An American trying to dribble a football from Seattle to Brazil in time for the 2014 Brazil World Cup has died less than two weeks into his trip.<\/p>\n
Richard Swanson, 42, was hit by a truck in Lincoln City, Oregon. His football was found nearby.<\/p>\n
Swanson had set off from Seattle on 1 May aiming to raise money for the One World Futbol Project, according to his Breakaway Brazil website.<\/p>\n
One World Futbol donates durable footballs to developing countries.<\/p>\n
Swanson hoped to travel through 11 countries including Guatemala, Mexico and Colombia.<\/p>\n
“It will be a trip of a lifetime where I will push myself further then I ever thought possible,” he wrote on his website.<\/p>\n
“I felt destined that I should go on this trip,” he had said in a previous interview.<\/p>\n
A statement on Swanson’s Facebook Page announced Swanson’s death and said: “His team, family, friends, and loved ones will miss him and love him dearly. <\/p>\n
You made it to Brazil in our hearts, Richard.”<\/p>\n
An ‘inspiring man’<\/p>\n
In a YouTube video uploaded in March, Swanson explained that he had lost his job in graphic design, after switching from a career as a private investigator. <\/p>\n
He was having “a hard time” finding another job and it had given him time to “think about what you want out of life”.<\/p>\n
He said he’d always wanted to go to the World Cup and instead of walking there, wanted to honour the tournament by dribbling a football.<\/p>\n
Having no mortgage, no career and two grown up sons meant that “all the pieces seemed to fit” for making the trip, he said.<\/p>\n
“We are deeply saddened to learn about Richard’s death,” Lisa Tarver, chief operating officer of the One World Futbol Project said in a statement.<\/p>\n
“He was a very inspiring man who in a very short time walked his way into many lives. Our thoughts are with his family.”<\/p>\n
BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An American trying to dribble a football from Seattle to Brazil in time for the 2014 Brazil World Cup has died less than two weeks into his trip. Richard Swanson, 42, was hit by a truck in Lincoln City, Oregon. His football was found nearby. Swanson had set off from Seattle on 1 May aiming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-7845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7845\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7845"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=7845"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=7845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}