RIO DE JANEIRO -- Kerri Walsh Jennings beat the Chinese in Beijing, winning one of her three Olympic beach volleyball gold medals in 2008 in front of a crowd rooting hard for the hometown opponents.That doesnt come close to what she can expect when the 2016 tournament begins on Saturday at Rio de Janeiros Copacabana Beach.The fact that were in one of the Meccas of beach volleyball -- beach volleyballs second to football there -- thats nuts. Its going to be awesome, Walsh Jennings said recently as she prepared to attend her fifth Olympic Games. The whole tournaments going to be intense.A five-time Olympian with three gold medals, Walsh Jennings is rarely an underdog when she steps on the sand. But with a new partner, the remnants of a shoulder injury and an advancing age -- shes 37 -- Walsh Jennings could be facing her toughest challenge yet.Two Brazilian pairs enter the tournament as the top two seeds, including Agatha and Barbara, who are the defending world champions. The women on Brazils other team, Larissa and Talita, have won Olympic medals, though not together.I want to beat the best. I want to be in the gold medal match playing against the best, said Walsh Jennings, who is now teamed with April Ross after Misty May-Treanor retired. I dont care what country theyre from. But yeah, the dream is to play the best. The past couple of years Brazil has certainly been the best, but Im prepared mentally to play anybody.Beach volleyball is a lifestyle in Brazil, and Copacabana Beach has been called the sports spiritual home.Outside the competition venue, locals play before dipping into the ocean to cool off. A few blocks from the temporary stadium, the International Volleyball Federation cut the ribbon on a Volleyball House -- a renovated school that will be used during the Olympics as a meeting place and then turned back over to the school when the games are over.On Friday, as organizers prepared for the start of the competition, fans were lining up for tickets outside the venue.So when the matches begin Saturday, the venue is expected to be filled with locals who know and love the sport -- and want to see the hometown players win.That does make it exciting, to have the crowd for the team youre playing, Ross said during one of the tournaments leading to the Olympics. It makes you feel like the bad guy a little bit. But thats fun. I think I look forward to that.Not everyone thinks the crowd will work in the Brazilians favor, though.Lauren Fendrick, who partners with Brooke Sweat on the other U.S. team, wondered whether the expectations to win at home would be too much for the Brazilians.Its going to be a lot of pressure on everybody, she said. But its an opportunity to show what youve been working toward all season, all career.Nike Vapormax Pas Cher Zalando . Dallas hasnt ruled out the star quarterback for Sunday nights game against Philadelphia, but all signs point to Romos back injury pushing Kyle Orton into the starting role after two years of limited play as the backup. Surely Ortons name isnt the first that comes to mind for fans wanting a change after years of damaging interceptions, fumbles or, most infamously, the field goal flub when Romo dropped the snap on a kick that could have won his first playoff game in 2006. 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"We talked about wanting to be disciplined and stick with our game plan and good things will come," Draisaitl said, who had two goals for the victors.On Tuesday morning, a day after the Philadelphia 76ers announced that they were buying two esports teams, Golden State Warriors co-owner Peter Guber and Washington Wizards and Capitals owner Ted Leonsis announced they were forming aXiomatic and would be the new owners of esports franchise Team Liquid, which employs more than 50 players on teams in 10 esports disciplines.Investors in the deal include big names in sports, entertainment and business including Magic Johnson and Lon Rosen, Tony Robbins and Steve Case.We sat down with Guber and Leonsis hours after the announcement to talk about their deal, and why they made the leap.Darren: When did you guys start to understand that you wanted to get into the esports space?Guber: Ted and I are in the audience business, and what we saw was a huge audience in the amount of people that were watching esports, playing esports and buying the accoutrements. It wasnt too difficult to realize that this was a real opportunity. Ted had already invested in these types of things, and so we got together at the NBA Tech Summit to aggressively pursue this.Leonsis: AOL was actually founded as Quantum Computer Corporation, and its mission was to connect power Atari users. Im not joking. So when I sold my company to AOL in 1992, 1993, what they had was the biggest network of power Atari users. Over the years, I starting investing in this area. I bought a company called World Play from AT&T and a company called Ubique that could put graphics and sponsorships in games. And then Im a dad of a son who is heavy into gaming. On a recent vacation, my wife was reading magazines, I was reading a book, my sons fiancée was reading business reports and my 28-year-old son was destroying aliens.Darren: It seems like there are people who are into esports and then there are people who dont get it and dont care to get it.Leonsis: Ive come to understand that esports can reach a large swath of people from 7 to 35 years old. But it also can be a generational thing. When I was a kid, I would go upstairs, and my parents were watching The Lawrence Welk Show. I would watch that for two minutes and then go listen to the Beatles, and my mom would want to know who this Mickey Jagger I was listening to.Darren: There seems to be a bit of a risk in investing in this space, in that its just not well established at this point, and the rules arent completely fleshed out. Why did you decide it was right to get in?Guber: The biggest risk is taking no risk.dddddddddddd The bottom line is these are not the cord cutters we are dealing with. They are the cord neverers. And the opportunity this presents for us in the enterprise business and the sports entertainment business is to use this space to interact with these people. So maybe theres some anxiety about the Wild-West nature of it, but then theres some comfort in knowing you have experience in owning venues and teams in various leagues, that we have the knowledge of best practices and that language still works in this world. Its just impossible to impossible this space.Leonsis: Theres that famous line, No one knows nothing about everything. So the idea was to get going and get a really eclectic group of smart people together and for us to put our light touch on this with people who have a lot of influence. And hopefully with that, help to uplift the game, which then could lead to a better revenue model, which leads to players get paid more. The business is still so untapped from a merchandising and licensing standpoint, even from a training standpoint. At least with this, we get a seat at the table early on in a world where kids are getting their first iPads at three and their first iPhones at 6 and 7.Darren: When I tweet out esports news, I get tons of responses slamming esports: how its not real, its a joke, its for losers. I can go on and on. Why do you feel like those who arent engaged in it express such negativity about it?Guber: Its called FEAR -- False Evidence Appearing Real. They are doing it because instead of being curious, they are being critical. Why wouldnt a guy like Ted Leonsis take a shot at something like this? The truth is, its not even that early in the life cycle. Not only is the horse out of the barn here, esports is running in the Kentucky Derby.Darren: What does it do that all these people from mainstream sports are coming over to esports?Leonsis: I think it gives esports more of a mainstream legitimacy. There are talented people in this industry, and we will learn from them, and they will learn from us. We understand how to negotiate a CBA and naming rights, and how to sell media content to major networks. So we all add value, but so many people in this industry built this from scratch without us. ' ' '
