My Science School

Yelena Isinbayeva, also spelled Elena Isinbaeva, (born June 3, 1982, Volgograd, Russia, U.S.S.R. [now in Russia]), Russian pole-vaulter who achieved numerous world records and became the first woman to clear the 5-metre (16-foot 4.75-inch) mark in the sport’s history.

She became the first woman to clear the five-metre barrier in 2005. Her current world record is 5.06 m outdoors, set in Zurich in August 2009. Her 5.01 m indoors was the world record for just over a year. The latter was Isinbayeva's twenty-eighth pole vault world record. On 2 March 2013, Jenn Suhr joined Isinbayeva as the only women who have cleared 5 metres. In the process, Suhr took Isinbayeva's indoor world record.

Isinbayeva was named Female Athlete of the Year by the IAAF in 2004, 2005 and 2008, and World Sportswoman of the Year by Laureus in 2007 and 2009. In 2007 she entered in the FICTS "Hall of Fame" and was awarded with "Excellence Guirlande D'Honneur". She was given the Prince of Asturias Award for Sports in 2009. She is one of only nine athletes (along with Valerie Adams, Usain Bolt, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Jacques Freitag, Kirani James, Jana Pittman, Dani Samuels, and David Storl) to win world championships at the youth, junior, and senior level of an athletic event.

At the 2000 World Junior Championships in Athletics Isinbayeva again took first place clearing 4.20 m ahead of German Annika Becker. The same year the women's pole vault made its debut as an Olympic event in Sydney, Australia where Stacy Dragila of the United States took gold. In the same event Isinbayeva did not make it out of the qualifying round.

She won another gold medal in 2001, this time at the European Junior Championships with a winning height of 4.40 m.

Isinbayeva continued to improve and 2002 saw her clear 4.55 m at the 2002 European Athletics Championships, where she gained her first senior championship medal (silver), finishing 5 cm short of her compatriot Svetlana Feofanova.

 

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In 1976 in Montreal, Romanian athlete Nadia Comaneci became the first gymnast in Olympic history to be awarded the perfect score of 10.0 for her performance on the uneven bars. She went on to record the perfect 10.0 six more times and became the youngest all-around Olympic gold medallist ever.

Nadia Elena Comaneci was born on November 12, 1961, in Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, Romania, in the Carpathian Mountains, to parents Stefania-Alexandrina and Gheorghe, an auto mechanic. Comaneci was discovered at the age of 6 by gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi (later to become the Romanian national coach). She won the Romanian National Junior Championships, and, as a senior, won the European Championships in 1975 and the American Cup in 1976.

Comaneci retired from competition in 1984 and worked as a coach for the Romanian team before defecting to the United States via Hungary in 1989. After appearing in a series of provocative underwear advertisements, she married American gymnast Bart Conner in 1996 and moved to Norman, Oklahoma.

In 1999, Comaneci received a World Sports Award of the Century after being elected "Athlete of the Century" during a gala in Vienna, Austria.

Comaneci currently does television commentary, writes for gymnastic publications and travels the world promoting the sport.

 

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Martina Navratilova is a Czechoslovak-born American former professional tennis player and coach. In 2005, Tennis magazine selected her as the greatest female tennis player for the years 1975 through 2005 and she is considered one of the best female tennis players of all time.

She won 18 Grand Slam singles titles, 31 major women's doubles titles (an all-time record), and 10 major mixed doubles titles, for a combined total of 59 major titles, marking the Open Era record for the most Grand Slam titles won by one player, male or female. She reached the Wimbledon singles final 12 times, including for nine consecutive years from 1982 through 1990, and won the women's singles title at Wimbledon a record nine times (surpassing Helen Wills Moody's eight Wimbledon titles), including a run of six consecutive titles, widely regarded as the best performance by any professional player at a major event. She and Billie Jean King each won 20 combined Wimbledon titles, an all-time record. Navratilova is also one of just three women ever to have accomplished a Career Grand Slam in women's singles and doubles, and mixed doubles, called the career "Grand Slam Boxed Set"; consisting of every senior Grand Slam title, a distinction she shares only with two others, Margaret Court and Doris Hart.

Navratilova's final Grand Slam singles triumph was in 1990. In the final at Wimbledon, the 33-year-old Navratilova swept Zina Garrison 6–4, 6–1 to claim an all-time record ninth Wimbledon singles crown. She won four other tournaments that year, although she did not participate in the Australian or French Opens, and finished the year ranked No. 3 in the world, narrowly edged out by sixteen-year-old Monika Seles for the No. 2 spot. Though that was her last major singles title, Navratilova reached two additional major singles finals during the remainder of career: in 1991, she lost in the US Open final to the new world No. 1, Monica Seles; and, in 1994, at age 37, Navratilova reached the Wimbledon final, where she lost in three sets to Conchita Martínez. In November that year, after losing to Gabriela Sabatini in the first round of the WTA Tour Championships, she retired from full-time competition on the singles tour. She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2000.

In September 1992, the 35-year-old Navratilova played 40-year-old Jimmy Connors in the third Battle of the Sexes tennis match at Caesars Palace in Paradise, Nevada. Connors was allowed only one serve per point and Navratilova was allowed to hit into half the doubles court. Connors won 7–5, 6–2. She played for the Boston Lobsters in the World TeamTennis pro league through the 2009 season.

 

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Gregory Efthimios Louganis  born January 29, 1960) is an American Olympic diver, LGBT activist, and author who won gold medals at the 1984 and 1988 Summer Olympics, on both the springboard and platform. He is the only man and the second diver in Olympic history to sweep the diving events in consecutive Olympic Games. He has been called both "the greatest American diver" and "probably the greatest diver in history".

At the 1988 Seoul Olympics, his head struck the springboard during the preliminary rounds, leading to a concussion. He completed the preliminaries despite his injury. He then earned the highest single score of the qualifying round for his next dive and repeated the dive during the finals, earning the gold medal by a margin of 25 points. In the 10 m finals, he won the gold medal, performing a 3.4 difficulty dive in his last attempt, earning 86.70 points for a total of 638.61, surpassing silver medalist Xiong Ni by only 1.14 points. His comeback earned him the title of ABC's Wide World of Sports "Athlete of the Year" for 1988.

Six months before the 1988 Olympics, Louganis was diagnosed with HIV, and started antiretrovirals. At the time, people with HIV/AIDS faced great stigma losing their jobs, being denied housing, and being ostracized. Years later Louganis came out as HIV+. When he injured his head at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and some blood got in the pool, Louganis said he was "paralyzed with fear" that someone might catch the virus, but no-one did. The incident posed no risk to others as any blood was fully diluted by the pool water, and according to John Ward, chief of HIV-AIDS surveillance at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "chlorine kills HIV". Also, since skin is a very effective barrier to HIV, the only way the virus could enter would be through an open wound. "If the virus just touches the skin, it is unheard of for it to cause infection: the skin has no receptors to bind HIV," explained Anthony Fauci.

In 2016, Louganis was pictured on boxes of Wheaties cereal, where prominent American athletes are famously featured, as part of a special "Legends" series that also included 1980s Olympians Janet Evans and Edwin Moses. This occurred approximately a year after a change.org petition was launched that requested that he be featured, although General Mills denied any influence from the petition.

 

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Argentine footballing icon Diego Maradona has revisited an old feud, claiming Pele's "FIFA Football Family" award is meaningless.

Maradona was voted the Player of the 20th Century in 2000 after a large public vote, while Pele was handed a separate award by FIFA.

Pele, meanwhile, claimed in 2009 that Maradona couldn't be the best player ever as "he couldn't kick well with his right foot and he didn't score headed goals," per Rob Draper of the Daily Mail.

While harmless, Maradona has also accused Pele of being homosexual, per Goal.com. He also accused him of allowing former teammate Garrincha to die in misery, per BBC Sport in 2000. 

The controversy over the FIFA award stems back to 2000. In the midst of the pair's souring of relations, FIFA decided to hand out two awards, despite Maradona winning an Internet poll.

Ever since, the Argentine has declared Pele's prize to be meaningless.

The duo do not portray football in a good light with their behaviour, which has descended into childish squabbles that would be frowned upon at a primary school.

The constant one-upmanship has sadly tarnished the image of both players, with neither particularly respected for their conduct. Indeed, both have become somewhat of a laughing stock:

It is a sad way for two of football's very best players to be regarded, but their behaviour in this clash of egos has been nothing short of immature on both sides over the course of many years.

Maradona's latest outburst is simply the continuation of a trend. We can surely expect a response from his Brazilian nemesis at some point in the near future.

 

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Jesse Owens, by name of James Cleveland Owens, (born September 12, 1913, Oakville, Alabama, U.S.—died March 31, 1980, Phoenix, Arizona), American track-and-field athlete who set a world record in the running broad jump (also called long jump) that stood for 25 years and who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. 

At East Technical High School, Owens quickly made a name for himself as a nationally recognized sprinter, setting records in the 100 and 200-yard dashes as well as the long jump. After graduating, Owens enrolled at Ohio State University, where he continued to flourish as an athlete.

At the 1935 Big Ten Championships, the "Buckeye Bullet," as he was also known, overcame a severe tailbone injury and tied a world record in the 100-yard dash—and set a long jump record of 26-8 ¼ that would stand for 25 years. Owens also set new world marks in the 220-yard dash and in the 220-yard low hurdles.

His dominance at the Big Ten games was par for the course for Owens that year, which saw him win four events at the NCAA Championships, two events at the AAU Championships and three others at the Olympic trials. In all, Owens competed in 42 events that year, winning them all.

For Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games were expected to be a German showcase and a statement for Aryan supremacy.

Hitler lambasted America for including Black athletes on its Olympic roster. But it was the African American participants who helped cement America's success at the Olympic Games.

In all, the United States won 11 gold medals, six of them by Black athletes. Owens was easily the most dominant athlete to compete. He captured four gold medals (the 100 meter, the long jump, the 200 meter and the 400-meter relay) and broke two Olympic records along the way.

 

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Janet Evans, (born August 28, 1971, Placentia, California, U.S.), American swimmer, considered by many to be the greatest distance freestyler of all time, who won four Olympic gold medals. She was the first swimmer in history to win back-to-back Olympic and world championship titles in the same event: the 800-metre freestyle (Olympics: 1988, 1992; world championship: 1991, 1994).

In 1987, at age 15, Evans won four gold medals at the U.S. national championships and set three world records. At the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, she won gold medals in the 400-metre individual medley, the 400-metre freestyle (setting a world record), and the 800-metre freestyle (setting an Olympic record). 

Evans, a natural athlete who swam in her first competition at age four, was renowned for her agility and dedication to the sport. In 1988 she became the first woman to break the 16-minute barrier for the 1,500-metre freestyle (15 min 52.1 sec). Her time would have won the gold medal in the men’s 1,500-metre freestyle at the 1968 Olympic Games. She was awarded the Sullivan Award in 1989 as the outstanding American amateur athlete.

 

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The fastest woman in the world, Florence Griffith Joyner left a legacy that is record-breaking, bold, inspirational, controversial, fashionable… all at the same time.

Fondly known as Flo Jo after her marriage to triple jump Olympic champion Al Joyner, she has been immortalised in history for her records, but is somehow not always named among the greatest sprinters because of the rumours of doping surrounding her, increased by her sudden death due to an epileptic seizure in her sleep at the age of 38 in 1998.

Griffith-Joyner was born and raised in California. She was athletic from a young age and began running track meets as a child. While attending California State University, Northridge (CSUN) and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), she continued to compete in track and field. While still in college, Griffith-Joyner qualified for the 100 m 1980 Olympics, although she did not actually compete due to the U.S. boycott. She made her Olympic debut four years later, winning a silver medal in the 200 meter distance at the 1984 Olympics held in Los Angeles. At the 1988 U.S. Olympic trials, Griffith set a new world record in the 100 meter sprint. She went on to win three gold medals at the 1988 Olympics.

Griffith attended the California State University at Northridge, and was on the track team coached by Bob Kersee. This team, which included Brown and Jeanette Bolden, won the national championship during Griffith's first year of college. However, Griffith had to drop out to support her family, taking a job as a bank teller. Kersee found financial aid for Griffith and she returned to college in 1980, this time at University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) where Kersee was working as a coach.

Brown, Bolden, and Griffith qualified for the 100-meter final at the trials for the 1980 Summer Olympics (with Brown winning and Griffith finishing last in the final). Griffith also ran the 200 meters, narrowly finishing fourth, a foot out of a qualifying position. However, the U.S. Government had already decided to boycott those Olympic Games mooting those results. In 1983, Griffith graduated from UCLA with her bachelor's degree in psychology.

 

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The intrepid boy reporter from Belgium took the world by storm when he made his debut on January 10, 1929. "The Adventures of Tintin", a comic strip created by Georges Prosper Remi, better known as Herge, appeared in a serialised format in Le Petit Vingtième. The strip ran until May 8, 1930.

But not even Tintin himself could have predicted its runaway success.

The Belgian comic strip was translated to as many as 70 languages and adapted to television, radio and film. It has sold 20 million copies across the world.

While Tintin turned 92, his friend Captain Archibald Haddock turned 80. From the Soviet Union to China, Tintin has travelled the world in search of mysteries and adventures. Read on to know more about this iconic character and its creator...

Early life

Remi loved to draw and was constantly sketching out scenes from daily life along the edges of his school books. Some of these illustrations were of German soldiers, because his four years of primary schooling at the Ixelles Municipal School No. 3 coincided with World War I, during which Brussels was occupied by the German army.

From Totor to Tintin

Herge created his first comic strip "Les Aventures de Adventures of Totor') for the newsletter. The strip revolved around the adventures of a Boy Scout patrol leader. Herge who initially wrote captions underneath the panels, gradually conveyed his ideas through speech bubbles.

After finishing school, Herge enrolled in an art school Ecole Saint-Luc, hoping that it would help him pursue a career in comics. But he found the first lesson so boring that he quit the next day and started looking for a job. But no one wanted to hire him as a comic artist. So he ended up getting a job in the subscription department of a newspaper. But this job couldn't hold his attention for long. He quit and enlisted for military service. Through his numerous postings, Herge continued sketching and producing episodes of Totor.

The birth of Tintin

Finally at the end of his military service, Herge got a chance to work as a cartoonist and photographic reporter for Le Vingtieme Siecle.

Eager to come up with his own comic strip, Herge developed a character named Tintin as a Belgian boy reporter who could travel the world with his fox terrier, Snowy. The character was largely based on his earlier character of Totor. Herge wanted the character to be based in the U.S., but Wallez persuaded him to set his adventure in the Soviet Union. The result, "Tintin in the Land of the Soviets”, began serialisation in Le Petit Vingtième, a children's supplement of the paper on January 10,1929, and ran until May 8, 1930. Owing to its popularity in Belgium, the strip came to be published in book form. And with the publication of "Tintin in Congo" and "Tintin in America”, the comic strip soon became an international bestseller.

Captain Haddock turns 80

Tintin's friend, Captain Haddock completed 80 years in January. The grumpy sailor with a big heart met Tintin in 1941. Haddock made his debut when the strip was published in black and white in the Belgian newspaper Le Soir. On January 9, 1941, in the middle of the World War II, the sailor joined Tintin in a cartoon for the first time.

OH, REALLY?

• A rejected Tintin cover of "Le Lotus Bleu" ('The Blue Lotus”) illustrated by Herge set a new world record on January 14 as the most expensive comic book artwork. It sold at an auction for £2.8m. The artwork was rejected as too expensive to reproduce in 1936 and given to editors son, who kept it in a drawer for decades.


• Tintin landed on the moon at least 15 years before Neil Armstrong. In 1954, "Tintin On The Moon" was published. It showed Tintin exploring the moon.


• Remi started signing his illustrations as Herge, the phonetic transcription of his initials, RG, in 1924. Tintin's face has been drawn without much detail. It's mostly expressionless.


• In memory of the cartoonist, the Herge Museum was established in Louvain-la-Neuve in 2009.


• Herge never actually visited any of the countries which he let Tintin famously explore

 

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