|
Athletes For Hope
Athletes for Hope is a nonprofit organization that works to educate professional athletes about philanthropy, connect them with charitable causes, recognize these efforts and inspire others to get involved in the community. AFH emphasizes that its focus is on the athlete's time and not their money. Athletes for Hope has grown from its original Founders to over 8,000 athletes across many sports leagues, including the WNBA, NBA, NFL, NHL, NASCAR, MLB, MLS, USATF, and the Olympic movement. These athletes take part in their Causeway program, which provides education workshops and subsequently one-on-one guidance for each athlete through their personal philanthropic journey. Athletes for Hope has worked with hundreds of professional and Olympic athletes in helping them connect with a variety of charities. As part of this connection program, Athletes for Hope hosts several campaigns throughout the year, such as the Athletes for Active Schools week where athletes participate in schoo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pete Sampras
Petros "Pete" Sampras ( el, Πέτρος Σάμπρας; born August 12, 1971) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. His professional career began in 1988 and ended at the 2002 US Open, which he won, defeating longtime rival Andre Agassi in the final. Sampras won 14 major singles titles during his career, which was an all-time record at the time of his retirement: a then-record seven Wimbledon titles, two Australian Opens and a joint Open Era record five US Open titles. He won 64 singles titles in total. He first reached the world No. 1 ranking in 1993, and held that position for a total of 286 weeks (third all time), including an Open Era record of six consecutive Year-End No. 1 rankings from 1993 to 1998. A right-handed player with a single-handed backhand, his precise and powerful serve earned him the nickname "Pistol Pete". In 2007, he was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Early life Petros Sampras ( el, Πέτρος "Πητ" Σάμπρ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mario Lemieux
Mario Lemieux (; ; born October 5, 1965) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He played parts of 17 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Pittsburgh Penguins between 1984 and 2006, and he assumed ownership of the franchise in 1999. Nicknamed "The Magnificent One", "''Le Magnifique''" and "Super Mario" after the fictional character of the same name, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. A gifted playmaker and fast skater despite his large size, Lemieux often beat defencemen with fakes and dekes. Drafted first overall by the Penguins in the 1984 NHL Entry Draft, Lemieux led Pittsburgh to consecutive Stanley Cup championships in 1991 and 1992. Under his ownership, the Penguins won additional titles in 2009, 2016, and 2017. He is the only man to have his name on the Cup both as a player and owner. He also led Team Canada to an Olympic gold medal in 2002, a championship at the 2004 World Cup of Hockey, and a Canada ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Jacqueline Joyner-Kersee (born March 3, 1962) is a retired American track and field athlete, ranked among the all-time greatest athletes in the heptathlon as well as long jump. She won three gold, one silver, and two bronze Olympic medals in those two events at four different Olympic Games. ''Sports Illustrated for Women'' magazine voted Joyner-Kersee the Greatest Female Athlete of All-Time. She is on the board of directors for USA Track & Field (U.S.A.T.F.), the national governing body of the sport. Joyner-Kersee is an active philanthropist in children's education, racial equality and women's rights. She is a founder of the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation, which encourages young people in East St. Louis to pursue athletics and academics. She collaborated with Comcast to create the Internet Essentials program in 2011, which provides high-speed internet access to low-income Americans. Joyner-Kersee is one of the most famous athletes to have overcome severe asthma. Early life Jac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andrea Jaeger
Andrea Jaeger ( ; born June 4, 1965) is an American former professional tennis player. A world No. 2, Jaeger's brief but highly successful tennis career ended prematurely due to major shoulder injuries. Jaeger started her professional tennis career at the age of 14 and went on to win pro tennis tournaments while still competing in other junior tennis events. By the age of 16, she was the second ranked female professional tennis player in the world. She reached the singles final of Wimbledon in 1983 and the French Open in 1982. She reached the singles semifinals of the Australian Open in 1982 and of the U.S. Open in 1980 and 1982. She also won 10 singles titles. During her career she defeated almost all top ranked tennis players and defeated Chris Evert three times in a row becoming the only player able to stop Chris Evert’s clay court historic win streak. In mixed doubles, Jaeger won the French Open with Jimmy Arias in 1981. During her career, Jaeger won U.S. $1.4 million i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tony Hawk
Anthony Frank Hawk (born May 12, 1968), nicknamed Birdman, is an American professional skateboarder, entrepreneur, and the owner of the skateboard company Birdhouse. A pioneer of modern vertical skateboarding, Hawk completed the first documented " 900" skateboarding trick in 1999. He also licensed a skateboarding video game series named after him published by Activision that same year. He retired from competing professionally in 2003 and is regarded as one of the most influential skateboarders of all time. Hawk has been involved in various philanthropic activities throughout his career, and is the founder of the Tony Hawk Foundation (now named The Skatepark Project), which helps to build skateparks in underprivileged areas around the world. Early life Tony Hawk was born on May 12, 1968, in San Diego, California, to Nancy (1924-2019) and Frank Peter Rupert Hawk, and was raised in San Diego. He has two older sisters, Pat and Lenore, and an older brother, Steve. As a child, Ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mia Hamm
Mariel Margaret Hamm-Garciaparra (; born March 17, 1972) is an American retired professional soccer player, two-time Olympic gold medalist and two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion. Hailed as a soccer icon, she played as a forward for the United States women's national soccer team from 1987 to 2004. Hamm was the face of the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA), the first professional women's soccer league in the United States, where she played for the Washington Freedom from 2001 to 2003. She played college soccer for the North Carolina Tar Heels women's soccer team and helped the team win four consecutive NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Championship titles. During her tenure with the national team, Hamm competed in four FIFA Women's World Cup tournaments: the inaugural 1991 in China, 1995 in Sweden, 1999 and 2003 in the United States. She led the team at three Olympic Games, including: 1996 in Atlanta (the first time women's soccer was played), 2000 in Sydney, and 2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeff Gordon
Jeffery Michael Gordon (born August 4, 1971) is an American former professional stock car racing driver, who is the Vice Chairman for Hendrick Motorsports. He raced full-time from 1993 to 2015, driving the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports in the former NASCAR Winston Cup Series and Sprint Cup Series (now called NASCAR Cup Series), and also served as a substitute driver for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the No. 88 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports in select races during the 2016 season. He is regarded as one of the most influential drivers in NASCAR history, helping the sport reach mainstream popularity. Gordon started his professional racing career in the Busch Series with Hugh Connerty Racing, followed by Bill Davis Racing, winning three races, and began racing full-time in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series for Hendrick Motorsports in 1993. He is a four-time Cup Series champion, having won the title in 1995, 1997, 1998, and 2001. He was the youngest driver to win ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Warrick Dunn
Warrick De'Mon Dunn (born January 5, 1975) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for twelve seasons. He was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 12th overall in the 1997 NFL Draft, after playing college football for the Florida State Seminoles. Dunn was named AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year in 1997 and earned three Pro Bowl selections in his career. After his playing career, Dunn took a minority stake in the Falcons' ownership group led by Arthur Blank. Early years At Catholic High in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Dunn played quarterback, cornerback, and running back. During his sophomore year, he helped lead Catholic High to the state 4A championship game for the first time in its history. He was an All-America honorable mention selection by ''USA Today'' as a senior. On January 7, 1993, two days after Dunn's eighteenth birthday, his mother Betty Smothers, a Baton Rouge Police Officer, was murdered whil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lance Armstrong
Lance Edward Armstrong ('' né'' Gunderson; born September 18, 1971) is an American former professional road racing cyclist. Regarded as a sports icon for winning the Tour de France seven consecutive times from 1999 to 2005 after recovering from testicular cancer, he was later stripped of all his titles when an investigation found that he had used performance-enhancing drugs over his career. At age 16, Armstrong began competing as a triathlete and was a national sprint-course triathlon champion in 1989 and 1990. In 1992, he began his career as a professional cyclist with the Motorola team. He had success between 1993 and 1996 with the World Championship in 1993, the Clásica de San Sebastián in 1995, Tour DuPont in 1995 and 1996, and a handful of stage victories in Europe, including stage 8 of the 1993 Tour de France and stage 18 of the 1995 Tour de France. In 1996, he was diagnosed with a potentially fatal metastatic testicular cancer. After his recovery, he founded the Lan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andre Agassi
Andre Kirk Agassi ( ; born April 29, 1970) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He is an eight-time major champion and an Olympic gold medalist, as well as a runner-up in seven other majors. Agassi is the second of five men to achieve the career Grand Slam in the Open Era and the fifth of eight overall to make the achievement. He is also the first of two men to achieve the career Golden Slam (career Grand Slam and Olympic gold medal), as well as the only man to win a career Super Slam (career Grand Slam, plus the Olympic gold medal and the year-end championships). Agassi was the first man to win all four singles majors on three different surfaces ( hard, clay and grass), and remains the most recent American man to win the French Open (in 1999) and the Australian Open (in 2003). He also won 17 Masters titles and was part of the winning Davis Cup teams in 1990, 1992 and 1995. Agassi reached the world No. 1 ranking for the first time in 1995, but was troub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "The Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century, and is frequently ranked as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. In 1999, he was named Sportsman of the Century by ''Sports Illustrated'' and the Sports Personality of the Century by the BBC. Born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, he began training as an amateur boxer at age 12. At 18, he won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Summer Olympics and turned professional later that year. He became a Muslim after 1961. He won the world heavyweight championship, defeating Sonny Liston in a major upset on February 25, 1964, at age 22. During that year, he denounced his birth name as a " slave name" and formally changed his name to Muhammad Ali. In 1966, Ali refused to be drafted into the military owing to his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
