Argentine’s Sport Idol II

Argentine Post released the stamp series features the Argentine’s Sport Idol II on September 26, 2009. The athletes have featured are Guillermo Villas, Delfo Cabrera , Luciana Paula Aymar, Juan Esteban Curuchet .

Guillermo Apolinario Vilas  is a retired professional tennis player from Argentina.He was born on August 17,1952, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is a left-handed baseliner.

He was in the year-ending top ten from 1974 through 1982. He was a clay-court specialist but also played well on hard, grass, and carpet surfaces.

Guillermo Vilas got his first big break in the 1974 Masters tournament (played on grass), where he defeated Ilie Năstase in the final.He won four Grand Slam titles: the 1977 French Open and the 1977 US Open (both played on clay) and the 1978 and 1979 Australian Open (both played on grass). He was also the runner-up at the French Open three times (1975, 1978, and 1982) and at the Australian Open once (January 1977).

Guillermo Vilas retired from the ATP tour in 1989 but still played ATP Challenger Series until 1992. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1991. Guillermo Vilas was in the stands at Flushing Meadows to cheer on his countryman, Juan Martín del Potro, who beat Roger Federer in a surprising upset in the US Open.

 

Delfo Cabrera Gómez  was an Argentine athlete, winner of the marathon race at the 1948 Summer Olympics in one of the most dramatic finishes in athletics history.

He was born on April 2, 1919 in Armstrong, Santa Fe. Delfo Cabrera played football as a youth, but decided to turn to athletics after Juan Carlos Zabala's triumph at the 1932 Summer Olympics.

He moved to Buenos Aires in 1938 and began training in San Lorenzo de Almagro under Francisco Mura. At the same year, he won his first national championships title (in 5000 m). Over the years he would win 9 more titles, but none of them in marathon.

Cabrera served in the army during the World War II, where he met Juan Perón. After the war, being a friend of Perón, he was active member of Justicialist Party. He received the Peronist Medal in 1949.

The London Olympic Games were Cabrera's first major international tournament.Cabrera gained the first rank of  the tournament.Cabrera participated also at the 1952 Summer Olympics, gaining sixth place in the marathon. Cabrera ended his athletics career after finishing sixth at the 1954 Boston Marathon. After that he taught physical education in several schools.

Delfo Cabrera died in a car accident near Buenos Aires on August 2, 1981.

Luciana Paula Aymar  is an Argentine field hockey midfielder. In 1997, she was part of the national team that won the Pan American Games Junior Championship, and a year later she debuted with the senior national team, finishing fourth at the World Cup. She was also the youngest Argentinian to be accepted into the squad, at just 16.

Aymar is known for her ability to beat opposing players using her dribbling skills, for which she has been compared with Argentine football idol Diego Maradona.

Aymar is part of a generation in Argentine field hockey that has won several international tournaments from the 1999 Pan American Games on, including an Olympic silver medal, and three Champions Trophies. Her outstanding performances have driven her to be chosen as the FIH player of the year seven times, five more than hockey legend Alyson Annan, although the award was only introduced in 1998, towards the end of Annan's career.

Juan Esteban Curuchet  is a road bicycle racer and track cyclist from Argentina. He was born on February 4, 1965 in Mar del Plata.Curuchet represented Argentina at the Summer Olympics in 1984, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008.

He won the madison at the 1999 Pan American Games with his older brother, Gabriel Ovidio Curuchet. He also won the madison at the 2003 Pan American Games and 2007 Pan American Games alongside Walter Pérez.

Curuchet holds an Argentine record of participating in six non-consecutive Olympic games. He closed his Olympic career at 43 by winning n the madison at the 2008 Summer Olympics.