Features Archives - ELTASZONE

Shohei Ohtani Is An Icon Among Us

EltasZone

by el-admin - March 19, 2024 015

Part 1: The Gloves Pure joy. The peal of wedding bells. The spring sonata of a songbird. And this. Elementary schoolchildren at play. Shohei Ohtani is listening to and watching them smile and shriek in the delight that only the innocence and wonder of youth allow. The world

Sergiy Stakhovsky’s Turn to Serve

by el-admin - February 2, 2024 068

In mid-January 2022, Sergiy Stakhovsky announced he was retiring from professional tennis. The news did not make many headlines. Stakhovsky had carved out a nice career as a mid-tier player. He’d peaked at No. 31 in the world rankings and had been consistently one of the top men’s players in

Michigan and Washington’s Success Defies Recruiting Logic

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by el-admin - January 7, 2024 024

For the recruiting industry, the College Football Playoff championship game matchup of the Michigan Wolverines and Washington Huskies on Monday night represents a bit of a crisis. The Wolverines and Huskies shouldn’t be here. This doesn’t compute. The established formulas for projecting how good recruits will be—and how many of them

Why Fletcher Cox Keeps Coming Back

by el-admin - December 28, 2023 028

The mainstay is still there, same as always, same team and same place, in the front and in the middle of the Philadelphia Eagles’ defense. For 187 games and 181 starts at defensive tackle (with a cameo, for three seasons, at defensive end), Fletcher Cox has added consistency to a

23 for ‘23: Nikola Jokić Is One of a Kind

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by el-admin - December 28, 2023 035

There is nobody in the NBA like Nikola Jokić. He loves harness racing yet seems blasé about basketball. After winning the Finals in June he bemoaned having to stay in Denver for the parade, and he likened his dominance to eating ice cream 10 days in a row—as in, even things

Mikaela Shiffrin Was the People’s Champion in 2023

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by el-admin - December 26, 2023 025

Mikaela Shiffrin claimed skiing’s all-time World Cup wins record for herself this year, but, being Mikaela Shiffrin, she is probably looking into ways she can share it. Shiffrin is the most accomplished of skiers and rarest of superstars: As incomparable as she is on the slopes, she seems to go

23 for ’23: Brittney Griner’s Journey Back to Normal

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by el-admin - December 22, 2023 025

Brittney Griner’s news story seemed to conclude in 2022, and her full personal story will not be told for several years. But ’23 was so much more than a bridge. It was a test of her spirit and will. It affirmed her standing in a sport that embraced her and

Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese Brought Championship-Level Trash Talk to 2023

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by el-admin - December 20, 2023 044

To those who paid attention to women’s basketball for the first time in March: It is never like this, but it is also always like this. There has never been a player like Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, who has a seemingly endless array of ways to get a bucket. But the feisty

Rockets’ Dillon Brooks Doesn’t Mind Being an NBA Villain

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by el-admin - November 16, 2023 061

Call him a villain. Dillon Brooks doesn’t care. Say he’s arrogant, a bully, toxic to a team. He’s heard it, read it, doesn’t think much of it. “Everyone wants to hate on something,” says Brooks. Say he’s the reason for the Grizzlies’ first-round elimination from the playoffs last April, because early in

Tyson Fury Just Wants to Win. Period.

by el-admin - October 27, 2023 032

Since 2015, when Tyson Fury unseated Wladimir Klitschko as boxing’s top heavyweight, his career has been a roller coaster. He retired. He came back. He retired again. He experienced depression, shot up to 400 pounds and contemplated suicide. Mixed in, he reclaimed a piece of the heavyweight title, became an