BIRTHDAY - Today, it is exactly 16 years ago that the Infostrada Sports Group officially started as a company. What started out as a project involving a Tour de France Fantasy Game has evolved into an international enterprise that, among other achievements, has been the official data supplier for four different Summer Olympic Games. What started with two people, is a company employing some 150 people today.
BASEBALL - Roger Clemens is 50 years old today. One of the most dominant pitchers in the history of baseball. Clemens won an unparallelled seven Cy Young Awards, presented annually to the most outstanding pitchers in the game. “The Rocket” tallied 354 career wins, whilst striking out 4,672 batters. An 11-time All-Star, Clemens won two World Series titles playing for the New York Yankees.
Shares birthday with: Louis Vuitton, Billy Bob Thornton, Barack Obama
SWIMMING - Ryan Lochte is 28 years old today. He is one of the most successful participants in the London 2012 Olympic Games and also the most popular in social media. Lochte is a jack-of-all-trades in the swimming pool, making him a master in the medleys. However, he is also a formidable competitor in backstroke and freestyle.
Shares birthday with: Terry Wogan, Martin Sheen, James Hetfield
FOOTBALL - Mohamed Al-Deayea is 40 years old. The stalwart goalkeeper for the Saudi Arabia national team accumulated 178 career caps in an international career ranging from 1993 to 2006. Al-Deayea shared the record most international matches with Mexico’s Claudio Suárez for years, until the two were overtaken by Egypt’s Ahmed Hassan.
Shares birthday with: Peter O’Toole, Wes Craven, Isabel Allende
FOOTBALL - Nwankwo Kanu is 36 years old today. He is one of the most successful football players from Nigeria, helping his country win a gold medal at the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games. His list of honours is stacked, with among others the Champions League with Ajax, Premier League titles with Arsenal and the UEFA Cup with Internazionale.
Shares birthday with: Yves Saint-Laurent, Chuck D, Adam Duritz
TENNIS - Evonne Goolagong is 61 years old today. One of the dominant players of the 1970s, Goolagong is a former world number one and a winner of seven career Grand Slam titles. She reached the final of the US Open on four occasions, but the career Grand Slam somehow eluded her. She retired in 1983, with 68 singles titles to her name.
Shares birthday with: Louis de Funès, Wesley Snipes, J.K. Rowling
ATHLETICS - Daley Thompson is 54 years old. The Decathlon is by many considered to be the event that produces the ultimate athlete and that assumption would make Thompson just that. The charismatic Briton stayed undefeated in the event for eight years (1979-1987), winning gold medals in the 1980 and 1984 Olympic Games.
Shares birthday with: Emily Brontë, Henry Ford, Arnold Schwarzenegger
FORMULA 1 - Fernando Alonso is 31 years old today. The current leader in the drivers’ championship of the 2012 Formula 1 season, is one of only five drivers to have won at least 30 career Grands Prix. He is a two-time former world champion (2005, 2006). He won his first drivers’ title at 24, making him the (then) youngest world champion in F1 history.
Shares birthday with: Dag Hammarskjöld, Patti Scialfa, Stephen Dorff
CRICKET - Gary Sobers is 76 years old today. set the highest score for a Test match innings in the 1950s, and 10 years later became the first player ever to hit six sixes from a first class over. The greatest allrounder ever to play the game, Gary Sobers was equally adept at all aspects of his cricket. He was an elegant batsman, a versatile bowler, a peerless close catcher and a brilliant fielder wherever he happened to be placed on the field.
Shares birthday with: Karl Popper, Jacqueline Onassis, Manu Ginobili
BASEBALL - Alex Rodriguez is 37 years old today. One of the highest profile players in Major League Baseball, Rodriguez is a 14-time All-Star, having hit more than 640 career home runs and having produced close to 2,000 RBIs. He has previously played for the Seattle Mariners and the Texas Rangers. Since 2004, he has played for the New York Yankees, winning the World Series with the Bronx Bombers in 2009.
Shares birthday with: Yahoo Serious, José Luis Chilavert, Pete Yorn
FOOTBALL - Today, Maicon Douglas Sisenando, simply known as ‘Maicon’, is 31 years old. Considered one of the best fullbacks in today’s game, the Brazilian has won four Serie A titles and the Champions League with Internazionale, as well as the Copa América (twice) with Brazil. He was named after the famous American actor Michael Douglas.
Shares birthday with: Aldous Huxley, Stanley Kubrick, Mick Jagger
AMERICAN FOOTBALL - If he were alive, Walter Payton would be 58 years old today. One of the most feared running backs in NFL history, ‘The Sweetness’ conquered most rushing records, several of which he lost to other players later. He also won the Super Bowl representing the Chicago Bears, the team he played for throughout his NFL career. He died of a rare liver disease, aged only 45.
Shares birthday with: Elias Canetti, Joseph Kennedy, Matt LeBlanc
BASEBALL - Barry Bonds is 48 years old today. One of the most powerful sluggers in the history of the Major League, Bonds actually emerged as the ideal hybrid between speed and power, recording one of the very few 40-40 seasons, in which a player belts 40+ home runs and steals 40+ bases. His subsequent home run records are well documented: a single season record 73 in 2001 helped establish the all-time record of 762. Shares birthday with: Amelia Earhart, Gus van Sant, Jennifer Lopez
ATHLETICS - Maurice Greene is 38 years old today. The “Kansas City Cannonball” was one of the most successful athletes of his time, the late nineties and the early noughties. Greene won the feature event of the Olympic Games, the Men’s 100m, in 2000 and also won a relay gold at the Sydney Games. Greene was also crowned world champion on five occasions, winning the 100m in three successive World Championships.
Shares birthday with: Woody Harrelson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Monica Lewinsky
ATHLETICS - Lasse Virén is 63 years old today. One of the greatest long distance runners in the history of the Olympic Games, Virén took the double in the 5000m and 10000m in both the Munich 1972 Olympic Games as the Montreal 1976 Olympic Games. He also entered the Marathon in 1976 to put the icing on the cake, however came only fifth. He later went into politics and is one of the most well known people of his country.
Shares birthday with: Edward Hopper, George Clinton, Don Henley
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