It's an early Christmas Present

I arrived at work today to have an invite sitting in my inbox.

A very, very special sort of invite.

Our work had a contract with SPARC earlier this year to monitor the media coverage of their Olympic athletes, with the information being compiled to track positive/negative coverage, as well as when an athlete was mentioned for quantitative measures.

As the resident sports-nut, I was delegated the role of tracking the television coverage of the Olympics [I may have been hired with this in mind, it appears to be a subject of conjecture]. This literally meant I was being paid to watch 8 hours of Olympics coverage - It wasn't all like that though, it had been recorded from the night before and I had to get through it in 2 hours.

Anyway, our report to SPARC has been completed and will be presented on Friday... And I was invited... Can't wait!

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Roughies [An irregular feature]

The first edition for Roughies has to be split between two sportsmen, as both have had potentially career-ending ailments revealed very publicly this week.

First off, 29 year-old Julian Huxley.



The former Queensland Reds and current Brumbies player was taken to hospital after collapsing following a tackle during last weekends game against the Reds. Cleared of any spinal injuries, he was sent for an MRI and was found to have a benign brain tumour. The tumour is believed to be at the top of his brain which can affect an individuals motor skills - obviously not the most desirable affliction for a world-class utility.
Peter Playford has been named as Huxley's replacement for this weekends derby against the Warratahs.

Next, New Zealand rower Rob Waddell.



Waddell was World Champion in 1998 and 1999, then an Olympic Gold medalist in 2000 and has also won the Halberg Award. After leaving the sport he joined Team New Zealand as a grinder in the 2003 and 2007 Americas Cup series, before returning to rowing and beginning training no more than six months ago. The past summer has seen him competing against current world champion, Mahe Drysdale. The two have been locked into an enthralling battle all summer for the Olympic single-sculls berth. Unfortunately, in the final race in a best-of-three series, Waddell encountered a flare-up of atrial fibrillation, a condition he has lived with in secret for many years. This led to Drysdale scoring an easy victory over Waddell and as announced today, the single sculls berth.
Waddell can still attempt to qualify for a seat in the men's double scull.
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Good luck to both Huxley and Waddell in bouncing back from their rough week.

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