Posted by Cubicle QB
Sperm U — Kids today are competing in organized sports at younger ages and with greater intensity because parents see the rewards that come with athletic achievement (college scholarships, pro salaries), as well as the consequences for children who fall behind early (physical inactivity, obesity). As such, parents resort to extreme measures to give their kids a fighting chance. E:60 correspondent Tom Farrey exclusively reports the story about the ultimate effort to buy athletic advantage — the purchase of sperm from anonymous donors who are college athletes. He visits the world’s largest sperm bank, California Cryobank in Los Angeles, where the seed of Division I football, basketball and baseball players sells fast. Farrey also speaks with families who purchased the sperm of a former tight end, and he addresses the question: How do expectations change when parents know their child is born with the DNA of an elite athlete?
Rebuilding the Tampa Bay Rays — The Tampa Bay Rays are the biggest surprise in baseball this season. Without a single winning season in their history, the Rays now sit atop the American League East — ahead of the teams with baseball’s two biggest payrolls, the Yankees and Red Sox. Even more surprising is that the architects of this stunning turnaround are three former Wall Street executives with no previous baseball experience. E:60‘s Lisa Salters profiles these three baseball mavericks and chronicles the Rays’ historic season.
Steve Fossett — Steve Fossett may have been the world’s greatest adventurer. He set more than 100 world records in aviation, ballooning, gliding and sailing. With each adventure came extreme risk. The more daring the challenge, the more it intrigued him. He was the first person to fly solo, nonstop around the world in an airplane. He climbed the highest peaks on six continents, swam the English Channel, competed in the 24 hours of Le Mans auto race and even completed the Iditarod dogsled race. It seemed if he were to die it would be in a blaze of glory. So how does a legendary adventurer take a benign pleasure flight and disappear without a trace? E:60‘s Rachel Nichols reports.
Blade Runner — Earlier this year, E:60 profiled 21-year-old South African amputee Oscar Pistorius during his international campaign to compete as an able-bodied sprinter in the Summer Olympics in Beijing. He was banned by the world governing body of track and field which held that Pistorius would not be allowed to compete against able-bodied athletes because his high-tech prosthetics called “Cheetahs” give him an unfair advantage. In May, the ban was overturned, but in July Pistorius was unable to make the Olympic qualifying time in the 400 meters. Today, Pistorius is home in South Africa training for the 2008 Paralympic Games that open Sept. 6 in Beijing. He is also aiming to compete at next year’s World Championships in Berlin, and at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. E:60 correspondent Jeremy Schaap updates the “blade runner” story.