Its hard to know what world-class swimmers are feeling from looking at them power through their races lap after lap. Most of them betray so little when they hit the final wall, other than urgency to see their time and where they finished. The same goes for reading the expressions of plenty of other Olympic athletes. Boxers and judoka understandably grimace when hit, weightlifters scream when they hoist bar-bending weights, and plenty of distance runners faces betray the agony theyre in.But other athletes are the picture of serenity or stoicism as they compete. You know it cant be that easy, right? The poker-faced endurance of pain is the Big Lie of sports.At a news conference earlier this year, a handful of U.S. Olympic swimmers were asked to describe what theyre thinking as muscle-burning fatigue overtakes them during a race. Four-time Olympic medalist Missy Franklin joked lifeguard? Defending gold medalist Ryan Lochte squeaked help!But many athletes say absorbing pain and fatigue -- or refusing to acknowledge they exist at all -- is something thats practiced, not just inherent.Sixteen-year-old American gymnast Laurie Hernandez, a first-time Olympian, said the six-hour daily workouts that elite gymnasts endure are grueling, bone-rattling, muscle-searing and all the rest. Their hands are callused, and their shins hurt.But the bottom line is, if you want to go to the Olympics, youre going to do the training, Hernandez said with a nonchalant shrug.End of story.Still, its hard to not be amazed at the sight of Greg Louganis cutting his head on the edge of the diving board but coming back to win the 3-meter springboard gold medal at the 1988 Olympics, or by the memory of 4-foot-9 gymnast Kerri Strug making her dramatic second vault on an injured ankle at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics because she thought the U.S. had to have a strong score from her to win its first team gold medal.Twenty years before Strugs feat, Japanese gymnast Shun Fujimoto made a similar decision. He kept competing after he broke his kneecap in the floor exercise, his second of five events in the team competition at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Fujimoto decided to not tell his teammates about the injury because they were in a tight race against Russia for the gold medal. For years, ABC Sports ran a replay of him in its thrill of victory, agony of defeat mashups. It showed Fujimoto nailing the landing of his triple-somersault dismount on his last event, the rings, then buckling over in pain and willing himself to stand up straight.Remarkably, his score of 9.7 was his best ever on the rings, and Japan won the gold medal.The stakes were thought to be similarly high for Strug in 96, after American teammate Dominique Moceanu performed her two vaults just before Strug.When Dom fell the first time, I thought, No, I cant believe it. She never falls, Strug recalled that night. Then she fell a second time, and it was like, Forget this. This is a nightmare. My heart was beating like crazy, knowing that it was now up to me.The pressure got worse when Strug fell on her first vault, landing on her butt and badly spraining her ankle. The .897-point lead over Russia that the U.S. took into the final event really seemed in jeopardy as Strug hobbled back to the starting position. Most of the Russian team stopped to watch. No one -- including Strug -- was sure she could run down the 75-foot runway to do her second attempt. But she never considered not trying.As I started running toward the vault, my ankle felt displaced and unstable [and] I remember thinking I was going to trip and fall on my face, Strug recalled to espnW a few weeks ago. I dont remember the vault itself, but when I landed, I didnt think Id done anything special. I was supposed to land the vault. Anything else would have been unacceptable.She stuck the landing but later learned that the sound she heard were two ligaments in her ankle snapping. Nonetheless, her score of 9.712 allowed the U.S. to break Russias stranglehold on the womens team gold medal that dated to 1948 and left the crowd at the Georgia Dome chanting her first name.In that moment, all the years of doing one more vault when I was too tired or sick or didnt want to perform another rep paid off, she said.Plenty of athletes -- not just gymnasts -- talk openly about taking risks such as that and about how their sports can result in injury, paralysis or even death. (On Saturday at the Olympics, French gymnast Samir Ait Said broke his left leg while attempting a vault in qualifying and was carried off on a stretcher; several reporters in the arena tweeted that they heard his bone snap.)Jillion Potter, a member of the U.S. sevens Olympic rugby team, wasnt thinking in such fatalistic terms before she took a hit and felt something had gone grievously wrong in a test match against Canada six years ago.It was a freak accident, really, she insisted.She later found out she had broken her neck.Once I was hit, my neck popped so many times -- pop, pop, pop, really loud -- I just remember laying there on the field. I could move and everything seemed fine, but I just remember telling my teammate, Jane, somethings really wrong with my neck. Im scared. I dont know what to do, Potter said at the U.S. Olympic Media Summit this spring.As it turned out, she needed spinal fusion surgery on her C-5 vertebrae. Doctors eventually told her she could play again, but her rehab took more than a year. Even then, her suffering wasnt over. In August 2014, she was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. She underwent chemotherapy and treatment until March 2015 and lost all her hair.Still, Potter made it back in time for Rio and was voted team captain by her peers.Its so much more about the psychological piece, not just the physical piece, she said of her comebacks.With cancer, she said, the toughest thing was telling her mom about her diagnosis. With rugby, it was grappling with the fear that rugby sevens has potentially higher velocity collisions than the 15-person-per-side version of the sport because theres more open space.I had to get confident in my tackling and contact during play again and not play tentatively because that can be dangerous, Potter said.Dwelling on such things is to be avoided. Scientists who study pain seem to agree on that.?One of the more oft-quoted findings on athletes and pain was done by University of Heidelberg researchers who looked at 15 studies that examined pain thresholds in athletes and non-athletes for an article that appeared in a 2012 edition of the journal Pain. Two of their conclusions: Contact sport athletes tend to have a higher tolerance than other athletes, and athletes, as a group, often rely on cognitive strategies, including big doses of association/disassociation,?to help them deal with pain.Jackie Galloway, who will compete for the U.S. in the +73kg taekwondo competition in Rio, joked that she has the disassociation part down.Its very funny because outside of a match, Im like, Oh no, I tripped and bruised my leg! Ugh! or well be training ,and Ill be like, Owwww! You hit my leg! she said with a laugh. Im such a baby sometimes.She changes into a different person during a match.I think my pain tolerance is just really higher during the match because thats not what Im really focusing on. My mind is in other places, she said. I already know going in theres a possibility and a great probability that Im going to get hit on my arms, on my legs. As far as feeling pain, probably one of the worst times was during one of my matches when I broke my hand. There was like a minute and a half left. I got it kicked, and yeah, it hurt. But I didnt even know it was broken til afterward. I wasnt even thinking about it til then.Judoka Kayla Harrison and 100-meter hurdler Dawn Harper-Nelson, a two-time Olympic medalist who just missed making her third Olympic team this year, have a slightly different pain coping mechanism: They reframe what the discomfort means when it hits them in wave after wave, day after day, and use it as motivation.Harper-Nelson, who trains in Los Angeles under legendary taskmaster Bobby Kersee, said, Last year, when I took a tumble at worlds [and didnt finish], I was sitting there crying. But pretty soon I was also [yelling], USE IT! USE IT! ... I think, as an athlete, you have to do that. I mean, you didnt train for nothing, right? So cry. Let it out. Ruin your clothes. Rip your shirt up. Do what you gotta do.Harper-Nelson decided to put her bib from that race on her wall as a reminder that, Pain is just part of the journey you go through, you know?Has that helped?It helps when youre out there on the track training, and you have to remind yourself of that because you are hurting, she said. Your legs are shaking. You literally cant feel them. Youre tripping over yourself because your legs have literally gone numb, and your coach is still like, I dont care. Get on the line. If you want to win a medal, get on the damn line.And youre like, Thats right. Thats right. The pain doesnt matter. I have to do it up here, she said while tapping a finger to her temple.But you know, Harper-Nelson added with a smile, thats why when you do get on the [medal] podium, those are the moments you think about: My legs were numb. ... I cried at night. ... I didnt eat ice cream for three years! You know? You think about all of that. And thats why you break down. Thats why you cry. The way I look at it is Im so excited to have this ability that I have to go charging at 10 hurdles and look up at the end and say, Who got it? Who won? The feeling is like, God, track and field is amazing! The Olympics are about amazingness!Harrison agrees. Shes the only American to ever win a judo gold medal, and shes a favorite in Rio in the 78kg weight class. But like Harper-Nelsons, Harrisons journey hasnt been easy.Four months before the 2012 London Olympics, Harrison tore the medial collateral ligament in her right knee and still won. Earlier this year, she separated her shoulder a week before a Grand Slam meet in Tokyo, one of the toughest events in the world, and had to decide what to do.I wasnt sure I was going to fight. I didnt want to fight. I didnt need to fight, she said. But my coach looked at me and said, This is about you. Your legacy. Are you tough enough? Are you willing to go out there? Youre not going to make it worse, but youre going to be in pain. What if this were the Olympics?I would be fighting! Harrison answered. This is my one day every four years. You dont get another shot.She competed in Tokyo after that conversation. She won her event.Shes proud to be the first American to capture a title at that prestigious competition, and she expects that pushing herself like that will help her overcome anything she might encounter in Rio.If I wake up on Aug. 11 with a separated shoulder, I know Im still going to win because I did it in Tokyo, she said. And thats the kind of thing that makes me realize pain is just a feeling. Its just like feeling fat. Its just pain, you know?That said, even battle-toughened Olympians such as Harrison have their limits.When asked if she might hang on for the 2020 Summer Games, Harrison burst out laughing and said, Im crazy, but Im not a masochist. Discount Hockey Jerseys . During the athletes parade, the 23-strong Ukrainian team was represented by a lone flagbearer in an apparent protest at the presence of Russian troops in Ukraines Crimean peninsula. Cheap Hockey Jerseys China . Newcastle dominated in the early stages but City weathered the storm and then raised its game in extra time. Negredo broke the deadlock from close range after a simple move in the 99th minute before Dzeko took the ball round goalkeeper Tim Krul to seal the victory in the 105th. http://www.cheapadidashockeyjerseys.com/ . "It doesnt get any better than that," Giambi said. "Im speechless." The Indians are roaring toward October. Giambi belted a two-run, pinch-hit homer with two outs in the ninth inning to give Cleveland a shocking 5-4 win over the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night, keeping the Indians up with the lead pack in the AL wild-card race. Clearance Hockey Jerseys . They reached the 100-point plateau for the fourth time in five games, bested the visiting Trail Blazers by 34 in the paint and scored 19 of the final 25 points in regulation. Hockey Jerseys Outlet . Siddikur, whose previous win on the circuit came in Brunei three years ago, finished his bogey-free round with a birdie on the 18th for a total of 17-under 199. Indias Shiv Chowrasia, who has finished runner-up in this tournament twice, was in second place after a 66. HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. -- A North Carolina football player turned himself in on an arrest warrant Wednesday morning for sexual battery and assault on a female student in February.In a news release, the Orange County Sheriffs Office said Allen Anthony Artis, 21, was released by the magistrate on a $5,000 unsecured bond. Artis didnt attend a brief court appearance Wednesday afternoon on the two misdemeanor charges, and his attorney Sam Coleman left the courtroom through a side door to avoid reporters.The next court date is scheduled for Sept. 29 in the case.The arrest warrant stated Artis had sex with the woman against her will when he should have reasonably known that the other person was mentally incapacitated and physically helpless. The warrant also said he pulled on her bra strap causing an indentation on her shoulder/back during the incident.The woman, Delaney Robinson, said Tuesday she had become intoxicated after being out with friends and was unable to consent. The Associated Press typically doesnt identify alleged victims of sexual assault, but Robinson held a news conference, saying she had filed for the misdemeanor charges after police and prosecutors indicated there wasnt enough evidence to pursue felony charges.Her attorney, Denise Branch, also criticized the way campus police handled a rape kit and the questioning of Artis, a reserve junior linebacker now indefinitely suspended from the team.Orange County district attorney Jim Woodall said no final decisionss have been made on whether to prosecute, though Branch pointed to an Aug.dddddddddddd 2 email she received from one of Woodalls assistant prosecutors.In it, assistant district attorney Jeffrey Nieman said the UNC Department of Public Safety has made clear their determination that the evidence does not support criminal charges, and our review of the investigation does not lead us to advise or otherwise take action to the contrary.In a Tuesday interview with The Associated Press, Woodall said an investigator has consulted with Woodalls office regarding steps taken as recently as Aug. 26 and Aug. 29 in the case.At this point, were waiting on additional evidence, Woodall said. Frankly, the UNC police would not be continuing to investigate and consult us if the case were not an open case.Artis, a native of Marietta, Georgia, has one tackle in two games this season for the Tar Heels (1-1) and played primarily on special teams last year.His indefinite suspension is an automatic university policy when an athlete is charged with a misdemeanor, team spokesman Kevin Best said Tuesday. Any reinstatement would come after a review from athletic director Bubba Cunningham, head coach Larry Fedora and school officials.---Follow Aaron Beard on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/aaronbeardap and the APs college football site at http://collegefootball.ap.org Cheap Throwback Baseball Detroit Tigers Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball Colorado Rockies Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball Houston Astros Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball Kansas City Royals Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball Los Angeles Angels Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball Los Angeles Dodgers Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball Miami Marlins Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball Milwaukee Brewers Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball Minnesota Twins Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball New York Mets Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball New York Yankees Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball Oakland Athletics Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball Philadelphia Phillies Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball Pittsburgh Pirates Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball San Diego Padres Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball San Francisco Giants Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball Seattle Mariners Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball St. Louis Cardinals Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball Tampa Bay Rays Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball Texas Rangers Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball Toronto Blue Jays Jerseys Cheap Throwback Baseball Washington Nationals Jerseys ' ' '