Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
August 1 , 2003, Washington Post

No Minor Stars

The Washington Redskins' football training camp opened this week. But it's too early to talk about the Skins. I know, the Redskins are the major sports topic in these parts. But there are some "minor" sports that have been making headlines lately. Let's take a look at those.

Tour de France. The big story here, of course, is that Lance Armstrong (isn't that a perfect name for a sports hero?) overcame falls, dehydration and a strong challenge from rival Jan Ullrich to win the most famous bike race in the world for a fifth straight time.

The Tour de France is one of the greatest sports events in the world. I love the Tour's traditions, like the leader always wearing a yellow jersey and the final leg of the three-week, 2,128-mile race ending in the streets of Paris. But the greatest Tour tradition may be that bikers slow down to let bikers who have fallen get back in the race. Armstrong did it for Ullrich in 2001. And this year, Ullrich returned the favor after Armstrong took a tumble.

Who knows? Ullrich's good sportsmanship may have cost him the title. He lost by only 61 seconds after more than 83 hours of racing. In the Tour de France, however, some things are more important than winning.

Swimming. It seems as if someone broke a world record every time the swimmers dove into the pool at this year's world championships in Barcelona, Spain. Swimmers shattered 13 world marks and equaled another. Michael Phelps, an 18-year-old from Baltimore, set five world records.

I know that swimmers are incredible athletes and that lots of kids love swimming, but I just can't get too excited whenever I watch a meet. Even the best swimmers in the world are moving only as fast as most people can walk. How exciting is that?

Frankly, I wish more swimmers would take up water polo. Now there's an exciting sport. It's got great swimmers, goal scoring, quick passing, and plenty of action. And the American women won the gold medal in Barcelona by beating Italy, 8-6.

Men's tennis. In tennis, the women are hot and the men are not. Not so long ago, men's tennis was a big deal with stars John McEnroe, Jimmy Conners and Bjorn Borg. Now, I guess American fans can't get too excited about players such as Juan Carlos Ferrero, Roger Federer and Guillermo Coria (three of the world's top money winners). That's too bad, because there is nothing like a great tennis match in which two evenly matched players are scratching and clawing for every point.

The men's tennis tour, including American stars Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick and James Blake, is in Washington at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic through Sunday. So check it out. Because, if the competition is hot and you think the game is cool, it's not a "minor" sport.