Former WNBA star dies after heart attack at age 37
Margo Dydek, a 7-2 former WNBA player who led the league in blocks nine times, died yesterday after being placed in a medically induced coma following a heart attack a week ago. She was 37.
Margo Dydek
, a 7-2 former WNBA player who led the league in blocks nine times, died yesterday after being placed in a medically induced coma following a heart attack a week ago. She was 37.
Her death was confirmed to the Associated Press by Cathy Roberts, operations manager of the Northside Wizards in the Queensland Basketball League in Australia, where Dydek was the coach.
The Poland-born Dydek, pregnant with her third child, was stricken with a heart attack May 19 and collapsed at her home in Brisbane. Dydek was early in her pregnancy, and the fetus died, Roberts said.
Dydek was the No. 1 pick in the 1998 WNBA draft by Utah. She also played for San Antonio, Connecticut and Los Angeles.
She is survived by her husband and two sons.
Cycling
* Martial Saugy, head of Switzerland's anti-doping laboratory, denied claims that Lance Armstrong tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs at the 2001 Tour de Suisse and that the results were covered up. He acknowledged the lab found suspicious levels of banned blood-booster EPO in four urine samples from the race, won by Armstrong, but didn't know whether any belonged to the seven-time Tour de France winner.
* Italy's Paolo Tiralongo won the 19th stage of the Giro D'Italia, while Alberto Contador maintained his overall lead in the race, which ends tomorrow with a time trial in Milan.
Colleges
* Season tickets are available for Penn State's home games this fall, which include visits from Alabama, Iowa, Illinois, Purdue and Nebraska, the newest member of the Big Ten, which PSU will host for the first time since 2002. The ticket application is available at www.GoPSUsports.com/tickets or by calling Penn State Athletics Customer Relations at 1-800-648-8269 Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
* Penn State ice hockey coach Guy Gadowsky and his staff will coach the Icers in the 2011-12 season, their final year of American Collegiate Hockey Association competition, in order to evaluate talent for the future varsity team.
* The number of nonwhite coaches hired in women's college basketball has declined, according to the Black Coaches and Administrators. Five nonwhite coaches were among the 18 people hired from 2009-11, down from a record nine hired when 16 openings were filled in 2007-08.
Philly File
* Temple senior Bob Keogh earned a spot in the NCAA Track and Field Championships hammer throw finals with a seventh-place qualifying throw of 205 feet, 10 inches at the NCAA East Regional at Indiana University. Junior Travis Mahoney advanced in the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase after taking second place in his heat in 8 minutes, 36.10 seconds.
* Two true freshman guards committed to play for Temple's women's basketball team, Rateska Brown, of Alvin, S.C., and Shaniqua Reese, of Brooklyn, N.Y..
Sport Stops
* Olympic silver medalist Todd Hays was hired to coach the U.S. women's bobsled team through at least the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
* Elliott Sadler, who has been without a NASCAR Sprint Cup team all season, will be on standby tomorrow in case the 20 stitches closing a cut in Paul Menard's foot prevent him from completing the Coca-Cola 600.
* Trainer Dale Romans said Preakness winner Shackleford will be shipped to Belmont Park next week, but no decision has been made on whether he will race in the June 11 Belmont Stakes.
* American skipper Brad Van Liew won the Velux 5 Oceans solo 'round-the-world race, sailing into La Rochelle, France, after sweeping all five legs.
* American Taekwondo athlete Jonathan Nguyen accepted a 6-month suspension for a doping violation after testing positive for a stimulant in February. *