Medal

Mstislav Rostropovich, the world-renowned cellist, conductor and human rights activist, will receive the George Peabody Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Music, the highest honor the Peabody Conservatory can bestow.The Russian-born Rostropovich will receive the medal at Friedberg Hall Thursday during the intermission of an all-Russian program by the Peabody Symphony Orchestra. The program will be conducted by Leon Fleisher and feature piano soloist Stephen Prutsman.Rostropovich, who is in his last year as the music director of Washington's National Symphony, will spend the earlier part of the day rehearsing the Peabody Camerata and several Peabody cast members for the world premiere performances of the chamber opera, "Ligeia," at the Evian Festival in France.

As Baltimore continued to come down from the euphoria of the Ravens' Super Bowl win, superfan Michael Phelps took to Instagram this week to show the special access afforded an 18-time Olympic gold medalist. On Valentine's Day, Phelps posted pictures of his dogs, Catahoula mix Stella and English bulldog Herman, posing with the Lombardi Trophy. “Champ and champ!!!” Phelps posted under the color photo of Herman, sidling up to the gleaming silver football. Phelps, a regular presence at the team's big games and in its post-victory locker rooms, did not mention how his pooches got so close to the coveted trophy.

Congratulations to Anita Nall.Turning 16, the Towson Catholic High School junior swam to an Olympic silver medal in the women's 100-meter breast stroke event yesterday in Barcelona, setting an American record, after winning a bronze medal in the 200-meter breast-stroke earlier in the week.She finished in front of the best swimmers in the world (all but one) amid the frantic expectation that mushroomed after she set the world record in 200 meters in March.Anita Nall handled the distracting attention with poise, genuineness and modesty, and concentrated on her stroke.

Janice Jackson remembers being a 20-something flirting with the young men who worked at the Baltimore rehabilitation center where she visited her brother as he was recovering from a car accident that left him paralyzed. Three years later, they would be the same attendants responsible for bathing her after she was hit by a car and paralyzed. The men hadn't done anything wrong, said Jackson, now 53, but she felt humiliated by a loss of dignity. That experience, Jackson said, revealed her life's purpose and led her to the White House on Friday, where President Barack Obama recognized her with the nation's second-highest civilian honor, the Citizens Medal, for the network she built to help hundreds of disabled women in Maryland feel empowered, beautiful and capable of dreaming.

The Winter Olympics are over, but there is one more set of medals to be awarded -- for the television coverage. And I'm just the guy to do it.OK, maybe I'm not the guy to do it. But I'm the guy who's going to do it. So there.In the spirit of the Olympic movement, no network flag will be raised when the award winners mount the platform. And because all the versions of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" are still in Albertville, instead the winners will hear a recording of Arnold Stang reciting Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (yeah, I know, about $2.50 an hour)

News . . . but Mostly Views:Two more "sports," surfing and ballroom dancing, are looking ultimately to make it into the Olympic Games as medal events, being granted provisional recognition, and I say loudly and clearly: GOOD. The more the merrier.The Games, be they the Summer or Winter variety, simply aren't crowded enough at this point with just 34 medal sports on the menu. And besides, anyone who has been subjected to synchronized swimming or gymnastics, knows it's time for a little "Saturday Night Fever" and "Endless Summer."

..........G S B T NOR 2.....7....7.....16 GER....6....6.....3.....15 USA.....7....4....2...13 RUS.....6.....2...5....13 CAN...2...4....5....11

BARCELONA, Spain -- They weren't the favorites. They were just two men from the United States, paddling a canoe through a torrent of water, trying to claim a medal, any medal, at the 1992 Summer Olympics.But yesterday, on the man-made course in La Seu d'Urgell, Joe Jacobi, a Maryland native who trains in North Carolina, and Scott Strausbaugh got more than they had bargained for. They won the gold medal in the men's double canoe to close out the whitewater slalom competition."We came into this race feeling there were five to eight boats that could win," Strausbaugh said.

The U.S. Olympic hockey team will be searching for gold in France.And if the medal can't be gold, a silver or bronze will do nicely, thank you."Our goal all along has been to win a medal in these Olympic Games, hopefully a gold," said coach Dave Peterson before his team left for Albertville, France, last week to begin preparations for the Winter Olympics."

The way the North Baltimore Aquatic Club's Whitney Phelps sees it, a medal in the World Championships is a possibility if she swims her race in the prescribed fashion.Phelps, 14, is missing the first week of her freshman classes at Towson High to compete in the 200-meter butterfly on Sunday, the final day of the seven-day championships in Rome. She qualified for the U.S. national team by winning the event at last month's Phillips 66 National Championships in Indianapolis."I'll need a good start and turns," Phelps said by phone from Rome.

Two Marylanders are among about a dozen people from across the country who will receive the Presidential Citizens Medal next week, the nation's second-highest civilian honor, the White House announced on Friday. Janice Jackson, a Baltimore resident, will receive the honor for creating a nonprofit group called Women Embracing Abilities Now, which helps women with disabilities. Jackson also teaches music at the University of Baltimore.  Terry Shima, of Gaithersburg, was part of an Army unit of Japanese Americans who volunteered for  combat duty in World War II. Shima also served as executive director of the Japanese American Veterans Association.  The two will attend a ceremony at the White House on Feb. 15 to receive the award from President Obama.

A professor of physics at the University of Maryland, College Park who specializes in fundamental questions of the structure and behavior of the universe has been named a recipient of the National Medal of Science. Sylvester James Gates Jr., 62, was among 12 researchers named by President Barack Obama on Dec. 21 to receive the award at a White House ceremony this year. The medal, created in 1959 and awarded each year, recognizes what the White House described as extraordinary knowledge and outstanding contributions in science and engineering.

The human fish from Rodgers Forge was not supposed to be the star of the 2012 London Olympics. American Ryan Lochte was expected to break out of Michael Phelps' shadow, and in the run-up to the games, one of Mr. Phelps' other teammates publicly criticized his work ethic. And when the games began, it looked like the doubters might be right. After his stunning, eight-gold-medal performance in Beijing in 2008, Michael Phelps looked flat and listless in his first final of the Games, the 400 individual medley, an event he had once dominated.

Two Army veterans, who tended to comrades injured in battle in wars that were more than two decades apart, received long overdue military honors Friday before an audience of family, friends and some 200 members of the Armed Forces at Fort Meade. Dr. Charles E. Rath Jr., an Army captain and surgeon 67 years ago during World War II, and Charles Shyab, a medic during the Vietnam War 45 years ago, both received the Bronze Star from Col. Jeremy Martin, commandant of the Defense Information School at the Army post in Anne Arundel County.

Michael Phelps can swim. Michael Phelps can golf. And finally here's a physical activity that Michael Phelps is, frankly, pretty bad at: crowd surfing. The Olympian tried to ride the waves of a crowd the other night at XS nightclub in Las Vegas. The crowd was into it, shouting, "Michael! Michael!" And Phelps was game. But after mere seconds, the ride was over and Phelps was on the floor. Don't worry, reports say he wasn't hurt. Perhaps just a bit embarrassed. Party foul? Or just a chance to find the Bob Bowman of crowd surfing, train and come back in four years.

Et cetera Snyder, McFadden win Paralympic gold Baltimore's Brad Snyder , 28, won his second gold medal of the London Paralympics on Friday, a year to the day after he was blinded by an improvised explosive device while serving with the Navy in Afghanistan. "It is an emotional day, but it's kind of a day of celebration," Snyder said after winning the 400-meter freestyle S11 gold in 4 minutes, 32.41 seconds, by a margin of 5.83. "I zeroed my focus on performance and was able to put a lot of the emotions away.

SYDNEY, Australia - Disappointed that the U.S. women's gymnasts failed to win a medal in the team competition last night? You should have seen what happened after they were finished tumbling and vaulting at the Olympic Park Superdome. The world got a glimpse of the ego problems, turf wars and turmoil that have troubled the team for several years, leaving the unmistakable impression that, if anything, a fourth-place finish in the team event was a major accomplishment. Yes, it was a far cry from the gold medal won in Atlanta four years ago in a moment that turned a nation of television viewers into gymnastics fans.

Paralympics Long finishes with five golds, seven medals Jessica Long , who grew up in Middle River, won her fifth gold medal at the London Paralympics, breaking her world record in the women's 100-meter freestyle S8 with a time of 1 minute, 5.63 seconds Thursday. Long, who also two silver medals, finished 2.44 seconds in front of Great Britain's Heather Frederiksen . The 20-year-old Long led from the start to lower her own world mark by 0.43 to 1:05.63, with Great Britain's Heather Frederiksen second.

Paralympics Long, Snyder win swimming gold medals U.S. swimmer Jessica Long , formerly of Middle River, won her second gold medal at the London Paralympic Games and the ninth of her career by successfully defending her 400-meter freestyle S8 title Friday. Long, 20, who had both lower legs amputated before age 2, won by 18.22 seconds, finishing in 4 minutes, 42.28 seconds, and lowering her world mark set in June by 1.89 seconds. "What I always like to say is I swam my heart out and I can honestly say I swam my heart out and I gave it everything I had," said Long, who now lives and trains in Colorado.