SPORTS
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2016
1B
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Olympics
Olympics
Team USA golden again
U.S.
gymnasts
and gold
medal-
lists, right
to left,
Gabrielle
Douglas,
Simone
Biles, Lau-
ren Her-
nandez,
Madison
Kocian and
Aly Rais-
man bite
their med-
als during
the medal
ceremony
for the
gymnas-
tics wom-
en’s team
in Rio de
Janeiro,
Brazil,
Tuesday,
Aug. 9,
2016.
AP Photo/Matt Dunham
The water of the diving pool appears a murky
green, in stark contrast to the pool’s previous
day’s color and also that of the clear blue water in
the second pool for water polo at the Maria Lenk
Aquatic Center in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Tuesday.
Green, not gold,
color of the
day at Olympic
diving pool
AP Photo/Rebec-
ca Blackwell
By BETH HARRIS
Associated Press
United States gymnasts defend all-around title
By WILL GRAVES
Associated Press
RIO DE JANEIRO —
Just call them the Final Five.
Dominant.
Peerless.
Golden.
The
U.S.
women’s
gymnastics
team
gave
retiring national team coordi-
nator Martha Karolyi a fi tting
send off in the Olympic fi nals
on Tuesday night, putting on
a two-hour display of preci-
sion and class. Their score of
184.897 was more than eight
points points clear of silver
medalist Russia, a blowout
that
Michael
Jordan’s
“Dream Team” should envy.
The Americans’ second
straight
Olympic
team
triumph — and third overall
— was never in doubt. From
the second Laurie Hernandez
drilled her opening vault
to Simone Biles’ bound-
ary-pushing fl oor exercise
to end it, the U.S. put on an
exhibition that showed how
far the divide between them-
selves and everyone else has
become.
It’s a gap that Karolyi
created from scratch since
taking over for husband
Bela in 2001. She’s molded
the U.S. program into a
ponytailed juggernaut. The
See GYMNASTICS/2B
RIO DE JANEIRO
— Green, not gold, was
the color of the day at the
Olympic diving venue.
Sure, China won its
third consecutive gold
medal on Tuesday, but the
buzz was about the color
of the water in the diving
pool — a murky green.
That was in stark
contrast to the pool’s light
blue color the previous day
and also that of the clear
water in the second pool
used for the water polo
competition at Maria Lenk
Aquatic Center.
British diver Tom
Daley, who earned bronze
in men’s synchronized
10-meter on Monday,
tweeted a photo of the two
pools next to each other and
captioned it, “Ermmm...
what happened?!”
Water quality has been
a major issue surrounding
the Rio de Janeiro Olym-
pics, but in the ocean and
See POOL WATER/2B
HERMISTON
MLB
Rawls back
at practice for
Seahawks
Second-year running back hits
the fi eld for fi rst time since his
December injury
By CURTIS CRABTREE
Associated Press
RENTON, Wash. — Seahawks running
back Thomas Rawls carried a football
Tuesday for the fi rst time since a broken ankle
ended his rookie season last December.
Rawls was limited to individual work in
his fi rst practice with
Seattle since being acti-
vated from the physically
unable to perform list on
Sunday, but to Rawls it
was a big step toward
getting back to where he
wants to be.
“I think it fi t real
good in the timeline. Just
taking it day by day and
Rawls
getting better,” Rawls
said after practice. “Just
visualizing and getting my feet wet a little bit
out there and I’m so excited and glad to be out
there with the fellas.”
Though he passed his physical and was
eligible to practice Sunday, the rest of the
team was having a “mock game” scrimmage
which made it unfeasible for Rawls to begin
his fi rst work of camp then.
Rawls suffered a broken ankle and liga-
ment damage in a game against the Baltimore
See RAWLS/3B
Farm-City brings out the best in rodeo
In this
Aug. 14,
2015, fi le
photo,
Richmond
Champi-
on of The
Wood-
lands,
Texas,
rides Rum
Flavoured
to an
86-point
ride in the
bareback
event at
the 2015
Farm-
City Pro
Rodeo in
Hermis-
ton.
Rodeo kicks off
tonight with loaded
contestant list
By MATT ENTRUP
East Oregonian
Like many great ideas, the
Farm-City Pro Rodeo was
conceived at a party.
It was 1987 at a celebration
for local saddle bronc rider
Butch
Knowles’
average
championship at the National
Final Rodeo when the topic
of conversation turned toward
bringing the PRCA to Herm-
iston once a year.
With a successful junior
rodeo already utilizing the
local arena and drawing good
crowds, Knowles and fellow
PRCA saddle bronc rider David
Bothum knew there was a way.
They just needed a little
nudge.
“It was actually our wives
Cyd (Bothum) and Mary
(Knowles) that came up with
the idea,” said Bothum on the
eve of the opening of the 28th
Farm-City Pro Rodeo. “I think
they guessed we’d be home a
few more days each year.”
Bothum and Knowles — “It
was more Butch,” says David
— took the idea and ran with it,
and found a community eager to
get on board.
Today the rodeo occupies a
spot on the Wrangler Million
Staff photo by
E.J. Harris
Dollar Tour, and attracts the
best competitors and stock from
the PRCA. It’s something the
community should, and does,
take a great amount of pride in
hosting each year.
“The satisfaction a guy gets
from it is on Saturday night
when you see all the people
smiling and having fun, and all
the pictures,” said Bothum, who
as a competitor he used to travel
to more than 100 rodeos a year
before the PRCA put a limit on
entries per season.
“The community has been
unbelievable. If it wasn’t for the
community it wouldn’t be what
it is today,” he added. “It’s not
like you have to ask, they ask
you. Hermiston is very amazing
about that. There’s not many
communities that would give
like Hermiston does.”
The Farm-City Pro Rodeo
is clearly a hit with contestants
as well, and 476 cowboys
and cowgirls will compete in
Hermiston this week for a share
of the purse. The Farm-City
puts in $13,500 per event which
gets added to entry fees to pay
winners. The total typically tops
$200,000.
Several big names are sched-
uled to compete each night with
performances starting at 7:45
p.m. General admission is $17,
which also includes admission
to the Umatilla County Fair.
Slack will be held each after-
noon at 2 p.m.
Here’s a short list of who to
watch each night:
• WEDNESDAY — The top
three cowboys in the PRCA
world all-around standings all
go tonight as Russell Cardoza
of Terrebonne looks to hold off
Josh Peek of Pueblo, Colorado,
and his own team roping partner
Dustin Bird of Cut Bank,
Montana. Cardoza (tie-down,
steer wrestling, team roping)
leads Peek (tie-down, steer
wrestling) by $4,600 entering
the week with Bird (team
roping) another $200 back.
No. 5 bareback rider R.C.
Landingham is looking for his
fi rst WNFR qualifi cation and
fi rst $100,000 season. He’s
already surpassed his 2015
winnings with $79,178, and
the Hat Creek, California, rider
who competed out of Pendleton
See FARM-CITY/3B
Sports shorts
Prince Fielder done with baseball
(AP) — Texas Rangers slugger Prince
Fielder will have to quit playing baseball after
his second neck surgery.
A person with direct knowledge of the
decision told The Associated
FACES Press that Fielder isn’t formally
retiring, but that doctors won’t
give the six-time All-Star medical
clearance to play again.
Fielder, who is signed through
2020, had a cervical fusion on
July 29 to repair a herniation
Fielder
between two disks in his neck.
That was done just above the
area where the 32-year-old Fielder had the
same procedure in May 2014, only 26 months
earlier.
He will fi nish his 12 MLB seasons with 319
career homers, the same number that his father
Cecil Fielder had in 13 seasons.
Tebow to give baseball a try
“I’m disappointed.
When I heard him say I
can actually play in all
four games, I was really
excited to get some at-
bats. I don’t know what
happened.“
— Alex Rodriguez
New York Yankees designated
hitter expressing his displeasure
with team manager Joe Girardi
benching him for the fi rst two
games the team’s series in
Boston. Rodriguez, 40, will play
his fi nal game for the Yankees on
Friday evening in New York.
(AP) — With professional football not
working out, Tim Tebow is going to give
baseball a try.
The 2007 Heisman Trophy winner and
former NFL fi rst-round draft pick plans to hold
a workout for Major League
teams this month. Tebow
FACES Baseball
last played organized baseball in
high school.
Agent Brodie Van Wagenen,
the co-head of CAA Baseball,
said in a statement that the
workout is not a publicity stunt.
“His work ethic is unprece-
Tebow
dented, and his passion for the
game is infectious. He knows the challenges
that lie ahead of him given his age and experi-
ence, but he is determined to achieve his goal
of playing in the Major Leagues,” he said.
He has not played in the NFL since 2012
with the New York Jets.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1980 — Jack Nicklaus
wins his fi fth PGA Champi-
onship with a record score of
274, seven strokes ahead of
Andy Bean.
2007 — Tiger Woods
matches the major champi-
onship record with a 63 in the
PGA Championship. Woods
misses a 15-foot birdie putt
on the fi nal hole that would
have given him the record.
2008 — In Beijing,
Michael Phelps begins his
long march toward eight
gold medals by winning the
400-meter individual medley
in 4:03.84 — smashing his
own world record.
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