Team USA Roster for Youth Olympic Games

The roster of young Team USA competitors heading to the inaugural Youth Olympic Games (next month, in Singapore) are now published. The U.S. Olympic Committee released the athlete roster on Friday.

As an Atlanta resident, I was happy to find several Georgia athletes among the selected students. Specifically, there are Youth Olympic athletes hailing from Conyers, Dublin, Leesburg, Powder Springs and Stone Mountain, Ga.

It was surprising and cool to also find that my hometown Edmond, Okla., will be represented by two local rising stars -- one in volleyball, the other in track (perhaps the YOG-bound Edmond high jumper is training on the Edmond Memorial High School track where I failed to clear a single high jump bar in the early 1990s).

Check out the USOC press release and YOG team roster online to learn the names of your hometown favorites. YOG opening ceremonies kick things off on Aug. 14.

Graphic via Sportcal

Peachy!

At the Beijing International Media Center (BIMC -- nicknamed "B.M., I see" due to it's remote location in the city) we spotted a most curious and random site. Feast your eyes on China Peach Farmer's answer to Georgia and the U.S. South's claims to anything peachy!

Admittedly, this box presentation impressed me greatly and the photo does not do it justice. Every peach in that display was specially grown in a contraption that shapes the peach fuzz to grow in patterns that reveal Mandarin symbols or Olympic pictograms.

There are also specially-grown gourds in the shape of soccer balls and even Buddhas! But not at the peach farms highlighted in this display.