketball tournament
Wednesday night with a 116-85
rout of Australia at Wukesong
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS — Thursday, August 21,2008
triathlon. But the modern
pentathlon team was looking
for someone who could run
and swim. Taormina had won
a 1996 gold -medal with
Trina Jackson, Cristina
Teuscher and Jenny
Thompson in the 4x200
freestyle relay.
But modern pentathlon?
Shooting, riding and fenc¬
ing? Little Sheila Taormina?
No way. She never had
held a gun. Never had been
on a horse. Knew so little
about sword play she
thought you gripped it with
both hands.
Can you learn a sport in
less than 10 years?’ That’s
what you often hear from
coaches,” Taormina said,
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Photo/Harry Walker/MCT
Anquan Boldin (81) is tackled by Washington Redskins’ Leigh Torrence (29) during a game last season.
spat.
Would this all go away if Arizona
gave Boldin what he wants? Of
course. The Bears haven’t heard a
peep out of Briggs since he signed a
six-year, $36 million deal.
But until that day comes — if it
comes at all both sides will lose.
The Cardinals, who don’t have
the greatest reputation to begin with,
will suffer a hit inside their locker
room. Boldin is immensely popular
with teammates; his unhappiness is
sure to color how they view the fran¬
chise.
Boldin, meanwhile, will forfeit all
Basketball Gymnasium.
The U.S. will meet the winner of
the Argentina-Greece contest.
Bryant led five American scorers
in double figures. LeBron James
added 16 points, nine rebounds and
four steals, while Carmelo Anthony
had 15 points. Deron Williams and
Chris Bosh scored 10 each.
who trains one hour a day,
three days a week? A teenag¬
er? What if you’re an experi¬
enced athlete and you’re train¬
ing four hours a day for six
days a week? Does it still take
you 10 years?”
Taormina tried cross-coun¬
try skiing instead. She trained
alone in Michigan’s Upper
Peninsula. She fell a lot.
Freaked out a lot. Saw bear
tracks. Said: “Oh, my God,
I’m going to be eaten out
here.”
Three months into it, in
February 2005, she quit skiing
and contacted the pentathlon
people.
“I never held a gun in my
life. It’s not like I’m anti¬
guns. It just wasn’t my world.
Riding a horse, I didn’t know
the goodwill he built up over the
years. He once was the golden child
of the organization, so respected that
former coach Dave McGinnis said
this about him:
“There ought to be thousands of
(No.) 81 jerseys sold pretty soon.
This is a guy you want your children
to emulate. This is a guy you’d like
to cheer for. This is a guy you’d like
to have represent your company. He
is real. To me, that’s what is so spe¬
cial about him, especially at this
young age. He gets it and he is not
affected by it.”
That was in 2003. Today, Boldin
The U.S. shot 57 percent from
the field and finished with a 57-28
advantage in rebounds.
Patrick Mills paced Australia
with 20 points. Glen Saville added
13, Joe Ingles 11 and Brad Newley
10 .
A 14-0 run to start the second
half blew the game open, pushing a
-,A
what horses ate. I didn’t know
how they slept. Standing up?”
She tried anyhow.
Money once had been an
object. A few months away
from defaulting, Taormina
panicked and sold her house
for less than face value. But
her coach told her: “If you
have to sell your house, you
have to sell your house. This
is your dream. It’s nobody
else’s.”
The stalking episode sent
her into a deep depression.
She cried a lot. She consumed
gallons of coffee. She has a
weakness for cigarettes and
gambling.
A psychiatrist was recom¬
mended. Taormina balked.
She got through it.
Pentathlon was the shot in
sounds like so many athletes who
have let the almighty dollar cloud
their perspective. He’s making mil¬
lions playing the game he loves. He
should be thanking God every day
for his blessings rather than com¬
plaining about what he doesn’t have.
Perhaps Boldin needs to be reminded
of another quote.
“I always told him, ‘You can’t
dictate everything. Someone could be
smarter than you or more talented
than you.’ But you can dictate how
hard you work.”
Apparently, Anquan has forgotten
his father’s advice.
55-43 lead to 69-43.
Bryant had nine of those 14
points. Anthony added a three
pointer and Jason Kidd had two
points.
Australia never led, but battled
back from a nine-point deficit to tie
the game at 21 late in the first
quarter.
the arm she needed.
Now she is in China, mak¬
ing history. Her roommate is
16. Her name is Margaux
Isaksen.
- We complement each
other perfectly,” Taormina
said, tongue in cheek. “She’s
tall, blond, beautiful, young
and happy. I’m short, dark,
cranky, bitter and old.”
Bitterness lingers from
how the cops handled her
case, how the judge handled
it. Sadness. Her old friend
Nemesnik, a former
University of Michigan swim¬
mer, a double Olympic medal
winner, “Snik” to all his
friends, died at 35 in a 2006
car crash.
Should she talk about the
stalker? People told her no.
Americans
in men’s
volleyball
finals
By Charean Williams
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
BEIJING Phil
Dalhausser was nervous for the
first time in his volleyball
career. A victory over the
Georgians would assure
Dalhausser and his partner
Todd Rogers of a medal.
After Wednesday morning’s
semifinal victory, Dalhausser
might be even more nervous for
Friday’s gold-medal match.
“I didn’t even realize he was
nervous,” Rogers said. “For him
to come out and play like that, I
hope he’s nervous as hell
Friday.”
Rogers and Dalhausser beat
Georgians Jorge Terceiro and
Renato Gomes 21-11, 21-13 in
42 minutes. They move on the
gold medal match, assuring the
U.S. of a medal after it was
shutout in men’s beach volley¬
ball in Athens four years ago.
The Americans will play
Brazilians Fabio Magalhaes and
Marcio Araujo, who beat their
countrymen — and defending
gold medalists — Ricardo
Santos and Emanuel Rego in
the other semifinal.
“It hasn’t hit me yet, **
Dalhausser said. “Give me a
couple of hours, and it’ll proba¬
bly smack me in the face. That’s
the coolest thing about it. We
still want the gold medal, but if
we lose, we’re going home with
the silver. We’re going home
with some kind of medal.”
The clock struck midnight
on the Georgians’ Cinderella
run. Gomes and Terceiro, who
are Brazilian by birth, had man¬
aged three upsets before run¬
ning into the gold medal
favorites.
Dalhausser and Rogers won
the 2007 World Championships
and have won three of the six
international events they have
played this year, medaling in the
other three.
But the top U.S. team had
lost its first match in Beijing,
falling 21-19, 21-18 to Latvia’s
23rd-ranked team of Martins
Plavins and Aleksandrs
Samoilovs. Since then they have
lost only one set, winning all six
matches.
“It’s been an emotional
rollercoaster, that’s for sure,”
Dalhausser said. “But losing
the first match ended up help¬
ing us out. Otherwise, we
would have played Brazil to
get into the semifinals. Instead,
they put us on the top bracket
with no Brazilian teams. We
had a pretty easy road to the
gold medal match.”
Rogers and Dalhausser
admit they got lucky with the
draw and lucky the Georgians
didn’t play their best match
Wednesday. They hope Lady
Luck stays with them just one
more time.
“This just means we did
what we set out to do,” Rogers
said of Wednesday’s victory.
“We still have one more match
remaining to put the crowning
achievement for probably our
careers. It’s fantastic to get
there, but the final goal is to get
the gold medal. If we don’t get
that, I’ve still had a great time,
but I’ll be disappointed.”
Don’t let him know where
you are. But now friends say
yes, spread the word. Make
people aware of this guy. He
could come up to your
neighbors. He could say,
“I’m Sheila’s cousin. Do you
know where I can find her?”
They say this because
James Conyers was released
from prison in January.
“I’ll talk about it all some¬
day, I don’t care,” Taormina
says, determined to be fear¬
less. “I’ll open up with the
ugliest of uglies. There are
things I haven’t shared with
anybody yet.”
But first, she will run and
swim and shoot and ride and
wield a sword.
They can help you, these
Games that people play.