Governor dedicates park named for Jesse Owens
Gov. John Kasich, accompanied by two of Owens’ daughters, Marlene Owens Rankin and Beverly Owens Prather, said that achievements of “heroes” such as Owens should be preserved to inspire others to “overcome challenges and accomplish their very best.”
Owens was a world recordsetting sprinter at Ohio State University and won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. He died in 1980 at age 66.
“He’s one of my heroes,” Kasich said at the ceremony at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium in Columbus. “He jumped and he jumped and he jumped into glory and history,” Kasich said of Owens’ long-jump gold. “He sent a message to Hitler: He was not ever going to triumph.”
The governor personally chose to name the park after Owens, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
France’s Mbappe donating bonus of about $350,000
Teenage World Cup winner Kylian Mbappe is giving his bonus to an association that puts sports in the lives of hospitalized children.
The head of Premiers de Cordee (First in Line), Sebastien Ruffin, says two weeks before France clinched the World Cup he was informed that Mbappe would give the group his bonus if the team qualified for the quarterfinals.
French Football Federation chief Noel Le Graet confirmed in Sunday’s Journal du Dimanche that other associations also would benefit from the France forward’s largesse “about 300,000 euros ($350,000).”
Mbappe mentors the kids, and Ruffin said the player has “very good contact” with them: “I sometimes feel he gets more pleasure playing with kids than they do.”
Joshua title defense to be streamed on new service
Anthony Joshua’s heavyweight title defense against Alexander Povetkin will be aired on the streaming platform DAZN on Sept. 22 as part of the U.S. debut of the service, promoters announced Tuesday.
The fight will be the first of a promised 70 live events on the service over the next year that will be available at a charge of $9.99 a month. The shows will feature both fights and Bellator MMA fights, said James Rushton, the CEO of DAZN.
Joshua and Povetkin joined executives of the streaming company and Eddie Hearn, managing director of Matchroom Sport, to announce the debut telecast. Matchroom, which promotes Joshua, will provide fighters for the cards the company will stream.