orlds leading sports teams -- including the NBAs Philadelphia 76ers, and soccer powerhouses Paris Saint-Germain and Manc

EGNA, Italy -- Carolina Kostner is coming full circle.The Italian has returned to her native Alto Adige region to climb back to the elite level of international figure skating after a nearly three-year absence due to a suspension for helping her then-boyfriend evade doping controls.While the hometown fans gave her a heros welcome during the Italian championships this week, Kostner was nowhere near her top form of 2014, when she won the bronze medal at the Sochi Winter Olympics with a near flawless free skate.But if anyone can raise her back to Olympic levels, it is Alexei Mishin, the Russian coach who trained Alexei Urmanov, Alexei Yagudin, and Yevgeny Plushenko to greatness.Kostner has been training with Mishin full-time in St. Petersburg since Sept. 1.When she came to me, she was destroyed, Mishin said after Kostner claimed her eighth Italian title on Thursday.Mishin said his first mission, after her long absence from competition, was to give her confidence that she is able to compete. And step by step, I think we did.His second task has been to radically shake up her approach to the elements. Mishins skaters dont learn by repetition, a common approach to vanquish errors and create muscle memory. Instead, Mishin assigns them a set of exercises for each jump to create the proper technique. And she is catching on, he said.Carolina is one of the most precise and serious pupils which I ever had, Mishin said.The technique, which in many ways is a form of creative destruction, is nothing less than grueling, Kostner acknowledged.He has revealed an interesting but not so simple method that has provoked many moments of frustration, some cursing, many falls, and many moments of uncertainty, Kostner said. In some ways, I feel like a 14-year-old who is learning, almost from zero. It is not from zero, it is only a change in perception, which often in life isnt bad.Kostners last competitive season in 2014 was by far her finest. She won the Olympic bronze with a career-best 142.61 points in the free skate after landing seven triples, three in combination, to a fluidly choreographed Bolero. She followed that with a best-ever short program at the world championships in Saitama, Japan, where she finished third.She always planned to take off at least part of the 2015 season to rest, but the suspension turned that into two full seasons. Kostner called it a period of maturation when addressing reporters after reaching a deal last year to return to competition. She exuded a newfound tranquility, along with a determination to get back into competition, sights set on a fourth Olympics.During the break, Kostner kept up exhibition skating, and she started training with a dance company in Rome to enhance her expression. But she was missing critical ice hours working on top-level elements.Fast forward to the 2016-2017 season, and her level of difficulty has clearly diminished.In her final free program before an adoring home crowd, the former world champion skipped a simple triple toe loop jump in combination. As she came off the ice, Mishin gave her a quizzical look and pointed to his head, as if to say, What happened?The error was surprising, but Mishin played it down.We did not plan to be perfect right now, he said.Mishin huddled backstage after the nationals with Lori Nichol, Kostners longtime choreographer who also worked with Michelle Kwan, telling her that they needed to add more difficulty to the program to be competitive for Europeans and possibly worlds.In both her comeback competitions over the last month, Kostner was far from her previous seven triple mark, which she will need to recover to be a factor at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. Still, the determining factor in Kostners success has always been her artistry and grace on the ice.Kostners next challenge will be the Europeans in Ostrava, Czech Republic, at the end of January. Depending on the outcome, the Italian federation will make a final decision on whether Kostner gets Italys single worlds berth, which last year went to Roberta Rodeghiero, who finished 16th at the worlds but fifth at the Europeans.Kostner is spending two weeks at home in Alto Adige with her family for the holidays, and part of that time she will be working with Nichol to polish the programs according to Mishins prescription and her own observations. Kostners team claims the goal is not the podium.`We are just trying to have her become the best that she can be, Nichol said. `Of course, I would hope her to have another moment on the ice, whether it is on the podium or not, where she feels like she has done everything she can.For Kostner, the experience of coming back has been nothing if not humbling.`I still have a lot to learn, and that is wonderful because two years ago, I thought I had learned everything in my sport, Kostner said. `Instead, every day I am aware there is a whole new world.Dimitri Payet Jersey . Radwanska, making her debut in the Seoul tournament, hit eight aces in a match that lasted 1 hour, 4 minutes at Olympic Park tennis stadium. "It was definitely a very good match -- I was playing really good tennis," Radwanska said. Raphael Varane France Jersey . During the athletes parade, the 23-strong Ukrainian team was represented by a lone flagbearer in an apparent protest at the presence of Russian troops in Ukraines Crimean peninsula. http://www.nationalfrancesoccer.com/steve-mandanda-france-jersey/ . -- For the first time in two months, an opponent was standing up to Alabama. Blaise Matuidi Jersey . The Dutchmans tenure got off to a poor start when referee Guido Winkmann awarded a penalty within two minutes for Niklas Starks clumsy challenge on Alexandru Maxim. Adil Rami France Jersey . Most important, perhaps, it went off without a hitch. Organizers poked a little fun at the now-infamous opening ceremony gaffe that saw only four out of five snowflakes open up into rings, leaving the Olympics logo one ring short.Monash University has produced many of Australias great sporting identities including Americas Cup captain John Bertrand and Hawthorns highly successful AFL coach Alastair Clarkson. Now it can also lay claim to having the nations best eSports team.Esports debuted in the Australian University Games this year, and TeamMonash prevailed 3-1 over Queensland University of Technology in the best-of-five Unigames League of Legends Championship final in September. But the University Games tournament is just another example of how eSports is growing rapidly in popularity, with one industry expert predicting it will soon become one of the top three sports in the world.By the end of 2016, eSports is predicted to enjoy a 43 percent growth rate that will make it a $AUS611 million business; and that figure is expected to skyrocket further to $AUS1.45 billion by 2019. Australasia is now catching on to the craze that has swept through Europe, Asia and the U.S., and the number of competitions staged across Australia each year is growing rapidly.Lachlan Spencer -- Mizeria in the gaming world -- has witnessed the growth of eSports in Australia from a front-row seat, and he made a bold prediction to ESPN about its future.I honestly see eSports one day becoming just as mainstream as your regular sports, Spencer told ESPN.I think well see it on the same media channels as other sport and see it on TV.Maybe the coverage wont be as comprehensive, but I believe the games will be shown in some way to the general public outside your internet streams.Spencer captained Queensland University of Technology at the increasingly popular Uni Games in Perth, where the eSports championship consisted of five-person teams competing against each other on League of Legends, the most popular eSports game.QUT were favoured to win the final, but victorious Monash University captain Will Divinity Huang said the result was an upset based on experience but not in their own minds.Individually, we thought we had the better team, Huang told ESPN.We put a lot of practice in, and I was also pushing the players to improve individually.ddddddddddddt might be kind of arrogant but maybe we are just better players as well.The best-of-five decider in Perth was watched by thousands of fans, either at the event or online, and the pressure to perform, as in any sport, was immense.Competition and viewer interest around the globe is extremely fierce, and the best gamers have the potential to earn a highly attractive seven-figure salary.American Saahil UNiVeRsE Arora is the world No. 1 with overall earnings of almost $AUS3.5 million, while the top 34 in the standings have each taken home more than $AUS1 million.Australias highest earner -- Damien kphoenii Chok -- is listed at 103 in the rankings but even he has raked in almost $AUS500,000.If we wind back time about five, six or seven years the game didnt even exist, Huang said.I think they posted a statistic [in August] that there are about 100 million confirmed players so I think that number in itself speaks volumes about how fast its growing.The rapid growth of eSports has already seen 14 of the worlds leading sports teams -- including the NBAs Philadelphia 76ers, and soccer powerhouses Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City -- and high-profile identities such as Shaquille ONeal and Alex Rodriguez invest heavily.PSG just this week announced their first signings -- presenting Bora YellowStar Kim, August Agge Rosenmeier and Lucas DaXe Cuillerier to journalists and a sizeable Twitch audience at Parc des Princes.Kim, 24, is Frances five-time European League of Legends (LoL) champion, while Rosenmeier, 20, is Denmarks current FIFA 17 world champion and Cuillerier, 16, is a rising French star.PSG will be entering their eSports team in League of Legends as well as the popular FIFA franchise, for now.While eSports investors such as PSG may be in it for the long haul, competitors not so; the gamers career window usually ranges from 18 to 25-years-old before their reaction speeds slow and its GAME OVER! 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