World judo champion Yurisel Laborde disappeared in Miami after winning a gold in the Pan American Championships last week. The Cuban athlete left a note of explanation and took all her belongings with her. (We imagine that’s a short note: “Guess. Later!”)

(We suspect she can take care of herself)
She stood to be […]

From FARK SPORTS late yesterday: Joe Alston worked major cases for the FBI, including the Patty Hearst kidnapping. He also won a dozen national championships in badminton. He’s also the only player from that sport to ever appear on the cover of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED.

Three weeks ago, amid little fanfare, Alston died from complications of cardiac […]

Via FOOD COURT LUNCH, we discover the hideousness that is the new Canadian Olympic casualwear that each Canadian athlete will don in August for the Beijing Olympics. Even if they’re not running quickly, they sure will look busy.

We now see what we suspect is the québécois Canadian Olympic team on the runway, ready for […]

The NEW YORK TIMES takes note of a study completed in Sweden that puts the lie to Dick Pound yet again: large swaths of people in the world have a genetic disposition that allows them to beat the urine test for testosterone. So much for declaring the sanctity of doping testing and the self-assuredness […]

Barry Svrluga of the WASHINGTON POST reports today that Jim Lefebvre is the manager of China’s Olympic baseball team in Beijing this summer. And that Barry Larkin has also, already, played a prominent role in coaching up the Chinese squad.

But Larkin might be most excited about his role working with the Chinese national team, which […]

WITH LEATHER via HUGGING HAROLD REYNOLDS reels in some snapshots of Michael Phelps donning his latest sensational swimwear:

Last we saw Mike, he was styling in a Speedo body suit. Here’s the get-up, both with and without Photoshop help:

Based on the immediate pic above, the tailfin doesn’t look so bad.

A followup on a story that came out Monday afternoon about the ice dancer who was drugged at a business meeting in Orange County: Oksana “Pasha” Grishuk told her story to ICENETWORK.COM yesterday, saying she felt “paranoid” and “shocked” that the man she shared dinner with would slip a date rape drug into her drink.
[…]

TMZ is the only one on this story — and now us! — but it appears that ice dancing sensation Oksana “Pasha” Grishuk was drugged at the St. Regis Resort in Orange County a couple of weeks ago.

According to the OC sheriff’s office, Grishuk ordered a glass of wine, left it for a minute, […]

THE BEST WHO vaults over rumors that Vladimir Putin has split with his 50-year-old wife and landed with a 24-year-old Olympic gymnast.

A Moscow newspaper dishes that the Russian president is reportedly leaving his long-time better half Ludmilla, and getting in rhythm with rhythmic dancer Alina Kabaeva.
However, the Russian rag learns that publishing Putin’s alleged affairs […]

Headline of the day (so far), courtesy of REUTERS:

You’d have to be pretty emboldened to prepare for a speech to the ladies in that fashion. Wonder what Olympians are part of this particular pep talk.
Jennie Finch?