A couple years ago, San Francisco native Shannon Rowbury, then a junior at Duke University, was one of the best middle-distance runners in the NCAA. As a film major, she made a video about her cross-country team's quest to win the 2005 national cross-country title.
Now Shannon is a national champion (she won the 3,000 meters at the USATF Indoor Nationals in February) with Olympic aspirations, and her father has submitted her video to a contest staged by Flocasts, a site that streams coverage of track and field meets that don't make the cable TV cut (which in the U.S. is practically all of them). The contest winner, as determined by votes cast by site visitors, will receive two airline tickets, hotel accommodations, and tickets to see the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
Shannon is as good a bet to make the Olympic Track and Field Team as anyone, and it would be nice if she could to grab a couple of tickets so that friends or family members who otherwise couldn't make the trip to Beijing could go watch their heroine take on the world's best milers. If my bias here is showing, I have good reasons for it -- I've spent time with a lot of elite track and field athletes over the years owing to my personal and vocational travels, and there are few hominids out there with Shannon's combination of talent, humility, competitive spirit and joie de vivre.
Y'all have shown that you're into descending on polls and toppling them in favor of the most reasonable position by dint of sheer numbers. Well, here's another chance to do the same thing, albeit with no moral outrages or ethical quandaries at issue. Fact is, Shannon's an experienced filmmaker with an eye for both imagery and editing and her project outclasses those of the other clowns on the ballot by a rollicking amount. So here's the deal:
That's it. Some of the other submissions are entertaining, but (cue up Michael Myers and Dana Carvey voices)) they're not worthy!
Anyway, enjoy.
Comments
Kevin,
Thanks so much for writing such a nice story about Shannon and for encouraging your friends and colleagues to vote for our video submission.
It will be a dream come true if Shannon makes the Olympic team and we are absolutely enjoying her journey.
Sincerely,
Gary and Paula Rowbury
Posted by: Gary and Paula Rowbury | May 16, 2008 10:50 PM