Blog Posts by Chris Chase

When Matt Grevers jumped into the pool prior to this last weekend's 100-meter backstroke at the Missouri Grand Prix, he had diamond on his mind, not gold.

The two-time gold medalist had concocted an elaborate plan to propose to his longtime girlfriend, fellow national-team swimmer Annie Chandler, atop the medal stand. All he had to do was get there.

Grevers ended up winning the race. And when organizers asked Chandler to present the medals to the three top finishers, she didn't suspect anything out of the ordinary. When Grevers dropped to a knee, Chandler's reaction says it all:

Courtesy USASwimming.org

"I've just been searching for a unique way to pop the question," Grevers told reporters. "My whole family is here and I figured it would be a perfect opportunity and a unique situation."

Originally, Grevers had hoped to propose while Chandler was on the medal stand. A fifth-place performance in Friday's 100 breaststroke scuttled those plans. He didn't want to do it on Sunday, so his

ian thorpe armaniIan Thorpe is returning to the pool next month in hopes of making an Olympic comeback in London. Except, he's not at all confident about his prospects and already is making excuses for his failure. In a rambling interview with The Telegraph, Thorpe laid out his modest expectations for the comeback, then contradicted himself a few times before restating said modest expectations. We've highlighted some of the most defeatist quotes from the interview:

1. "I'm more comfortable knowing that, chances are, I'm going to fail at this. I've become comfortable with that."

That's the spirit!

2. "My goal at the start -- and this will remain my goal through the Olympics -- was to be able to swim faster than I used to. If at any stage I didn't think I could do that, I don't know if I'd continue."

If that was his goal and he has already said he's going to fail at his goal, shouldn't he not continue? It's a maze of reasoning that I don't quite understand. Who exactly is Thorpe lowering expectations

Remember those two creepy-looking mascots for the London Olympics? They're back in a new video aimed to kick-start merchandise sales of the 2012 Games, which are a little more than 500 days away.

Watch as Wenlock and Mandeville spy on children's bedrooms, play murderball, shove a fallen hurdler in the rear, drive on the wrong side of the road, dress up as Queen's Guards and Beefeaters, fly on rainbows and, most frightening of all, compete in synchronized diving.

We give Wenlock and Mandeville a hard time because, well, they're weird-looking, mute cycloptic blobs with arms and legs that are barely discernible. But the video isn't bad at all. (You'll notice the creators wisely downplayed the mascots in the clip, which was aimed toward children.)

Iran has yet to complain about the video, but there are almost certainly parallels between the hurdler falling and the collapse of the Zand dynasty in the 18th century. And if you jumble up all the letters of the names of the featured athletes,

Iran is threatening to boycott of the 2012 London Olympics because it claims the official logo for the games resembles the word "Zion," which is a biblical term for Jerusalem.

Bahram Afsharzadeh, the secretary-general of Iran's National Olympic Committee, says he sent a letter to IOC president Jacques Rogge in which he condemns the logo as "racist" and calls upon other Muslim countries to join in protest.

The logo was unveiled four years ago to mass criticism, almost all of which had to do with the awkward, bulky design and not pro-Zionist conspiracy:

If you're reading vertically rather than horizontally and think an irregular pentagon resembles the letter "I" then you can sort of make out "zion" in the logo. Although if you read counterclockwise from the bottom left it also looks like "Izzo," which may draw copyright complaints from Jay-Z and cries of protest from Ohio State fans.

"There is no doubt that negligence of the issue from your side may affect the presence of some countries

A snowboarding leopard, a figure-skating bunny and a polar bear wearing a scarf will be the three mascots for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia. Though those are some of the safest choices imaginable, the decision has led to charges of plagiarism, corruptibility and vote-rigging.

The winners were announced on a live television show broadcast throughout the country. Viewers cast over 1 million votes for the nine candidates and officials selected the top-three to serve as Sochi's official mascots. The snow leopard came out on top with 28 percent of the vote.

The announcement was not without some controversy. Ded Morez, the Russian equivalent of Santa Claus, had led in early polling but was pulled from the ballot at the last second when Russian organizers feared that their country's folk hero would become official property of the IOC. That decision left room for the following three winners, which are said to "encapsulate much of Russia's self-image."

Snow leopard

The snow leopard was

The newest space race is on. A top Russian official revealed on Wednesday that the nation is thinking about sending the 2014 Olympic flame to the International Space Station.

There are no immediate plans to lift the flame into space, but the deputy head of Russia's Federal Space Agency said it's an "interesting" concept that requires further study. He said his agency is open to the idea if Olympic officials express a desire to become the first nation ever to send the flame into orbit.

"It is not a bad idea," Vitaly Davydov, deputy head of Russia's Federal Space Agency, said.

He's right. It's not a bad idea, it's a really, really bad idea.

Putting the flame into space would be undeniably cool and would garner worldwide attention to the Olympic torch relay, which usually takes a terrestrial trek throughout the globe. The cost, logistics and possibility for catastrophic error far outweigh any novelty.

I mean, it's a fire in space. If something goes wrong it's not like the astronauts

Ida Keeling may be 95 years old, but she looks, acts and runs like a woman 20 years her junior.

The Bronx native set a world record last week by running 60 meters in 29.86 seconds, the fastest time ever for a 95-year-old. Setting records is nothing new for Keeling. Three years ago she broke the mark for the fastest sprint ever by a runner over the age of 90.

Keeling started running in 1983 when she was a spry 67. Even then, she says she was the oldest person around. Her daughter convinced her to take up the sport after her two sons were killed in drug-related incidents and her husband died of a heart attack. Since then, she has been competing in meets across the globe.

When she's not running in the corridors of her apartment or on the track, Keeling said she eats well and lifts weights to maintain her healthy lifestyle.

"My secret is, feel good about yourself [and] have a good attitude about yourself," she told ABC News. "I just close my eyes and say count your blessings, Ida. Count

Greg Louganis won four Olympic golds and five world championships during his illustrious diving career. During the 1988 Olympic springboard competition he hit his head on the board and suffered a concussion but still returned to win gold, capping one of the most memorable comebacks in the history of the Games. In 1995, Louganis revealed he was HIV positive. The New York Times caught up with the diving great, who recently returned to the sport as a juniors coach. Some interesting tidbits from the piece:

1. Louganis accepted a job with SoCal divers four months ago only after being assured that he could implement his "building blocks mentality," which keeps a focus on mechanics. It's the first coaching he's done since 1976, when he helped out his high school team after returning from the Montreal Games.

2. The diver threw himself a "spectacular party" when he turned 33 because he expected it to be his last birthday. Eighteen years later he says his health is so good "you kind of forget