After Paris St. Germain’s win over Olympique de Marseille in the Coupe de France final, Paris Mayor ANNE HIDALGO presented PSG striker ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC with the Medal of the City of Paris. Ibrahimovic, whose contract with the Paris club is up at the end of this season, won 12 trophies and scored 156 goals in his four years with PSG. Hidalgo assured the Swede that he will forever be Parisian (PSG). ... Arsenal Manager ARSÈNE WENGER visited Alsace to inaugurate the “Stade Arène Wenger” in Duppigheim, France. Wenger has been honored in the region “where he grew up by having a new stadium named after him.” The stadium, built in the village of Duppigheim, seats 500. Wenger said, “It’s an honor. I’m a little surprised” (METRO, 5/22). ... The Spanish Sailing Federation said that Olympic champion FERNANDO ECHAVARRI, world and European champion TARA PACHECO and trainer SANTI LOPEZ-VAZQUEZ were robbed at gunpoint in Rio de Janeiro, but "fortunately they did not suffer personal injury." The Nacra 17 catamaran class sailors were in Santa Teresa when "they were confronted by five people armed with two pistols." Rio's tourism police said that a "bag of money, documents and a camera were taken in the incident" (SAIL WEB, 5/21). ... A Belgian "whose older brother was one of the suicide bombers in the terror attacks on Brussels has won gold at the European Taekwondo Championships." MOURAD LAACHRAOUI, brother of NAJIM LAACHRAOUI, won the -54kg final in Montreux, Switzerland on Thursday. The 21-year-old, who will compete at Rio 2016, has said that he was "scared and saddened" by his brother's role in the attack on the Belgian capital in March (BBC, 5/20). ... Former France int'l DAVID GINOLA is recovering in a hospital in Monaco "after a quadruple heart bypass operation." The 49-year-old former Newcastle, Tottenham, Aston Villa and Everton player, who retired in '02, "collapsed in the south of France on Thursday." His surgeon, speaking with authority of the family, said that Ginola was "extremely lucky" to be alive (BBC, 5/20).
OLYMPIC CHAMPION PASSES AWAY: The world's oldest Olympic champion,
SANDOR TARICS, died aged 102 in San Francisco, the Hungarian Olympic Committee (MOB) said on its website on Saturday, "citing information from the family." Tarics was a member of the Hungarian waterpolo team "which won in the Berlin Olympics staged by the Nazi government in 1936, pushing Germany into second place." He left Soviet-occupied Hungary to settle in the U.S. in '49 and "earned fame in his new home country as a designer of earthquake-proof building technologies" (
REUTERS, 5/21).
ON-COURT BEHAVIOR: Tennis coach AMELIE MAURESMO has "indicated ANDY MURRAY's behaviour on court played a big part in their split." Murray and Mauresmo announced a "mutual" end to their partnership earlier in May. Mauresmo's "reluctance to commit as much time to coaching" the world No. 2 following the birth of her son was cited as the "main factor but it is now clear there was more to it." Murray's tendency to "direct frustration at his support camp during matches is a habit he has been unable to break." Mauresmo: "Andy is complex. On the court, he can be the opposite of what he is in life. It can be confusing. I was there to help. I had the feeling I could not get things done. I had the impression we got to the end of what could be done professionally" (HERALD SCOTLAND, 5/21).
