Lance Armstrong to address alleged doping in interview with Oprah

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Lucas Jackson / Reuters file

By Courtney Hazlett, TODAY

Oprah Winfrey has landed a sit-down, "no holds barred" interview with Lance Armstrong, her network OWN announced Tuesday. The cyclist will address the alleged doping scandal, years of accusations of cheating and charges of lying about the use of performance-enhancing drugs throughout his storied cycling career, according to the release.

An exclusive interview with the disgraced cyclist is precisely what media outlets have been clamoring for. Not only have rumors of his use of performance-enhancing drugs been rampant for years now, but in recent months he's been given a lifetime ban from the sport of cycling; was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles; stepped down as chairman from Livestrong, his cancer-research foundation; and has lost nearly all endorsements, including those from Nike and Budweiser.

Since these developments, Armstrong has said very little. In fact, the last statement he made publicly, which he linked to on his  Twitter account, was in October, in response to stepping down from Livestrong. In that statement, he did not explicitly admit to wrongdoing, but only said he was leaving Livestrong "to spare the foundation any negative effects as a result of controversy surrounding my cycling career."

Rumors that Armstrong might be considering admitting to his drug use originally surfaced during the weekend of Jan. 5.

The Winfrey interview, which will air as a 90-minute episode of "Oprah's Next Chapter," will be broadcast on OWN on Thursday, Jan. 17, at 9 p.m.

Cubano Socarrás noqueó a Bowles

Gana Barthelemy polemica decision

Hockey Players give OK to dissolve union

cbc.ca

Don Fehr, executive director of the NHLPA (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

NHL players have moved a step closer to dissolving their union.

A vote of the NHL Players' Association membership this week has given their union's executive board the power to file a "disclaimer of interest" until Jan. 2. A source confirmed the vote produced more than the two-thirds of membership support needed.

A union spokesman declined to comment on the "internal PA matter."

If the NHLPA's executive board elects to go ahead and file the disclaimer, the union will be dissolved and transformed into a trade association. That would allow players to file anti-trust lawsuits against the NHL.

The legality of the lockout is already set to be tried in a federal U.S. court after the NHL filed a class-action lawsuit last week against the NHLPA, which claimed the union was only using the threat of a "disclaimer of interest" as a bargaining tactic. The NHL also submitted an unfair labour practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board.

Negotiations between the league and union have been at a standstill since talks went off the rails on Dec. 6.

The NHLPA now appears set to follow the lead set by NFL and NBA players, who both dissolved their unions during lockouts last year. The NBA's labour dispute ended less than two weeks after the union was disbanded.

Jeffrey Kessler, the lead negotiator for the National Basketball Players Association in that dispute, believes the NHLPA would be wise to go ahead with the "disclaimer of interest."

"I think this is much more likely to lead to a settlement sooner," Kessler told The Canadian Press on Dec. 14. "The players have concluded that they are on the verge of possibly deciding that it is better not to be a union and using the anti-trust laws to attack the lockout, which all fans should be happy with because it'll work.

"I assume the fans would like the lockout to end."

The NHL doesn't share that view.

The league's Board of Governors discussed the possibility of a "disclaimer of interest" on Dec. 5 and commissioner Gary Bettman told reporters afterwards that the NHL didn't see it as a significant threat.

"The board was completely and thoroughly briefed on the subject," said Bettman. "And we don't view it in the same way in terms of its impact as apparently the union may."

Time is running short to save the NHL season. All games through Jan. 14 have been cancelled and a new deal would need to be in place by about that time to salvage a 48-game schedule, the minimum Bettman says needs to be played.

There are currently no talks scheduled between the sides.

Suzy Favor Hamilton, From an Olympic Athlete to Prostitution

By Dr. Keith Ablow 

Suzy Favor Hamilton, 44, who is married, a former Olympic US track star, a  motivational speaker and who appeared in an ad for Nike (and promotional work for Disney), has admitted to also working as a $600-an-hour prostitute.

Why would she do that? What could drive a woman seemingly not in desperate need of funds to have sex with men for money?

First, there are likely women whose interest in being hired for sex is so strong that, for all intents and purposes, it is their "sexual orientation."  They are sexually excited far more (or almost exclusively) by sex with strangers, and with as little emotion as possible (hence, they exchange in the act for money).  

In this way, these women are not different (only in their particular tastes) from other women (and men) who want to be hurt during sex or who want to dress in clothing of the opposite gender prior to sex. -- A woman wanting to sell herself because she thinks it is exciting is not much more dramatic than a man who wants to dress as a ballerina in order to feel excited.

While it is extremely dangerous psychologically and medically, the truth is that high- priced prostitution is rampant in America and available in every city.  Millions of American men with families and professions are customers.

Second, while the intensity of desire to participate in prostitution could be so compelling as to constitute something akin to a sexual orientation, that orientation may well be well be rooted in life events during childhood and adolescence that left that girl feeling powerless or manipulated or unloved.  Reproducing such feelings can be an extremely magnetic force.  

Prostitutes I have treated have told me that getting calls from strangers wanting to have sex with them reinforces (in an unfortunate way, of course) their belief that they are special and attractive. And it may well be that entering and leaving hotel rooms and apartments where these women could certainly be badly hurt is a way of—sadly--demonstrating their invulnerability (when they were badly hurt as children, often at home).

Third, there are probably a minority of women (and men) in the business of prostitution for whom it carries no stigma and is lucrative. 

If we assume that Ms. Hamilton had ten clients a week (and she may have had many more), then she could have been making $300,000 a year in cash, which is, even prior to the so-called "fiscal cliff," like making $400,000 a year in taxed income. 

If she had 20 clients a week (and some of the prostitutes I have treated as a psychiatrist have had 20 clients a week), then she would have made $600,000 a year -- in cash. 

Ms. Hamilton may have had some income as a motivational speaker, and her husband may have made some money, but, unless they were extremely wealthy, $600,000 a year in cash may have been key to their lifestyle.

While it is extremely dangerous psychologically and medically, the truth is that high-priced prostitution is rampant in America and available in every city.  Millions of American men with families and professions are customers.  And not every prostitute is devastated psychologically by the experience.  

As one lawyer and prostitute put it to me when she was in my office for psychotherapy, “I suppose that there is some scatter effect, in terms of making it more complicated to have a boyfriend and make sex intimate with him, but I don’t know if it’s more complicated than getting back home from working as a police officer or pediatric neurosurgeon or gynecologist.  Lots of professions are incredibly complicated, emotionally.”

The fact is that some women are—whether pathologically or not (which is a longer discussion)—“able” to separate sex from meaningful and ongoing emotional connections and to charge for it. Because their behavior is against the law in most states, they can also make a great deal of money doing so, if they are also attractive. 

I take no moral position on the matter, which may be why I have been able to help a number of these women find their true motivations for such work, see the real and substantial psychological risks and make clearer decisions about whether to continue with it.

Finally, in a world that allows third trimester abortions, because women demand the right to control their own bodies, and a world in which a large number of lawmakers have hired prostitutes, it is time to legalize prostitution, put in place safeguards to help protect those who participate in it, and, of course, tax it.

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A three-time U.S. Olympian runner who has admitted her double life as a prostitute is taking an apology lap on Twitter, promising to “make amends” and return to being a good mother.

Suzy Favor Hamilton, a 44-year-old nine-time NCAA champion, admitted to The Smoking Gun that she worked as a $600 per hour call girl for a Las Vegas escort agency since last December, booking dozens of dates in Sin City and other major cities like Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston. In a series of posts on Thursday, Hamilton took to Twitter to begin resurrecting her life.

“I cannot emphasize enough how sorry I am to anyone I have hurt as a result of my actions and greatly appreciate the support from family and those closest to me,” Favor Hamilton wrote. “I fully intend to make amends and get back to being a good mother, wife, daughter, and friend.”

“I fully intend to make amends and get back to being a good mother, wife, daughter, and friend.”

- Suzy Favor Hamilton

The married mother of a 7-year-old girl indicated she has been seeing a psychologist for the past few weeks and will continue doing so.

“I do not expect people to understand, but the reasons for doing this made sense to me at the time and were very much related to depression,” Favor Hamilton wrote. “As crazy as I know it seems, I never thought I would be exposed, therefore never hurting anybody.”

Favor Hamilton said she was drawn to escorting in large part because it provided “many coping mechanisms” during a challenging time in her life and marriage.

“It provided an escape from a life that I was struggling in,” Favor Hamilton wrote to nearly 4,000 followers. “It was a double life.”

bumpshack.com/
More Photos of Suzy Favor Hamilton as Kelly Lundy the High End Vegas Call Girl

Favor Hamilton’s sordid past has already sullied her future, as Disney canceled a scheduled appearance at an August 2013 expo during the Disneyland Half Marathon weekend.

Bob Hitchcock, a spokesman for runDisney, which organizes the company’s races, told the Orange County Register that Hamilton is no longer scheduled for future Disney events. She previously spoke at and led a dance at an August meet-up at Disneyland Half Marathon events in Anaheim. In February, Favor Hamilton appeared at a Princess Half Marathon event at Florida's Walt Disney World, the newspaper reported.

Favor Hamilton, who used the alias “Kelly Lundy” during her trysts, shared her true identity with several male clients. The decorated competitive runner has characterized the escort business as “exciting” and a diversion from her Wisconsin real estate brokerage with her 44-year-old husband, Mark, who is aware of her illicit business.

“He tried, he tried to get me to stop,” she told The Smoking Gun. “He wasn’t supportive of this at all.”

As a nine-time NCAA champion for Wisconsin, Favor Hamilton is the namesake of the Big Ten Conference’s Suzy Favor Athlete of the Year Award. Big Ten spokesman Scott Chipman told the Associated Press the conference had no comment.

Las Vegas police have no record of any arrests or contact with Favor Hamilton, said Officer Laura Meltzer, a department spokeswoman. No inquiry about Favor Hamilton was launched as a result of the news reports, Meltzer said.

Favor Hamilton could not be reached for comment early Friday.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/12/21/3-reasons-why-olympian-might-turn-to-prostitution/#ixzz2Fj0S8soy

Athletic Doping: Does It Even Work?

Eric Niiler

Belarus' Nadezhda Ostapchuk competes to win the women's shot put final at the athletics event of the London 2012 Olympic Games. (AFP Photo / Franck Fife)

There's no evidence that blood-boosting drugs give cyclists like Lance Armstrong an advantage in races like the Tour de France, a Dutch research team has found. The accounts of super-powers from athletes, coaches and trainers don't stand up to the scientific rigors of a controlled study, the team says, something the researchers propose to do themselves.

Artificial versions of erythropoietin, often called EPO, are used to treat people with anemia by stimulating the body to produce more of its own red blood cells. These extra cells carry more oxygen from the lungs to the allow the body to do more work, such as riding a bike uphill.

EPO-stimulating drugs are banned by sports authorities, and Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour titles because of evidence of his use of EPO and other drugs. More >>

Serena Williams panics at CN Tower [Toronto]

Dies Cuban bodybuilder who beat Schwarzenegger

martinoticias.com

noviembre 14, 2012

Sergio Oliva, un refugiado cubano que fue el único fisiculturista que derrotó a Arnold Schwarzenegger en un campeonato Míster Olympia, falleció a los 71 años en la ciudad de Chicago, donde trabajó como policía.

Oliva desertó durante un torneo clasificatorio en Jamaica de los Juegos Panamericanos de 1963 junto con todo el equipo de fisiculturismo de la isla y se estableció en EE.UU., destaca una nota publicada por el diario Chicago Tribune.

Luego de desempeñarse como instructor de educación física ingresó como agente a la policía de la ciudad, en la que por las enormes proporciones de su tórax (60 pulgadas) hubo que confeccionarle un uniforme especial. Hacía 10 años estaba retirado.

Sus títulos ganados como fisiculturista fueron: Míster Mundo (1966); Míster Universo (1967, 1968 y 1969); Míster América (1970); y Míster Europa (1981). Fue ganador de la Copa Mundial siete veces, y el único que logró derrotar en competencias en 1968 y 1969 a Arnold Schwarzenegger, incluido el torneo de Míster Olympia.

Schwarzenegger, quien luego cobró fama como actor en Hollywood y llegó a ser gobernador de California, tras la muerte del cubano escribió en un mensaje en su cuenta de Twitter: “Oliva fue uno de los más grandes fisiculturistas de todos los tiempos y un verdadero amigo. Un temible competidor con una gran personalidad, único en su clase”.

Inside the Mind of a Marathoner

Discovery news
Emily Sohn 

In the months leading up to this weekend's New York City marathon, most of the event's 47,000 runners have trained their bodies, planned their carbo-loading schedules, and picked out the shoes and moisture-wicking layers that work best for them.

To get across the finish line, though, athletes will also need to have cultivated mental toughness that will help them cope with the pain, fatigue and misery that are sure to strike at various points along the course.

Many long-distance athletes naturally develop strategies for resisting the urge to quit. But the best competitors take extra care to train their brains, focusing on their minds as much as they do on their other muscles.

"The signal to slow down is hardwired, and there's good reason for it when you're running out of energy and the body is burning more fuel than it can give to the brain," said Andy Lane, a sports psychologist at the University of Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom.

The key to success in endurance endeavors, he said, "is learning to ignore that signal and replace it with something else."  More >>

The Women in the Lance Armstrong Doping Scandal

 

BY NEAL KARLINSKY (@NealKarlinsky)

Oct. 13, 2012

Behind the riders, the drugs and the secrets there were the women.

And they made choices, too, choices that may have set in motion the unraveling of the greatest doping scandal in the history of sport.

In 2004, Lance Armstrong's most trusted teammate George Hincapie wrote an email to the man who used to be Armstrong's closest friend on the bike circuit, Frankie Andreu.

It said: "I cannot understand how you can just sit around and let betsy try and take down the whole team."

It was a reference to Andreu's wife, Betsy, who had started doing something no one on the drug-tainted team had apparently ever done before. She started questioning what was going on and even speaking out.

"In the beginning, I was scared," said Betsy Andreu from her home in Dearborn, Mich. "But I thought this is bull and something has to be done about it. I had to get the truth out."

The U.S. Anti Doping Agency case against disgraced Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong is filled with sworn affidavits, statement after statement by riders admitting their drug use on the bike.

The case includes stories of wives being in on the scandal. Armstrong's ex-wife Kristin is said to have told people they called the blood booster EPO "butter" because they kept it with the butter in their refrigerator.

According to the USADA file: "Later at the World Championships at Valkenberg in the Netherlands the U.S. riders arrived at their tent near the start of the race to find that Armstrong had asked his wife Kristin to wrap cortisone tablets in tin foil for him and his teammates. Kristin obliged. ... One of the riders remarked 'Lance's wife is rolling joints.'"

The Andreus had been close friends with the Armstrongs, often dining together and socializing between races.

They were neighbors in Europe and spent huge amounts of time together.

Betsy Andreu grew uncomfortable as she started to hear more and more talk of drug use and says she asked Kristin Armstrong about it.

"It's a necessary evil," Armstrong's then wife said according to the case file. More >>

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Also:

ElPais.com

El informe de la USADA contiene numerosos testimonios del dopaje generalizado. Los más relevantes del escándalo:

“Ahora no puedes escribir un libro sobre la EPO”. Durante la Vuelta a España de 1998, Vaughters, compañero de equipo del texano, fue a su habitación para utilizar su ordenador portátil. Delante de él, Armstrong se inyectó con una jeringuilla usada para inyecciones de EPO, diciendo: “Ahora que tú también utilizas EPO, no puedes escribir un libro sobre ello”.

“La mujer de Armstrong está liando porros”. Durante un Mundial en Holanda, explica el informe de la USADA, los ciclistas estadounidenses llegaron a la carpa del equipo cerca de la salida de la carrera para encontrarse con que Armstrong le había pedido a su mujer Kristin que enrollara en papel de plata tabletas de cortisona para él y sus compañeros. Uno de los corredores subrayó, “la mujer de Lance está liando porros”.

Del Moral: “¡Qué lío!”. Armstrong se vistió de amarillo tras la prólogo del Tour de 1999. Días después, su equipo fue informado de que había dado positivo por un corticoesteroide. Según testigos presenciales, cuenta el informe de la USADA, el ciclista no tenía entonces una autorización médica para usar cortisona. Tyler Hamilton recuerda "muchos tacos de Lance y Johan [Bruyneel, director del equipo] y al doctor Del Moral repitiendo 'qué lío'. Del Moral, según la documentación y los testigos aportados por la investigación, habría solucionado el problema falsificando una receta, con fecha previa al positivo, para una crema con cortisona.

Bidones de agua con hielo y EPO. Según el testimonio de Vaughters, el doctor Celaya “distribuiría EPO en bidones de agua rellenos con viales de EPO apretados entre hielo. En la botella vendrían el nombre del corredor y el número de dosis”. “Por ejemplo”, declaró Vaughters; “yo podría recibir uno en el que pusiera, Jonathan 5x2, lo que significa que contenía cinco viales de EPO con 2000 unidades internacionales en cada uno”.

Zabriskie: “Nos daba tiempo de bajar nuestro nivel de hematocrito antes de los controles”. “Johan \[Bruyneel, director del equipo\] siempre parecía saber cuándo vendrían los inspectores antidopaje”, declaró Zabriskie, ex compañero de Armstrong. “\[...\] Parecía que había un increíble sistema de aviso. Como norma, solíamos saber cuándo serían con una hora de antelación. Había tiempo de sobra para usar un suero salino para rebajar nuestro nivel de hematocrito”, explicó el ex ciclista.

Tests consistentes con dopaje sanguíneo en 2009 y 2010. Tras examinar cinco muestras de sangre de Armstrong recogidas durante el Tour de 2009 y dos correspondientes al de 2010, un experto consultado por la USADA concluyó que contenían un número “inusualmente bajo” de reticulocitos. Al compararlos con otras muestras del ex ciclista, el investigador dedujo que la posibilidad de que esos valores fueran naturales era menor que una entre un millón. Pese a esos datos, la UCI decidió no abrir expediente al estadounidense.

Doping agency claims ’overwhelming’ proof of cheating by cyclist Armstrong

 

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Omar Vizquel y Grandes Ligas en Cubadebate

cubadebate ha ido introduciendo de contrabando una linea de trabajo en su seccion deportiva, haciendo referencias esporadicas a jugadores de grandes ligas. hoy le corresponde al veterano torpedero venezolano  Omar Vizquel, pero ya antes se refirieron a Ty Cobb  y  Johan Santana entre otros, aunque sin renunciar a la muela tradicional.

estafa y burla neokaxtrizta al aficionado cubano que nunca ha tenido la oportunidad de ver jugar ni al gran vizquel ni a arocha, el duque, livan, kendry, escobar, contreras, chapman y cespedes por solo mencionar a algunos de los mas recientes. 

no es un descuido, sino una linea de trabajo implementada desde mas arriba del zar de la pelota cubana -el principito tony castro-, mas ahora que se acabaron las 'copas' del mundo amateurs y tendran que pelearselas en los 'clasicos' 

Y. Escobar's case: Bullies or victims? Fairness and proportionality strike out in sport and sexuality

Toronto Sun/ By Michael Coren

So, a guy who plays pro sport is an idiot. Good Lord, I can’t believe it! I mean, who knew?

Yes, Yunel Escobar was dumb enough to write on his face in Spanish something akin to “You are a faggot,” thus enabling every hypocrite and self-indulgent victim fetishist to moan about the horrors of homophobia.

Big money and big entertainment will do pretty much anything to not offend the gay community these days, and in this case their acts of ostensible contrition were positively nauseating.

Frankly, I don’t think Escobar intended a slur on homosexuals, and was probably not even thinking of homosexuality when for some perverse reason he wrote these nasty words beneath his eyes. It was probably some silly, jock, inside joke.

When it’s used by teenage boys, the word faggot generally means idiot or loser. I’ve heard kids who are trendily pro-gay and pro-same-sex marriage use the term “fag” with no apparent understanding that there is a connection. I’ve also heard gay people use it about other gays. The word will disappear naturally, as is right.

It should never have been written, and no professional sports team should allow an employee to write anything, even innocuous, on his face.

But the story ends there really.

Rogers, the owners of the Toronto Blue Jays, fined the guy $90,000 and suspended him for three games, which is fair enough.

Unlike in 2011 when television sports anchor Damian Goddard was fired from Sportsnet, also owned by Rogers, just hours after he tweeted his support for “the traditional and true meaning of marriage.”

He had been defending a hockey player’s agent who was receiving death threats and abuse for refusing to support a pro-gay-marriage campaign.

It could have been a coincidence of course, but we’ll leave that to the human-rights commission where it is being considered.

Goddard never used an offensive word, and merely expressed his opinion of marriage. Perhaps he should have written it on his face — he may well still be employed!

As for Escobar — bad word, move on. Stop the grovelling, stop the nonsense, get it in proportion. After all, it’s nothing like what happened to Peter Vidmar.

You didn’t know? OK, let me explain. Vidmar is one of the most successful athletes in U.S. history. He was chosen to be the chef de mission of the U.S. Olympic team in the last Olympics, as was gay activist Mark Tewksbury for Team Canada.

But Vidmar is a Mormon, and it was discovered that he had made a small donation to the Proposition 8 campaign, enshrining marriage as the union of a man and woman.

He has never called anyone a nasty name, never treated gay people badly, is an example of a gentleman in sport. But he opposed gay marriage, and after relentless pressure he was forced to resign.

So who are the bullies, who are the victims, in sport and sexuality? Nobody should face or feel discrimination in professional sport, but can we please stop magnifying a dumb gesture into an act of sociological and moral barbarism?

Oh, and as for compulsory sensitivity training, the Jays are in far greater need of baseball training. The genuine victims are the fans.

Los Klitschkos: “Al que Dios se lo dio, que San Pedro se lo bendiga”

Por Andrés Pascual

A mi no me gusta el estilo de los Klitschkos: parado, feo, pero nunca confundirlos con blancos fijos; son inteligentes en el ring y fuera también, que estos sí tienen títulos y doctorados de verdad.

La forma de pelear de los ucranianos responde al boxeo de la ex Unión Soviética, que se lo impusieron a Cuba con el resultado de que fue el país que más se afectó, porque perdió su estilo americano, bello, tradicional y de absoluto respeto que la reconocía como potencia del pugilismo profesional, a fin de cuentas, Stevenson era una palma real en el medio del ring y nadie habla, un poco más parado, desde la cintura hacia arriba, que los hermanos Veneno de la división completa de hoy, además, el oriental nunca supo boxearle a los contrarios de menos estatura pero decididos, que, no solo le ganaron cuando se presentó alguno así, sino que lucía tan ridículo y desconcertado que se podía confundir con la cobardía.

Ayer Vitali le ganó a Manuel Charr por nocao técnico en 4 rounds en Moscú, otro boxeador de menos estatura que muerde el polvo, esta vez fue una herida la causante de la detención del pleito, pero igual sirvió para que el perdedor se quitara una golpeadura de encima y no porque fuera un émulo de Locche, si aquello sigue, lo mataban, aunque hizo esfuerzos y llegó con un par de golpes más desorganizados que efectivos.

Hay un comentario contra las victorias de estos hermanos que linda con el ridículo y la mala idea: son aburridos…

No, son imbatibles y ninguna circunstancia devenida baja pasión puede llevar a demeritar a quienes han demolido a lo mejor de la división completa, que nunca han evitado el combate contra lo mejor salvo entre ellos.

¿Qué el negro americano no boxea? ¿Qué tienen la suerte de ser gigantes sin retraso mental? No es su culpa, ellos siempre están ahí para el que sea, además, siempre es bueno recordar que Lennoxx Lewis ganó “muy aburridamente” por su estatura más que por su boxeo y una herida contra uno de los hermanos lo salvó de la derrota, porque perdía aquella pelea, posiblemente, por nocao. Además, de forma extraña, decidió abandonar el deporte cuando se cernía la amenaza de tener que pelear contra ellos.

Observe estos datos de ambos pugilistas ex soviéticos:

VITALI KLITSCHKO: ha peleado 47 veces con 45 victorias, 41 nocaos propinados y 2 derrotas, ambas por fuera de combate. El promedio de anestesiados que tiene es de 87,2, entre los cinco mejores de todos los tiempos. Ha horizontalizado a 32 entre el 1ero y el 7mo round y a 10 desde el 8vo al límite.

WLADIMIR: 61 combates, 58 ganados con 51 nocaos, 3 perdidas, todas por fuera de combate y su promedio es de 83,6. Entre el primero y el séptimo ha anestesiado a 44 y a 6 desde el octavo hacia arriba.

Yo quisiera saber cómo es posible que haya gente que critique a boxeadores estilistas porque “huyen y no tiran” y hablen despectivamente de estos campeones que no solo son máquinas de tirar con poder en ambas manos, sino destructores sin cuento.

A mi no me gustan porque me pesa lo político en el rechazo que hago contra todo lo que huela a soviético o ex, pero de ahí a comer catibia, a no reconocerlos como fenómenos que, posiblemente, nunca van a perder y para que la oposición respire aliviada necesita que se retiren, va un buen trecho.

Estos tipos son una época en la división completa, que nunca fue pródiga en grandes boxeadores, son tan buenos como los mejores de la historia.

André Ward: El sustituto de Roy Jones Jr.

Por Andrés Pascual

En estos últimos años, el público del boxeo ha visto cómo inflaron globos que explotaron por la poca clase para mantenerse en niveles de estelaridad deportiva; o ha tenido que soportar a boxeadores solo buenos que los han impuesto con el laboratorio a mano para ganar dinero y pisotear la historia…

Desde que concluyó la era Roy Jones jr por el desperdicio de sus facultades  con la participación de los excesos ajenos al ring, desde que se apagó su virtuosismo, el fanático boxístico no se había reencontrado con el peleador completo, cuya demostración  estuviera basada en la capacidad física superior  y en la  más absoluta inteligencia, hasta que llegó André Ward.

Parecía que el pugilismo había agotado su esencia como práctica de la defensa personal con el menor grado posible de castigo recibido, porque el boxeo es “el arte de dar y que no te den”, que significa lo contrario a una carnicería entre dos.

 Transitar con éxito y trascendencia los pasillos de Fistiana es más, mucho más que caerse a golpes con otro sin control de la defensa que, además de crearle un peligroso precedente a la salud, obstruye la capacidad de decreto de un ganador, porque todas las peleas en las que el ataque prevalece y la defensa brilla por su ausencia son muy parecidas a empates.

La clientela del boxeo que, por falsos conceptos arraigados en leyendas urbanas de pueblos subdesarrollados, prefiere el boxeo callejero de “dos parados ahí dando y recibiendo con instinto asesino y sin intuición defensiva”, es menor que, a Dios gracias, la que disfruta este deporte como deber ser de acuerdo a su objetivo, a fin de cuentas, por algo el soldado está en la guerra disparando desde una trinchera, nunca disparando de pie ante las balas enemigas como un escudo estático y receptor. Y el boxeo es una guerra y la gana el más inteligente y el que más rápido reaccione y se mueva, atacando desde posiciones bien camufladas y defendidas.

Anoche Ward noqueó en 10 rounds a Chad Dawson, un lightheavy natural, bueno, pero que cometió la imprudencia de enfrentar no lo mejor de su peso, sino lo mejor del boxeo desde que Jones jr dejó de brindar cátedra en la asignatura.

¿Qué hizo mal Dawson? Nada, porque nada pudo ante un hombre que lo superó en todo: inteligencia, precisión en los golpes, puntería, instinto, intuición, velocidad de desplazamiento, de manos…

Ward dio lecciones de como se camina el ring, de cómo se entra y se sale sin exponerse peligrosamente al castigo enemigo, pero, sobre todo, de cómo se anula a un buen boxeador zurdo.

La inteligencia de André Ward para el boxeo es la continuación de la que hizo inmortales a la clase genuina del espectáculo. Este joven llegó al boxeo para reanimarlo en un momento en que, por todo lo demás que se conoce y salvo por un par de boxeadores como Mayweathers jr, Juan Manuel Márquez y un Maravilla que ya no deber ser sino el 60 % del virtuoso que fue, no es digno de seguirse por nadie.

Esta comprobado: “Dios aprieta, pero no ahorca”, que Ward esté ahí lo ratifica, porque muchos no siguen este deporte ya y otra cantidad sustancial empacaba bártulos para irse a otro lugar con su música y sus dólares.

Boxeador profesional entrena en Cuba [?] para pelea por titulo mundial

BoxingScene.com
by Ronnie Nathanielsz/
Former WBC light flyweight champion Rodel Mayol is currently training in Cuba with Nonoy Neri for his title fight against IBF super flyweight champion Juan Carlos Sanchez in Sinaloa, Mexico on September 22 (23 in Manila) in a ...  More >>

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How to Make a Better Athlete

Freakonomics/

Olympic athletes have become increasingly reliant on scientists as advisers. A Wired article by Mark McClusky explores the efforts of sports scientists to improve athletic performance as gains have become harder to achieve. The Australian Institute of Sport is leading the charge; its success is best-demonstrated by an example from the skeleton, a sledding event that was recently reintroduced as an Olympic event:

They determined that one significant predictor of success had nothing to do with the sled itself or even the skill of the pilot. The faster a competitor pushed the sled through the 30-meter start zone before jumping on it, the better they performed. So researchers set up a national testing campaign, looking for women with backgrounds in competitive sports who excelled at the 30-meter sprint. They also evaluated candidates to see how well they responded to feedback and coaching. Eventually, they picked a group of 10 athletes—including track sprinters, a water skier, and several surf lifesavers, an Australian sport that requires sprinting through sand.

The athletes were given access to the best coaching, equipment, and sports science. Every training and competitive run was analyzed and dissected as coaches looked for places to improve start and steering techniques. Specialized strength and conditioning programs targeted the needs of the sport, especially explosive power and sprint speed.

The program was a success: An Australian racer qualified for the Olympics just 18 months after she first saw a sled. Amazingly, she had completed only 220 runs before qualifying. (A typical US skeleton racer makes upwards of 2,000 runs before appearing in the Olympics.)