{"id":1128,"date":"2008-08-13T06:18:25","date_gmt":"2008-08-13T11:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/?p=1128"},"modified":"2022-01-02T07:37:16","modified_gmt":"2022-01-02T12:37:16","slug":"from-budweiser-man-to-olympic-boxer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/?p=1128","title":{"rendered":"From Budweiser Man to Olympic Boxer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Not to be overlooked in all the Hoelzer hullabaloo is another remarkable Alabama athlete, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Deontay_Wilder\">Deontay Wilder.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>He&#8217;s the U.S. heavyweight boxer who hails from Tuscaloosa, Alabama (Roll Tide!). His is one of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/id\/2197239\/?from=rss\">those classic Olympic stories that always has Eyegal reaching for the Kleenix;<\/a> one moment he&#8217;s working at Red Lobster and driving a Budweiser truck to help support his young daughter born with spina bifida, and in the next, he&#8217;s gunning for gold in Beijing.<\/p>\n<p><em>THT&#8217;s<\/em> Mark McCarter is johnny-on-the-spot per usual with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.al.com\/sports\/huntsvilletimes\/mmccarter.ssf?\/base\/sports\/121861894491490.xml&#038;coll=1&#038;thispage=1\">a nice profile<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/stream.publicbroadcasting.net\/production\/mp3\/wual\/local-wual-723601.mp3\">Alabama Public Radio has done a good piece as well.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Deontay got off to a good start today <a href=\"http:\/\/www.al.com\/sports\/huntsvilletimes\/index.ssf?\/base\/sports\/1218705401306300.xml&#038;coll=1\">winning his first match<\/a>, and at 6&#8217;7&#8221; with a body covered in tattoos, he&#8217;s having the time of his life in Beijing&#8211;people think he&#8217;s LeBron James.<\/p>\n<p>Other U.S. Olympic athletes with Alabama ties include Birmingham native and Vestavia Hills High grad <a href=\"http:\/\/www.treyhardee.com\/\">Trey Hardee in the decathlon<\/a>, plus Aretha Thurmond (discus) and Kristin Heaston (shot put), <a href=\"http:\/\/www.toomerscoffeecommunity.com\/2008\/07\/16\/us-olympic-team-members-at-toomers-coffee-friday-june-18th-9-11-am\/\">both of whom live and train in Auburn.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>If anyone is aware of any other athletes with Alabama ties, please do tell. If you&#8217;re interested in who is competing from your state,<a href=\"http:\/\/aforathlete.wikia.com\/wiki\/USA_2008_Olympic_Team#United_States_.28also_known_as_USA.29_Olympic_Team_by_State:\"> here&#8217;s a good source.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Not to be overlooked in all the Hoelzer hullabaloo is another remarkable Alabama athlete, Deontay Wilder. He&#8217;s the U.S. heavyweight boxer who hails from Tuscaloosa, Alabama (Roll Tide!). His is one of those classic Olympic stories&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98,23,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2008-beijing-olympics","category-current-events","category-sports","comments-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1128"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9341,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1128\/revisions\/9341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}