sports diplomacy
Palestinian schoolchildren in the village of Kafr Sur in Tulkarem this week received footballs from Spanish giant FC Barcelona. The balls are apparently replacements for those lost over the separation fence between the West Bank and Israel over the years, the Guardian reported. A Spanish journalist, Anna Alba, who spoke about the “gift” said she hoped that it would encourage other teams to come to the area and support local athletes.
ADLER, Russia — The Sochi 2014 Winter Games drew Sunday night to a close, an Olympics intent on projecting the image of a strong and confident new Russia across this vast country and to the world beyond, with a mighty Russian team awakening the echoes of the mighty Soviet sport system to prideful spectator cheers of “Ro-ssi-ya! Ro-ssi-ya!”
Albeit, over 17 days, to the beat of “Get Lucky” by a Russian police choir. And cheerful volunteers yelling, “Good morning!” while dancing to the Black Eyed Peas.
The Sochi 2014 Winter Games drew Sunday night to a close, an Olympics intent on projecting the image of a strong and confident new Russia across this vast country and to the world beyond, with a mighty Russian team awakening the echoes of the mighty Soviet sport system to prideful spectator cheers of “Ro-ssi-ya! Ro-ssi-ya!”
If there are two Brazils, then one of them is here, in a café by the Praça São Salvador, a few blocks from the beach in Rio de Janeiro. Wearing a gray T-shirt, sunglasses and a ring in the shape of a human skull, Alan Fragoso, 27, takes a sip of his caipirinha. Fragoso used to be a sort of Brazilian Don Draper, an advertising man selling products to the nation's emerging consumer class. Then one day he quit. "What I really want is to work with projects I believe in," he says, "not to invest in consumption."
This video features members of the U.S. Olympic Team and the U.S. Paralympic Team competing in the 2014 Sochi Olympics. The video’s theme, "We are all Athletes," emphasizes that although the lives of Olympic and Paralympic athletes may differ in some ways, they are all dreamers, competitors, champions, and teammates.
The overall medal count obscures how these small countries are outperforming their rivals in 2014.Judging by the overall tally at the Sochi Olympics, the Netherlands is currently ahead of all other nations with 17 total medals. The United States and Russia are tied for a close second with 16 medals each.
Great Britain's most recent Olympic gold medallist has vowed to use her sudden fame to inspire more girls to play sport and challenge "the media image of the perfect woman". Lizzy Yarnold, who became just the fifth British athlete to win individual gold at a Winter Olympics when she defeated her skeleton rivals by almost a second on Friday, said she was determined to convince more girls to stay involved with sport.
A perceived lack of real progress in the improvement of conditions for foreign labor, aggravated by a Qatari reluctance to engage in public debate beyond platitudes, is undermining the soft-power goals underlying the Gulf state’s sports strategy