By Duncan Scott<\/p>\n
PHOENIX, Aiz., December 27. IT is the time of year when the media \u2013 regular news, sports or otherwise – have a bit of fun by looking back on the year to decide the most important stories for their readers.<\/p>\n
These lists are created as much to generate controversy and interest among readers, who often reach different conclusions, as they are to recognize the most important stories. But it can be fun nonetheless.<\/p>\n
The Arizona Republic newspaper in Phoenix listed its top ten local sports stories recently, including a short blurb on each by a writer assigned to the subject area of the story. Performances by swimmers with ties to Arizona slipped into #10 on the list, with writer Norm Frauenheim, who was in Athens for the Republic and has also made contribution to SwimInfo, writing the summary for this Olympic sport item.<\/p>\n
Frauenheim has long recognized the newsworthy style of Gary Hall, Jr. and led off with his Athens win in the 50 freestyle — intertwined with the controversy over his $5,000 fine for failing to wear official US Olympic gear to the blocks.<\/p>\n
Klete Keller\u2019s ability to hold off Aussie Ian Thorpe on the end of the 800 freestyle relay for an unexpected USA gold also got notice, as did his second consecutive 400 freestyle bronze medal. <\/p>\n
Athletes based in Tucson were also recognized for medal winning performances, including Amanda Beard\u2019s individual gold (200 breaststroke) and silver (200 IM) and relay silver (400 Medley) and the South African Tucson-trained trio, Roland Schoeman, Ryk Neethling and Lyndon Ferns. Along with three of four legs on the world record 4 x 100 free relay, South Africa got the benefit of Schoeman\u2019s silver in the 100 free and the bronze behind Hall in the 50 free.<\/p>\n
The upshot was that if athletes with ties to one state in one sport win 12 Olympic medals, they can make it as a \u201cTop Ten\u201d story for the year in the state\u2019s primary newspaper. And though swimming aficionados may argue it should have ranked higher, it is really a positive thing for the sport to be recognized on such rankings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Duncan Scott PHOENIX, Aiz., December 27. IT is the time of year when the media \u2013 regular news, sports or otherwise – have a bit of fun by looking<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n