Olympics 2012/Shocking story
So in the 2012 Olympics I will of course be rooting for the Lithuanian men's basketball team, as always (if they make it - they still need to qualify in July...*bites fingernails nervously*).
I will also be rooting for Kayla Harrison, USA, to win the gold medal in Women's Judo (under 78 kg weight class). She is the 2010 world champion in this weight class, so she certainly has a reasonable chance! I randomly came across her name in a local publication because she trains out of a dojo in Massachusetts, and they were profiling local Olympic hopefuls. I was of course interested in reading about her because I used to do Judo (if not nearly as well as Kayla) but as I read on, I realized she got her start in the Southern Ohio Judo community, in which I really got my start in competition as well. It was then that I received a shock. (Rather disturbing story under the cut).
http://articles.boston.com/2012-03-04/sports/31120162_1_olympic-hopefuls-london-olympics-judo-lessons
Shockingly - as a teen, starting when she was 13, she was sexually abused, for several years, by her then coach, Daniel Doyle, before she confessed what was happening to a friend who took the story to Kayla's mother. (Doyle is now in jail in connection to this. And Kayla seems, happily, to have her life back on track.) Kayla is 21 years my junior, so our paths never crossed, but Doyle, and his father, were people I had met and practiced with on various occasions. This was definitely a reminder of all that we don't know about the people we "know"!
I will also be rooting for Kayla Harrison, USA, to win the gold medal in Women's Judo (under 78 kg weight class). She is the 2010 world champion in this weight class, so she certainly has a reasonable chance! I randomly came across her name in a local publication because she trains out of a dojo in Massachusetts, and they were profiling local Olympic hopefuls. I was of course interested in reading about her because I used to do Judo (if not nearly as well as Kayla) but as I read on, I realized she got her start in the Southern Ohio Judo community, in which I really got my start in competition as well. It was then that I received a shock. (Rather disturbing story under the cut).
http://articles.boston.com/2012-03-04/sports/31120162_1_olympic-hopefuls-london-olympics-judo-lessons
Shockingly - as a teen, starting when she was 13, she was sexually abused, for several years, by her then coach, Daniel Doyle, before she confessed what was happening to a friend who took the story to Kayla's mother. (Doyle is now in jail in connection to this. And Kayla seems, happily, to have her life back on track.) Kayla is 21 years my junior, so our paths never crossed, but Doyle, and his father, were people I had met and practiced with on various occasions. This was definitely a reminder of all that we don't know about the people we "know"!