Category Archives: Olympics

TEHRAN Iran U23 football team were knocked out of the 2022 AFC U23 Asian Cup after playing to a 1-1 draw against Uzbekistan on Tuesday. Mehdi Mahdavikias team showed that they will have a tough mission to end the 48-year Olympics qualification drought.

Mahdavikia said they deserved to book a place in the next stage since they were the better team in the matches against Qatar, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Absolutely not.

Iran earned a late draw against Qatar in their opening match. Qatar, the bronze medalists of the previous edition, suffered a 6-0 loss against Uzbekistan and were held to a 1-1 draw against Turkmenistan and it shows that how weak they were.

Mahdavikas boys shockingly lost to debutants Turkmenistan and were lucky not to lose against Uzbekistan.

Iran U23 football team have a tough mission to book their place at the 2024 Olympic Games.

The most of players of Iran U23 team are not in their teams starting lineup in the Iranian league and it means they suffer lack of experience.

The team will have to participate at the 2024 AFC U23 Asian Cup Qualification next year but they need to identify their strengths and weaknesses ahead of the competition.

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Can Iran U23 football team end to 48-year Olympics qualification drought? - Tehran Times

Florida threatened to fine Special Olympics International $27.5 million for requiring 5,500 participants at the USA Games in Orlando to be vaccinated against COVID, prompting the organization to drop the mandate.

There needs to be a choice in this regard, Gov. Ron DeSantis said at an event in Orlando surrounded by a cheering crowd that included athletes for the games set to begin Sunday. Let them compete. We want everyone to be able to compete.

News of the dispute was first reported by Jay OBrien of ABC News.

In a letter sent to the Special Olympics International on Thursday, the state Department of Health said the organizations requirement that athletes show proof of vaccination violated state law. It said there had been several attempts by health officials to avoid imposing fines and bring the event into compliance by not requiring proof of vaccination.

Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo said he had been negotiating with the organization for the past six months to resolve the issue not for our sake but for the sake of these athletes.

A statement from Special Olympics International, a nonprofit, said Friday it had lifted its vaccination rule based upon the Florida Department of Healths interpretation of Florida law.

[Special Olympics brings 5,500 athletes to Orlando]

Delegates who were registered for the games but unable to participate due to the prior vaccine requirement, now have the option to attend, it said in a released statement.

We dont want to fight, the statement said. We want to play.

The conflict arose after DeSantis signed an executive order last April banning so-called vaccine passports, preventing businesses and state and local governments from requiring proof of vaccination. A month later, the Florida Legislature passed a bill, signed into law by DeSantis, imposing a $5,000 fine for each violation.

A Sarasota business owner sued to have the law blocked, but Leon Circuit Judge Layne Smith rejected the argument that it violated the business owners First Amendment rights.

Judi Hayes, an Orlando attorney whose 11-year-old son has Downs syndrome and sued DeSantis after he banned schools from requiring masks, said she was disappointed that the Special Olympics caved to the governor. She said she would boycott the upcoming games.

We were planning on attending as spectators, said Hayes, whose lawsuit against the governor was voluntarily dismissed. If they wont stand up for us, we wont participate.

People with disabilities, especially those with intellectual disabilities, are more susceptible to getting COVID-19 and more vulnerable to poor outcomes, Hayes said.

The only reason we are alive to discuss this issue is because [the] vaccines work, she said. But he wants to curry favor with the anti-science troglodytes and bullies the Special Olympics. Who does that?

Rubbing salt into the wound, she said, the organization is rewarding him by allowing DeSantis and First Lady Casey DeSantis to continue serving as honorary chairs of the 2022 Special Olympics games.

But there are others in the disability community who are adamantly opposed to vaccines because of potential side effects.

Elaine Valle, of Belle Isle, wants her 25-year-old daughter Isabella, who has cerebral palsy and epilepsy and uses a wheelchair, to participate in the games despite not being vaccinated.

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Valle said her daughters neurologist advised against her being vaccinated because she could get a fever that could cause other complications. She added that the entire family has previously gotten COVID and had antibodies.

We just found out this morning that she will be participating, Valle said at the DeSantis event. Isabella has from the age of 7 competed in swimming, golfing ... and cycling as part of Special Olympics Florida And then they tell us youve got to have these vaccine mandates.

The vaccine protocols were put into effect in June 2020 and updated a year later, according to the Special Olympics website.

Joe Dzaluk, president and CEO of the 2022 Special Olympics USA Games, said the threatened fines have had no impact on the event itself.

The games will proceed as planned, and we are happy to welcome any and all athletes, he said.

Dzaluk, who had no part in the vaccine mandate or the decision to drop it, said only a small percentage of athletes withdrew from the games after having qualified.

The attrition level, compared to previous games, is actually down, he said. Its been in the single digits.

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Special Olympics drops COVID vaccine mandate after Florida threatens ...

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) The 2026 Special Olympics USA Games will be held at the University of Minnesota, officials announced Friday.

Gov. Tim Walz said he is incredibly proud to have Minnesota host the seven-day event, which is expected to draw as many as 4,000 athletes, 10,000 volunteers, 1,500 coaches and 75,000 fans from all 50 states, Canada and the Caribbean.

Every four years, Special Olympics hosts the USA Games and in 2026, this will be the single biggest sporting event in the United States during that year, Walz said at a news conference.

The games for children and adults with intellectual disabilities will include 15 Olympic-type team and individual sports and five demonstration sports. Competitions will be held at the university and other Twin Cities venues.

The university will offer its housing, athletic, dining and medical facilities for the athletes, coaches, families and fans, said university President Joan Gabel, the honorary co-chair of the games.

The Special Olympics have, historically, generated more than $70 million of economic impact for the host city, according to Special Olympics Minnesota.

More importantly, it will showcase these incredible athletes, the work they do and the idea of inclusiveness in our society, Walz said. Minnesota has always prided ourselves on our health and wellness by making sure that includes everyone.

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University of Minnesota to host 2026 Special Olympics USA

Editors note: For those who would like to follow the progress of the athletes competing in Orlando, Florida, please check in with our updates page here.

Caroline Colianne, 41, remembered well the time before she blossomed into a multi-talented Special Olympian about to compete at her second Olympic games.

The Special Olympics actually changed my life, she said. When I first started I was very shy. It helped me to be a better person and more outgoing. It definitely helped my confidence. I didnt have a whole lot of confidence before I started.

This was the gift the founders hoped to give the athletes 54 years ago when the first Special Olympics Summer Games were first held July 20, 1968 at Soldier Field, Chicago. The venture, funded by the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation and the Chicago Park District, was a pet project of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who knew about intellectual disabilities first hand from the struggles of her older sister, Rosemary.

Shriver via the Special Olympics took intellectual disabilities into the public arena and championed the athletes and their families, helping to change societal stigmas with the mission to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities.

Colianne is now at the 2022 Special Olympics USA Games, being held through June 12, 2022 in Orlando, Florida. She is one of five Evanston athletes at the national competition: Colianne, Riley Hoffman, 27, Grayson Deeney, 23, Alex Anderson, 30 and Kirk Nelson, 44. The five along with coach Leonard Woodson sat down for a conversation with the RoundTable at the Robert Crown Community Center.

Woodson said when Colianne first started competing, she was so nervous she would throw up before competitions. This is not unusual for athletes, but, without knowing it, it would be hard to suspect the multi-sport winning, outgoing and poised young woman had pre-competition jitters.

Yet, when Colianne competed in 2014 in four aquatics events, she medalled in each: two golds in the 50-meter medley relay and 100-meter backstroke; a silver in the 100-meter freestyle, and a bronze in the 100-meter individual relay.

She has since switched to track and field and will be competing in the shot put, the 1,500-meter and the 800-meter races. But she also plays basketball and volleyball, works as a teachers assistant at the McGaw YMCA Childrens Center and also teaches swimming lessons at the YMCA pool.

Hoffman and Deeney and Anderson will be competing on the flag football team, Hoffman and Deeney play receiver or running back, according to the teams needs. Anderson is the quarterback. All three have played seriously for the past three years. When they are not practicing, or playing volleyball or basketball, Hoffman works at Lincolnwood Mall, Deeney works at Fro Gelato and Anderson works at Lowes.

Nelson, who has been weight lifting for four years, will compete in powerlifting, doing three different lifts: squat lift, bench lift and deadlift.

The Olympics changed my life as well, Nelson said. It made me a better person When I was in high school, I got hit by a car. All of my friends and coaches are amazed that I can participate in all of these sports.

Hoffman agreed: Oh man, Id be a lot different. Since I was like 3-years-old, I always wanted to participate in the Special Olympics. I never knew it was gonna really come true. For a couple of years, I had a lot of obstacles. My mom died of cancer. My brother passed away in 2019. Its kind of like I had lots of ups and downs like behavior issues and stuff. And to come this far and to do something special, this means a lot to me.

Anderson also said the Olympics changed him: When I was in high school, I [was] getting into trouble with law enforcement and not coming home. Being in and out of hospitals, he said. One of my friends introduced me to the Special Olympics to interact with people who understand who I am.

I have come so far in my life. And I love hanging out with these guys, talking to them and making jokes.

This is Woodsons third USA Special Olympics. He coached individual bocce and this year track and field. He works for Evanstons Parks and Recreations Special Recreation division.

The five Evanston athletes are part of the 16-member Illinois team. All will be in Florida with four coaches, a medic and two delegation heads, who work for Special Olympics Illinois, Carolyn Klocek Cronin and Brianna Beers. The competitions will be in the Olympic bubble used by the NBA in 2020 and televised live on ESPN.

Woodson said he has watched these young people develop and go beyond what they and others ever thought possible.

He said: My philosophy has always been I dont look at their disability. I take that into account in terms of what theyre able to do or not able to do. But I push them up to that limit and try to get them to break that wall a little bit to see that they can actually do a little bit more.

Ive had pretty much every one of these guys in here tell me that theyve had folks when they were younger at some point making fun of them or excluding them. And now theyre doing stuff that the people who made fun of them arent even doing.

The RoundTable will follow up with the group while they compete and post occasional updates. We will also check in after they return. Here are links to the competition schedule and to ESPNs Special Olympics coverage.

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Five Evanstonian athletes at 2022 Special Olympics USA Games - Evanston RoundTable

Of the several Minor League signings the Los Angeles Dodgers completed during the offseason and Spring Training, arguably none came with a more unique story than Eddy Alvarez, an Olympic medalist.

Alvarez made his MLB debut with the Miami Marlins last year and appeared in 24 games for the club. He was outrighted off their 40-man roster in October and became a free agent.

That led to Alvarez signing with the Dodgers and impressing during Spring Training. He continued to fare well in Triple-A Oklahoma City and received a call-up this past weekend as the corresponding roster move to Edwin Ros being placed on the 10-day injured list with a right hamstring strain.

Alvarez made a pinch-hit appearance on Saturday and started at third base in the series finale against the New York Mets. He delivered a game-tying RBI single with two outs in the ninth inning.

They were kind of beating me with fastballs all day, so I knew I wanted to be aggressive first pitch because they were throwing a lot of first-pitch strikes to me, Alvarez said of his clutch hit.

So I just put a good enough swing on it, got it by and, you know, gave our team the best chance. Its incredible. Im going to cherish this forever. Just to crack this roster and to be a little piece of the algorithm is incredible. So Im going to count my blessings and Im going to do what I can.

Alvarez had his wife, son, parents, sister, brother-in-law and niece in attendance for his first start with the Dodgers. They, along with droves of Dodgers fans, went into a frenzy when Alvarez tied the game.

You know, every game feels like its the Olympics here, answered Alvarez when asked how being with the Dodgers compares to the Olympics. We had 30,000 fans screaming in a nice arena. When you put 60-70,000 out in the stands here, it kind of feels like the same energy.

Plus, just the atmosphere and the love that the city has for this team, its incredible to play in front of.

Trea Turner and Alvarez had previously crossed paths during their respective time in the National League East, and the utilityman has certainly made an impression on the All-Star shortstop.

Spring training, I was definitely really impressed by him, Turner said. He played really well in Spring Training, and then you look at the scoreboard and they had his numbers from Triple-A right up there, hes hitting really good.

And then he comes up here and does the same thing, plays good defense, gets some knocks and just puts good at-bats together.

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Eddy Alvarez: Every Game Feels Like Its The Olympics When Playing For Dodgers - DodgerBlue.com

Eden Prairie, Minnesota, June 06, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Starkey is thrilled to serve as the exclusive global supplier of hearing instruments for the Special Olympics Healthy Athletes Healthy Hearing program at the 2022 Special Olympics USA Games. The games, which began June 5 and run through June 12, are being held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida, and unite more than 5,500 athletes and coaches from all 50 states and the Caribbean. Starkeys participation is a continuation of the global partnership made with Special Olympics International earlier this year, which pledged to increase access to hearing health services worldwide for individuals with intellectual disabilities.

Starkey was founded on the principle of helping others, said Starkey Owner and Chairman, Bill Austin. Through our Starkey Cares program, were proud to be a part of the Inclusion Revolution and support Special Olympics athletes with the hearing health resources they need to connect to their world. Alone we can't do much. Together, we can change the world!

In partnership with Special Olympics International, Starkey Cares is providing life-changing health services and hearing instruments to Special Olympics athletes around the world and helping train healthcare professionals to make healthy hearing more inclusive of people with intellectual disabilities. At the 2022 USA Games, Starkey is providing comprehensive hearing screenings, follow-up recommendations, and education on the importance of regular hearing screenings for athletes participating in the Special Olympics Healthy Athletes Healthy Hearing program.

Special Olympics Healthy Hearing is one of eight disciplines within theSpecial Olympics Healthy Athletes program, which provides health services and information to millions of people in need in more than 130 countries.Through both the 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Los Angeles (USA) and the 2019 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), Starkey and Special Olympics have delivered over 2,700 hearing screenings to athletes and nearly 500 personally fitted hearing instruments to date.

Around the world, too many children and adults with intellectual disabilities arent able to get hearing testing or other routine screenings, said Dr. Alicia Bazzano, Chief of Health, Special Olympics International. In fact, during our testing, nearly a quarter of our athletes fail their hearing test, which indicates possible hearing loss. Moreover, many of our athletes who are screened have problems getting the follow-up care they so urgently need. Starkey Cares will help us level the playing field for people with intellectual disabilities to improve their hearing health, get them the hearing aids and care they need, and give our athletes more opportunities to be included and contribute to their communities.

About Starkey

Starkey is a privately held, global hearing technology company headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Owned by Bill Austin since 1967, Starkey is known for its innovative design, development, and distribution of comprehensive digital hearing systems. Led today by President and CEO Brandon Sawalich, Starkey has more than 5,000 employees, operates 29 facilities and does business in more than 100 markets worldwide. Learn more at starkey.com.

About Special Olympics International

Founded in 1968, Special Olympics is a global movement to end discrimination against people with intellectual disabilities. We foster acceptance of all people through the power of sport and programming in education, healthand leadership. With more than six million athletes andSpecial OlympicsUnified Sports partners in over190 countries and territoriesand more than one million coaches and volunteers, Special Olympics deliversmore than 30 Olympic-type sportsand over100,000Games and competitionsevery year.

Engage with us on:Twitter,Facebook,YouTube,Instagram,LinkedInandour blog on Medium. Learn more atwww.SpecialOlympics.org.

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Starkey Serves as Exclusive Hearing Health Partner for the 2022 Special Olympics USA Games - GlobeNewswire

U.S.A. bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor.Adam Pretty/Getty Images

The Winter Olympics are held every four years in February. That's Black History Month in the United States. But this year, likely less than 5 percent of the 224-member United States delegation to the Beijing Games is Black.

Three Black Americans are women on the bobsled team, including Elana Meyers Taylor, who, in her fourth straight Olympics, piloted the two-woman sled to a bronze medal Saturday, behind two German sleds. Meyers Taylor also won silver last week in the new monobob event. There is one male bobsledder, Hakeem Abdul-Saboor. Others compete in skeleton (Kelly Curtis) and speedskating (Erin Jackson and Maame Biney). There are no Black Alpine skiers, snowboarders, or freestyle skiers on Team USA.

Although Team USA boasts Asian American stars like Chloe Kim and Nathan Chen, both gold medalists, Asian American athletes comprised less than 10 percent of the 2018 Olympic team and the representation is likely similar in Beijing, although four out of the six American figure skaters, including Chen, in individual events are of Chinese descent.

Abby Roque is the first Indigenous woman on the U.S. women's hockey team but is also its only player of color in Beijing.

There is a distinct dearth of diversity in the Winter Olympics overall, too. At the Pyeongchang Games in 2018, just 43 of 2,952 athletes, or 1.45 percent, were Black. In Beijing, the number is likely to be even fewer because of a decision by the International Olympic Committee to end a continental quota system for the sliding sports (bobsledding, skeleton, and luge) that had helped African athletes, most of them Black, reach the Games. Only six African athletes from five countries will compete in Beijing, all of them Alpine or cross-country skiers and most of whom live and/or train in Europe. No African athlete has ever medaled in the Winter Olympics.

While many Asian nations are represented among the 2,871 athletes from 91 countries competing in Beijing, only China, with 174 athletes, Japan, with 124, and South Korea, with 64, have sizable delegations. Several Asian countries only send one or two athletes to the Winter Games, including India, Pakistan and Malaysia.

Besides Roque, just four other Indigenous athletes are known to be competing in Beijing: Two on Canada's women's hockey team, one Canadian snowboarder and a Danish athlete from Greenland in the biathlon.

How to increase the participation of athletes of color in winter sports is a complicated question with many small solutions that could, over time, add up to broader representation, domestically and globally, at the Olympics.

To aid increasing diversity on a global scale, the IOC acknowledging the importance of equity in increasing diversity in winter sports would be a huge boon for domestic federations as they seek to do the same.

The IOC should reinstate continental quotas for all sports. Quotas do not dilute the playing field; rather, they even it by providing athletes with the financial support they need to travel and train. For Black athletes coming from an African or a Caribbean country with few resources and no snow or ice, that support can be invaluable, as Akwasi Frimpong of Ghana told Sports Illustrated's Alex Prewitt.Frimpong, who competed in Pyeongchang, was the first Black male skeleton athlete at the Olympics and singlehandedly runs Ghana's bobsled and skeleton federation. "It's not that we're less talented," Frimpong told Prewitt. "We don't have the dedicated infrastructure. We don't have the knowledge. It takes support."

Winter sports, generally speaking, tend to be restrictive in a few ways. Most winter sports require specialized equipment. Unlike running shoes or basketballs, things like ice skates and skating costumes, skis and snowboards and sleds for sliding sports are not particularly accessible. And winter sports can be prohibitively expensive beyond the equipment costs, when you factor in things like lift tickets at ski areas, ice time at a rink or specialized coaching. Ice hockey costs the average family $2,600 a year; skiing and snowboarding, about $2,200 a year. A monobob on its own costs about $45,000. Figure skaters at the elite level can spend$50,000 a year or more in the U.S.

The speedskater Erin Jackson, who won a gold medal in the 500-meter long-track event, became the first Black female gold medalist in her sport. In her post-race interview, Jackson said she hoped to be a trailblazer for other Black athletes. "Hopefully, this has an effect. Hopefully, we'll see more minorities, especially in the USA, getting out and trying these winter sports," said Jackson. Jackson has consulted with EDGE Outdoors, a Seattle-based nonprofit "created to address the invisibility of Black, Indigenous, Women of Color in snow sports," according to its mission statement, about starting a chapter in Utah, where she lives and trains.

Access and representation for athletes of color in winter sports go hand in hand. Organizations like EDGE Outdoors or Winter4Kids, a New Jersey-based nonprofit that introduces children in the metro New York area to Alpine and Nordic skiing and snowboarding, can increase accessibility. EDGE provides scholarships for training and coaching. Winter4Kids provides transportation, coaching and equipment.

But just putting athletes of color on ski slopes and on skates does not mean they will be accepted.

Meyers Taylor wrote in a blog titled "Even Olympic Medals Can't Save You From" for TeamUSA.org that she would not buy one of the fastest bobsleds on the market because the manufacturer refuses to sell to Black pilots and has used a racial slur to describe them. "I'd give up a gold medal before driving a sled made by him," she wrote, but added that Team USA owns one of his sleds.

Making athletes of color feel accepted in winter sports so that they continue to develop in them and become competitive at the elite level is a work in progress for many winter sports.

The National Brotherhood of Skiers (NBS) works to "identify, develop, and support athletes of color" in winter sports through its member ski clubs. And while it aims to propel athletes to success at the Olympic level, its CEO, Henri Rivers, told the AP's Aaron Morrison that he wants the greater ski community to "embrace [skiers of color] and see them as the future of the sport" first.

The national federations of many winter sports in the U.S. have publicly recognized their lack of diversity and committed to attracting more athletes of color to them.

Membership in U.S. Skiing is more than 99 percent white, according to a recent DEI audit of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard team. None of its coaches nor anyone on its board of directors was a person of color. Tiger Shaw, the president and CEO of U.S. Ski & Snowboard, said in a 2020 open letter to the organization that he hoped to "better engage and with and support" athletes of color.

Anne Cammett, the president of U.S. Figure Skating, where Black members comprise just 2 percent of the organization, wrote in a similar letter in 2020 that the group had "embarked on an ongoing journey to make the organization more welcoming, specifically to Black and Brown people." USA Hockey's website reports a "commitment to listen, learn and unite in an effort to make the sport more welcoming to all." Just 7 percent of USA Hockey's membership is comprised of people of color, and no one on its board is a person of color.

It's a start, but actions need to back up words. If winter sports do not become more inclusive, fewer Black athletes will stay in them, and the lack of representation will negate attempts to make them accessible in the first place.

One step winter sports could make toward greater inclusivity is to diversify recruiting. Many Black athletes in winter sports have made the switch from other sports.

Jackson, for example, came to speedskating via inline skating. She learned to skate, alongside other future Team USA athletes, at a roller rink in Ocala, Florida. She was a world champion in inline skating but wanted to pursue an Olympic medal.

Skateboarding skills can translate to snowboarding skills. Zeb Powell, an X Games gold medalist, got his start on a skateboard in North Carolina before moving to Vermont to train in snowboarding. Though he is unlikely to train for an Olympic discipline on snow, his success in the sport could and should spur scouts to check skate parksoften more accessible to more kids from a broader range of backgroundsas well as the slopes.

Many bobsledders (and other sledding athletes) come over from track and field, according to a New York Times article. Their strength, speed and agility translate well from running tracks to ice tracks. Vonetta Flowers, the first Black athlete to win a gold medal at the Winter Games, was one of them. Flowers had tried and failed to make an Olympic team as a long jumper before making the switch. Kaysha Love, a bobsledder in Beijing, was a former track star, as was Abdul-Saboor, who also played football. Sylvia Hoffman played basketball. Kelly Curtis, the first Black American woman to compete in skeleton, was a heptathlete in college.

Meyers Taylor, now a five-time bobsled medalist with at least one medal in each of her four Olympic appearances, played softball, first at George Washington University, then professionally for a year. After she did not make the Olympic softball team, and inspired by Flowers' success, she made the switch to bobsled.

"Learning how to captain a [softball] team and then needing to do it from a bobsled perspective as a pilot, that definitely helped me in and of itself," Meyers told Bob Reinert for TeamUSA.org.

Meyers Taylor said that although she had trained for softball as an endurance athlete, the current methods softball players use to train would help their bobsled careers, should they choose to switch. "Bobsled's all short sprints, really heavy lifting and fortunately, those were my strengths," she told Reinert.

USA Bobsled & Skeleton announced last year that the federation was partnering with a platform that would allow athletes to try out for sled sports "from the convenience of a local football field, running track, or even their backyard."

Diversity, equity and inclusion became buzzwords in sports and in corporate America following the deaths of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery in 2020, for good reason. But for winter sports to truly become diverse, equitable and inclusive, concrete changes need to be made. And they need to come from the national and international levels, which cannot leave the work of diversifying solely to the athletes.

Changes like defraying the costs of transportation and equipment and diversifying recruitment and seeking competent athletes in other sports. Also providing financial support for travel and training from the highest international and national levels of the sport to athletes who would not even be able to try the sports to which they aspire. Without measures like these, athletes of color will continue to see fewer representations of what they could be on the Winter Olympics stage.

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How the Winter Olympics Can Become More Diverse and Equitable - Bleacher Report

Lindsey Vonn poses with her career's medals in the finish area after the women's downhill race at the alpine ski World Championships in Are, Sweden, Sunday, Feb. 10, 2019. Vonn, a Park City resident and the most decorated female skier in the world, will travel with a delegation from the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games to IOC headquarters in Switzerland to lobby for the 2030 Olympics to be held in Utah. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)

| June 3, 2022, 12:56 p.m.

The group angling to bring the Winter Olympics back to Utah has found one sure-fire way to snag the attention of the International Olympic Committee during a meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, later this month. Its bringing along Lindsey Vonn.

Theyll be paying a lot more attention to her than they will to us, Fraser Bullock, the president and CEO of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games, half-joked Thursday after a committee board meeting at Vivint Arena.

Vonn, the most decorated female skier in history, will be part of the committees five-member delegation that is scheduled to meet with IOC members on June 14-16. The delegation, along with members of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, will be making a final push to convince the IOC to designate Utah as the host of the 2030 Winter Games over the likes of Sapporo, Japan, and Vancouver, Canada.

The IOC is expected to narrow the field to one or two sites during a Dec. 5-7 meeting. The host of 2030, and perhaps 2034, will be announced during the IOC general session in Mumbai on May 31-June 1, 2023.

Last year, Vonn was one of 10 athletes named to the SLC-Utah groups strategic governing board, joining the likes of skiing icon Ted Ligety and gold-medal figure skater Nathan Chen. Vonn first competed in the Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002 and she currently lives in Park City.

Local organizers want to emphasize that their bid is athlete-focused and athlete-driven. Catherine Raney-Norman, the SLC-Utah committees chair and a four-time Olympic speedskater, said having Vonn along will drive home that message.

The best part of my role is when I get to call the athletes and ask them to be a part of the Olympic bid process, Raney-Norman said. And she was instantaneously, Absolutely! How can I be involved? This is something Im passionate about.

And so just to have her as a part of this effort is amazing, right? And for her to be championing what were trying to do and to make time in her schedule to come with us. I think shes going to share an incredibly unique experience as an athlete, as a global leader in sport, as a champion of mental health. And I think its going to be a huge thing.

Vonn, 37, wont need many introductions at IOC headquarters, and not just because of her celebrity status. IOC President Thomas Bach invited Vonn, who retired in 2019, to join him in thanking the people of South Korea during the closing ceremony for the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang. In 2015, he expressed admiration for her determination after she won four World Cups in her return from a knee injury that kept her out of the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi. She finished her career with three Olympic medals.

Ninety percent of athletes being in this position would have said, OK, this is it. I would have loved to have another end to my career, but its finished, Bach told USA Today. To take this decision, to be back and to be back in this form, now being the most successful skier ever, its a great achievement.

Im really full of admiration.

Athletes from various nations including Pita Taufatofua, of Tonga, at left, United States' Lindsey Vonn, third from left, and Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, fifth from left, pose during the closing ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Sunday, Feb. 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Organizers of Utahs Olympic bid hope that still holds true.

A study released last month by the IOC reported Utah is one of two Olympic sites, alongside Vancouver, that still uses all of its venues. In addition, the 2002 Games were one of the few in Olympic history that netted a profit. Many of the people behind those Games, including Bullock are heading the push for 2030, and a recent report by the Kem C. Gardner Institute estimated the next Utah Olympics would have an economic impact of $3.9 billion.

Those are the qualities the local delegation, which also includes Nubia Pea, the director of the Utah Division of Multicultural Affairs, and Utah Games advisor Darren Hughes, will try to talk up during their June 13-16 visit.

Were going to go over there, Bullock said, to see if we can really utilize the strength of our bid to get continued serious interest in continuing a dialogue with the United States.

With so much ground to cover in such a short time, Vonns speed may prove as useful as her celebrity.

Whatever tools she uses, Bullock said he thinks shell be a valuable asset.

With Lindsey Vonn, [shes] the most successful female competitive skier in history and shes well known and well respected, Bullock said. And so her voice carries weight, and its important. And the fact that shes willing to take the time to go with us and spend time advocating for us shows that she believes that Salt Lake would be a great host.

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Skier Lindsey Vonn to ask IOC to give 2030 Olympics to Salt Lake City - Salt Lake Tribune

In three weeks, the fate of gender equality at the Olympics will be decided.

Sometime during its executive board meeting on the weekend of June 24, the International Olympic Committee will decide if womens Nordic combined will be an Olympic sport. Nordic combined, which features ski jumping and cross country skiing, is the only sport in both the summer and winter Olympics in which women do not compete.

The decision, expected to come on June 26, is almost a decade in the making and will have serious consequences no matter which way the board sways.

Best-case scenario, the sport is included in the 2026 Olympic Games in Italy.

For a while, the worst-case scenario would be pushing that goal back yet another four years, but lately, there have been rumors circulating that there could be an even more drastic outcome.

In the aim for gender equality, adding women is one option and nixing the men is another.

Blake Hughes, the interim chief operating officer at USA Nordic, the governing body of Nordic combined and ski jumping in the United States, said even having the conversation about removing men is surreal and extreme.

That rumor started circling the last couple weeks, said Hughes. Its an even more frustrating way to just put a Band-Aid on something so they can fix inequality by taking mens Nordic combined out. I think its a quick and easy way for the older generation of men and women who are running the Olympic committee to force their hand and say, This is how were going to make it equal by taking mens Nordic combined out, which I dont think is appropriate at all.

I dont want to think about it, said USA Nordic womens Nordic combined head coach Tomas Matura.

Annika Malacinskis future is in the fate of the IOC executive board. The Steamboat Springs skier and womens national team member joined a large portion of the international womens Nordic combined community earlier this week with a collaborative social media post calling for the inclusion of the sport.

Malacinski said she hopes the posts inform more people of the upcoming decision and puts some pressure on the board by showing a lot of people have their eyes and ears on them. People can also express their opinions by reaching out to an IOC member.

I feel like everyones had very high hopes of it being in 26, and now that the decision is coming closer, I think its kind of scaring everyone, Malacinski said. It will be the end of womens Nordic combined if they do not put it in the Olympics.

National team members Tess Arnone and Alexa Brabec also hail from Steamboat Springs.

The men are set to compete in the 2026 Olympics, but the exclusion of women, or even the men, could start a domino effect that could add up to the end of Nordic combined.

Of course, there are many options in between the best- and worst-case scenarios, including the men competing in the Olympics, but perhaps the popularity of the sport declining due to inequality or the newfound insecurity of the sport. Women could leave the sport of Nordic combined for hopes of making an Olympic debut in ski jumping or another discipline, knocking back the sports progression and potentially dashing future hopes of Olympic inclusion. Without the option to compete in the Olympics, athletes may no longer have sponsors and may question the purpose of spending so much time, effort and money to compete at the World Cup level.

On paper, the decision to include womens Nordic combined in the Olympics appears obvious.

The International Ski Federation published a womens Nordic combined strategy in November 2016, which included a structured pathway for growth and a calendar marking anticipated milestones.

The strategy document says Nordic combined is the smallest of the Nordic disciplines, but its also an original sport, having appeared in every Winter Olympics, the first of which took place in 1924.

Five of the six milestones established in the strategy were met. In 2018, Rena, Norway, hosted the first-ever womens Continental Cup. Steamboat Springs hosted the second in December of that year. In early 2019, Lahti, Finland, hosted the Junior World Ski Championships in which young women competed in Nordic combined for the first time.

The next winter marked the first appearance of womens Nordic combined in the Youth Olympic Winter Games and the World Cup, and in 2021, womens Nordic combined was added to the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships docket.

However, the sport did not debut in the 2022 Olympics as initially hoped. The IOC denied the inclusion of the sport in 2018, due to a lack of athletes and not yet having a World Cup circuit, knocking the sport off its original trajectory. Nevertheless, the sport continued to grow and prove that it was worthy of inclusion on the biggest stage.

The IOC is pushing to equal participation: the same amount of women and men athletes, Matura said. I cant see why they wouldnt add womens Nordic combined.

Since 2015, the sport has grown from 77 registered athletes to 190, according to the 2022 progress report. While the decision has to be made now whether the women will compete in 2026, Hughes said the board should consider how the sport will continue to grow.

By the time we get to 26 in Italy, itll be ready to be in the Olympics, Hughes said. I believe its ready to be in the Olympics now, but for sure in four years.

Malacinski, who is the top American womens Nordic combined athlete and a consistent top-15 finisher at World Cups, may have to reconsider her career path if the decision does not allow women to compete in the Olympics.

Its going to be taking a lot of girls dreams away and show younger girls to not get into the sport, which would be even worse, she said. There would be no future for womens Nordic combined.

I dont want to send the message to say, If you dont get your way, just quit, she added. But at this point in time, I invest so much of my time and energy and money into the sport that if we are not getting recognized for what we are I dont know if I would continue Nordic combined.

To reach Shelby Reardon, call 970-871-4253, email sreardon@SteamboatPilot.com or follow her on Twitter @ByShelbyReardon.

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Decision to add women's Nordic combined to Olympics approaches - Steamboat Pilot & Today

Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas said she intends to keep competing, with the ultimate goal of reaching the Olympics.

In an interview that aired Tuesday on ABCs Good Morning America, Thomas also disputed those who say she has an unfair biological edge that ruins the integrity of womens athletics.

Trans women are not a threat to womens sports, she said.

Thomas became a leading symbol of transgender athletes stirring both opposition and support when she joined the Penn womens swim team after competing for three years on the mens squad at the Ivy League school.

In March, Thomas won the womens 500-yard freestyle at the NCAA championships in Atlanta, becoming the first transgender woman to claim a national title in swimming. She has since graduated from Penn and plans to attend law school, in addition to pursuing her goal of qualifying for the 2024 U.S. Olympic swimming trials that will determine the team for the Paris Games.

I intend to keep swimming, Thomas told ABC. Its been a goal of mine to swim at Olympic trials for a very long time, and I would love to see that through.

USA Swimming has used a review panel to make individual determinations on a case-by-case basis since 2018. Thomas would need approval from the governing body to attempt to qualify for the next Olympic trials.

Thomas, who grew up in Austin, Texas, said she fell in love with swimming at age 4 but felt increasingly disconnected from her body as she grew older.

I didnt feel like I was a boy, she said.

After high school, Thomas earned a spot on the mens swimming team at Penn. But by her sophomore year, she struggled with deep depression and suicidal thoughts.

I was barely going to classes. I could really barely get out of bed, she recalled, finally telling herself: I cant live like this anymore. I want to live again. I want to be able to do things I enjoy.

Thomas said a fear of not being able to compete in the sport she loved kept her from transitioning initially. But at the end of her sophomore year, she began hormone replacement therapy.

The mental and emotional changes actually happened very quickly. I was feeling a lot better mentally. I was less depressed, she said. And I lost muscle mass and I became a lot weaker and a lot, a lot slower in the water.

Thomas began swimming on the Penn womens swimming team at the start of her senior year, following NCAA guidelines in place at the time that athletes must complete one year of hormone replacement therapy to change gender categories.

The scrutiny over Thomas grew as she achieved far more swimming success competing against women than she did before.

Transgender athletes have now become a prominent political target, with many conservative states pushing through laws that require high school athletes to compete as the sex they were assigned at birth.

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a proclamation that declared the NCAA runner-up, Florida-born Emma Weyant, as the real winner of the womens 500 title.

The NCAA has changed its transgender eligibility guidelines to allow each sport to follow the rules set by each sports national governing body.

Thomas, in the interview with ABC, pushed back on some of the criticism she received particularly during her senior season, when she rarely spoke to the media. She scoffed at the notion that she transitioned in order to have more success as a swimmer.

We transition to be happy and authentic and our true selves, she said. Transitioning to get an advantage is not something that ever factors into our decisions.

Thomas also said its not fair to prevent transgender people from competing in sports, or to limit them to competing only against each other.

In addition to not allowing the full athletic experience, thats incredibly othering to trans people who already face immense discrimination in other parts of our lives, Thomas said.

She said the highlight of her college graduation was hearing her name called as Lia Thomas.

When I actually got to walk across the stage and hear them say my name, she said, it was very cool.

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Lia Thomas plans to keep swimming - with an eye on Olympics - The Associated Press - en Espaol