MADRID Cheap Air Max 90 Red , April 26 (Xinhua) -- FC Barcelona have the difficult task of overcoming the death of former coach Tito Vilanova when they face Villarreal on Sunday night.
The 45-year-old Vilanova died on Friday after losing his two and a half year battle against cancer of the parotid gland. The death of the man who led Barca to last season's BBVA Primera Liga title has sent shockwaves through the club and through the football world in general.
Messages of sympathy have arrived from all over the world with nearly all of the Barcelona players making public their feelings for a man who had been a very popular figure in the dressing room.
"I have no words, you were an example and it was an honor to be part of your life," said Andres Iniesta, while young defender Marc Bartra commented the former coach had, "helped me to fulfil my dream. I will always have you in my head and in my heart."
Dani Alves commented that Vilanova had been "a great spirit, a great person and a great person full of dedication and will the fight."
Those players will now have to lift their head up on Sunday and try to dedicate a win to Vilanova in the El Madrigal stadium in order to keep Barcelona's title hopes alive. It won't be easy given that moments such as Vilanova's death serve to show that beyond the sometimes closed world of football, there is much more to life.
Coach Tata Martino, who stepped into the coaching role at Barca last summer, when Vilanova suffered a relapse of the cancer would finally kill him, has to get his players to focus on what is sure to be an emotive game.
The Spanish football league has asked all teams in the league to dedicate a minute's silence for Vilanova: a minute which will be especially emotive for the Barca side, where Bartra is likely to continue in defense alongside Javier Macherano and Pedro Rodriguez to accompany Cesc Fabrigas and Leo Messi, who showed signs of returning to form last week, in attack.
With Gerard Pique, Victor Valdes, Carles Puyol, Jordi Alba and Neymar out through injury, Martino's options are again limited on the playing front, but he will hope that the players who take to the pitch will this Sunday carry with them a special motivation: that of dedicating a win to Tito.
MEXICO CITY， July 98 (Xinhua) -- The 3rd Olympic Games， held in St. Louis， United States in 1904， unfortunately repeated all the same errors of the previous 1900 Games. Once again the international sporting event coincided with the World's Fair taking place in the same city and there were few noteworthy performances. There was also limited participation from international athletes.
Taking place between July 1 and November 23， 651 athletes (six women and 645 men) from 12 countries and regions participated in the Olympics held in the U.S. city of St. Louis， competing in 95 events.
The Games were incorporated into the St. Louis World's Fair (1904) and for that reason the organizers spread the various competitions out over four-and-a-half months.
Despite massive investment， the hosts had little success in attracting European athletes to the competition. Under 100 athletes came from outside of the United States and Canada.
The tradition of handing over gold， silver and bronze medals to the top three athletes in each sporting event began at the Games of the III Olympiad， as it is officially known.
Four new additions were also made to the competition schedule - boxing， freestyle wrestling， decathlon and a dumbbells event.
Basketball， hurling and baseball were included in the St. Louis Games but only as demonstration sports.
U.S. athlete Archie Hahn， known as the "Milwaukee Meteor，" won the 60， 100 and 200 meters on track and he set a new Olympic record in the final category with a time of 21.6 seconds. This record remained unbeaten for 28 years.
In the discus， Martin Sheridan and Ralph Rose， both from the United States， drew in the final as they both threw a distance of 39.28 meters. To decide the winner， the judges decided to give them both one more throw. Sheridan won the decider and the gold medal.
In gymnastics， the most remarkable athlete was Anton Heida from the U.S. who won five gold medals in the pommel horse， horizontal bar， long jump， vault， combined and team competition titles. He also came second in the parallel bars.
In the same sport， fellow U.S. gymnast George Eyser won six medals in one day - three gold medals in the team competition， parallel bars and rope climbing and two silver medals in vault and pommel horse and a bronze medal in the horizontal bar. Eyser achieved all this despite having a wooden prosthesis for a left leg.
Until 2008， Eyser was the only person with an artificial leg to have competed at the Olympic Games. In 2008， Natalie du Toit， a South African swimmer who lost her left leg in a traffic accident， participated in the 10km swimming marathon in Beijing and finished 16th.
Moving on to fencing， Cuba's Ramon Fonst， who competed and won one gold medal in Paris 1900， won three gold medals and later on competed in the 1924 Games， once again in Paris.
The St. Louis Games were also the first ones to look into doping. The first case related to stimulant substances involved athlete Thomas Hicks， the marathon winner， who had received several doses of strychnine sulfate (a common rat poison， which stimulates the nervous system in small doses) from his trainers.
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