Maria Sharapova, featured in Athlete’s Voice this week, is a retired athlete who I struggle to remember is actually retired. I think it’s because it makes me feel old. — Ethan Joyce
In today’s edition:
- How Samford athletics wins with data
- Athlete’s Voice: Maria Sharapova
- Comcast partners with Broncos
Project SAMson is an effort at Samford University to infuse a data-focused approach into the entire athletics department, I reported in the SBJ magazine this week.
In just two years, the project has helped to produce the greatest sports season the university has ever seen: a total of 11 championships, counting regular-season and conference tournament crowns. That included the school’s first outright Southern Conference championship in football, an 11-win campaign that set a school record.
In the battle for competitive advantage throughout college athletics, biometrics and sports science have often been treated as an effort to keep up with the Joneses (or in this case, the Sabans and Smarts). A lot of big programs have data. But schools like Samford, which kicked off its football season last week with most of the nation’s programs, show how data digestion could become a new divider between winners and losers.
In this week’s installment of Athlete’s Voice, Joe Lemire spoke with former world No. 1 tennis player Maria Sharapova, one of only 10 women to complete the career Grand Slam. She won her first professional tournament in 2003 at age 16 and claimed her first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon in 2004. Sharapova won the US Open in 2006, Australia Open in 2008 and the French Open in 2012 and 2014. She also won an Olympic silver medal at the 2012 London Games.
Sharapova, now 36, retired from tennis in February 2020 and became a mom in 2022. She also has been active in business, starting her own confectionary brand, Sugarpova, as well as reportedly investing in the UFC, Therabody, Tonal and more. Sharapova recently made an appearance at the US Open on behalf of IBM to discuss its latest innovations and held a small roundtable with a small group of reporters.
Comcast Business is delivering a suite of network solutions for the Denver Broncos’ Empower Field at Mile High as part of a multi-year partnership.
Comcast will provide SIP Trunking services – i.e., phone lines – between Empower Field and the Centura Health Training center, two 10 gig ethernet circuits to support the creation and distribution of content from the Broncos’ TV studio, and HD video for “thousands” of screens at the stadium. All of that is in addition to being the main internet provider for Broncos employees, players, staff, and media on gamedays.
The news comes in the wake of the Broncos announcing $100 million of upgrades to Empower Field last week. The Broncos first signed up for Comcast Business, which also provides network support for the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field, in 2011.
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