So I thought it’d be interesting to see if there were any athletes from Orlando and Central Florida participating, and would you believe we have nine people representing us this year?

Here’s a quick run-down of the Central Florida Olympians:

• Jenny Barringer – Track & Field: 3,000m Steeplechase.
  Barringer, who went to Oviedo High School, looks strong to medal, having set a new U.S. record in the event just three weeks ago.
• Damu Cherry – Track & Field: 100m Hurdles.
  Cherry was born in Tampa and currently lives in Ocoee.
• Phil Dalahusser – Beach Volleyball.
  This UCF graduate and his teammate Todd Rogers are the defending FIVB World Champions going into the Olympics, so they look very strong to medal.
• Dwight Howard – Men’s Basketball.
  Howard is the center of the Orlando Magic when not a part of the Olympic’s Team USA basketball team, which has an excellent chance to medal.
• Hunter Kemper – Triathlon.
  Born in Longwood, FL, this will be Kemper’s third Olympics. He placed ninth at the 2004 Olympics, and stands a good chance to medal this time.
• Ryan Lochte – Swimming: 200m Backstroke, 200m and 400m Individual Medley, 4×200m Free Relay.
  Though teammate Michael Phelps gets more media attention, Central Florida’s Lochte still has an excellent chance to medal again in one of his four competitions. In the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Lochte won the gold medal in the 800m freestyle relay and won the silver in the 200 individual medley (Phelps took gold).
• DeLisha Milton-Jones – Women’s Basketball.
  Milton-Jones attended the University of Florida in Gainesville before becoming a member of the LA Sparks. She was also a member of the Gold-medal winning US Olympic team in 2000.
• David Oliver – Track & Field: 110m Hurdles.
  This Orlando resident goes into the Olympics as the 2008 US Indoor champ.
• Nancy Rios – Sailing: Board (aka windsurfing).
  Cocoa Beach resident Rios came in first at the U.S. Olympic trials and looks strong to medal.

NBC-affiliate WESH has a team, headed by reporter Aixa Diaz, reporting live from Beijing, and you can catch the station’s complete local coverage online.

The Olympics will kick off with the opening ceremonies live on NBC tonight at 7:30pm, and our local athletes will be among the Team USA contingent walking into the stadium. If you miss it then, the network will be re-airing the ceremonies a few hours later at 2:30am tomorrow morning.

Anybody else going to be watching the Olympics? Got any fave sports or athletes you’ll be looking for?

Orlando Arts Blog has an interview with Bonita Burton, the design editor who spearheaded the change.

One tip: If you are in fact doing that urine/fire bit every morning, TELL NO ONE. Ever.

Two area blogs were pointed out to me by a reader that I think anyone interested in this round of developments might want to check out. The first is Sentinel Watch, run by a previous employee; the other is The Amazing Shrinking Orlando Sentinel. Both are running lists and keeping tabs on who is being given the axe under the direction new Tribune owner Sam Zell is taking the company (the OS is part of the company). For those not familiar with the name, Zell is a real estate financier who took on an $8.2 billion debt when he bought the company last December. Since then, he’s been in the process of streamlining and selling off parts of the empire in an effort to make it profitable for him.

Strangely enough, even though people are leaving, pr for the OS seem to be denying its happening…even as recently as in an article in yesterday’s industry publication Editor and Publisher.

From that article:

As many as 20 of the paper’s approximately 250-person news staff were informed Wednesday that they would leave the paper, including several who chose to depart with a severance package. Other cuts are expected to be done before the end of July…

Editor Charlotte Hall declined to comment on the situation, referring inquiries to Lisa Jacobsen, a human resources and communications consultant, who told E&P no cutbacks are planned “at this time.” She also stated that the paper does not discuss employment status, adding that there is “a lot of misinformation out there. Nothing is happening, and nothing is planned.”

And unfortunately, it’s not just the OS — all of Zell’s papers are being trimmed of staff. The blog Tell Zell is even keeping a running tab in their blog column.

So what is actually going on over at the OS? Why are they going through the motions of denying everything if it is indeed happening? With the economy the way it is, I’m not entirely surprised at this employee streamlining, but I am surprised some really good writers have been given pink slips.

If any of you have any insider info, feel free to post it in comments. But it certainly doesn’t seem like a good week to write for local newspapers.

How could we have lived without it? Why, today ALONE, there is so much to recommend:

More people are riding the buses these days. Some of the bus riders need to take baths more often, especially during hot summer months. That person may be you.

People smell on the bus?! HOW DARE THEY?!

Thank you to the gentleman golfer at the WP Country Club for saving this lost soul with excellent directions to the WP Racquet Club. You really saved my day.

He can’t fool me…he means the golfer’s caddy gave directions to his limo driver.

The Orlando Sentinel: Giving a voice to rich douchebags and cranky snowbirds since 1876.

To win one, listen to the station and call 407-424-9236 or 1-800-749-9292 between 7am and 8am. If you get through, you’ll get one of the gas cards mailed to you. Doc says he and the morning crew plan to give out as many gas cards as they can during that hour.

Visit K92FM.com for more details.

I know other gas giveaways have been going on around town, but I like that with this one, they mail you a card so you don’t have to waste gas driving to the station and waiting in line for the free gas.

Good luck to y’all and let us know if you end up winning one.

Apopka-area drug users might find cocaine a little harder to come by after the arrests of suspected dealers.

Well played, Bianca Prieto. Well played.

Cause now that Orlando has had a few days to mourn the departure of Wendy Chioji, I think it’s time to address the future, and it is this:

Of course, that writing’s been on the wall long before Chioji’s departure…and I know Wendy seems to be playing it all cool. But then there’s this, from the Sentinel:

Last year, Sugalski took Chioji’s high-profile spot on the 11 p.m. news. They have co-anchored at 4 p.m. weekdays, and Chioji has been solo at 6.

Friends say Chioji was dismayed at Sugalski’s increased visibility; Chioji would not comment. But viewers started weighing in on what they saw as a changing of the guard.

I think the most notable bit in there is of course not what is said, but what remains unsaid–I mean, if Chioji was all right with the Sugalski Shuffle, then why not just toss out even a weak quote to diffuse the situation? Instead, the “no comment” is basically a “that skank took my job” without saying “Oh, by the way, THAT SKANK TOOK MY JOB, and you can quote me on that.”

Then there’s that last sentence, which is a bit of an understatement. Anecdotally, I’ve heard plenty of locals complaining about Martha; the word “stripper” has been invoked, on more than one occasion.

If you need more concrete proof, take a gander at the Sentinel’s legendary Ticked Off section, where it seems as though there’s a pretty consistent stream of venting about Ms. Sugalski. Here’s a classic from April 1:

I don’t watch Channel 35 morning news any more. I can’t stand Heidi’s rat tail when she turns her head. The same goes for Channel 2’s Martha. They need to take a look at the great new hairdo Andrea Jackson has on the daily news.

“Rat tail”? No, tell us what you REALLY think.

What did Martha ever do to y’all? The business of TV news is cyclical, and if Wendy Chioji has managed to stay in the same market at the same station for 20 years, then good for her. She’s leaving now. It doesn’t make Sugalski the villain of the story; it just means time marches on, and people change. Would you prefer an empty chair, draped in black, reserved for the Spirit of Chioji in her absence? Maybe a nightly satellite link-up so she can give us updates on how great her bike shop is doing?

I’m taking a stand. I’m not native to Orlando; I just moved here two years ago, and so I hold no allegiance to Team Wendy. She seems to do a nice job, and she seems to be a nice enough person.

But I’ve always enjoyed rooting for the underdog, so my choice is clear. Mark my words, Orlandonians: From this moment forward, I’m on Team Martha.

My mother-in-law’s chief argument in favor of the Sentinel as feature-heavy, news-lite fluff publication was this article:

Glamour and glitter are elevated to an art in philanthropist Harriett Lake’s fashion collection — OrlandoSentinel.com

Now, Harriett Lake sure seems like a nice old lady. But how does she get the front page of the Local & State section when there are at least two developing stories (the Democratic primary controversy, the upcoming tax changes) that would seem to merit front-page space more than an elderly woman and her flamboyant hats?

I’ve noticed the same trend–feature stories earning spots on front pages throughout the paper, while what you might call “real” news is buried in the ghetto of page three, five, seven, nine, etc. And it’s not even so much that the feature stories are BAD, just that in putting them on Page One of the main section or Local & State, you send a subliminal message: There are important things happening in our region, and we would rather tell you about flamboyant hats.

What say you, oh Metblog Orlando readership? Is the Sentinel well on its way to USA Today status, or is there life in the old girl yet?

The little I’ve heard suggests a refreshing degree of cheesy DJ patter and interstitials, mixed with songs that are largely inoffensive and overplayed–basically, the usual when it comes to corporate radio.

I was however terrified by one of their homepage banner images:

PLEASE STEVIE NICKS DO NOT TEAR MY THROAT OUT WITH YOUR WITCH TALONS.