#2021 us olympic trials

[mariacallous]

In March, a little-known volunteer organization dedicated to “reviving the religious and secular unity of the Russian people” escorted agents from the Internal Affairs Ministry and the Russian National Guard on a raid in the remote city of Orenburg, a city of 500,000 near the Kazakh border.

Their target was a bar called Pose, which was locally famous for its drag shows. The volunteer organization, called Russian Community Orenburg, posted videos of the raid online, highlighting people in skimpy outfits, asking attendees why they were in a “faggot bar,” and showing clubgoers cowering on the floor as agents conducted their search.

“This is not [a scene from] the decaying West, this is from within the ranks of a country that is at war for a third year,” the group lamented when it posted the video online.

Conservatives in Orenburg had been outraged about Pose since it opened in 2021, according to the Russian outlet Mediazona, and a local media outlet published a sensationalist article about the club, complaining that laws like Russia’s longstanding “gay propaganda ban” did not give local law enforcement the tools to shut it down. That law, enacted in 2013, only bans materials made available to minors and carries light penalties.

The agents in Pose that night were armed with a major new weapon in Russia’s long crusade against its queer citizens. Last November, in a secret proceeding sealed to observers, Russia’s Supreme Court decreed the “international LGBT movement” to be an “extremist” organization, adding it to a list of banned entities that includes terrorist groups and the political operation of the late opposition politician Alexei Navalny. The decision is so broad that it can potentially be used against anyone who has—or simply “promotes”—a “nontraditional sexual orientation,” including people who are not LGBTQ but support queer people’s rights. People convicted under the law face up to 10 years in some of Russia’s harshest prisons, where queer people fear sexual violence or worse.

“This is not a decision to punish you for a few years. This is the death penalty, and it’s clear for everybody,” one longtime activist said, referring to the harsh conditions in Russian prisons. (The activist asked not to be named due to security concerns.) “We will not have a chance to survive there.”

Pose’s owner and two of its employees are now awaiting trial. A court announcement on Telegram notes they are accused of “being persons with nontraditional sexual orientation … who also support the views and activities of the international public LGBT association banned in our country.”

Others close to the bar are now living in fear. Only one regular Pose patron would agree to speak with me, and he said his friends had mostly stopped communicating with one another, afraid they could be discovered. Several had left the city or the country. He thinks he should maybe leave the country, too, but doesn’t have a passport or the money to go into exile, nor a safe place to flee to.

Pose, the patron said, “was my whole life. It was the only place where they accepted me.”

Homophobia became a major part of President Vladimir Putin’s political strategy in 2013. That’s when the Duma passed a national version of the “gay propaganda law.” The legislation was domestically useful to Putin, who was seeking to reinforce his political support by cozying up to the Russian Orthodox Church.

The law, which went into effect just before Russia was due to host the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, provoked an international outcry, and Putin detected homophobia could also be a tool of foreign policy. His government leaned into the controversy, portraying Russia as a defender of traditional values against a degenerate West that had lost its way. Kremlin allies also began using it in a more targeted way in Ukraine, where an oligarch close to Putin ran an ad campaign warning closer ties to the European Union would force the recognition of same-sex marriages. His decade-long strategy has used homophobia to try to drive a wedge between Eastern Europeans and the West, as well as to delegitimize fundamental notions of human rights and democracy.

To some Russian LGBTQ activists, it was inevitable that the Russian government would double down on going after queer people following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Swiftly, the Russian government made a broad effort to dismantle the last spaces for opposition to his regime. Other steps have included shuttering Russia’s remaining independent media outlets and effectively banning any speech critical of the war or of Putin.

The organization Coming Out, which held an eight-day annual public event in St. Petersburg as recently as 2021, decided to move its whole team outside the country almost as soon as Russian tanks rolled across Ukraine’s borders.

“A few weeks after the war started, I understood that things were not going according to the plan,” said Aleksandr Voronov, Coming Out’s former director, who led its relocation to Lithuania. “I understood that they were going to start looking for new enemies.”

Putin also justified the war partly as a crusade against the LGBTQ movement, which he initially derided in a speech announcing the full-scale invasion as part of a Western plot to “destroy” Russia’s traditional values. Then, in September 2022, he referred to the movement as “satanic” in a speech illegally annexing four Ukrainian regions.

As the war continued, the regime’s propaganda machine pushed outlandish stories, rushing a state television crew to an LGBTQ center in decimated Mariupol that it claimed was “practically under the direct patronage” of U.S. President Joe Biden. Russian lawmakers also responded, expanding the gay propaganda ban in November 2022 and enacting a draconian anti-trans bill in 2023 that would outlaw gender confirming medical treatment, prohibit people from changing their gender on legal documents, and prohibit trans people from adopting children.

“A special military operation is taking place not only on the battlefields, but also in the consciousness, in the minds and souls of people,” said Aleksander Khinshtein, a member of the Russian parliament and an author of the updated gay propaganda law, in a speech to the Duma in October 2022. “LGBT today is a tool of hybrid warfare. And in this hybrid warfare, we must protect our values. We must protect our society and we must protect our children.”

Despite many threats to Russia’s queer movement—the original gay propaganda law, a state requirement that forced many LGBTQ organizations to register as “foreign agents,” growing vigilante violence—Russia’s queer movement had remained vital throughout most of Russia for most of the past decade. (A notable exception is Chechnya, where local officials have detained, tortured, or murdered dozens of queer people.) Queer organizations continued to work and even hold major public events like St. Petersburg’s long-running QueerFest, a multiday festival of LGBTQ-themed talks and exhibitions ending with a large public concert. But the extremism designation is far more dangerous than any previous threat.

Part of the danger comes from the court’s secrecy around the ruling. It not only closed the proceedings, but also barred LGBTQ organizations from participating when they tried to challenge the Ministry of Justice’s petition. Technically, any group the government seeks to declare extremist has a right to respond to the allegations against it, but the Ministry of Justice brought its petition against the “international LGBT movement,” which meant no specific organization would have standing to respond. And even when a group of LGBTQ activists formed an organization called the International LGBT Movement in an effort to intervene, the court refused to allow them to participate.

In fact, the Supreme Court never officially made the order public. It only reached LGBTQ activists in their lawyers when prosecutors in the city of Nizhny Novgorod attached it to their filings in a case against a woman who was arrested for wearing rainbow-colored earrings. (The six-color pride flag and other LGBTQ symbols were banned by the order, and the court sentenced the woman to administrative detention, despite the fact that the woman’s earrings were not discernible pride symbols—they had seven colors and were shaped like frogs.)

Olga Baranova, who has been executive director of an LGBTQ community center in Moscow since 2015, told me that the movement is now backpedaling after years of encouraging people to come out. They used to believe visibility would gradually make Russian society more supportive of LGBTQ people. Now it’s just dangerous.

“We’ve worked all these years just to be [out] and to be in the mainstream. And now we just say, ‘Okay, stop, stop, stop!’” Baranova said. Most people she knows who were visibly out have left the country, Baranova said—as has she—and she and other activists now advise people living in Russia to stay in the closet for their own safety.

Natalia Soloviova, chair of the Russian LGBT Network, a federation of more than 20 queer organizations from across the country, called the decision “absolutely horrifying,” but said that even despite it, the reality is that most queer people are not able or don’t want to flee Russia. The war has made it harder for LGBTQ people to reach countries that promise the most safety to LGBTQ refugees—like the United States or members of the European Union—because those countries have radically restricted visas for Russians. Georgia, which allows Russians to enter without visas, has become an important haven for Russian dissidents of many kinds in the past two years. But Georgia’s ruling party has advanced its own laws attacking LGBTQ people, one of many initiatives to bring the country closer to Moscow’s orbit.

Still, Soloviova estimates a significant exodus, with “hundreds” going abroad. Almost 40 percent of the Russian LGBT Network’s member organizations have relocated at least some members of their team abroad, generally visible activists or people in senior management. And many other queer people have been displaced internally, fleeing threats in their hometowns for larger cities where their pursuers are less likely to find them. Baranova acknowledged that if queer people all either leave the country or live in the closet, as she and others counsel them to do, “the movement will expire.”

Soloviova is one of those who’ve left the country. She first spoke to me in April from Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, but has since left Georgia. (She feared that country’s new propaganda law and also knew of three queer Russians who were attacked on the street.) She is from the Siberian city of Novosibirsk—Russia’s third-largest city—and said she’d never thought she’d live outside Russia until the extremism designation.

Even today, key details about the Supreme Court order remain secret. For example, the order refers to a list of 281 individuals and 40 organizations considered part of the outlawed movement, but no one knows who is on those lists.

“The hardest thing here is that you have no opportunities to protect yourself,” Soloviova said. “You never know if you’re going to be prosecuted or not, and you will know only when the police come to your house directly and get you to prison directly.”

The charges in Orenburg are the first to reach court, but police appear to be flexing their new muscles across the country. In February alone, Mediazona reported several raids on “private parties” and a night club. LGBTQ activists told me they knew about several other similar incidents but didn’t want to share details, fearing publicity would put those involved in greater danger.

The arrests in Orenburg are just the beginning, worries Stanislav Seleznev, a lawyer with the Russian human rights organization Net Freedoms Project. Regional security officials generally have quotas for making significant arrests, and now LGBTQ people are an untapped pool of so-called “extremists” that can help them reach their goals.

“I’m compelled to assume that we are currently witnessing a model process that will be spread as much as possible all over the Russian regions,” Seleznev said. “Many more people are in a very dangerous situation now.”

Additional reporting contributed by a Russian reporter who asked not to be named, fearing that this article could lead to their arrest under the extremism law.

[justinssportscorner]

Ryan Adamczeski at The Advocate:

Nikki Hiltz isn't just breaking records — they're breaking barriers. The out transgender nonbinary runner qualified for the Paris Olympics on Sunday after completing the 1500-meter race at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field trials with a record time of 3 minutes and 55.33 seconds. Hiltz was in fourth place with 300 meters left before they suddenly accelerated past their competition, cutting down their previous personal best by four seconds.

“I told myself, I’m not going to think about all the love and support [I have] until 100 meters to go,’” Hiltz told reporters afterwards. “‘And then, at that moment, you can let it all fill you up and push you to the finish line.’ That’s exactly what I did, and I think that’s what brought me home.” Hiltz won their title at the 2023 USA Track & Field Outdoor National Championship in a similar fashion, rocketing from third to first place in the last 300 meters. Their victory also made them the organization's first nonbinary national champion. Hiltz came out transgender and nonbinary in 2021 in a post to Instagram. They said at the time: “Hi I’m Nikki and I’m transgender. That means I don’t identify with the gender I was assigned at birth. The word I use currently to describe my gender is non-binary. The best way I can explain my gender is as fluid.”

Trans nonbinary runner Nikki Hiltz makes the Olympics and dedicates their record-breaking run to the LGBTQ+ community.

[schmergo]

The Olympic Trials for gymnastics start tonight and there is one gymnast named Skye Blakely who I believe is under a witch’s curse.

Full disclaimer that although I follow gymnastics and root for my favorite gymnasts for personal/ narrative reasons, I have basically zero technical knowledge of the sport behind being able to distinguish between a good, mid, and disastrous routine. So this post will not get very technical, it’s just more about the story arc.

Skye is a talented young athlete who was too young to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics… until they got pushed back to 2021. She performed so well that she qualified for Olympic Trials, which is no easy feat, especially when you didn’t expect to be training for the Olympics so soon.

At WARMUPS for Olympic Trials in 2021, so not even getting to compete at all, she fell while running to the vault and tore a ligament in her elbow, ending her season and her chances at the Olympics.

Now, you might say, Skye never had a huge chance of making the 2021 Olympics anyway. That’s true, but it gets worse.

Since recovering from her elbow injury, Skye has performed well in national competitions and is especially well-known for her talent on balance beam. But every time she gets selected for an international competition, she falls off the balance beam.

She made the 2022 World Championships team, which is a huge deal. There, she had two bizarre mishaps. For one, her hair ribbon came untied and got in her face while she was competing on balance beam, messing up her concentration. For another, it was stormy outside and there was a leak in the ceiling, leading to A PUDDLE OF WATER on the balance beam while she was competing!

She got her chance for redemption at the 2023 World Championships, which she qualified for again after winning 3 silver medals at the US National Championships (huge achievement).

This time, she didn’t even make the event final for balance beam. During the qualifying rounds, she performed a really good beam routine, dismounted, and literally landed on her head instead of her feet.

But in 2024, Skye came back strong and surprised everyone with an extremely good performance at the USA National Championships, second only to Simone Biles. Never very well-known for her vault, she suddenly came in with a massively upgraded vault that outscored the nation’s best vault specialists (except for Simone).

The conversation quickly turned from “Skye has a good chance of making the Olympic team” to ”Skye is a 100% locked-in, sure thing member of the Olympic Team.”

Yesterday, the athletes chosen for Olympic Trials got a chance to practice on the equipment they’ll be competing on this weekend. While practicing a floor routine— so again, not even getting a chance to compete at Trials— Skye fell and injured her leg so badly that she had to be carried off the floor. Obviously everyone was super worried.

Today the news came out: it’s an Achilles’ tendon tear. She won’t be competing in the Olympic Trials this year. For the SECOND TIME in her short 19-year life, Skye qualified for this major honor only to miss out on her chance to compete at the very last minute.

It’s a witch’s curse, I tell you.

[originallandlockedmariner]

2023

Pickleball. Generative AI. Lula takes office in Brazil, Amazon Rainforest throws a party. Prince Harry refusing to stop talking about his frozen penis no matter how many times society begged him to stop. UFOs are real. Viral cat dubbed ‘largest cat anyone has ever seen’ gets adopted. Pee-Wee’s big adventure ends. Musk & X. Turkey-Syria earthquake kills thousands. India surpasses China as ‘country squeezing in the most peeps’. Tucker Carlson ousted. Miss USA and her 30 lbs moon costume. Wildfires in Kelowna and Hawaii. Macron tinkers with retirement age of the French. Paltrow can’t ski. Big Red Boots. Bob Barker leaves us. Alabama mom delivers 2 babies from her 2 uteruses in 2 days. Charles III. Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russian forces as the war drags on. Taylor Swift is Time’s Person of the Year. African ‘coup belt’. Flo-Jo dies in her sleep. Chinese spy balloon shot down. Hollywood writers strike. Human ‘nice mugshot’ Shitstain and his 91 indictments. Highest interest rates in 2 decades. The Bear’s Christmas episode. War in Gaza. Shinzo Abe is assassinated. Alex Murdaugh. Ocean Cleanup removes 25 000 lbs of trash from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Vase purchased for $3.99 sells for $100 000 at auction. Barbenheimer. A third of Pakistan is flooded. Lionel Messi is the GOAT. Travis Kelce. The Sphere opens in Las Vegas. Regulators seized Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, resulting in two of the three largest bank failures in U.S. history. “The Woman In Me”. WHO declares COVID ain’t a thing no more. Titan sub sinks, rich people die. Matthew Perry drowns. Dumbledore Dies (again). Massive sales of ‘Fuck Trudeau’ flags for jacked-up micro-dick trucks. Everything Everywhere All At Once. June-August was the hottest three-month period in recorded history across the Earth. Tina Turner dies. And the Beatles release a new song?! Wow… You got big shoes to fill 2024.

Archives for context:

2020

Kobe. Pandemic. Lockdown. Koalas on fire. Harry and Meg retire. Toilet paper hoarding. Alcoholism. Impeach the f*cker. Parasite. Bonnie Henry. Tiger King. Working from home. Sourdough bread. Harvey Weinstein guilty. Zoom overdose. Dip your body in sanitizer. 6 feet. Quarantine. OK Boomer. Home schooling (everyone passes). Murder hornets. Dolly Parton. Don’t hug, kiss or see anybody, especially your family. Chris Evans’ junk. TikTok. Glory holes. Face masks. CERB. West Coast wildfires. Stay home. Small Businesses lose, big box stores win. F*ck Bozos. ‘Dreams’ and cranberry juice. Close yoga studios, but thumbs up to your local gym. Speak moistly to me. George Floyd. BLM. F*ck Trump. Phase 2, 3 and Summer. RBG. Baby Yoda. Biden wins. Bond and Black Panther die. No more lockdown. Back to school and work. Just kidding... giddy up round 2. Giuliani leaks shit from his head. Resurgence of chess. UFOs are real. Restrictions. Dave Grohl admits defeat. Monolith. “F*ck... forgot my mask in the car”. No Christmas shenanigans allowed. Bubbles. Alex Trebek. Use the term ‘dumpster fire’ one too many times. Jupiter and Saturn form 'Christmas Star'. Happy New Year Bitches!!!! 2021... you better not sh*t the bed!!

2021

“We love you, you’re very special”. Failed coup attempt at the Capital. Twitter, FB and IG ban Donny. Hammerin’ Hank goes to the Field of Dreams. Bozo no longer richest man but still a twat. Leachman, Tyson, and Holbrook pass. The economy is worse than expected. Kim and Kanye split. Brood X cicadas. Dre has an aneurysm and nearly has his home broken into. Bridgerton. MyPillow CEO is a douche. Covid restrictions extended indefinitely. Captain Von Trapp dies. Proud Boys officially a Terrorist Organization. Richard Ramirez. Cancer takes Screech. Travel bans. Impeachment trial (again?… oh and this was barely February? WTF??!!) Suez Canal blockage. Myanmar protest. Kong dukes it out with Godzilla, while Raya watches. Olympics. Friends compare elective surgeries. F9. Canada Women’s Soccer Gold. Free Britney. Multiverses. Residential Schools in Canada unearth children’s bodies. Kate is Mare of Easttown. Cuomo resigns. Disney and Dwayne cruise together. Wildfires. Delta variants. Musk passes Bezos. Candyman x 5. Capt. Kirk goes to space. F*ck Kyle Rittenhouse. Astros didn’t win. Squid Game. Goodbye Bond. Dune is redone. Angelina is Eternal. Astroworld deaths. Meta. Omicron. Three Spidermen. Tornados in December? World Juniors cancelled. Pills against Covid. School opening delayed. And Betty White dies. 2022… my expectations are ridiculously low…

2022

Wow… eight billion people. Queen Elizabeth II passes away after ruling the Commonwealth before dirt was invented. The monkeypox. Russia plays the role of global a**hole. Wordle. Mother Nature rocks Afghanistan. Hover bike. Styles spits on Pine. Olivia Newton John, Kristie Alley, and Coolio leave us. Pele was traded to team Heaven. FTX implodes. Madonna and the 3-D model of her vagina. Pig gives his heart to a human. Beijing can brag that it is the first city ever to host both the Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics. Uvalde. $3 trillion Apple. Keith Raniere gets 120 years. The Whisky War ends with Canada and Denmark going halfsies. Mar-a-Lago. Nick Cannon brood hits a dozen. Shinzo Abe is assassinated. Inflation goes through the roof (if you can actually afford to put a roof over your head). Volodymyr Zelensky. European heat wave. Bennifer. Salman Rushdie is stabbed on stage, Dave Chappelle tackled, and Chris Rock is only slapped. Thích Nhất Hạnh. Heidi Klum goes full slug. Cuba knocked out by Ian. Liz Truss and 4.1 Scaramuccis. Taylor Swift breaks Ticketmaster. Human shitstain Elon Musk ignores helping mankind and buys Twitter instead. Riri becomes a mommy. NASA launches Artemis 1. Trump still a whiny little b*tch. Music lost Loretta Lynn, Christine McVie, and Meat Loaf. Democracy died at least three times. Pete Davidson continues to date hottest women on the planet (no one understands how?!) Microplastics in our blood. Alex Jones is a c*nt. So is DeSantis. Argentina wins the World Cup. Meghan and Harry. Eddie Munson rips Metallica in the Upside Down. tWitch. Roe vs Wade is overturned by the micro dick energy of the Supreme Court. CODA. James Corden shows he is a "tiny Cretin of a man". Amber (and the sh*t on the bed) Heard (round the world). Sebastian Bear-McClard proves he’s one of the f*cking dumbest men alive. Latin America's ‘pink tide’. Anti-Semitic rants by Ye. Bob Saget. A verified blue checkmark. Godmother of punk Vivienne dies. And, Tom Cruise feels the need for speed yet again. 2023… whatcha got for us?!? Nothing shocks me anymore.

@daily-esprit-descalier

[checkthreetimes]

𝗦𝗵𝗮'𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶 𝗥𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀𝗼𝗻: 𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘆 𝗧𝗼 𝗚𝗹𝗼𝗿𝘆

Sha'carri Richardson is a 23-year-old American sprinter who has made headlines for her remarkable performance and personality. She is known for her long nails, colorful hair, and confident attitude. She is also one of the fastest women in the world, having run 100 meters in 10.72 seconds at the U.S. Olympic trials in June 2021.

However, her Olympic dream was shattered when she tested positive for marijuana, a banned substance, after her victory at the trials. She was suspended for one month and missed the Tokyo Olympics, where she was expected to compete for the gold medal. She faced criticism and support from various quarters, as some people questioned her decision to use marijuana, while others argued that the rule was outdated and unfair.

Despite the setback, Richardson did not give up on her passion and ambition. She returned to the track on August 21, 2021, at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon. There, she faced a formidable field of competitors, including the three Olympic medalists from Tokyo: Elaine Thompson-Herah, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, and Shericka Jackson.

In the World Athletics Championships, Richardson showed her determination and resilience by running a blazing 10.65 seconds, breaking her personal best and setting a new American record. (Sha'Carri Richardson set a new 100 metre world championship record time.) She also beat Thompson-Herah, who had won the Olympic gold in 10.61 seconds, by a hundredth of a second. Richardson became the second-fastest woman in history, behind only Florence Griffith Joyner's world record of 10.49 seconds set in 1988.

Richardson's victory was more than just a personal achievement. It was also a statement of her impact on the sport and the society. She has inspired millions of people with her courage and charisma, especially young girls and women of color who face discrimination and challenges in their lives. She has also sparked a debate on the role of marijuana in sports and the need for reforming the anti-doping policies.

What's next for Sha'carri Richardson? She has expressed her desire to compete in more events and challenge herself against the best in the world. She has also hinted at a possible switch to the 200 meters or even the 400 meters in the future. She has proven that she is not afraid of obstacles and that she can overcome them with hard work and talent. She has become a role model and a star for many people who admire her speed and spirit.

[freifraufischer]

GIGA Pro Gym's Team - Does anyone know how to do what they say they want to do?

Presented here are the bios from their website (as of the end of June 2023). I am going to flag what I want you to look for... who here has the technical background to run a multimedia platform. Or are they a marketing person who might have worked in media. I'm going to emphasis these are direct quotes. I'm changing nothing.

I also want to point out that Fox's "early career includes Summer Olympic TV broadcast coverage" is that she was a group VP for Time Warner Cable in the early 2000s. And "start up launches for pro-cycling and senior tennis" still doesn't name what these enterprises are, we've been unable to identify what they might be among non-defunct entities.

*** *** ***

Aimee Boorman: Cofounder and Chief Events Officer

Decorated and globally respected head coach, including 12 years coaching the sport’s all-time greatest, Simone Biles. Collaborative leader with deep technical expertise. Head coach of USA’s Rio Olympic and World Championship gold medal teams. Dutch National team coach at 2020 Tokyo Olympics as well as 2021 World and European Championships; 3X USAG Coach of the Year and 2016 USOPC Coach of the Year. USAG Master of Sport; FIG & USAG judge.

Maura Fox: Cofounder and Chief Executive Officer

Entrepreneur and executive leader with 20+ years in sports, media, technology and entertainment. Long career delivering innovation for cable TV, data tech, and OTT platforms, and successfully launching new products, services, and start ups. Early career includes Summer Olympic TV broadcast coverage, start up launches for pro-cycling and senior tennis, and regional sports net launch of national network brand. Later, led cable TV’s 1st ever IPTV trial and industry leading launches of VOD, SVOD, DVR, and remote DVR services; more recently, led tech transition of linear TV sports channel to all-digital network, product strategy for start up of first-of-its-kind TV data-analytics using census-based data lake-house, and product strategy for $2B IT end user firm.

LaPrise Williams: Cofounder and Chief Sports Engagement Officer

Engagement specialist, business owner, St Vincent and the Grenadines Gymnastics Association (SVGGA) technical director, and women’s sports trailblazer on international stage; Head Coach Baylor University Acrobatics and Tumbling 2011-2014, Co-owner/head coach HUGS gymnastics, Owner/director Dolphin Gymnastics; Coach of USA world gymnastics team member, Ashley Miles; Coach of USA national team members, USA Master of Sport; Texas State Board Member (former), FIG/PAGU committee member 2019, FIG Brevet judge; SVGGA Olympic Committee Board of Trustee member; Coaching consultant Dutch National and Developmental Teams 2020.

Laurie DeFrancesco: Advisor Board Member

GIGA rules chair, 25+ year head coach and gym owner, NCAA and NAWGJ judging official, and co-founder, CT Gymnastics Hall of Fame

Chellsie Memmel: Advisor Board Member

USAG high-performance and technical leader; former World Champion, 2008 Olympian, and internationally rated BREVET judging official

KJ Kindler: Advisor Board Member

OU Women’s Gymnastics Head Coach, 6x NCAA Team Championship titles – including 2023, 3x NCAA Coach of the Year, and Chair of WCGA Rules Committee

Jessica O’Beirne: Advisor Board Member

Creator/ producer of GymCastic podcast; writer, social influencer, and multimedia journalist, on air talent and expert analyst for sport of gymnastics

Lauren LoFrisco

Promotional marketing and sales expert with brand leadership in media and entertainment industries, and prominent management and consulting roles at HBO, TWC, Road Runner, and Comcast

Nicole Perrelle

Trusted advisor for digital execution, innovation strategy, and process optimization, with management and leadership roles including Gartner, Deloitte, and Amazon

Trish Scanlon

Branded entertainment and creative services executive with deep expertise in cable, TV, and lifestyle brands, including networks such as HGTV, Travel, In Demand, and Food Network

Jen Smith

Entrepreneur and strategic advisor, specializing in start up ventures and investor relations; deep experience delivering customer experience optimization, growth, and stakeholder value

Ben Wiles

Legal Counsel, Corporate Matters; deep legal experience and expertise in venture capital, private equity, and emerging growth matters

[beardedmrbean]

PHOENIX -- Brittney Griner strolled down the sideline about 1 1/2 hours before the Phoenix Mercury played Friday night, giving hugs and high-fiving her teammates, coaches and opposing players.

Then it was a little stretching, a little shooting and a little agility work to prepare for a basketball game.

Just like old times.

“I'm grateful to be here, that's for sure,” Griner said. “I'm not going to take a day for granted."

Griner returned to game action for the first time since a nearly 10-month detainment in Russia on drug-related charges ended with a prisoner swap in December. The seven-time All-Star, who missed the entire 2022 season because of the detainment, finished with 10 points and three rebounds in a WNBA preseason game against the Los Angeles Sparks.

The 6-foot-9 Griner looked good, especially considering the long layoff, casually throwing down a one-handed dunk during warmups. She stood with her teammates while the national anthem was played and received a loud ovation from the home crowd when she was introduced before tipoff.

“Hearing the national anthem, it definitely hit different,” Griner said. “It's like when you go for the Olympics, you're sitting there, about to get gold put on your neck, the flags are going up and the anthem is playing, it just hits different.

"Being here today ... it means a lot.”

Mercury coach Vanessa Nygaard said the anthem and introductions were emotional for the entire team.

“We looked at each other and we just had chills,” Nygaard said. “We were here last year for all of it. I'm getting emotional about it now. Just to see her back out there — it's an absolute miracle. It was amazing. It's giving me chills again.”

Once the game started, the 32-year-old Griner immediately went to work, scoring on a turnaround jumper early in the first quarter. A few minutes later, she was fouled on another turnaround and sank both free throws.

She even had a cameo with the medical staff in the third quarter. Teammate Sophie Cunningham went down with a knee injury and Griner helped carry her off the court so she didn't have to put weight on her leg.

“When one of us goes down, we're always right there,” Griner said. “That's one thing about this team — we're always there for each other. We've got each others' backs, big time.”

Griner’s return to the Mercury rekindles hope the franchise can make another run to the WNBA Finals. The former Baylor star helped the franchise win its third title in 2014 and has averaged 17.7 points and 7.6 rebounds during her nine-year career. She was runner-up for Most Valuable Player in 2021, when the Mercury also played in the Finals but lost to the Chicago Sky.

Griner said she was more rusty on the court than expected. But given the trials and emotions of the past 18 months, it was a pretty good night.

“Not where I want it to be, but on the right track,” Griner said. “We're making the right moves.”

Phoenix opens the regular season in Los Angeles next Friday.

[sa7abnews]

Sydney McLaughlin Levrone breaks world record again, winning gold for US in 400m final at Paris Olympics

New Post has been published on https://sa7ab.info/2024/08/09/sydney-mclaughlin-levrone-breaks-world-record-again-winning-gold-for-us-in-400m-final-at-paris-olympics/

Sydney McLaughlin Levrone breaks world record again, winning gold for US in 400m final at Paris Olympics

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone broke the world record in the women’s 400-meter hurdle on Thursday in Paris, winning gold for the U.S. in the event for the second straight Olympics. McLaughlin-Levrone, a New Brunswick, New Jersey, native, recorded a 50.37 time in the final, breaking her own world record, and setting the record for the sixth time. Earlier this summer, she lowered the 400 hurdles world record for the fifth time since June 2021.She previously won gold at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, where she set the world record with a 50.65. 2024 SUMMER OLYMPICS: LIVE UPDATESHer performance on Thursday led the U.S. to a 1-2 sweep in the event, as fellow American Anna Cockrell took silver with a 51.87 — a full 1.5 seconds behind McLaughlin Levrone. The Netherland’s Femke Bol took bronze with 52.15.CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COMMcLaughlin-Levrone has a long-running rivalry with Bol. In June, Bol became the only other women’s 400 hurdler ever to break the 51-second barrier.At the Olympic trials, McLaughlin-Levrone said “I think there’s something really exciting about figuring out how to improve upon history.”McLaughlin-Lavrone typically prefers to save herself for the global championship meets. She previously took a one-year break from the 400-meter hurdles, embracing the challenge of focusing on the open 400 for the first time in her career.McLaughlin-Levrone has been one of the ascendant stars in American track and field since her mid-teens. As a 15-year-old, McLaughlin was the 2015 World youth champion. In 2016, she became the youngest athlete since Denean Howard in 1980 to qualify for the U.S. Olympic track team, having placed third at the U.S. Olympic Trials, with the current world under-18 best of 54.15. Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter. 

[lboogie1906]

Sydney Michelle McLaughlin-Levrone (August 7, 1999) is a hurdler and sprinter who competes in the 400-meter hurdles. She is the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and 2024 Paris Olympics champion and 2022 World champion. She set a world record time of 50.65 seconds at the US Olympic Trials (2024). She is the first track athlete to break four world records in the same event: setting four world records during 13 months, she was the first woman to break the 52-second (2021) and 51-second (2022) barriers in the 400 m hurdles. She won the silver medal at the 2019 World Championships. She took gold as part of a women’s 4 × 400 m relay team.

She was the 2015 World Youth Champion. In 2016, she was the youngest athlete since 1980 to qualify for the Olympic track team, having placed third at the US Olympic Trials, with the world under-18 best of 54.15 seconds, the world U20 record. She holds the current world U20 record of 53.60 seconds, having achieved a junior personal best of 52.75 seconds (2018). She is the only woman who broke the 51-second barrier, leaving her with a nearly one-second advantage on the world's all-time list. She holds six out of the ten fastest times on this list. She was the 2019 Diamond League champion.

In 2022, she was voted World Athletics Female Athlete of the Year.

She was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey to Willie McLaughlin, a member of the Manhattan College Athletic Hall of Fame as a three-time All-American, and Mary Neumeister McLaughlin, a 2:12 half-miler at Cardinal O’Hara High School in Tonawanda, New York, where she ran on the boys’ team.

She grew up in Dunellen, New Jersey. She was the first two-time Gatorade Player of the Year in Track & Field. Her sister, Morgan, ran for St. Peter’s University. Her brother, Taylor, ran for the University of Michigan and won silver in the 400-meter hurdles at the 2016 IAAF World U20 Championships. He and she both qualified for the 2016 US Olympic team. Her brother, Ryan, was the fifth member of the family to win a New Jersey county track title.

She married Andre Levrone Jr. (2022) former wide receiver in the NFL. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[dhowellafisheromen]

Journey to the Olympics: Day 8 • Devotional

#olympics

#parisolympics

Let Your Life Speak

Devotional Summary:

We opened this plan with a comment about the desire for bringing some fresh air into your prayer life. In our Podinars, we prayed that the athletes would have some of the best performances of their lives. Yet that does not guarantee a victory. Prayer is not a magic formula. It is not shopping in God's department store with a no-limit credit card to buy what we want. Jenny Simpson entered the 2021 Track and Field trials with hopes of returning to a fourth Olympics. That did not happen, but it does not change God's faithfulness.

In the moments after her race, Jenny immediately went to congratulate the three who did qualify. She let her life speak. We can do the same. There may not be millions watching how you respond. But you always have an audience of one. Let your life speak each day. Have the courage to be vulnerable, trust God and put your best self forward.

Live It Out:

Apply: Are you letting the lessons of life increase your trust in the Lord?

Pray: Pray that God would give these athletes opportunities to glorify Him through their interactions with others both on and off the field, court, or track.

Conclusion

In the middle of Proverbs 22, there is a powerful verse. It is almost as if Solomon called a time out to remind the reader why he gives these life lessons. It says, “I am teaching you today — yes, you — so you will trust in the Lord” (NLT). That is it. God uses life lessons to build our trust. Our prayer is that these eight days spent with Olympic level athletes have been a reminder to do that — to increase your trust in Him.

Next Steps

Making Your Life Count has other YouVersion Bible App plans that cover the four areas of WALK, PRAY, CARE, and SHARE. You can also view all of our plans in the Bible App.

Take Action

We would also invite you to say hello and take action at an even deeper level by introducing yourself to us. Come say hello on the special page we have prepared for you!

http://bible.com/r/6w9

[24times]

Lynn Valley Care Centre hoaxer pleads guilty to obstruction of justice

A man convicted Jan. 27 of holding a man against his will in Richmond, and using weapons to coerce the victim to commit bestiality, pleaded guilty Tuesday to obstruction of justice.

In B.C. Supreme Court before Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes, Taymour Aghtai, 28, waived his right to a trial. He will be sentenced May 5.

After Holmes read the charge against Aghtai, he agreed that he used threats, bribes or other corrupt means in a bid to persuade another person, whose name is covered by a publication ban, to not testify at his trial. The offences happened between Jan. 19, 2021 and April 13, 2021.

“As I understand it, you were in custody at the time and you made phone calls to your mother and, essentially, asked her to relay messages, either directly or indirectly to [the witness]. Is that correct?

“Yes,” Aghtai said.

"And the purpose of your doing that was to try to cause [the witness] not to testify in the trial.”

about:blank

“Yes,” he said.

At trial, Holmes heard that once Aghtai arrived at the apartment near the Richmond Olympic Oval on Sept. 4, 2020, he hit the victim on the head from behind, and restrained him with handcuffs and zap straps. The victim testified that Aghtai and others assaulted and humiliated him over the course of 30 hours until he escaped. The man testified that Aghtai “was not the main aggressor, but played a very significant role,” Holmes said in her verdict.

Aghtai denied the charges, but Holmes found the evidence showed beyond a reasonable doubt that Aghtai kept the man restrained physically and sometimes used threats and intimidation against the victim.

Holmes found Aghtai guilty of sexual assault with a weapon, assault with a weapon, extortion, unlawful confinement and use of an imitation firearm in relation to the unlawful confinement.

Aghtai had known the victim since they were teenagers and was in the business of buying and selling merchandise from his home.

Aghtai was also sentenced Feb. 7 in North Vancouver Provincial Court to time served for public mischief and conveying a false message with intent to alarm.

He had pleaded guilty in December 2021 to making 63 malicious crank calls to four managers, six nurses and two administrators at the Lynn Valley Care Centre early in the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.

He also pleaded guilty to a hoax phone call to a Parksville Fields store and RCMP detachment in November 2019, claiming that a black man was shooting people in the store. Police attended and found no such incident.

Judge Patricia Janzen chastised Aghtai for putting others at risk of harm in both incidents, especially any black men near the Fields store and senior citizens and staff at the Lynn Valley Care Centre. She said the senselessness of his crime was only matched by its cruelty.

“Your criminal record is appalling,” Janzen said.

A 2014 psychological assessment provided to the judge concluded that Aghtai was a narcissistic, anti-social alcohol abuser with psychopathic tendencies. 

Aghtai has a criminal record dating back to 2008 for making hoax phone calls that falsely alleged heinous crimes or impersonated police officers. He also has a record of assault, robbery, break and enter, confinement and weapons offences, and violating court orders.

In 2020, he stole personal protective equipment from a seniors care home and escaped lawful custody at Richmond Hospital where he assaulted two corrections officers by threatening them with a contaminated syringe. 

[originallandlockedmariner]

For three years running…

2020

Kobe. Pandemic. Lockdown. Koalas on fire. Harry and Meg retire. Toilet paper hoarding. Alcoholism. Impeach the f*cker. Parasite. Bonnie Henry. Tiger King. Working from home. Sourdough bread. Harvey Weinstein guilty. Zoom overdose. Dip your body in sanitizer. 6 feet. Quarantine. OK Boomer. Home schooling (everyone passes). Murder hornets. Dolly Parton. Don’t hug, kiss or see anybody, especially your family. Chris Evans’ junk. TikTok. Glory holes. Face masks. CERB. West Coast wildfires. Stay home. Small Businesses lose, big box stores win. F*ck Bozos. ‘Dreams’ and cranberry juice. Close yoga studios, but thumbs up to your local gym. Speak moistly to me. George Floyd. BLM. F*ck Trump. Phase 2, 3 and Summer. RBG. Baby Yoda. Biden wins. Bond and Black Panther die. No more lockdown. Back to school and work. Just kidding... giddy up round 2. Giuliani leaks shit from his head. Resurgence of chess. UFOs are real. Restrictions. Dave Grohl admits defeat. Monolith. “F*ck... forgot my mask in the car”. No Christmas shenanigans allowed. Bubbles. Alex Trebek. Use the term ‘dumpster fire’ one too many times. Jupiter and Saturn form 'Christmas Star'. Happy New Year Bitches!!!! 2021... you better not sh*t the bed!!

2021

“We love you, you’re very special”. Failed coup attempt at the Capital. Twitter, FB and IG ban Donny. Hammerin’ Hank goes to the Field of Dreams. Bozo no longer richest man but still a twat. Leachman, Tyson, and Holbrook pass. The economy is worse than expected. Kim and Kanye split. Brood X cicadas. Dre has an aneurysm and nearly has his home broken into. Bridgerton. MyPillow CEO is a douche. Covid restrictions extended indefinitely. Captain Von Trapp dies. Proud Boys officially a Terrorist Organization. Richard Ramirez. Cancer takes Screech. Travel bans. Impeachment trial (again?… oh and this was barely February? WTF??!!) Suez Canal blockage. Myanmar protest. Kong dukes it out with Godzilla, while Raya watches. Olympics. Friends compare elective surgeries. F9. Canada Women’s Soccer Gold. Free Britney. Multiverses. Residential Schools in Canada unearth children’s bodies. Kate is Mare of Easttown. Cuomo resigns. Disney and Dwayne cruise together. Wildfires. Delta variants. Musk passes Bezos. Candyman x 5. Capt. Kirk goes to space. F*ck Kyle Rittenhouse. Astros didn’t win. Squid Game. Goodbye Bond. Dune is redone. Angelina is Eternal. Astroworld deaths. Meta. Omicron. Three Spidermen. Tornados in December? World Juniors cancelled. Pills against Covid. School opening delayed. And Betty White dies. 2022… my expectations are ridiculously low…

2022

Wow… eight billion people. Queen Elizabeth II passes away after ruling the Commonwealth before dirt was invented. The monkeypox. Russia plays the role of global asshole. Wordle. Mother Nature rocks Afghanistan. Hover bike. Styles spits on Pine. Olivia Newton John, Kristie Alley, and Coolio leave us. Pele was traded to team Heaven. FTX implodes. Madonna and the 3-D model of her vagina. Pig gives his heart to a human. Beijing can brag that it is the first city ever to host both the Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics. Uvalde. $3 trillion Apple. Keith Raniere gets 120 years. The Whisky War ends with Canada and Denmark going halfsies. Mar-a-Lago. Nick Cannon brood hits a dozen. Shinzo Abe is assassinated. Inflation goes through the roof (if you can actually afford to put a roof over your head). Volodymyr Zelensky. European heat wave. Bennifer. Salman Rushdie is stabbed on stage, Dave Chappelle tackled, and Chris Rock is only slapped. Thích Nhất Hạnh. Heidi Klum goes full slug. Cuba knocked out by Ian. Liz Truss and 4.1 Scaramuccis. Taylor Swift breaks Ticketmaster. Human shitstain Elon Musk ignores helping mankind and buys Twitter instead. Riri becomes a mommy. NASA launches Artemis 1. Trump still a whiny little bitch. Music lost Loretta Lynn, Christine McVie, and Meat Loaf. Democracy died at least three times. Pete Davidson continues to date hottest women on the planet. Microplastics in our blood. Alex Jones is a cunt. So is DeSantis. Argentina wins the World Cup. Meghan and Harry. Eddie Munson rips Metallica in the Upside Down. tWitch. Roe vs Wade is overturned by the micro dick energy of the Supreme Court. CODA. James Corden shows he is a "tiny Cretin of a man". Amber (and the shit on the bed) Heard (round the world). Sebastian Bear-McClard proves he’s one of the fucking dumbest men alive. Latin America's ‘pink tide’. Anti-Semitic rants by Ye. Bob Saget. A verified blue checkmark. Godmother of punk Vivienne dies. And, Tom Cruise feels the need for speed yet again. 2023… whatcha got for us?!? Nothing shocks me anymore.

[occrpnewsagency]

Lynn Valley Care Centre hoaxer pleads guilty to obstruction of justice

A man convicted Jan. 27 of holding a man against his will in Richmond, and using weapons to coerce the victim to commit bestiality, pleaded guilty Tuesday to obstruction of justice.

In B.C. Supreme Court before Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes, Taymour Aghtai, 28, waived his right to a trial. He will be sentenced May 5.

After Holmes read the charge against Aghtai, he agreed that he used threats, bribes or other corrupt means in a bid to persuade another person, whose name is covered by a publication ban, to not testify at his trial. The offences happened between Jan. 19, 2021 and April 13, 2021.

“As I understand it, you were in custody at the time and you made phone calls to your mother and, essentially, asked her to relay messages, either directly or indirectly to [the witness]. Is that correct?

“Yes,” Aghtai said.

"And the purpose of your doing that was to try to cause [the witness] not to testify in the trial.”

about:blank

“Yes,” he said.

At trial, Holmes heard that once Aghtai arrived at the apartment near the Richmond Olympic Oval on Sept. 4, 2020, he hit the victim on the head from behind, and restrained him with handcuffs and zap straps. The victim testified that Aghtai and others assaulted and humiliated him over the course of 30 hours until he escaped. The man testified that Aghtai “was not the main aggressor, but played a very significant role,” Holmes said in her verdict.

Aghtai denied the charges, but Holmes found the evidence showed beyond a reasonable doubt that Aghtai kept the man restrained physically and sometimes used threats and intimidation against the victim.

Holmes found Aghtai guilty of sexual assault with a weapon, assault with a weapon, extortion, unlawful confinement and use of an imitation firearm in relation to the unlawful confinement.

Aghtai had known the victim since they were teenagers and was in the business of buying and selling merchandise from his home.

Aghtai was also sentenced Feb. 7 in North Vancouver Provincial Court to time served for public mischief and conveying a false message with intent to alarm.

He had pleaded guilty in December 2021 to making 63 malicious crank calls to four managers, six nurses and two administrators at the Lynn Valley Care Centre early in the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.

He also pleaded guilty to a hoax phone call to a Parksville Fields store and RCMP detachment in November 2019, claiming that a black man was shooting people in the store. Police attended and found no such incident.

Judge Patricia Janzen chastised Aghtai for putting others at risk of harm in both incidents, especially any black men near the Fields store and senior citizens and staff at the Lynn Valley Care Centre. She said the senselessness of his crime was only matched by its cruelty.

“Your criminal record is appalling,” Janzen said.

A 2014 psychological assessment provided to the judge concluded that Aghtai was a narcissistic, anti-social alcohol abuser with psychopathic tendencies. 

Aghtai has a criminal record dating back to 2008 for making hoax phone calls that falsely alleged heinous crimes or impersonated police officers. He also has a record of assault, robbery, break and enter, confinement and weapons offences, and violating court orders.

In 2020, he stole personal protective equipment from a seniors care home and escaped lawful custody at Richmond Hospital where he assaulted two corrections officers by threatening them with a contaminated syringe. 

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 2.9 (after 1950)

1950 – Second Red Scare: US Senator Joseph McCarthy accuses the United States Department of State of being filled with Communists. 1951 – Korean War: The two-day Geochang massacre begins as a battalion of the 11th Division of the South Korean Army kills 719 unarmed citizens in Geochang, in the South Gyeongsang district of South Korea. 1959 – The R-7 Semyorka, the first intercontinental ballistic missile, becomes operational at Plesetsk, USSR. 1961 – The Beatles at The Cavern Club: Lunchtime – The Beatles perform under this name at The Cavern Club for the first time following their return to Liverpool from Hamburg. 1964 – The Beatles make their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, performing before a record-setting audience of 73 million viewers across the United States. 1965 – Vietnam War: The United States Marine Corps sends a MIM-23 Hawk missile battalion to South Vietnam, the first American troops in-country without an official advisory or training mission. 1971 – The 6.5–6.7 Mw  Sylmar earthquake hits the Greater Los Angeles Area with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing 64 and injuring 2,000. 1971 – Satchel Paige becomes the first Negro league player to be voted into the USA's Baseball Hall of Fame. 1971 – Apollo program: Apollo 14 returns to Earth after the third human Moon landing. 1975 – The Soyuz 17 Soviet spacecraft returns to Earth. 1976 – Aeroflot Flight 3739, a Tupolev Tu-104, crashes during takeoff from Irkutsk Airport, killing 24. 1978 – The Budd Company unveils its first SPV-2000 self-propelled railcar in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 1982 – Japan Air Lines Flight 350 crashes near Haneda Airport in an attempted pilot mass murder-suicide, killing 24 of the 174 people on board. 1986 – Halley's Comet last appeared in the inner Solar System. 1991 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union: Voters in Lithuania vote for independence from the Soviet Union. 1996 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army declares the end to its 18-month ceasefire and explodes a large bomb in London's Canary Wharf, killing two people. 1996 – Copernicium is discovered by Sigurd Hofmann, Victor Ninov et al. 2001 – The Ehime Maru and USS Greeneville collision takes place, killing nine of the thirty-five people on board the Japanese fishery high-school training ship Ehime Maru, leaving the USS Greeneville (SSN-772) with US $2 million in repairs, at Pearl Harbor. 2016 – Two passenger trains collide in the German town of Bad Aibling in the state of Bavaria. Twelve people die and 85 others are injured. 2018 – Winter Olympics: Opening ceremony is performed in Pyeongchang County in South Korea. 2020 – Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has the army soldiers enter the Legislative Assembly to assist in pushing for the approval for a better government security plan, causing a brief political crisis. 2021 – Second impeachment trial of Donald Trump begins.

[freifraufischer]

So the version of 2021 US Olympic Trials Night 1 I have has some video trim issues which leads to this shot of the commentary team.