In contrast to older sister Christen, who recalled recently that she spent her first soccer season picking flowers instead of kicking the ball, Channing Press couldnt wait to get on the field.Really, she couldnt wait.Her parents tell her that she was so excited to finally play in her first real soccer game at about 4 years old that she took off at full sprint well before any whistle ever blew. In her mind, perhaps, she had bided her time as a spectator long enough. By three years the youngest of sisters, Tyler oldest and Christen in the middle, Channing sought to follow in their footsteps.It is hardly new, as these stories go, to learn she eventually needed to find her own path separate from their accomplishments.Who followed her when she took that fork is something of a plot twist.In confronting her own depression, finding peace of mind through the practice and study of Vedic meditation, Channing discovered a world awaiting her that offered pleasures and passions beyond soccer.And while meditation helped Channing reach a place where she was at peace with walking away from soccer, it might well have kept Christen from doing the same.I feel like in the most important part of my life, which is my soccer, football, my career, she has really protected me, said Christen, the United States forward who has chased a soccer ball across the globe, including a World Cup title a year ago and now in her first Olympics. And she has really taught me how to build an army to protect myself. And I feel like I could withstand anything.Channing withstood a lot in her own right. She loved the game as much as any of the sisters, the three of them daughters of a dad who imbued in them the competitiveness he carried as a former college football player. While they chased achievement in everything -- the three ended up going to Harvard (Tyler), Stanford (Christen) and Villanova (Channing) -- soccer stood apart. Yet as Channing neared her teenage years and soccer grew ever more serious, the game started to take a toll. She threw up before almost any competition, anxiety swelling inside her. She couldnt control it. By the time she played for Villanova in college, anxiety morphed into full-on panic attacks.She spiraled into a year-long depression. She felt trapped, unable to live up to expectations -- her own and those of all the people who told her how good she was from an early age -- when it came to this central pillar of her life that the sport had become. Yet its place as a central pillar made it that much more difficult to deconstruct, lest everything come tumbling down around it.She couldnt talk about it, not with her friends and not with her siblings.A lot of people, they dont know how to respond, Channing, now 24, said. The culture is that you should be strong. You need to be tough. You need to be able to thrive under pressure. Pressure is what makes us. You need to have that. And so people just want you to be able to push through it all, and it doesnt create an environment where you can openly discuss the things you are feeling.It was amid that nadir while home in California she came across a Vedic meditation class. There is a spiritual component, if not necessarily a religious one, to what she now understands about the practice as an instructor. But that wasnt what she sought initially. What appealed to her was, in essence, a chance to be proactive. Channing found convincing the research supporting the physiological benefits of meditation, that it could harness the fight-or-flight instinct that never switched off inside her. Even in the small amount of time involved, 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the evening to bring the body and mind to what is described as the least excited state, she felt a world that had closed in on her open up again.Channing ultimately didnt use her final two seasons of eligibility at Villanova. She felt better by then, but the love for the game had gone.Channing remained focused on meditation and began to pursue the means to teach it, including three months of intensive study in India. But it wasnt until a year with meditation had passed that she finally opened up to Christen about her struggles by then over.Ive always felt like my job is to protect my sister, Christen said. Even growing up, on the playground, when my sister was too shy I would speak for her. ... I even had dreams where I had to save her, growing up, all the time -- like she was falling and I had to save her.So it was sad and shocking that I hadnt seen this huge thing happening because I was probably so wrapped up in what I was doing with soccer and the stress that I was feeling.It was at about this time that Christen faced a crossroads of her own with soccer. The Hermann Trophy winner as the nations best college player as a senior at Stanford, she finished school just in time to see Womens Professional Soccer (WPS) fold later that year. She hadnt yet made inroads with the national team, although she certainly felt the pressure to do so. It was not the happiest of times.I think that during college I would say I did not enjoy playing soccer, Christen said. Its funny because people on this team are like, Oh college, the good old days. And Im like, Im so glad Im not in that. Those were the awful days.Stanfords an amazing, amazing school. It was an extraordinary soccer program. Its no one to blame. I was just living in my own mental hell because of the pressure that I felt to score goals and perform and win games for my team. It was never good enough. I remember playing games and having tears roll down my face because it felt like it was never going to be good enough.Part of the solution came from expanding her horizons geographically. She moved to Sweden that fall to play in its professional league, immersed in a new way of playing the game on the field and a new culture off it that emphasized quality of life over relentless achievement.But part of her own turnaround came from a change of perspective less rooted in an atlas. As Tyler and mother Stacy did first with Channing, Christen soon took the same course and sought her younger sisters advice. Meditation helped in small ways -- Christen felt as if her regimen completely alleviated any jet lag when she first arrived in Sweden -- but also in more profound ways.I think that there is a chance I wouldnt be here, Christen said of the influence of meditation. Im a pretty determined person, even when I was totally neurotic, so there is part of me that is like, I would be here, and I would just be grinding this out until the death of me. But I think its a totally different experience coming here and being confident in who I am, being a person that isnt disrupted by small setbacks.By owning and having ownership over my own happiness, I think that makes this experience so much better.Tyler talked Channing out of retirement not so long ago, the two playing together on a recreational team in Southern California, the games played purely for fun. And while Channings recent move to Las Vegas will split up the duo, she intends to find a new league.But for evidence of a little sisters peace of mind, just look to the soccer stadiums of Brazil this month.I think its also a way for us to better understand each other, Channing said. For me, being able to share meditation is a way to really express my encouragement of what shes doing and just share with her that Im proud that she does what she does. Cheap NHL Jerseys Online . -- The Bishops Gaiters are showing they belong among the countrys top varsity football teams. Wholesale NHL Jerseys . Those lessons were more than enough to overwhelm the Utah Jazz. Lou Williams scored 25 points and the Hawks continued their offensive upswing as they rolled to an easy 118-85 victory over the Jazz on Friday night, winning their third straight and for the fourth time in five games. http://www.cheapnhljerseysusa.com/ . -- Catcher Brett Hayes has agreed to a $630,000, one-year contract with the Kansas City Royals, avoiding salary arbitration. Cheap Adidas NHL Jerseys . Ibaka equaled a career high with 20 rebounds, adding four blocked shots and 15 points as the Thunder smothered the Milwaukee Bucks offence in a 92-79 victory Saturday night. Cheap NHL Jerseys Authentic . Coach Tom Thibodeau says the former MVP will probably start travelling with the team in the next few weeks. Rose tore the meniscus in his right knee at Portland in November and was ruled out for the remainder of the season by the Bulls. SAO PAULO -- The 2016 title race will go down to the final round in Abu Dhabi after Lewis Hamilton won a chaotic Brazilian Grand Prix ahead of Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg, who scored the necessary points to continue his steady march towards his first world championship.The wet race was stopped twice by red flags and featured five safety car periods as rain fell throughout the afternoon, testing the nerves of the drivers and, at times, the patience of the fans. But the tedious stops were outweighed by the thrilling restarts, with Max Verstappen providing the majority of the entertainment with a remarkable drive up and down the field to finally finish on the podium in third.Even with all the interruptions, Hamilton never looked under threat and finished with a healthy 11.4s margin over Rosberg. Verstappen got ahead of Rosberg when the race started under the safety car for the second time, but gambles on intermediate tyres failed to pay off and he dropped down to 16th under the final safety car period, prompting a stunning recovery drive. In the final 12 laps he carved his was past Daniel Ricciardo, Daniil Kvyat, Esteban Ocon, Felipe Nasr, Nico Hulkenberg, Sebastian Vettel, Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez to take a very well deserved third at the flag. Of that group Nasr was one of the other heroes of the race, driving home to an invaluable ninth position on home tarmac which moves Sauber above Manor for tenth in the championship.The one-two finish for Mercedes leaves Rosberg 12 points ahead of Hamilton going to the final round, meaning another podium would secure the title for Rosberg in Abu Dhabi, regardless of where Hamilton finishes. Hamilton, meanwhile, has to aim for victory in the hope Rosberg finishes fourth or lower.Persistent rain in the build up to the race delayed the start by ten minutes and meant the race got underway behind the safety car. Hamilton made a strong start once the safety car peeled into the pits on lap seven and he immediately started building a lead over Rosberg. Verstappen nipped past Kimi Raikkonen at Turn 1 to take third and started to mount his challenge on the Mercedes ahead. The rain continued throughout the first racing laps, but did not stop several drivers changing to intermediates in the hope of finding more performance. Marcus Ericsson in the Sauber was among them, but his race ended on lap 13 when he aquaplaned coming out of the final corner and smashed into the wall by the pit lane exit.Red Bull reacted immediately by pitting for intermediates, with Verstappen making it into the pit lane just before it was closed to remove Ericssons smashed up Sauber. Ricciardo wasnt quite so lucky and peeled into the pits just after the entrance had been closed, incurring a five-second penalty as a result. The safety car was deployed for six laps to clear up the mess, but the rain continued to fall and made conditions treacherous when the race restarted. Kimi Raikkonen proved just how dangerous the conditions were as he aquaaplaned into the pit wall moments after the restart.dddddddddddd He was lucky not to collect another driver, but the debris and carnage that followed convinced race control to red flag the race.The race restarted under the safety car once the rain had eased again and full racing resumed on lap 32 with all cars on the wet tyres. Verstappen seized his chance to pass Rosberg at Turn 1 on the restart by finding a remarkable amount of grip around the outside of Turn 3, slingshotting his Red Bull past the Mercedes. He then started to take time out of race leader Hamilton, but as he got within a second of the lead Mercedes, Hamilton upped his pace and pulled away.Verstappen continued to push regardless and on lap 38 lost the rear of his car on the painted line at the inside of the final corner. The Red Bull slewed sideways up the hill, with the 19-year-old somehow managing to regain control as he approached the wall where Ericsson destroyed his Sauber. Remarkably he retained some forward momentum and even managed to hold off Rosberg into Turn 1 at the start of the next lap.Unperturbed by the loss of control, Verstappen pitted for intermediates five laps later as Red Bull again gambled on the faster of the two wet-weather tyres. He dropped to fifth behind Perez and Sainz as a result of the pit stop but was quicker than the cars in front and was preparing to line up the Toro Rosso for a passing move when Felipe Massa slammed his Williams into the wall on lap 48. It was an emotional moment for the Brazilian at his final home race and he was afforded a guard of honour by Mercedes and Ferrari as he walked down the pit lane in tears. He finally arrived to a very warm welcome at the Williams garage where he hugged every mechanic on the team.With conditions worsening once more, both Red Bulls pitted under the resulting safety car to return to full wet tyres for the final laps of the race. The decision dropped Ricciardo to 12th and Verstappen to 16th, but the fresher tyres gave both drivers an advantage when racing resumed on lap 55. Ricciardos pace was not bad, but Verstappens pace was remarkable and the Dutch teenager passed his teammate for tenth position on lap 59 as his comeback drive kicked into its highest gear.Perhaps the most satisfying of the following seven overtakes to third was the one on Vettel, who he edged wide and off the track into the final corner to take fifth. Vettel complained over team radio, but his message fell on deaf ears as almost everyone at Interlagos willed Verstappen back towards a podium finish.The top two finishers had good reasons to be satisfied with their results -- Hamilton because he finally won at his hero Ayrton Sennas home race and Rosberg because he continued on course to his first title -- but it was Verstappens drive to third that will be the defining memory of the 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix. ' ' '