SPORTS NEWS

Like an understudy on the Broadway stage, reserve drivers must be ready to step into a lead role at a moment's notice while never sure if, and when, the wait will end. It is a gamble between glory and obscurity. "Normally nothing happens," Pascal Wehrlein, understudying for double world champion Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg as reserve driver for world champions Mercedes, told CNN. "If something happens to Nico or Lewis I'll be in the race car. It must be really bad luck if one of them couldn't drive but I'd step in." The 20-year-old German arguably has the most coveted reserve role on the F1 grid with the fastest car in the world within touching distance. Already racing for Mercedes in the German touring car championship, known as DTM, he was promoted to a role in F1 last season. His apprenticeship as a reserve driver sees him travel to every grand prix where he joins Mercedes' star drivers in the team debriefs throughout the 2015 season. ...

Try to make ends meet Try to find some money then you die." The hit song by British band The Verve is playing on the car radio as we drive into Pazardzhik, a small town just over an hour from Bulgaria's capital city Sofia. The lyrics are poignant because we're here to interview a man who's no stranger to life's ups and downs -- a former Olympian who was on top of his game a year before "Bitter Sweet Symphony" was near the top of the charts. Heading into Atlanta '96, his third Olympic Games, Serafim Todorov was at his peak as a boxer. Supremely confident, talented and experienced, the 27-year-old cruised through to the featherweight semifinals, where he faced a teenage American. Todorov says he underestimated his opponent and quickly realized that Floyd Mayweather was a "really good" boxer. Still, the Bulgarian won by a point in a controversial decision that sparked U.S. protests -- and the referee initially raised the American's glove. ...