LONDON (AP) -- Seven years after longtime favorite Paris lost the bid to host the 2012 Summer Games to England's capital city, France is edging its old cross-Channel rival in the medals table.

Unprecedented swimming success and a powerful women's judo team have propelled France to six golds and 16 medals overall.

France was fourth in the medals table after Thursday's events, with the host nation on five gold and 15 overall.

The French success story starts in swimming.

Three golds in London have doubled France's all-time total in the Olympics pool, with team sensation Yannick Agnel helping create a halo effect. French judo and canoeing teams are also radiating success.

"We're very proud because these athletes have also sent the message that French sport is high-performing and that France knows how to win," Christian Donze, technical director of France's swimming federation, told The Associated Press.

Agnel left United States star Ryan Lochte in his wake twice to anchor the 4x100 relay team to victory, and take the 200 free individual title. French President Francois Hollande was poolside at the Aquatics Centre to hear "La Marseillaise" anthem played for the 20-year-old from Nimes.

"He could be the star of the games," Australian three-time Olympic champion Grant Hackett said of Agnel, who will anchor the 4x100 medley relay team on Saturday.

Camille Muffat has a medal of each color, getting her gold in the 400 free to dethrone home favorite Rebecca Adlington.

Like Agnel, Muffat is coached in Nice by Fabrice Pellerin who persuaded the 22-year-old local girl to switch from the medley event she raced in Beijing.

Read this article:
France surfs wave of Olympics swimming success

In 2007John McAfee explained in Fast Company, Success for me,is can you wake upin the morning and feel like a twelve year old?

However, that was right before he lost 95% of his net worth. He explains in Robert Franks book,The High-Beta Rich, that he was living through a secondchildhood, wasting money on grown-up toys and making poor investments. Only a year after the quote, his definition of success had contributed to thedestructionof his $100 million empire, leaving him with just a few million dollars. The point Im trying to make however, is that we shouldnt view McAfees mistakes withSchadenfreude.

Instead, we need to learn from McAfees experiences and analyze the true definition ofsuccess. While I subscribe to the belief of keeping your inner child alive (after all, its Rule #11 on my personal list), acting andfeeling like aadolescentis not my definition of success.

So if living like a child isnt success, what is?

And who am I to define it?

These were some of my thoughts on a recently as I enjoyed anotherone of our Facebook QnA sessions. I was so inspired that I went so far as to register the domainname,www.SuccessQnA.comand have it redirect to our Facebook page (because its a loteasier than telling people the full URL of our fan page).

Early into the Q and A session, one of our younger readers inquired, How do you define success?

For a moment I was speechless (one of the reasons why I like the Facebook QnA instead of live sessions so no one can see the perplexed expression on my face when Im asked a difficult question).

My first instinct was to reference Dave Kekichs Credos that I re-read every morning. Even though his definition is thought provoking, it wasnt exactly what I wanted to say. Kekich Credo #7 states:

Youre successful when you like who and what you are. Success includes achievementwhile choosing and directing your own activities. It means enjoying intimate relationships and loving what you do in life.

Read the original here:
What John McAfee Learned About Success After Losing 95% Of His Wealth

Bill Ryan/The Gazette Matt Buchholz pitches for the Frederick Flying Dogs against the Carroll Spartans in the Mid-Maryland Semi-Pro Baseball League final Sunday in Frederick.

Six years ago while playing baseball at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, Mount Airy resident Matt Buchholz set out to find a summer league team to further hone his skills.

And after a brief search, the pitcher-infielder, who played scholastically at baseball-rich Old Mill High School in Millersville, eventually landed with the Frederick Flying Dogs, a semi-pro team that competes in the Mid-Maryland Semi-Pro Baseball League.

He has been an irreplaceable member of the Flying Dogs ever since, including this season, leading Frederick to MMSPBL final with his lively arm and potent bat.

Hes been pitching for us since his sophomore year in college at UMBC, Frederick player-manager Nick Collingham said. Hes got an ability to stay healthy all year round and he knows how to throw strikes. He pounds the strike zone. Hes one of the middle-of-the-lineup hitters [as well].

Its nice to have solid pitcher like him. Hes a guy you can rely on for a complete game every week. He always gives us a chance to win.

That certainly has been the case this season as Buchholz has compiled a perfect 9-0 record with an earned run aveage around 1.00 and 91 strikeouts in 62 innings. He has allowed nine runs on 32 hits with just 12 walks.

Offensively, Buchholz, who mans second base when not on the mound, has produced a .400-plus batting average with six doubles, two home runs, 27 runs batted in, 20 walks and six stolen bases in nearly 100 at-bats.

I work hard at it in the offseason, Buchholz said. I go to the cage with Ryan Morse, who is on the team. We work out during the offseason, trying to refine our swing and throwing a lot and work on a bunch of things. I always try to play very aggressively.

Buchholzs play this season mirrors his lengthy career with the Frederick Flying Dogs. He has produced a career batting average of .384 with 11 home runs, 47 doubles, eight triples, 111 RBI at the plate and a 58-9 mark on the mound with a 1.62 ERA and 664 strikeouts in 455 2/3 innings. He captured 10 wins in 2006 and 2010 and had nine-win seasons in 2008, 2009 and 2011.

See original here:
Gazette.Net: Pitcher finds home, success with Flying Dogs

For Justin Burrell, his first professional season was not about himself despite his personal success on the court.

The former St. Johns University standout earned Most Valuable Player honors in the Japanese Professional League with the Yokohama B-Corsairs. He led the club to a 31-21 record by averaging a double double of 18 points and 10 rebounds per contest. Yokohama reached the leagues semifinals as an expansion club.

It was more impressive for us as a team, Burrell said. Making the final four, that was better for us.

He described his venture overseas as a humbling and eye-opening experience, a chance to see the rest of the world. When Burrell returned to the states, he received an invite to play with the Golden State Warriors summer league team in Las Vegas. The 6-foot-8, 244-pound forward put forth a strong showing, averaging 6.2 points per game and 4.4 rebounds per contest. His play earned him a training camp invite, but he may not attend if doesnt look like the Warriors have a spot for him on their roster.

Robert Cole

/former St. John's standout Justin Burrell has a training camp invite from the Golden State Warriors.

The summer league is a great experience, said Burrell, the Big Easts Sixth Man of the Year as a senior. Its great competing against pro athletes.

The rest of the summer has been spent back on the New York City streetball circuit playing in leagues like Nike Pro City with defending champion The Franchise. He played in the Malone Mulhall Benefit Game last Saturday and electrified the crowd with a series of slams.

Burrell was also selected to be a member of Team Nike 2, the sports equipment companies second collection of streetball all stars, that competes at Rivington Court on the East Side. The squad completed a doubleheader sweep of Team Harlem and Ooh-Way Monday night, something Burrell felt the team needed.

Justin did all the intangibles for us, Team Nike 2 coach Raheem (Rah) Wiggins said. He did the dirty work."

Read the original here:
Big year continues for former St. John's star Burrell after MVP, summer league invite

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J.Its difficult to say that this July live recruiting period has been more centrally focused on anyone other than Canadian phenom and No. 1 2014 prospect Andrew Wiggins.

Wiggins not only enjoyed personal success, distinguishing himself as perhaps the best high school player in the country, regardless of class, but also carried his CIA Bounce to the finals at Nike Peach Jam in South Carolina this month.

But behind the long shadow cast by Wiggins are two other prospects, Tyler Ennis and Xavier Rathan-Mays, who have prominent high-major recruitments of their own and are as integral to the success of CIA Bounces success as the standout, Wiggins.

Well, you know, Tyler and I always talk about this is the dream weve had since we were young, Rathan-Mayes told NBCSports.com at the Live in AC tournament. To have Coach Self and all the big-time coaches calling our phones for our services, were just embracing it and taking it day by day.

Wiggins was not in attendance for Live in AC, giving Ennis and Rathan-Mayes a larger share of the spotlight for the week.

Rathan-Mayes, a 6-4 guard from Toronto, Can., is a Top 50 national recruit and a pure scorer, gaining more visibility because of this crossover and game-winning shot from last summer that went viral.

He plays at Huntington Prep (W.V.) alongside Wiggins and has a unique perspective on the team dynamic that exists between himself, Ennis, and the No. 1 overall prospect in the country.

Ive know Andrew since I was about two years old and weve grown up playing together, said Rathan-Mayes. Playing with him, it makes things easier because you have to send double teams at him and it opens up free shots for me and Tyler.

Listed at 205 pounds, Rathan-Mays uses his body well, often backing down guards from the perimeter and creating space to get an open shot. On one sequence at Live in AC, he hit a fallaway jumper from the baseline off a crossover, then came down on the next possession and hit an identical shot with a defenders hand in his face.

Rathan-Mayes works as a complement to the savvy, poised Ennis, who is a Top 25 player in the class and the point guard of this talented CIA Bounce team. Ennis, much like Rathan-Mayes, feels the media spotlight that comes with playing alongside Wiggins, but maintains an impressively mature approach.

More here:
With national spotlight on CIA Bounce and Andrew Wiggins, Tyler Ennis and Xavier Rathan-Mayes flourish

Manchester United striker Javier Hernandez has insisted that he would swap all of his goals for another Premier League title.

'Chicharito' has struck 32 times in all competitions in his first two seasons at Old Trafford, but claims that he does not set personal targets and focuses solely on helping the team win matches in whatever way he can. The Mexico international added that he does not want to be seen as a player who had played badly if he has failed to score instead hoping people recognise his all-round contribution.

"I've never had a goal target," Hernandez told Inside United magazine. "I don't want to be obsessed with scoring goals, I don't want to be only that player who only scores goals, and if I score goals I've played well and if I didn't score goals I played badly.

"It's more about doing my best for the team - if the goals come then great, but if someone else scores instead of me then it's still great for the United fans and for the club.

"You can never play one man against 11, and one player can never score all the goals by himself. If the goals are coming then good, but as I've always said, I would swap every one of my goals for a title with Manchester United."

United lost its grip on the title in dramatic fashion last season, as rival Manchester City scored twice in the dying minutes of the campaign to beat QPR and claim its first Premier League crown.

Hernandez admitted that the tables had been turned on a club that has, over the years, come back from a couple of seemingly impossible positions itself, most notably in the 1999 and 2008 Champions League finals.

"It was difficult to believe, really," Hernandez admitted. "For so many years that type of game was a fable of Manchester United, with goals in the last minute [to win big games], and sometimes it is part of life to experience the bad moments like this one.

"It was a very strange day because in the space of one minute we thought that the title was going to be ours, and then City scored twice, and that's it.

"When you win you learn to keep working hard in order to keep doing the things you did to win the title. And when you lose, you need to learn from the mistakes you made.

Link:
Hernandez: I would swap all of my goals for another title with Manchester United

LONDON--(BUSINESSWIRE)-- A new survey from online marketing tools provider Constant Contact, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTCT - News) indicates a strong disconnect between British small businesses perception of social media marketing success and the reality.

Among the one quarter (24 per cent) of British small business decision makers surveyed that report using Facebook to market their organisation, more than a third (37 per cent) say they dont think it has helped their business in any way, and only one fifth (21 per cent) believe they are doing a great job using Facebook to market their business. The data reveals several misconceptions that help to explain these attitudes, and shows that small businesses are actually doing a better job than they think.

"We were surprised to see the misconceptions that many British small businesses have about what social media marketing success looks like - especially when their own results show they are doing a fantastic job using Facebook to drive customer engagement, find new customers and generate repeat sales," explained Annette Iafrate, UK managing director at Constant Contact.

Small businesses use Engagement Marketing without knowing it

In looking at the how small businesses are using Facebook to market their organisation, the survey revealed a major misconception around engagement, demonstrating that Britains small businesses simply arent familiar enough with Engagement Marketing to recognise when they are doing it. In fact, nearly a third (32 per cent) of decision makers whose small businesses use Facebook say they dont know how they engage with Facebook fans, yet they also report employing a variety of engagement tactics on their Facebook pages.

Of those whose organisations use Facebook in some way:

The great news here is that British small businesses are using Engagement Marketing to their benefit without even realising it, said Iafrate. Engagement isnt complicated, nor does it have to be costly. Responding to fans, asking questions, and Like-gating content or offers are all great ways to boost interaction with your fans. The best part for time-starved small businesses is that doing these things takes just a few minutes a day.

Small businesses overestimate whats needed for success

The survey also revealed a huge misconception around evaluating the success of engagement tactics. Of those willing to hazard a guess, a fifth of respondents whose small business use Facebook (23 per cent) believe success equates to achieving more than 500 shares, comments or Likes on a single post. In reality, it takes far less to find success, and more than half (52 per cent) of respondents who reported knowing how many Likes, shares, or comments their posts usually get are achieving fantastic results for their business by generating up to ten Likes, shares or comments on each Facebook Business page post.

From talking to small businesses every day, we know that engagement typically happens in small doses and over time, noted Iafrate. When it comes to small businesses and social media marketing, small really is huge. Just one or two shares can put your content in front of hundreds of new sets of eyeballs.

Original post:
Constant Contact Survey Reveals that Small Businesses Need Help Evaluating Social Media Marketing Success

By Alecko Eskandarian, Special to SI.com

Hope Solo (above) took aim at Brandi Chastain with a series of tweets that have taken the spotlight off Team USA's success.

AP

Hope Solo gets people talking.

On the field, she's the greatest U.S. women's goalkeeper of all time. Off it, she's arguably the most outspoken American player ever.

As the U.S. women's soccer team chases its third consecutive Olympic gold medal -- buoyed by impressive Olympics victories over France, Colombia and North Korea in the opening round -- the majority of the attention has been on Solo's Twitter rant aimed towards NBC broadcaster (and former U.S. women's national team star) Brandi Chastain.

Instead of a positive buzz for the women's team heading into the quarterfinals, it has now largely been overshadowed by the public debate of whether you are on #TeamSolo or #TeamChastain.

Chastain's comments, the ones that presumably irked Solo following the U.S.' 3-0 victory over Colombia on Saturday, weren't overly critical and were primarily aimed at U.S. defender Rachel Buehler.

"Rachel Buehler with the giveaway there," Chastain noted in the match's 22nd minute. "As a defender, your responsibilities are defend, win the ball, and then keep possession, and that's something Rachel Buehler needs to improve on during this tournament."

Though Solo's comments (see her postgame Tweets above) were aimed at Chastain's abilities in the booth, one can't help but read into the "the game has changed from a decade ago" tweet without thinking there's more to this than just commentary.

Read the rest here:
Solo, Chastain feud obscures U.S. team's success entering medal round

LONDON (AP) -- What are they on? Or are they?

When Chinese swimmers started blowing rivals out of the water in London's Olympic pool, whispers quickly followed. Is China cheating the sport again, as it did in the 1990s, when drug-fueled, muscle-bound swimmers emerged from nowhere to beat the world? Alain Bernard, the 2008 Olympic freestyle champion from France, was among those who wondered.

"I'm for clean sport, without doping, and I truly hope the authorities in charge of this are doing their job in good conscience and really well," he said. "Unfortunately, I want to say that there is no smoke without fire. But today there is no proof to show that any Chinese has tested positive in this competition."

At a briefing Monday in London, reporters peppered Arne Ljungqvist, the International Olympic Committee's medical commission chairman, with questions about Ye Shiwen, China's 16-year-old swimming sensation. Ljungqvist said "it is very sad that an unexpected performance be surrounded by suspicions." "Suspicion is halfway an accusation that something is wrong," Ljungqvist said. "I don't like that. I would rather have facts."

Unlike the 1990s, however, there are plausible explanations this time for why China is the swimming phenomenon of the 2012 Games.

For example, Ye's astounding world record in the 400 medley, when she swam the last 50 meters faster than American Ryan Lochte did in winning the equivalent men's race, isn't solely attributable to her large hands and feet. It also is at least partly because China, which has grown to become the world's second-largest economy, now throws big checks at some of swimming's sharpest minds. China has turned to foreign trainers to get their coaching programs, expertise and methods, not only to hone its swimming stars but to make them more rounded and relaxed, too. The idea is that happy swimmers are fast swimmers.

Ye has trained in Australia with two well-recognized coaches, Ken Wood and Denis Cotterell. Wood has had a contract with the Chinese Swimming Association since 2008, and 15 of China's swimmers in London, plus five of its relay swimmers, have trained at his academy north of Brisbane, rotating through in groups for a couple of months at a time, he told The Associated Press in a phone interview.

"I get paid per month, per swimmer four times more than I do with my home swimmers," Wood said from Australia after Ye qualified comfortably fastest Monday in the 200 medley heats. China pays him bonuses for Olympic gold and for swimmers' personal bests, and he also got a bonus for Ye's 200 medley world championship win in 2011.

"China is putting a lot of money into its program and I am only too happy to work with them," he said. "The whole Chinese philosophy is that they want to be the best they can."

Not only is training overseas exposing Chinese swimmers to more sophisticated coaching, it is teaching them about life and the wider world. In Australia, they and their coaches are learning to let their hair down a bit and about themselves. For a seasoned observer of China and its state-run sport system, the worldlier Chinese swimmers performing so well in London are truly a new breed. These aren't the automatons of old, with monosyllabic stock responses about how grateful they are to their motherland and seemingly so ignorant of life outside China's government-funded medal factories with their grind of training and yet more training far from family and friends.

See the article here:
Chinese success raising suspicions of doping

What are they on? Or are they?

When Chinese swimmers started blowing rivals out of the water in London's Olympic pool, whispers quickly followed. Is China cheating the sport again, as it did in the 1990s, when drug-fueled, muscle-bound swimmers emerged from nowhere to beat the world? Alain Bernard, the 2008 Olympic freestyle champion from France, was among those who wondered.

"I'm for clean sport, without doping, and I truly hope the authorities in charge of this are doing their job in good conscience and really well," he said. "Unfortunately, I want to say that there is no smoke without fire. But today there is no proof to show that any Chinese has tested positive in this competition."

At a briefing Monday in London, reporters peppered Arne Ljungqvist, the International Olympic Committee's medical commission chairman, with questions about Ye Shiwen, China's 16-year-old swimming sensation. Ljungqvist said "it is very sad that an unexpected performance be surrounded by suspicions."

"Suspicion is halfway an accusation that something is wrong," Ljungqvist said. "I don't like that. I would rather have facts."

Unlike the 1990s, however, there are plausible explanations this time for why China is the swimming phenomenon of the 2012 Games.

For example, Ye's astounding world record in the 400 medley, when she swam the last 50 meters faster than American Ryan Lochte did in winning the equivalent men's race, isn't solely attributable to her large hands and feet. It also is at least partly because China, which has grown to become the world's second-largest economy, now throws big checks at some of swimming's sharpest minds. China has turned to foreign trainers to get their coaching programs, expertise and methods, not only to hone its swimming stars but to make them more rounded and relaxed, too. The idea is that happy swimmers are fast swimmers.

Ye has trained in Australia with two well-recognized coaches, Ken Wood and Denis Cotterell. Wood has had a contract with the Chinese Swimming Association since 2008, and 15 of China's swimmers in London, plus five of its relay swimmers, have trained at his academy north of Brisbane, rotating through in groups for a couple of months at a time, he told The Associated Press in a phone interview.

"I get paid per month, per swimmer four times more than I do with my home swimmers," Wood said from Australia after Ye qualified comfortably fastest Monday in the 200 medley heats. China pays him bonuses for Olympic gold and for swimmers' personal bests, and he also got a bonus for Ye's 200 medley world championship win in 2011.

"China is putting a lot of money into its program and I am only too happy to work with them," he said. "The whole Chinese philosophy is that they want to be the best they can."

More:
What's up With China's Swimming Success?