http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuMqlPhDmTM

Witnesses, friends of finalists Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky, along with industry experts comment on the 1972 World Chess Championship, the “Match of the Century.” Spassky of the USSR, the reigning World Chess Champion at the time, was up two when he granted Fischer’s request for the games to be held in a private room sans cameras. Many believe this was a psychological ploy by Fischer that Spassky indulged–and it was the beginning of Spassky’s downfall as Fischer won this third match held backstage. The championship began on July 11, 1972 and by the last game, which took place on August 31, Fischer won: 12 and a half to eight and a half–the first U.S.-born American to win the title of World Chess Champion. The game was in Reykjavík, Iceland, and due to its hype as a Cold War confrontation, it attracted worldwide media attention.

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Bobby Fischer vs. Boris Spassky: Chess Match of Century appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ja1ry0lhMs

During the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, soccer player David Beckham, a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador at the time, visited Archbishop Desmond Tutu in Cape Town to show his support for the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre. He said of the charity foundation, “As a father with three sons, I appreciate the work that will be done at the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre. I’ve been lucky to achieve what I have and giving back is important to me. I have children who are my life so if I can help, I would love too.” Beckham also comments on the symbolic role of sports in history and says of Tutu: “He’s a very special man.”

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David Beckham Visits Desmond Tutu During 2010 World Cup appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiEFOiAF0zk

In this documentary narrated by Maya Angelou, tennis player Althea Gibson reflects on her successful career in the late 1950s and beyond. Gibson describes her experience at Wimbledon in 1957, during which she became the first black woman to win the tennis tournament. She reflects on the anxiety she felt while competing and the excitement of receiving the trophy from the Queen of England. In addition to Gibson’s influential tennis career, the documentary reflects on Gibson’s efforts in singing, acting and golf.

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Althea Gibson Reflects on Her Influential Tennis Career appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBYe7l_msS8

In this segment from “Althea Gibson: A Documentary,” Gibson is praised for becoming the first black woman to win the U.S. Open Women’s Singles Championship and Wimbledon in 1957. Fellow tennis players, such as Dr. Harold Freeman, discuss how Gibson’s triumphs were exceptional because tennis was previously offered exclusively to wealthy white people. Billie Jean King, another tennis player, explains how Gibson had to deal with the harsh racial climate of the ’50s and yet it did not affect her athletic prowess on the court. Gibson’s accomplishments broke boundaries for black athletes, and she became a symbol for the civil rights movements.

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How Althea Gibson Broke Boundaries for Black Athletes appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWj0-Xh6Jag

Della Arnold Root, the daughter of Chicago Cubs pitcher Charlie Root, discusses the controversial ball that her father pitched to Babe Ruth in the 1932 World Series that Ruth allegedly predicted he would hit into the stands. According to Root’s daughter, the idea that Ruth had called his shot was never in anybody’s head until it was printed in the papers four days after the game. When asked about it, Ruth said that he “would have been a fool to point on a pitcher like Root.” Nevertheless, this claim haunted Root’s career and, the day before he passed away, he told his daughter that, despite how much he loved the game, he “would only be remembered for something that never happened.”

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The Great Bambino Calls His Shot appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvW-3ra14ng

Natalie Hawkins, the mother of American gymnast and gold medalist Gabby Douglas, talks about what it’s like to raise a talented athlete. Hawkins describes how hard it was to send her daughter over 3,000 miles away so that she could have adequate training for the Olympics. She also goes on to explain how Douglas’s host family, the Parton family, made it much easier for her to accept the distance as she saw how they welcomed Douglas into their home with open arms. In this video, Douglas and her mother also talk about how much Douglas missed her family while she was away from them. She recalls almost giving up on her dream for the gold when she got homesick a few months prior to the competition. Hawkins knew that her daughter had sacrificed too much to turn back. Listening to her mother’s advice allowed the 16-year-old Olympian to win two gold medals in gymnastics for both the individual all-around–the first woman of color of any nationality to win the event in Olympic history–and team competitions in the 2012 London Summer Olympics.

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‘I Need to Make This Dream Become Real’ appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGMbdv760rU

A year after her famous accomplishment of becoming the first female gymnast to earn a perfect score in the Olympic games, a young Nadia Comăneci is interviewed. Having won three gold medals during the 1978 Summer Olympic games in Montreal at the age of 14, Comăneci is asked about her new found celebrity status as one of the most famous female athletes around. She also comments on the rumors that have spread about her gaining weight since the olympics, being sick, and even being injured in the 1977 Vrancea Earthquake that affected her home country of Romania. The interviewer also asks her about her shy personality and the possibility of passing on gymnastics to her children one day.

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A Young Gymnast and Superstar appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1M3Wz5jn6s

Nadia Comăneci, the first female gymnast to ever get a perfect score at the Olympics, is interviewed on how that experience affected her. Having achieved this feat at the age of 14 in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Comăneci comments on how she got involved and interested in gymnastics.

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A 14-Year-Old’s Perfect Score appeared first on Witnify.

Author: Heath Harckham

U.S. national team players Tim Howard and Clint Dempsey. Source: Creative Commons.

When the whistle blew after a tense and exciting game between the United States and Belgium in the 2014 World Cup’s final round of 16, U.S. players collapsed on the field–exhausted and defeated–having given their all but coming up short. Yet despite failing to advance, there is plenty of reason for pride and optimism for U.S. soccer.

DeAndre Yedlin, 20, playing in the MLS All-Star game. Source: Creative Commons.

While the team was defeated at the same stage of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, this time around they faced a more challenging opposition and far more trying circumstances at the group stage. Placed in the daunting Group D, known by the media and fans as the “Group of Death,” the U.S. managed to advance despite little belief outside of the team and its fans that it could do so. The team’s hard-fought 2-1 loss to a Belgium team brimming with young and talented stars was disappointing, especially considering how close the U.S. came to completing a dramatic extra-time comeback, but the never-say-die mentality of the U.S. players and their unrelenting teamwork made the defeat easier to swallow.

Potential future stars were also a bright spot in the gloom of American defeat. A core young contingent of the squad impressed and look to have bright futures in the U.S. team for years to come. World Cup rookie DeAndre Yedlin impressed in his three substitution appearances, and both John Anthony Brooks and Julian Green, 19 and 21 years old respectively, had brief but impressive competitive debuts for the team; Green beautifully scored the one goal for the U.S.

Perhaps the most encouraging aspect of this game for the future of  U.S. soccer, however, is the sport’s growing popularity back home.

While viewership and interest in the national team has increasingly spiked every World Cup, 2014 garnered American enthusiasm and attention like never before. Viewership of the U.S. games consistently broke domestic viewership records. The first match against Ghana, a wildly dramatic U.S. win over their World Cup rivals, was the most watched U.S. men’s soccer game in America ever–until the games against Portugal and Belgium both surpassed that record.

-Before-

In addition to increased television viewership, cities throughout the nation held large public viewing parties for the matches, Soldier Field in Chicago, for example, hosted over 25,000 people for the game against Belgium–and seemingly every bar in the country was packed with attentive fans.

Social Media highlighted the elevated attention in the sport.

Twitter usage during the World Cup peaked when the U.S. played and Google and Facebook reported record trends of World Cup-related searches and posts in America. The U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard, who set a World Cup record with 16 saves in a single match during the Belgium game became a viral sensation for his heroics.

-After-

Though a constant critique of American interest in international soccer is in its fleeting nature, the expansion of Major League Soccer (MLS)–the premier professional soccer league in the United States and Canada–and the growing U.S. interest in European soccer leagues, suggests that the criticism is misguided. MLS has expanded into three new markets since the 2010 World Cup with two more set to join in 2015. In addition to its improving attendance numbers, the league has recently signed a lucrative T.V. deal, which will give it more national coverage and money than ever before.

The league’s progress can also be marked by its increased influence on the national team. Of the 23 men in the 2014 World Cup roster, seven play in MLS, which is three more than in the 2010 roster. While the league is still working to increase fan participation in some markets, in others like Kansas or in the Pacific Northwest regions of America, soccer culture is already thriving.

American World Cup players Clint Dempsey and DeAndre Yedlin, for example, play for the Seattle Sounders, a team with a passionate fan base that averages over 44,000 people a game for league matches. The growing exposure and quality of MLS has translated in a rise in quality of the talent pool for our national team, in addition to providing a competitive domestic league in which players can develop and improve their skills, it  also acts as a springboard for talented Americans to earn moves to more competitive European leagues, such with  Tim Howard, Clint Dempsey and Jozy Altidore. As domestic soccer continues to grow, the opportunities and resources for American players to succeed grow as well.

The excitement over this 2014 World Cup highlights America’s growing and overdue affection for the world’s favorite pastime. This game alone may not catapult an interest in soccer past any of the other major American sports, such as “American football,” but if it continues its current upward trend, the sport will become popular in the United States more than once every four years.

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[Blog] U.S. Soccer & 2014′s World Cup–Defeated But on the Rise appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZLrcafDtkg

In an interview that took place after Bobby Fischer became the eleventh World Chess Champion after defeating Boris Spassky at the 1972 World Chess Championship, Fischer discusses the possibility of a rematch with Spassky. He is confident that he could beat Spassky if they were to rematch, but he also praises Spassky and tells the interviewer that Spassky was the best chess player that he ever faced. In fact, there was a rematch between Fischer and Spassky 20 years later in 1992, which Fischer won. The 1972 World Chess Championship went on to be dubbed the Match of the Century and with its conclusion, Bobby Fischer became the first American born in the United States to win the title. The match took place during the heart of the Cold War between an American and a Soviet, so the match gained a lot of media attention.

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Bobby Fischer Interviewed After 1972 World Chess Championship appeared first on Witnify.