Stephanie Louise Rice OAM (born June 17, 1988 in Brisbane, Queensland) is an Australian swimmer. Currently holds the world record in the 400 m medley of individual women, and won three gold medals at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Rice is trained by Michael Bohl of San Pedro West Swimming Club in Brisbane. She was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia on January 26, 2009.
Rice was the gold medalist in the 200 individual medley at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. In the 2007 Melbourne World Championships she won a bronze medal in the 200 individual medley in a time of 2 minutes 11.42 seconds, breaking the previous record of Australia for a second.
Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, Rice won three gold medals (each in world record time) in the 200 m and 400 m individual medleys in the relay 4 x 200 freestyle. By winning the individual medley 400m, Rice won its first Olympic medal, the first gold medal of the Games and Australia its 400th summer Olympic medal. Recording a time of 4:29.45, which regained the world record Hoff, surpassing the mark of 1.67 seconds and became the first woman to break the 4:30 mark in the event.
Rice attended Clayfield College in her high school years in Brisbane, Queensland. She was linked romantically with fellow Australian swimmer and 50m freestyle world record holder Eamon Sullivan. They finished their two-year relationship in July 2008, just before the Beijing Olympics. The couple lived in separate states of Australia (Western Australia Queensland Sullivan and Rice) and said the stress of living so far and the upcoming Olympic Games as a result of the breakup, but acknowledged that the two are still good friends.
In September 2010, Rice was attacked when using Twitter as a response to the defeat of the Wallabies, the Springboks, using the word "faggots". Rice, then remove the remark and apologized for it, however sponsor Jaguar broke relations and requested the return of a vehicle loan.
For More Information about Stephanie Rice's Career & Medals Visit Wikipedia
Julia Mancuso (born March 9, 1984 in Reno, Nevada) is an alpine ski racer with the U.S. Ski Team. She was the gold medalist in the giant slalom at the 2006 Winter Olympics and the silver medalist in both downhill and combined at the 2010 Winter Olympics. She has also won three medals (a silver and two bronzes) at the World Championships, although she has only won four races in regular World Cup competition. Her three Olympic medals are the most ever for a female American alpine skier.
Mancuso's nickname among her U.S. Ski Team teammates and fans is "Super Jules". Following her Olympic gold medal in 2006, a ski run at Squaw Valley Ski Resort was renamed "Julia's Gold".
Mancuso was born in Reno, Nevada, and grew up in the Lake Tahoe area as the middle of three sisters, between older sister April and younger sister Sara. Her parents divorced in 1992. She attended The Winter Sports School in Park City, Utah, graduating in 2000. She resides in Olympic Valley, California.
Mancuso made her World Cup debut at Copper Mountain, Colorado, on November 20, 1999, at the age of 15. She scored her first World Cup points (top-30 finish in a race) during the 2001 season. While she often struggled in World Cup races over the next few seasons, she enjoyed exceptional success at the Junior World Championships, winning a record eight medals, including five golds in 2002, 2003, and 2004.
Her World Cup results improved dramatically during the 2005 season, as she climbed to ninth place overall from 55th place in 2004. At the 2005 World Championships, she won bronze medals in both the super G and the giant slalom competitions. Her unexpected gold medal at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics, coming when she had never finished higher than second in a World Cup race, launched her to stardom.
After her coach gave her a plastic tiara as a good-luck token in 2005, she wore it over her racing helmet during several slalom races. She wore her tiara following her Silver Medal run in the Women's Downhill and again at the medal ceremony at the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Mancuso competes using Volkl skis, Lange boots and POC helmets and armor. In December 2006, Lange announced that Mancuso would be the first-ever "Lange Girl Athlete", and be the subject of posters, images, and an "ongoing effort to showcase exceptional women ski athletes who are also attractive and inspiring".
In 2010, Mancuso launched her own lingerie line named Kiss My Tiara. Mancuso also models lingerie and has been memorably quoted as saying, "I think underwear is my calling. You can be feminine and fast."
During the 2010 Winter Olympics, VISA featured Mancuso in an animated story describing how as a child she had drawn a picture of herself as a gold medalist, and closing with a photograph of her after winning the gold medal in 2006. She also starred in a commercial for 24 Hour Fitness called 'Reach Your Potential', directed by Emmy nominee Brent Roske.
Caroline Wozniacki (born 11 July 1990) is a Danish tennis player. As of 10 January 2010 (2010-01-10), she is ranked World No. 1 on the WTA Tour. She has won twelve WTA singles titles and was the runner-up at the 2009 US Open and the 2010 WTA Tour Championships.
Wozniacki is the daughter of Polish immigrants, Piotr and Anna Wozniacki. Her mother having played on the Polish women's national volleyball team, and her father played professional football. The couple moved to Denmark when Piotr signed for the Danish football club Boldklubben 1909. Wozniacki's older brother Patrik is a professional footballer for Bronshoj BK in Denmark.
Wozniacki won several junior tournaments in 2005, including the Orange Bowl tennis championship. She made her debut on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour at Cincinnati's Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open on 19 July 2005, losing to the top-seeded and later champion Patty Schnyder in the first round.
She ended 2008 wiht ranked 12th in singles and 79th in doubles. She finished thirteenth in the race for the Sony Ericsson Championships. She also won the WTA Newcomer of the Year award for 2008.
Wozniacki supports Liverpool and the club's Spanish striker Fernando Torres. Her best friend is her fellow Danish tennis player Malou Ejdesgaard, her doubles partner in some WTA tournaments. They are trying to gain entry to the 2012 Summer Olympics in doubles.
On 20 December 2010, she signed a three-year deal to endorse Turkish Airlines' business class service.
For more about Caroline Wozniacki's career records & awards visit wikipedia
Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American professional tennis player who is a former World No. 1 and currently ranked World No. 4 in singles and No. 5 in doubles with sister Venus Williams. The Women's Tennis Association has ranked her World No. 1 in singles on five separate occasions. She is considered to be one of the greatest women's tennis players of all-time in a career hampered by numerous injuries. She regained this ranking for the fifth time on November 2, 2009. She became the World No. 1 for the first time on July 8, 2002.
Williams is the reigning champion in both singles and women's doubles at the Australian Open, in singles at Wimbledon, and in women's doubles at the French Open. Her 27 Grand Slam titles places her ninth on the all-time list: 13 in singles, 12 in women's doubles, and 2 in mixed doubles. She is the most recent player, male or female, to have held all four Grand Slam singles titles simultaneously and only the fifth woman in history to do so. Her 13 Grand Slam singles titles is sixth on the all-time list. Williams ranks fourth in Grand Slam women's singles titles won during the open era, behind Steffi Graf (22 titles) and Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova (18 titles each). She has won more Grand Slam titles in singles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles than any other active female player.
Williams has won two Olympic gold medals in women's doubles. She has won more career prize money than any other female athlete in history. Serena has played older sister Venus in 23 professional matches since 1998, with Serena winning 13 of these matches. They have met in eight Grand Slam finals, with Serena winning six times. Beginning with the 2002 French Open, they played each other in four consecutive Grand Slam singles finals, which was the first time in the open era that the same two players had contested four consecutive Grand Slam finals. The pair have won 12 Grand Slam doubles titles together.
Williams was born in Saginaw, Michigan to Richard Williams and Oracene Price. She is of African American heritage and is the youngest of Oracene's five daughters: half-sisters Yetunde (died September 14, 2003), Lyndrea and Isha Price, and older sister Venus. When the children were young, the family moved to the Los Angeles suburb of Compton, where Serena started playing tennis at the age of five. Her father home-schooled Williams and her sister Venus. To this end, Williams was and remains coached by both her parents.
Williams's family moved from Compton to West Palm Beach when she was nine so that she could attend the tennis academy of Rick Macci, who would provide additional coaching. Macci spotted the exceptional talents of the sisters. He did not always agree with Williams's father but respected that "he treated his daughters like kids, allowed them to be little girls". Richard stopped sending his daughters to national junior tennis tournaments when Williams was 10, since he wanted them to take it slow and focus on school work. Another motivation was racial, as he had allegedly heard parents of white players talk about the Williams sisters in a derogatory manner during tournaments. At that time, Williams had a 46–3 record on the United States Tennis Association junior tour and was ranked No. 1 among under 10 players in Florida. In 1995, Richard pulled his daughters out of Macci's academy, and from then on took over all coaching at their home. When asked in 2000 whether having followed the normal path of playing regularly on the junior circuit would have been beneficial, Williams responded: "Everyone does different things. I think for Venus and I, we just tried a different road, and it worked for us."
Williams is primarily a baseline player. Her game is built around taking immediate control of rallies with a powerful and consistent serve (considered by some to be the best in the women's game), return of serve, and forceful groundstrokes from both her forehand and backhand swings. Her serve is technically very sound and has been hit as hard as 129 mph (206.5 km/h), the second-fastest (after her sister Venus) all-time among female players.
Williams was once known for her unusual and colorful outfits on court. In 2002, there was much talk when she wore a black lycra catsuit at the US Open. At the 2004 US Open, Williams wore denim skirts and knee-high boots—tournament officials, however, did not allow her to wear the boots during matches. At Wimbledon in 2008, the white trench coat she wore during warm-up for her opening match was the subject of much discussion since it was worn despite the sunny weather. Off-court, Williams has also presented new designs. In November 2004, at the London premiere of After the Sunset she wore a red gown that had a near-topless effect.
Williams formerly had a special line with Puma and currently has a line with Nike. The deal with Nike is worth US$40 million and was signed in April 2004. Since 2004, she has also been running her own line of designer apparel called "Aneres"—her first name spelled backward. In 2009 she launched a signature collection of handbags and jewelry. The collection, called Signature Statement, is sold mainly on the Home Shopping Network (HSN).
Williams has appeared on television and also provided voice work on animated shows: in a 2001 episode of The Simpsons Serena joined the animation along with sister Venus, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. She has also provided guest voice work in a 2005 episode of Playhouse Disney's animated kids show Higglytown Heroes and a 2007 episode of the Nickelodeon cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender, which she has described as her "favorite show".
Williams has posed for the 2003 and 2004 editions of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. In April 2005, MTV announced plans to broadcast a reality show around the lives of Serena and Venus, which was eventually aired on ABC Family. Williams has appeared twice on MTV's Punk'd and in 2007, appeared in the ABC reality television series Fast Cars and Superstars: The Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race. In 2002, she played Miss Wiggins in the season 3 episode "Crouching Mother, Hidden Father" of My Wife and Kids; she has also guest-starred during episodes of ER and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. In 2007 Williams appeared in the music video of "I Want You" by the American rapper Common, alongside performers Alicia Keys and Kanye West.
In late 2009, Williams became the first active female professional athlete to appear in a feminine hygiene product advertising campaign. In early 2010, Williams became a certified nail technician in preparation for her upcoming nail collection with a company called HairTech.
Serena and sister Venus were mentioned in a couple of songs namely in Super Furry Animals studio album Phantom Power in a track entitle "Venus and Serena", in a single by Snoop Dogg Signs and Ludacris' single My Chick Bad. Miami Dolphins venture.
In August 2009, Serena and Venus Williams became part-owners of the Miami Dolphins. The formal announcement was made during a press conference overlooking the practice field. The Williams are the first African-American females to obtain ownership in an NFL franchise. Other prominent owners include: Jimmy Buffett, Gloria and Emilio Estefan (the first Cuban-American owners), and Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez . Stephan Ross, the majority owner of the Dolphins, said "We are thrilled to have Venus and Serena join the Dolphins as limited partners. They are among the most admired athletes in the world and have become global ambassadors for the game of tennis. Their addition to our ownership group further reflects our commitment to connect with aggressively and embrace the great diversity that makes South Florida a multicultural gem."
In 2008 Williams helped to fund the construction of the Serena Williams Secondary School in Matooni, Kenya. She received a Celebrity Role Model Award from Avon Foundation in 2003 for work in breast cancer. Williams has also been involved in a number of clinics at schools and community centers, particularly those which have programs focusing on at-risk youth. She has also won the "Young Heroes Award" from Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater L.A. and Inland (2003) and the "Family Circle and Prudential Financial Player Who Makes a Difference Award" (2004). In response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Williams, along with other ATP and WTA stars decided to forgo their final day of preparation for the 2010 Australian Open to form a charity event in which all proceeds will go to the Haiti earthquake victims.
During the 2009 Wimbledon Championships, Williams said that she is in the process of writing a TV show storyline, which will be converted into script form by her agency. She stated that the show will represent subject matter from a mix of popular American television shows such as Desperate Housewives, Sex and the City, and Family Guy. Serena released her first published work, an autobiography entitled On the Line, following the 2009 US Open.
For Serena Williams Records and Achievements Visit Wikipedia
Maria Yuryevna Kirilenko (born in Moscow on 25 January 1987) is a Russian professional tennis player. Kirilenko won her first WTA Tour title in 2005, defeating Anna-Lena Grönefeld in the China Open. Kirilenko reached 18, her career-high singles ranking, on the WTA tour in July 2008. She won the junior event at the 2002 Canadian Open, as well as the 2002 US Open junior tournament. She has reached one Grand Slam quarterfinal at the 2010 Australian Open. As of 20 September 2010, Kirilenko is ranked World No. 24.
In 2006, Kirilenko was selected to be the face of Adidas by Stella McCartney tennis range, designed by noted British fashion designer Stella McCartney and has played exclusively in the gear since the 2006 Australian Open. In 2009, she was replaced by Caroline Wozniacki.
Like her good friend Maria Sharapova, she likes connecting athletics and fashion, and when she spoke to Teen Vogue in August 2006, she said of being dressed by McCartney for a banquet, "I felt so glamorous!" She appeared in the 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition alongside Daniela Hantuchova and Tatiana Golovin in a pictoral entitled Volley of the Dolls.
Maria Kirilenko started showing a passion towards tennis at age 5, but it was difficult to get the practice in while she was attending school. Her father enrolled her in a tennis school, and hours of fierce training started to pay off as she won several tournaments. In 2002 Kirilenko became one of the youngest winners of the Canadian Open and the US Open Junior Tournaments.
In 2002, Kirilenko started participating in WTA events. She began moving up in the rankings but was then setback by an injury in 2004. At the end of 2005 she climbed back up the rankings and won her first title in Beijing. On 12 June 2006, she broke into the world's top 20 for the first time.
In January 2007, she advanced to the third round of the 2007 Australian Open, before being defeated by third-seed Svetlana Kuznetsova. Kirilenko began the year by competing in the 2010 ASB Classic were she reached the Quarterfinals, defeating Tatjana Malek and Kaia Kanepi in straight sets before losing to Shahar Pe'er 6-0, 3-6, 6-1. A world no. 58, Kirilenko was unseeded at the 2010 Australian Open where in the first round she upset her friend, and former doubles partner, number 14 seed Maria Sharapova 7–6(4), 3–6, 6–4 in a 3 hour, 22 minute marathon. It was the second longest women's match in Australian Open history.
At Wimbledon she was the No. 27 seed in the singles draw. She faced Stefanie Vögele in the first round and won 2-6 6-4 7-5, after being down 5-3 in the third set. She then defeated Shenay Perry in the second round before losing to 8th seed Kim Clijsters in the third. Kirilenko was also paired up with Agnieszka Radwanska in the doubles draw where they were seeded No. 10, but they lost.
Logan Maile Lei Tom (born May 25, 1981) is an American indoor volleyball and beach volleyball player.
In 2000, she became the youngest woman to ever be selected for the USA Olympic volleyball team at 19. Over the summer of 2003 she was selected as one of eight finalists for the Women's Sports Foundation Sportswoman of the Year Award in the team category.
At age 19, Tom made her Olympic debut at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. She also competed at the 2004 Athens Olympics and 2008 Beijing Olympics. In Beijing, Tom helped Team USA win a silver medal and was named Best Scorer.
In 2004, Tom posed in a bikini for an FHM magazine article on female Olympic athletes. She was ranked #91 on the FHM 100 Sexiest Women of 2005.
Olympic and international career
Tom appeared in the 2000 Sydney Olympics (4th place), 2004 Athens Olympics (5th place), and the 2008 Beijing Olympics (Silver Medal). Tom was named the "Best Scorer" of the 2008 Olympic games.
In 2004, Logan was named the Most Valuable Player of the World Grand Prix after leading all players in scoring with 224 points in 13 matches (179 kills, 24 blocks and 21 service aces) where she also garnered “Best Server” accolades.
In 2007, she was named one of three World Cup most valuable player nominees as she averaged 4.10 points per set at FIVB World Cup in her first international tournament with Team USA in nearly three years. She averaged 3.35 kills, 0.65 blocks, 1.95 digs and 0.10 aces per set at the World Cup while starting 40 of 41 sets.
On September 15, 2008, Hisamitsu Springs, a women's volleyball team based in Kobe city, Hyogo and Tosu city, Saga, Japan, announced her joining.
For More Information about Logan Tom and her Records Visit Wikipedia.org
Kristi Leskinen (born February 10, 1981 in Uniontown, Pennsylvania) is an American freestyle skier. She appeared on the cover of Powder magazine's Photo Annual in 2004.
She grew up in Uniontown, PA, near Seven Springs Mountain Resort and Hidden Valley ski resorts. She was ranked #90 on the FHM 100 Sexiest Women of 2005. At Winter X Games IX, Leskinen won a bronze medal in the Women's Superpipe.
Kristi was the first woman ever to pull a rodeo 720—two rotations, head pointed to the earth. She had a choice to become a pro wakeboarder but she decided to become professional at freestyle skiing.
She began to receive sponsors for skiing and instantly knew that skiing was what she wanted to do. Leskinen is a devout fan of the ABC soap opera General Hospital.
