For those of you that haven't been keeping up with the latest trends in NCAA rules, allow The Back Page to fill you in. This year, the NCAA has mandated that college athletes either be tested for Sickle Cell trait or sign a waiver declining testing.
As the NCAA kindly explains, Sickle Cell trait is "the inheritance of one gene for sickle hemoglobin and one for normal hemoglobin." It's particularly hazardous to athletes, because, while symptoms may not arise in day-to-day activity, intense exercise can lead to blocked blood flow, which can cause collapsing and death. Not surprisingly, the NCAA tries to avoid these occurrences whenever possible.
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LAKE PLACID, N.Y.—Lake Placid, though known to most of the world as the site of 1980’s Miracle on Ice, is best known to me as the site of my summer vacations. So imagine my surprise when I walked out of the movie theater on Sunday evening and was promptly ushered into the Olympic Center to watch some women’s hockey.
The nation’s best female hockey players have descended on Lake Placid this week as part of the Women’s National Festival. Among them are three current Harvard skaters, two alumnae, and Crimson head coach Katey Stone.
On Sunday night, I arrived at the 1980 Rink just in time to see the red squad (the over-22 team, which includes 12 2010 Olympians) square off against the blue squad (the US under-18 select team). If it seems like a lopsided matchup, well, it was—the veterans routed the young guns, 5-0.
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The Harvard men’s lightweight crew capped off its international tour last Sunday by winning its second race of a two-week trip to China.
The Crimson finished 10.6 seconds ahead of Yale to win in its final competition and take home first place at the International Famous Universities Regatta. Held at the Sichuan Provincial National Team Training Center, Harvard’s eight beat out Yale, Oxford, and Cambridge with a time of 5:57.6.
Harvard won its first competition of the tour on Aug. 1, besting Yale by 16.2 seconds along the Shunyi Olympic Basin, the same course used during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Oxford and Cambridge battled for third in both competitions, with Oxford taking third in the first race and Cambridge taking third in the second race.
The Crimson, coached by Linda Muri, sent nine rowers and one coxswain abroad. The team was comprised mostly of current rowers, although the group was also joined by graduates Dexter Louie ’10 and Martin Eiermann ’10—last season’s captain.
Harvard women’s swimming and diving assistant coach Marlene Pineda passed away Monday due to injuries she sustained in a biking accident in Brighton, Mass. Pineda, 24, was reportedly not wearing a helmet when she was struck by a car on Commonwealth Avenue on Monday afternoon.
Pineda, who recently moved to Brighton, was set to serve as an assistant coach for the Crimson this upcoming season after she was hired by women’s swimming and diving head coach Stephanie Morawski. Pineda, a 2008 graduate of Smith College, came to Harvard after a two-year stint as the assistant at her alma mater.
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Each Friday, The Crimson will compile a series of unique statistics about Harvard's sports scene. Welcome to the Magic of Numbers—without the problem sets. We'll do the math for you.
AGAINST ALL ODDS
4 - Members from the Harvard class of 2010 that have signed professional sports contracts.
1,662 - Approximate size of the class of 2010.
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