LOUDON, N.H. -- He was one of NASCARs first superstars, but Fred Lorenzens memories of his Hall of Fame career have dimmed as he battles dementia. His Daytona 500 victory, the wins he piled up to become NASCARs first $100,000 driver, his life on the road, all have been largely extinguished.Lorenzen still has flickering moments when he remembers his days as NASCARs Golden Boy -- called that for his rugged, movie-star looks. Like in recent years, when he visits Chicago Speedway, not far from his assisted living facility.His face just lights up when hes there, said his daughter, Amanda Lorenzen Gardstrom.Nearly 45 years after his last Cup race, Lorenzen hoped he could still make his mark on the NASCAR community. Inspired by Dale Earnhardt Jr.s decision to pledge his brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation, Lorenzen became the second known driver to make the same decision.Gardstrom made it official Friday with a pledge to Legacy co-founder Chris Nowinski. As auto racing grapples with the issue of concussions and head trauma, one of NASCARs pioneers is now alongside Earnhardt in the donation queue.As a family, we decided we wanted to support Dale Junior and all work together toward a healthy future for these drivers, she told The Associated Press.Earnhardts concussion history -- he missed two races in 2012 -- spurred his decision to pledge his brain to the Legacy, a group that works with Boston University on research into chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a degenerative disease that doctors believe is caused by repeated blows to the head.Gardstrom is convinced the 81-year-old Lorenzen has CTE as a result of years of brutal wrecks and hits in the 1960s, one of the most dangerous eras in racing history. Lorenzen won the Daytona 500 in 1965.He never stopped to heal, she said.She wants to help, and knows her father does, too, and to advance the understanding of concussions and their treatment in NASCAR.Its the younger generation that we really need to educate, she said. Theyre young, theyre hungry, but when they get in a wreck and get a concussion, they know if they dont get back in the car, someone else is going to take it. We want to change the culture of the sport.Earnhardt has become the face of concussion awareness in sports and will skip Sundays Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway because of concussion symptoms. There is no timetable for when NASCARs most popular driver might return.The 41-year-old Earnhardt had already intended to be an organ donor, so he said in April that giving up his brain made sense. Earnhardt said he was motivated by reading about three former Oakland Raiders who donated their brains in honor of teammate Ken Stabler, who died in 2015. The quarterbacks brain showed signs of CTE.I think the protocols and the advances that we have made in trying to protect ourselves are great things, Earnhardt said at his pledge announcement. Im excited about what NASCAR has done. They have really taken this head-on.Gardstrom felt the same sense of motivation when she read about Earnhardts pledge. She said Lorenzen, inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2015, first showed signs of dementia about a decade ago. He has memory loss and uses a wheelchair at Oak Brook Healthcare in Illinois.The Elmhurst, Illinois, native was one of NASCARs first stars to hail from outside the sports Southern roots.The hardest part right now is that his racing memories are starting to go, Gardstrom said. That was the one thing that was really wonderful, to connect and see him light up when he talked about racing.Shed like to see others in the sport talk more about concussions.That hasnt necessarily been a hot topic of conversation in any of our meetings, Sprint Cup champion Kyle Busch said.Six-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson was part of a 54-member panel that picked Lorenzen for induction into the hall. Johnson has yet to consider donating his brain to the Legacy.I am an organ donor so it wouldnt bother me to do that, but its something Ive not taken steps in and have not discussed at all, he said.In the 15 years since the death of Dale Earnhardt Sr. at the 2001 Daytona 500, NASCAR has introduced a series of measures designed to keep drivers safe, from helmet and restraint systems to impact-absorbing barriers along concrete walls, all designed to cushion high-impact blows.NASCAR also mandated in 2013 that drivers submit to baseline neurocognitive assessment. When a driver in NASCAR cant return his damaged car to the garage, a trip to the care center is required. Under a new three-step process, a driver showing any indication of a head injury must go immediately to a hospital. Concussed drivers must be cleared by an independent neurologist or neurosurgeon before they can get back in a race car.Gardstrom wants NASCAR to take even more steps.We dont have to wait until more drivers brains are studied to make a better concussion protocol, she said.Former athletes in other sports have sued their leagues, contending that the risks of concussions were hidden from them so they could return to competition. Gardstrom has no interest in a lawsuit.No money is going to bring my dad back, but what my goal now is, is to make sure the NASCAR family doesnt have to go through the similar things were going through now, she said.Lorenzen hasnt been forgotten by todays racing stars -- they appreciate a driver who won 26 times in the Cup series. Tony Stewart introduced Lorenzen at his hall induction. Jeff Gordon leaned in for a chat with Fearless Freddie last year at Chicagoland before the race.He was such a humble guy, that I dont think he ever realized what an impact he had on the sport, Gardstrom said. Authentic Cheap NFL Jerseys . -- PGA TOUR Canada member Steve Saunders took a three-stroke lead Saturday in the Web. Cheap Jerseys Authentic . Here are his mid-season NBA awards. MVP: (KEVIN DURANT-Thunder) - Has been sensational this season and more importantly, the most consistent player in the league. Considering that his team has been without star guard Russell Westbrook and with the free agent departure of sharpshooter Kevin Martin, hes had to carry the majority of the load to not only keep his team afloat but more importantly, at an elite level. http://www.cheapjerseysusaauthentic.com/ . 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RIO DE JANEIRO -- After months of speculation, its official. Skateboarding and surfing are Olympic sports. If that looks strange to read, it also feels surprisingly strange to type. Even though Wednesdays unanimous vote to include Tokyo 2020s proposed five-sport package by the IOCs Executive Board seemed more formality than nail-biter, and the eventual inclusion of additional action sports to the Olympic program felt inevitable, the moment IOC president Thomas Bach announced, its official, dueling thoughts entered my mind: What has taken so long? and What happens now?The inclusion of the Tokyo five -- which also includes sport climbing, karate, baseball and softball and adds 447 athletes and 54 medals to the Tokyo Games -- pertains only to 2020. After 2020, each Olympic organizing committee is afforded the opportunity to recommend a new package of sports to be included only in its Games. Thats a welcome sign of evolution to a rigid Olympic structure that previously required addition by subtraction, but one that means a massive amount of build up around sports that could very well become Olympic one-offs.How well each sport folds into the Olympic batter -- and more importantly, how they impact TV ratings and the host citys bottom line -- will impact their five-ring futures post-Tokyo. But how well they remain committed to the culture of their communities and showcase their sports with integrity will ultimately determine their Olympic success.Take baseball and softball, for example, two sports the IOC insists on tithing to each other. Major League Baseball has yet to come to an agreement with the IOC to suspend play during the eight-day Olympic tournament or allow its players to participate in the Games at all. If they are unable to do so, the lack of MLB star power will certainly hurt the potential for baseball -- and softball, until it is able to cut ties with its brother sport -- to return in 2024.We hope the IOC reaches an agreement with the U.S. pro league as it does with basketball, John Coates, chairman of the IOCs Tokyo 2020 coordination committee, said Wednesday. If not, baseball competition will not fulfill its potential completely and it will be difficult for it to be included in the future.On the opposite end of the spectrum is skateboarding, a sport that has proven its telegenic worth during the past 20 years as a marquee sport in ESPNs X Games and with stand-alone televised events like Street League. Of all the X Games sports, skateboarding has always seemed the least willing to accept its place within the mainstream, yet it also seems the most poised to withstand the test in Tokyo, where skateboarding is hugely popular and where the sport will be showcased in a festival-like venue that will be open to the public to skate during non-competition hours.Im not worried about making a case for skateboarding, said Gary Ream, president of the International Skateboarding Federation and chair of the 2020 Tokyo skateboarding commission. Obviously the success of snowboarding has been huge. But the summer Olympics is five times bigger than the winter Games, skateboarding is relatively cheap to put on compared to snowboarding and when you add in the culture, influence and youth, you say, Wow. In my mind, there is no doubt. Skateboarding will be the star of the 2020 Games.OOf course, it is imprecise to lump these five sports together under an umbrella conversation about how this decision will alter them on a global scale and what work needs to be done to determine how they will be showcased in Tokyo and the roads it will take to get them there.ddddddddddddKarate, a martial art born in Japan, must decide whether to include non-contact karate, which is recognized by the IOC, or its universally popular safe-contact version. Sport climbing will undoubtedly harness the next four years to grow its numbers and promote climbing in emerging markets like Cuba. Surfing, which will hold its contest on natural waves at Shidashita Beach in Chiba, Japan, must create a qualifying process, alter its competition format to allow for a bronze medalist and cross its fingers Mother Nature provides waves worthy of world-class surfers -- or waves at all.In addition to the considerable strides weve seen in surfing as a global sport on the WSL tour in recent years, todays inclusion of surfing in the Olympics further highlights surfings place on the international stage, Paul Speaker, CEO of the World Surfing League, said after the vote. The WSLs Commissioners Office will continue to work with the IOC and ISA towards showcasing surfing in the best possible light at the Tokyo 2020 Games.Skateboarding has perhaps the most tumultuous road ahead. Its dueling governing bodies must hash out their differences -- last week, the World Skateboarding Federation sued the ISF for claims it broke drug-testing rules and blocked the ISF from Olympic negotiations -- and work to establish a drug-testing policy and qualification processes for street and park. And it must convince its anti-establishment masses that the Olympics will be good for the sport.Because Roller Sports, or FIRS [Federation Internationale Roller Sports] is the recognized federation for skateboarding and the ISF is the representative of the sport of skateboarding, we formed a commission between the two organizations that will manage the Olympics, said Ream, who had no comment on the lawsuit. Everything skateboarding related will be done by the ISF and Roller Sports will take care of the institution, drug testing, ethics and betting. Drug testing will work like it does in any other sport and there will be no issue because we dont have a problem. The onus is on us to get this right and not screw it up for skateboarding.On that last point, hes right. Unlike snowboarding, skateboarding and surfing arent guaranteed a second chance for repair work. And while the Olympics will provide an incredible opportunity for increased funding and exposure for all of these sports, as they did for snowboarding, most action-sports athletes say the Olympics will never become the defining contest on their calendars.This is a great opportunity, exposing surfing to new territory on the world stage, said six-time world surfing champion Stephanie Gilmore. Im more than excited to have a possibility of personally competing in the Olympics. Olympic athletes have been a huge inspiration to me from such a young age. However, I still believe the WSL World Title is and should remain the pinnacle achievement in our sport. 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