导出博客文章JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia -- At a crucial moment in my early 20s, my life was saved consecutively by God, family and basketball.
Grant Hill Jersey .Yes, basketball.In Saudi Arabia, Im not alone. In a country rich in tradition and filled with faith, women are making historic progress on the athletic fields (and courts).Saudi sportswomen are on the verge of a historic breakthrough, similar to what our American sisters achieved more than four decades ago, when Title IX prohibited gender discrimination in college and high school athletics.The country will send its second delegation of female athletes to the Rio Olympics. As women break barriers in sports, more of us are also working and running businesses, graduating from and teaching at universities, and running for and serving in public office.These success stories may be surprising to many for whom Saudi Arabia remains one of the most misunderstood nations on earth. When I recently visited the United States as part of the delegation accompanying Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman -- the architect of many social and economic reforms -- many Americans were surprised that a Saudi woman could hold a career in business and sports.My own story speaks volumes about a changing Saudi Arabia. Ive been playing basketball since I was a child and captained my high school basketball team. My uncle was my coach, and, when our families got together, either at home or by the beach, my sister, brothers, cousins and I would play for hours on end.I came to the United States for college, at the University of New Mexico and George Mason. I studied hard on weekdays and played pickup basketball on weekends.After graduating in 2000, I went back to Saudi Arabia, got married and had my first child -- a daughter. Then I suffered from postpartum depression.Looking for ways to restore my spirits, I prayed.?And I played basketball.After 90 minutes of basketball, I would feel energized again. Thats why I say I was saved by God, family and basketball.As my life continued to revolve around my faith, my family and basketball, my mother finally asked me, What are you going to do with your life? My masters in psychology helped me see that physical activity served as an antidepressant that could help countless others.So I decided to pursue my passion, basketball, as a career, with the support of a sturdy family backbone -- including the strong female role models of my mother and grandmother. But it was the supportive men in my family -- my father, husband, brothers and uncles -- who were the ones who kept pushing me to pursue my passion when it was controversial in some segments of Saudi society.I founded the Jeddah United womens basketball team, and various divisions that mushroomed from it, as well as the Jeddah United Sports Company, which runs teams in co-ed sports. Thousands of Saudi women and children have participated in our leagues, tournaments and clinics.These ventures are opening new vistas for Saudi women at home and abroad. In 2006, when we first sought a license for the company, womens sports were a taboo topic in the Kingdom, so we obtained the permit through the Ministry of Commerce, not through the government authority for sports.Our womens basketball team played games around the world, including the United States, Malaysia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and the Maldives. We tried to change these countries views of Saudi Arabia while introducing our players to a wider world beyond.Seeing our success, our efforts were endorsed by the Ministry of Health in emphasizing the importance of exercise for women in order to reduce obesity, diabetes, psychological stress and even the risk of breast cancer.Now, our goals include creating an official Saudi Womens National Basketball Team that will compete in future international competitions -- including the Olympics.Meanwhile, Saudi sportswomens accomplishments are encouraging women to expand their participation in other areas of national life, as envisioned by our countrys Vision 2030 and the National Transformation Program.These plans call for diversifying our economy from oil, growing new industries and increasing employment in the private sector. In order to achieve all these goals, Saudi women will need to play a greater role in our economy and our entire society.Already, women comprise a majority of the students in colleges and universities in Saudi Arabia, with more than 15,000 female faculty members teaching at these institutions. Womens participation in the workforce has increased by 48 percent in the last five years, and we now own more than 70,000 businesses in our capital city of Riyadh alone.We are getting and keeping new and better jobs in industries and occupations from retail, hospitality and healthcare to journalism and the law. And, in government, there are now 30 women serving in the Saudi Shura (the highest Consultative Council to the King), as well as 20 women in local councils.Basketball helped me become a stronger and healthier woman, and sportswomen will make Saudi Arabia a stronger and healthier country.Lina Al Maeena is the founder of the Jeddah United womens basketball team and the Jeddah United Sports Company. She was named one of the 200 Most Powerful Arab Women by Forbes.
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http://www.cheapmagicjerseys.com/?tag=cheap-aaron-gordon-jersey . This should be celebrated because it will not always be this way. With the amount of money given to players by their clubs these days, it is a wonder that so many of those teams allow the sport to continue to take away many of their assets so they can play for a different team in the middle of their season. RIO DE JANEIRO -- Olympic medals are what happen when youre making other plans. Just ask Maya DiRado, who completed a walk-off grand slam Friday night with one last windmill stroke to beat Hungarys Katinka Hosszu by a touch for the gold medal in the 200-meter backstroke.DiRados line in her final box score: A perfect 4-for-4 with medals in each race she entered. Her meet was a success before she jumped into the water and tucked for the start. It was impressive enough that shed collected a silver in the 400 individual medley, a bronze in the 200 IM, and helped win the 800 freestyle relay -- her first relay final in a major international meet -- by keeping pace with her Australian counterpart in the third leg.Thought clearly preceded action for DiRado, who is retiring while she is ahead and will start a job with a management consulting firm next month. But her mind went blank as she fought to gain on Hosszu in the last few meters of Fridays race. DiRado felt her tempo slowing and her legs seizing up.In the practice pool area, newly-minted 100 freestyle gold medalist Simone Manuel, who trains with DiRado at Stanford University, paused in her preparations for the 50 free semifinals to pogo up and down, briefly losing her voice.That wasnt a problem inside the Olympic Aquatic Stadium where the decibel level spiked at the sight of DiRado pulling even.I heard the crowd getting louder and louder and louder, so I knew we were neck-and-neck, DiRado said. Then I hit the wall and looked up. It took me a little bit to process it, and then I looked at the blocks and saw the one dot (light). I dont know, its still hitting me. She paused, her throat constricted with emotion.DiRado didnt just reach for the wall. She whacked it, breaking a fingernail, a fitting metaphor for a race that was decided by .06 seconds.In an era when so many Olympic swimmers are prolonging their careers, wrestling with the ideal time to exit and understandably often changing their minds, the most striking thing about DiRado over the last few weeks has been her absolute and entirely believable conviction that shes right to leave the sport behind at age 23.
Shaquille ONeal Jersey. She swam with controlled abandon at the U.S. Olympic trials and won three events. Once in Rio, DiRado continued to confirm her intentions after each success. Rather than draining her, talking about the end in sight seemed to carve weight from her shoulder blades. She gave off the settled air of someone who had fully explored the edges of her own envelope.Friday, DiRado noted each little last thing about her pre-race ritual with proper competitive grief and cried as she wrote her parents a thank-you note.Who doesnt want to end an important phase of life on the right note? The beauty of DiRados attitude was that she appeared to be willing to accept that note could be a sharp or a flat as long as she kept her own rhythm.DiRado said shell give one of her medals to her parents and leave one behind at Stanford University, where coaches Greg Meehan and Tracy Duchac encouraged her to be flexible about her plans as she kept surprising herself with her improvement.Im sort of at a loss, said Meehan, who is in Rio as a U.S. team assistant. It was the perfect race to end the perfect meet, and to have that be the last race of her life, are you kidding me? You couldnt script it any better.He anticipated what was next. Wouldnt it be tempting to see how much better she could get? Meehan was shaking his head before the breath was out of the question.No, he said, his eyes welling. I will miss her. Coaching her has been perhaps the greatest single privilege in my professional career and I will miss the relationship with her, the partnership, but no way. Not after that. You walk away and you just enjoy. ' ' '
