Olympic sprinter Harrison Dillard, sports economics professor Andrew Zimbalist, and ESPN Executive Vice President John Walsh discuss ways politicians and athletes can participate in the Games without condoning China's human rights record.
Bio
Christine Brennan
Christine Brennan is an award-winning sports columnist for USA Today, a commentator on ABC News, CNN, and National Public Radio, a best-selling author and a nationally known speaker. Twice named one of the country’s top ten sports columnists by the Associated Press Sports Editors, she has covered 14 consecutive Olympic Games, summer and winter. Brennan was the first woman sports writer at The Miami Herald in 1981 and the first woman to cover the Washington Redskins as a staff writer at The Washington Post in 1985. She was the first president of the Association for Women in Sports Media and started an internship-scholarship program that now honors six female students annually. Brennan is the author of seven books, including her sports memoir, Best Seat in the House, and national best-seller Inside Edge, which was named one of the top 100 sports books of all time by Sports Illustrated.
Harrison Dillard
Harrison Dillard is an American athlete, the only male so far to win Olympic titles in both sprinting and hurdling events.
Harrison Dillard, born in Cleveland, Ohio, he entered Baldwin-Wallace College in 1941 and joined Pi Lambda Phi International Fraternity, and two years later was drafted into the Army. He returned to college in 1946 and resumed athletics, to which he had been inspired by Jesse Owens, who was also from Cleveland and attended East Technical High School as well.
He won the NCAA and AAU 120-yard and 220-yard hurdles in both 1946 and 1947 and he tied world records in both events with a 22.3 in the 220 in 1946 and a 13.6 in the 120.
Jeremy Schapp
Jeremy Schapp is a reporter and host for ESPN. He has won six national Sports Emmy Awards and many other honors for his work. He is the author of Cinderella Man, a New York Times best-seller, and Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler’s Olympics. His best-known ESPN stories include a Bobby Fischer profile, which earned him the national Sports Emmy for writing, an award named for his father Dick Schaap, and an investigation that took him to Serbia in search of a basketball player accused of a brutal assault, which earned him the national Sports Emmy for journalism.
John Walsh
John A. Walsh is executive vice president and executive editor of ESPN Inc. and the ESPN Internet Group.
He oversaw the launch of ESPN The Magazine and ESPN Radio and was instrumental in developing the news and information elements of ESPN2.
He is also responsible for all creative development and editorial direction for ESPN.com, NFL.com, ABCSports.com, and Soccernet.
He was founding editor of the original Inside Sports magazine, and he also served as managing editor of U.S. News & World Report and Rolling Stone. He has edited three sports books, including The Heisman: A Symbol of Excellence.
Andrew Zimbalist
Andrew Zimbalist is the Robert A. Woods Professor of Economics at Smith College and the top sports economist in the country.
An expert on baseball economics and the sports industry, he has consulted for players associations, cities, companies, and leagues.
He has also published numerous articles, essays, and books, including Baseball and Billions, National Pastime: How Americans Play Baseball and the Rest of the World Plays Soccer, and Equal Play: Title IX and Social Change.
Previously, he consulted in Latin America for many companies and government agencies.
