Over at GoNeuner.com we reported that the two-time biathlon Olympic champion Magdalena Neuner has decided to retire at the end of the 2011/2012 season.

The 24-year-old German says on her website “the time is right for a change” and that she wants to “try new things”. She believes big things are to come, and she eventually wants to settle down and start a family.

“The first World Cup weekend is behind me and now we look forward to Hochfilzen,” she said on her website. “Before the upcoming competitions though I have an important anouncementto make – I will finish my career as a biathlete when this season is over. This may be a shock and surprise to many of you and it was in no way an easy decision.“For starters, I miss a normal lifestyle. I’m looking forward to a bit more rest and being able to do things outside of sport. I am motivated to try new things in other fields and I’m open to suggestions from everyone.

“At the moment I am still trying to get the C-License coaching qualification so I can pass on my experiences to children and upcoming athletes.

“Now I am looking forward to the upcoming winter, and of course the Ruhpolding World Cup.”

Neuner is the most decorated biathlete with 10 world titles. She won the overall World Cup title in 2008 and 2010 and has 25 World Cup wins. She was Germany’s athlete of the year in 2007.

We wish ‘Lena good luck with her final season. Hopefully she can crown her career with some fantastic gold medals in Rupolding. in the beginning of 2012.

On a personal note I’m hoping for a “Lena” comeback in a couple of years from now :)

Petter Northug did it again and became the new world champion in 50 km Mass Start free.

The final competition of the world championships was a tactical battle witnessed by more than 100.000 spectators along the track, including myself.

Petter was once again the untouchable king on the long straight finishline and nobody could stop him from winning his 3rd gold medal in less than two weeks.Northug won the competition in 2:08:09.0 and edged out Vylegzhanin by +1.7 sec. Tord Asle Gjerdalen crossed the finish line in 3rd, 6.3 seconds behind the winner.

This 50 km race has been in my mind every hour for the last year. Winning this race feels like a heavy burden has been lifted off my back. During the race, everything was just right and the audience lifted my spirit.

What a time we’ve had here in Oslo, Norway. Two weeks filled with fantastic ski experiences, 100,000+ people daily gathered around the tracks and loads of memories for life.

The skiing world championships have been everything we hoped for and much much more. Congratulations to the Oslo 2011 committee and the 2200 voluneers who made this 12-day event possible.

Gratulerer med seieren, Therese!!

The young, talented, high-energy athlete from Dalsbygda won the 30 kilometers freestyle cross-country skiing world title for the first time on Saturday. “This is a dream come true” she said at Universitetsplassen in the heart of Oslo upon reception of her gold medal.

Therese also picked up a bronze medal in the 15km and a gold medal in the 4×5km relay. This has without a doubt been Therese’s best World Championships so far. Something tells me the best is yet to come :)

…not once, not twice, not three times but she has won gold 4 TIMES in the last two weeks. Simply amazing!

She won her first gold medal already on the first day of the world championships in the ladies 1.3km sprint.

Her second gold medal came a few days later in the ladies pursuit 7.5 km classic + 7.5 km free.

Last Monday she skied her way into the history books by winning her third individual gold medal for Norway in the same world championships. That was in the individual 10km classic.

Her fourth and last gold medal came in the ladies’ 4×5 km Relay Classic/Free.

She ended the world championships in Oslo with a silver medal in the 30km! What an excellent performance by an outstanding athlete. Marit is without a doubt the queen of the world championships.

Gratulerer jenter!!

Team Norway with Vibeke Skofterud, Therese Johaug, Kristin Steira and Marit Bjørgen won another fantastic gold medal with a clear margin of +36.1 sec ahead of Sweden.

What a fantastic performance it was by the 4 power girls with a 100,000+ crowd along the track cheering them on. There was never any doubt in my mind that the girls wouldn’t pull this off. Throughout the entire season they’ve proven that they are the best overall cross-country relay team in the world!

Today they were rewarded with a fantastic (and much deserved I must say) gold medal!A little breakdown of the race
Soon after start Skofterud, Muranen, Ingemarsdotter and Longa formed a powerful quartet and led the start field. In the second part of the first leg Longa and Ingemarsdotter attacked and broke away from Norway and Finland.

The 2nd leg was all about Therese Johaug. Aino Kaisa Saarinen and Therese Johaug caught the Italian Antonella Confortolla Wyat early and now the hunt was on for leading Anna Haag of Sweden.

“I felt like I could go and go and I had so much power today,” Johaug said of her race. Her plan all along was to attack coming back through the stadium, and she executed perfectly. Johaug took over the initiative, shook off Haag and brought in the stadium and for Kristin Stoermer Steira a margin of almost 9 seconds on Sweden and 14 seconds on Finland.

Kristin Steira had full control over the race and even increased the gap to +24 seconds at 3.5 km of her leg and before the stadium she gained another ten seconds on Sweden and Finland.In the last leg Marit Bjoergen had a comfortable margin of 34 seconds. She came first in the stadium and with the Norwegian flag in her hand she could enjoy last meters of the relay.

Marit Bjørgen said this after the race -

“All of the girls did a fantastic job today, so I had no reason to worry.  Crossing the finish line waving the norwegian flag was a dream come true.  In front of this audience, it’s just incredible.  I want to thank the girls on my team.”

The skiing cross-country world championships in Oslo, Norway kicked into high gear this week.

Norway has already won a gold medal thanks to Marit Bjørgen and we expect the norwegian team to pick up many more medals in the coming weeks. Stay up to date with all the events on the official website, Oslo 2011.

I’ll be attentding a few event myself so I’ll definitely keep you all posted during these exciting world championships. If you ever wanted to take a look at Holmenkollen up close, this is definitely the time to do it!

Duke beat Butler 61-59 on Monday night. What a game! And what a way to end the season, even if America’s favorite underdog came up a little short.

“It will become an historic game, a benchmark game,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said.

“Not just the way it was played, but who played in it and what comes about.” Memorable, indeed, for the way both teams battled, never giving an inch, or giving in on a single possession.

And memorable for the way it ended. It was a game where nobody led by more than six.Tiny Butler, on a mission to write a sequel to “Hoosiers,” had two chances to win it in the last 4 seconds. Hayward’s more traditional attempt — a fadeaway, 15-footer — was barely long. Then, after Brian Zoubek made one free throw and intentionally missed the next, Hayward collected the rebound, moved to halfcourt and took another shot that was on line, but barely bounced out.

“I can’t really put it into words because the last couple of plays were just not normal,” said Duke’s Kyle Singler, who scored 19 points and was named the Final Four’s most outstanding player.

The Blue Devils (35-5) got the right bounces at the end to snap Butler’s 25-game winning streak and bring the long-awaited fourth national title back home to the Cameron Crazies.

The “Big Three” — Singler, Jon Scheyer (15 points) and Nolan Smith (13) — won the Big One for Coach K, his first championship since 2001 and fourth overall, tying him with Adolph Rupp for second place on the all-time list.

Krzyzewski is now 4-4 in title games. “It’s the best one I’ve been involved in of the eight,” he said.

Nobody figured this would be easy, and it wasn’t — no way that was going to happen against Butler, the 4,200-student private school that sent millions of brackets to the paper shredder while earning the right to make the 5-mile drive from its historic home, Hinkle Fieldhouse where they filmed “Hoosiers,” to the Final Four.

Butler (33-5) shaved a five-point deficit to one and had a chance to win it, when its best player, Hayward, took the ball at the top of the key, spun and worked his way to the baseline, but was forced to put up an off-balance fadeaway from 15 feet.

He missed, but Duke’s title wasn’t secure until Hayward’s desperation heave bounded out. The first shot, caught it, tried to go left, went back right. Thought it was a good shot and missed it,” Hayward said. “The last shot, it was just a last-second shot. I don’t know. It missed.”

What a game to end one of the most memorable March Madnesses in history, filled with wild finishes, upsets and underdogs; the kind of tournament that some fear could be history if the NCAA moves forward with an expansion to 96 teams — something very much on the table for next year. It was the closest margin of victory in a final since Michigan defeated Seton Hall 80-79 in 1989.

“We came up one possession short in a game with about 145 possessions,” said Butler’s 33-year-old coach, Brad Stevens. “It’s hard to stomach when you’re on the wrong end of that.”

The Blue Devils won with defense. They held the Bulldogs to 34 percent shooting and contested every possession as tenaciously as Butler, which allowed 60 points for the first time since February.

They won with some clutch shooting. Singler went 3 for 6 from 3-point range and the Blue Devils went 6 of 6 from the free throw line in the second half until Zoubek’s intentional miss.

They won with a mean streak. It was most pointed when Lance Thomas took down Hayward hard to prevent an easy layup with 5:07 left. The refs reviewed the play and decided not to call it flagrant – one of a hundred little moments that could have swung such a tight, taut game.

They won because that last shot didn’t go in.

“Speechless. It’s the best feeling in the world,” Smith said. “That shot didn’t go in and I just hugged Kyle and just hugged my teammates. We’ve worked so hard and we finished it together.”

A perfect ending for Duke, which won a different way this season, on a team that had no superstars.

Good teams only become great in Coach K’s mind when they win it all, and though the members of this group may not end up with lottery-pick money in their pockets, they’ll have a national title forever. Teams with mega-money from power conferences aren’t the only ones that win in big-time college sports. Nothing proved that better than the Bulldogs in their run through this year’s NCAA tournament.

In the true team fashion that has defined “The Butler Way,” the Bulldog scoring was distributed almost perfectly even. Hayward and Shelvin Mack had 12 each. Matt Howard, coming off a concussion in the semifinal win over Michigan State, finished with 11, and 2-point-a-game scorer Avery Jukes kept Butler in it with all 10 of his points in the first half.

“Hate losing,” Hayward said. “It’s one of the worst feelings personally that I have, is losing. So it’s great for us to be here, but that’s not what we wanted to do. We wanted to win.” They weren’t alone. They captured America’s attention, and its heart, and came close to writing the unthinkable sequel to “Hoosiers.” In the movie, the winning team is tiny Hickory High, and Jimmy Chitwood hits the game-winner at the buzzer to strike a blow for the little guys.

I don’t know about you all but I love some of the ’sickest dunks’ compilations on youtube. I’ve found another one for you. Pay attention to the guy at 1.25, what an amazing dunk. Have fun!

Click here to view the embedded video.

It’s that time of the year once again. All the pain, all the sweat, all the ups and downs of the season lead to this final game, the Super Bowl XLIV.

The two best teams of the season by a long shot are going to bang their heads together in Miami this weekend. The New Orleans Saints vs the Indianapolis Colts, Drew Brees vs Peyton Manning.

One of the key matchups will be between Saints WR Marques Colston vs. Colts CB Kelvin Hayden. Colston led the Saints in receiving during the regular season, but he caught just two passes for 22 yards in the NFC Championship Game vs. the Vikings. He’s a physical receiver with good size and height and deceptive speed. He also has very good jumping ability. When the Saints are in the red zone, look for Drew Brees to try to connect with Colston on a high throw.
Hayden is in his fifth season, his third as a starter, with the Colts. He played wide receiver at the University of Illinois for three years before moving to cornerback. He’s a very good zone corner, with read-and-react ability and excellent quickness for the position. He has good burst to the ball in man coverage. Like Colts safety Antoine Bethea, Hayden is a low-block tackler.

It’s also a given fact that the Colts are very dependent on Joseph Addai, who had 219 carries and rushed for 828 yards in the regular season. The Saints have more options in their running game with Pierre Thomas ( 147 carries for 793 yards) and Mike Bell ( 172 carries for 654 yards). On the receiving end the Colts have the upper hand. Reggie Wayne made 10 touchdowns and received for a total of 1264 yards. To show you the balance of the team, Dallas Clark has had almost identical numbers so far this season. He combined for 1106 yards and 10 touchdowns also. The Saints aren’t far behind though. So far this season Colston has had 70 receptions for 1074 yards and 9 touchdowns. Devery Henderson made 51 receptions for 804 yards and 2 touchdowns.

A running team vs a passing team, I’m not going to bet on either teams but my gut feeling is telling me that this game is going to be REALLY close. I’m hoping Brees and his crew can pull this one off, but I think Peyton and Mr Wayne won’t give up on this one so easily. Either way, it’s going to be an AWESOME game!

Did anyone else watch the 100 meter finals in Berlin a few minutes ago? I still can’t believe what I just witnessed on tv. Usain Bolt ran 100 meters in 9.58 seconds. If that isn’t insane, I don’t know what is. In all this Bolt mania, lets not forget about Tyson Gay, who also had a great race. He clocked the 100 meters in 9.71 seconds, a new US record. Asafa Powell finished 3rd with a time of 9.84 seconds. I just want to add that this was the best 100 meter starting lineup EVER, no questions asked.

The performance Usain put up tonight was INSANE! Last year when I saw him run in Beijing I knew the guy could go a lot faster. We all knew!  I remember 5-10 years ago when the sprinters were fighting to cross the 9.80 mark. To this day, most worldclass athletes still hover around that time frame when they run the 100 meter. Tyson lowered his own record to 9.71 which also is a MAJOR improvement. I listened to a couple of interviews with Usain after the race. Usain knows his coach will find things that will improve his record by another 1/10 or 2/10’s of a second. According to Usain himself, the run was 95% perfect. That’s what I call fabnomenal!

I can’t wait for the 200 meters later this week. Usain is in the shape of his life and he’ll easily break the WR (19.30 seconds) he set last year.

In case you missed the 100m final, you better take a look at this.

Click here to view the embedded video.