Liu Ailing
Liu Ailing (; born 2 May 1967) is a Chinese former footballer who played for the China national team at the 1991, 1995 and 1999 editions of the FIFA Women's World Cup. She won a silver medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and participated at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. A playmaking midfielder, she played professional club football in Japan and the United States. Club career Born in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, Liu excelled in basketball and athletics but did not play football until she was 17 years old. Her parents were initially reluctant to let her play what they saw as a masculine sport. In 1994 Liu joined Japanese second tier club Tasaki Perule FC. She helped win promotion in her first season and remained with the club until 1997. At the 2000 WUSA Draft, Liu was selected by Philadelphia Charge in the first round, second overall behind compatriot Sun Wen. In the United States Liu experienced a culture shock; she bought only raw fruit and vegetables from the supermarket as in Chin ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Liu (surname)
/ ( or ) is an East Asian surname. pinyin: in Mandarin Chinese, in Cantonese. It is the family name of the Han dynasty emperors. The character originally meant 'kill', but is now used only as a surname. It is listed 252nd in the classic text Hundred Family Surnames. Today, it is the 4th most common surname in Mainland China as well as one of the most common surnames in the world. Distribution In 2019 劉 was the fourth most common surname in Mainland China. Additionally, it was the most common surname in Jiangxi province. In 2013 it was found to be the 5th most common surname, shared by 67,700,000 people or 5.1% of the population, with the province with the most people being Shandong.中国四百大姓, 袁义达, 邱家儒, Beijing Book Co. Inc., 1 January 2013 Origin One source is that they descend from the Qí (祁) clan of Emperor Yao. For example the founding emperor of the Han dynasty (one of China's golden ages), Liu Bang ( Emperor Gaozu of Han) was a descendant o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Professional Sports
In professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, participants receive payment for their performance. Professionalism in sport has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larger audiences, so that sports organizations or teams can command large incomes. As a result, more sportspeople can afford to make sport their primary career, devoting the training time necessary to increase skills, physical condition, and experience to modern levels of achievement. This proficiency has also helped boost the popularity of sports.Andy Miah Sport & the Extreme Spectacle: Technological Dependence and Human Limits' (PDF) Unpublished manuscript, 1998 In most sports played professionally there are many more amateur than professional players, though amateurs and professionals do not usually compete. History Baseball Baseball originated before the American Civil War (1861–1865). First played on sandlots in particular, scoring ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Philadelphia Inquirer
''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey, Delaware, and the northern Eastern Shore of Maryland, and the 17th largest in the United States as of 2017. Founded on June 1, 1829 as ''The Pennsylvania Inquirer'', the newspaper is the third longest continuously operating daily newspaper in the nation. It has won 20 Pulitzer Prizes . ''The Inquirer'' first became a major newspaper during the American Civil War. The paper's circulation dropped after the Civil War's conclusion but then rose again by the end of the 19th century. Originally supportive of the Democratic Party, ''The Inquirers political orientation eventually shifted toward the Whig Party and then the Republican Party before officially becoming politically independent in the middle of the 20th cen ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2002 WUSA Season
The 2002 Women's United Soccer Association season was the second season for WUSA, the top level professional women's soccer league in the United States. The regular season began on April 13 and ended on August 11. The playoffs began on August 17, with the championship match between played on August 24 between the Carolina Courage and the Washington Freedom. Changes from 2001 Prior to the season the Bay Area CyberRays, the champions in the previous season, changed their name to the San Jose CyberRays All-Star Game The WUSA All-Star game was played for the first time after the completion of the 2002 season, with the South squad defeating the North 6–1 in front of 14,208 spectators at PGE Park in Portland, Oregon. Rookie Abby Wambach of the Washington Freedom was awarded the game MVP after scoring twice. Competition format *The regular season began on April 13 and ended on August 11. *Each team played a total of 21 games, three against each opponent (either twice at home ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Women's United Soccer Association
The Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) was the world's first Women's association football, women's soccer league in which all the players were paid as professionals. Founded in February 2000 in sports, 2000, the league began its first season in April 2001 in sports, 2001 with eight teams in the United States. The league suspended operations on September 15, 2003, shortly after the end of its third season, after making cumulative losses of around US$100 million. History Establishment As a result of the United States women's national soccer team, US women's national team's (USWNT) first-place showing in the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup, a seemingly viable market for the sport germinated. Feeding on the momentum of their victory, the twenty USWNT players, in partnership with John Hendricks of the Discovery Channel, sought out the investors, markets, and players necessary to form the eight-team league. The twenty founding players were Michelle Akers, Brandi Chastain, Tracy ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mark Krikorian (soccer)
Mark Krikorian (born March 28, 1960) is an American sports executive and former soccer coach who is president of soccer operations and general manager of Washington Spirit. A long-time college soccer coach, Krikorian is most well known being the head coach for the Florida State Seminoles women's soccer team from 2005 until his abrupt retirement from coaching in 2022. In 2014, Krikorian led the Florida State Seminoles women's soccer team to their first NCAA Women's Soccer Championship, where they defeated the Virginia Cavaliers 1-0. Krikorian previously coached at Franklin Pierce University and the University of Hartford. Krikorian also served as head coach of Philadelphia Charge of the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA), which ran for three seasons from 2001 until 2003. He was named WUSA Coach of the Year in 2002. In 2004, Krikorian coached the United States women's under-19 team to the 2004 FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship in Thailand. Collegiate coaching record ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Coach (sports)
A sports coach is a person coaching in sport, involved in the direction, instruction and training of a sports team or athlete. History The original sense of the word ''coach'' is that of a horse-drawn carriage, deriving ultimately from the Hungarian city of Kocs where such vehicles were first made. Students at the University of Oxford in the early nineteenth century used the slang word to refer to a private tutor who would drive a less able student through his examinations just like horse driving. Britain took the lead in upgrading the status of sports in the 19th century. For sports to become professionalized, "coacher" had to become established. It gradually professionalized in the Victorian era and the role was well established by 1914. In the First World War, military units sought out the coaches to supervise physical conditioning and develop morale-building teams. Effectiveness John Wooden had a philosophy of coaching that encouraged planning, organization, and understa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2001 WUSA Season
The 2001 Women's United Soccer Association season served as the inaugural season for WUSA, the top level professional women's soccer league in the United States. The regular season began on April 14 and ended on August 12, with the postseason games being held on August 18 and August 25. Attendance figures were high for the first season, particularly early in the season, though not near the levels organizers were expecting based on the attendance for the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup. The league spent its initial $40m budget, intended to last five years, in just this first season. Competition format *The season began on April 14 and ended on August 12. *Each team played a total of 21 games, three against each opponent (either twice at home and once away or vice versa). This caused an uneven schedule with teams hosting either 10 or 11 home games each. *The four teams with the most points from the regular season qualified for the playoffs. The regular season champions and runners-u ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Knight Ridder
Knight Ridder was an American media company, specializing in newspaper and Internet publishing. Until it was bought by McClatchy on June 27, 2006, it was the second largest newspaper publisher in the United States, with 32 daily newspaper brands sold. Its headquarters were located in San Jose, California. History Origins The corporate ancestors of Knight Ridder were Knight Newspapers, Inc. and Ridder Publications, Inc. The first company was founded by John S. Knight upon inheriting control of the '' Akron Beacon Journal'' from his father, Charles Landon Knight, in 1933; the second company was founded by Herman Ridder when he acquired the , a German language newspaper, in 1892. As anti-German sentiment increased in the interwar period, Ridder successfully transitioned into English language publishing by acquiring ''The Journal of Commerce'' in 1926. Both companies went public in 1969 and merged on July 11, 1974. For a brief time, the combined company was the largest newspaper p ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Culture Shock
Culture shock is an experience a person may have when one moves to a cultural environment which is different from one's own; it is also the personal disorientation a person may feel when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life due to immigration or a visit to a new country, a move between social environments, or simply transition to another type of life. One of the most common causes of culture shock involves individuals in a foreign environment. Culture shock can be described as consisting of at least one of four distinct phases: honeymoon, negotiation, adjustment, and adaptation. Common problems include: information overloads, language barrier, generation gap, technology gap, skill interdependence, formulation dependency, homesickness (cultural), boredom (job dependency), ethnicity, race, skin color, response ability ( cultural skill set). There is no true way to entirely prevent culture shock, as individuals in any society are personally affected by cultural contrasts differen ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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People's Daily
The ''People's Daily'' () is the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The newspaper provides direct information on the policies and viewpoints of the CCP. In addition to its main Chinese-language edition, the ''People's Daily'' is published in multiple languages. History The paper was established on 15 June 1948 and was published in Pingshan, Hebei, until its offices were moved to Beijing in March 1949. Ever since its founding, the ''People's Daily'' has been under direct control of the CCP's top leadership. Deng Tuo and Wu Lengxi served as editor-in-chief from 1948 to 1958 and 1958–1966, respectively, but the paper was in fact controlled by Mao Zedong's personal secretary Hu Qiaomu. During the Cultural Revolution, the ''People's Daily'' was one of the few sources of information from which either foreigners or Chinese could figure out what the Chinese government was doing or planning to do. During this period, an editorial in t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sun Wen (footballer)
Sun Wen (; born April 6, 1973) is a Chinese former professional footballer who played as a forward. She previously captained the China national team and the Atlanta Beat of the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA). In 2000, she won the FIFA Female Player of the Century along with Michelle Akers. Sun won both the Golden Ball (top player) and Golden Boot (top scorer) for her performance at the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup. She is considered one of the all-time greats of the women's game. Early life Sun began playing football around the age of ten. Her father, Sun Zonggao, was a recreational football player who took Sun with him to watch matches in the Chinese men's league. Sun credits him for influencing her foray into the sport. Sun studied Chinese literature at the University of Shanghai. Playing career Club Shanghai SVA Sun played for the Shanghai team in the Chinese women's league. Atlanta Beat Sun played for the Atlanta Beat of the Women's United Soccer ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |