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Nacho Figueras: The Face of Polo & Pop
E:60 (Tuesday, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN)
He is Nacho Figueras, a world-class athlete in one of the world’s most dangerous sports and he is making a huge splash in the pop culture spotlight. A world-class polo player, he found fame as the face of Ralph Lauren’s Polo brand, which has propelled him and his sport into the world of fashion and celebrity. But he’s not just a pretty face. E:60‘s Rachel Nichols takes an all-access look at one of the world’s hottest athletes and some of the surprising things sports fans should know about him.
Maria Sharapova and Chernobyl
E:60 (Tuesday, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN)
Maria Sharapova’s parents lived less than 100 miles from Chernobyl, and fearing radioactive fallout from the worst nuclear reactor explosion in history moved to Siberia five months before Maria was born in 1985. For the first time in more than a decade, she returns to the place that was once her family’s home in Gomel, Belarus, and in an E:60 exclusive, Rachel Nichols joins the three-time Grand Slam Champion on her journey back.
The Path Not Taken: Pau Gasol, M.D.
SportsCenter (Sunday, 10 a.m., 11 p.m. ESPN)
The Sporting Life with Jeremy Schaap (7 p.m. Friday, ESPN Radio)
In 1991, Pau Gasol was an 11-year-old Barcelona schoolboy when he heard the news that his hero, Magic Johnson, had HIV. Shaken, he decided he wanted to become a doctor and find the cure for AIDS. At age 18, Gasol entered medical school, but having grown to 7 feet, he dropped out to pursue basketball, and has now helped lead the Los Angeles Lakers to back-to-back NBA titles. Gasol has remained curious about medicine, and just days after this year’s NBA Finals he was able to observe a major spinal operation at Children’s Hospital in L.A. The day was both cathartic and overwhelming for him. Tom Friend has the story.
“I think he looks upon being a doctor and a surgeon as the path not taken. He clearly is one of us.” – Dr. David Skaggs, Chief of Orthopedic Surgery at Children’s Hospital, Los Angeles, on Pau Gasol’s interest in medicine
“The most interesting part was to be able to go to the lab, work with cadavers, discover the human body as it is. I wanted to give it a try. But at the same time, I was also playing basketball and getting good at it. I went through the first year and I had to make a decision, and I chose basketball because I thought if it didn’t work I could always go back to medicine.” — Gasol
“I was wandering around school and just thinking about it — just wow, one of my idols has HIV. He’s going to die. I wanted to find the cure. I wanted to be able to find the cure for major sicknesses.” — Gasol, on hearing the news that Magic Johnson had HIV
All-Access Weekend with Juan Pablo Montoya
ESPN Deportes SportsCenter (Sunday, 11 p.m.)
ESPNDeportes.com (Reportajes Especiales piece)
Although Sprint Cup Series driver Juan Pablo Montoya put an end to a 113-race winless streak last week at Watkins Glen, the win did little to improve his chances of making the Chase. Now, all that is left for the Colombian-born driver is to race for pride. Montoya, with just two victories in four full NASCAR seasons, indicates he takes no heed of his critics in an all-access race weekend at Talladega, where he won his first race.
