Ampezzo in late January.She will start skiin | Forum

Jamie Hagiya stood in line with her opponents at the California CrossFit regional in May, waiting to hear who qualified for the upcoming CrossFit Games. MLB Jerseys China .The Games, which begin Tuesday and run through July 24 in Carson, California, feature 40 of the fittest women in the world. Only five would be selected from the California regional, and this was Hagiyas fourth attempt to make the cut.In first ... Lauren Fisher! an announcer howled. In second ... Rebecca Voigt! In third ... Alessandra Pichelli! In fourth ... Chyna Cho!Hagiya cheered and clapped with all her might. There was one spot left.And your fifth athlete going to Carson, California ... Jamie Hagiya!Sitting on a couch last month at Californias Torrance CrossFit, where she is a co-owner and coach, the 31-year-old Hagiya replays the video of her name being called. She is beaming. Her face lights up, bright as her turquoise muscle tank. Thats a moment Ill never forget, Hagiya says. One of the best moments of my life.Hagiya spent most of her life as a basketball player, whipping the ball up the court to lead Southern Californias fast break from 2003 to 2007.Shes found new purpose with CrossFit, qualifying for regionals five straight years in a competition that tests speed, strength, power, agility, endurance and pretty much any other athletic quality imaginable.It allowed me a second chance to be an athlete again.This is my new loveDuring Hagiyas first basketball game in first grade, she scored bucket after bucket while the kids around her giggled and ran aimlessly around the court. Hagiya subbed out. Then they started losing, said her father, Grant Hagiya. So they put her right back in and she started scoring baskets again.But no matter how many shots Hagiya drained as she got older, few believed in her dream to play Division I college basketball. She was doubted, she said, because she was 5-foot-3 and Japanese-American.They said Im too small, Id never play, Hagiya said. I said, Oh forget that. I know I can play.She happened to find her way into an exposure camp with staff from USC in attendance. And the Trojans offered Hagiya her only scholarship.Hagiya fought to earn starts -- out-squatting mens basketball players and defending women a foot taller. Once, she challenged teammate Shay Murphy to eight games of one-on-one, refusing to quit until she won. Ultimately she reached sixth on USCs all-time list for career assists.Shes always had to work for everything in her life, said Murphy, who has played in the WNBA and overseas. She was always told she was too short or not the right skin color or she doesnt have a name to do anything. That drove her.Hagiya learned work ethic from her grandparents, who were imprisoned in internment camps in Wyoming and Arkansas during World War II. They got everything taken away from them. They had to move and they still didnt complain about it. They just worked hard, Hagiya said.Hagiya eventually played professionally in Greece and Spain. She tried out for the Los Angeles Sparks in 2012. She gave it her all -- swinging the extra pass, nailing the open jumper, stealing the ball.But she didnt make the team.She knew she had reached the end of the road with hoops, but nothing prepares a player for that. If you love it so much and put so much time and effort into it, its like a relationship ending -- a marriage or something, she said.She was disappointed, but she knew something better was near.A few months earlier, she had hosted a basketball clinic for girls when one of the participants father, who owns a CrossFit gym, suggested she try the program.Her first CrossFit session? I died, Hagiya said, recalling the Jackie workout: 1,000-meter row, 50 thrusters and 30 pull-ups. But she kept coming back. I love competition, Hagiya said. It brought that back out of me again.My buddy called me and said, Do you love this? It looks like you love this. Im like, I do, Hagiya said. Nothing will ever compare to basketball, but because that time has passed and Ive accepted that and moved on, this is my new love and I love it.The comeback kidSoon, Hagiya was nipping at the heels of SoCals top CrossFitters. She qualified for regionals in 2012 (but couldnt compete because of a torn hamstring), 2013 and 2014. She just missed the cut for the Games in 13 and 14, finishing fifth both years (only the top three qualified then).She knew she was so close and she knew she belonged with the other girls at that stage, said Andy Paik, a Torrance CrossFit coach. She wanted to prove herself.But in June 2014, Hagiyas rise was halted. On a set of 30-inch box jumps during an exhibition in Las Vegas, she felt as if someone had hit the back of her heel with a barbell. She looked behind her but saw no one was there. She had torn her Achilles, and she had surgery a few days later.Hagiya was devastated. She had to depend on others, unable to walk to pour herself a glass of water. One day she heard one too many its-going-to-be-OKs and walked outside to her car and broke down. Its not fine! Im not OK! she screamed amid tears. This sucks! I dont want to hear its OK!But inspired by NBA star Kobe Bryants recovery from his Achilles injury a year earlier, she committed to strengthening herself through daily rehab. You dry your tears and youre like, Tomorrows a new day, Hagiya said. Lets keep moving.With just three months of full-speed training, Hagiya qualified for 2015 regionals. The SoCal CrossFit community dubbed her the the comeback kid, and many donned T-shirts with the slogan.But Hagiya finished 20th. She knew qualifying was an achievement, but she was disappointed. She wanted more.This years regionals, she felt relaxed. I believe in myself. I know I can do this, she said to herself. Im just going to do my best and whatever happens, happens.The road was not easy. On two events on the final day of competition, she finished 13th and 17th. She had one event left to redeem herself. I had to pull myself together and just go out there and perform, Hagiya said.She came back to finish second in the final event -- a combination of 65-pound thrusters and legless rope climbs -- beating out last years California regional champion, Brooke Ence, for the fifth and final spot at the Games.I was getting so close, so close, so close, Hagiya said. Thats why this year it meant so much to me. I had been trying for so long.I was proud I endured all of that and kept on going. Cheap Cleveland Indians Jerseys China . With the short-handed Warriors needing help from someone -- anyone -- to stop a three-game skid, ONeal returned from right knee and groin injuries that had sidelined him for four games and put up season highs with 18 points and eight rebounds. It was just enough to help lift Golden State to a 102-101 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday night. Cheap Baseball Store . Pierce was ejected in the third quarter of Indianas 103-86 win Monday. George Hill stole a bad pass and was going in for a layup, and Pierce hustled back and appeared to be trying to wrap him up. http://www.cheapbaseballchina.com/ . The team says the Spain international has a muscle pull in his right leg. Barcelona hosts third-division side Cartagena in the return leg of their round-of-32 tie after winning their first meeting 4-1. VAL GARDENA, Italy -- If Bode Miller wants to return to ski racing this season as he approaches the age of 40, hes going to have to show U.S. team coach Sasha Rearick that hes still got the necessary speed.Theres always a chance with Bode, always. But at this point right now were not expecting a miracle return real quick, Rearick told The Associated Press on Friday.Still, Rearick would not rule out a return by Miller this season, saying the six-time Olympic medalist could possibly race in January.Miller has won 33 World Cup races but he has never won the famed Hahnenkamm downhill in Kitzbuehel, Austria, which is scheduled for Jan. 21.Also Friday, a judge dismissed a lawsuit Miller had filed against ski manufacturer and his former sponsor Head. Miller ended his nearly 10-year partnership with Head in 2015 and signed an agreement not to use other skis in World Cup or world championship races for two years. He was attempting to get out of the remainder of the deal so that he could race on skis by New York-based Bomber, which he helped develop.Its not clear what effect the dismissal might have Millers return.While he has not raced since severing his right hamstring tendon in February 2015, Miller might be tempted to return in time for Kitzbuehel. That could enable him to qualify for the world championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland, in February.The U.S. team can start only four skiers in each race at the worlds.Hes going to have to qualify for the world championships, Rearick said. He would have to show me hes ready to play or qualify straight up by criteria.The 39-year-old Miller did not show much speed during training at Copper Mountain in Colorado last month, trailing several teammates.He was not in the mix in those four-five guys, and we were ahead of the Norwegians there, Rearick said.The training in Copper was on a 30-second track of about 800 meters (yards), just a fraction of the distance of a full World Cup downhill or super-G.Miller has not had any race training since Copper, according to Rearick, who added Miller will come to Europe to train next month and then be evaluated.At the 2015 world championships in Beaver Creek, Colorado, Miller was leading the super-G affter several intervals despite not having raced all season. Cheap Boston Red Sox Jerseys China. Then he crashed.That was the perfect end to this career -- green light, green light, green light and then crash, Norwegian great Kjetil Andre Aamodt said, referring to Millers unpredictability.Meanwhile in Millers lawsuit against Head, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter in Orange County, California where Miller lives ruled Friday that Miller had no personal jurisdiction to sue the Austria-based company in his court.Millers attorney, Mark B. Seiger, said in an email that the lawsuit may be refiled in Colorado, home of Heads U.S. headquarters. But he said Miller and Bomber might not find it worth the money to litigate against a behemoth international corporation.Unfortunately, our legal system enables `Goliath to win a litigation by outspending its opponent, Seiger said.In a statement released Friday before the lawsuit was dismissed, Miller said the legal fight was nothing more than a case of corporate oppression against an individual ski racer and our startup ski company.This is my last real chance to race competitively in the World Cup and world championship, and it is disappointing to me that Head is trying to block me from doing that, Miller said.Jason D. Russell, attorney for Head, said his team was pleased with the decision and said it was strange that the lawsuit had been filed in California in the first place.Heads racing director Rainer Salzgeber suggested Miller shouldnt race again.Its better when he doesnt ski. Thats clear, Salzgeber said in comments that came before the lawsuit was dismissed. It would be nice for the crowd. But his level of skiing in Copper was not there where we want to see Bode.Meanwhile, Salzgeber suggested that Lindsey Vonn, who is still supplied by Head, could return from a broken arm in Cortina dAmpezzo in late January.She will start skiing hopefully beginning of January, Salzgeber said. Cortina should be OK.---Associated Press Writer Andrew Dalton contributed to this report from Los Angeles.---Andrew Dampf on Twitter: www.twitter.com/asdampf ' ' '