Super Bowl champ gets chance for gold
WASHINGTON: New England Patriots defensive back Nate Ebner was named on Monday to the US rugby sevens team for the Rio Olympics, making him the only National Football League (NFL) player with a chance to capture gold in Brazil.
Ebner, who also worked on special teams to help the Patriots capture last year’s Super Bowl crown, was given permission by the team last March to chase his Olympic dream, an opportunity he called “humbling” and “amazing.”
Ebner will miss about two weeks of pre-season workouts for New England coach Bill Belichick while with the American squad.
“I’m going to miss a few things I don’t want to but at the end of the day it’s a really big opportunity for me,” Ebner said.
“I think Bill understands rugby is a passion of mine and that’s where my background lies.”
Ebner was the youngest-ever US Sevens player at age 17 before going to Ohio State, where he split time with rugby and American football until he started his NFL career, never losing his love for rugby.
“Even though he will be away from our team during an important period of our off-season, he will still be getting excellent physical training,” Belichick said.
The Americans, who won gold when rugby was last played in the Olympics back in 1924, will be captained by Madison Hughes, the all-time US scoring leader in the IRB Sevens Series, and USA Sevens regulars Zack Test, Folau Niua, Danny Barrett, Garrett Bender and Maka Unufe.
Carlin Isles, dubbed “the fastest man in rugby,” and Perry Baker, the second-highest try-scorer from the 2015-16 series, are also featured along with Andrew Durutalo and Chris Wyles, who took the European Champions Cup and English Premiership double with Saracens this past season.
Meanwhile, China expect strong competition at next month’s Olympics from teams which have begun to better challenge their dominance in sports like badminton, state media said yesterday.
China topped the medals table at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and came second at the 2012 London Olympics behind the United States, where Chinese wins were celebrated with an outpouring of national pride, something likely to be repeated in Brazil.
Sports Minister Liu Peng said China’s delegation had to “keep a clear head, calmly analyse and correctly grasp the serious situation of the Rio Olympics ahead of us”, the official China Sports Daily reported.
The English-language newspaper said China will face a tougher time in Brazil to keep up their dominance in sports like gymnastics and badminton as other countries have improved their abilities.
“However, we should try our hardest to make progress in high-profile and mass popular events such as swimming, track and field and collective ball games in Rio, to inspire greater public participation in sports,” Liu said, according to the China Daily.
China will send 416 athletes to Rio de Janeiro next month, its largest overseas delegation in Olympic history.