Weekend review: The intimidation factor

Pan Pacific Championships: 47 in Irvine. It's safe to say that some American swimmers may have had to purchase additional baggage on their way out of the 2010 Pan Pacs. The U.S. squad came away from five days in the pool in Irvine with a suitcase-overflowing total of 47 medals, including six golds from Ryan Lochte, four for Jessica Hardy and three for Rebecca Soni. Even at something clearly less than peak form, Michael Phelps still managed to win two individual races and is now planning his last brief break from swimming until after the 2012 London Games. Given their collective domination, his teammates have probably earned a brief respite from pool-related work as well.

Women's Rugby World Cup: Practice is overrated. Three-time reigning World Cup champion New Zealand came into the tournament-opening weekend as the only team in the field that hadn't played a match this year. Not an issue. The Black Ferns opened their latest title defense showing nothing in the way of rust as they dismantled South Africa by a score of 55-3. Perhaps feeling some of the dominant vibes from Irvine's pool across the sea in England, the U.S. women opened their 2010 World Cup with a win over Kazakhstan, 51-0.

Track and field: For the record. While swimmers and rugby players were making decisive statements about 2010, Kenya's David Rudisha rewound the clock to 1997 in breaking Wilson Kipketer's world record 800m time that had stood for almost exactly 13 years. In yet another reminder that this weekend was all about formidable performances, Kipketer told AFP, "I wasn't a bit surprised to hear the news."

FIVB Tour Aland: Nine times. As you may have heard, Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser had what some would call a good season on the beach. And, as you may have noticed, extreme emotional reactions were not a prominent part of their repertoire as they compiled win after win during this dominant 2010 campaign. But on Sunday, when they came back from getting crushed in the second set to win their single-season record ninth FIVB title in their final match of the year, Rogers put a fitting cap on 2010 with a scream that called to mind his Beijing gold medal celebration in 2008. If you're the sort of person who likes to keep track of victory celebrations, it's probably not a bad idea to file that one away - given the way Rogers and Dalhausser played this season, there's a solid chance we'll be seeing a similar yell two summers from now in London.