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Tag: Olympics

  • Biles makes history with vault at world championships

    Biles makes history with vault at world championships

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    Gymnastics star Simone Biles made more history Sunday, becoming the first woman to land the Yurchenko double pike vault at an international competition, meaning the extremely difficult vault will be named after her. Here’s what you need to know:

    • Biles landed the vault during qualifying at the 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp, Belgium, where she’s competing with Team USA in her first international meet since the Tokyo Olympics.
    • The move — the hardest vault being done in women’s gymnastics right now — will now be called the “Biles II” in the gymnastics rule book. The 26-year-old has five gymnastics elements named after her across vault, floor exercise and the balance beam.
    • The U.S. women finished in first place in the qualifying session and will aim for gold in the team final Wednesday.

    Backstory

    Biles, a 19-time world champion and four-time Olympic champion, took a hiatus from the sport following the Tokyo Games, during which she won a team silver and a bronze on balance beam but struggled with a bout of “the twisties,” a term gymnasts use to describe a sudden loss of air awareness when performing skills that require them to twist while flipping.

    She returned to the competition floor on Aug. 5 at the U.S. Classic in Hoffman Estates, Ill., her first meet since the Olympics. She won a record eighth national all-around title at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships (where she also performed the Yurchenko double pike) later that month.

    “I think what success means to me is a little bit different than before because before everyone defined success for me, even if I had my own narrative that I wanted,” Biles told Olympics.com prior to the world championships. “So, now, it’s just showing up, being in a good head place, having fun out there, and whatever happens, happens.”

    Required reading

    (Photo: Matthias Hangst / Getty Images)

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    The New York Times

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  • Olympian Lindsey Vonn Shares Her Secrets to Business Success | Entrepreneur

    Olympian Lindsey Vonn Shares Her Secrets to Business Success | Entrepreneur

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    “To be successful, I had to be a lot more than a ski racer,” Lindsey Vonn, winner of four World Cup overall championships and the gold medal in downhill at the 2010 Winter Olympics, tells Entrepreneur.

    It was a tenet Vonn’s father stressed throughout her ski racing career, during which time she worked on herself “as a business,” ultimately preparing for when she’d have to retire as a professional athlete and chart a new course.

    That day came in February 2019 when Vonn was 34. She’d just won the bronze medal in women’s downhill at the 2019 World Championships held in Sweden and became the first woman racer to receive medals at six different world championships.

    Image Credit: HEAD Sportswear

    “The transition from skiing to business wasn’t that hard.”

    Like most professional athletes, Vonn’s retirement and career pivot came earlier than it does for people in other fields. But thanks to the strong relationships and brand Vonn built over the years, “the transition from skiing to business wasn’t that hard,” she says.

    Related: Dwyane Wade on Retirement, Business and the NBA Hall of Fame

    Armed with the contacts she needed to “get through this next chapter of life,” she landed a venture-capital-focused internship through her “dear friend” Paul Kwan, who acted as a mentor, and started making her mark on the business world.

    Vonn’s since been an advisor to several companies and funds; created a skiwear collection with American-Austrian manufacturing company HEAD; launched a ski goggle line with Swedish brand YNIQ; founded full-service production house Après Productions and The Lindsey Vonn Foundation, which is committed to empowering underserved girls; and continues to be an active investor.

    “There are so many things that directly correlate from ski racing to business,” Vonn says.

    “I don’t know everything, so I’m just always hungry to learn.”

    Constantly striving to “grow and be better” is one principle that readily translates over. “The challenge is always knowledge,” Vonn explains. “I don’t know everything, so I’m just always hungry to learn. Whoever I meet, I’m trying to pick their brain, ask questions and find new ways to not just learn, but also new avenues of entrepreneurship or business or investments.”

    “Business is not for the faint-hearted.”

    A rock-solid work ethic goes hand in hand with that ongoing knowledge building. “It’s a combination of learning and being very diligent, determined, hardworking,” Vonn says. “Business is not for the faint-hearted.”

    “I always try to be confident when I’m entering any room.”

    Confidence is another must-have. “You have to be confident in what you’re doing,” Vonn says. “And I think my preparation, knowing who I’m talking to, knowing what I’m doing to the extent that I can know what I’m doing, [is important]. I always try to be confident when I’m entering any room, no matter what room that is, if it’s a boardroom or a business.”

    Vonn’s various ventures keep her busy these days, but she still manages to strike a happy work-life balance. One of the biggest shifts making it possible? Her prioritization of sleep health. The entrepreneur has been outspoken about her past struggles with insomnia, which began after she had surgery in 2013.

    “I was always a good sleeper before that,” Vonn says, “and just with the pain and the anxiety of knowing that to recover I needed to sleep, all of those things got in my head. And I’ve struggled with sleep ever since.”

    Related: The Founder of This Sleep Device Unpacks the Science of Rest

    For Vonn, taking doctor-prescribed sleep medication helped solve the issue. She also finds that journaling before bed and keeping an “unplugged” routine help get her “into the mindset that it’s bedtime.”

    Vonn’s dogs also play an important role in helping her relax and unwind. “Whenever I can just get a moment to sit on the couch and watch some Law and Order with my dogs and maybe have some Ben and Jerry’s, that’s always a good way for me to de-stress,” Vonn says.

    “Going back on the mountain reminds me of why I started skiing.”

    Skiing still has a place in Vonn’s heart too. “Since I retired, going back on the mountain reminds me of why I started skiing. I love just being out there with friends and family and being with nature. My phone’s away. I am very present. Hopefully it’s not too cold because I hate the cold.”

    Image Credit: Claire Abbe

    Vonn knows better than most what it looks like to turn the page on one successful chapter and open to the next, and her best piece of advice for anyone who’s struggling to figure out their next steps? “Find your passion and what challenges you.”

    “A lot of people make changes because they think this new thing is going to make them happy, but they don’t truly understand what makes them happy,” Vonn explains. “If you can figure that out, no matter what job you choose and no matter what path you choose, you’ll be in a good place. But finding what makes yourself tick is the most important thing.”

    Related: 6 Steps to Turn Your Passion Into a Career | Entrepreneur

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    Amanda Breen

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  • Introducing Chloe Stroll

    Introducing Chloe Stroll

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    Chloe Stroll has always played the piano. She could belt out a tune from a young age, something that her mother noticed and encouraged her to keep pursuing. Coming from a sports-oriented family, her brother being Formula 1’s Lance Stroll and her father, Lawrence Stroll, owning Aston Martin’s F1 team, and her husband being Olympic snowboarder Scotty James, Chloe has had her share of sporting events…but something always pulled her back to music.

    I sat down over Zoom with Chloe late night a while back, but for her the day was just beginning. She splits her time between Monaco and Australia, currently residing with Scotty’s family in Australia as he trains. And no, she can’t choose a favorite between the beautiful countries. I asked.

    Chloe has a calming presence, reflecting self-awareness and humility despite the high-profile company she keeps- her wedding in May was star-studded, with attendees like Daniel Ricciardo and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Sitting and talking to her feels easy, like a friend catching up. But that’s the power of music, right? To bring people from all walks of life together, the great equalizer.

    Chloe Stroll is new to music right now, with her debut being “Run” – a single based on a traumatizing break-in that she experienced with her husband. When talking to artists, I know that the writing process can be equally as therapeutic as listening can be for a fan…but it didn’t occur to Stroll to write about it until someone suggested it.

    She chuckles a little at the thought, how crazy it can be when an idea is right in front of you and you need another perspective to see it. But the words came easily for her, and what came of it was the perfect introduction to Chloe’s music.

    It’s not easy to emotionally pour your heart out into a song and share yourself with the world, which is why what Chloe’s doing is so admirable. Taking a completely different life path requires guts, which we can tell she has from her songs. Now, she’s releasing her sophomore single, “Pedestal.”

    Chloe Stroll’s sound is predominantly pop, but what she really wants you to hear is the piano that she so loves. It’s the only instrument she plays, though she muses about how she wishes she played the guitar, and she uses it to her advantage. I asked if she had a specific sound in mind when starting her career, but it honestly wasn’t her goal to be a “pop singer” or a “rock artist.”

    Stroll wants to make music, honest and true to herself, so if it blends genres, so be it. The only territory she won’t go is heavy metal, to which I joke that if I hear her screamo track in a few years that I’ll know something went wrong. We both laugh, because Chloe’s passion is clearly to make music she’s proud of, and that would never happen.

    She grew up singing Broadway tunes, to which we both fangirl momentarily over the glorious show that is Wicked. I had the Elphaba wand, she’s seen it multiple times. But those were never her inspirations, so to speak. She wasn’t growing up thinking she wanted to star in her own Broadway show, making that kind of music.

    Written alongside Scott Harris, “Pedestal” is a powerful, emotional song about heartbreak in any form. It gives you a good idea of Chloe Stroll’s sound, which features her delicate, yet prominent vocals. It has the makings of a classic: heartbreaking lyrics about lost love, talented vocals, and a gut-wrenching hook. You can listen to the song here:

    “‘Pedestal’ is about someone breaking your heart,” Stroll said, “And the reality is, no matter if it is a relationship or friendship, it’s devastating when someone that you held in such high regard has broken your heart. Whether it’s a trial of trust or whatever could have happened, that was where the inspiration for the song came from.”

    As for what’s next, Chloe is planning on dropping more singles in the future similar to “Run” and “Pedestal.” I pushed harder, wondering about perhaps an album or a live performance is on the horizon. But for Chloe, things are fluid. She seems comfortable and confident in where she is as an artist. To me, that’s all you can ask for.

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    Jai Phillips

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  • Simone Biles set to return to competitive gymnastics after two-year absence | CNN

    Simone Biles set to return to competitive gymnastics after two-year absence | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Seven-time Olympic medalist Simone Biles is due to return to competitive gymnastics on Saturday for the first time since pulling out of several events at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

    Biles is registered to compete in all four events at this weekend’s Core Hydration Classic – previously called the US Classic – a spokesperson for USA Gymnastics told CNN.

    Saturday will mark the 26-year-old Biles’ first competition since August 2021 when she withdrew from the women’s team final in Tokyo after suffering from what is known as the “twisties” – a mental block that causes gymnasts to lose track of their position in midair.

    Biles opted not to compete in four individual finals at the Games, but she did return to compete in the balance beam, winning bronze after using a modified dismount in her routine.

    The Core Hydration Classic, which will be held in the Chicago suburb of Hoffman Estates, is the final opportunity for athletes to qualify for the national championships in San Jose, California, later this month.

    The world gymnastics championships are then scheduled to take place between September 30 and October 8 in Antwerp, Belgium.

    A sellout crowd is expected on Saturday at Hoffman Estates, where spectators will be eager to not only see Biles’ much-anticipated comeback, but also the likes of returning Olympic gold medalist Sunisa Lee.

    Biles is the most decorated gymnast in US history, winning 32 medals across the Olympics and the world championships. Among her medal haul are four golds at the Olympics and 19 golds at the world championships – the most by any gymnast in history.

    Although Biles is registered to compete in all four events this weekend, athletes may decide not to compete on an apparatus at any given time.

    After a two-year hiatus, Biles is returning to gymnastics as a celebrated advocate for mental health. Even in the months after the Olympics, she said she was still “scared to do gymnastics,” but recently said on Instagram that she is “twisting again. No worries. All is good.”

    She has made few public comments about her return to the sport but did express her excitement on social media last month, writing: “Sorry I’ve been a little MIA since the announcement. I’m overwhelmed with all of your messages, support & love! excited to get back out on the competition floor!”

    For those accustomed to seeing Biles dominate competitions with ease, her departure in 2021 was an unexpected move. But for some more familiar with the intense physical and psychological demands of the sport, Biles’ decision to opt out of competition was more unprecedented than it was surprising.

    “(Biles’ departure) was shocking in that nobody else had ever in gymnastics stood up and said ‘Enough. Right now, this is enough, and I need to take care of myself no matter what everybody wants from me on the biggest stage on the planet,’” sports journalist and author Joan Ryan told CNN Sport.

    Fans and fellow athletes alike are excited to witness the gymnastics great back in action and with the opening ceremony of next year’s Olympics less than a year away, what more is to come for the most decorated US gymnast in history?

    In the US, CNBC, NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app will broadcast the senior women’s sessions on Saturday, while Peacock will stream the competitions simultaneously.

    The first senior women’s session takes place from 1 p.m ET to 3 p.m ET, with the platforms broadcasting the session from 2 p.m. ET. Biles takes part in the second session.

    From 8 p.m. ET, it is expected that CNBC and Peacock will show Biles competing in the uneven bars, balance beam, floor exercise and vault. Those outside of the US can watch the competition via USA Gymnastics YouTube.

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  • International Space Station Fast Facts | CNN

    International Space Station Fast Facts | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at the International Space Station (ISS), a spacecraft built by a partnership of 16 nations: United States, Canada, Japan, Russia, Brazil, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

    Information on ISS crews and expeditions can be found here.

    The ISS includes three main modules connected by nodes: the US Laboratory Module Destiny, the European Research Laboratory Columbus, and the Japanese Experiment Module Kibo (Hope). Each was launched separately and connected in space by astronauts.

    Mass: 925,335 pounds (419,725 kilograms)

    Habitable Volume: 13,696 cubic feet (388 cubic meters)

    Solar Array Length: 239 feet (75 meters)

    The ISS orbits Earth 16 times a day.

    As of June 22, 2023, 266 spacewalks have been conducted for station assembly and maintenance.

    November 1998 – A Russian Proton rocket places the first piece, the Zarya module, in orbit.

    December 1998 – The space shuttle Endeavour crew, on the STS-88 mission, attaches the Unity module to Zarya initiating the first ISS assembly sequence.

    June 1999 – The space shuttle Discovery crew, on mission STS-96, supplies two modules with tools and cranes.

    July 2000 – Zvezda, the fifth flight, docks with the ISS to become the third major component of the station.

    November 2000 – The first permanent crew, Expedition One, arrives at the station.

    November/December 2000 – The space shuttle Endeavour crew, on mission STS-97, installs the first set of US solar arrays on the station and visits Expedition One.

    February 2001 – Mission STS-98 delivers the US Destiny Laboratory Module.

    March 2001 – STS-102 delivers Expedition Two to the station and brings Expedition One home. The crew also brings Leonardo, the first Multi-Purpose Logistics Module, to the station.

    September 16, 2001 – The Russian Docking Compartment, Pirs, arrives at the ISS.

    June 2002 – STS-111 delivers the Expedition Five crew and brings the Expedition Four crew home. The crew also brings the Mobile Base System to the orbital outpost.

    December 2002 – STS-113 delivers the Expedition Six crew and the P1 Truss.

    May 3, 2003 – Expedition Six crew return to Earth on Soyuz TMA-1. Crew members Kenneth Bowersox and Don Pettit are the first American astronauts ever to land in a Soyuz spacecraft.

    July 29, 2003 – Marks the 1,000th consecutive day of people living and working aboard the ISS (this is a record for the station, but not for space).

    August 10, 2003 – Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko marries his fiancée Ekaterina Dmitriev from space. The bride and groom exchange vows over a hotline set up for the event. Dmitriev stands next to a life-sized picture of Malenchenko.

    April 22, 2004 – The second of four gyroscopes that stabilize the orbiting outpost of the ISS fails. NASA officials say this does not pose an immediate threat to the crew. An extra spacewalk will have to be conducted to the fix the electrical component box thought to be at fault.

    November 2, 2005 – Fifth anniversary of continuous human presence in space on the ISS.

    February 3, 2006 – SuitSat-1, an unmanned space suit containing a radio transmitter is deployed as a part of an ISS spacewalk. The suit is supposed to transmit recorded messages in six languages to school children and amateur radio operators for several days before reentering Earth’s atmosphere and burning up, but it goes silent shortly after its deployment.

    March 31, 2006 – Arriving with the crew of Expedition Thirteen is Marcos Pontes, the first Brazilian astronaut. Staying eight days, Pontes conducts scientific experiments before returning to Earth with the crew of Expedition Twelve.

    July 7, 2006 – The arrival of Thomas Reiter of Germany via the Space Shuttle Discovery returns the station’s long-duration crew to three for the first time since May 2003 and the Columbia shuttle disaster. Reiter is the first non-US and non-Russian long-duration station crewmember, and he remains onboard during the first part of Expedition Fourteen.

    September 9, 2006 – Space Shuttle Atlantis docks with the ISS, delivering the P3/P4 truss and its solar wings before undocking September 21 and returning to Earth.

    September 20, 2006 – Arriving with the crew of Expedition Fourteen is Anousheh Ansari, an American businesswoman. She spends about eight days conducting experiments and blogging about her experiences before returning to Earth with two of the three members of Expedition Thirteen.

    December 2006 – Arrival of Flight Engineer Sunita Williams via space shuttle mission STS-116. Williams replaces Reiter, who returns to Earth with the crew of STS-116.

    April 7, 2007 – Charles Simonyi becomes the fifth space tourist when he accompanies the Expedition Fifteen crew to the ISS. He spends 12 days aboard the space station before returning to Earth with the crew of Expedition Fourteen.

    June 10, 2007 – Space Shuttle Atlantis docks with the the ISS to install a new segment and solar panel on the space station and retrieve astronaut Williams, who has been at the space station since December. Williams is replaced by Flight Engineer Clayton Anderson, who will return to earth aboard Discovery on Mission STS-120.

    June 15, 2007 – Four days after ISS’s computers crash, two Russian cosmonauts bring them back online. The computers control the station’s orientation as well as oxygen production. The crew used Atlantis’ thrusters to help maintain the station’s position while its computers were down.

    October 25, 2007 – Space Shuttle Discovery docks with the ISS. In the days while docked with the ISS, the Discovery crew delivers and connects Harmony to the ISS, a living and working compartment that will also serve as the docking port for Japanese and European Union laboratories. Discovery and ISS crew also move an ISS solar array to prepare for future ISS expansion, planning a special spacewalk to repair damage to the solar array that occurred during its unfurling.

    November 14, 2007 – ISS crew move the Harmony node from its temporary location on the Unity node to its permanent location attached to Destiny.

    February 9, 2008 – Space Shuttle Atlantis arrives. Its crew delivers the European-made Columbus laboratory, a 23-foot long module that will be home to a variety of science experiments. Atlantis remains docked with the ISS for just under nine days.

    March 9, 2008 – “Jules Verne,” the first of a series of European space vessels designed to deliver supplies to the ISS, launches from the Ariane Launch Complex in Kourou, French Guiana. The vessels, called Automated Transfer Vehicles (ATV), are propelled into space atop an Ariane 5 rocket, and are designed to dock with the ISS with no human assistance. The Jules Verne will wait to dock with the ISS until after Space Shuttle Endeavour’s March mission is completed.

    March 12, 2008 – Space Shuttle Endeavour docks with the ISS.

    March 24, 2008 – Endeavour detaches from the ISS. While docked, crew members make five spacewalks to deliver and assemble the Dextre Robotics System, deliver and attach the Kibo logistics module, attach science experiments to the exterior of the ISS, and perform other inspection and maintenance tasks.

    April 3, 2008 – The unmanned European cargo ship Jules Verne successfully docks with the ISS. Able to carry more than three times the volume of the Russian-built Progress resupply vehicles, the Jules Verne contains fuel, water, oxygen and other supplies.

    April 10, 2008 – Two members of Expedition 17 crew arrive at the ISS via a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Travelling with them is Yi So-yeon, a space flight participant and South Korea’s first astronaut. Yi later returns to Earth aboard an older Soyuz spacecraft along with members of the Expedition 16 crew.

    June 2, 2008 – Space Shuttle Discovery docks with the ISS. Discovery is carrying Japan’s Kibo lab, a replacement pump for the station’s toilet, and astronaut Gregory Chamitoff, who is replacing Garrett Reisman as part of the station’s crew.

    June 11, 2008 – Discovery undocks with the ISS after its crew successfully delivers and installs the Japanese-built Kibo lab, delivers parts to repair the ISS’s malfunctioning toilet, collects debris samples from the station’s faulty solar power wing, and retrieves an inspection boom left behind during a previous shuttle mission. Station crewmember Reisman departs with Discovery.

    October 12, 2008 – The Soyuz TMA-13 capsule carrying two Americans – flight commander Michael Fincke and computer game millionaire Richard Garriott, and Russian flight engineer Yuri Lonchakov – lifts off from Kazakhstan. It docks with the ISS on October 14.

    March 12, 2009 – Orbital debris from a prior space shuttle mission forces the crew of Expedition 18 to temporarily retreat to its Soyuz capsule.

    August 24, 2011 – Russian emergency officials report that an unmanned Russian cargo craft, the Progress-M12M that was to deliver 3.85 tons of food and supplies to the ISS, crashed in a remote area of Siberia.

    May 19, 2012 – SpaceX’s launch of the Falcon 9 rocket, the first private spacecraft bound for the ISS, is aborted a half a second before liftoff. SpaceX engineers trace the problem to a faulty rocket engine valve.

    May 22, 2012 – The unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The rocket carries the Dragon spacecraft, which is filled with food, supplies and science experiments and bound for the ISS.

    May 25, 2012 – The unmanned SpaceX Dragon spacecraft connects to the International Space Station, the first private spacecraft to successfully reach an orbiting space station.

    October 7, 2012 – SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, with its Dragon capsule carrying 1,000 pounds of supplies bound for the ISS, launches from Florida’s Cape Canaveral. It is the first of a dozen NASA-contracted flights to resupply the International Space Station, at a total cost of $1.6 billion.

    May 9, 2013 – The crew discovers that the ISS is leaking ammonia. The crew performs a spacewalk and corrects the leak two days later.

    November 9, 2013 – Russian cosmonauts perform the first ever spacewalk of the Olympic Torch ahead of the 2014 Sochi Winter Games.

    December 11, 2013 – A pump on one of the station’s two external cooling loops shuts down after hitting a temperature limit, according to NASA. The malfunctioning loop had been producing too much ammonia, possibly the result of a malfunctioning valve.

    December 24, 2013 – Astronauts complete a repair job to replace the problematic pump. Their spacewalk lasts seven and a half hours, and is the second ever spacewalk on Christmas Eve. The first was in 1999 for a Hubble Repair Mission.

    March 10, 2014 – After five and a half months aboard the ISS, Expedition 38 astronauts return to earth aboard the Soyuz TMA-10M spacecraft.

    September 16, 2014 – NASA announces that Boeing and Space X have been awarded contracts to build vehicles that will shuttle astronauts to and from the space station.

    December 15, 2015 – Astronaut Tim Peake is the first British European Space Agency astronaut to arrive at the ISS.

    March 2, 2016 – NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko land in the Kazakhstan desert after a nearly yearlong mission on the ISS.

    August 3, 2018 – NASA selects nine astronauts, seven men and two women, for missions in spacecraft developed by Boeing and SpaceX. The flights, scheduled for 2019, will be the first launches to space from US soil since the Space Shuttle program was retired in 2011, and the first in capsules developed and built by the private sector.

    June 2019 – NASA announces the ISS is opening for commercial use. The newest NASA directive is intended to allow “commercial manufacturing and production and allow both NASA and private astronauts to conduct new commercial activities aboard the orbiting laboratory.”

    October 18, 2019 – NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch conduct the first all-female spacewalk outside of the ISS. The spacewalk last seven hours and 17 minutes.

    May 30, 2020 – SpaceX and NASA’s Falcon 9, bound for the ISS, launches. This is the first crewed spaceflight to launch from US soil since 2011. The astronauts spend two months working on the ISS, then return to Earth on August 2.

    November 16, 2020 – The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft with four astronauts on board safely docks with the ISS. The spacecraft launched from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on November 15 and marks the first fully operational crewed mission for SpaceX.

    April 21, 2021 – Russia announces that it is ready to start building its own space station with the aim of launching it into orbit by 2030, according to Interfax news agency. The project will mark a new chapter for Russian space exploration. Russia, which signed a memorandum of understanding in March to explore establishing a joint lunar base with China, will notify its ISS partners regarding its departure from ISS at a future date.

    June 16, 2021 – NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet conduct a spacewalk to install solar arrays on the space station. After technical delays, the work is completed four days later. The arrays are rolled up like carpet and are 750 pounds (340 kilograms) and 10 feet (three meters) wide. They will provide a power boost to the space station.

    January 31, 2022 – NASA reveals it intends to keep operating the ISS until the end of 2030, after which the ISS will be crashed into a remote part of the Pacific Ocean known as Point Nemo.

    April 9, 2022 – The first crew entirely comprised of private citizens reaches the ISS.

    July 26, 2022 – Russia announces it is planning to pull out of the ISS after 2024, ending its decades-long partnership with NASA at the orbiting outpost.

    October 6, 2022 – A SpaceX capsule carrying a multinational crew of astronauts docks with the ISS after a 29-hour trek. The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 12 p.m. ET on October 5. The four crew members included astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada of NASA, astronaut Koichi Wakata of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and cosmonaut Anna Kikina of Roscosmos, the first Russian to travel on a SpaceX spaceflight.

    October 24, 2022 – According to NASA, the ISS fires its thrusters to maneuver out of the way of a piece of oncoming Russian space junk.

    December 22, 2022 – Two NASA astronauts carry out a spacewalk to install a new solar panel on the ISS. The spacewalk lasts about seven hours.

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  • Ukraine lifts ban on athletes competing against Russians, but tensions continue

    Ukraine lifts ban on athletes competing against Russians, but tensions continue

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    French Open Tennis Tournament. Roland-Garros 2023.
    Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, right, and Anna Blinkova of Russia did not shake hands after their match on June 2 during the 2023 French Open in Paris.

    Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images


    On Thursday, the Ukrainian fencer Olga Kharlan was disqualified  from the World Fencing Championships after refusing to shake hands with Russian fencer Anna Smirnova. 

    It was the latest episode illustrating how the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is going beyond the battlefield and into sporting events.

    Just days ago the Ukrainian sports ministry announced that it was lifting its ban on Ukrainian athletes competing against Russian and Belarusian athletes, clearing the way for Ukrainian participation in the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. 

    Earlier this year, the ministry forbade official delegations of the Ukrainian national teams from competing in Olympic, non-Olympic and Paralympic international competitions in which Belarusian and Russian athletes participate. The ban applied to team sports events, leaving Ukrainian athletes in sports like tennis and cycling open to compete against Russian and Belarusian players.

    Russian and Belarusian athletes have been banned from many competitions since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Belarus has served as a staging ground for Russian troops participating in the war.

    But the International Olympic Committee issued guidelines earlier this year allowing some Russians and Belarusians to participate in competitions as neutral athletes.

    Some officials from Ukraine had criticized the IOC’s decision and it seemed as though the ban by the Ukrainian Sports Ministry would remain in place, with Ukrainian athletes notably absent from this year’s judo and taekwondo world championships, where they would have needed to compete in order to qualify for the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris.

    But the new ruling by the Ukrainian sports ministry allows for Ukrainian national teams to participate in international competitions against Russian and Belarusian athletes competing under the neutral flag. The shift in language means that Ukrainian athletes will be able to compete in the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris. 

    “I think this was the right decision from Ukrainian Committee,” said Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina to CBS News’s Margaret Brennan. 

    Svitolina has drawn attention to the Ukrainian cause by refusing to shake hands with players from Russia and Belarus after matches where they competed as neutral athletes. This approach, used by several Ukrainian athletes across different sports, has been generated controversy. 

    Day Eight - European Games 2023
    Fencer Olga Kharlan of Ukraine during the 2023 European Games in Krakow, Poland.

    / Getty Images


    While Svitolina has been applauded for her efforts on the tennis court to bring attention to the war, other athletes like Kharlan –an Olympic medalist– have been criticized or reprimanded. Ukraine’s fencing federation stated that they will appeal the decision. 

    “I did not want to shake hands with this athlete, and I acted with my heart. So when I heard that they wanted to disqualify me it killed me so much that I was screaming in pain,” Kharlan said in a post on social media, according to Reuters.

    Svitolina also expressed frustration with Kharlan’s disqualification. “It’s horrible to see that the federations, international federations of other sports, they don’t respect our position. So hopefully there will be the right decision.”

    When asked if there should be a boycott of the Paris Olympics, Svitolina said she would defer to the Ukrainian Sports Ministry.

    “Our Ministry of Sports is doing everything possible, and hopefully they can make the right decision,” Svitolina said.  “I just want that, you know, our athletes don’t suffer.”

    Sierra Sanders contributed to this report.

    Sophia Barkoff

    Sophia Barkoff is a broadcast associate with CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”

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  • Swimmer Katie Ledecky ties Michael Phelps’ record, breaks others at World Championships

    Swimmer Katie Ledecky ties Michael Phelps’ record, breaks others at World Championships

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    U.S. swimming champion Katie Ledecky tied a record with legend Michael Phelps for the most individual world swimming titles, USA Swimming announced Tuesday.

    Ledecky, 26, achieved the feat while competing in Fukuoka, Japan, at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships, where she won the 1,500-meter freestyle race —her 15th world title, and her fifth in the specific race.

    The Olympic champion from Maryland called the shared record with Phelps an “honor.”

    “I’ve known Michael for many years now, looked up to him as a little kid,” Ledecky said in a press conference after her win. “Just never really imagined I would be in this position. It’s always an honor to win a medal for Team USA, especially gold.” 

    The win also marked another record for the swimmer —the first woman to earn 20 World Championships gold medals, according to USA Swimming.

    Additionally, she broke the record for the first swimmer to win five world titles in two different events: 800-meter freestyle and 1,500-meter freestyle.

    “It hurt a lot, but I am really happy with the outcome,” Ledecky said poolside after her monumental victory. “The secret is just a lot of hard work and having really great people around me, including my coaches over the last 10-plus years.”

    Ledecky finished the race in 15:26.27, the third-fastest time ever for the 1,500 meter and a whopping 17 seconds ahead of the second-place competitor, Simona Quadrella of Italy. 

    The best-ever and second best-ever times in the 1,500-meter race are also held by Ledecky, which she set in 2018 and 2015, according to the Olympics. In fact, the swimmer owns 18 of the 20th fastest times for the 1,500-meter freestyle of all time.

    Ledecky is the most decorated female swimmer of all time with six individual Olympic gold medals and now 15 individual world titles, the Olympics organization reports.

    Ledecky began her Olympic career at age 15, picking up a gold medal for the 800-meter race in the London 2012 games.

    Simrin Singh

    Simrin Singh is a social media producer and trending content writer for CBS News.

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  • Soccer legend Megan Rapinoe announces she will retire after 2023 season

    Soccer legend Megan Rapinoe announces she will retire after 2023 season

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    Megan Rapinoe, a U.S. Women’s National Team legend, will retire from professional soccer, she and the organization announced Saturday.

    The 38-year-old, who is known for her clutch performances on the field, will retire after the 2023 National Women’s Soccer League season in October with her team, the OL Reign, following her final appearance in the Women’s World Cup this summer.

    “I feel incredibly grateful to have played as long as I have, to be as successful as we’ve been, and to have been a part of a generation of players who undoubtedly left the game better than they found it,” Rapinoe said in the USWNT statement.

    Rapinoe, who began her career in 2006, is an Olympic gold medalist and has won two World Cups. She will be playing for USNWT’s third consecutive World Cup win before retiring —an opportunity she has called “incredibly special.”

    On the field, Rapinoe is recognized for her creative strategy and dedication to her team, the announcement described. She has represented the U.S. internationally 199 times, and will become the 14th U.S. player in history to make 200 appearances for the team internationally before retiring. In her 199 international appearances, also known as “caps,” the U.S. team has had an 86% winning percentage.

    She famously scored two “Olimpicos,” or goals directly off corner kicks, in two Olympic games, 2012 and 2021 —an extremely difficult feat that the USWNT says is “probably never to be repeated.”

    Megan Rapinoe in the 2023 SheBelieves Cup - Japan v United States
    Megan Rapinoe #15 of the United States inters the field during the SheBelieves Cup game between Japan and USWNT at GEODIS Park on February 19, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee.

    Brad Smith/ISI Photos/Getty Images


    “Megan Rapinoe is one of the most important players in women’s soccer history and a personality like no other,” said U.S. Women’s National Team head coach Vlatko Andonovski. “She has produced so many memorable moments for her team and the fans on the field that will be remembered for a very long time, but her impact on people as a human being may be even more important.”

    The Redding, California, native is tied with Abby Wambach for third-most assists in USWNT history. She is also one of just seven players in USWNT history with 50+ goals and 50+ assists, although she is the only player in the 50 goal/50 assist club with more assists than goals, according to the organization.

    In 2019, Rapinoe won best FIFA Women’s Player of the Year, France Football Ballon d’Or and the Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year.

    In addition to her accomplishments on the field, Rapinoe has been recognized for her activism for LGBTQ+ rights, racial inequality, voter rights, and gender and pay equity. She came out as gay in 2012 and has been a vocal advocate for those in the community ever since.

    She was also the first White athlete, as well as first female athlete, to kneel during the national anthem in solidarity with NFL player Colin Kaepernick, the statement said.

    In the summer of 2022, President Joe Biden awarded Rapinoe the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the nation’s highest civilian honor. She is the first soccer player to receive the award, and one of just six female athletes or coaches to get the honor, according to USWNT.

    “When you talk about players performing on the biggest stages, she’s right up there with the best to ever do it for the U.S. Women’s National Team,” said USWNT general manager Kate Markgraf in the statement. “And that’s just her contributions on the field. Her contributions off the field are the epitome of someone who saw that she had a large platform and used it for good.”

    Simrin Singh

    Simrin Singh is a social media producer and trending content writer for CBS News.

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  • Mary Rand: Team GB’s original Olympics golden girl

    Mary Rand: Team GB’s original Olympics golden girl

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    Mary Rand, 83, spoke to Sky Sports News from her home in Nevada about her memories and her historic achievements from the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo

    Mary Rand, 83, spoke to Sky Sports News from her home in Nevada about her memories and her historic achievements from the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo

    Mary Rand was once the golden girl of British athletics, winner of the first track and field gold medal by a British female athlete at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and still the only woman to win three track and field medals at the same Olympic Games.

    Mary took top spot in the long jump with a world-record leap of 6.76m, then landed pentathlon silver and 4x100m relay bronze.

    Almost 60 years later we tracked down the former darling of British athletics, to her home in Reno Nevada to get her thoughts and memories of those historic games. Now aged 83, Mary told us about how it all started for her in athletics.

    “I was always a tomboy,” Mary tells Sky Sports.

    “I always followed my brothers, and I think started out running around an orchard in Wells, Somerset. I eventually went to the All England Schools, that’s as far as you can go. I got a scholarship to Millfield and when I went there I had a coach, and the rest is history.”

    Mary’s passion and natural ability for athletics is clear, and looking back on her achievement of becoming the first British woman to win an Olympic gold medal, she modestly says: “I was doing something I really loved to do and I was fortunate enough to meet really good people along the way who really helped me. When I won I couldn’t quite believe it really because at that point I had a daughter that was two years old.”

    Rand came away from Tokyo with three Olympic medals

    Rand came away from Tokyo with three Olympic medals

    Things, however, were not that simple for the Somerset native. At the 1960 Games in Rome four years earlier, a disappointing Olympics saw her return to England to newspaper headlines which read ‘Flop, flop, flop’.

    Not discouraged by those past headlines, Mary, then 24 and a mother to two-year-old daughter Alison, was determined to put it right in Japan.

    Mary recalls the day of her historic jump clearly.

    “The morning that I was going to compete I was sharing a room with Anne Packer, Mary Peters and Pat Nutting and hailstones were coming down. I looked out and went, ‘oh my lord it’s hailing’, but then I thought to myself, ‘well, it’s the same for everybody, they’ve all got to compete in it’. I was very fortunate that I qualified with my first jump so I could go right back in and stay out of the rain.”

    Rand tries on a pair of FCA (Cuban Athletics Federation) earrings in 1965

    Rand tries on a pair of FCA (Cuban Athletics Federation) earrings in 1965

    Fortunate with the weather maybe, but there was no fortune with her jumping in that final in Tokyo. Five of Mary’s six jumps broke the Olympic record but, as she recalls, records were the last thing on her mind.

    “You don’t really think about anything except what you’re going to do. You’re hoping you’re going to run down the runway and hit that little board at the end and get a good jump,” she adds.

    Well, Mary did that and more and no one in the stadium was more surprised that she broke the world record than she was.

    “When I came back and I had jumped the world record, I couldn’t understand it because it was in metres and back then we didn’t do metres. When it went up on the board it said 6.76m and underneath it said ‘world record’.

    “I was blown away,” Mary chuckles to herself at her recollection of the moment.

    Gold in the long jump was to be the pinnacle of Mary’s achievements in Tokyo but she also ended up coming home with a silver in the pentathlon and a bronze in the 4x100m relay. Her medals are kept at her old school and that is where Mary thinks they belong.

    “They’re at Millfield in Somerset, they got a big display case and it’s really nice. I think that’s where they belong because it is part of history and it might inspire young athletes when they see that to do better.”

    Rand competing in the long jump at White City

    Rand competing in the long jump at White City

    Mary’s achievements are even more remarkable when put into context. There were no million-pound contracts, she did not have the carefully-selected diets and use of cutting-edge equipment that athletes have today; she was just like any other ‘working mum’. Mary worked eight hours a day at a Guinness factory and cheekily says it was a half pint of the well-known stout that was the secret of her success.

    “I really went there because they would give me time off when I had an international meet and they also paid me my salary when I was away. I was lucky! Guinness was amazing to me. Every lunchtime I had half a Guinness.”

    Rand posing at a photoshoot in 1969

    Rand posing at a photoshoot in 1969

    Mary was a trailblazer in the sixties. She was one of the icons that made London the place to be in that decade – one journalist described her as ‘Marilyn Monroe on spikes’.

    She was not only the darling of the print media but also mixed with pop royalty. Mick Jagger even said she was his dream date. Sitting in her home she remembers that time with fondness.

    “I was at the BBC one day and the Beatles were there. I met two of them, Ringo and George I think, And then Mick Jagger, I never actually met him, but they asked him if he could go on a date with anybody and he said it would be me. I don’t know if that was good or bad but anyway that’s what he said”.

    Jagger, like the rest of the nation, was captivated by Mary, a pathfinder for women’s sport in this country. She was feted for her athletic achievements and won the Sports Personality of the Year award in 1964.

    Rand competes at the Southern Counties Women's Athletics Championships

    Rand competes at the Southern Counties Women’s Athletics Championships

    “At the time I didn’t know what affect it would have, but I think what you would hope for is that when you do something like that, it’s going to inspire young athletes to want to train and do well. And also to think, ‘she did it so there is no reason that we can’t do that’.”

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  • Swimmer Who Won 5 Golds At Tokyo Olympics Is Distant Also-Ran At U.S. Nationals

    Swimmer Who Won 5 Golds At Tokyo Olympics Is Distant Also-Ran At U.S. Nationals

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    INDIANAPOLIS — Caeleb Dressel finished 29th in the 100-meter freestyle at the U.S. nationals on Tuesday, falling far short of qualifying for the world championships in an event he won at the Tokyo Olympics.

    Dressel fell farther and farther behind in the last of eight preliminary heats, touching the wall behind everyone else.

    His time of 49.42 seconds was a whopping 1.79 behind top qualifier Ryan Held, who swam one heat earlier, and a sobering reminder of how far Dressel has to go after walking away from swimming last summer during the world championships in Budapest, Hungary.

    He didn’t come close to making the U.S. team in the 100 free for next month’s worlds in Fukuoka, Japan. Dressel’s time at the IUPUI Natatorium was nearly 2.5 seconds off his gold medal-winning performance (47.02) at the Tokyo Games two summers ago.

    Dressel was one of the biggest stars at those Olympics, winning five gold medals.

    Caeleb Dressel washed out of the men’s 100 meter freestyle at the national championships on June 27, 2023.

    Sarah Stier via Getty Images

    But the 26-year-old Floridian mysteriously left the sport for an extended break and returned to competition only last month at a minor meet in Atlanta.

    Clearly, Dressel has a long road to recapture the form that made him the successor to Michael Phelps as the world’s most dominant male swimmer.

    Dressel still has three more chances to qualify for the world championships, having also entered the 50 free as well as the 50 and 100 butterfly. But, based on his first swim of the meet, it clearly will be an uphill climb to claim a spot on the powerful U.S. team.

    Caeleb Dressel had a rough first race at the Phillips 66 National Championships at Indiana University Natatorium on June 27, 2023.
    Caeleb Dressel had a rough first race at the Phillips 66 National Championships at Indiana University Natatorium on June 27, 2023.

    Sarah Stier via Getty Images

    Then again, Dressel is surely more focused on getting back to top form in time for next summer’s Paris Olympics, though he hasn’t publicly revealed his plans or goals.

    In keeping with his reluctance to speak with the media, he declined interview requests after his dismal showing in Indianapolis.

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  • Trump repeatedly celebrated the inclusion of transgender women in his beauty pageant | CNN Politics

    Trump repeatedly celebrated the inclusion of transgender women in his beauty pageant | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Years before he said he was running for president to “defeat the cult of gender ideology,” Donald Trump welcomed and praised the inclusion of transgender women in the Miss Universe pageant.

    In since unreported radio and television interviews from spring and summer 2012, Trump celebrated the interest in a 23-year-old transgender woman named Jenna Talackova participating in a Canadian pageant. He then later effusively praised the winner of the Miss USA pageant, Olivia Culpo, for saying that transgender women should be allowed to compete.

    Trump, then the owner of the Miss Universe pageant, would go on to cite the possible participation of transgender women in Olympic sports to justify his decision to end a ban on transgender pageant participants.

    But a decade later, as he geared up to run for a second White House term, Trump promised to “ban men from participating in women’s sports,” when speaking about transgender athletes – a reflection of how restricting trans rights has become a powerful talking point among conservatives and a potential a litmus test for Republican candidates.

    Since launching his 2024 campaign Trump has also referred to gender-affirming surgery for minors as “child sexual mutilation,” said he’d seek to make such surgeries illegal if he returned to the White House, said he’d sign executive orders instructing federal agencies not to promote transitioning at any age, and ask Congress to pass a bill requiring the government to only recognize only genders assigned at birth.

    That’s a departure from how he approached the inclusion of transgender people in society more than a decade ago.

    For example, at the Miss USA pageant in June 2012, Culpo said she welcomed the participation of transgender women in the competition – a comment that Trump supported.

    “I do think that that would be fair, but I can understand that people would be a little apprehensive to take that road because there is a tradition of natural-born women,” Culpo said when asked if transgender participants should be allowed. “But today where there are so many surgeries and so many people out there who have a need to change for a happier life, I do accept that because I believe it’s a free country.”

    That seemed to go over well with Trump.

    Donald Trump poses with Miss USA 2012, Olivia Culpo, at a news conference after she was named the new Miss Universe during the 2012 Miss Universe Pageant at PH Live at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on December 19, 2012, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

    “She gave a great answer, a very tough question – on transgender – just the question everybody wants to hear, and she gave a great answer and she really did a great job,” Trump said praising Culpo on Fox and Friends in June 2012.

    “It was a very cool answer,” added Trump. “Great, [she] gave a great answer.”

    “Her answer was a very intelligent answer and that’s one of the reasons I assume the judges picked her,” Trump said in another June interview on Fox and Friends.

    In 2012, Talackova was allowed to compete after threatening legal action over the Miss Universe organization ban on transgender contestants, which had come under scrutiny.

    Trump claimed to CNN at the time he personally made the decision to end the ban before even knowing about the legal threats from Talackova’s attorney, Gloria Allred.

    A statement released by the Trump Organization at the time said the change was to modernize the pageant.

    “Pageant rules have been modernized to ensure this type of issue does not occur again,” read the statement, issued on Trump’s behalf by his then-attorney Michael Cohen.

    Cohen told CNN on Thursday the decision was made to follow Olympic guidelines on transgender athletes. At the time, the Olympics allowed the participation of transgender athletes who had sex reassignment surgery and two years of hormone therapy.

    In an April 2012 appearance on “The Laura Ingraham Show,” Trump celebrated the buzz associated with Talackova’s entry into the pageant.

    “Well it became a big, big deal up in Canada,” Trump said. “And you have the Miss Canada, which is essentially the Miss Universe. It’s the pre-Miss Universe, it’s the screening for Miss Universe – and a woman, transgender was in.”

    “But there’s many, many, many contestants and they agreed to let her, based on the laws of Canada and the laws in the United States, they agreed to let her participate,” he added. “So I will say there’s, there’s great interest and if you look at it from a show business standpoint, that’s wonderful. But there is certainly great interest.”

    In an interview on Fox News also in April of 2012, Trump defended his decision to let Talackova compete.

    Miss California USA Carrie Prejean (R) and Shanna Moakler, co-executive director of the Miss California USA pageant (L), listen to Donald Trump, the owner of the Miss Universe Organization, announce during a news conference that Prejean would retain her title in New York May 12, 2009.

    “It has become a hot subject. It is being talked about all over the world right now,” Trump said. “This is a young woman, who, according to the laws of Canada and according to the laws of the United States, is allowed to enter the pageant system.”

    In the same interview, Trump cited the Olympics as part of his rationale.

    “We didn’t have a rule. This is sort of new territory. We are going by at some point, the Olympic rules because the Olympics are having a very big question about this – should this be allowed,” Trump said. “I said we have 58 contestants in Canada, I said let her run and maybe she will win and if she wins, she will go to Miss Universe. And I think I made the right decision, I feel fine with the decision.”

    Trump’s decision was praised by the LGBTQ advocacy organization GLAAD at the time.

    “For more than two weeks, the Miss Universe Organization and Mr. Trump made it clear to GLAAD that they were open to making a policy change to include women who are transgender. We appreciate that he and his team responded swiftly and appropriately,” they said in a statement.

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  • The Shooting of Lauren Kanarek

    The Shooting of Lauren Kanarek

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    The Shooting of Lauren Kanarek – CBS News


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  • Brittney Griner says she’ll ‘never go overseas again’ to play unless it’s for the Olympics after being detained in Russia | CNN

    Brittney Griner says she’ll ‘never go overseas again’ to play unless it’s for the Olympics after being detained in Russia | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Brittney Griner said during a press conference on Thursday that she’ll “never go overseas again” to play basketball unless it’s for the Olympics after being detained in Russia.

    The two-time Olympic gold-medalist spent nearly 300 days in Russian custody following her detention in February 2022 and was sentenced to nine years in prison under drug-smuggling charges after authorities in the country found cannabis oil in her luggage.

    She was released in December last year in a prisoner exchange with Russia.

    Griner had for years played on a Russian women’s basketball team during the WNBA off-season and was detained in a Moscow airport as she traveled back to the US.

    The 32-year-old said many women’s players go overseas for the pay and that she wouldn’t criticize anyone for doing that, though Griner hopes the WNBA will continue to grow and that there will be change.

    “If I make that (US) team, that would be the only time I’ll leave the US soil and that’s just to represent the USA,” Griner said. “The whole reason a lot of us go over is the pay gap.

    “A lot of us go over there to make an income, to support out families, to support ourselves. So I don’t knock any player that wants to go overseas and want to make a little bit extra money.

    “But I’m hoping that our league continues to grow and with as many people in here now covering this I hope you continue to cover our league and bring exposure to us.”

    Griner began her press conference by thanking the media for its coverage while she was detained in Russia and for the exposure it provided to help her get back to the US.

    The Phoenix Mercury star was moved to tears by the opening question, but quickly composed herself.

    “I’m not stranger to hard times,” Griner told reporters with a crack in her voice. “Just digging deep, honestly.

    “You’re going to be faced with adversities throughout your life, this was a pretty big one, but I just kind of relied on my hard work, getting through it.

    “I know this sounds so small but dying in practice and just hard workouts, you find a way to just grind it out, just put your head down and keep going and keep moving forward.

    “You can never stand still and that was my thing; just never be still, never get too focused on the now and looking forward to what’s to come.”

    Griner said that during her detention there was sometimes a little bit of a delay in getting news but that she was aware of what was going on.

    The knowledge that people were fighting for her “definitely made me a little bit more comfortable” and gave Griner “hope.” She urged those who remain wrongfully detained to “stay strong.”

    Griner said that she had no doubt about whether or not she would return to the WNBA this season. She signed a one year deal with the Mercury in February.

    “I believe in me,” Griner said. “I believe in what I can do. I know if I put my mind to it I can achieve any goal.

    “I’m not trying to sound big-headed, but I bet on me. I have all the resources here to help me get to that point where I can play, and it was no question to be back in the WNBA, back in Phoenix playing.”

    The Mercury play their first preseason game on May 9 with the WNBA season beginning on May 19.

    Phoenix play their first game of the regular season against the Los Angeles Sparks on May 19 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

    Griner explained that during the times where she had almost lost hope all together, pictures of her family helped get her through.

    “Just being able to see their faces, that did it for me. … You know what you’re waiting on,” Griner said. “You’re waiting to be back with your family.”

    Griner said the mental health assistance she had received before she was detained in Russia “helped a lot.”

    “I’ve always promoted speaking to a counselor, seeking therapy, any tool that will help you get to a good center place. And I’m still doing that as of right now.

    “That’ll never change. So much goes on in this world, we exposed to so much on social media that is just a lot.”

    Griner was asked if she felt a burden for coming home before others who have been wrongfully detained.

    “If I could have went and got them out or any of that, of course, I would have,” Griner said.

    “It hurts, because no one should be in those conditions,” she added. “Hands down, no one should be in any of the conditions I went though or they’re going through.”

    Griner last played with the Mercury in 2021, helping the team to the WNBA Finals, which they lost to the Chicago Sky.

    Before that, the seven-time All-Star had played all nine seasons with the franchise since being selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2013 WNBA Draft.

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  • Oscar Pistorius up for parole today decade after murdering girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in South Africa

    Oscar Pistorius up for parole today decade after murdering girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in South Africa

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    Johannesburg — Former Olympic runner and Paralympic gold medalist Oscar Pistorius is up for parole. South Africa’s parole board was meeting Friday to decide if Pistorius would be released from prison more than 10 years after he shot and killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. 

    The board will consider his conduct and disciplinary record in prison, his participation in educational or other training courses during the last decade of incarceration, and his mental and physical state to assess whether Pistorius, now 36, would still pose a threat to public safety.

    As Steenkamp’s mother June arrived Friday at the parole hearing, she was asked if she believed Pistorius was remorseful. 

    “No. Never,” she said. “It’s very hard to be in the same room as him.” 

    SAFRICA-CRIME-PISTORIUS
    The mother of Reeva Steenkamp, June Steenkamp smiles as she arrives at the Atteridgeville Correctional Centre in Pretoria, South Africa, March 31, 2023, ahead of Oscar Pistorius’ parole hearing.

    PHILL MAGAKOE/AFP/Getty


    Steenkamp’s parents were to address the parole board to voice their opposition to Pistorius being granted early parole. 

    “We don’t believe his story,” June Steenkamp told reporters as her car pulled into the Atteridgeville Correctional Centre in Pretoria on Friday.  

    The 2014murder trial kept viewers around the world glued to the live courtroom broadcast as prosecutors argued that the elite athlete had deliberately shot his girlfriend through a locked bathroom door in the middle of the night.

    pistorius.jpg
    A picture taken on January 26, 2013 shows Olympian sprinter Oscar Pistorius posing next to his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp at Melrose Arch in Johannesburg.

    WALDO SWIEGERS/AFP/Getty


    Pistorius maintained throughout that it was a terrible accident and that he had mistaken Steenkamp for an intruder. He was ultimately convicted of murder after prosecutors successfully appealed an initial conviction for culpable homicide, which is comparable to manslaughter. He was sentenced to 13 years and five months in prison in 2017, which took into account just over a year he had already served during the appeal process. 

    Social workers have already inspected his uncle Arno Pistorius’ property in Pretoria, which is where he would serve out the remainder of his sentence if parole is granted.

    Oscar Pistorius Gets Six Years Jail Time in South Africa
    Police escort Oscar Pistorius before his sentencing at the Northern Gauteng High Court, in Pretoria, South Africa, July 6, 2016, for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

    Foto24/Getty


    The terms of parole vary in South Africa but could include an electronic tag to monitor his movements and a ban on making money from media interviews about his incarceration.   

    Pistorius was last up for parole in 2021, but his request was denied on technical grounds as he had not met with Steenkamp’s family as required under South Africa’s parole rules. That meeting has since taken place, but Steenkamp’s parents remain unconvinced that Pistorius has taken responsibility for his actions.  

    Steenkamp’s mother had indicated before Friday that, along with her husband, she would oppose Pistorius’ early release, arguing that unless he admits he deliberately killed their daughter, he can’t be deemed to have shown remorse. 


    “Blade Runner” Oscar Pistorius, convicted in murder of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, up for parole

    02:33

    The year before the murder, Pistorius was a star at the London Olympics, achieving global recognition for becoming the first double amputee to compete against able-bodied sprinters. His prowess on twin carbon-fiber prosthetics earned him the nickname “Blade Runner.”

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  • Celebrating International Women’s Day with Britain’s first Olympic gold medallist on the track, Ann Packer

    Celebrating International Women’s Day with Britain’s first Olympic gold medallist on the track, Ann Packer

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    Ann Brightwell (nee Packer) talks about her incredible life as she became the first British woman to win an Olympic gold medal on the track almost 60 years ago

    Ann Brightwell (nee Packer) talks about her incredible life as she became the first British woman to win an Olympic gold medal on the track almost 60 years ago

    Ann Brightwell, then-Packer, was not supposed to win the 800m at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

    Up until the first round of the event at those Games, she had run only a handful of 800m races in her life – locally, and as stamina training for her main event, the 400m.

    In the heat and semi for the 400m at the Games, Brightwell had run personal bests and European records. She was a strong favourite, but in the final she was beaten by Australia’s Betty Cuthbert.

    Cuthbert had won golds in the 100m, 200m and the 4x100m relay at the Melbourne Olympics eight years prior. At the 1960 Rome Olympics, she had an injury and did not make it past the quarter-finals of the 100m and decided to retire from the sport.

    But by 1964, she was back, and hungry for a medal in a completely new event – the 400m, which she won.

    “I was very disappointed, because I was favourite. I’d run the fastest time in the world that year. But you know, it didn’t work out on the day,” Brightwell tells Sky Sports.

    Cuthbert won in a new Olympic record of 52.0, just 0.2 seconds ahead of Brightwell who had set two of her own Olympic records in the heat and semi-final respectively.

    Disappointed with her 400m silver, Brightwell said she did not feel like running the 800m, but her then-fiance Robbie Brightwell, captain of the athletics team, persuaded her to run the heat.

    Robbie Brightwell and his then-fiancee Ann Packer - seen here before the 1964 Olympics - often trained together

    Robbie Brightwell and his then-fiancee Ann Packer – seen here before the 1964 Olympics – often trained together

    ‘Nothing to lose’

    Brightwell came fifth in her 800m heat in a time of 2.12.6 and just qualified for the semi-final.

    “I had nothing to lose, it was just that I was really disappointed. So I was determined that I needed to qualify. I just did what needed to be done,” Brightwell said.

    In the semi-final, doing what needed to be done meant cutting another six seconds off her personal best.

    She was the second-slowest qualifier going into the final. In sixth place at the 400m bell and sitting at the back of the main pack, Brightwell launched into a sprint finish with 150m to go, and by the home straight, continued to pick the other runners off and take the lead.

    Brightwell crossed the line in 2.01.1 – a new world record.

    The first five runners of the race had all beaten the previous Olympic record.

    “I didn’t expect it,” Brightwell told us. “I didn’t even know what the world record was. But I didn’t expect to win it!

    Packer was surprised to win gold in the 800m at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, in a world record time

    Packer was surprised to win gold in the 800m at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, in a world record time

    “I can remember Robbie and the relay team had just finished a semi-final of the 4x400m relay and they were all there. He said to me: ‘You don’t realise what you’ve done’. And I don’t think I did, really.”

    Ann had unknowingly started a very exclusive club: only four British women have won Olympic gold in an individual track event. The next person to join Brightwell on that list was Sally Gunnell in 1992, followed by Kelly Holmes in 2004 and Christine Ohuruogu in 2008.

    “It isn’t until quite a lot later that you realise the enormity of it, because there are some great athletes that never get the gold medal for one reason or another. So yes, it’s sobering. And it’s a proud moment. But it’s more relief than anything,” she added.

    Packer on October 27, 1964 at Heathrow Airport in London upon her return from the Olympics with the gold and silver medals she won

    Packer on October 27, 1964 at Heathrow Airport in London upon her return from the Olympics with the gold and silver medals she won

    Packer is kissed by her fiance Brightwell who told her 'you don't know what you've done' after watching her win the 800m in Tokyo

    Packer is kissed by her fiance Brightwell who told her ‘you don’t know what you’ve done’ after watching her win the 800m in Tokyo

    So now, as she turns 81 and celebrates her birthday on International Women’s Day, how does she reflect on that moment?

    “I just wanted to be an Olympian. It isn’t until many years later that you do realise what a big impact it does have on young girls to think, well, if she can do it, I can do it. I was just a kid who happened to be able to run fast,” she said.

    “It’s very important for young people to have role models. And if you’re in a position to make yourself into a role model, then it is something to be proud of, and something to pursue.”

    British athletes Ann Packer, Robbie Brightwell and Mary Rand receive MBE medals at Buckingham Palace in 1965

    British athletes Ann Packer, Robbie Brightwell and Mary Rand receive MBE medals at Buckingham Palace in 1965

    So how different was the world of women’s sport in the 1960s?

    “It wasn’t very inclusive,” Brightwell said.

    “It was very different because girls tended towards netball or tennis. My two events in Tokyo were the 400m and the 800m. The 400 had never been run in the Olympics before. And the 800 had only been introduced in the previous [Olympics].

    “It wasn’t quite right to see ladies sweating or being distressed at the end of a race. So there was nothing above 800 metres, whereas now we’ve got everything apart from the 50km walk – we go right up to the marathon,” she said.

    Olympic champion Packer was a PE teacher at Coombe County Girls School and was given time off to go to the Tokyo Olympics in 1964

    Olympic champion Packer was a PE teacher at Coombe County Girls School and was given time off to go to the Tokyo Olympics in 1964

    After the Olympics, Brightwell retired at the age of 22, meaning she had one of the shortest athletics careers of any British Olympic champion.

    “It was amateur in the strictest sense of the word,” she explained. “I had a job. All of us had jobs. It was a question of if you could get time off to compete.

    “I was a teacher and I’d only just started at a new school. I had to ask before they gave me the job, if they would let me go to the Olympics, because it’s five or six weeks away.

    “Some athletes had to give up their jobs. Some had to take unpaid leave, some got sacked.

    “And so I did retire early, but it’s what we did, because we had to get back to work. Logistically, it was very difficult to train because it wasn’t full-time.”

    Ann Packer married fellow athlete Robbie Brightwell at Moulsford Church in Berkshire in December 1964

    Ann Packer married fellow athlete Robbie Brightwell at Moulsford Church in Berkshire in December 1964

    Ann and Robbie went on to marry, and had three sons who would carry on the Brightwell sporting legacy – Gary, Ian and David Brightwell.

    Gary followed his mother’s footsteps and was a successful 400m runner, while both Ian and David went down the football route.

    Ian Brightwell played 468 league games in the Football League and Premier League, in a career spanning 20 years. Over 300 of those games were for Manchester City, where he is now an ambassador.

    Speaking to Sky Sports about his mum’s success, Ian said: “Not many people have achieved what she’s achieved. And I think it gives an inspiration to all females, whether in athletics, or in any walk of life, if you want something, go and grab it, work hard.”

    David, whose daughter has been inspired by her grandma, also played for Manchester City from 1988-1995, as well as for Bradford City and Carlisle United. He said when they were younger, he and his brothers did not realise how much of a superstar his mum was.

    “We didn’t know anything else really. And it was a bit like that growing up,” David said. The medals came out probably a couple of times a year. But other than that they were in a drawer. It wasn’t until the Olympics came round, every four years, people got a little bit more interested in it,” he said.

    Ian adds: “I think for me, it was school sports days. When you’re at primary school, there was the parents race. So we got the trump card. We couldn’t quite work out why she kept winning every year. I thought that everyone’s parents had won a gold medal, which they haven’t!

    “But when you get a little bit older, you start to think and look exactly at what they did achieve. It was incredible. And we’re very proud.”

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  • Opinion: Gymnastics teams look nothing like they used to. And this is the biggest change of all | CNN

    Opinion: Gymnastics teams look nothing like they used to. And this is the biggest change of all | CNN

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    Editor’s Note: Onnie Willis Rogers is a former collegiate gymnastics champion at UCLA and a professor of psychology at Northwestern University whose research focuses on human development, diversity and equity and education. The opinions expressed here are her own. Read more opinion at CNN.



    CNN
     — 

    I’m one of just five Black women in history to win the NCAA individual all-around title in gymnastics. It was a tremendous accomplishment which, when I won it two decades ago, left me elated.

    But it was a particular kind of joy, tinged with the frustration often felt by the Black athlete who excels in a sport where they are one of only a very few.

    I grew up in the sport in the 1980s. I took my first gymnastics class at the age of 3 and finished my final competition at the age of 22. Throughout all of my years training in the sport, I was often the lone brown face in a gym filled with tumbling, somersaulting, hand-standing kids.

    Before accepting a full ride sports scholarship to UCLA, I was an elite gymnast, a member of the National Team for USA Gymnastics (USAG). As a Black gymnast growing up, being one of few was normal. And as I progressed up the ranks, the sport seemed only to get whiter.

    Even during my four years at UCLA, an urban school with a sizable Black population, I was the only Black female gymnast on my team. In 2001, the year I won my NCAA title, I could probably count the other Black women gymnasts at top-ranked schools we competed against on one hand.

    But I’ve noticed something different about gymnasts today, and perhaps you have, as well. There are more Black and brown athletes in the sport than ever before. And they are turning out to be a force to be reckoned with.

    This year marks 20 years since my last gymnastics competition, and a lot has changed in the sport — but perhaps nothing so much as the dramatic increase in racial and ethnic diversity. The change has been nothing short of astonishing — especially at last summer’s stunning National Championships, when African American women swept the podium.

    I’d been involved in gymnastics my entire life, and I never saw it coming. The diversity — and the excellence — exhibited by the top-performing women of color in the sport has been something to behold.

    There’s Simone Biles who, of course, needs no introduction. She’s a global icon who has earned seven Olympic medals and 25 world championship medals — more than anyone else in gymnastics — and is regarded as the GOAT in our sport. Some have even argued that she is the greatest athlete of all time, period. Before Biles, there was Gabby Douglas, who was crowned the 2012 Olympic all-around champion, becoming the first Black gymnast to capture that title.

    To be honest, it’s hard to name all the women of color who have made it to the top ranks of the sport since I stopped competing. Laurie Hernandez, who is Puerto Rican, was the youngest gymnast to earn gold in Rio 2016. Jordan Chiles helped Team USA secure the gold at last year’s world championships. And there’s Sunisa Lee, a Hmong American who became the first Asian American to win the Olympic all-around title. The list goes on and on.

    The standouts of color at the collegiate level have been no less impressive. Florida Gator Trinity Thomas holds a breathtaking record of perfection. UCLA’s Chae Campbell, Chiles and freshman standout Selena Harris continue to grab headlines in our sport, as does Jordan Rucker of the University of Utah and Haleigh Bryant of Louisiana State University — and, astonishingly, too many others to name.

    These women of color are setting new records and breaking the internet with performances of exceptional style and athleticism. I can’t think of another major sport that has seen its ranks change so dramatically. Swimming? Golf? Tennis? No, not really. These predominantly White sports have seen a relative few breakthrough athletes of color, but overall the complexion of the sports haven’t changed much.

    Over the years, structural racism has powerfully shaped access, opportunity and identity — all of which help explain why gymnastics was so White in the first place. The long arm of economic inequality touches every facet of life, including sport.

    Sports where Black people have been represented have traditionally been those accessible through schools, such as football, basketball and track and field. Gymnastics is a very expensive sport, costing thousands of dollars and requiring long, intense training hours. High-quality instruction is only accessible in private clubs and at elite training facilities that are few and far between. Growing up, my family fundraised furiously, did extra jobs at my gymnastics club, and housed visiting gymnasts to offset the unreachable high cost of tuition.

    There is no magic that has “created” gymnasts of color in the past decade. There have always been strong, talented Black and brown girls capable of excelling in the sport. Many of the first Black women in the sport, like Diane Dunham and Wendy Hilliard, simply were not acknowledged because our society has for so long refused to value or validate Black women. Instead, the sport favored a Nadia Comaneci-style waif, thin and childlike. That doubtless kept a lot of women who looked like me on the sidelines. Elite gymnastics did not always see them or make space for them.

    Luckily for me, there were always exceptions, and these women became my inspirations. Betty Okino and Dominique Dawes were the trailblazers in my day. I watched them represent Team USA with their brown bodies and Black girl hair and I knew it was a little more possible for me.

    I vividly remember being 16 years old laying belly down on the green shag carpet in my living room in Tacoma, Washington, captivated as UCLA — and even more significantly for me, Stella Umeh — clinched its first-ever NCAA Title.

    On the floor, Umeh was Black, full-bodied and fierce; her hair was a close shave; the music for her floor routine was rhythmic and pulsating. She was unlike any gymnast I had ever seen. I attended UCLA after Umeh had graduated, but walked confidently and fully in her footsteps, not simply because she too was a Black woman, but because she remade the mold.

    Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to attend the NCAA Metroplex Challenge gymnastics competition with my 11-year-old daughter and her gymnastics team. There were multiple Black gymnasts competing for every school on the floor.

    As a developmental psychologist who studies youth identity development, I couldn’t ignore the significance of the moment. I couldn’t fail to register the awe in their eyes as they watched their possible future selves from their front row seats, a real image of who they may become. In short, identity and representation matter. How many Black girls even enter the sport in the future will be influenced by what they see as attainable or impossible.

    Meanwhile, the breakthroughs in gymnastics just keep coming: This year, Fisk University is the first HBCU to have an NCAA gymnastics team — an entire team of Black and brown girls doing gymnastics. It’s radical. It’s transformative. And as Black History Month draws to a close, it’s a reminder of what is possible.

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  • Opinion: ‘The arc of history will not go Putin’s way.’ 7 voices on one year of war | CNN

    Opinion: ‘The arc of history will not go Putin’s way.’ 7 voices on one year of war | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    It’s the evening of February 23, 2022. In Kyiv, the boss of a news site relaxes with a bath and candles. In Zaporizhzhia, a young woman goes to bed planning to celebrate her husband’s birthday in the morning. In Moscow, a journalist happens to postpone his travel plans to Kyiv.

    Within hours, their lives are dramatically and radically transformed. The next day, Russian President Vladimir Putin launches his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

    In the space of a year, the war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced millions more. It has unleashed unfathomable atrocities, decimated cities, driven a global food and energy crisis and tested the resolve of western alliances.

    We asked seven people close to the conflict – from “fixers” in Ukraine, to commentators in Moscow – to reflect on the first anniversary of the invasion. The views expressed in this commentary are their own.

    Opinion by Diliara Didenko

    Diliara Didenko is a PhD candidate in sociology and a mother of two. She works in social media marketing.

    Zaporizhzhia, February 23, 2022. I went to bed thinking that I would celebrate my husband’s birthday the next day. Our life was getting better. My husband was running his own business. Our daughter had started school and made friends there. We were lucky to have arranged support services and found a special needs nursery for our son. I finally had time to work. I felt happy.

    Could I imagine that, 22 days later, I would be starting my life over in the Czech Republic, and my country would be set on fire?

    Completely exhausted, crushed and scared, we had to brace ourselves and come to terms with our forced displacement. I will be forever grateful to all those who helped us come to Prague and adjust to a new life in a foreign land.

    Thanks to the opportunities for Ukrainians provided by the Czech Republic, my husband got a job. I found special needs classes for my son. He now attends an adaptation group for Ukrainian children and has a learning support assistant. My daughter goes to a Czech school while studying in her Ukrainian school remotely.

    We are trying to live in the here and now. But the truth is, we are heartbroken. While physically we are in Prague, our hearts have remained in Ukraine.

    Mikhail Zygar headshot

    Opinion by Mikhail Zygar

    Mikhail Zygar is a journalist and former editor in chief of the independent TV news channel Dozhd. He is the author of “All the Kremlin’s Men: Inside the Court of Vladimir Putin” and upcoming book “War and Punishment. Putin, Zelensky, and the Path to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine.”

    On February 24, 2022, I was supposed to be in Kyiv. But a few days before that, my husband broke his shoulder and we had to stay in Moscow. At 9:00 a.m. that day he had surgery.

    That morning we woke up to learn that the invasion started. I wrote an open letter denouncing the war, which was co-signed by 12 Russian writers, directors and cultural figures. Soon it was published, and tens of thousands of Russian citizens added their signatures.

    On the third day we, my husband and I, left Russia. I felt that it was some kind of moral obligation. I could no longer stay on the territory of the state that has become a fascist one.

    We moved to Berlin. My husband went to work as a volunteer at the refugee camp next to the main railway station, where thousands of Ukrainians had been arriving every day. And I started writing a new book. It starts like this:

    “This book is a confession. I am guilty for not reading the signs much earlier. I too am responsible for Russia’s war against Ukraine. As are my contemporaries and our forebears. Regrettably, Russian culture is also to blame for making all these horrors possible.”

    I know that Russian people are infected with imperialism. We failed to spot just how deadly the very idea of Russia as a “great empire” was – now we have to come a long way, healing our nation from that disease.

    Michael Bociurkiw headshot

    Opinion by Michael Bociurkiw

    Michael Bociurkiw is a global affairs analyst who in summer relocated from Canada to Ukraine. He is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and a former spokesperson for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

    As I write, Russia has just fired dozens of Kalibr missiles towards several cities in Ukraine, including my adopted city of Odesa. Air raid sirens blare as we bolt for shelter into enclosed hallways. My landlady brings me a pot of borscht to help create a sense of normalcy.

    If anything, for me, the son of Ukrainian immigrants in Canada, this has been a war of history repeating itself – from the forced deportation of upwards of 2.5 million Ukrainians, including 38,000 children, to the stealing of Ukrainian grain to the wanton destruction of Ukrainians museums, libraries, churches and monuments.

    Time and again since the Russian invasion started, I’m haunted by the darkness in my father’s eyes during the re-telling of chilling dinnertime stories of relatives shipped off to the Soviet gulag, never to return. Stories of millions of Ukrainians who starved to death in Stalin’s manmade famine of 1932-33.

    What’s changed since Russian missiles first began falling on February 24, 2022? The fear felt by Ukrainians has been replaced with anger as they stand up to barrages of rockets and drones.

    An expert from the prosecutor's office examines collected remnants of shells and missiles used by the Russian army to attack the second largest Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, on Decmber 7.

    Whether it’s going through with a wedding in the aftermath of a rocket attack, pitching in to make Molotov cocktails, shifting classes to a Kyiv subway station as missiles fly or keeping a family business open against all odds, one thing Putin’s invasion has done is galvanize the Ukrainian people like never before.

    It’s an unmistakable, irrepressible resilience that convinces me the arc of history will go anything but Putin’s way.

    Opinion by Sasha Dovzhyk

    Sasha Dovzhyk is a special projects curator at the Ukrainian Institute London and associate lecturer in Ukrainian at the School of Slavonic and East-European Studies, University College London. She divides her time between London and Ukraine where she works as a “fixer“– a translator and producer for foreign journalists.

    A year into the full-scale invasion, my passport is a novel in stamps. My life is split between London, where I teach Ukrainian literature, and Ukraine, where I get my lessons in courage.

    My former classmates from Zaporizhzhia whom, based on our teenage habits, I expected to perish from addictions a long time ago, have volunteered to fight. My hairdresser, whom I expected to remain a sweet summer child, turned out to have fled on foot from the Russia-occupied town of Bucha through the forest with her mother, grandmother and five dogs.

    Sasha Dovzhyk's work on Ukraine is supported by the IWM project, Documenting Ukraine.

    My capital, which the Kremlin and the West expected to fall in three days, has withstood 12 months of Russia’s terrorist bombings and energy blackouts. These dark winter nights, one sees so many stars over Kyiv which the Russians have only managed to bring closer to eternity.

    Ukrainians have learned that they are stronger than was expected of them. Have those who have underestimated them learned their lessons? Military aid has been enough for Ukraine to survive but not to crush the enemy.

    For the outside world, the idea of a defeated Russia is still scarier than the sight of Ukraine half-ruined. Just like a year ago, Ukraine is calling on the rest of the world to find courage.

    Andrei Kolesnikov headshot

    Opinion by Andrei Kolesnikov

    Andrei Kolesnikov is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is the author of several books on the political and social history of Russia, including “Five Five-Year Liberal Reforms.” Origins of Russian Modernization and Egor Gaidar’s Legacy.”

    It seems that since February 2022 we have experienced several eras. The first was euphoric, when Putin suddenly, after a significant time of stagnant ratings, received more than 80% approval from the population.

    It seemed to many at the time that the campaign would be short, like the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

    Then, beginning in late spring, came a period of apathy, when people tried not to pay attention to what was being done in Ukraine.

    And in the fall, public demobilization was replaced by mobilization – Putin demanded that citizens share responsibility for the war with him with their bodies. This provoked unprecedented anxiety, but instead of serious protests, the bulk of the population again preferred adaptation.

    Among Putin’s supporters there is also a group of aggressive conformists who have become supporters of total war.

    Veterans and guests attend the Victory Day military parade at Red Square in central Moscow on May 9, 2022.

    But everyone experienced the shock of war differently. For millions of people in Russia, what happened was an absolute catastrophe: Putin not only destroyed all the achievements of previous life, he aborted the country’s history.

    By aborting the past, he canceled the future. Those who were disoriented, preferred to support Putin: it is easier to live this way when your superiors decide everything for you, and you take for granted everything you are told by propaganda.

    For me personally and my family, what happened was a catastrophe to which it is impossible to adapt. As an active commentator on the events, I was labeled by the authorities as a “foreign agent,” which increased personal risk and reinforced the impression of living in an Orwellian anti-utopia.

    Daryna Shevchenko head shot

    Opinion by Daryna Shevchenko

    Daryna Shevchenko is chief executive officer of The Kyiv Independent, an English-language news site in Ukraine.

    On the evening of February 23 I washed my dog, cleaned the house, took a bath and lit candles. I have a cozy, one-bedroom apartment in a northern district of Kyiv. I loved taking care of it. I loved the life I had. All of it – the small routines and the struggles. That night was the last time my life mattered.

    The next morning my phone was buzzing from all the messages and missed calls. A red headline in all caps on the Kyiv Independent website read: “PUTIN DECLARES WAR ON UKRAINE.”

    I remember talking to colleagues, trying to assemble and coordinate a small army of volunteers to strengthen the newsroom. And calling my parents to organize buying supplies.

    We’d been expecting a battle for quite some time and knew it would be an uphill one. I had a solid plan, and it was working.

    The aftermath of a Russian missile strike on a residential building in Dnipro, in January 2023.

    The life I knew started falling apart soon after, starting with the small things. It no longer mattered what cup I used to drink my morning tea, or how I dressed, or whether or not I took a shower. Life itself no longer mattered, only the battle did.

    Just a few weeks into the full-scale invasion it was already hard to remember the struggles, sorrows and joyful moments of the pre-war era. I would remember being upset about my boyfriend, but I could no longer relate. My life didn’t change on February 24, it was stolen from me on that day.

    And besides the obvious battles, there was another one to fight – trying to claim my life back. The life Russia stole from me and millions of Ukrainians.

    Anna Ryzhykova profile picture

    Opinion by Anna Ryzhykova

    Anna Ryzhykova is a Ukrainian track and field athlete, Olympic bronze medalist and multiple European Championships medalist.

    By March, my initial shock and fear of the war turned into a desire to act through sports. Athletes could fight against Russian propaganda in the best way. We just had to tell the truth about the war and Ukrainians – how strong, kind and brave we are. How we have united to defend our country.

    I was no longer concerned with my personal ambitions. Only the common goal was crucial – to raise our flag and show that we are fighting even under these circumstances.

    I couldn’t enjoy my victories on the track. They were only possible because so many defenders had laid down their lives. But I got messages from soldiers on the frontline. They were so happy to follow our achievements, and it was my primary motivation to continue my career.

    This whole year has been full of tears and worries. I read the news about people close to me killed by Russians – a teammate, the director of a sports school, or a friend’s parents.

    After each attack, I call my family and friends to ensure they are alive. The seconds of waiting for their voices are excruciating.

    Life values have changed. Like never before, I enjoy every opportunity to see or talk to relatives and friends. And like other Ukrainians, I believe in our victory and that all of us will return to our beloved country. But we need the world’s help.

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  • Usain Bolt Reportedly Lost Millions in Fund Fraud

    Usain Bolt Reportedly Lost Millions in Fund Fraud

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    Usain Bolt, the legendary Jamaican sprinter, was reportedly caught up in a massive employee fraud scheme that resulted in over $1.2 billion in stolen funds from a wealth management company, Stocks and Securities Limited (SSL).


    Ian MacNicol / Contributor I Getty Images

    Usain Bolt at the Olympics in 2012.

    Bolt had millions invested with SSL, his manager, Nugent Walker, told Jamaica’s The Gleaner outlet.

    Stocks and Securities Limited (SSL) is a wealth management company and brokerage. According to its site, it has a main office in Kingston, Jamaica, and provides services including private wealth management.

    What is Usain Bolt’s net worth?

    Usain Bolt is a retired, legendary sprinter who holds the world record in the 100-meter (along with a few others) of 9.58 seconds. He holds eight Olympic gold medals, has produced original music, and has an eponymous foundation that supports children, per his website.

    Bolt’s net worth is estimated to be $31 million. He has major marketing deals with several brands including Puma, and he also owns a chain of restaurants called Tracks & Records.

    On Monday, he Tweeted one of his songs and quoted a lyric that says money is the root of all evil:

    What’s going on with the SSL fraud?

    Bolt is apparently entangled in the massive fraud scandal.

    SSL acknowledged the fraud in a statement saying that it became “aware of fraudulent activity by a former employee of the company,” per the Jamaica Observer, and had alerted authorities.

    “To ensure this, we have taken steps to secure those assets and strengthened internal protocols to detect suspicious activity in the shortest time possible,” it added.

    Two sources have reported Bolt’s assets were involved with this company. Aside from Walker’s interview, the Jamaica Observer reported that an unnamed source told the outlet Bolt’s team was informed of the fraud just before it became public knowledge.

    The outlet has also reported that the fraud is thought to have affected more than 30 people and $1.2 billion, and that Bolt’s investment was a little less than $10 million. Another Jamaican government regulator involved with the investigation said this week that transactions of a suspicious nature had been going on for over 10 years.

    Walker also told The Gleaner that Bolt’s “been with this entity [SSL] over 10 years…His entire portfolio is being reviewed.”

    SSL is now under the control of Jamaica’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) which supervises things like mutual funds and pensions, according to the government entity’s site.

    It is unclear if or how people will get their money back.

    “We understand that clients are anxious to receive more information and assure you that we are closely monitoring the matter throughout all the required steps and will alert our clients of the resolution as soon as that information is available,” SSL’s site says.

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    Gabrielle Bienasz

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  • Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva cleared by RUSADA, WADA to review doping decision and consider appeal | CNN

    Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva cleared by RUSADA, WADA to review doping decision and consider appeal | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) found figure skater Kamila Valieva violated anti-doping rules but bore no “fault or negligence” for the transgression, according to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

    The ruling in effect clears Valieva of wrongdoing and administers no punishment beyond the disqualification of her results from December 25, 2021 – the date of her sample collection.

    The decision, made by a RUSADA tribunal, would allow the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) to earn the gold medals won in the team figure skating event at the Beijing Olympics in 2022.

    CNN has reached out to RUSADA for comment.

    The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) released a statement implying it is likely to appeal the verdict.

    “WADA notes this outcome and has requested a copy of the full reasoned decision, which it will review together with the case file in order to determine whether the ruling is in line with the terms of the World Anti-Doping Code,” it said in a statement.

    “However, based on the elements of the case with which WADA is already familiar, the Agency is concerned by the finding of ‘no fault or negligence’ and will not hesitate to exercise its right of appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, as appropriate.

    “Following a full review of the RUSADA decision, WADA will consider what its next steps will be so that the matter is dealt with as quickly as possible and without further undue delay.”

    Travis Tygart, CEO of the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), said in a statement to CNN: “WADA and the ISU [International Skating Union] have to appeal this decision, for the sake of the credibility of the anti-doping system and the rights of all athletes.

    “The world can’t possibly accept this self-serving decision by RUSADA, which in the recent past has been a key instrument of Russia’s state sponsored doping fraud and is non-compliant. Justice demands a full, fair, public hearing outside of Russia.”

    Valieva, who is now 16, was suspended by RUSADA the day after she guided the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) to victory in the team event in Beijing, where she became the first woman to land a quadruple jump in the Winter Olympics.

    She tested positive for a banned substance – the heart medication trimetazidine, which can enhance endurance – in December 2021. But the results of the failed December drug test only came to light during the Olympics when it was analyzed and reported to RUSADA.

    Valieva has not publicly explained the positive test results.

    Team USA finished second in the team event in Beijing, Japan in third, and Canada fourth. As a result of the doping controversy, no medal ceremony was held during the Games.

    CNN has reached out to the ISU and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for comment.

    In a statement to CNN, the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee said: “As we approach the one-year anniversary of the Beijing Games, it remains very important that the figure skating team event athletes who competed in Beijing get the resolution they deserve.

    “We thank WADA for their commitment to reviewing this issue and moving the process forward as expeditiously as possible.”

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  • Grandmother breaks national, world records in powerlifting

    Grandmother breaks national, world records in powerlifting

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    Grandmother breaks national, world records in powerlifting – CBS News


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    A grandmother who started going to the gym when she was 65 to train in powerlifting now holds more than 20 national and world records in the sport. She has personal bests of 413 pounds in the squat, 381 pounds in the deadlift and 203 pounds in the bench press. Meg Oliver shares her story.

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