Landis and Mirza

Floyd Landis is an American cycler in the Tour de France. Going off of info from the July 2006 ESPN magazine, Landis was one of Lance Armstrong's lieutenants for three years (and three tour wins) before leaving to ride for Tyler Hamilton in 2004. After Hamilton was suspended for "doping," Landis became team leader in 2005 and finished ninth. So this year, he is a major canditate for the big win.

I appreciate his humble mennonite upbringing and his rebellion from it as he dove deeper into the cycling world. It may sound twisted, but I appreciate how his desire to stay far away from his home culture has motivated him throughout the years. How the pain of isolation brings victory and triumph--love it when that happens! And cycling as an escape has given him an inspiration that the article likens to religion. Tim Keown writes:

"But what if you don't belong? What if your life revolves around a religion you don't understand and an ethic you can't embrace? The literature of adolescence insists there's a place for everyone--geeks, stoners, jocks, brains, zealots. But what if nowhere feels right? What if, in a miracle that just might confirm the existence of God, you found an escape? What if it was something as simple as a bicycle, and what if it took you to places that were all yours, places no one else in your world even knew existed? Chances are, you'd ride that bike with the kind of passion you couldn't summon for religion. You would ride it until oxygen deprivation vaporized everything but the bike and the road."


Floydlandis.com


Sania Mirza is a tennis player who in 2005 went from a rank of 326th to 31st. She was the first Indian woman to reach the fouth round of a Grand Slam (US Open) and the first to win a WTA Tour event (Hyderbad Open). I was caught by her story because of how she seems to be caught in a mess of societal and cultural pressures. All eyes are on her, but not just those of fans watching her tennis skills; she also must deal with the eyes of Muslim officials quick to critique her choice of clothes and stance on certain issues. The writer of this article, Carmen Renee Thompson, describes her outfits as "heavily negotiated" and she has had protesters burn her effigy for something she was misquoted on. But I'm inspired with how she is not afraid to keep doing what she's doing and use her celebrity for the positive with her support of a campaign afainst the illegal practice of aborting female fetuses. One of her billboards reads "Your daughter may be the next champion."

Saniamirza.net

So I'm not a big sports person. But I love stories about individuals, athletes or not.