One of the hardest jobs at the Olympics is commenting on Simone Biles’s performances. The normally chatty announcers can’t say anything except “Wow!” “Incredible!” “Unbelievable!” I get it. I’ve been an armchair gymnastics fan since I was a kid in the 1980s and ’90s. Biles soars higher than anyone else in the competition. She performs more difficult routines than any other woman. Heck, her vault is so hard that almost no men in the world can land it. And she’s doing all this at a gymnastics “grandma” age of 27. If she wins the most coveted gymnastics prize in Paris — all-around gold — she will be the oldest woman to do so since 1952.
Washington
Opinion | Three big ways Simone Biles changed America
I’m rooting for Biles to win it all not just because she’s the best, but also because she has changed the sport of gymnastics — and her country.
Who can forget what happened at the last Olympics in Tokyo. Biles stunned the world by dropping out of the team competition after a fluke vault. She wasn’t visibly injured. There was no limping or screaming. But she was hurting mentally. Had she kept going, she might have died. Her brain was telling her body to fly and twist, but her body wasn’t complying.
When she tried to explain this, the internet labeled her a disgrace, a traitor, a quitter. She went from “GOAT” to scapegoat for an angry world still largely locked down. Her career seemed over. Yet here she is — back and better than ever with a new tattoo on her collarbone: Maya Angelou’s “And Still I Rise.”
Her actions in Tokyo spurred a shift that affected the world well beyond sports. Suddenly, it was okay to talk about and prioritize mental health. Biles says she wouldn’t have returned to the Olympics without her family — and her therapist. She is transformed. She’s smiling more. And she’s leading her sport. Her parents opened a gym in Houston that has become a haven for Biles and many other elite gymnasts including France’s Melanie De Jesus Dos Santos and Team USA’s Jordan Chiles and alternate Joscelyn Roberson. When Olympian Suni Lee was struggling at the U.S. national championships competition this year, it was Biles, rather than Lee’s coach, who gave Lee the pep talk that made the difference.
Biles has transformed gymnastics from a girls’ to a women’s sport. In the 1970s, ’80s, ’90s and early 2000s, female gymnastics champions were extraordinarily young and thin. Their coaches yelled at them so much, it amounted to borderline child abuse. It took the story of widespread sexual abuse of gymnasts by team physician Larry Nassar to bring the situation into the open. But the brutality wasn’t limited to sexual abuse, especially not in the era when head coaches Bela and Marta Karolyi constantly criticized the girls’ weight and appearance, and urged them to compete while injured. Kerri Strug’s infamous vault on an injured ankle at the 1996 Atlanta Games, as Bela Karolyi yelled “You can do it!” from the sidelines looks alarming to the world today.
“You literally had one job and you couldn’t protect us,” Biles said of USA Gymnastics in 2019. She refused to continue with Karolyi-style training camps. She testified before Congress about the trauma she suffered.
In her new Netflix documentary, she says she still struggles with flashbacks when she arrives at big competitions. But she has found her voice and pushed for change in her sport. Her new coaches put mental fitness first. Her gym has pioneered new training methods. Biles even helped change Team USA leotards — from girly pink to patriotic colors with higher necks and a more elegant, mature style.
She’s also helped diversify the sport, inspiring young gymnasts of all backgrounds to compete. Biles’s personal story is powerful: She lived in foster care until her grandparents adopted her. She had overcome a great deal well before social media trolls criticized her hair, her clothes, her dance moves and even her husband. Today, there is a calm about her. She lets her flips and turns, scores and medals do the talking. China has boasted that the men’s team it is sending to Paris is the most decorated, with 37 Olympic and World Championship medals among its five stars. Biles has won 37 medals all on her own.
America loves a good comeback story, and they don’t come much better than Biles’s. I’m rooting for her to win — for herself, for America and, most of all, to remind the world what a strong woman can do.
An 18-year-old who was shot and wounded in Northwest D.C.’s Tenleytown neighborhood on Thursday afternoon has died, authorities say.
Brady Flowers Jr., of Southwest, was the victim, police said in an update Saturday.
Flowers was found shot in the 4500 block of Wisconsin Avenue NW, behind the CVS store. Jackson-Reed High School and American University are nearby.
Flowers was rushed to a hospital with life-threatening injuries and pronounced dead a day later, police said.
Police said 10-15 teens were seen running after the gunshots.
An investigation is underway. Anyone with potentially relevant information is asked to contact police.
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Washington
Governor Moore Continues “Delivering for Maryland” Tour in Washington County, Highlighting Transportation Infrastructure, Economic Development, and Early Childhood Education
Updated:
ANNAPOLIS, MD — Governor Wes Moore today continued his statewide “Delivering for Maryland” tour with a series of engagements in Washington County, highlighting vital investments in local transportation infrastructure, manufacturing job growth, and early childhood education. The governor emphasized state contributions to modernize the Hagerstown Regional Airport, toured the state-of-the-art Hitachi Rail facility, and celebrated the opening of a new child care center in the South End of Hagerstown funded by the administration’s historic ENOUGH Initiative.
“From investing $1.5 million to update Hagerstown Regional Airport’s aging control tower to supporting 1,300 jobs at Hitachi Rail, the Moore-Miller administration is delivering for Hagerstown, Washington County, and Western Maryland,” said Gov. Moore. “Through our administration’s ENOUGH Initiative partnerships and investments, we’ve tripled child care capacity in the South End of Hagerstown — because no parents should be forced to pick between staying in the workforce or securing quality care for their kids.”
The governor began the day at the Hagerstown Regional Airport, touring the Air Traffic Control Tower and airport grounds. During the visit, Governor Moore highlighted the State’s $1.5 million Fiscal Year 2027 investment to complete the design for a critical replacement of the airport’s aging air traffic control facility. As a primary airport in the Maryland Aviation System Plan, the Hagerstown Regional Airport is a vital economic engine for Washington County, supporting more than 1,800 jobs and generating over $140 million in local business revenue.
Following the airport tour, Governor Moore visited the Hitachi Rail STS facility alongside Congresswoman April McClain Delaney, Senator Mike McKay, Senator Paul Corderman and state transportation leaders. The governor toured the factory floor and rode a test train to observe the manufacturing process. Opened in September 2025 with the support of a $1.6 million state conditional loan, the 307,000-square-foot, carbon-neutral facility is a $100 million capital investment by Hitachi. The factory supports 1,300 jobs — including 460 newly created jobs — and is actively manufacturing railcars for both the Maryland Transit Administration and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
“Hitachi Rail has built a cutting-edge model for advanced manufacturing here in Western Maryland which is focused on delivering clean, safe, efficient regional transportation across our state and the rest of the country,” said Congresswoman April McClain Delaney. “This facility is powered by Maryland’s second-to-none workforce and world-class innovation environment. I’m proud to work with Governor Moore and our public, private, and philanthropic partners to drive global investment that supports jobs and economic growth along our I-270 Tech Corridor.”
Governor Moore concluded the day at the Children’s Learning and Empowerment Center in the South End of Hagerstown, where he met with parents, children, and community leaders. During the visit, the Governor highlighted the administration’s ENOUGH Initiative, which provided critical support for the center’s opening. The new facility is a major win for the community, tripling local childcare capacity with 24 new slots and generating six new early childhood education jobs.
The Children’s Learning and Empowerment Center’s opening was accelerated by a $100,000 investment from San Mar Family & Community Services, the ENOUGH grantee in Hagerstown. ENOUGH grant funding was also supplemented by a $100,000 philanthropic contribution from the Bainum Family Foundation — a member of the ENOUGH Alliance — to complete necessary facility upgrades. The center’s completion underscores the strength of the ENOUGH Initiative’s public-private partnerships to deliver on community priorities and work towards ending child poverty.
Governor Moore’s visit to Washington County follows the third stop of his “Delivering for Maryland” tour in Montgomery County, where he marked a historic milestone by installing the final segment of rail for the Purple Line. This installation completes the 16.2-mile light rail corridor connecting Bethesda and New Carrollton, with passenger service expected to begin in late 2027. The governor also visited Max’s Best Ice Cream in Bethesda, a local business dedicated to creating meaningful employment opportunities for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities through the Best Buddies Jobs program.
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A man charged with attacking the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner is seeking to disqualify top justice department officials from direct involvement in prosecuting him because they could be considered victims or witnesses in the case, creating a potential conflict of interest.
The acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, and US attorney Jeanine Pirro were attending the 25 April event at the Washington Hilton hotel when Cole Tomas Allen allegedly ran through a security checkpoint and fired a shotgun at a Secret Service officer.
In a court filing late on Thursday, Allen’s attorneys argued that it created at least the appearance of a conflict of interest for Blanche and Pirro to be making any prosecutorial decisions in the case.
“As this case proceeds closer to trial, the country and the world will continue to wonder – how can the American justice system permit a victim to prosecute a criminal defendant in a case involving them?” defense attorneys Eugene Ohm and Tezira Abe wrote.
Ohm and Abe, who are assistant federal public defenders, suggested that the appointment of a special prosecutor might be warranted. They urged US district judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump nominee assigned to Allen’s case, to disqualify Pirro, Blanche and possibly other justice department officials from direct involvement in the investigation and prosecution.
“Both heard gunshots, which presumably forced them to duck below the tables with the rest of the occupants. They were quickly evacuated. Shortly thereafter, they learned that law enforcement believed the target was certain administration officials,” Ohm and Abe wrote.
Pirro said her office would respond to the defense lawyers’ arguments in its own court filing.
“We will not tolerate people who come to the District of Columbia to engage in antidemocratic acts of political violence; and we will prosecute all such acts to the fullest extent of the law,” Pirro said in a statement.
Allen is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday on further charges in an indictment handed up Tuesday by a grand jury in Washington.
The charges include attempting to assassinate Donald Trump, who is a longtime friend of Pirro. Blanche served as a personal attorney for Trump before joining the justice department last year. Blanche, through a spokesperson, referred a request for comment to Pirro’s office. Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, is also charged with assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon and two additional firearms counts.
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