NHL-professional turns vegan
Ice hockey (frequently simply called hockey in countries where it is the most popular form of hockey) is the most popular professional sport in Finland, Canada and Slovakia. It is also one of the biggest sports for example in Sweden, Russia, Chech Republic and Switzerland. In United States of America it is also one of the major sports, altough only after baseball, basketball and (american) football.
The sport of hockey has not been very intresting subject of AR point of view, until this spring/summer, when one of the best known professionals of hockey announced to be a vegan and was participating an anti-fur demonstration. This player was and is Montreal Canadiens forward Georges Laraque.
Georges Laraque is not best known scoring goals or making points, but being a heavy-weight enforcer. As some of you may know, North-American hockey is known not only of players skills with the puck, but also as a intense aggressive and physical sport of tackling and even fighting. Now this is the part where Laraque has been shining for a whole decade now.
He was unanimously awarded the 'Best Fighter' award from The Hockey News in 2003. He was named the number one enforcer by Sports Illustrated in 2008.
IMHO, Laraque’s turning as a vegan and an activist is a great thing for him, hockey and animal rights. He crushes the stereotypes regarding both hockeyplayers and AR-activists.
At www.georgeslaraque.com “Big George” writes “First of all, I officially became a vegan on June 1, 2009. Even though it's quite a change in terms of nutrition, I have never felt better or so healthy in my life. Considering that I'm a professional athlete, that’s quite important, but with the help of the Montreal Vegetarian Association, and my nutritionist Anne Marie Roy, they have made the perfect meal plan for me that is free of animals and animal-products. And that part is quite crucial, when you're vegetarian, you cut down fish and meat, but when your vegan, on top of that, you eliminate all dairy products as well as everything that comes from animals. It makes sense that I feel healthier now that I’m vegan – according to the Dieticians of Canada and the American Dietetic Association, vegetarians are less prone to heart disease, certain types of cancer, diabetes and obesity than meat-eaters are.”
You can read more of his thoughts regarding animal rights at http://www.georgeslaraque.com/default.asp?mn=1.39.100
Laraque’s personal e-mail is letsrock27@hotmail.com (also visible at www.georgeslaraque.com) and you can write greetings and congratulations directly to him. Don’t expect him to answer to every inquiry, because after all, he is a busy professional athlete.
You can find many videos of his hockeyfights at YouTube. A couple of my favourites are:
Against Chris Simon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z94-qEPtiLM
Against Riley Cote http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnNwWPRH4G8
At this video Laraque scores three goals http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RnL2kF9zR4
AND you might also be intrested at “Georges Laraque battles racism to make it to the NHL, using Jackie Robinson as his inspiration.” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbSOd5P8g2A
And you can see his career stats at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Laraque
) so it's good to read a bit of background.
Should have read the OP...