Virat Kohli: Most Legendary Cricketer It’s a rare phenomenon to encounter anyone who is the greatest the world has ever seen in their field. Still rarer is it to find a legend who prioritizes family and a balance in life as much as career success. Virat Kohli is an Indian professional cricketer who plays for…

Max Verstappen: The Unstoppable Max Verstappen is a Dutch and Belgian professional racing driver. A defending Formula 1 World Champion driving for the sensational Red Bull team under the Dutch flag, with his skill and supersonic speedster car, he’s shattering all kinds of Formula 1 racing records and the hope of his rivals. Racing runs…

Coco Gauff: Rising Star Burning Bright “To those who thought they were putting water on my fire, they were putting gas on my fire and I’m burning so bright right now.” With these words, an elated Gauff thanked her critics after hoisting her maiden Grand Slam title at the US Open championship in New York.…

R Praggnanandhaa – A Chess Prodigy “Your example shows how India’s youth can conquer any domain.” India’s prime minister Narendra Modi celebrated an 18-year-old chess grandmaster with these words earlier this month. R Praggnanandhaa, rising Indian chess prodigy popularly known as Pragg, made history yet again by earning the silver medal at the 2023 FIDE…

Rory McIlroy – Still Defiant Against LIV Rory McIlroy, a professional golfer from Northern Ireland, plays both in European and PGA Tours and holds the third position in the official world of golf ranking. He is one of the few golf child prodigies who followed their dreams and reached an incredible height in their professional…

Jack Eichel Never Gives Up Spirit’s Sports team is thrilled to highlight the close-to-home success story of Jackc  Eichel. Born and raised in North Chelmsford, Massachusetts, Jack is a professional ice hockey player and a member of the NHL team Vegas Golden Knights. In June 2023, Jack and the Vegas Golden Knights won their maiden…

Neha Aggarwal – On a Mission Neha Aggarwal is a retired Indian professional table tennis player, India’s No. 1 and the only women’s table tennis player who to represent India in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. She was the youngest table tennis player at the age of 18, male or female, to participate…

Jon Dorenbos – Life is Magic Jon Dorenbos is a motivational speaker who mesmerizes audiences with magic and  inspires them by sharing his personal story of overcoming tragedy. Dorenbos spent 14 years in the National Football League as a long snapper, playing for Buffalo Bills, Tennessee Titans and Philadelphia Eagles as a two-time Pro Bowl-er.…

Logan Eggleston – A Happy Ending Logan Eggleston is a senior at the University of Texas, Austin majoring in management, plays volleyball and she is the best in it. As a captain, she carried the Longhorns volleyball team all the way to the top of the National Championship. Yes, the UT Longhorns are the 2022…

Kilian Jornet – Mountain GOAT Kilian Jornet Burgada is a Spanish professional mountain and trail runner and is considered as the Greatest Of All Time by his peers and pundits. He has won the prestigious Skyrunner World Series six times, the most famous ultramarathon Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc four times and countless other short and long-distance…

Bill Russell – Legends’ Legend July 31, 2022 is the day to remember and cherish the life of Bill Russell and his accomplishments for the society. On this day, the most prolific winner in American sports history, passed away peacefully at age 88, with his wife, Jeannine, by his side. It’s a huge loss, not…

42: A Story Worth Remembering By Jaanu I’ve grown up on stories of Jackie Robinson’s trailblazing and incredible career with the Dodgers. His passion, determination, patience, and incredible talent are easy to feel through a history book. The movie 42 makes his heroism, and that of legendary Dodgers executive Branch Rickey fully come to life.…

Women’s Euro 2022: The Drought is Over If you’re a Boston Red Sox fan, you will understand how English soccer fans are feeling now. The New England Boston Red Sox baseball team broke the Curse of the Bambino and ended an 86-year-World- Series-drought by winning the World Series in 2004. The England Lionesses (women’s national…

Allyson Felix: The Legend The most decorated female track-and-field Olympian, all-time great Allyson Felix will retire from competition at the end of the 2022 season. The 36-year-old American has dominated the sport for more than two decades. Internationally, she is one of the most recognized, liked, and respected athletes both by the public and peers.…

Scottie Scheffler: 2022 Masters Champion 2022 has been an unbelievable year for Scottie Scheffler as a golfer! Playing solid  and extraordinary golf for just a couple of months changed his professional golf life forever in a wonderful way. Scottie Scheffler is an American professional golfer who was born in Ridgewood, New Jersey and moved to…

Katie Ledecky: The Warrior Katie Ledecky, aka Shark in the Water, is the most decorated competitive swimmer in the USA’s swimming history. Katie’s six individual Olympic gold medals, 14 individual gold medals at the World Aquatics Championships (WAC), and 22 overall medals at the WAC are records in women’s swimming. She has broken fourteen world…

Shohei Ohtani – A Real All-Rounder Shohei Ohtani, aka ShoTime, is a Japanese professional Major League Baseball player for the Los Angeles Angels. He is touted as the ‘Next Babe Ruth’ and proves worthy of the name every time he enters the baseball field either as a pitcher or hitter. It is extremely rare to…

Cliff Diver Eleanor Smart – Story by Garuda        “Climate change” and “environment” – major buzzwords among pro athletes nowadays. Most of the time, passion and spirit fade away after a few social media posts and pictures. Eleanor Smart is one of the exceptions. Smart, 26, is a professional cliff diver and a genuine…

AUSTRALIAN OPEN 2022 January 17-30, 2022. What an eventful and dramatic two weeks in the history of Australian Open Tennis. Every topic was in conversation: patriotism, sportsmanship, triumph, politics, loyalty, discrimination. The drama started long before a single tennis ball was hit on the tennis court, when the unvaccinated (COVID-19) world No. 1 and defending…

Resilience: Ntando and Juan The Spirit Athletics would like to finish the year 2021 on a very positive and high note. In this ever growingly glamorous and appearance-is-everything world, it is important to recognize these incredible athletes. It is a tribute to all the athletes with disabilities. Ntando Mahlangu: A star South African Paralympic athlete…

Ozeki (Champion): Konishiki Yasokichi Ozeki is the second highest rank in the sport of sumo wrestling. Sumo, a more than 2,000-year-old sport and art form with religious origin, is considered Japan’s national sport. Konishiki Yasokichi, a native of Hawaii, was the first ever foreign-born sumo wrestler to attain Ozeki in 1987. Salevaa Atisinoe was born…

The Record Breaker: Haile Gebrselassie         Haile Gebrselassie, aka Gabe, is a retired distance runner from Ethiopia, considered globally as one of the greatest long-distance runners of all time. He holds a ground-breaking 61 Ethiopian national records, has set 27 world records and had won two Olympic golds. Born in Asella, Oromiya Region, Ethiopia as…

Tennis Sensation: Emma Raducanu          Emma Raducanu became a house-hold name in the world in overnight by winning the US Open Tennis Championship on September 11th in New York. She is an 18-year-old British professional tennis player who made her WTA Tour main draw debut at the beginning of June, ranked No 338 in…

Golf’s newest superstar: Collin Morikawa      –     By Garuda Collin Morikawa is a 24-year-old American professional golfer who won the 2021 British Open Championship played at Royal St. George’s Golf Club in Sandwich, England. He became a professional golfer and started playing in the PGA tournaments merely two years back, in June of…

Back in Control: Novak Djokovic   – By Garuda          In June 2019, when Novak Djokovic’s featured article was published in Spirit, aka Happy Herald, he was ranked world No. 1 in men’s singles tennis and had won his 14th major championship. Fast forward 24 months and a global pandemic later – he is still world…

The Greatest Indian Olympian: Balbir Singh Sr. The Spirit sports team is excited to highlight some of the many accomplishments of one of the greatest Indian field hockey players, Olympians and Padma Shri recipients, Balbir Singh Sr. Balbir Singh Dosanjh was born on the 31st of December 1923, in Punjab, India. He was inspired and…

Masters Champion: Hideki Matsuyama ~ by Garuda Hideki Matsuyama is a male professional golfer from Sendai, Japan. By winning the Masters Golf Tournament in April 2021, he became the first-ever Japanese professional golfer to win a men’s major golf championship. Matsuyama’s father introduced golf to him at the very young age of four – and…

The Grandmaster: Koneru Humpy The Spirit Athletics team is so excited to travel (virtually) more than 8,000 miles to find the chess grandmaster, Koneru Humpy, in India. Humpy is an Indian chess player who is the current women’s World Rapid Chess champion and 2020 BBC Indian Sportswoman of the year. Humpy was born in Andra…

The G.O.A.T: Tom Brady By winning the match against the defending Super Bowl champions, Kansas City Chiefs on February 07, 2021 with the score 31-9 Bucs, Tom Brady became the only NFL player in the league history to win seven Super Bowl championships. Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. (born August 3, 1977) is an American…

The Legend: Hank Aaron Hall of Fame slugger and longtime MLB home run king, Henry Louis “Hank” Aaron, whose 755 career home runs long stood as baseball’s golden mark, who rose up from the depts of Southern poverty to become one of the legends in baseball history as well as a bittersweet symbol of both…

For the first time, two months in a row, a British sports personality is highlighted in Spirit. This month’s honor goes to British cycling’s latest Grand Tour winner: Tao Geoghegan Hart. Yes, Tao Geoghegan Hart. The Londoner wasn’t really supposed to win the 2020 Giro d’Italia, the second biggest race in world cycling, in Milan.…

“Still I Rise” – these are the words inscribed across the back of Lewis Hamilton’s helmet and tattooed across his shoulders. Hamilton is a British racing driver currently competing in Formula One for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas team. One of the most successful drivers in the sport, Hamilton has a record seven World Championship titles (tied…

Rafael Nadal and French Open Tennis Champion will soon become synonyms. I highly recommend that Merriam-Webster’s editorial board consider the change. Yes, Nadal won his thirteenth French Open title on October 13, 2020. Nadal has won 20 Grand Slam singles titles in total, and he’s tied for the most in history for a male player…

In an incredible one year and 364 days, Viridiana Alvarez Chavez of Mexico climbed to a new Guinness World Record title. Her efforts broke the record title for the fastest ascent of the top three highest mountains with supplementary oxygen (female). She is the proof that epic accomplishments can come from a humble beginning. “My…

Simple things and people are often forgotten. It’s my pleasure to shed some light and inspire few people to healthier life. Vishwanathan Jayaraman, Jegadheesan M, Sayuri Dalvi, Raghavendra Satish Peri, Harishankar Krishnaswami and Nandita Chakraborty are such heroes. “Two Feet to Fly” is a short documentary about the inspiring lives of these six amateur runners…

Whether you are an NBA fan or just an occasional viewer, a kid or an adult, you’ve probably seen Vince Carter playing basketball at least once. Yes, Carter is the only player in the NBA history to appear in a game in four different decades. He was drafted to NBA in 1998 by the Golden…