POPULOUS - Issue 3

SKIING THE CRAZY WORLD OF BLIND DOWNHILLING

MAGAZINE

WOMEN IN SPORT ARE LOOKS MORE VALUABLE THAN TALENT?

LACROSSE NATIVE AMERICANS SEEK WORLD DOMINATION

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CAGE FIGHTING FEMALE FIGHTERS IN A BRUTAL SPORT

HELLO For years, when it comes to money, female athletes have been drifting in the doldrums of a male-dominated commercial world.

That is all changing, however. Thanks to increased media coverage, and the sponsors who fund the sports industry, female athletes are starting to compete financially with the men. In many cases they’ve surpassed them.

This, our third issue, has a main feature entitled ‘Stand by Your Woman’. (We’re paraphrasing the late Tammy Wynette, but we love her classic song, so I’m sure she would have forgiven us.) The article celebrates this monetary evolution, and provides an analytical insight into what exactly the sponsors are looking for in the women they join forces with.

We decided to continue the female theme through this edition, discovering what it’s like to be a woman in the uber-macho world of cage-fighting, as well as meeting ice hockey goaltender Shannon Szabados and the future female boss of American football team, The New Orleans Saints.

The boys get a look-in, too, with some amazing stories on basketball’s teenage millionaires, native American lacrosse players, gambling on Japanese cyclists and, perhaps most astounding of all, the blind downhill skiers.

I have been an architect specialising in the design of sports buildings for around 30 years but I have learned more fascinating things about sport, and the people who devote their lives to it, by publishing this magazine than I did in all that time. Perhaps every design firm should produce a magazine on their chosen field of expertise. Just a thought.

Enjoy reading, Rod Sheard

Tel: +44 (0) 20 8874 7666 Email: popmag@populous.com Web: www.populous.com Editor-in-chief: Rod Sheard Editorial team: Nick Reynolds, Joanna Griffin, Patricia Fernandez

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WELCOME //

Populous magazine is published by: Alma Media International London, United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0) 20 8944 1155 Email: info@almamedia.co.uk Web: www.almamedia.co.uk Publisher: Tony Richardson tony@almamedia.co.uk Editor: Dominic Bliss dominic@almamedia.co.uk Art direction and design: Deep www.deep.co.uk

Images: Getty; PA Images;REFLECTION Populous; TAG Heuer; Red Bull; Omega; Tissot Back cover image: Mark Craine Illustration p18: David Whittle / Organisart

This issue’s cover was shot by top sports and music portrait photographer Joel Grimes based in Los Angeles. To see more of Joel’s fantastic work go to www.joelgrimes.com

© Alma Media International Ltd 2010 All material is strictly copyright and all rights are reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without the written permission of Alma Media International is strictly forbidden. The greatest care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of information in this magazine at the time of going to press, but we accept no responsibility for omissions or errors. The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of Alma Media International or Populous.

WOMEN IN SPORT ARE LOOKS MORE VALUABLE THAN TALENT? SKIING THE CRAZY WORLD OF BLIND DOWNHILLING LACROSSE NATIVE AMERICANS SEEK WORLD DOMINATION

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CAGE FIGHTING FEMALE FIGHTERS IN A BRUTAL SPORT

Joel also hosts workshops across the US and in London sharing his knowledge and experience with other photographers.

ISSUE THREE

Populous magazine is sent to our clients and friends around the sporting world.

PEFC/16-44-002

TOURNAMENT DRAW 4

LEFT FIELD // Predicting future trends in stadium acoustics.

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STAND BY YOUR WOMAN // What makes sponsors flock to one successful female athlete, and recoil from another? Sports sponsorship writer Juliana Koranteng finds out.

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HURRICANE RITA // Can Rita Benson LeBlanc shake up the macho world of American football management? Franz Lidz, former senior writer at Sports Illustrated, meets her.

BYE

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SNOW BLIND // Blind skiing in the Paralympics.

You surely can’t find a sport more extreme than this.

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OVERNIGHT MILLIONAIRES // The most talented high-school basketball players in the USA can become millionaires overnight, thanks to the sport’s draft system.

Colin Hubbuck, former UK editor of Slam Dunk magazine, charts their rise and (occasional) fall.

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THE RIGHT TO FIGHT // How female cage fighters are struggling to gain recognition in their frighteningly macho sport. By Gareth A Davies, mixed martial arts correspondent for British newspaper The Daily Telegraph.

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POP HISTORY In December 2007 London’s O2 concert venue hosted the reunion of one of the world’s greatest ever rock bands: Led Zeppelin.

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ICE QUEEN // Female ice hockey star Shannon Szabados hopes one day to compete in a male professional league. Is this really possible?

BYE

TALENT SPOTTING // TV talent shows such as The X Factor and Pop Idol draw in live audiences and TV viewers by their millions. What makes this cultural phenomenon so successful?

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TRIBAL GATHERINGS // For the Iroquois people of North America, lacrosse is more than just a sport: it’s a rite of passage for young men, a way of honouring the creator.

It also reinforces their political and cultural identity.

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UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL // Paul Henry, senior principal at Populous, describes how competing at rally driving has taught him it’s crucial for sports spectators to always be close to the action.

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BIG IN JAPAN // Japanese keirin cycling attracts crowds of millions, mainly to gamble on the outcome of the track races.

Guy Andrews, editor of cycling magazine Rouleur, witnesses this strange sport first hand.

BYE

POPULOUS MAGAZINE //

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Dublin’s new home of sport Visitors from outer space? This photo by renowned architecture photographer, Chris Gascoigne, shows the new Aviva Stadium in the Irish capital, Dublin. Home to Ireland’s rugby union and soccer teams, the 50,000-seat venue was designed by Populous.

“When I photograph a building, I’m looking to capture a sense of

place, a sense of structure and a sense of material,” says Gascoigne who has been taking pictures of architecture and interiors for the last 27 years. “This stadium, even though it’s really modern in its design, fits into that part of Dublin really well. I wanted to convey the idea of a stadium right in the heart of the city.”

POPULOUS MAGAZINE //

LEFT FIELD //

THE ARCHITECTURE AND TECHNOLOGY OF PUBLIC VENUES IS EVOLVING FASTER THAN EVER. HERE WE BRING YOU SOME OF THE MOST EXCITING IDEAS OF THE NEAR, AND SOMETIMES DISTANT, FUTURE.

Drowned in sound Every sports team knows just how intimidating it can be to play in front of an away crowd. The songs, the chants, the cheering, the booing… they all help home players – and hinder visiting players – at crucial stages in the match.

Now, thanks to advances in acoustic technology, away fixtures are set to become more intimidating than ever. By reflecting crowd noise throughout the stadium, and amplifying it through in-house speaker systems, sports clubs will be able to give their players a much needed boost, just at the right moment.

Jim Griffiths, director of acoustic specialists Vanguardia Consulting, has been in talks with English soccer club Tottenham

Hotspur, suggesting ways they might enhance the match-day atmosphere of their new 56,000capacity stadium in London. Aside from seating home spectators as close to the pitch as possible, one clever solution is to ensure the sides of the stadium have very few gaps for crowd noise to dissipate through.

“Of course, you need ventilation in a stadium,” Griffiths explains. “But that doesn’t have to mean open gaps between the stands. You can have a convoluted path for ventilation so that the air has to flow up and around, instead of straight in. This will ensure you don’t lose the sound of the crowd.

We advised on a similar system at Wembley Stadium [the home

ground of the England soccer team]. It works in the same way as a silencer on a gun.”

The external design of corporate boxes in a stadium has an effect on atmosphere, too. At Wembley Stadium, Griffiths persuaded contractors to design the glazed executive box fronts at different angles so that crowd noise is diffused more. As well as making crowd noise more intimidating, it also improves sound quality when the sports stadium is used for music concerts. When corporate boxes have flat fronts, they reflect the sound into only a few areas of the stadium, causing echoes – an effect known as ‘slap-back’. But when the boxes are slightly angled, the sound waves are reflected in

many different directions, producing a more even sound throughout.

Other technological advances include sound systems that can capture crowd noise through microphones dotted all around the seating area, before amplifying it back into the stadium through the in-house speaker system. “Imagine soccer fans are cheering one of their strikers as he makes a run into the penalty box,” Griffiths adds. “Their cheers could immediately be amplified, giving that striker the extra encouragement he needs to score a goal.”

Whether they’ll get this past FIFA regulations remains to be seen.

Left: the front of the corporate boxes at Wembley Stadium are designed at angles in order to reflect sound more evenly throughout the stadium.

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LEFT FIELD //

Plug in and play

Acoustic technology could soon reduce the amount of sound equipment that bands and orchestras take with them on the road. Instead of travelling with lorry-loads of their own speakers and amplifiers, they will soon be able to turn up to a venue, simply plug into the existing sound system and play.

Wembley Stadium, the London home of the England soccer team, already features a top-quality in-house sound system, especially noticeable when rock and pop bands play at the venue. Although most of these bands still bring along their own speakers and amplifiers for front-of-house, when it comes to the more remote areas of the stadium, they can plug into the in-house system.

“It’s a delayed system which is specifically designed to give fans at the back optimum sound quality,” explains Jim Griffiths, who designed the system, and is now director of acoustic specialists Vanguardia Consulting. “It’s difficult to throw

sound effectively into the remote areas of a concert venue from a long distance. You need a sound system that can focus the sound into these areas.’’

Because the sound is more pinpointed, less of it leaks out of the stadium – which will please local residents. Logistically, it saves huge amounts of time and money, too. Irish rock band U2 successfully used Wembley’s plug-in system on their recent 360º tour, as did Take That, Coldplay and Green Day. While dedicated concert venues – such as The O2, in London, whose sound system was also designed by Griffiths – feature concert-ready sound systems, a number of new sports stadia that double up as concert venues are starting to realise the benefits, too. “A lot of bands still want to use their own sound systems,” Griffiths admits. “But they’ll soon opt for in-house systems once they come to trust the technology. It both saves money and reduces sound pollution.”

POPULOUS MAGAZINE //

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FEMALE SPORT // What makes sponsors flock to one successful female athlete, and recoil from another? Are they looking for results, looks, personality, or a combination of all these?

Juliana Koranteng, author of Women and Sport: Strategies for Commercial Development, finds out.

It seems the world’s major sponsors don’t know how to appreciate a woman. Take British yachtswoman Denise Caffari, for example, the first female to sail solo, non-stop around the world, against prevailing winds and currents. Despite this astounding achievement Caffari is struggling to secure sponsors for the next Vendée Globe, the world’s top ocean race.

Meanwhile, Russian tennis ace Maria Sharapova has nabbed a US$70 million contract from sports clothing giant Nike, extending their relationship for another eight years. And yet, Sharapova, who last won a Grand Slam tournament in 2008, is not even the official world No.1. That honour goes to Serena Williams who [as we went to press] had earned more than $32 million in total prize money, the highest of any female athlete ever.

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FEMALE SPORT // STAND BY YOUR WOMAN

If you combine cash prizes and endorsements, however, Sharapova earned $24.5 million between June 2009 and June 2010 [according to Forbes], while Williams collected $20.2 million. Caffari doesn’t even get a look in.

According to Chicago-based global sponsorship consultancy IEG, sport sponsors spent $44 billion globally in 2009, and are expected to spend $46 billion in total throughout 2010. But why is there such a disparity between the marketability of female champions?

Until recent years, asking global conglomerates to sponsor female athletes for millions would have been like asking a Michelinstarred chef to sprinkle chalk on a platter of cheese.

Unthinkable. And while the lot of sports women is certainly improving, it’s difficult to say who or what determines their value.

Tennis star Maria Sharapova is photographed by Marco Grob in Los Angeles, California.

POPULOUS MAGAZINE //

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Racing driver Danica Patrick is photographed

by Jeff Burton in Malibu, California.

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FEMALE SPORT // STAND BY YOUR WOMAN

“During my years here, we’ve seen many more partnerships with female athletes,” observes William Chipps, senior editor of the IEG Sponsorship Report. Yet, even he admits “it’s hard to assign a fair market value to individual athletes, because no one knows how to do that”.

Despite obliterating all rivals on the tennis court, Serena Williams reached only No.61 in this year’s Forbes Celebrity Rich List. Tiger Woods, once destined to be the first billion-dollar athlete until his recent fall from marital grace, reached No.5 for earning $105 million last year. Still, female athletes’ commercial value is growing, aided by the emergence of marathon powerhouse Paula Radcliffe, the dominance of sisters Venus and Serena Williams in tennis, US motor-racing’s Danica Patrick, and Lorena Ochoa, the Mexican wonder of international women’s golf.

According to Tom Zara, from New York-based global branding consultancy Interbrand, sponsors are guided by brand-measurement systems such as the Davie-Brown Index or Q Score.

Criteria used include athletes’ success rates, physical appearance, personality and reputation.

“The player’s skills are unquestionable,” he explains.

“At the end of the day, however, there has to be compatibility with the brand. The more the brand and the athlete have in common, the more [money] the athlete can command.”

Women also offer sponsors something unique: their gender. Paula Radcliffe, who was officially the fastest UK marathon runner, male or female, in 2003, says she’s running up to 14 miles a day for the 2012 Olympics, despite being pregnant with her second child. The media couldn’t get enough of first-time mother Kim Clijsters when she returned from retirement to nab tennis’ 2009 US Open. Then there’s Catriona Matthew who clinched last year’s British Open golf tournament just weeks after having her second child. “Not many sponsors will endorse male athletes for being dads,” says Clifford Bloxham from sports agency Octagon. “Women can bring in that extra dimension – motherhood.”

Also indisputable is the fact that sex sells.

With her catwalk-model good looks, blonde Russian tennis player Anna Kournikova made millions from endorsements in the 1990s despite never winning a singles title. Another athlete known to have exploited her looks on magazine covers is Danica Patrick, currently the most successful female driver

in America’s Indy 500 motor-racing. Sharapova has similarly capitalised on her telegenic appeal, with multiple magazine, TV and billboard appearances.

Interbrand’s Zara insists Sharapova is the real deal, however, in sponsorship terms. She triumphed at Wimbledon when only 17 and won three further Grand Slams. She has a riveting life story that includes her parents’ personal sacrifices to bring her from Siberia to the US in search of better prospects. “She is feminine, she has grit, personality and a cracking life story,” Zara says. “For her sponsors, as long as they share a common value, her tennis is irrelevant.”

Karen Earl, chairman of UK sponsorship consultancy Synergy, sums it up well: “Let’s face it, there are brands that chose to endorse Sharapova that wouldn’t have gone to a male discus thrower.”

Equally, a winning media personality can make a huge difference to sponsors. Sue Tiballs, head of the UK’s Women’s Sports and Fitness Foundation (WSFF), points out how Rebecca Adlington, the first British woman to win an Olympics swimming gold medal in half a century, became the darling of women’s magazines.

Adlington had spontaneously told the media how much she loved Jimmy Choo and Christian Louboutin shoes. “In our beauty and celebrityobsessed culture, both men and women are valued for their glamour,” Tiballs says. “Take David Beckham, for example. When Rebecca said she loved shoes, the women’s magazines could say: ‘Look, she’s one of us’.”

Sponsors are guided by brand-measurement systems such as the Davie-Brown Index or Q Score. Criteria include athletes’ success rates, physical appearance, personality and reputation.

POPULOUS MAGAZINE //

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Skier Lindsey Vonn is photographed by Nicholas Schrunk in Los Angeles, California.

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FEMALE SPORT // STAND BY YOUR WOMAN

POOR LITTLE RICH GIRLS If you combine both prize money and the far more lucrative sponsorship deals, these four female athletes lead the field in annual earnings.

[Figures based on earnings between June 2009 and June 2010.]

MARIA SHARAPOVA Sport Tennis Salary US$24.5 million Major Sponsors Nike clothing, Prince rackets, Sony Ericsson mobile phones, Land Rover cars, Tiffany & Co jewellery, Tag Heuer watches

SERENA WILLIAMS Sport Tennis Salary US$20.2 million Major Sponsors Nike clothing, Wilson rackets, HP technology, Kraft foods, Gatorade drinks

VENUS WILLIAMS Sport Tennis Salary US$15.4 million Major Sponsors Wilson rackets, Kraft foods, Powerade drinks, American Express finance, Sega software

Sony Ericsson appreciated this personality factor when it agreed to sponsor the Women’s Tennis Association tour for $88 million in 2005. The move revolutionised women’s tennis and its media coverage. In addition to launching international brand campaigns with the Williams sisters, Daniela Hantuchova, and Ana Ivanovic, Sony Ericsson appointed Sharapova as its global ambassador.

As Aldo Liguori, Sony Ericsson’s head of global communications, explains: “We were looking for a new audience that wasn’t the male techie associated with mobile phones at that time.”

Undoubtedly, female athletes in glamorous individual sports such as tennis, athletics and golf appeal more to sponsors. Other sports just don’t cut it. Amy Williams, the first British Winter Olympic gold medallist in 30 years, is reported to be struggling for a major sponsor. Her event, skeleton (tobogganing), doesn’t rank high among sexy sports events.

Additionally, race and nationality are said to influence which woman a sponsor wants to be associated with. The well-paid African American Williams sisters are exceptions to this rule. And despite the dominance of badminton and golf players from south-east Asia and China, the global poster girls for these events tend to be Caucasians.

“You can’t avoid the race issue,” says Anna Kessel, sports correspondent at British newspapers The Guardian and The Observer. “Most highly sponsored sports women tend to be white.”

Octagon’s Bloxham argues that female professional athletes still have a long way to go before they can attract big sponsorship money, simply because there aren’t enough of them in the first place.

So what does the future hold? The WSFF commissioned a report in the summer of 2010 that concluded there are some excellent sponsorship bargains to be had in women’s sport. “In comparison to men’s sport, the market is uncluttered and rights are far more affordable, providing cost- effective stand-out for brands,” it stated.

Meanwhile, anticipation for the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Germany next year, and the debut of women’s boxing in the 2012 Olympics, could offer sponsors new inventory to pick from.

At the end of the day, however, the experts agree a lot of hard work is required to lure the sponsor’s lucre. As the WSFF’s Sue Tiballs advises to all athletes: “Don’t be tempted by short-term big bucks. Look to the long term to build a profile that is strong and authentic. Look for brands that really believe in you.”

We were looking for a new audience that wasn’t the male techie associated with mobile phones at that time.

Aldo Liguori from Sony Ericsson.

DANICA PATRICK Sport Motor racing Salary US$12 million

Golfer Michelle Wie photographed by Norman Jean Roy.

Major Sponsors Tissot watches, Kaenon eyewear, Alpinestars clothing, Marquis Jet private jets [Source: Forbes]

POPULOUS MAGAZINE //

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Max Vadukul / Trunk Archive 12 6

SURFING AMERICAN // FOOTBALL SURFED OUT // HURRICANE RITA

AMERICAN FOOTBALL //

RITA BENSON LEBLANC (LEFT) IS BEING GROOMED TO TAKE OVER CURRENT NFL CHAMPIONS THE NEW ORLEANS SAINTS FROM HER GRANDFATHER. WILL THIS WHIRLWIND WOMAN SHAKE UP THE MACHO WORLD OF AMERICAN FOOTBALL MANAGEMENT? FRANZ LIDZ, FORMER SENIOR WRITER AT SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, MEETS HER.

Seven summers ago Rita Benson LeBlanc found herself on the 50-yard line of a theological battle between good and evil. She and Alfred Hughes, the Archbishop of New Orleans, were talking football. The archbishop was concerned that the New Orleans VooDoo, the city’s obscure indoor American football team, was having more success than the New Orleans Saints, the famous local NFL franchise.

“Why is the VooDoo doing better than the Saints?” he asked Rita, whose grandfather, Tom Benson, owned both teams.

“Don’t worry, Bishop Hughes,” she said, consolingly. “The VooDoo exist merely to challenge and inspire the Saints to be better.”

Many football fans in the Big Easy believe Rita exists merely to challenge and inspire Tom to be better. As executive vice-president of the defending Super Bowl champions, the 33-year-old granddaughter is being groomed to one day take

over from the 83-year-old granddaddy. But by cleaning up the reputation of the front office, this latter-day Saint and onetime VooDoo queen (the indoor league disbanded in 2008) has created the impression that she’s actually grooming him.

To the people of New Orleans, the story of the Saints is less hagiography, and more a Star Wars saga in which Rita plays Luke Skywalker to Tom’s Darth Vader. She is admired for her astute mind [she oversees all business operations and represents the team at owners’ meetings, where she sits on the NFL International Committee] and profound commitment to the ravaged region. In 2008 she successfully pushed for a London pre-season game for the Saints which she used as an exhibition to pitch New Orleans tourism to European business leaders.

“Rita has given the Saints a softer image,” says Ann Milling, a founder of the coastal preservation group Women of the Storm, on whose board Rita serves. “She’s sincerely grateful that New Orleanians have sustained the team through many

POPULOUS MAGAZINE //

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AMERICAN FOOTBALL //

Rita Benson LeBlanc watches her team in action.

Nobody pushes Rita around. She’ll never be part of the boys’ club, and there’s no reason to try to join.

Her priority is results.

MARY OWEN, VICE-PRESIDENT OF NFL TEAM THE BUFFALO BILLS.

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AMERICAN FOOTBALL // HURRICANE RITA

years of losing. Her grandfather may have felt that with his heart, but he never showed it.”

Grandfather Tom is sometimes seen as a dark, ruthless figure who, until recently, demanded concessions from the state of Louisiana and caused widespread panic in football-mad New Orleans by threatening to uproot the team. “In the past,” says former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, “Tom has been uneven and, at times, a recluse in terms of dealing with the public.” For the moment at least, the Force appears to be with Rita.

The heiress apparent was little more than a bit player with the Saints until Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005. [Her namesake, Hurricane Rita, arrived a month later.] During the frantic aftermath of the storm she was thrust into a pivotal role in management. In the years since, she has driven the NFL franchise with the shakiest economic base into profitability. Last year, after the Saints struck a new stadium deal that will run from the 2011 season through until 2025, Forbes magazine valued the team at US$942 million.

The NFL has long been an old boys’ club packed with old men. Only a handful of the 32 teams

are run by women, and Rita is the youngest. Mary Owen, the vice-president of the Buffalo Bills, says that at owners’ meetings Rita carries more responsibility than any of other Young Turks, except for 29-year-old Jed York, the new president of the San Francisco 49ers. “Rita does a fantastic job of articulating what she wants and being straightforward,” Owen says. “Nobody pushes her around. She’ll never be part of the boys’ club, and there’s no reason to try to join. Her priority is results.”

Rita’s football CV is more impressive than that of almost any of the ancient members, including her grandfather. She spent her high school and college summers interning in various league offices. In 2001, after graduating from Texas A & M with a degree in agribusiness, she hooked up with the Saints where she did everything from distributing press credentials to editing game tapes for coaches. “That game-tape job was very cool,” Rita says deadpan. “At the end of my career, maybe I’ll go back to it.”

On this day, she’s wearing a burgundy Diane von Fürstenberg suit, befitting her eminence in the Saints organisation, a head full of dark, brown hair,

New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson celebrates winning the 2010 Superbowl.

The New Orleans Saints’ Patrick Ramsey.

Rita has given the Saints a softer image.

She’s grateful that New Orleanians have sustained the team through many years of losing. Her grandfather may have felt that, but he never showed it.

ANN MILLING, FROM COASTAL PRESERVATION GROUP WOMEN OF THE STORM.

befitting her youthful enthusiasm, and a faintly studious expression, befitting her secret desire to be an antiquarian book hunter.

Rita reads books. Lots of them. As a child, the novel that made the biggest impact was The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas’ classic tale of Edmond Dantès, an innocent man wrongly, but deliberately, imprisoned, and his elaborate vengeance on those who entrapped him. Through cunning ruthlessness, Dantès transforms himself into the mysterious and wealthy Count, and insinuates himself into the French nobility.

“Edmond was different things to different people, yet so comfortable with them that they assumed he was from their culture,” says Rita, who has read the book several times. “He changes from being innocent and dewy-eyed into someone very powerful and slightly dangerous.”

More recently, Rita found personal resonance in a book by Lynne Olson called Troublesome Young Men, which focuses on the junior members of Britain’s government in the late 1930s who opposed the mainstream policy of appeasing Hitler. “They questioned the

government’s apathy to German aggression at a time when it was considered quite disloyal,” Rita explains. “It reminded me of being in denial about how prepared you need to be for disaster.”

Battered by Hurricane Ivan in 2004, the Saints were well prepared for Katrina. The players evacuated a full week before the hurricane knocked out the Louisiana Superdome. The team later took shelter in San Antonio, Tom’s adopted hometown.

“We always had a plan,” says Rita with assurance.

She held the business operation together by streamlining the marketing department and broadening its base to include the entire southern Gulf Coast, rather than just New Orleans. She reached out to the community through philanthropy and youth clinics. And she spearheaded an initiative to track down displaced Saints season-ticket holders and persuade them to return.

Her greatest innovation may have been making tickets affordable to more fans. To reflect the demographics of the post-Katrina market, the Saints offered 25,000 tickets for under $35 apiece, many as low as $14. That was about $61 less than the average price of an NFL ticket. Not only did the Saints sell out every game in the Superdome in 2006 – a franchise first – but they now have a waiting list of more than 40,000 for season tickets.

“I want to create a legacy,” Rita says. “I want to see us affect real change and touch people’s lives.

I want to make them proud to be associated with us.

Oh, and I also want to be successful in business.”

Populous has worked for 30 of the 32 NFL teams and has designed 14 new stadia for NFL teams.

POPULOUS MAGAZINE //

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SKIING // Frightened by black ski runs?

What about speeding down them blind? All in a day’s work for the visually impaired Paralympic skiers, as Alf Alderson discovers.

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SKIING // SNOW BLIND

Imagine standing at the summit of a black run, psyching yourself up to ski down the slope at top speed.

Then someone wraps a blindfold around your eyes and orders you to go.

It’s a fair bet that 99.9 per cent of skiers would dismiss the whole concept as sheer madness. But for visually impaired winter athletes such as Slovakia’s Jakub Krako, this is what they go through every time they hit the slopes.

20-year-old Jakub won three gold medals and one silver in downhill and slalom events at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, blasting down the slopes at speeds of up to 60 mph without being able to see more than two metres ahead of him, and with restricted peripheral vision. One of his eyes is totally blind. What would fill the rest of us with abject terror, Jakub describes as exhilarating. “I feel free when I’m on skis, not frightened.”

This sensation of freedom and speed is what it’s all about for visually impaired skiers – just like any other skier, really. As former Paralympic champion Brian Santos says: “Skiing is one of the rare opportunities which allows the blind individual to move freely at speed through time and space, and experience the sheer exhilaration in a physically independent setting.”

Jakub, who is a university student in Bratislava, has been visually impaired since birth, and like all ‘blind’ skiers is assisted in his high-speed exploits by a guide who skis a couple of metres ahead of him with a radio headset. “My guide tells

Playing in the dark

me when I should make turns, he tells me to be ready to jump. He gives me directions, basically,” Jakub explains.

“Yes, he’s a very good skier, too.”

Alpine skiing events for visually impaired skiers have been held since the 1970s, the same decade the Winter Paralympics first started.

Competitions are divided into three categories, depending on the level of impairment. The one factor all categories have in common is that it’s skiing as a team, with skier and guide racing down the mountain in perfect harmony.

And if you think this is some kind of slow-motion version of sighted skiing, you’d be gravely mistaken. Visually impaired Paralympians race on the same steep and demanding courses as their Olympic counterparts, and they display levels of commitment, edge control and turning skills that few sighted recreational skiers can match.

But even this is not enough of a challenge for some of them. Take Britain’s Kevin Alderton, a 39-yearold former soldier who holds the world speed record for a blind skier – 162kph, a fraction over 100mph.

After being attacked by thugs on the streets of London a few years ago, Kevin has only four per cent vision. But that hasn’t stopped him throwing himself down the

Blind alpine skiing is just one of many competitive sports for the visually impaired.

The International Blind Sport Federation, founded in 1981, also organises regular events in athletics, archery, bowling, futsal (indoor football), goalball (a type of handball), judo, Nordic skiing, powerlifting, showdown (similar to table tennis), shooting, swimming, tandem cycling and torball (another type of handball). Other organisations offer baseball, chess, cricket, equestrianism, golf, sailing, rowing and water-skiing.

I figure that if you can’t see it, you can’t be scared of it.

Blind skier Kevin Alderton, world speed-skiing record-holder.

‘Flying Kilometre’ speed-skiing course in the French Alpine resort of Les Arcs. This course has the gradient of the steepest of black runs; so steep that, if you fall, you don’t stop until you’ve rolled all the way to the bottom. Something which happened to Kevin just after he’d broken the world record. Think about it: you’re skiing blind at around 100mph, you make a minor error of judgement, and in an instant you’re thrown down the slope like a snowball, at the mercy of good fortune.

Kevin says he simply followed advice he’d been given beforehand.

He jettisoned his skis and poles, and tried to keep as little of his body as possible on the snow, in order to

reduce friction burns. “It was all quite surreal and seemed to be in slow motion,” he remembers.

What about the added terror of not being able to see anything? “I figure that if you can’t see it, you can’t be scared of it,” he says stoically.

Populous has been appointed lead architect and masterplanner for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.

POPULOUS MAGAZINE //

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Talent spotting MUSIC //

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MUSIC // TALENT SPOTTING

TV talent shows such as The X Factor and Pop Idol draw live audiences and TV viewers by their millions all over the world. Lisa Campbell, editor of Broadcast magazine, finds out what makes this cultural phenomenon so successful.

POPULOUS MAGAZINE //

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MUSIC //

Whether you’re from Manchester or Mumbai, you’ll surely have heard of Susan Boyle. Her appearance on last year’s Britain’s Got Talent – and subsequently worldwide on the internet – was TV gold. It had twists and turns, tears and tantrums, and the one thing that viewers love above all else: an ordinary member of the public revealing an extraordinary talent.

Not only did Susan Boyle become a national celebrity – the televised final peaked at more than 19 million viewers – but she rapidly became a global phenomenon. Hers was the most downloaded video on YouTube that year, with 120 million views worldwide. Once Hollywood names began tweeting about her, the middle-aged, floral-frocked Scot became the unlikeliest of international stars.

Susan Boyle is the perfect epitome of the “anything’s possible” nature of TV talent shows, and this is what makes them so successful. Eschewing the conventional young, cool and beautiful TV stereotypes, these shows suggest that celebrity status is within anyone’s grasp.

As show-business editor of British newspaper News of the World, Dan Wootton, explains: “These shows successfully tap into the desire for everybody to be somebody. People such as Susan Boyle and The X Factor’s Leona Lewis create the impression that superstardom is at your fingertips.”

Wootton says it’s by no means just a British phenomenon. “The same thing has happened in America, Australia and Western Europe. These shows are currently being lapped up in Asian markets too.”

Another reason for the success of talent shows is that they represent a new way of doing music television. Now that the availability of music online has caused music tastes to fragment, mainstream music programmes – such as the now defunct British favourite Top of the Pops – have become increasingly irrelevant. It’s now very much down to talent shows to launch new acts. Indeed, formats such as Pop Idol and The X Factor were designed to help the record industry bring music talent to TV screens. As well as achieving phenomenal success in terms of album sales, The X Factor has gone on to become the unmissable pop culture event every year since it started in 2004.

Overseas sales of these popular formats have made millionaires out of their creators. Most notable is Simon Cowell, who, as well as cashing in on the Got Talent franchise, also makes a mint out of The X Factor. Meanwhile, American Idol is the most popular format on the Fox network in the US, and makes him a reported US$34 million a year.

Cowell is also launching The X Factor in the US next year. He’ll no doubt have another monster hit on his hands.

Simon Cowell and fellow judges on American Idol give one contestant a grilling.

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MUSIC // TALENT SPOTTING

Alan Boyd, who began his career in entertainment television in the 1960s, and who helped bring these and many other talent show formats to life, believes the reason they work all over the world is because they tap into basic human emotions. “They offer hope, risk, rivalry, fear, love, hate. They take viewers on an emotional journey. It doesn’t matter where they are from, they want to embark on that journey, to experience the highs and the lows, and ultimately, to see the heroes defying all the odds. This isn’t something that’s nation- or culture-specific. It’s a universal human desire.”

The X Factor may be a 21st-century cultural phenomenon, but talent shows have been around on TV and radio for decades in various guises. Precursors include American radio’s best-known talent show in the 1930s – Major Bowes Amateur Hour. Then, in the 1950s, Britain was treated to the BBC’s Ask Pickles. Later, in the 1970s, came British favourites such as Opportunity Knocks and New Faces.

Culturally, the heritage of these programmes can be traced back much further in human history. Whether it’s the Victorian music hall, a turn at the village fair, or performing at a medieval banquet, there has always been a desire to discover talent and to watch it blossom. Modern talent shows can also be seen as the TV equivalent of the circus: there are the genuine performers who wow the crowds, and there are the no-hopers who, like the clowns, we and the judges love to laugh at.

This element of ridicule, even cruelty, is another reason for the success of the shows, according to one seasoned entertainment producer who sees them as modern-day gladiatorial contests.

“We idolise people but we also want to see them hacked to pieces. We are the crowd baying for blood,” says Stephen D Wright, creative director of Carbon Media.

Boyd, however, denies that cruelty is the motivator for viewers, arguing that people want to see talented singers, dancers or magic acts. “It is about empowerment, optimism and aspiration,” he says. But he acknowledges that “the show wouldn’t have the shape or texture it needs if it was positive all the time. It needs the rejection and the failure to create the emotional highs.”

Producers have become more and more adept at playing on these emotions, featuring contestants with familiar heart-wrenching background stories. But Boyd warns that you milk them at your peril. “Too many tears and the storytelling is not believable,” he says. “It is so easy to get it wrong, to over-produce these shows. The minute you do, they collapse. The successful shows remain authentic. The golden rule is: artificial situations, authentic emotions.”

It’s essential that broadcasters get the balance just right. With the proliferation of digital channels, the growth of online content and the increasing trend of on-demand viewing, one way traditional broadcasters can differentiate themselves is via live television extravaganzas.

These shows are rare in being able to attract three generations of the same family, sitting together on the edge of their sofa. At the same time, the young and media-literate viewers are increasingly fetishizing and subverting an established

entertainment machine, particularly through social media. Producers also cater to that with spin-off shows aimed at the young, such as The Xtra Factor.

Broadcasters strive to make the main shows bigger and better every year to ensure they remain what’s known as ‘event television’. They have had considerable success. In the league table of most-watched TV shows in the UK during 2009, talent shows commanded 40 of the top 50 slots.

As Richard Holloway, executive producer on The X Factor states: “These shows have become bigger and more successful because they’ve been made into a year-round event. From the pre-show build-up, the live show itself, the voting, the album sales and the live appearances, it has a relationship with the audience long after it’s finished.”

The cultural phenomenon shows no signs of slowing down.

the cowell factor

Entertainment venues designed by Populous include the world’s most popular concert arena, The O2, in London.

Love him or loathe him (and thousands queue up to do the latter), you can’t deny his impact on the world’s television culture.

TV talent shows would be nothing without the influence of Simon Cowell. The 51-year-old Briton is the brains behind some of the most popular talent competitions broadcast on TV, in both the UK and the USA. Not only does he sit on the judging panels, slaughtering contestants with his infamously cruel insults, but he also devises and produces many of these shows.

Among the most successful are The X Factor, Britain’s Got Talent, America’s Got Talent, American Inventor, Celebrity Duets, Grease Is The Word and Rock Rivals.

(Pop Idol, which Cowell originally judged on but didn’t produce, has subsequently been franchised to over 40 countries and territories worldwide.)

TV talent shows offer hope, risk, rivalry, fear, love, hate. They take viewers on an emotional journey. They want to experience the highs and the lows, see the heroes defying all the odds. It’s a universal human desire.

TV guru Alan Boyd.

Leona Lewis, winner of The X Factor in 2006.

POPULOUS MAGAZINE //

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VERNIGHT

MILLIoNAIRES

BASKETBALL // The draft system for young players in the National Basketball Association sees some high-school kids becoming instant millionaires.

Former UK editor of Slam Dunk magazine, Colin Hubbuck, charts their rise and (occasional) fall.

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SURFING // SURFED BASKETBALL // OVERNIGHT OUT MILLIONAIRES

When John Wall went to bed on June 9th, he did so as a penniless first-year university student. By the time he opened his eyes the next morning he was a 19-year-old millionaire. Such is the life of a budding basketball superstar.

Wall signed a five-year US$25million deal with Reebok to wear their shoes despite the fact he had yet to even join the professional ranks. Fifteen days later, Wall was picked first in the NBA Draft

by Washington Wizards and promptly put his signature to a deal that would pay him $5.1 million this season, rising to $9.7 million in 2014/15.

It instantly made him the third highest paid player on the Wizards’ roster.

Only Gilbert Arenas ($17.7 million) and

Kirk Hinrich ($9 million), both of whom play the same point guard position as Wall, will earn more than Wall in 2010/11. Arenas has nine years of NBA experience and has been voted an all-star three times, while Hinrich boasts seven NBA seasons.

Wall had never touched a ball in an NBA match, or even a professional practice session. In fact, instead of the traditional four collegiate seasons, Wall had completed just one before declaring his eligibility to join the professional ranks.

Wall wasn’t alone in hitting the jackpot.

In all, 60 other young men heard their name called, with an estimated third of them signing deals north of a million dollars, and a similar number having spent at most two years in college.

But for today’s youngsters, sometimes even one year of college is too much, leading the NBA to put an age limit on players entering the league. Until the practice was stopped in 2006, over 40 players had joined the NBA straight out of high school.

In many cases the move was a successful one. Five-time NBA champion Kobe Bryant, 2008 NBA champion Kevin Garnett, Dwight Howard and the most famous player on the planet LeBron James are a fine advertisement for high-school kids turned pro.

But for every Bryant and James there’s a Kwame Brown or a Korleone Young. Brown was the first ever high-school kid to be first overall pick in the NBA Draft back in 2001, taking home $3.7 million in his first season (coincidentally also with the Washington Wizards). The poster child for failed high-school stars, Brown would bounce around the league for nine seasons with minimal effectiveness and the occasional brush with the law.

Young could only aspire to such mediocrity.

Chosen by Detroit Pistons in 1998, the 6ft 7in player managed three NBA games before stints with teams in Australia, China, Russia and Israel.

The NBA, however, is aware of its responsibility to young men like Wall. Putting teenagers and millions of dollars together can be a recipe for disaster. But since 1986 the league and the players’ association have run the Rookie Transition Program. It’s been in place longer than any support system in US professional sport.

(American football’s NFL operates a rookie symposium for its first-year players.)

“There are a lot of pressures for these young men, especially when they first enter the league,” says Skip Robinson, Milwaukee Bucks’ director of community relations and player development.

“We need to make sure they are developing their basketball skills as well as their life skills. Success outside the lines fuels success inside them.”

Every September, each NBA rookie spends six days learning techniques to cope with their new-found stardom and the stresses that go with it.

They’re also lectured on subjects as diverse as life skills, sexual harassment, gambling, media training, nutrition and finance. But not all the information takes. Sports Illustrated magazine recently suggested that almost two-thirds of former NBA players were broke within five years of leaving the league.

A case in point is Rumeal Robinson, a six-team NBA veteran in the 1990s who made more than $5million in salary alone. As well as blowing

Blowing his fortune on cigars, luxury cars and motorbikes, Robinson once spent $10,000 on an M16 machine gun.

his fortune on cigars, luxury cars and motorbikes, Robinson once spent $10,000 on an M16 machine gun, and had a strip-club habit that would make Peter Stringfellow blush.

“He would go on binges of two whole weeks where he spent $20,000 a night at a strip club,” Robinson’s adoptive brother Donald Barrows told the Miami New Times. “Not only that, but he’d also have a bunch of the strippers come back to his place, get buck-naked, and clean his house for $500 or $1,000 each.”

More recently, 34-year-old former Boston Celtic Antoine Walker was accused of owing more than $4 million, despite having earned $110millionplus during his career. A fondness for pimped-up luxury cars and expensive watches played a role in parting Walker from his fortune, but he also built his mother a mansion complete with indoor swimming pool, 10 toilets and a basketball court.

Additionally he was said to have supported an entourage of 70 family and friends as well as regularly paying for massive team dinners and giving money to under-privileged kids during his career. Not your typical self-centred athlete.

For John Wall and the class of 2010, the likes of Walker and Robinson exist as cautionary tales, and the NBA does its best to equip them with the tools to avoid such excesses. But their future happiness may eventually depend on their ability to walk straight past the Lamborghini showroom more than their ability to put a basketball through a hoop.

Populous venues are currently home to many professional and college basketball teams including Denver Nuggets, Orlando Magic and Chicago Bulls.

John Wall signed a $25million contract with Reebok before he even went professional.

Above: Antoine Walker earned (and blew) over $110 million during his career.

POPULOUS MAGAZINE //

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6 24

MIXED MARTIAL ARTS // THE SURFED RIGHT OUT TO FIGHT

Image: Bill Hornstein

MMA fighter Gina Carano stars in the new Steven Soderbergh movie, Haywire.

THE RIGHT TO FIGHT MIXED MARTIAL ARTS // Female cage fighters, or mixed martial artists, are struggling to gain recognition in this most macho of sports.

Two of the sport’s leading ladies meet Gareth A Davies, mixed martial arts correspondent for British newspaper The Daily Telegraph.

POPULOUS MAGAZINE //

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MIXED MARTIAL ARTS // In 2009 the sport’s main governing body, the UFC, grossed almost $300 million. Forbes Magazine estimates the value of the company at $1 billion.

Cris Santos (left) grapples with Gina Carano.

Beware of Cris ‘Cyborg’ Santos.

Physically honed from head to foot, with her stomach muscles rippling and hands punching together, she makes for a daunting sight, especially if you meet her head-on in a cage just 30 feet in diameter.

The Brazilian fighter’s aim, using leg kicks, punches, flying elbows and knees, over three five-minute, energy-sapping rounds, is to outpoint you, knock you out, or get you to the ground and force you to submit.

Cyborg – full name Cristiane Justino Venancio Santos – is 25 years old and one of the world’s elite female mixed martial artists in a sport considered very much the exclusive domain of men.

That’s all soon to change, however. More and more women are now entering the machismo world of cage-fighting, or mixed martial arts (MMA), to use its proper name.

If men’s MMA is regarded as brutal, then what of the women’s branch of the sport? The leading female protagonists are familiar with such lines of inquiry. Critics of the sport call it ‘human cockfighting’ or ‘taxi-rank brawling’. As a fighting sport it has been developing for almost 17 years, but recently began to creep towards becoming mainstream.

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MIXED MARTIAL ARTS // THE RIGHT TO FIGHT

As if to demonstrate that, in May this year, sports TV channel ESPN’s magazine show MMA Live, three years old and largely an internet show, moved to ESPN2, making it available to 99 million TV viewers worldwide.

MMA, or at least the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), the governing body that controls 90 per cent of the mixed martial arts industry, has shown itself to be a powerful business throughout the global recession. Pay-per-view television figures and live ticket sales bear this out.

In 2009 the UFC grossed almost US$300 million, and Forbes Magazine currently estimates the value of the company at $1 billion.

Santos is world middleweight champion in an MMA organisation called Strikeforce. She lives in the Californian city of San Diego, where she trains at The Arena – one of the premier MMA gyms in the United States – almost exclusively against men. She won her Strikeforce title in August 2009, defeating American Gina Carano via technical knockout. It was seen as the most important women’s fight for many years.

Carano, intelligent, photogenic, and a seasoned practitioner of several martial arts, had made great strides in changing perceptions of

women in the sport, especially in America. Now retired from fighting, she’ll soon be appearing in the spy movie thriller, Haywire, due for release in the USA in January 2011. Directed by Steven Soderbergh, it also stars Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas and Antonio Banderas.

Women’s MMA is actually no different to the men’s sport, with the same rules, featuring a smorgasbord of martial arts including boxing, wrestling, taekwondo, judo, Muay Thai and jujutsu.

Combatants clash inside a cage which prevents them spilling out into the audience. Rules designed to make the sport more palatable to the general public include no kicks to the groin, no striking to the spine, no stomping a grounded opponent, no kicking to the kidney.

“It was definitely a man’s sport for a long time,” says Santos. “But women’s MMA is now gaining respect more and more. I am finding that we are getting more recognition all the time.”

As we went to press Santos was enjoying a 10-fight winning streak, unbeaten since 2005. She admits that “going up against only guys in training camp” has helped her enormously. But she bridles at the suggestion MMA is a violent sport. “It is not.

Both sides have agreed to go into the fight. It would

only be violent if it was bullying. There is no bullying in MMA. Everyone who steps into the combat zone has prepared hard for the fight.”

Santos played handball to national standard in Brazil, but took up Muay Thai (a form of kick-boxing) in her teens. She found her metier. “I fell in love with the sport. I was always very aggressive as a team-player in handball. I found that once I was good at an individual sport, I preferred that to the collective responsibility there is in a team. I preferred to rely on my own performance.”

She says one of her main goals is to see women’s MMA develop even more internationally.

“It’s very important to me. I’m pretty sure the level is going to be higher and higher.”

Rosi Sexton is another leading female MMA fighter. Over the last 15 years, the 33-year-old from the British city of Manchester has built a career record of 12 fights, with 10 wins, and just two losses.

She holds black belts in both jujutsu and taekwondo.

Sexton has brains as well as brawn. In addition to her first-class mathematics degree from Cambridge University, and her Ph.D. in computer science at Manchester University, she is also a qualified osteopath. “All fights are tough in different ways,” she explains. “From a purely female perspective, perhaps the hardest was when my son Luis was seven months old. It was a pretty big fight, against Dina van den Hooven who had just come off a big win, and the preparation was horrendous.

Luis was teething, I was hardly getting any sleep, and I was in the gym training hard and sparring every morning.”

Sexton says the fight she’s most proud of was her most recent one, against American Zoila Frausto, around the same time as her final osteopathy exams. She passed the exams, but lost the fight. “It’s never been easy for women in this sport. Opportunities at the very elite level are few and far between, because of the numbers of women at that standard. When I started, there was universal opposition to women being in MMA, but that has changed dramatically. In gyms, men don’t bat an eyelid any more when they learn that women are taking part and having careers in MMA. They are very respectful towards us, as is every pro fighter I’ve ever met.”

Nevertheless, the main governing body, the UFC, refuses to include women’s MMA at present.

“The UFC appeals to a certain demographic,” Sexton explains. “They have a tried and tested business model, and their audience buys into what the UFC is currently about. However, in recent times, the attitude of their President, Dana White, a huge figure in the sport, has shifted a little.”

Sexton believes women’s boxing in the 2012 Olympics will help the female MMA cause enormously. “The more people who get exposed to female fighting, the easier it becomes for us. Having women’s boxing in the Olympics adds credibility to female boxing. It is the same in MMA. Having women’s MMA around actually diffuses the arguments of the abolitionists.”

Populous has designed arena facilities in most major cities across the USA including the Toyota Center in Houston which regularly hosts MMA fights.

In gyms, men don’t bat an eyelid any more when they learn that women have careers in MMA. They are very respectful towards us.

British mixed martial artist Rosi Sexton.

Cris Santos (aka Cyborg) out of the ring.

TOUGH GIRLS A definitive ranking of MMA fighters is impossible since they compete in different weight categories and under different governing bodies. But, as we went to press, website MMArising.com considered the following the top five fighters pound-for-pound.

Megumi Fujii

(Japan)

Born: April 26, 1974 Fighting style: boxing, kickboxing, sambo, judo, jujutsu, catch wrestling Wins: 20 Losses: 0 Draws: 0 Nickname: Mega Megu

Sarah Kaufman (Canada) Tara LaRosa (USA) Born: Sept 20, 1985 Fighting style: boxing, muay thai, Brazilian jujutsu Wins: 12 Losses: 0 Draws: 0 Nickname: the Princess of Pain

Born: 1978 Fighting style: Muay Thai, karate, judo, Brazilian jujutsu Wins: 18 Losses: 2 Draws: 0 Nickname: n/a

Cristiane Santos

Roxanne Modafferi

Born: July 9, 1985 Fighting style: Muay Thai, Brazilian jujutsu Wins: 10 Losses: 1 Draws: 0 Nickname: Cyborg

Born: Sept 24, 1982 Fighting style: kempo, Muay Thai, Brazilian jujutsu Wins: 15 Losses: 6 Draws: 0 Nickname: Roxy

(Brazil)

(USA)

POPULOUS MAGAZINE //

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ICE HOCKEY // ICE QUEEN

ICE HOCKEY // FEMALE ICE HOCKEY STAR SHANNON SZABADOS IS SO strong that it’s not unfeasible she might one day compete in a male professional league. Canadian sports journalist John Short meets her.

Behind the mask that covers the face of the best female ice hockey goaltender in the world, Shannon Szabados is much more than an athlete. The poised and talented member of the reigning Olympic champion team stands alone as a trend-setter in Canada’s national game, one who excelled in competition against males long before she reached her teens.

Just before her 10th birthday, back in 1996, Shannon won a spot on an elite boys’ team of so-called “super novice” players. No girl had done it before, either in goal or any other position on the ice. Other nine- and 10-year-old girls have had similar success on the same team since – at the same position and in the same tournament recently – but Shannon will always be remembered as the first.

In Canada, where almost every child plays ice hockey as a rite of passage, this achievement brought immense status. “Looking back, it felt almost as big as winning the Olympics felt in Vancouver,” Shannon says. “To do something like that as a kid was really special. It was the first really big team I had ever made.”

Shannon’s skills and profile didn’t just expand after that; they exploded. Time after time, this quiet youngster was invited to play on boys’ teams, and the teams always improved after she got aboard.

It’s quite a shock, then, to hear her say she actually became a goaltender almost by happenstance. “On kids’ teams, everybody plays goal some of the time. You sort of rotate. I took my

The highest level I could reach would be a pro team in Europe or the East Coast Hockey League, and I know I’d have to initiate any serious conversation.

turn with everybody else, but when one of the other kids didn’t show up or didn’t want to be the goalie, my dad (the coach) would tell me I had to go in the net.”

Before long Shannon fell in love with the position. For several years she studied at a summer camp conducted by former National Hockey League (NHL) goaltender Bill Ranford. “He was my idol,” she remembers. “It was a thrill to learn from him.”

The off-season preparation paid massive dividends. Early in her teens, Shannon found herself defending shots fired by soon-to-be professional superstars such as Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Zach Parise of the New Jersey Devils and Dion Phaneuf of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Two years later, starting at 16, she played in the Alberta Junior Hockey League and made two all-star teams in her five-year career with teams that carried at least a handful of 20-year-olds.

The NHL conducts a draft of junior players when they turn 18. “Things went great in my draft season,” Shannon recalls, referring to a .915 save percentage (i.e. 91.5 per cent of shots saved) – an astonishing statistic for that league.

“But nothing happened.”

Until then, 5ft 9in Shannon openly wondered if ever she would get a chance to play professional hockey. The St. Louis Blues once used a part-time model, Manon Rhéaume, in the nets as a ticket-selling ploy during training camp, so it wasn’t unreasonable for Shannon to hope she might become a legitimate candidate for a professional job.

“But I don’t think it’s possible now,” she says, the regret evident in her voice. “The highest level I could reach would probably be a pro team in Europe or North America’s ECHL [East Coast Hockey League], and I know I’d have to initiate any serious conversation.”

Before such conversations take place, Shannon plans to complete her degree at Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alberta, her hometown. “When I was a kid, I wanted to be a teacher. I will be a teacher one day.”

But hockey still dominates her life. Playing for the MacEwan Griffins, she is among the leading goaltenders in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference, which includes several players who reached minor-pro levels in Canada, the United States and Europe. All summer she works several hours a day to prepare for the coming season, often against top players such as NHL defencemen Jay Bouwmeester of the Calgary Flames and Johnny Boychuk of the Boston Bruins. The off-season always passes quickly. “By mid-August I’ll be working with our college team, and I expect the Olympic team to hold a camp in September,” she says.

Obviously, it’s a major adjustment to switch from males to females as opponents.

“Women can’t just power their way through or shoot the puck as hard, so they’re trickier around the net. It’s entirely different.”

For as long as possible, Shannon will continue to hone her skills against men and women.

“I want to stay with the Olympic programme as long as possible,” she says. “I love the group, and I love the attention we get now that we’ve won the gold medal at home. It’s important to be ready.”

Many Populous-designed multi-use arenas are home to NHL teams including the Toronto Maple Leafs, Minnesota Wild and the New Jersey Devils.

Shannon Szabados, the world’s top ice hockey goaltender.

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Bi g

CYCLING // Keirin track cycling is one of the most popular spectator sports in Japan, with riders earning huge amounts of money and celebrity status.

But few supporters are cycling fans. They’re all in it just for the gambling, as Guy Andrews, editor of Rouleur magazine, discovers.

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CYCLING // BIG IN JAPAN

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Image: Taz Darling / Rouleur magazine

CYCLING //

The punters in the arena were passionate. They didn’t know much English, but they knew one or two important words when it came to dishing out abuse. ‘Hoy you ****!’”

Olympic keirin champion Chris Hoy.

The cyclists bow as they enter the velodrome, then bow again as they position their near-identical bikes on the concrete track. Each rider, who has undergone strict schooling to be allowed to compete, is decked out in a bright, differently coloured race jersey. Once the race starts they spend the majority of it jostling for position behind the pace-rider, bursting to full speed only during the final couple of laps.

There are some pretty strange sports in this world. But Japanese keirin – translated loosely as ‘betting wheels’ – has to be one of the strangest of all. It’s no ancient Japanese art. It’s not sumo or judo. There’s no throwing of salt, or Shinto rituals.

This is bicycle racing in a velodrome, with spectators and TV viewers feverishly gambling on it. But it’s not like any cycling in the Western world.

Even Olympic keirin cycling is vastly different. The closest equivalent to Japanese keirin is probably greyhound racing.

The first races were held in 1948, on Kyushu, an island in the far south of Japan. At the time, it was the only licensed gambling allowed in Japan, so popularity spread very quickly. Around 70 outdoor velodromes were built, and fans flocked to races, keen to watch this exciting new sport – crashes are commonplace – and, more importantly, earn a yen or two through gambling.

Image: Kazuhiro Sugiyama

Gamblers watch a keirin race.

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CYCLING // BIG IN JAPAN

The original premise behind keirin was twofold: firstly to raise money to rebuild housing and infrastructure after the Second World War; secondly to promote the Japanese cycling industry.

The first organisation to start keirin in Japan was know as the Nihon Jitensha Shinkōkai (NJS), roughly translated as the Japan Bicycle Promotion Association.

This idea of promoting Japanese-only bicycle brands continues today. Japanese keirin racers are permitted only very basic track bikes.

They must have lugged steel frames with strictly specified components. All very unlike the US$25,000 carbon machines used in the Olympic Games by the likes of quadruple gold medallist Chris Hoy. Everything on the Japanese keirin bike is regulation, stamped with the letters NJS. It’s not a sign of quality, instead a way to level the playing field, so that the riders must win using just muscle and tactics.

From the outset, keirin’s governing body (now the JKA Foundation) decided that it needed a professional class of racer, so it set up a special school near Shuzenji, 100 odd miles south of Tokyo.

The school is still thriving today.

Students know that eventually they will make good livings from the sport, for much of their lives. Riders often race up to the age of 50, some even longer. For the athletically gifted, it’s an easy career choice to make, but a challenging one too.

Fledgling riders spend a whole year training at the school. The day starts at 6.30am, finishes at 8pm, bed at 10pm. They sleep in comfortable, and exceptionally tidy dormitories, with four similarly aged riders to a room. TV and books are permitted, but no mobile phones, no computers, no emails. They’re allowed to phone home, once a week, on a payphone.

The idea is to acclimatise them to isolation from the rest of the world because, once they start competing, they have to remain totally incommunicado. Outside influence from gambling syndicates may affect their performances on the track. Integrity is the mantra of the professional keirin racer. Unlike racehorses or greyhounds, humans can be persuaded to cheat.

In recent years star cyclists from outside of Japan have been invited to race in a series of international events called the Kokusai keirin.

Basing themselves in Japan for a few months, it can be a very lucrative contract. Members of the British Olympic squad have plied their trade on Japan’s concrete velodromes, including, in 2005, Chris Hoy. In his life story, Chris Hoy: The Autobiography, he describes what it was like at some of the smaller races where he was competing in “virtually deserted” velodromes.

“Even if the venue was almost empty, it didn’t mean no one was watching,” he writes.

“They were watching in the betting shops instead.

The punters in the arena, meanwhile, were passionate, and weren’t afraid to shout abuse at you if you lost – and if they had money riding on you. Typically, they didn’t know much English, but they knew one or two important words when it came to dishing out abuse. ‘Hoy you ****!’ And if I won, then I’d hear a gleeful ‘Hoy!’. For much of the time we felt less like cyclists and more like horses or greyhounds – it was abundantly clear that we were

Keirin racers’ bright coloured tops and helmets add to the spectacle of a night race.

BIKE DESIGN Japanese keirin bikes are very simple in their design since the race organisers insist on strictly identical specs. Yet other bike designers have come up with some radical and revolutionary models over the years. Here, Mike Burrows, one of the world’s most innovative bike designers (and author of Bicycle Design: The Search for the Perfect Machine), suggests four bikes that have truly driven the sport forwards.

Moulton bikes

Image: Kazuhiro Sugiyama

Noted for their unconventional frame design, small wheels and suspension both front and rear, Moulton bikes were the first to improve on the traditional diamond-shaped frame.

Varna Diablo

not athletes in the punters’ eyes, but potential cash cows.” (Three years later Hoy would be the Olympic champion in keirin.)

A peculiarity of the Japanese keirin racers is that very few of them try to break into international cycle sprinting. You don’t see many at the Cycling World Cup, the World Championships or even the Olympic Games. (One notable exception is Koichi Nakano who won ten world sprint titles back to back between 1977 and 1986.) As far as the Japanese riders are concerned, the world stage isn’t as important as racing at home. It’s considered far better to be in the Land of the Rising Sun, making good money and maintaining a position in the rankings. Besides, if you’re earning huge amounts of money, driving flash cars, courting hot women and living in a big house, why would you travel across the world to race for no cash?

It’s also difficult for Japanese riders to adapt to the vastly different facilities outside Japan.

Most top-level keirin velodromes in the West are shorter, with tighter corners and, most crucially, made of wood. Japanese races feature nine riders, instead of six, split into many different skill categories. Pace-riders in international keirin are atop motorised bikes. In Japan the pace-rider is on a keirin bicycle, however, and is selected from among the racers by ballot.

At the highest level the prize money can be mind-boggling, certainly when you compare it to other cycling disciplines. The leading 2009 prize-winner Keita Ebine earned nearly 225 million yen ($2.6 million) last year, including 100 million yen ($1.2 million) just for the Grand Prix Final in December. And keirin continues to be good for the local communities it was originally established to support. There are now 47 velodromes across Japan, 60 million ticket sales every year, altogether worth around 800 billion yen ($9.4 billion).

It’s not like any cycling in

This bullet-shaped, fully encased recumbent set the world speed record for a bicycle: a staggering 83mph! Designed by Bulgarian sculptor George Georgiev, its rider, Sam Whittingham, is now the world’s fastest animal to travel entirely under his own power.

the Western world. Even Olympic keirin cycling is vastly different. The closest equivalent to Japanese keirin is probably greyhound racing.

Trek Fuel Ex The betting system is almost as muddling as the race itself. It’s a parimutuel system which means, essentially, bets are placed in a pool, government tax is skimmed off, and the odds are calculated only once all bets are placed.

Independent bookies aren’t allowed. Accumulator bets can see punters winning huge amounts.

Keirin used to be a very blue-collar sport, a bit like greyhound racing in the West. But this support is waning, and the JKA Foundation is trying to create a wider customer base by staging races later in the evening, installing comfortable seats and even women-only stands. Mobile phone and online gambling has also renewed interest.

Regardless of whether this marketing drive works, the sport’s rich heritage should ensure it remains popular. As the British cycling champion Chris Hoy explains: “What struck me at first was the tradition behind keirin. Things just haven’t changed in the last ten years. Even guys who had been there 20 years before, they were saying it was the same dormitories, the same decor, the same routines.

There have been very minor changes over the years but, really, it’s the same since day one. You get that feel of tradition. It’s something the Japanese go in for in a big way.”

Dual suspension mountain bikes are nothing new, but this model features innovative linkage and suspension which allows riders to pedal efficiently on flat trails, and at the same time to absorb shock going down bumpy hills.

Lotus Pursuit Bicycle

It was astride this monocoque-framed carbon fibre beauty (designed by Burrows himself) that Chris Boardman won the 4000m pursuit at the 1992 Olympics.

POPULOUS MAGAZINE //

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LACROSSE //

Invented centuries ago by Native Americans, the modern stick sport of lacrosse has now become a political rallying cry for Iroquois tribes in USA and Canada. Dominic Bliss finds out how.

In some Native American households, male babies are given miniature lacrosse sticks to play with as soon as they can walk. Often the minute they start crawling.

“It’s not unusual to see a two-year-old waddling round the house with a lacrosse stick,” says Percy Abrams, director of North America’s top Native American team, the Iroquois Nationals. “I’ve been handling a stick since birth. Both our boys had sticks when they were little.”

Toddlers quickly graduate to the junior leagues. Then all the way into adulthood, lacrosse forms the backbone of their leisure time. “If it’s part of your culture, part of your community, part of your life, you grow with it,” Abrams adds.

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LACROSSE // TRIBAL GATHERINGS

This explains why the Iroquois – a confederacy of six indigenous tribes (Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora) across New York State and south-eastern Canada – are so strong when it comes to wielding stick and ball. Kids brought up in often deprived families on the native reservations are able to hold their own, even against white players who benefit from wellfunded private school and university facilities. Outside of the reservations (or ‘the rez’, as Iroquois kids call them), lacrosse is a very upper-middle class sport.

While it’s miniscule compared to baseball, basketball or American football, lacrosse does however feature professional leagues. Field lacrosse (the 10-a-side outdoor game) is contested in Major League Lacrosse, while box lacrosse (a six-a-side

Iroquois Nationals player Jeremy Thompson.

POPULOUS MAGAZINE //

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indoor version) has the National Lacrosse League.

Iroquois players excel in both.

They flex their muscles at international level, too. In the World Lacrosse Championships, for example, the Iroquois Nationals have special dispensation to compete as a separate nation against the likes of Canada, USA, Australia, England and Japan, even though politically they are all either US or Canadian citizens. Between 1998 and 2006 they finished fourth in the championships each time.

“We manage to pull from such a small pool, and we still put a very strong team together,” Abrams says proudly, citing star players such as Sid Smith, Brett Bucktooth, Cody Jamieson and Jeremy Thompson. “The USA team probably has a pool of 20,000 international-level players to pick from. The Canadians have 2,000 to pick from. The Iroquois probably have just 200 players to pick from.”

For the Iroquois, lacrosse became a major political rallying cry in recent months; a symbol of their struggle for independent sovereignty. Things came to a head last summer when, due to compete

I’ve been handling a stick since birth. Both our boys had sticks when they were little.

Percy Abrams, director of the Iroquois Nationals.

Iroquois lacrosse player John Parsons.

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LACROSSE // TRIBAL GATHERINGS

in the World Lacrosse Championships in the British city of Manchester, they were refused entry into the UK because of their Iroquois – or, in their language, Haudenosaunee – passports. The British authorities refused to recognise their documents. And the Iroquois Nationals refused to travel on USA or Canadian passports instead. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton even got embroiled in the diplomatic tussle.

“We don’t want to denounce our citizenship in order to participate in these games,” Abrams says, explaining that many of his players have in the past travelled abroad on Haudenosaunee passports. “It’s a fight for native recognition. That’s been going on for a long time. It goes back to the struggle for Native Americans to even be considered human.”

Oren Lyons, honorary chairman of the Iroquois Nationals, went even further. “There simply was no way we could accede to the recommendation that we accept either American or Canadian passports to travel,” he said in a statement released after the championships had started without his team. “The Haudenosaunee passports we travel on

– like the game of lacrosse itself which our ancestors invented – are essential to our identity as a sovereign people making our way in the world community. We did not withdraw from the tournament. We believe we won without ever playing by demonstrating to the world the continuing relevance of indigenous sovereignty in the 21st century.”

The other international teams at the World Championships were disappointed to miss out on seeing the Iroquois Nationals in action. The latter were due to play the first match at the opening ceremony, and a traditional tobacco-burning ritual had been planned.

“We light a small fire on the ground, and one of the ritual-keepers will get up and say a prayer to the creator for the safety of the players, and give thanks to the creation,” Abrams explains. “They burn tobacco on the fire. The belief is that the smoke carries the words up to the creator.”

For the modern-day Iroquois, lacrosse represents so much more than just a sport. Native Americans traditionally believe it is a religious

ritual to honour the creator, a method of training young warriors, and of settling conflicts and territorial disputes.

It’s been played in North America since possibly as far back as the 12th Century. Games used to involve anything from 100 to 1,000 or more players, competing over several days on huge tracts of countryside with goals sometimes miles apart.

And it was very violent, with injuries and occasionally death inflicted by the wooden or deerskin balls and the hickory sticks used to propel them.

Adopted by French Canadian settlers, field lacrosse, as it became known, was eventually codified in 1867 by William Beers, a Montreal dentist. (Perhaps rather appropriate, given the ease with which players and their teeth can part company.) The modern sport is still very similar to Beers’ official version: 10 players on each team, comprising a goalkeeper, three defenders, three midfielders and three attackers, using sticks with netting heads to catch and throw a rubber ball on a 100 metre-long pitch with a goal at either end.

But for much of the sport’s modern history, Native Americans have been excluded. In 1880, after some players were found to have flouted the strict amateur rules by accepting payment, all Native Americans were summarily banned from the sport by the new governing body. They managed to keep lacrosse alive, however, on the reservations.

And from the 1930s onwards they flourished in box lacrosse.

Excluded again, this time from the World Championships because of passport problems, the Nationals were unable to show off a major aspect of their culture on a world stage, albeit a very small one. The next major international event is the World Indoor Lacrosse Championship, in the Czech Republic next summer.

“Next time we’ll start with all the diplomacy a lot earlier,” says Abrams, insistent that he and his players will continue their attempts to travel on their Haudenosaunee passports. “And next time we’ll play harder than we’ve ever played. This whole experience has definitely motivated us.”

Alf Jacques has been making traditional lacrosse sticks for 47 years.

CROSSE COUNTRY In North America, lacrosse is a minnow of a sport, totally dwarfed by the likes of baseball, basketball, American football and ice hockey.

Nevertheless, from its grass roots in upmarket prep schools and on Native American reservations, all the way through university and into the professional leagues, it enjoys a spirited following; more than on any other continent.

Professional lacrosse in North America Major League Lacrosse (MLL) is the governing body for field lacrosse, played ten-a-side outdoors. It features six teams – five in the USA and one in Canada.

Boston Cannons Chesapeake Bayhawks (current champions) Chicago Machine Denver Outlaws Long Island Lizards Toronto Nationals

Percy Abrams displays his Iroquois passport.

The National Lacrosse League (NLL) is the governing body for box lacrosse, played six-a-side indoors.

It features 10 teams – seven in the USA and three in Canada.

Boston Blazers Buffalo Bandits Philadelphia Wings Rochester Knighthawks Toronto Rock Calgary Roughnecks Colorado Mammoth Edmonton Rush Minnesota Swarm Washington Stealth (current champions)

Native American kids are often given a lacrosse stick at birth.

The USA team probably has a pool of 20,000 international-level players to pick from.

The Canadians have 2,000 to pick from.

The Iroquois probably have 200.

Percy Abrams, director of the Iroquois Nationals.

POPULOUS MAGAZINE //

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RALLY DRIVING //

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Rally driving // UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

Rally racing on the mountain roads of Tasmania has taught Paul Henry (LEFT), senior principal at Populous, how important it is for sports spectators to experience the action close up.

Up close and personal

When it all goes wrong, it’s amazing how your mind slows things down.

Take last year, for example, when I was competing in the Targa Tasmania. Four days into this tarmac rally race my navigator and I suddenly found ourselves skidding backwards at over 70mph down the road in the pouring rain. Time almost seemed to stand still. Then suddenly we ground to a stop in the sand at the side of the road, very lucky not to damage the car.

The Targa Tasmania has to be the most infamous tarmac rally in the world, and one of the most challenging and exciting motor races open to amateurs. Just watch Hollywood actor Eric Bana’s 2009 documentary about the race, Love The Beast, and you’ll realise what all the fuss is about.

I’ve competed in five Targas altogether, all in my 1993 Porsche 968CS. The race is held in April every year – just as the winter storms start to batter the Australian island of Tasmania – and consists of five or six stages over 1,250 miles on closed roads through towns, countryside and rugged mountain terrain. Up to 300 touring, sports and GT cars compete in different categories over five or six days.

My particular category is Early Modern, for cars dating from 1990 to 2002. This year my navigator and I managed 17th. My best year was 2006 when I came second in my category. Our aim is to try for the top 10.

We may not have the fastest car in Early Modern – the Porsche 911 GT3s and the Nissan Skylines take some beating – but what we lack in power we more than make up for in balanced

We found ourselves skidding backwards at over 70mph down the road in the pouring rain.

driving. Many of the stages take place over twisty mountain passes where equilibrium and momentum are much more important than sheer power.

Race stages last anything from five minutes to 25 minutes. At times your heart rate is up by 90 per cent, and your concentration is so intense that you think of nothing else. After many years of racing I now understand what professional athletes mean about “being in the zone”. In this sport you really have to read the conditions correctly, and have the right relationship with your navigator in order to drive to full capacity. When you get it right, the car feels like it is floating as you slide from one corner to the next.

I love the whole experience of the event.

The intense competition, the fact that we are driving at over 120mph on mountain roads, the camaraderie, the fear, the exhilaration, the planning, the engineering, the support crews, the spectators, the highs and lows, the organisation, the focus, and the huge grin of relief at the end.

But rally driving has also taught me many lessons essential in the design of sports venues.

Because the Targa Tasmania is held on public (albeit closed) roads, spectators can almost touch the cars as they speed by. This is how all sport should be, whether it’s motor-racing, soccer, tennis or athletics. Spectators should be so close to the action that they almost feel like one of the competitors. Ultimately every fan wants to experience what it’s really like on the field of sport.

When it comes to designing sports and entertainment venues, it’s crucial to give paying spectators this ultimate experience; to immerse them in what they are watching. Just like the Targa Tasmania.

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PopUlous in

history

Where?

THE 02 ARENA, LONDON When?

10th December 2007

One of Europe’s biggest and certainly boldest concert venues, The O2 Arena has played host to pop music’s finest since it opened in 2007.

AC/DC, Beyoncé, Coldplay, Elton John, Madonna, Prince, and many others have all bathed spectators there in sound. But perhaps the most hotly anticipated gig was when British rock legends Led Zeppelin reformed for their 2007 Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert.

Featuring original members Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones, plus drummer Jason Bonham in place of his late father John, the band played a 16-song set to rapturous applause and almost universal critical praise. The promoter claimed that over a million people had registered for fewer than 20,000 tickets, despite the £125 price tag.

“On a musical level, we’ve had sublime moments and there were several on December 10,” said lead singer Robert Plant afterwards. “It was as real as you’re going to get.”

Rumours of further Led Zeppelin reunions have been rife ever since.

Robert Plant, lead singer of Led Zeppelin.

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HISTORY // LED zeppelin AT THE O2

ww

Graphic courtesy of Flipflopflyball.com Flip Flop Fly Ball the book is published in spring 2011 by Bloomsbury USA.

63.3 THE PERCENTAGE OF CURRENT MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL PARKS DESIGNED BY POPULOUS

POPULOUS // THE TEAM We are true individuals – innovative, fun and highly creative architects and designers who enjoy working together to give our clients unique design services. Whether it’s bespoke design, sports stadia, entertainment venues or convention centres, we are passionate about everything we do.

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REFLECTION