varela blog: SOCCER SUCKS

varela blog

el soccer esta en crisis. es que se volvio un deporte aburrido donde unos millonarios trotan -no corren-, se tiran al suelo fingiendo zancadillas, se miran el peinado en la pantalla gigante y si acaso atinan a un gol, ya no de cabeza por la contusion. la mayoria de los juegos terminan empatados por eso hasta la copa mundial se decide por penalty, una falta de respeto. ahora renuncia el jefe de la fifa por corrupcion. y por que otra cosa iba a renunciar, por falta de goles? no jodan. yo botara a messi, a ronaldo y a neymar. por ladrones. porque cobrar ese dineral por la porqueria que hacen es robarle al publico. usted se pone a mirar la industria mundial que hay en esto y es penoso. el otro dia veo un partido de la copa inglesa y parecia un juego entre nike y adidas. nadie tenia camiseta con el nombre de su seleccion ni siquiera un escudo, sino logos de firmas, agencias, marcas. y los niños son las peores victimas, que se creen que esa gente esta jugando algo. mentira, estan posando, exhibiendo anuncios, tatuajes y pelados. el torneo ingles y un team era de negros y el otro de arabes con algun sudaca. creo que el unico ingles en el estadio era el principe de inglaterra. ya no hay ni hooligans porque estan presos por vandalismo. los tiempos cambian. deben revolucionar esta mierda. hacer el terreno mas chiquito, la porteria mas grande y pagar por goles. a cien mil el tanto. para que vean que hasta los porteros salen a correr. y que cuando alguien se parta una pata entre el entrenador a jugar, si no, tampoco cobra.©varela

Louis Zamperini: Unbroken at Sea and in a P.O.W. Camp, Made Whole by Christ

Breitbart

By Daniel J. Flynn

“I was too busy staying alive to think about dying,” World War II veteran Louis Zamperini told his son about his ordeal lost at sea and then locked up in a prisoner of war camp.

The famous runner’s real tests of endurance came the decade after his experience competing in the 5000 meters at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, when he floated at sea for a month-and-a-half and subsequently endured vicious beatings by a sadistic guard nicknamed “the Bird” during two years in Japanese captivity. Luke Zamperini tells Breitbart Sports, “These were my bedtime stories growing up.”

Luke Zamperini’s bedtime stories become everybody’s silver-screen stories on Christmas Day through Angelina Jolie’s cinematic adaptation of Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken. The Zamp, owner of a record 4:08 mile as a collegian, retained exquisite timing long after he had hung up his track shoes. The Christian immortalized as a celluloid hero on Christmas, like the patriot passing days before this past Fourth of July, shows that death doesn’t kill a man’s timing.

It often replaces the substance of a man with a symbol. But the symbolism of a Christmas Day release of Unbroken makes it hard to miss the substance of Louis Zamperini. He ran the 5000 meters in the Olympics for a few minutes in the mid-1930s and suffered in a POW camp for a couple of years as Americans assumed him dead during the mid-1940s. He spread Jesus Christ’s gospel for more than six decades.

www.people.com

Like Christ, Zamperini lived past his obituary and figured prominently in a bestselling book. The comparisons don’t go much further for the life celebrated in the pews on Thursday and the one celebrated in the movie-house aisles. The former juvenile delinquent drank with zeal, hastily scheduled barroom boxing matches with unwitting, conscripted opponents, and projected the bitterness in his soul upon the world immediately following the Second World War.

“He was a vengeful man,” Luke Zamperini informs. “The Bird beat him mercilessly for over two years. My dad suffered from what’s today referred to as post-traumatic stress disorder. He was having nightmares of the Bird beating him that inevitably ended with him strangling the life out of the Bird.” Zamperini longed to return to Japan “to finish him off,” concedes his son.

Instead of squeezing the life out of the Bird, Billy Graham infused new life into Zamperini. “Hearing Reverend Graham speak reminded him of the promises on the life raft and in the prison camp that he had made to God,” Luke Zamperini tells Breitbart Sports of the violent and boozed-out postwar version of his dad. “He felt he hadn’t lived up to his side of the bargain.”

“His hatred for the Bird wasn’t hurting the Bird one bit,” son says of father. “It was destroying Louis Zamperini.” The bitter veteran put down the bottle and picked up the Bible. The sleep that followed the Olympian’s close encounter of the Billy Graham kind, his son explains, resulted in “the first night he did not have that nightmare and he did not have that nightmare for the rest of his life.”

Whereas others might have wished not to revisit the painful events, Zamperini used them for inspiration to start an outdoorsman camp for boys and to speak to groups about the force that saved his life. “He made a living talking about it,” Luke Zamperini notes. “He was a famous American athlete who seemingly came back from the dead. He was given the key to every city.” Holding in his war story didn’t work for Zamperini. Letting it out did.

Zamperini’s saga includes the highs of running in the Olympics and the lows of cleaning a pig sty with his bare hands. It’s an amazing tale of survival, evading strafing Japanese planes and capturing food on the raft with the primitive hunting tools available at the end of his arms. It’s more importantly a story, like the story whose beginnings Christians celebrate today, of redemption. In a life of service to his savior, Zamperini embodied the central message of his faith.

Louis Zamperini enjoyed a Hollywood ending. It emanated from enjoying a Christian life. Readers and now viewers of Unbroken marvel at the better-than-fiction quality to the miler’s tale of superhuman endurance. The story’s greatness surely stems from the protagonist’s awareness of the greatest story ever told.

Cuba Ready to Arrange Training Bases for Russia Ahead of 2016 Olympics

Sputnik International

MOSCOW, November 25 (Sputnik) — Cuba expressed readiness to provide training bases for Russian athletes, preparing for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Russian Ministry of Sports said in a statement published on its website Tuesday.

"Emilio Ratmir Lozada Garcia [Cuban ambassador to Russia] has informed the [Russian Sports] minister about Cuba's readiness to arrange training bases for Russian athletes to prepare for the Games of the XXXI Olympiad, Rio de Janeiro 2016," the statement said.
Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko held a meeting with the Cuban Ambassador to Russia Emilio Ratmir Lozada on Monday. They discussed further cooperation in sports and also negotiated boxing, volleyball and basketball competitions between Russian and Cuban sportsmen.
On October 2, 2009, Rio de Janeiro was elected as the host city of the 2016 Summer Olympics. The Rio Olympic Games will include 28 sports on its program and will be held on August 5 – 21.

Old Man Humiliates Young Guy In The Boxing Ring!!!

SportsEntertainmenTV

What would Oscar Pistorius face if he's sent to prison?

CNN.com

(CNN) -- A stuffy, overcrowded cell. Perhaps two or three men to a single bunk. Lockdown for most of the day.

Is this what awaits South Africa's Oscar Pistorius when he's sentenced for culpable homicide in the death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp?

Legal experts say it's impossible to predict what sentence Judge Thokozile Masipa may hand down. But many will be watching to see if the Olympian's dramatic fall from grace ends with time behind bars.

  Remembering the 'Blade Runner's' career

Before and after the killing: the Pistorius I knew

If that's indeed the case, the chances are that life would not be easy for South Africa's most famous disabled athlete.

A double amputee, he needs prosthetic limbs to get around. And rights campaigners warn that South African prisons -- which they say are notorious for overcrowding, gang violence and insanitary conditions -- are often a difficult environment even for the fittest of inmates.

Nooshin Erfani-Ghadimi, project coordinator for the Johannesburg-based Wits Justice Project, a civil society group, believes Pistorius would likely receive far better treatment than the average prisoner -- as he has throughout the judicial process, she says. That means he might get a cell to himself.

Even so, she told CNN, "I don't think anyone with a disability necessarily will be able to be provided for at the moment in a way that ensures that they would have the correct medical treatment, that they have the correct physical structures."

Some of South Africa's prisons are better than others, of course.

But whichever one might house Pistorius, there's no question that conditions would be a far cry from those in the $560,000 home in the luxury Silverwoods Estate, on the outskirts of Pretoria, where he shot Steenkamp dead last year.

Pretoria Central

South Africa's department of correctional services has policies in place for dealing with physically disabled inmates, Erfani-Ghadimi said.

What's next for Oscar Pistorius?

"Policy and practice, however, are often poles apart. Unfortunately, prisoners with disabilities face the same inhumane conditions as other able-bodied inmates."

Correctional Services Department spokesman Koos Gerber previously told CNN that South Africa's detention facilities, whether for remand prisoners or those serving prison terms, "can accommodate people with any disabilities."

There's been speculation that Pistorius could be sent to Pretoria Central Prison, although no one really knows.

It's not easy for rights researchers to get access inside, Erfani-Ghadimi said. But the prison does not have the best reputation.

The Pretoria News reported last year on a case brought by six inmates who told Pretoria High Court of having to share a single cell with others, with no ventilation, dirty mattresses and no bedding. They were locked up for 18 hours a day, the court heard, and threatened with sexual violence by gangs.

Steenkamp's mother stunned by verdict, wants to meet Pistorius

Medical care 'overstretched'

On average, Erfani-Ghadimi said, South African prisons are overcrowded, putting a strain on sanitation, ventilation and medical care.

The overcrowding means three men may share a single cell, or communal cells for 40 people are jammed with double the number they were intended to hold, with men sleeping in double or triple bunks, according to the Wits Justice Project.

One of the biggest risks associated with that is contracting tuberculosis, labeled the biggest killer in South Africa's prisons in a recent report, Erfani-Ghadimi said. The disease spreads easily in packed, steamy cells with little air.

In some prisons, overstretched nurses can never see all the people needing help on any day. Inconsistent treatment regimens mean drug-resistant TB strains develop and spread, while disruptions to antiretroviral programs also impact detainees who are HIV-positive.

"Also in terms of health management we've seen stories of people who are diabetic and have gone into insulin shock because they've been arrested and haven't been able to get to their medication," Erfani-Ghadimi said.

Speaking earlier this year, Correctional Services Minister Sibusiso Ndebele said that "overcrowding at correctional facilities is a global challenge," and that South Africa's prison population had dropped over the past decade.

As of April this year, there were about 157,400 inmates, of whom nearly 28% were on remand -- a term used for pretrial custody, according to official figures. The country's total population is about 54 million.

Who is the judge that'll be sentencing him?

Double-edged sword

There's no doubt that Pistorius' case has put South Africa's justice system under the international spotlight.

While the scrutiny may have been uncomfortable at time for South African authorities, it appears to have worked in the track star's favor until now.

When he was first detained after Steenkamp's killing, the African National Congress Women's League complained that he got special treatment, both in where he was held and in access to his family.

Some impoverished suspects who can't afford a lawyer or bail spend months or even years waiting for their cases just to come to court. But Pistorius was released on bail with relaxed conditions, and his trial began little more than a year after Steenkamp's death on February 14, 2013.

Erfani-Ghadimi describes his progress through the legal system as "an anomaly" in terms of both speed and the expert resources dedicated to it.

"Other cases normally take much longer, and both the victims and the accused face the strong probability of a miscarriage of justice," she wrote in a piece published on The Conversation website.

However, when it comes to serving time in prison, the athlete's fame -- and the extra attention that goes with it -- could be a double-edged sword when it comes to getting special privileges, she told CNN.

"A lot of people are able to subvert (the system) and pay bribes and get away with things, but he hasn't been able to," she said. "But on the other hand he has been able to get advantages that other people haven't."

'Living here is very hard'

Some of these differences may be stark.

The Wits Justice Project has highlighted the case of paraplegic inmate Ronnie Fakude, held on remand for 28 months before being freed on bail earlier this year with an electronic tag, in a pilot monitoring project.

Before his release, he described his experience to Carolyn Raphaely, a senior journalist with the project.

"I'm a 50-year-old paraplegic and have been awaiting trial for more than two years since my arrest on fraud charges in December 2011. I can't walk, I can't control my bowel or bladder and have to wear disposable baby nappies which my family buy for me. I'm paralysed from level four and don't have a wheelchair," he said, according to the project.

"If I use my [crutches] I have to pull my legs and throw them to the front. That's how I walk. Living here is very hard. We are 88 men in this cell which is meant for 32. Sometimes there are more. Twelve people sleep in two bunks pushed together, that's six on the top and six on the bottom. I have my own bed on the bottom, which is a privilege. Luckily, I don't have to share because of my medical status.

"There are eight or 10 people with TB in this cell and four or five we know are HIV-positive. A guy with multi-drug resistant TB sleeps on top of me. I feel vulnerable all the time."

Erfani-Ghadimi argues that as a severely disabled man, Fakude should never have been in detention at all. And if she had her way, the same would be true for Pistorius.

How Safe Is the Artificial Turf Your Child Plays On?

Soccer coach Amy Griffin was in a Seattle hospital visiting a young goalie who was receiving chemotherapy when a nurse said something that made the hair on Griffin’s neck stand up.

It was 2009. Two young female goalies Griffin knew had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Griffin, associate head coach for the University of Washington’s women’s soccer team, had started to visit the women and other athletes in local hospitals, helping them pass the time during chemo with war stories from her three decades of coaching.

That day, the nurse looked down at the woman Griffin was sitting with and said, "Don't tell me you guys are goalkeepers. You're the fourth goalkeeper I've hooked up this week."

 

Courtesy Amy Griffin

Annika Dybevik, 18, in her hospital bed being visited by coach Amy Griffin.

Later, the young woman with the chemo needle in her arm would say, “I just have a feeling it has something to do with those black dots.”

Artificial turf fields are now everywhere in the United States, from high schools to multi-million-dollar athletic complexes. As any parent or player who has been on them can testify, the tiny black rubber crumbs of which the fields are made -- chunks of old tires -- get everywhere. In players’ uniforms, in their hair, in their cleats.

Keep reading on nbcnews >>

How can a goalkeeper save a penalty?

The Economist

NASCAR: Cubano-americano Almirola triunfa en Daytona

martinoticias

El cubanoamericano Aric Almirola, de 30 años, obtuvo el domingo el primer triunfo de su carrera en la Sprint Cup Series al volante del auto No. 43, que llevaba el emblema de la Fuerza Aérea de Estados Unidos, y que se corrió bajo la lluvia en el Daytona International Speedway, en Daytona Beach, Florida.

La competencia Coke Zero 4000 Powered by Coca-Cola debió finalizar el sábado por la noche pero fue pospuesta por lluvia para el domingo, día que también llovió tras las primeras 10 vueltas y concluyó tras 112 vueltas con el triunfo de Almirola, conocido como "el cohete cubano" debido a su ascendencia cubana.

Antes de esta competencia, que lideró 14 vueltas, Almirola había logrado cuatro finales en el Top 5, tras siete temporadas en la Sprint Cup. Su victoria lo catapulta para la competencia conocida como Chase.

Esta fue la primera victoria del auto 43 en Daytona desde 1999 y la primera en la Sprint Cup en cualquier tipo de pista desde 1999.

"Esto es increíble, crecí a solo dos horas de aquí en Tampa, viendo la Daytona 500 y la Firecracker 400s, y crecí soñando con ganar aquí", indicó Almirola, quien nació el 14 de marzo de 1984 en la Base Aérea de Eglin, en Fort Walton Beach, Florida, Estados Unidos.

El brutal entrenamiento deportivo a los ninos chinos

deportesonline

Meet the Cuban Missile of NASCAR

cincinnati

fr.wikipedia.org

Tom Groeschen

SPARTA, Ky. – Reds pitcher Aroldis Chapman is not the only professional athlete nicknamed the Cuban Missile, for NASCAR has one of its own.

Sprint Cup driver Aric Almirola is also called the Cuban Missile, thanks to his Cuban-American heritage. Almirola, who started No. 22 in Saturday night's Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway, was born on Eglin Air Force Base in Fort Walton Beach, Fla.

The 30-year-old Almirola took media members on ride-along tours of bumpy Kentucky Speedway Saturday afternoon, about five hours before the Cup race.

"Welcome to the roughest racetrack known to man," Almirola said, as the car pulled onto the track.

Almirola was driving about 90 mph as he took reporters around the 1.5-mile track in a Kentucky Speedway Ford vehicle, with three passengers at a time.

"The earth underneath the racetrack has settled a lot over their winters," Almirola said. "It gets hot in the summer, then cold. When we hit that (bumps) at 180, your car can literally take flight."

Sprint Cup driver Aric Almirola takes media members on a bumpy Kentucky ride The Enquirer/Tom Groeschen

Almirola entered Saturday ranked No. 22 in Sprint Cup season points. In seven years of Cup driving, Almirola has not won but has 15 top-10 finishes. Almirola drives the No. 43 Ford for Richard Petty Motorsports.

How is the track riding?

"I think it gets rougher every year, I really do," Almirola said.

Fallece la legendaria Olga Kotelko, veterana trituradora de récords

es una verguenza que los medios de comunicacion canadienses, las autoridades deportivas y tanto entusiasta libelo propulsor de la liberacion del consumo de la marihuana y del world pride de estos dias, no hayan encontrado tiempo para rendir homenaje a quien es un ejemplo para los canadienses de todas las edades. una sola y breve nota a ojo de aguila ha sido ha todo lo que los ocupadisimos misters and mistress le han dedicado, mientras el mundo le rinde homenajes. ashamed of you.
----------------------------
TodayandForever Videos

EL PAÍS

Alejandro Prado
Olga Kotelko se calzó unas zapatillas de atletismo por primera vez a los 77 años. Competitiva por genética, no se conformó con dar paseos a ritmo ligero como aconsejan los médicos a personas de su edad. Ella quería correr, correr de verdad. Se convirtió en una máquina de ganar medallas y de destrozar récords en atletismo para personas mayores. Compitió hasta que una hemorragia cerebral la derrotó el pasado martes y falleció a los 95 años.
Más de 500 medallas y 26 récords mundiales son cifras que impresionan. Más aún si se sabe que esos triunfos se cosecharon entre los 77 y 95 años. Y más aún cuando la protagonista no había practicado nunca el atletismo. Porque a Olga Kotelko (Vonda, Canadá, 1919) lo que le gustaba era el béisbol. De joven no le importaba recorrerse varios kilómetros para jugar cuando salía de la escuela y luego volver a casa.
Criada en una granja del interior de Canadá, era la séptima de 11 hijos de un matrimonio de origen ucranio. Desde muy pequeña compaginó la escuela con las tareas domésticas y en su tiempo libre jugaba al softball y béisbol. Se graduó en la escuela para profesores en 1941 y comenzó a enseñar en una escuela de Vonda. Su matrimonio se rompió en 1957, cuando estaba embarazada de su segunda hija. Se mudó con su hermana a la Columbia Británica y se sacó un título universitario mientras criaba a sus vástagos.
La carrera en la enseñanza de Olga continuó hasta 1984, el año de su jubilación. Hasta entonces nunca se planteó la práctica regular de deporte, pero una vez que tuvo tiempo libre retomó el softball. Kotelko jugaba con dedicación pero con sus más de 70 años los reflejos y agilidad empezaban a fallarle en el juego.
A los 77 una compañera de equipo le aconsejó el atletismo en pista y Olga se puso a ello. Contrató los servicios de una entrenadora húngara que le apretó las tuercas, cosa que gustó a la casi octogenaria deportista. Se sometió a interminables y agotadoras sesiones de gimnasio y entrenamiento en pista y sus músculos respondieron de forma asombrosa. Entonces decidió competir.
En los campeonatos de atletismo para gente mayor los veteranos deportistas se dividen en franjas de edad. Hay muchos sexagenarios, septuagenarios y octogenarios. A partir de los 90 los participantes escasean. Olga Kotelko arrasó en cada franja en la que compitió. De hecho, sus marcas a menudo eran mejores que las de atletas más jóvenes.
Además de un ejemplo de longevidad, Olga lo fue también de polivalencia. Podía correr, saltar, lanzar… Así arrasó en categorías atléticas tan dispares como los 100 y 200 metros lisos, salto de altura y longitud o lanzamiento de martillo y jabalina. Y en todas ganaba. Cientos de medallas y 26 récords —gran parte de ellos entre los 90 y 95 años— cuantifican su éxito en el deporte.
El fenómeno de Kotelko avivó el debate sobre los efectos del ejercicio de alta intensidad en los mayores. Cualquier galeno aconsejaría hacer deporte a un octogenario o nonagenario, pero Olga machacaba sus músculos y estos se fortalecieron a la vez que se ralentizó su envejecimiento. La atleta fue objeto de estudio y los expertos concluyeron que su caso era excepcional: sus riñones procesaban las enzimas y subproductos necesarios para que su masa muscular se regenerase después de un ejercicio intenso. Olga podía emplearse a fondo en el deporte porque se recuperaba de manera rápida y eficaz.
La veterana atleta canadiense fue rebajando el ritmo de sus entrenamientos en los últimos años, pero sus resultados siguieron siendo espectaculares. Al margen de los estudios a los que fue sometida, los investigadores obtuvieron una conclusión evidente: su tenacidad y competitividad fueron claves en su exitosa carrera deportiva.

Very pregnant Alysia Montano runs at U.S. Championships

nbcsports

Nick Zaccardi

Getty Images

Olympian Alysia Montano entered the 800m at the U.S. Championships about six weeks before her due date on Thursday.

Montano, a five-time U.S. outdoor champion, clocked 2 minutes, 32.13 seconds to finish last in her eight-woman preliminary heat, 24.38 seconds behind her closest competitor. Here’s video of her race.

“I’ve been running through my entire pregnancy, and I felt really, really good during the whole process,” Montano told reporters after her race in Sacramento, Calif. “I definitely was like, OK, I think I can run a pretty decent time. I didn’t have a time on it [that I wanted to run]. I just knew I didn’t want to get lapped, be the first person to ever get lapped in an 800m. More than anything, I wanted to be here, and I’m feeling that fire and that desire to be on the track and to race. What a better avenue than to do it at USA Nationals.”

Montano, the four-time reigning U.S. champion, had a previous qualifying time that allowed her to enter the competition. She said she consulted her doctor and midwife, who encouraged her to race 34 weeks into her pregnancy.

“That took away any fear of what the outside world might think about a woman running in pregnancy or exercise in general,” said Montano, wearing a customary flower in her hair. “What I found out mostly was that exercising and maintaining during pregnancy is actually much better for the mom and the baby.”

She received a standing ovation at Sacramento State’s Hornet Stadium.

“I just felt so supported,” she said. “I didn’t want to be judged or have any ill things said about me. I just wanted to kind of do what my heart and my desire wanted to do.”

Montano said she knew she wouldn’t advance out of the first round. Rather, she viewed her participation as a celebration.

“We see so many people in different avenues in their life start their family, and it looks so different than it does for a professional athlete, especially for a professional athlete woman,” said Montano, whose due date is Aug. 13. “You’ve seen [four-time Olympic middle distance runner] Bernard Lagat have two kids, and we don’t see the other side of it. This is what it looks like to be a professional athlete as a woman.”

Montano, 28, finished fifth in the Olympic 800m and fourth at the 2011 and 2013 World Championships. No American woman has won an Olympic 800m medal since Kim Gallagher‘s bronze in 1988.

Victory in Sports: Dominance, Not Pride

TIME

Murio Eusebio - The Real King

SeppMaier74

Nacido en Maputo (antigua colonia portuguesa de Mozambique) el 25 de enero de 1942, 'Eusébio' era considerado el mayor símbolo del fútbol portugués y uno de los mejores delanteros de la historia de este deporte. Tras fichar por el Benfica en 1960, sus extraordinarias habilidades físicas le granjearon el apodo de 'La Pantera Negra'. A lo largo de esa década, hizo gala de una extraordinaria habilidad goleadora tanto en el club lisboeta como en la selección nacional lusa.

Eusébio y Pelé, en una imagen de archivo.

Eusébio' fue galardonado en siete ocasiones con el trofeo de máximo goleador del campeonato liguero (1963/64, 64/65, 65/66, 66/67, 67/68, 69/70 y 72/73), dos veces como máximo goleador continental (1967/68 y 72/73), y se alzó en una ocasión (1965) con el Balón de Oro como mejor futbolista de Europa. Además, 'Eusébio' consiguió 11 títulos ligueros con el Benfica (con 316 goles en 294 partidos), con el que fue campeón de Europa en 1962.

'La Pantera Negra' jugó 64 partidos oficiales con el combinado nacional, en el que debutó en octubre de 1961. 'Eusébio' fue galardonado como mejor jugador y máximo goleador del mundial de 1966 en Inglaterra, donde destacó particularmente su excepcional partido contra Corea del Norte en los cuartos de final de la competición, donde marcó cuatro goles que posibilitaron la remontada de su selección tras ir perdiendo por 0-3.

Tras su retirada, 'Eusébio' siguió estrechamente ligado al fútbol, como baluarte moral y símbolo del deporte luso, mientras su nombre era constantemente citado en las listas de mejores jugadores de la historia --fue elegido 9º mejor jugador del siglo XX en una encuesta de la Federación Internacional de Historia y Estadística de Fútbol--. En noviembre de 2003, recibió el galardón de Jugador de Oro de Portugal al futbolista nacional más extraordinario de los últimos 50 años.

Dr. Sanders the UFC's orthopedic surgeon on Anderson Silva Injury

UFC - Ultimate Fighting Championship

Perfecting the pitch: Football and 'Big data'

The Economist

UFC Heavyweight Shane Del Rosario Dead at 30 R.I.P.

ShaneLavar by rodnog2009

breitbart

By GREG BEACHAM
AP Sports Writer
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.
UFC fighter Shane Del Rosario died Monday, nearly two weeks after the heavyweight had a heart attack. He was 30.

The UFC and Del Rosario's family announced his death. Del Rosario had been hospitalized in his native Orange County since Nov. 26.

"It has been truly amazing to realize just how many lives Shane touched in such a positive way," Del Rosario's family said in a statement released to The Associated Press.

"As always, Shane fought hard, but it was his time to go in peace. We will miss his huge smile, his huge bear hugs, his gift of giving to others, and his Aloha spirit. He was larger than life."

Del Rosario's manager, Jason House, said the fighter's doctors believe he had a congenital heart disorder. Del Rosario's family is interested in starting a charitable foundation to aid research on long QT syndrome, the heart condition that may have contributed to the fighter's sudden cardiac arrest last month.

Del Rosario had been a professional mixed martial artist since 2006, also competing in kickboxing and muay thai competitions. He was the first American winner of the WBC world heavyweight muay thai championship in 2007.

He won his first 11 pro MMA bouts while competing in Strikeforce, M-1 Global and other promotions before moving last year to the UFC, where he lost his first two fights. He was stopped by Stipe Miocic and again by Pat Barry, his final opponent in December 2012.

Del Rosario was scheduled to fight at UFC 168 on Dec. 28, but pulled out last month with a rib injury.

"RIP to one of the best people I've ever had the honor to have in my life and call my best friend," UFC flyweight Ian McCall posted on his Twitter account Monday. McCall was Del Rosario's roommate and teammate.

Del Rosario trained with Team Oyama in Irvine, Calif., and spent most of his summers with his grandparents in Lanai City, Hawaii. He missed several months of MMA training with a herniated disc after he was struck in a car accident in 2011, but eventually resumed his career.

The family said it will honor the fighter's desire to be an organ donor.

"He was passionate about helping others and was always there to offer a helping hand, a smile, and encouragement to anyone, not only family and friends, but also to strangers," Del Rosario's family said in its statement.

"He always put others before himself and would give the shirt off his back. He brought genuine joy and happiness to everyone he touched." 

The ‘Golf Shot of the Year’

nailcotehall

Owens' 1936 Olympic Medal Up for Auction

AssociatedPress

Michael Jordan and his Cuban-American model wife are expecting their first child

GlobalPost

hollywoodlife.com

(Reuters) - Retired American basketball star Michael Jordan is going to be a father again. He and his Cuban-American model wife, Yvette Prieto, are expecting their first child, celebrity magazine Us Weekly reported on Saturday, citing an unnamed Jordan representative.

No due date was reported.

Jordan, 50, and Prieto, 34, were married in April in Florida after a five-year courtship. They live near Miami.

Jordan has three adult children from his previous 17-year marriage to Juanita Venoy, which ended in divorce in 2006.

The Hall of Fame player won six National Basketball Association championships with the Chicago Bulls. He won the NBA Most Valuable Player Award five times and was named an all-star 14 times.

His on-court success and commercial endorsements have made him one of the most recognizable and prosperous athletes in the United States