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SPORTS Wednesday 6 december 2017
Hoffmann says he’s playing PGA Tour with muscular dystrophy

NEW YORK (AP) — PGA and it shouldn’t keep any-
Tour player Morgan Hoff- one else from chasing their
mann says he has been dreams either.”
diagnosed with muscular Hoffmann kept his PGA Tour
dystrophy and that his right card and made it through
pectoral muscle is nearly two rounds of the FedEx
gone. Cup playoffs last season,
In a story Hoffmann wrote finishing at No. 81 in the Fe-
for The Players’ Tribune dEx Cup. He has yet to win
website, he says he started in his five years on the PGA
to notice his right pectoral Tour, though he was a run-
deteriorating about five ner-up behind former Okla-
years ago. He saw more homa State teammate
than 25 doctors as his Rickie Fowler in the Honda
weakness progressed and Classic last season.
his swing speed decreased. Hoffmann grew up in New
He says he was diagnosed Jersey and played at Okla-
in November 2016. homa State with Fowler,
“Even though the type of Kevin Tway and Peter Ui-
muscular dystrophy that I hlein, who all are on the
have doesn’t pose an im- PGA Tour.
mediate threat to my life, He said the characteris-
there is a good chance tics of his type of muscular
that it will shorten it,” Hoff- dystrophy — facioscapulo- In this Sunday, April 30, 2017 file photo, Morgan Hoffmann tees off on the third hole during the final
man wrote. “I don’t know humeral — are atrophy of round of the PGA Zurich Classic golf tournament’s new two-man team format at TPC Louisiana in
when that will happen, be- the chest, back, neck, arms Avondale, La.
cause there’s no way to and sometimes the legs. Associated Press
gauge the speed at which “Each case is different, and right and a minimal amount stem cell research and ex- raising money and aware-
the disease will spread. But some muscles degenerate of the left pec have dete- perimenting with growth ness of muscular dystrophy.
please know this: This dis- more quickly than others,” riorated since I first started hormone treatments. That includes a charity golf
ease won’t keep me from Hoffmann wrote. “As of noticing an issue six years “I’m hopeful that they are event at his home course,
achieving my dream of now, the disease has pro- ago. Doctors are search- on the right track.” Hoff- Arcola Country Club in
winning on the PGA Tour — gressed slowly — only the ing for a cure, conducting man says he plans to start Paramus, New Jersey.q

IOC: Russians

Continued from Page 18 banned Russian Deputy
Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko
“An Olympic boycott has from the Olympics for life.
never achieved anything,” Mutko heads the organiz-
IOC President Thomas Bach ing committee of soccer’s
said at a news conference. next World Cup. As sports
“Secondly, I don’t see any minister in 2014, he was
reason for a boycott by the deeply implicated in the
Russian athletes because Sochi doping plot by two
we allow the clean athletes IOC commissions and a
there to participate.” World Anti-Doping Agency
Alexander Zhukov, the Rus- investigation.
sian Olympic Committee “The IOC executive board
president who also was sus- has made its positon to the
pended from his IOC mem- responsibility of Mr. Mutko
bership, told TV reporters in very clear,” said Bach, who
Lausanne that one key was would not comment if it
preserving the name “Rus- was appropriate for soc-
sia” in the team name. cer’s governing body FIFA
“They’ll be called Russian to continue working with
athletes and not some kind an official who is also presi-
of neutrals ... that’s very im- dent of Russia’s soccer fed- International Olympic Committee, IOC, President Thomas Bach from Germany, reacts during a
media conference after an Executive Board meeting, in Lausanne, Switzerland, Tuesday, Dec. 5,
portant,” Zhukov said. eration. 2017.
If it was a victory to have the At the State Kremlin Palace Associated Press
word “Russia” in the team on Dec. 1, FIFA President of $15 million on the Russian than-usual testing regime doping athletes.
name and invite some Rus- Gianni Infantino said at a Olympic Committee to pay and not have a doping vio- The CEO of the Sochi Olym-
sian athletes to compete, it joint news conference with for its two investigations into lation on their record. pics, Dmitry Chernyshenko,
came at a cost. Mutko that the IOC’s deci- the case and toward future Invitations will be decided also had his place on an
The IOC also suspended sion would not affect the anti-doping work. by an IOC panel chaired Olympic panel oversee-
the Russian Olympic Com- World Cup. The sanctions could be by former France Sports ing the 2022 Beijing Winter
mittee until at least the The message was repeated challenged at the Court of Minister Valerie Fourneyron. Games withdrawn by the
closing ceremony in South Tuesday by FIFA in a state- Arbitration for Sport. The IOC also will bar Rus- IOC.
Korea. ment noting that its ethics Any Russian athlete hop- sian officials who were Russia has repeatedly re-
In an embarrassment for and disciplinary commit- ing to earn invitations to team leaders at Sochi, and fused to accept that a
Russia’s hosting of the 2018 tees Pyeongchang will have to coaches or medial staff state-sponsored doping
World Cup, the IOC also The IOC also imposed a fine come through a stricter- who have been linked to program existed. q