Karen CHRISTENSEN
In 1971, Ping-Pong—the “ping heard round the world”— helped to create the first person-to-person, and then diplomatic, ties between two Cold War enemies: China and the United States.
Sports have become an essential part of life in the global village, and the Olympic Games are the most important of sporting events, drawing 11,009 athletes from 201 nations in 2004. Sponsorship of the games, by multinational companies such as Coca-Cola and Visa, reached €248 million, and the
