Worldcrunch
RIO DE JANEIRO — Authorities in Rio de Janeiro have inaugurated the first part of a light city railway designed to ferry about hundreds of thousands of visitors and sports players arriving in the Brazilian city for the Olympic games due to start in August. The new VLT network, a multinational project involving firms like […]
-Analysis- PARIS — Call it the “glorieuse incertitude du sport” — the glorious uncertainty of sports. During the finals of soccer’s just completed 2016 European Championship, Portugal saw its singular star Ronaldo taken out of the game after an injury, but won anyway against a favored host French team that had overcome its eternal nemesis, […]
The last time China made a World Cup appearance in 2002, the team lost all three group matches and went out without a single goal. While Chinese fans are mad about soccer, their own national team rarely gives them reason to rejoice. But there are grand pl
Le Parisien, June 10 “It’s time to party!” reads the front page of French daily Le Parisien Friday, which features a photograph of supporters celebrating the opening ceremony of the 2016 UEFA European soccer championship at the Eiffel Tower. The tournament kicks off on Friday with Romania facing France. The latter could do with a […]
MARCA, June 1, 2016 “Didier Deschamps has bowed to the pressure of a racist part of France,” French soccer player Karim Benzema told Spanish sports daily MARCA, less than 10 days before the beginning of the European championship in France. Benzema’s remarks echo comments made a few days ago by French soccer legend Eric Cantona, […]
Leicester Mercury — May 3, 2016 They were a 5,000-1 longshot to win England’s Premier League at the start of the season, but the fairytale came true last night as Leicester City FC clinched the title when Chelsea and Tottenham drew, making it impossible for the latter to overtake Leicester with two games left. The […]
Kathimerini, April 28, 2016 “Greece hands the Olympic torch to Rio,” writes Athens-based daily Kathimerini on its front page Thursday, featuring a picture of Wednesday’s handover ceremony in Athens. To mark 100 days before the start of the 2016 Olympic Games due to take place in Rio de Janeiro from Aug. 5 to 21, thousands […]
nrc.next, March 25, 2016 “J.C. Superstar” reads the front page of Dutch-language daily nrc.next on Friday, paying tribute to soccer legend Johan Cruyff who died Thursday in Barcelona, following a long battle with cancer. He was 68. The newspaper’s headline — a pun on the 1970s Broadway musical Jesus Christ Superstar — conveys the icon […]
KABUL — Inside the Afghan capital’s soccer federation stadium, dozens of Afghan women, some of them recently returned from a training camp in Japan, are practicing their skills. “From 2006 up to now, the Afghan women’s national soccer team has conducted several different trips abroad, for training and matches,” says Zohra Mihree, chief of the Afghan women’s soccer committee. “The team participated in SAFF (South Asian Football Federation) tournaments in Bangladesh and Pakistan. Our team came in third place in 2014.” Currently, more than 100 women soccer players are training in different clubs around Afghanistan, up from just a handful […]
TOKYO — A growing number of Japanese are climbing the emergency staircases of high-rise buildings and towers recreationally, both for the views they can enjoy from the lofty structures and for the heart-pumping exercise. Climbing events held at such structures offer access to stairways that are normally closed to the public. On Nov. 14, at […]
The Denver Post, Feb. 8, 2016 “What a rush!” the punny front page of Monday’s Denver Post reads featuring a picture of outside linebacker Von Miller whose rushing of the Carolina Panthers quarterback helped the Denver Broncos to a defensive-minded 24-10 win to claim the team’s third Super Bowl title. “Denver’s dominant defense” was key […]
RIO DE JANEIRO — If the much-criticized but equally awaited Rio Summer Olympics have had one advantage, it’s that they have shielded the Rio de Janeiro construction industry from the massive layoffs seen elsewhere in Brazil. But as the August launch of the Games approches, so does the fear that some 35,000 workers are going […]
MARCA, Jan. 5, 2015 “The soluZZion,” reads the front page of Madrid-based sports daily MARCA Tuesday, a day after Real Madrid announced that former French soccer star Zinedine Zidane would replace the unpopular Rafael Benítez as team coach. Zidane, 43, is new to the coaching game. A 1998 World Cup winner with France and a […]
People these days demand trails that are easily mappable online, and don’t want to have to wait for optimal conditions. No time left in modern life for venturing into the unknown?
Combining kung fu with soccer? This was a fantasy depicted in Stephen Chow’s 2001 martial arts comedy film Shaolin Soccer. But now, in Henan province, home of the Shaolin Temple famous for its superhuman martial-arts monks, we are set to see a real-life attempt to kick some life into Chinese soccer by applying the methods […]
Photo: Biblioteca Congreso Nacional de Chile SANTIAGO — If it’s a scrum Chilean Sen. Jorge Pizarro wanted, he certainly got one. Though he didn’t expect to be at the bottom of the heap. Constituents complained to La Tercera newspaper that Pizarro, leader of Chile’s Christian Democratic Party, traveled to the United Kingdom to watch rugby […]
A visit to Kenya’s training site after media revelations about performance-enhancing drugs cast a pall over the country’s storied long-distance running team.
Jamaican running legend Usain Bolt defended his 100-meter title Sunday at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing, finishing in 9.79 seconds. Bolt crossed the line just 0.01 seconds ahead of American competitor Justin Gatlin, prompting Jamaican daily Jamaica Observer to characterize the winner of the 2008 and 2012 Olympic golds in the 100 as the […]
Sports are among the world’s most compelling forms of entertainment. But they can also be a way for communities to carry on culture and traditions. Such is the case of calcio storico fiorentino, a centuries-old ball game that was developed — and lives on — in Florence, Italy. Recently, the city’s mayor, Dario Nardella, submitted […]
PARIS — It’s the time of year when bike dealers are all smiles. For three weeks, the Tour de France provides the best advertising possible. But it’s a different story this year and both wholesalers and shopkeepers look a little glum. They fear that cyclists from the Movistar or Katusha teams might win too many […]
PARIS — Lance Armstrong has shown again he doesn’t know how to say he’s sorry (in any language), and clearly doesn’t know when he’s not bienvenu. The “welcome” has indeed been overwhelmingly nasty and negative for a much-hyped ride just two years after reluctantly admitting to doping, and stripped of his record seven Tour de […]
Sports is at its best when scores are tight, competition is fierce and even the losers can hold their heads proud. Then there are the blowouts, like Tuesday’s 46-0 soccer result at the Pacific Games, where even the winners look down in shame. ONE GOAL EVERY TWO MINUTES Micronesia is not one of the big […]
Dubbed the “Fight of the Century,” Saturday’s welterweight title boxing match between American boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Filipino Manny Pacquiao failed to live up to the hype. In what some instead consider the most boring fight of the century, Mayweather won by unanimous decision after an uneventful 12 rounds lasting 40 minutes. Pacquiao is […]
Dutch soccer fans smashed and urinated their way through Rome last week. Could Italian authorities have done anything to stop them?
DISENTIS — The snow hasn’t fallen yet, and the crowds are still to come. It’s a rainy December day under a low grey sky. A ray of sunshine sometimes pierces through the clouds to caress the eternal whiteness of eastern Switzerland’s summits. Having departed from the town of Coire, the small red train takes travelers […]
LUCERNE — In 2001 Kurt Mathis bought the Haldigrat chairlift “spontaneously,” after he’d read about it in the newspaper. The previous owners, two brothers from the Swiss canton of Aargau, felt that running it no longer was worth it. “It was a little bit like when I decided to marry my wife,” the 59-year-old says. […]
Looking to build their branding and attract a more global audience, Chinese companies are increasingly eyeing the major European soccer leagues.
Catching onto “the gentleman’s game” later than its neighbors India and Pakistan, the Afghan team is currently ranked 9th in International Twenty20 cricket.
Photo: Sachyn Mital James Murphy, the 44-year-old American musician of LCD Soundsystem fame, announced at the start of the 2014 U.S. Open that he was teaming up with IBM to create an algorithm that would turn raw data from tennis matches into music. Now that the tournament is over and Serena Williams and Marin Cilic […]
After the latest preparatory races in mid-August on England’s Donington Park circuit, all eyes are now on the first world championship of electric cars, to be held Sept. 13 in Beijing. Get used to the name: it’s called Formula E. “Even if it will probably never overtake Formula One, Formula E should be considered the […]
I’m not a big sports fan, but I do watch the Tour de France every year. These guys were about a whole other kind of cycling, racing like madmen down the stairs of Dalt Vita, Ibiza’s old town.
What’s most interesting about this shot is not the Swiss wrestlers (or Schwingen) in the foreground — meaning no disrespect, guys — but instead the rapt audience in the background, all wearing their Sunday best.
The international movement of talent has helped level the playing field of top national soccer teams. Among other things, it has also produced the most wide-open World Cup in memory.
A London School of Economics professor has developed complex mathematical formulas that he says can predict what can happen on the pitch. Why is Spain so good? What’s your bet?
TEHRAN — A member of the Iranian Parliament’s cultural affairs committee says he and his colleagues are “firmly opposed” to any Iranian legislator attending the World Cup in Brazil “for any reason” — primarily because the country should save money. In response to chatter about sending certain members to the global soccer event, Hojjatoleslam Seyyed […]
Though it has been taboo to discuss, the top ranks of soccer are rife with players who suffer from depression during and after their careers.
This may not be the Tour de France, but the atmosphere was definitely comparable. One of my best friends (on the right) and I were watching this unfortunate cyclist struggle with a flat tire, right on the street where I lived then, which is just one block away from where I live now.
LONDON — It’s that time of year again, and Super Bowl fever is definitely NOT spreading across the planet. Still, the rest of the world is slowing warming to American football, and the game will be broadcast live Sunday in more than 180 countries and in more than 30 languages, mostly on cable and satelite […]
BEIJING — It was 30 years ago at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics that a 20-year-old Chinese gymnast named Li Ning captured three gold medals, two silvers and one bronze with an array of never-before-seen flips and twists that he had invented himself. Li, now 50, became China’s most decorated athlete and won the […]