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RIO DE JANEIRO -- Police in Rio de Janeiro said a Russian diplomat trying to repel an attempted robbery Thursday near the Olympic Park was involved in a shooting that left the assailant dead. The Russian embassy denied any of its employees were involved in the incident.Rio police said a Russian vice consul wrestled with a gunman who was trying to rob him, causing the weapon to go off and killing the criminal. In a statement to The Associated Press, the Russians refuted the police report.There must be a misunderstanding, the embassy said in an email late Thursday.The Russian government also said its representatives are not armed. It pointed out that consulate officials are Russian citizens with Russian names, contrary to media reports that gave a Brazilian-sounding name.Authorities did not officially identify any of the people involved in the incident, and only said the man who was attacked was a lawyer and a vice consul for Russia.The O Globo newspaper and other local media said the Russian diplomat practiced Jiu-jitsu. They reported that he was driving with his wife and daughter when he got stuck at a traffic jam on a main highway of Barra da Tijuca, home to the Olympic Park. Two gunmen in motorcycles attacked, media said. The police only talked about the assailant, who was killed.The vice consul got into a physical confrontation with the aggressor, and during the fight, the assailants gun was fired several times, said the police statement. The homicide unit opened an investigation.Such street muggings are common in Rio de Janeiro streets, especially in areas with heavy traffic, where motorcycles can drive in between lanes, attack motorists and escape easily. Cheap NBA Jerseys China .S District Court against Major League Baseball, the Office of the Commissioner and his own union, the MLBPA. Cheap Nike NBA Jerseys .ca NBA Power Rankings, ahead of the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs. http://www.cheapjerseysnba.com/ . -- Los Angeles Lakers guard Jordan Farmar will be out for roughly four weeks after tearing his left hamstring. NBA Jerseys Outlet . The team said Saturday that Lopez was hurt during its 121-120 overtime loss at Philadelphia on Friday. The Nets said they would issue another update next week after consultation with their doctors. Cheap Authentic NBA Jerseys . PAUL, Minn. Fun fact: Athletes at the ancient Olympic Games -- the ones held in Greece over a millennium ago -- competed in the nude?because part of the point of the games was to celebrate the human form.Sounds very, uh, naturalistic. But at some point people figured out that theyd never score a sneaker contract or an endorsement deal by competing in their birthday suits, so Olympic uniforms were born.And that has always posed a problem, at least from a design standpoint. Most Olympic athletes will only compete over the course of a few days (or, in some cases, a few minutes), so theres no time for small details or subtle nuances to sink in the way they would over the course of a long sports season. Thats why the trend at recent Olympiads has been toward bold designs that make a strong visual impact. Get in, boom, get out.Look back a bit further in Olympic history, however, and youll see all sorts of uni-related anomalies and curiosities. With that in mind, here are a dozen key moments in Olympic apparel history, some of which may surprise you.1. USA basketball team photo, 2008. Sometimes a bellwether uniform moment takes place off the field -- or in this case, off the court. No single episode has captured the modern commingling of the Olympics, uniforms and corporate influence like the 2008 American basketball squads team portrait, where Team USAs outfitter, Nike, arranged things so coach Mike Krzyzewski just happened to be positioned with his foot obscuring Dwight Howards Adidas sneakers. Howard appeared to be getting a bit of revenge by having his hand over the Nike logo on his shorts. Hey, its all part of the Olympic movement, right?The incident was echoed in the photo of this years Team USA roster:2. Michael Johnson, 1996. These days we take it for granted that most of the top athletes will have flashy footwear. But that wasnt the case 20 years, ago, when American sprinter Michael Johnson broke out a set of custom-designed Nike spikes rendered in glittering gold for the Summer Games in Atlanta. The gold extended beyond his shoes, as Johnson won the 200- and 400-meter races.3. Abebe Bikila, 1960, and Zola Budd, 1984. Then again, who needs a flashy shoe design when youre not wearing shoes to begin with? Abebe Bikila, an Ethiopian long-distance runner, won the gold in the marathon at the 1960 Games in Rome while running barefoot. Two dozen years later in Los Angeles, South African runner Zola Budd went barefoot while famously colliding with American rival Mary Decker in the 3,000 meters.4. Cathy Freeman, 2000. For generations, the traditional thinking about performance sportswear was that athletes got faster and faster as they wore less and less. But Nike turned that logic on its head at the 2000 Games in Sydney, where Australian sprinter Cathy Freeman wore more. While her competitors competed in the standard tank tops and shorts, Freeman donned an aerodynamically designed full-body unitard -- a swift suit, Nike called it. It may have been counterintuitive, but it worked: Freeman won the gold in the 400 meters.5. The Australian womens basketball team, 1996-2008. Freeman isnt the only female Australian athlete who has raised eyebrows with a one-piece uniform. The Aussie womens hoops team wore an unconventional unitard format at four Olympiads (Atlanta in 1996, Sydney in 2000, Athens in 2004, and Beijing in 2008), winning a bronze and three silvers over that span. Despite that record of success, the team reverted to the more traditional tank top and shorts in 2012.6. Ibtihaj Muhammad, 2016. We had to include one entry from Rio, and it was an easy choice. Ibtihaj Muhammad, an American fencer, has become the first Team USA Olympian to compete while wearing a hijab -- which makes her a good symbol of Americas diversity, especially at a time when Muslim-Americans have become something of a political football. (Footnote: She won the bronze.)7. Martin Sheridan, 1908. It seems safe to say that its been a long time since any athletes keptt sock garters in their lockers.dddddddddddd For one thing, modern stretch fabrics keep socks from falling down. For another, sock garters look, you know, seriously dorky. But that didnt keep Martin Sheridan from wearing them while winning the gold medal in the discus throw at the 1908 Games in London.8. Kerri Strug, 1996. No protective or rehabilitative gear worn by any athlete has ever seemed as significant as the ankle wraps worn by American gymnast Kerri Strug at the 1996 Games in Atlanta. After spraining her ankle on her first vault attempt, she injured it further while sticking the landing for her second vault, which helped clinch the gold for Team USA. With Strugs injured leg wrapped and secured in a protective boot, coach Béla Károlyi carried her to the medal podium, where she stood on one leg alongside her teammates, the bandages and boot serving as a potent symbol of her Olympic spirit.9. Muhammad Ali, 1960. As the world says goodbye to Muhammad Ali this year, its worth remembering that he looked very sharp indeed at the 1960 Olympics in Rome (when he was still known as Cassius Clay), winning the light-heavyweight gold medal while wearing USA trunks and a sash-style tank top. If you check out the old photos, his opponents look positively slovenly by comparison. Even as a teenager, The Greatest had his opposing fighters outclassed before they even stepped into the ring. (As an aside, Ali kept wearing those USA trunks for several of his early professional bouts.) 10. Vasily Alekseyev, 1972-1980. There are lots of Olympic sports where the athletes show a lot of skin -- synchronized diving and beach volleyball, for example, are often done in tiny swimsuits. But never has a uniform seemed skimpier than when the great Soviet weightlifter Vasily Alekseyev strapped on his singlet, which looked like it was designed for a much narrower man.11. The Norwegian curling team, 2010. Weve been focusing on the Summer Olympics here, because the 2016 Summer Games are currently taking place in Rio, but its worth dipping into the Winter Games to take a look at the Norwegian curling teams pants. Not only did the pants cause a sensation at the 2010 Vancouver Games, but they also garnered as much publicity for their manufacturer, Loudmouth Golf, as they did for the Norwegians (who won the silver medal while sporting the outlandish designs, by the way). By the time of the next Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, in 2014, the Norwegians had inked an endorsement deal with Loudmouth and garish pants had become popular at amateur curling rinks around the world. Love em or hate em, the pants are a textbook case of modern sports apparel branding.12. Tommie Smith and John Carlos, 1968. No discussion of Olympic attire would be complete without a mention of the black gloves worn on the medal podium by American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who won the gold and bronze, respectively, in the 200 meters at the 1968 Games in Mexico City. As they stood on the podium and The Star-Spangled Banner began to play, they raised their black-gloved fists in what was widely interpreted as a black power gesture (although Smith later said in his autobiography that it was actually a human rights salute). In addition, Smith, Carlos, and silver medalist Peter Norman from Australia all wore Olympic Project for Human Rights badges on their track jackets during the medal ceremony.Paul Lukas stubbornly wears plain black pants while curling but appreciates how the Loudmouth pants have helped to popularize the sport. If you like how this retrospective turned out, youll probably like Lukas Uni Watch Blog, plus you can follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Want to learn about his Uni Watch Membership Program, be added to his mailing list so youll always know when a new column has been posted or just ask him a question? Contact him here. ' ' '