Athletes

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the supplement nitric oxide? Richard Sunland Nitric oxide is a gas naturally found in the body; its function is conveying information between cells. One of its main jobs is increasing blood flow by dilating blood vessels, and that's why it's sometimes given in supplement form to heart patients, orally and intravenously. In at least one study it's been shown to be effective for lowering blood pressure.

Kobe Bryant is Los Angeles' highest-paid athlete, followed by a couple of Dodgers who fans might say haven't earned their money, in a list compiled annually by Sports Illustrated. Bryant was fourth nationally in rankings that combine estimates for salary, winnings and endorsements this year. Boxing champion Floyd Mayweather was the runaway leader at $90 million, followed by NBA most valuable player LeBron James at $56 million and New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees at $47.8 million.

He had just made the final out in a city where his name is booed, his jersey is reviled, and his team had been swept. His power had disappeared, his swing was spotty, and his season was a wreck. Matt Kemp would have been excused for quickly disappearing through the dugout at San Francisco's AT&T Park on Sunday night and forgetting all about an earlier promise to third base coach Tim Wallach. “But that was the neat deal about it,” Wallach said. “He was standing there waiting for me.” PHOTOS: Greatest moments in Dodger Stadium history Kemp was waiting to cross the diamond to sign an autograph for a terminally ill Dodgers fan, waiting to summon the passion necessary to pass along the hope that he now found so precious.

There's a perception that illegal recruiting is rampant in high school sports. So how come in the latest summary report issued by the California Interscholastic Federation through March, among nearly 800,000 athletes who compete statewide, only 84 were declared ineligible because of pre-enrollment contact or undue influence? That means either the perception is wrong or no one is catching the cheaters. I believe the latter is true. Even Roger Blake, the CIF's executive director, admits the numbers are misleading.

European sports ministers called Wednesday for strong anti-drug legislation that would facilitate year-round testing of athletes throughout Europe, even though some officials expressed doubts about its legality. The proposals, which come up for a final vote by the Council of Europe ministers today at Reykjavik, Iceland, also would recommend penalties for doctors and coaches who supply athletes with banned substances. "We need to ensure that measures are harmonized between countries, so competitors and their supporters will know they face similar regimes of doping control no matter where they compete," British Sports Minister Colin Moynihan said.

As athletes in Beijing vie for medals, fame and fortune, Iraqi distance runner Mahmoud Kamil Ahmed competes thousands of miles away for a different reason: to forget. A year ago, while Ahmed trained in Cairo, Sunni Muslim insurgents surrounded his family's homestead in Diyala province, machine guns and rockets blazing. All 27 of his relatives inside were killed, including his mother, father and two brothers. Now, the 27-year-old lives in a Baghdad University dorm, still running, still winning some races, still struggling with the despair that haunts every turn around the searing track where he trains.

Bishop Dolegiewicz, a shotputter for the University of Texas in the mid-1970s and a member of the Canadian Olympic teams in 1980 and '84, purchased large amounts of steroids from a Texas pharmacy, according to the Austin (Tex.) American-Statesman. At the ongoing Canadian steroid inquiry in Toronto, Dolegiewicz earlier was named by Charlie Francis, coach of sprinter Ben Johnson, as a supplier of steroids to the Canadian team from 1980 until 1986. Two former employees of Austin pharmacist Donald Von Minden told the American-Statesman that Dolegiewicz bought steroids to supply about six athletes.

Part 1 of a two-part series on concussions in action sports. Part 2 Sunday will focus on 40-year-old BMX rider Kevin Robinson. Action sports superstar Travis Pastrana tells a story about his uncle, Alan Pastrana, who suffered a major concussion near the end of his two-year tenure as a quarterback for the Denver Broncos in the late 1960s. He was 26 when his NFL career ended. "He went from a very tough, tough guy to super emotional, super sensitive, the most 'huggy' man you'd ever see," Travis says.

Sure, smoking is bad for you -- but what happens when you combine it with something really good -- like running eight miles a day? Do you get a healthier smoker? Or an unhealthy athlete? It's one of those is-the-cigarette-half-smoked-or-half-unsmoked conundrums. And there's no definitive answer. "If people can quit, that's the best thing," says Dr. Robert Sallis, director of sports medicine at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Fontana.

The fastest 50-meter freestyle swimmers in the world last year were Americans Matt Biondi, Tom Jager and Steve Crocker. But only two of them will advance from the Olympic trials, March 1-6 in Indianapolis, to the Olympic Games, starting July 25 in Barcelona, Spain. In response to U.S. swimming dominance, FINA, the world governing body of the sport, decreased the number of entrants allowed each country from three per event to two in 1980. Other international meets followed suit.

In recent years, California has become a favorite venue for workers' compensation claims by athletes with only tenuous ties to the Golden State. Many former pros have won six-figure awards for injuries built up over time even though they've never lived or worked in the state, except to train or play the occasional game here. In some cases, judges have even granted them awards over and above the ones they've already obtained in their home states. Clearly the system needs to be fixed, and five professional sports leagues have stepped forward to say so. But lawmakers shouldn't close the courthouse door completely to athletes who don't feel the brunt of their injuries until long after their playing days are over.

SACRAMENTO - Controversial legislation that would restrict most professional athletes from out-of-state teams from filing claims in California workers' compensation courts won overwhelming approval Thursday in the state Assembly. Despite aggressive lobbying by professional football players and other athletes, the bill, AB 1309, passed 61 to 4. The measure now goes to the state Senate. "Our workers' compensation system has been increasingly exploited by out-of-state professional players at the expense of California teams and all California businesses," said the bill's author, Assemblyman Henry T. Perea (D-Fresno)

- The Angels have sweat out harrowing late-inning moments in most of their 10 victories this season, but they could have made things a lot easier on themselves Wednesday had they not run into two outs on the bases in the eighth inning. Erick Aybar opened the inning with a single and was thrown out trying to steal, the seventh time in 17 tries the Angels have been thrown out stealing. Mike Trout tripled to center field and scored on Albert Pujols' sacrifice fly to give the Angels a 5-2 lead over the Oakland Athletics.

OAKLAND -- A strong scent of desperation was in the air Wednesday in the Oakland Coliseum, where Angels Manager Mike Scioscia, his bullpen options limited by injury and ineffectiveness, went to extreme lengths to win a game Scioscia left starter C.J. Wilson in long enough to throw 123 pitches, a decision the left-hander rewarded by rebounding from a 36-pitch first inning to give up two runs and six hits in 61/3 innings and escape...

OAKLAND - The Angels are a mess. There's really no other way to put it. Their ace, three of their top relievers and their third baseman are on the disabled list. They got their shortstop back from the DL on Tuesday but lost their center fielder and productive leadoff batter to a hamstring strain. Their rotation is thin, their bullpen is thinner, and their mercurial right fielder, the one they invested $125 million in last December, looked completely lost at the plate for most of April.

OAKLAND - Monday night merged into Tuesday, and on and on the Angels and Oakland Athletics played, their game stretching so far into the wee hours of the morning that the cows were home and tucked into bed long before it was over. It was the longest time of game in Angels history, 6 hours and 32 minutes, and it went 19 innings, one shy of the franchise record for innings, the teams combining to use 40 players and throw 598 pitches. But it ended all too suddenly for the Angels, as Brandon Moss hit a two-run homer off Angels reliever Barry Enright at 1:41 a.m. PDT to give the Athletics a grueling 10-8, 19-inning walk-off victory in the Oakland Coliseum and send the Angels (9-16)

One daughter, barely 16, lives in Houston, where she has developed into the country's best gymnast. Another daughter, 14, lives in Southern California, where she is making a name for herself as a figure skater. A son, 18, the eldest of half a dozen children, has returned to the family nest in Northfield, Ill., an upper middle-class suburb of Chicago, after sharpening his speed skating skills for a year in Butte, Mont., and Calgary.

Most athletic types would rather spend a month watching "Teletubbies" while reading Snooki's blog than suffer an injury. And when it comes to getting hurt, the knee is one of the worst things you can damage. The most commonly injured knee ligament is the anterior cruciate ligament in the middle of the joint. The ACL is responsible for keeping the knee stable by preventing the shin bone from sliding in front of the thigh bone. If torn, it usually requires surgical intervention, according to Dr. Robert Bray, an orthopedic surgeon at Calgary's Peter Lougheed Hospital.

Jason Collins had long been keeping a secret. As a standout high school player at Harvard-Westlake School, as a star at Stanford and through a 12-year NBA career, he had hidden something fundamental about himself from his family, friends and teammates. On Monday Collins came out, becoming the first active male athlete in a major U.S. professional team sport to acknowledge he was gay. The reaction was swift. President Obama, who just last year gave his support for gay marriage, called Collins to say "he was impressed by his courage," according to a White House Twitter post.

UCLA's spring game Saturday was going to cost UCLA students $7 for the bus ride to the Rose Bowl. Then Bruins Coach Jim Mora stepped in. And then athletic department officials rethought the matter. Mora had volunteered to pay for students' bus fare to the game, Josh Rebholz , UCLA associate athletic director of development, said on his Twitter account Wednesday night. On Thursday afternoon, athletic department officials decided to pick up the tab for the trip to the Rose Bowl.