Salon.com > Rachel Cohen

Chilean miner arrives in New York to run marathon

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 17:35:00 +0000

Chilean miner Edison Pena arrived in the United States on Thursday to try to run the New York City Marathon, greeted at the airport by world-record holder Haile Gebrselassie.

"He couldn't believe Haile was there to greet him, and he gave him a big hug," New York Road Runners President Mary Wittenberg said after returning from meeting him at the airport.

Pena was scheduled to hold a news conference Thursday afternoon.

Wittenberg said about 150 Chileans who had previously signed up to run the marathon were on two flights from the country into John F. Kennedy International Airport on Thursday, and they all lined up to cheer as he got off the plane.

"He came out, and they started cheering for him, and he was cheering with them," she said. "He was clearly a bit overwhelmed by it all."

ESPN is betting big on the World Cup

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 20:09:00 +0000

Knowledgeable U.S. soccer fans -- it's not an oxymoron.

ESPN is making a huge investment in World Cup coverage, paying $100 million for the rights to the 2010 and 2014 tournaments, based on the conviction that not only do Americans know the beautiful game, they want all they can get.

The 2006 tournament on ESPN and ABC drew the largest audiences for a World Cup outside the United States. But research afterward showed the network could do more to show fans it's taking the sport seriously.

Now the network is trying to do just that, and to attract even more viewers, despite the time zone challenges of this year's event in South Africa, which is six hours ahead of New York and nine hours ahead of Los Angeles.

"The simple math of ratings, if you can take that audience and get them to watch for a longer period of time, it has the same effect as growing the number of viewers," said Jed Drake, executive producer for ESPN's World Cup coverage. "We really have targeted our presentation now for a knowledgeable soccer audience."

The same network that drew criticism for calling 20 matches from U.S. studios four years ago is putting together a staff of 300 people to produce the event in South Africa. ESPN has hired British announcers and plans 65 hours of live studio programming from Johannesburg.

Young US women see figure skating medal streak end

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:01:00 +0000

Mirai Nagasu's face lit up when she saw her ranking after the women's free skate.

Fourth place. No medal. Usually a catalyst for tears at the Olympics. But to the 16-year-old American, it might be the foundation for some better finishes in the future.

The U.S. women failed to win a medal for just the second time since 1952 at Thursday night's competition. U.S. champion Rachael Flatt finished seventh.

"I'm just happy I was able to be right behind those top competitors because it's my first really big international competition," Nagasu said.

"Most 16-year-olds medal at their first Olympics," she joked. "I'm sorry that I wasn't able to keep up that U.S. trend. But, hopefully, I'll be able to make up for it when I get to come back I hope for the next Olympics."

Flatt was fifth and Nagasu was sixth coming into the finale. The top three skaters needed to make major mistakes for either one to make off with a medal. Nagasu finished more than 12 points out of a bronze.

The 17-year-old Flatt lost points on both her triple flips when she didn't complete the rotation. She said "they felt just fine to me" and acknowledged she was a bit surprised by her score.