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SAO PAULO -- Rugby player Isadora Cerullo never lived in Brazil. Patrick Peterson Youth Jersey . Fencer Ghislain Perrier speaks very little Portuguese. Golfer Miriam Nagl played abroad most of her life.Theyll still be parading under the host nations flag at the opening ceremony of the Rio de Janeiro Games come Aug. 5.Cerullo, Perrier and Nagl are among several athletes who will be fulfilling their Olympic dream because of Brazils shortage of athletes in sports it automatically qualified for as host. Without an Olympic tradition to fall back on, the country was left to rapidly recruit an international band of athletes for events such as field hockey, golf, rowing, wrestling and rugby.Their ties, in many cases, are weak. Some have lived away for most of their lives but were born in Brazil. Some were born abroad but have Brazilian parents or grandparents. Some had almost no links to the country but were hired by local federations and became naturalized.I would have very slim chances of participating in the Olympics if I hadnt made the switch to play for Brazil, said Nagl, a Brazilian-born golfer who left the country when she was 8 years old and had always played for Germany. When this idea came up and I realized that I had a chance to make it to Rio, I started dreaming about being at the Maracana Stadium during the opening ceremony.The 35-year-old Nagl, who plays in the Ladies European Tour and is No. 445 in the womens world rankings, said she hadnt given much thought about representing her native country until being contacted by golf officials after Rio was awarded the games.By making the switch, I gave myself a chance to be in the Olympics, but I also thought about how this could be good for Brazil, about how I could become a good ambassador and help the game develop, she said.Brazil had only two foreign athletes in its delegation at the 2012 London Games -- American basketball player Larry Taylor and Chinese table-tennis player Gui Lin. Now about 20 international athletes will be taking advantage of the many extra spots available for the home nation in Rio.Rugby is one of the sports in which Brazil lacks tradition but will compete anyway. Hoping to put on a good show in front of the home fans, the local federation launched a worldwide campaign -- entitled Brazilian Rugby Players Wanted -- to attract athletes playing abroad.A few who responded to the campaign will be in Rio, including American-born Cerullo, who has Brazilian parents but had never visited the country until after contacting Brazilian rugby officials. Two Brazilian brothers who lived in France also made it to the team, as well a Brazilian-born athlete who lived and played in Argentina. England-born Juliano Fiori and France-born Laurent Bourda-Couhet, who has a Brazilian mother, will also play.Brazils fencing team earned eight additional spots as hosts and included three international players for the games. Among them are Ghislain Perrier, who was born in Brazil but left the country as a baby after being adopted by a French family, and Italian-born Nathalie Moellhausen, who competed for Italy at the 2012 London Games but chose to be with the hosts in Rio to fulfill the wish of her Brazilian grandmother.I dont have many connections to Brazil, admitted Perrier, who has lived and trained in France most of his life. I spent vacation in Brazil a few times, but I know only a few people there.The fencing team will also have Marta Baeza, who was born in Brazil but had been competing for Spain, and reserve team member Katherine Miller, who was born in the United States.Another foreigner, Hungarys Emese Takacs, tried to make the team but she was dropped after her citizenship was contested in court by a Brazilian athlete who had been left out of the squad. Takacs was accused of faking her marriage in Brazil to become naturalized.She had the legal documents but we always suspected it was a fraud, the Brazilian who had lost her spot, Amanda Simeao, told local media. She was married to a Brazilian but had a boyfriend in Hungary.Takacs denied wrongdoing but lost her battles in court.Another controversial case was water polo goalkeeper Slobodan Soro, a Serbian whose naturalization process was approved just before the games. He and center Josip Vrlic of Croatia were hired to play for Brazil despite not having direct connections to the country. They were among five foreign-born players picked to play for the Brazilian team by Croat coach Ratko Rudic, the gold medalist with Croatia at the London Games.The others were Spains Adria Delgado, who has a Brazilian father; Italian-born Paulo Salemi, son of a Brazilian mother; and Cuban Ives Gonzalez, who is married to a Brazilian. The team also has Brazilian-born Felipe Perrone, who used to play for the Spanish national team before joining the hosts for the Rio Games.They have been playing for Brazilian clubs for some time, this is not something that just happened, said Ricardo Cabral, who is in charge of Brazils water polo team. We created an Olympic project to help the sport develop and make Brazil more competitive. Because of the Olympics in Rio, there is more investment available and we want to take advantage of that to give the sport more visibility.---Tales Azzoni on Twitter: http://twitter.com/tazzoni . His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/tales-azzoni Justin Pugh Youth Jersey . Defenceman Yannick Weber scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period and the Canucks breathed a sigh of relief with a 2-1 win on Saturday night. Kyler Murray Jersey . That left plenty of energy for pitching books and swatting away free agency questions. Anthony had 24 points and nine rebounds, and the Knicks avenged an embarrassing home loss with a rout of their own, beating the Boston Celtics 114-88 on Wednesday night for their third straight victory. http://www.nflcardinalsrookiestore.com/C...h-Allen-Jersey/ .ca NBA Power Rankings, ahead of the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs. MIAMI -- Their season, their legacy, their reign atop the NBA was all at stake, and the Miami Heat responded in a manner befitting defending champions -- with a blowout. LeBron James scored 32 points and grabbed eight rebounds, ailing Dwyane Wade matched his post-season high with 21 points, and the Heat ran away from the Indiana Pacers 99-76 in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference series on Monday night. In the NBA Finals for the third straight year, the Heat will play the San Antonio Spurs in Game 1 on Thursday in Miami. "Theyre just an amazing group of guys," Heat managing general partner Micky Arison said after handing the East trophy to Chris Andersen. "Theyve given us an incredible season so far, but its a long way from over." It could have ended on Monday, of course. The Heat had alternated wins and losses with the Pacers in the first six games of the series, and were coming off their worst offensive outing of the year in Game 6. They responded with a rout, despite shooting just under 40 per cent, well below their norm. "By any means necessary ... we took care of business," James said. Miami led by as many as 28 points, a shocking amount for a series that had an aggregate score of Heat 569, Pacers 564 entering Monday night. The Heat actually trailed by six in the early going, were still down 21-19 after the first quarter and it was starting to look like it was starting to look like one of those down-to-the-wire nights. Not even close. "You never want to take anything for granted," Wade said. "Being here three straight years in a row, going back to the finals, is an amazing feat. Im just glad we were able to do it. Everything that happened in the first six games didnt mean anything to us. It was about tonight. It was about Game 7. It was about finding a way to win here at home." James exited with 5:08 left, shaking retired soccer star David Beckhams hand as he made his way to the Heat bench for a relatively subdued celebration. Not long afterward, security personnel started whats become a familiar task in Miami -- surrounding the court and stretching out a yellow rope, preparing to hold people at bay for the looming on-court trophy presentation. More than a few people didnt stick around to see the East title formally presented. After all, its an all-or-nothing season for the Heat -- and this trophy isnt the one that will satisfy them. Ray Allen added 10 points for Miami, which earned its 78th victory of the season, matching the 11th-best, single-season total in NBA history. "Its just a privilege to be with this great team, great teammates, and we have another opportunity to go back to where we are," Heat forward Chris Bosh said. "You never really want to get it out of the way too much. Game 7s dont happen too often. We enjoyed it and now we have to move on." Roy Hibbert scored 18 points for the Pacers, who got 14 from David West, 13 from George Hill and 10 from Lance Stephenson. All-Star Paul George was held to seven points on 2-for-9 shooting and fouled out early in the fourth quarter. George was the last Indiana player on the floor as Miami prepped for its postgame celebration, shaking any hand he could find before being walked toward the visiting locker room by Pacers coach Frank Vogel, who slung an arm over his stars shoulder. His time will likely come -- someday. Not yet, though. Not with this Miami team built for titles. Its the fourth trip to the finals for the Heat, who won the title in 2006 and have now been there all three years of the "Big Three" era, falling to Dallas in 2011 and then topping Oklahoma City in five games last year. "The great thing is were a young team and we are past the building stage," George said. "This is really our first year tasting success. The rate we are going, we see championships soon." Theyre getting closer. A second-round loss to Miami in six games last year was followed by a sseven-game, conference-finals exit this time around. Patrick Peterson Cardinals Jersey. Still, theyll be watching the title round. "Everybody in this country knows who the Indiana Pacers are now," Vogel said. "And we represent all the right things -- class, character, hard work, old-school basketball, playing the game the right way. We represented our franchise, our city and our state extremely, extremely well, and we have a lot to be proud of." Miami went 2-0 against San Antonio this season, though neither of those games should be considered harbingers of whats ahead. The Spurs rested four regulars in the first meeting, the Heat were without three injured starters in the second matchup. "Its crazy that it worked out this way," Wade said. James delivered an inspirational address of sorts to his team Monday morning, publicly revealing no details of what he said afterward other than insisting that the Heat would be ready. He was right. After 5 minutes, it was 12-6 Indiana. After that, the rest of the half was pretty much all Miami. Once the Pacers cooled off a bit, the Heat immediately went into pull-away mode. Over the final 19 minutes of the half, Miamis edge was 46-25. Over the final 11 minutes, it was 33-14, as James and Allen outscored the Pacers by themselves. Allen did less pregame shooting than usual on Monday. He was at the arena several hours before game time -- as is his custom -- and got in a pregame workout, but once he found a groove, he decided that was enough. And after going 13 for 46 in the first six games of the series, the NBAs career leader in 3-pointers had to believe that he was simply overdue to get going. His first shot on Monday was a 3-pointer that connected, giving the Heat a 26-23 lead. The Heat never trailed again. "We just focused on every possession, trying to get stops, play Miami Heat defence, create havoc," James said. "I thought we did that tonight." By halftime, it was 52-37, with James scoring 18 points, Bosh and Wade combining for 17 and Allen adding 10 more. And what had to be most troubling to the Pacers at halftime was their 15 turnovers, a number Vogel said earlier Monday would spell trouble if his team committed that many in the entire game. And in the third, the run the Pacers so desperately needed never arrived. Indiana was still within 13 with 3:37 left in the period when Hibbert picked up his fourth foul. Ordinarily, that would mean someone goes to the bench, though Game 7 on the road for a trip to the finals hardly could be classified as an ordinary occasion. So Vogel -- who was second-guessed for not having Hibbert on the floor for the final moments in overtime of Game 1, when James got to the rim easily for a game-winning layup -- left his centre out there with four fouls. Barely a minute later, it backfired. Hibbert picked up his fifth late in the third, and George got to five fouls by getting whistled twice in the final 46.1 seconds of the quarter. By then, the outcome was obvious. It was Miamis night. "Well enjoy this," Spoelstra said, "for a short period of time." NOTES: Miamis Norris Cole and Indianas Jeff Pendergraph were ejected with 2:17 left after exchanging some heated words. ... The Heat kept struggling Shane Battier on the bench, with Mike Miller getting his minutes. ... .Andersens streak of 18 straight field goals made (he had been 15 for 15 in the series) was snapped in the first half. ... Beckham, who is deciding whether he wants to bring a Major League Soccer team to Miami, was seated next to the Heat bench for the second straight game. Justin Bieber and Flo Rida were also in the crowd, as was reigning American League MVP Miguel Cabrera. ... The Pacers fell to 2-4 all-time in Game 7s, including 0-4 in road editions of winner-take-all games to decide the Eastern Conference title. ... Hibbert did not elaborate Monday about his comments that drew a $75,000 fine after Game 6, saying he wanted to focus on basketball instead. Wholeslae Jerseys NFL Jerseys Cheap Wholesale NBA Jerseys Cheap NHL Jerseys Cheap MLB Jerseys Wholesale Soccer Jerseys Cheap College Jerseys Cheap Football Jerseys Cheap Basketball Jerseys Cheap Baseball Jerseys ' ' '