Lance Armstrong, Michael Phelps, Craig Alexander, and Chrissie Wellington were just some of the top athletic names in the news this year. Here's our brief list of the year's Top News Stories:
Triathlon:
Click HERE to read how Chrissie Wellington surprised no one by winning the Ironman World Championships for the second year in a row.
Click HERE to read how Dr. James Gills surprised everyone by selling the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC) to a private equity fund for tens of millions of dollars.
Click HERE to read how the WTC and Ironman also surprised everyone by adopting the USAT age-group rule starting tomorrow.
Finally click HERE to read the strange, troubling, and untold story of Finman at Ironman Florida this year.
Swimming:
According to the Chinese Zodiac, 2008 was the year of the rat. As it turned out in Beijing, 2008 was the year of Michael Phelps.
Click HERE to read how after breaking almost every record in the book, Michael Phelps took on Anderson Cooper of CNN in an altogether unexpected race.
But while Phelps was busy crushing the competition and rewriting the record books---
Click HERE to read how new swim suit technology has completely changed the sport of swimming in 2008 by shattering over 105 existing swim records.
Cycling:
There were only two really big cycling stories of 2008.
The year began with big hopes that cycling had finally cleaned house of performance enhancing drugs.
But it didn't take long for professional cyclist to start testing positive for every banned substance in under the sun.
Click HERE and HERE to read how the cycling world and the Tour de France were shaken to the core with positive drug tests.
Of course the other Big news was the return of Lance Armstrong to professional cycling after he raced the Leadville 100. Click HERE to read about the only man that beat Armstrong in a professional race this year, and be sure to watch the video report.
Running:
Click HERE to read how an amateur elementary school teacher won the Nike Marathon in San Francisco with the fastest time, only to be told by race officials and Nike that she in fact lost the race to a professional runner with a slower time, only to be given an award and race trophy by Reebok.
Click HERE to read how Paula Radcliff came back from a painful Olympic Marathon to three-peat in New York.
Finally click HERE to read about one of the world's most amazing running races that spans the world's deserts in what must be one of the ultimate tests of human sports endurance.