Athletes

The headbanging collisions that thrill sports fans have lifelong effects on the athletes, with impairments in movement and thinking skills showing up 30 years or more after the concussions, researchers reported Tuesday. The slight deficits resulting from one or two concussions were similar to problems found in patients with the early stages of dementia, although they did not interfere with the daily life of the otherwise healthy men, researchers reported in the journal Brain.

And so suddenly here's marijuana -- yep, marijuana -- hogging itself another heyday, bolting into the spotlight, all but sashaying back into dialogue and shouting, "Hey, I'm still here." Shadowed in cycles through recent decades while other legal or illegal or performance-enhancing stimulants took turns getting all the hype, marijuana has just hollered in the case of merely the most-decorated Olympian in history, Michael Phelps.

I appreciate the prayers for what I now understand to be my hell-bound soul from readers appalled by God's recent letter in this space. Recall that the thrust of this little satirical note was my take that we've gone way overboard in sports with public, pious displays. I'm not a big fan of the kind of grandstanding shout-outs to Jesus we'll almost certainly see today from members of the Super Bowl's winning team.

The sports pages are daily exercises in tributes to courage, where stories gush over the heroics of head-on tackles and nerve-wrenching 20-foot putts. There is courage, and then there is Nick Scandone. The day after New Year's, Scandone died. He was 42. In the Beijing Paralympics four months ago, Scandone and his sailing crew, Maureen McKinnon-Tucker, won the gold medal in the SKUD-18 Class. Neither Bob Costas nor NBC was there.

Caster Semenya started to run almost as soon as she could walk. She played soccer with the boys in her rural village. At school races, she'd lap the other girls -- sometimes twice or more. Even then, according to friends quoted by South African news reports, girls teased her about looking like a boy. Semenya shrugged it off and kept on running. But after she exploded onto the athletic stage Wednesday in the World Championships in Berlin, beating her nearest rival in the women's 800-meter race by a whopping 2.45 seconds, the question was back: Is she really a she?

A member of the U.S. Olympic team would face no official rebuke for wearing a T-shirt that said, "Free Tibet," while walking the streets of Beijing during the 2008 Summer Games. Wear that shirt in the Olympic Village or any sports venue, and the athlete might be on the next plane home after violating the international Olympic Charter. U.S.

They shout "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie" and "Oi! Oi! Oi!" at St. Mary's basketball games in Moraga these days. But the best news that Patrick Mills, the standout freshman from Australia, heard this week didn't have anything to do with the latest top 25 ranking for the Gaels, who play at Loyola Marymount tonight and at Pepperdine on Monday. It was word from home about the Australian government's formal apology to Aborigines and other indigenous Australians for the racist policies of the past.

For many Kenyan athletes, the road to the Los Angeles Marathon and other major races unexpectedly turned life-threatening in late December when a disputed presidential election ignited unrest that left 1,000 people dead. At least two of them were runners -- and one was a former Olympian. The carnage since has given way to an uneasy peace in the wake of an agreement reached this week.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- One day after learning about a lawsuit filed in federal court by TYR Sport against Speedo that names Olympic swimmer Erik Vendt as a defendant, Vendt's agent fired back, saying his management firm would no longer work with the Huntington Beach company. Evan Morgenstein of Premier Management Group said in an e-mail Thursday night that the "unfair treatment" of Vendt prompted his decision. Existing contracts would be fulfilled, he added.

A rumor found its way onto the Internet recently. It involved a high-profile athlete. It was scandalous. And entirely unconfirmed. As skeptics might say, it was perfect for the Wild West territory of sports blogs. But an interesting thing happened to that bit of gossip about Lakers star Kobe Bryant. Blogs such as Deadspin and the Big Lead treated it with relative caution, while others ignored it altogether.