Monthly Archives: June 2022

ATLANTA, GA - MARCH 18: University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas and Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines react after finishing tied for 5th in the 200 Freestyle finals at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships on March 18th, 2022 at the McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta Georgia. (Photo by Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

A four-time Summer Olympics gold medalist has responded to FINA's decision on transgender athletes.

This weekend, swimming's governing body ruled on transgender athletes. The decision came down, saying athletes who transition after the age of 12 will be unable to compete in their respective divisions.

Penn swimmer Lia Thomas, who transitioned and joined the women's team, will likely be impacted by the decision. Thomas, who won a national championship at Penn, was hoping to continue her swimming career and compete for an Olympics spot.

Australian swimming starCate Campbell reacted to FINA's decision.

"We see you, value you and accept you. My role; however, is also to stand up here, having asked our world governing body, FINA, to investigate, deliberate and uphold the cornerstone of fairness in elite womens competition," she said, via The Guardian. "And it pains me that this part of my role, may injure, infuriate and potentially alienate people from an already-marginalized trans community."

Campbell continued.

"However, I am asking everyone to take a breath, to absorb before reacting. Listen to the science and experts. Listen to the people who stand up here and tell you how difficult it has been to reconcile inclusion and fairness," she added. "That men and women are physiologically different cannot be disputed. We are only now beginning to explore and understand the origins of these physiological differences and the lasting effects of exposure to differing hormones.

"Women, who have fought long and hard to be included and seen as equals in sport, can only do so because of the gender category distinction. To remove that distinction would be to the detriment of female athletes everywhere."

FINA's new policy is being referred to as a "gender inclusion policy."

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Look: Olympics Star Reacts To Decision On Transgender Athletes - The Spun

Wherever Rosemary Parisi goes in Mount Olive, she meets people who know her daughter, Gabriella.

GiGi, who has Down syndrome,was a year-round, general-education athlete at Mount Olive High School and Homecoming queen. She even appeared on a Times Square billboard, sponsored by the National Down Syndrome Society.

Sports have been key to GiGi's popularity, surprising even Rosemary, a special education teacher at MacKinnon Middle School in Wharton.

GiGi was part of the Mount Olive field hockey, basketball and softball teams alongside her neurotypical peers. She also participates with Mount Olive's Special Olympics Unified track and field program, which blends students with intellectual disabilities and neurotypical partners.

Unifiedclubs, teams and events often require lower time commitments than their general-education equivalents. But there are few limitations on what can be called Unified, or how inclusivethose programs should be.

David May of Morristown thinks Unified is more restrictive than promised by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The ADAprohibits discrimination on the basis of disability. The relatedIndividuals with Disabilities Education Act makes free appropriate public education available to more than 7.5 million eligible children with disabilities in the least restrictive environment and ensures special education and related services.

May would prefer students with special needs to compete alongside gen-ed athletes on a single team.But Unified does not allow in-season varsity athletes to be team partners, so their background and experience with activities vary.

"All Unified has done is make it the most restrictive environment in the entire place," May said. "Some parents are just happy their kids are active, and don't have the nuance of what it means to be separated onto the Unified team and not connected to the other (gen-ed) team. ... It did give kids opportunities to play sports, but it is notthe least restrictive environment."

Autism never prevented Ryan May from being part of the Morristown swim team, which has included several swimmers with physical and intellectual disabilities over the years. David May packed breakfast and drove Ryan to 6 a.m. practice nearly every school day for six years.

Ryan participated in about half the meets during his high school career, wearing thesame burgundy suit and bright orange cap as everyone else on the roster.Between events, he usually cheeredon teammates from the end of the bleachers closest to the starting blocks. Ryan, who turns 24 in July, didn'ttalk much, but usually smiled and gave two thumbs up.

"What I tell parents who first get diagnosed, whether it's Down syndrome or autism or something else, 'You'll always be their parent. What you have to become is a crazed advocate,'" said May, co-foundedKids2Kids, a Morristown nonprofit that mentors children with special needs through activities led by neurotypical peers.

"If you have a special-needs kid, you realize very early on how isolated you are. They do not get invited to anything: birthday parties, events. ... It's so painful to not have these kids be involved in anything."

Special Olympics USA Games: West Milford runner goes viral on social media with last-second win

'Coolest part of sports': Players relish chance to represent Rutgers football at Special Olympics event

Great debut: Historic Unified swim meet brings community together

Trying to provide opportunities to a larger population of student-athletes, the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association announced a partnershipwith Special Olympics New Jersey at the Meet of Champions in June 2016. At the time, there were about 60 Unified Champion Schools, promotingacceptance, respect, and dignity for all students.

There are more than 250 in New Jersey now, and SONJ COO Bill DePonte hopes to have at least300 in the fall.

"Inclusion has been around a long time, and it means different things to different people," DePonte said. "For us, it's about engaging individuals of all abilities."

Champion Schools are supported through funding from the United States and New Jersey Department of Education, though DePonte said they're encouraged to become self-sufficient. SONJ grants support things like coachand club-advisor stipends, uniforms, travel, officials, and technology.

The NJSIAA currently sponsors Unified basketball and bowling in the winter, and spring track and field.Unified swimming will be added to the list this winter, with a mixed relay expected to be held duringthe NJSIAA Meet of Champions in March.

"It's cool to meet new people and get into different activities," said Pennsauken freshman Jeremiah Moses, who plans to try out for the soccer team in the fall.

"I bring good energy, good sportsmanship, just good vibes all around. We're like a huge family."

Sparta and Mount Olive were the top two large schools at the inaugural free-standing NJSIAA Unified Track and Field Championships on June 8 at Franklin High School. Morristown won the small-school division.

In past years, the handful of Unified events were mixed into the Group championships schedule, dividing teams into multiple sites.

"After 50 years of being in business, Special Olympics knows it needs to do better," Voorhees High School assistant principal Kelly Ann Kieffer, assistant principal at Voorhees High School,the first in New Jersey to be recognized as a national Unified Champion School.

"Unified is a way to do that. The students I'm supporting would not be able to do sports or be in the play without Unified. ... We have some significant (disabled) students, and they would not be able to access the least restrictive environment, not for a second. Our main objective is every student should be able to access their high school experience to the best of their ability."

Rosemary Parisi said GiGi"flourished" once she got to high school because of sports. Sheloved field hockey so much, Rosemary bought her a stick, balls and a net to practice in the family's yard. She scored 150 points in her basketball career, getting into both varsity and JV games "if they're winning big or losing big," according to Rosemary Parisi.

GiGi got into softball three years ago, and though she rarely got into a game due to safety concerns, Rosemary Parisi said "her role is being in the dugout, cheering on all the girls, helping the coach (BillRomano) when he gets too stressed."

"It takes a lot to be on a gen ed team: a lot of stamina, understanding, good behavior, good health," Rosemary Parisi said. "You have to have a coach who supports it. You have to have an aide in the background should anything happen. If there are health issues, people have to be trained. We all worked very hard to make it happen. GiGi is the poster child for inclusion in a sports team, but that's just because we struck it right. Not everybody can do that."

GiGi is now 22, and just graduated from Mount Olive High School. Rosemary Parisi hopes her daughter can volunteer asa peer mentor or coach for the Unified programin the fall to keep "the camaraderie of a team."

That's one thing Michael McCloskey was seeking when he joined the cross country, bowling and spring track teams at West Milford High School. But when he tried out for Team New Jersey ahead of the Special Olympics USA Games, Gina McCloskey told her son, "This is your time to shine. This is your place."

Michael McCloskey, a sophomore who has autism and a seizure disorder,wound up on ESPN's social-media feeds after a last-second comeback in his heat of the 1,500 meters on June 7.

For three weeksleading up to the USA Games, McCloskey went from gen-ed track practice to Special Olympics practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays often accompanied at both by senior Chase Appell and junior Wyatt Space, longtime West Milford Unified partners. On Sundays, Gina McCloskey drove her son and Destiny Geretyof Hewitt to two-hour Team New Jersey practices in Point Pleasant.

"Special Olympics gives everyone a place to be themselves, completely. You don't have to put on any kind of show for anyone else," said West Milford Special Olympics coach Kristi Clave, who teaches multiple disabilities classes at Maple Road Elementary in West Milford.

"Unified changes cultures if you do it right. If you find a couple of really great kids, and a couple of partners who are not involved in anything ... you put them on that team, and you give them purpose. You will change their lives. Not just the kids with special needs, but those kids who never felt needed and never felt loved, it will make them all a part of something."

Jane Havsyis a storyteller for the Daily Record andDailyRecord.com, part of the USA TODAY Network. For full access to live scores, breaking news and analysis,subscribe today.

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Special Olympics Unified sports: Are they inclusive enough? - Daily Record

Hong KongsSioban Haughey, the Olympic 100m and 200m freestyle silver medalist, withdrew before her first race of the world swimming championships in Budapest on Monday, citing an ankle injury.

Im sad to share that I will not be racing at the world championships this week, Haughey posted on social media. At such a high caliber meet, I want to make sure Im delivering high level performances. Unfortunately, Im not there yet. Getting through quarantine and lockdowns at the beginning of the year werent easy. Adding an ankle injury to a challenging year was really testing my character. Its been hard trying to get through all the training and rehab to get to where I want to be in a short amount of time. While my ankle has improved A LOT (thanks to the tremendous help from all of my incredible physios and doctors), I just dont think Im ready to race.

Haughey, a 24-year-old who swam for Michigan, suffered the ankle injury in May before withdrawing from the Mare Nostrum series, which would have been her first competition in an Olympic-sized pool since the Tokyo Games, according to reports.

SWIMMING WORLDS:TV Schedule|Results|U.S. Roster

In Tokyo, Haughey won Hong Kongs first Olympic swimming medals as runner-up to AussiesEmma McKeon(100m free) andAriarne Titmus(200m free) in Asian record times.

McKeon and Titmus both skipped worlds to focus on the Commonwealth Games later this summer. Their absences combined with Haugheys injury mean that Canadian Penny Oleksiakis the lone Tokyo Olympic medalist in either the womens 100m or 200m frees competing at worlds.

Another Australian, Mollie OCallaghan, is the fastest woman this year in both events among those entered in them at worlds.

Also Monday, South AfricanChad le Closno-showed for the 200m butterfly preliminary heats before it was announced that he withdrew from the meet entirely due to an unspecified medical condition.

Le Clos, a four-time Olympic medalist, won gold in the 200m fly at the 2012 London Olympics, upsetting Michael Phelps. Le Clos was fifth in the 200m fly in Tokyo.

The 30-year-old placed 33rd in the 50m butterfly heats on Saturday in his lone swim at worlds.

AmericanBobby Finkes chances of following his Olympic 800m free gold with a world title received a boost. While Finke qualified for Tuesdays final in sixth place across preliminary heats, GermanLukas Martens, the world No. 1 this year, was 15th and missed the eight-man final.

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Sioban Haughey, Chad le Clos out of world swimming championships - Home of the Olympic Channel

Jun 15, 2022

Mechelle VoepelESPN.com

Editor's note: Follow this link to watch the first episode of "Dream On."

NEW YORK -- A quarter-century after they helped lead the United States women's basketball team to an Olympic gold rush that continues today, Dawn Staley and Tara VanDerveer sat on a stage and razzed each other about their chess games. In Manhattan to watch the world premiere of the ESPN documentary "Dream On" last week, Staley and VanDerveer saw their past selves come to life on screen and were reminded how high the stakes were heading into the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

The coaches of the past two NCAA women's basketball championship teams then discussed that legendary squad and all that happened at a critical juncture, including the launch of two women's pro leagues. The three-part documentary debuts Wednesday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN).

Staley and VanDerveer know now all that they didn't fully grasp then. That kind of perspective is dependent on time. VanDerveer was head coach and Staley one of 12 players who changed the course of women's sports history in the mid-1990s, when the NBA and USA Basketball came together to sponsor the women's version of the Dream Team to prepare for the 1996 Olympics.

2 Related

It wasn't just Olympic gold on the line after the Americans had come up short in two previous major competitions. The 1996 team was a litmus test for the viability of women's professional basketball in the United States.

"There was a sense of urgency ... but when you're working really hard, you don't have time to be worried as much," said VanDerveer, the longtime Stanford coach who took a leave of absence from the Cardinal in 1995-96 to guide the U.S. squad. "I think the players had to focus on getting through each day's workout, not what was down the road."

Staley, coach of the reigning NCAA champion South Carolina Gamecocks, also coached the Americans to their seventh consecutive gold medal at last year's Olympics in Japan. She recalls the 1996 team understanding the mission, but not getting overwhelmed by it.

"We didn't really have those profound conversations," Staley said. "It was OK then to not feel the weight of the world on your shoulders. We were task-oriented.

"But when you grow and remove yourself from that time, you do have those conversations now. It is cool to have been part of the evolution of a sport -- to have seen it, felt it, lived it -- and take the time to really, really try to appreciate it and think how to keep it going."

How exceptional the 1996 U.S. team was currently is borne out in part by how contemporary its members and coaches still are. Staley's Gamecocks and VanDerveer's Cardinal are in the top three in ESPN's most recent rankings for the 2022-23 college season. Rebecca Lobo is ESPN's lead analyst for the WNBA and women's basketball. Most of the 1996 players are still involved in basketball or athletics in some way.

"I think it's rare that you recognize what's happening in the moment of it, especially when you're young," said Lobo, who joined 1996 U.S. teammates Sheryl Swoopes and Lisa Leslie as the WNBA's first three signees. "At 22, I didn't have the foresight into the significance the team and that time would have.

"Now when I look in hindsight ... holy cow, what the Olympic team did, the launch of the WNBA that's here 26 years later -- would there even be a WNBA without that team? Certainly not in that immediate time frame."

The WNBA began in June 1997 after the U.S. team's monthslong global tour in 1995-96, in which the Americans played collegiate and professional teams to get ready for the Atlanta Olympics. But the seeds for the 1996 U.S. women's team actually started with the disappointment of the 1992 Olympics.

The Americans won silver in the first Olympic women's basketball competition, in 1976, boycotted the 1980 Moscow Games, and then took gold in 1984 and 1988. Talent was abundant for the U.S. women's program, but preparation was brief and on the fly.

With amateur requirements removed by the 1992 Olympics, a squad of NBA legends -- the Dream Team -- dominated headlines while crushing opponents on the way to men's basketball gold. Meanwhile, the virtually ignored U.S. women's squad got bronze in those Barcelona Games. When another bronze followed for the women in the next major competition, the 1994 FIBA World Championship, USA Basketball knew something needed to be done.

Strange as it sounds, those bronze-medal disappointments ended up being the best thing to happen for U.S. women's basketball. In the 1990s, the NBA was in the process of realizing the time was right for investment in the women's game, and funding the national team presented the perfect opportunity to do a kind of test run for a pro league.

"Dream On" includes extensive behind-the-scenes footage that chronicles everything from the national team tryout camp in 1995 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with more than 200 hopefuls, to a frigid winter trip to Russia in 1996 for exhibition games in smoke-filled gymnasiums, to that triumphant August 1996 day in Atlanta when the Americans got back atop the Olympic medal podium. They haven't left that perch since, a run of seven consecutive Olympic golds.

The timing was serendipitous. Lobo had led UConn to its first NCAA title with a perfect 1994-95 season, and the Huskies captured more attention than usual at that time for the women's college game. Then Lobo was the youngest member of a U.S. team that represented many different players and back stories.

Sheryl Swoopes scored an NCAA-record 47 points for the Texas Tech Lady Raiders in the 1993 national championship game and was considered one of the best women's players in the world. But she disliked playing overseas -- at the time her only playing option outside of the national team -- and found herself working at a bank while trying to stay in basketball shape playing pick-up games against whoever showed up. Similarly, Lisa Leslie finished a stellar career for the USC Trojans in 1994 but had little desire to play overseas.

Staley, a two-time national college player of the year for the Virginia Cavaliers, had been told not long after her college career ended in 1992 that she was too short and inexperienced to be an Olympian. Jennifer Azzi, who led Stanford to its first NCAA title in 1990, never got an explanation for why she was left off the 1992 Olympic team but surmises now it had to do with her being gay.

Teresa Edwards and Katrina McClain, former Georgia Lady Bulldogs teammates who had won gold together in the 1988 Olympics, were determined for redemption after their 1992 Olympic bronze. But they felt they were being put out to pasture, despite being the Americans' most experienced international players. They vowed to show they were too good to be cut.

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Carla McGhee had been so badly injured in a car accident while playing at Tennessee that there was no guarantee she would walk normally after it, let alone return to the court or become an Olympian. Venus Lacy, who was the 12th player added to the team later in the process, was the perfect addition with her size and strength, although after the Olympics, she also would be hurt in a serious car accident.

Ruthie Bolton modeled unending strength for her teammates, even while she was hiding the nightmare of domestic violence that she feared would end her life.

The team bonded during the unrelenting strict workouts under VanDerveer. There were no smart phones or internet on their many miles traveled. Card games, chess -- VanDerveer and Staley jokingly disagree now on who was better -- watching television and having discussions about life were how the players bonded off the court. For lengthy stretches, they only had one another.

"It was a very driven group of people that had the physical toughness and the mental piece as well to make it through what was a very demanding year," Lobo said. "It was a special group."

The gold-medal success of U.S. women's teams at the Atlanta Games in basketball, soccer and softball showed sponsors there was value in joining that wave of sports development. And while the winter-based ABL -- the first women's basketball league to launch in the United States post-Olympics in fall 1996 -- folded in December 1998 during its third season, longevity has been a major milestone for the WNBA.

"We've moved the chains, but we're not nearly as successful as we could be if we were invested in more," Staley said. "Women's basketball has been successful despite what's often bare-minimum investment. We're looking for more and more opportunities."

Women's sports in general have more representation on both television and media platforms that didn't exist in the mid-1990s, but they still seek greater mainstream visibility. The NCAA is just a year removed from being exposed for embarrassing inequities between its Division I men's and women's basketball tournaments, which prompted an external review detailing that was largely the case in all collegiate sports championships.

And while the 12-team WNBA celebrated its silver anniversary last season, the league is still hoping to expand for the first time since 2008.

"What we achieved in 1996 will become a full-circle moment for me when I feel the powers that be really dive into our game and give it the space and resources that it deserves," Staley said. "Then everybody can benefit. I want the people who invest to get tenfold back what they put into our game."

Originally posted here:

'Dream On' documentary chronicles how the 1996 U.S. women's Olympic team helped launch the WNBA - ESPN

International amateur boxing "cannot seem to shake its historical culture of bout manipulation", an independent investigation into the sport has concluded.

Rip 2016 Olympic boxing Photo: LaPresse

Professor Richard McLaren said that boxing "needs to act now" if it is to be included in the Los Angeles Games.

Boxing was not included in an initial programme for the 2028 Olympics.

But it could be added at a later date if it is deemed to have addressed concerns about its governance.

In his final report, Professor McLaren, the head of an investigation commissioned by the sport's world governing body the International Boxing Association (amateur) - formerly the AIBA - detailed decades of financial mismanagement and deception, rule breaking in the ring, and inadequate training and education programmes for referees, judges and officials.

"Today I hope to paint a picture of the IBA as an organisation in transition but still in need of reform," he said.

"I am confident the current IBA management will do all it can to implement the recommendations of the report to stay within the Olympic family.

"My intent was to shine a light on the areas that need reform to give boxing a fresh start. They have the tools, they have the will. I am confident that boxing is not down for the count."

'Suspicious bouts' at 2016 Olympics

McLaren was appointed by the then AIBA in June 2021 to investigate possible corruption and irregularities in the judging and refereeing at the Rio Olympic Games in 2016 and through to 2021.

Last September, his investigation found that a system to manipulate the outcome of boxing matches by officials was in place at the Rio 2016 Olympics, with "suspicious" bouts including defeats for Great Britain's Joe Joyce and Ireland's Michael Conlan.

New Zealand did not have any boxers at the 2016 Olympics.

Photo: PHOTOSPORT

His investigation team have helped develop a system of vetting referees and officials using artificial intelligence.

This led to 22 high-risk officials being removed from competition in the past year or not being recommended for future appointments.

The "long" list of rule breaches by officials at recent tournaments included peer pressure to manipulate bouts, excessive manual manipulation of the referee and judges draw and the use of mobile phones.

"These types of seemingly minor infractions reinforce the past culture which disregarded the ethics and integrity of the sport," McLaren said.

"While the IBA has reiterated its no-tolerance approach to field of play corruptions, there continue to be reports of issues on the field of play."

He said that the IBA needed to be in "complete control" of the training, education and selection of officials, not continental confederations and national federations.

'Corruption abounded'

McLaren also said the "catastrophic" state of the IBA's finances was a legacy of the presidency of Wu Ching-kuo, who was banned for life by the body in 2018.

"A decades-long history of financial mismanagement and improper reporting of financial affairs have created a damaging legacy, casting a shadow over the sport until recently," McLaren said.

He said this stemmed from a "big dream" to bring professional boxing into the IBA fold, alongside amateur boxing.

He said there was "no attempt to revise the business plan", despite its clear struggles, and the leadership at the time was "blinded by their commitment".

"Cronyism was rampant, insufficient attention was paid to the administration of the sport and its officials," he said.

"The day-to-day management of the IBA suffered, and so did boxing. Corruption was allowed to creep in and take hold of the organisation."

He said these serious financial issues bred cultural and behavioural problems, where "corruption abounded".

McLaren said boxing was in need of "new talent" and "the people in the sport must change".

He added that there were "a lot of things" his team had investigated which they could not report on in public because they were subject to procedures "in the disciplinary system".

Earlier this year Boxing New Zealand chairman Keith Walker said had grave concerns about the future of the sport.

-BBC

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Boxing needs to act now to remain in Olympics - RNZ