Word: soccers
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...longer an excuse, it's a responsibility." Spain played poorly in the final game, losing by a point to Russia. But that was a year ago. Today, as you tally up Gasol's appearance with the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals in June, the Spanish soccer team's victory in the European Cup, Rafael Nadal's Wimbledon defeat of Roger Federer, and Carlos Sastre's triumph at the Tour de France, it's pretty obvious Spanish athletes have conquered the sporting world...
...just ideals that have helped lift Spain. Investment in sport began to increase when the country hosted the 1982 soccer World Cup and then rose dramatically in the run up to and aftermath of the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. Sports clubs began to multiply, and the state created dozens of centers where thousands of elite athletes can train at the government's expense. "This has enabled a professionalization of sports unthinkable two decades ago," says Moscoso, "and encouraged Spaniards to see sports positively - fathers want their sons to be soccer players...
...athlete will tell you, winning begets winning. "When my brother Miguel Ángel, the soccer player, won with Barcelona," says Toni Nadal, "he was suddenly a star from a very small town, Manacor. We had no champions. But since then, Manacor has produced several champions. In sports, when those around you win more, you start to believe in yourself, that you can win too. That's what happened with Rafael - he's had success because he has the mental attitude of a winner...
Journeymen coaches have long been part of the sporting narrative, with European soccer managers flitting between rival nations and Eastern Europeans spanning the world to run gymnastics camps. But China has only recently started offering coaches for export. For decades, the People's Republic's state-run sports system was closed, with little chance of either athlete or coach migrating abroad. (Rare defections, like that of a female tennis player in the early 1980s to the U.S., only strengthened Chinese resolve not to let others out the door.) Nor, frankly, would most countries at that time have wanted a Chinese...
Foreign coaches haven't fared as well in China. The well-regarded German coach of China's canoeing and kayaking team was sacked less than two months before the Olympics were to begin. In July, the Serbian manager of China's Olympic men's soccer squad was also axed. And last spring, the French coach of the women's national soccer team was let go in a particularly frosty manner - her dismissal came by email. All three foreigners were replaced by local counterparts. The Chinese sports system, it turns out, prefers "Made in China...