Extreme Measures by Parents to Give Kids Athletic Advantage Headlines E:60 Features Tuesday, Aug. 26

The next edition of ESPN’s prime-time newsmagazine E:60 Tuesday, Aug. 26, at 7 p.m. ET, will feature:

• An E:60 exclusive report about the extreme measures some parents take to gain athletic advantages for their kids – purchasing sperm from anonymous college athletes;
• How three former Wall Street executives became the architects of the Tampa Bay Rays’ amazing rise from worst to first;
• A look at the mysterious disappearance of Steve Fossett, one of the world’s greatest adventurers; and
• An update on the “blade runner,” Oscar Pistorious, as he readies to compete in the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing.

Sperm U

Kids today are competing in organized sports at younger ages and with greater intensity because parents see the rewards that come with athletic achievement (college scholarships, pro salaries), as well as the consequences for children who fall behind early (physical inactivity, obesity). As such, parents resort to extreme measures to give their kids a fighting chance.

E:60 correspondent Tom Farrey exclusively reports the story about the ultimate effort to buy athletic advantage – the purchase of sperm from anonymous donors who are college athletes.  He visits the world’s largest sperm bank, California Cryobank in Los Angeles, where the seed of Division I football, basketball and baseball players sells fast.  Farrey also speaks with families who purchased the sperm of a former tight end, and he addresses the question: How do expectations change when parents know their child is born with the DNA of an elite athlete?

(Registered ESPNMediaZone.com users can preview the exclusive report by clicking here – E:60 Sperm U)

Rebuilding The Tampa Bay Rays

The Tampa Bay Rays are the biggest surprise in baseball this season.  Without a single winning season in their history, the Rays now sit atop the American League East – ahead of the teams with baseball's two biggest payrolls, the Yankees and Red Sox.  Even more surprising is that the architects of this stunning turnaround are three former Wall Street executives with no previous baseball experience.  E:60's Lisa Salters profiles these three baseball mavericks and chronicles the Rays historic season.

• "I said, the Devil Rays? Aren’t they the worst team in baseball? Honestly, I didn’t know where Tampa Bay was on the map of Florida." – Matt Silverman, on his reaction when approached about the role of team president
• "I have a lot of confidence in myself and my partners and that we could make most situations work. This happened to be baseball. I think if we had gone and bought a sausage factory that was having some problems, we could probably make that work." – Rays majority owner Stuart Sternberg

Steve Fossett

Steve Fossett may have been the world's greatest adventurer.  He set more than 100 world records in aviation, ballooning, gliding and sailing.   With each adventure came extreme risk.  The more daring the challenge, the more it intrigued him.  He was the first person to fly solo, non-stop around the world in an airplane.  He climbed the highest peaks on six continents, swam the English Channel, competed in the 24 hours of Le Mans auto race and even completed the Iditarod dogsled race.  It seemed if he were to die it would be in a blaze of glory.  So how does a legendary adventurer take a benign pleasure flight and disappear without a trace? E:60’s Rachel Nichols reports.

Blade Runner

Earlier this year, E:60 profiled 21-year-old South African amputee Oscar Pistorius during his international campaign to compete as an able-bodied sprinter in the Summer Olympics in Beijing.  He was banned by the world governing body of track and field which held that Pistorius would not be allowed to compete against able-bodied athletes because his high-tech prosthetics called “Cheetahs” give him an unfair advantage.  In May, the ban was overturned, but in July Pistorius was unable to make the Olympic qualifying time in the 400 meters.  To watch E:60’s spring profile of Pistorious, click here: http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?videoId=3348340&categoryId=3060647&n8pe6c=3

Today, Pistorius is home in South Africa training for the 2008 Paralympic Games that open September 6 in Beijing.  He is also aiming to compete at next year’s World Championships in Berlin, and at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.  E:60 correspondent Jeremy Schaap updates the “blade runner” story.  

Click http://espnmediazone.com/press_kits/E60 for releases, correspondents and executive production team bios and video clips.  For complete E:60 features and expanded versions of the reporter-producer meetings, click http://www.e60.com

- 30 -