FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

On Sunday, French driver Stephane Ortelli lost control of his car and flew through the air in this stunning crash in Monza, Italy:

Amazingly, Ortelli suffered only a broken ankle. Allan McNish, who was driving an Audi and saw Ortelli's airborne vehicle fly a few feet from his head, described the accident as "ferocious":

"As I turned in I saw something out of the corner of my eye and thought, 'There's a lot of dust coming from somewhere,'" McNish said. "Then Stephane's car suddenly barrel-rolled right in front of me and I had to steer through the debris."

Today I learned of a sport called tresling, which is a combination of Tetris and arm wrestling. Here's a look:

The official tresling web site explains:

They said it couldn't be done. Mixing Tetris and arm wrestling... not possible. But just like Stallone in "Over the Top," the impossible happened, dreams came true, tears were shed. I give you Tresling: Not just a two-player version of best game on earth, not just a fist-pumping, back ally arm wrestling match to end all matches... but a mash-up so heroic Zeus himself could not imagine it.

I'm actually not sure whether this qualifies as a sport or not, and in the video the participants don't really look like they're straining very hard on the arm wrestling portion -- it appears that Tetris skill is more important than arm strength. But I agree with Engadget, it is a brilliant creation.

Here's Arizona Cardinals safety Adrian Wilson pulling off one of the most impressive athletic feats you'll ever see, taking a couple of steps and then jumping 66 inches vertically:

That jump has become the stuff of YouTube legend, and it was nominated in the sports category at the YouTube Awards. But it lost out to a video in which a skateboarder pops a lot of balloons. In my view, the skateboarding video is obviously inferior, although maybe that says more about me than it does about the videos in question. The skateboarding video is after the jump.

This is Dean Potter walking 200 feet across a tightrope suspended 20 feet off the ground:

That's an impressive feat, something very few people could do, although the 20-foot height doesn't exactly make it a death-defying stunt.

However, Jere Longman of the New York Times has a fascinating account of Potter's preparation to walk across Hell Roaring Canyon in Utah on a tightrope -- 900 feet above the ground, with nothing attaching him to the rope. Potter explains the allure of such an attempt:

"When there's a death consequence, when you are doing things that if you mess up you die, I like the way it causes my senses to peak," Potter said. "I can see more clearly. You can think much faster. You hear at a different level. Your foot contact on the line is accentuated. Your sense of balance is heightened. I don't seem to feel that very often meditating."

Potter will wear a parachute when he makes his official attempt at the crossing, so maybe there's not really a "death consequence." Regardless, his tightrope walk is an incredible athletic achievement.

Today's crash video comes from Friday's Grand Prix motorcycle practice in Qatar:

That was Dani Pedrosa coming up from behind and hitting Valentino Rossi. The collision sent Pedrosa flying, but he apparently suffered only fairly minor hand and arm injuries. He said afterward:

"The accident happened when I was riding behind Rossi. I was catching him and he did something unexpected, so I couldn't avoid him," said Pedrosa. "The accident forced me to stop the session earlier than I'd planned, so I will need to have a long talk with my mechanics tomorrow before we go out again. My right hand and arm are certainly tired after all the riding today but the only problem is that the hand is now very painful again."

Said Rossi, "I'm really sorry that Pedrosa fell, and I hope that he is OK." Apparently he is.

Extreme skier Billy Poole died Tuesday of injuries sustained jumping off a cliff for a scene in a documentary film. He was 28. If you're not familiar with Poole or extreme skiing, here he is narrating one of his extreme skiing videos:

Poole's mother remembers him as a young man who quit his job as an engineer to do what he felt passionate about:

"He'd say that this was his life, and this was what he had chosen to do," Phyllis Erck said late Tuesday. "Of course I was terrified . . . but I respected his choice. I know he died doing what he loved."

Poole was performing a jump in Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah. The jump was supposed to be part of a Warren Miller Entertainment film.

Photos: Notable Sports Deaths in 2007-2008

Sir Edmund Hillary, conquerer of Mount Everest and one of history's greatest sportsmen, has died at the age of 88.

A native of New Zealand, Hillary achieved international fame at age 35 when, on May 29, 1953, he and Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers to reach the world's highest peak. From The New Zealand Herald:

Prime Minister Helen Clark today described Sir Edmund as the best-known New Zealander to have ever lived and said his passing was a profound loss to New Zealand.

"Sir Ed described himself as an average New Zealander with modest abilities. In reality, he was a colossus," she said.

"He was an heroic figure who not only 'knocked off' Everest but lived a life of determination, humility, and generosity."

More recently, Hillary has spoken out about the need to protect Everest from environmental damage. More than 3,000 people have now reached the summit of Mount Everest. More than 200 have died trying.

The Professional Bull Riding tour is much more popular than the American media make it seem. I once talked to a Versus executive who told me that the network considers PBR a more valuable property than the NHL. But it's mostly a southern, western and rural sport. Can PBR make it in America's biggest city? They're giving it a shot:

I could see PBR becoming a hot ticket at Madison Square Garden some day. And if PBR makes it in New York, the mainstream media won't ignore it anymore.

On Friday we noted the passing of Robert Craig "Evel" Knievel, the motorcycle daredevil who in the 1970s became a household name thanks to his jumps on ABC's Wide World of Sports.

But we should also note the incident that led to the decline of Knievel's career: In 1977, Knievel attacked a man who had written an unflattering book about him, swinging a baseball bat at his head and shattering the man's arm, which he used to protect himself.

Knievel spent six months in jail, and and his reputation never completely recovered. The victim, Shelly Saltman, sued and won $12.75 million in damages. For various red tape reasons, Saltman never collected the money, and now he says he wants to collect it from Knievel's estate.

It's not clear whether the Knievel estate has that much money, but it is clear that Saltman is entitled to be compensated for what Knievel did to him. For his part, though, Saltman said he wasn't bitter when he heard the news of Knievel's death: "My first thought was that I do hope the poor man is finally at peace,'' he said.

Robert Craig "Evel" Knievel, the motorcycle daredevil who was once the most popular attraction on ABC's Wide World of Sports, has died. He was 69. Let's observe a moment of silence as we watch him jump the fountains at Caesar's Palace:

In addition to the Caesar's Palace jump, Knievel was best known for his unsuccessful attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon. He always wanted to try to jump the Grand Canyon, but the National Park Service thwarted his efforts.

Knievel died of liver failure after living with hepatitis C for the last 15 years.