Everything's better with Butter

U.S. Olympic Team member Eric 'Butter' Hurd poses in his paddling gear at the U.S. National Whitewater Center in Charlotte on Tuesday June 26, 2012. Hurd and his teammate Jeff Larimer will be competing in the tandem canoe slalom event in London this week.

I have the unique privilege this year of pulling for one of my friends, Eric "Butter" Hurd, who is competing with teammate Jeff Larimer in tandem canoe slalom at the London Olympics this week. 

I took the photos above a few weeks ago before he left for London (Jeff lives in Atlanta and wasn't available) and the photo below is from U.S. Team Trials at the whitewater center earlier in the summer. 

U.S. Olympic athletes don't get much support, unless they play basketball or they're an attractive female. That sounds rough, but it's essentially true. It doesn't help that in North America NBC has a monopoly on using the Olympic Games to fill space between commercials. As long as that practice is allowed to continue, only the popular sports will generate lucrative sponsorships for a few select athletes that make good talking points.

In any event, I'll be pulling for Butter this week, and if you want to show your support he has T-shirts on sale for a small donation with a design based on my photo below. I think they look pretty cool. (Disclaimer: I receive no profit from the sale of the shirt. The screen printing company is taking a chunk, but most of it goes straight to Hurd). 

Here's the link to buy a shirt.

Olympic Team Trials for Whitewater Slalom

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Whitewater Slalom

Scott Mann comes up after rolling his kayak at the finish line on his second of two runs on day two of the men's single kayak division at U.S. National Slalom Team Trials at the U.S. National Whitewater Center in Charlotte on Saturday April 16, 2011. 

Parsons to make second Olympic appearance

Former Olympian Scott Parsons competes in the Olympic Team Trials for whitewater slalom at the US National Whitewater Center in Charlotte, NC on April 26, 2008.

Former Olympian Scott Parsons will be going to the games again this year, after securing the sole spot for a male kayaker on the US whitewater slalom Olympic team. Parsons, of Bethesda, Maryland, secured his spot by placing 3rd overall at a world cup event today in Augsburg, Germany.

Parsons faced intense competition for the Olympic spot from 2004 Olympic teammate Brett Heyl, who placed 15th overall, and 2007 national champion Scott Mann, who finished 6th.

Parsons now joins the C2 (tandem canoe) team of Casey Eichfeld and Rick Powell, both from Pennsylvania, as the only athletes in whitewater slalom to have secured a chance to go to Beijing in just over a month.

The Augsburg world cup continues tomorrow with the finals in C1 (men's solo canoe) and K1W (solo women's kayak). The results of these finals will determine who will join Parsons, Powell and Eichfeld in Beijing.