Sports

As Paris Olympics near, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, others hail showcase for women's sports

Published

2 years ago

July 19, 2024

As Paris Olympics near, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, others hail showcase for women's sports

Margaret Abbott, the first American woman to win an Olympic event, died at age 76 without knowing of her pioneering feat.

The 1900 Games in Paris were the first that allowed women to compete, but also so nascent and unorganized that Abbott spent the rest of her life under the impression she’d merely won a local golf tournament. It didn’t help that her prize was a gilded porcelain bowl and not a gold medal.

Paula Welch, now professor emeritus at the University of Florida, unearthed Abbott’s milestone decades later. It was a revelation that even surprised Abbott’s son, Philip Dunne.

“It’s not every day that you learn your mother was an Olympic champion, 80-odd years after the fact,” Dunne wrote in a 1984 Golf Digest article.

There will be no mistaking such epic moments for female competitors at the 2024 Paris Games. If Simone Biles, the most decorated gymnast in history, triumphs again, if charismatic sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson breaks away from the pack, if world-record holder Katie Ledecky adds to her collection of seven swimming golds, they’ll relaunch as international media sensations by daybreak.

The transformation underscores just how much women have reshaped the Olympics since the fledgling 1900 competition, when only 22 of the 997 athletes were female. The Winter and Summer Games of long ago have emerged into platforms where the women are household names just as much as the men. The 2024 Paris Games are set to be the first to feature as many female athletes as male.

For most of the 1980s and ’90s, few female athletes in the United States were as famous as Jackie Joyner-Kersee. The stylish, personable star of USA Track & Field set numerous world records and won six Olympic medals, including three golds.

She understands the power of this juncture in women’s sports history. And in grand Olympic style, she’s ready to pass the torch.

“What I love is the respect that I see from this generation,” Joyner-Kersee, 62, told The Athletic. “But you also want them to have their moments. I think that’s very important. My era was my era. I did what I did, but what can I pass on to you that can help you?

“With (the) Olympics around the corner, with what Sha’Carri Richardson was able to do becoming world champion, and Sydney (McLaughlin-Levrone) running under 51 seconds in the 400 hurdles, the excitement around women’s athletics (is growing).”

Biles, who has 37 Olympic and World Championship gymnastics medals, headlines an impressive group of U.S. female athletes headed to Paris. There also is Richardson, Ledecky and gymnastics star Suni Lee, as well as the U.S. women’s basketball, water polo and soccer teams.

Joyner-Kersee knows just how life-changing Olympic glory can be.

“Every time I was on the podium,” she said, “I always thought about my community of East St. Louis (Ill.), and then also about the coaches who believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself.”

Jackie Joyner-Kersee dominated in the heptathlon Olympic event in the 1980s and ’90s. (H. Darr Beiser / Imagn Content Services, LLC via USA Today)

Her gratitude extends to an even earlier Olympic sensation. Wilma Rudolph was the breakout star of the 1960 Summer Games in Rome, where she became the first American woman to win three track and field gold medals (100 meters, 200 meters and the 400-meter relay) at a single Olympics. She became a household name in Italy, along with other male U.S. Olympic standouts such as boxer Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay), basketball star Oscar Robertson and decathlete Rafer Johnson.

Rudolph made numerous TV appearances and earned a slew of honors, including the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year Award in 1960 and 1961. She retired from competition in 1962 and went on to teach, coach and run a community center, among other endeavors, though her Olympic accomplishments on the track remained her best known.

Her fame put her in a position years later to offer advice to Joyner-Kersee. That conversation took place after the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, after Joyner-Kersee left with a silver medal in the heptathlon and a whiff of disappointment. She narrowly missed out on the gold with which she later would be synonymous.

Rudolph, a broadcaster during those 1984 Games, took Joyner-Kersee under her wing, and the two became close in the ensuing years. Joyner-Kersee said Rudolph’s advice on how to handle opportunities outside athletics helped her grow into a leader on and off the track — though she didn’t fully understand it at the moment.

“I’m hearing this (advice), and in my mind, it’s like, ‘What is she going on about?’” Joyner-Kersee said. “But now that you live it? I realized she was someone who was preparing me for what she knows is going to happen.”

Nearly 30 years later, Joyner-Kersee was able to fill that mentor role for an up-and-coming Olympic athlete. Since falling short of qualifying for the U.S. team in the heptathlon after a fall in the Olympic Trials before the 2020 games, Anna Hall has received regular encouraging calls from Joyner-Kersee while preparing for the 2024 Games. Hall recently qualified for the Paris Games and is considered a favorite to win gold in Joyner-Kersee’s signature event.

Joyner-Kersee is among the seminal figures profiled in a recently published book by Bonnie-Jill Laflin about the trendsetters who paved the way for this watershed era in women’s athletics. “In a League of Her Own: Celebrating Female Firsts in Sports” features chapters based on interviews with tennis star Billie Jean King, basketball groundbreaker Nancy Lieberman, gymnast Mary Lou Retton, race car driver Danica Patrick, former Oakland Raiders CEO Amy Trask and others who broke barriers for women in athletics. Several of the stars look back to their inspirations, citing the impact of women such as Rudolph and multisport athlete Babe Didrikson Zaharias.

For Retton, who in 1984 became the first American gymnast in history to win an Olympic individual all-around gold, her inspiration was Nadia Comăneci. Retton praised the 1976 gold medalist, the first to earn a perfect 10.0 in Olympic history.

“Of course it was Nadia,” Retton said in the book. “That’s when it clicked for me. I was glued to the television set watching this little girl named Nadia from this different country, Romania. She was doing these amazing things with her body, and I’m like, ‘That’s it. That’s what I want to do, and there’s a name for it — it’s called gymnastics.’”

Mary Lou Retton became the first American gymnast to win an Olympic individual all-around gold in Los Angeles in 1984. (Jerry Cooke / Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)

Laflin, a San Francisco native, wrote the book to ensure future generations understood that today’s magazine covers and boffo TV ratings were a long time coming. “I wish I’d had a book like this to understand that it’s not going to be easy,” she told The Athletic. “There are going to be struggles, and you’re not going to be accepted. I think those are the things that women are now able to see and have a little bit of guidance to try to navigate through it.”

Because of Joyner-Kersee’s unique blend of talents, there is arguably no one better positioned to appreciate the current boom of interest in women’s sports, with college basketball dominating the national narrative more than it ever has, the WNBA increasing in popularity, college volleyball matches setting attendance records and Team USA preparing for what might be the most watched Olympics in a decade after the 2020 Games were heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Melissa Stockwell grew up wanting to be an Olympic gymnast after being inspired by the biggest star of her era, Retton. She told The Athletic that at youth gymnastics meets, she would envision standing on the floor listening to the national anthem after scoring a perfect 10.0.

Stockwell, who also got a chapter in Laflin’s book, had the chance to represent her country on the podium, but her triumph came as a Paralympic triathlete after she, a former U.S. Army officer, became the first female American soldier to lose a limb in active combat. Stockwell’s vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2004.

Six months into her stint at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland, she noticed a flyer on the wall promoting an informational session about the Paralympic Games. She attended the session led by Persian Gulf War veteran John Register, a two-time U.S. Paralympian who reinvented himself as a competitive athlete after becoming a leg amputee in 1994.

“There were a few of us in the room, but it felt like he was talking directly at me,” Stockwell said. “I left that room and somehow, some way, knew I wanted to be a Paralympian and represent our country.”

Stockwell eventually became the first Iraq War veteran to qualify for the Paralympic Games, in swimming, in 2008. She later captured a bronze medal as a triathlete at the 2016 Games and stood on the podium with two other Americans — on the profound date of Sept. 11.

“It will go down as one of the greatest moments of my life,” Stockwell said. “Obviously, it’s Sept. 11 and I’m wearing that Team USA uniform. … Being on that podium is a moment that I will never, never forget.”

Joyner-Kersee’s thoughts of her times on the medalists podium centered on those who supported her journey to Olympic glory. Since her retirement from competitive athletics, she has tried to pay back those who helped her reach her dreams, dedicating her life to training the next generation of athletes and leaders through her Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation. She also supports athletes trained by her husband, legendary track and field coach Bob Kersee.

“Through sports, you learn a lot about leadership, the teamwork and how all these skills are transferable beyond the playing field,” she said. “You learn to appreciate one another, but you also learn a lot about what it is you want to do. You learn about your own self-confidence, but also, how can I get someone else to feel that same way?”

The 2012 Summer Games in London were the first in which women competed in all the sports on the program. Since 1991, any new sport seeking to join the Olympic program must have women’s competitions.

Many Olympic champions feel compelled to keep the momentum going. Joyner-Kersee believes the growth of women in sports has made an impact well beyond the playing field.

“You look at women in athletics from the standpoint that you look at the leadership role — they aren’t just players now,” she said. “You are looking at them as leaders of universities — athletic directors — and being at the table to brainstorm.

“You bring other people in to really understand that someone might not be the best athlete, but they bring something that’s very tangible, that is going to make a company a huge success.”

(Illustration: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic; photos: Jamie Squire and David Madison / Getty Images)

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Sports

Jon Jones requests UFC release after Dana White says legend was ‘never’ considered him for White House card

Published

4 hours ago

March 10, 2026

Press Room

Jon Jones requests UFC release after Dana White says legend was ‘never’ considered him for White House card

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Mixed martial arts legend Jon Jones ended his retirement from UFC simply because he wanted a spot on the “Freedom 250” fight card at the White House in June.

But, when UFC CEO Dana White announced the card during UFC 326 this past weekend, Jones wasn’t among the fighters. As a result, he has requested a release from his UFC contract.

White was candid when asked about Jones following the UFC 326 card.

Jon Jones of the United States of America reacts after his TKO victory against Stipe Miocic of the United States of America in the UFC heavyweight championship fight during the UFC 309 event at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 16, 2024 in New York City. ((Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images))

“Never, ever, ever, which I told you guys a hundred thousands times, was Jon Jones ever even remotely in my mind to fight at the White House,” White explained, per CBS Sports. “Some guy with Meta Glasses filmed him talking about his hips – that his hips are so bad. And I don’t know if you guys saw that flag football game where he can barely run. Jon Jones retired because of his hips. He’s got arthritis in his hips. Apparently, doctors say he should have a hip replacement.”

White added that “the Jon Jones thing is bulls—,” saying that he texted the fighter’s lawyer saying he would never be on the White House card despite Jones saying he was in negotiations for it.

UFC ANNOUNCES CARD FOR WHITE HOUSE EVENT

The Meta Glasses incident White is referring to came from a viral video, where Jones, unaware he was being filmed, discussed issues with his hips to a fan.

On Monday, Jones composed a thorough response to White’s comments about him and the White House Card. He previously posted and deleted social media explanations, but Monday’s appeared to be his final statement on the matter.

UFC President Dana White speaks after UFC Fight Night at Toyota Center on Feb. 21, 2026. (Troy Taormina/Imagn Images)

“Yes, I have arthritis in my hip and it’s painful, but that doesn’t mean I can’t fight,” Jones, who retired a heavyweight champion in 2025, said. “So let me get this straight, if I had accepted the lowball offer, suddenly my hip would be fine and I’d be on the White House card? That doesn’t make sense. I even received stem cell treatment last week to get ready for the White House card, and training camp was scheduled to start today. I was preparing to be ready.

“I understand business deals fall through sometimes, but going out publicly and saying things that aren’t true isn’t right. After everything I’ve given to the UFC, the years, the title defenses, the fights, hearing that I’m ‘done’ is disappointing. Especially when as recently as Friday UFC was calling me trying to get me on that White House card for a much lower number.”

Jones finished his statement by saying he “respectfully” asks to be released from his UFC contract.

Jon Jones enters the ring before facing Stipe Miocic in the UFC heavyweight championship fight during the UFC 309 event at Madison Square Garden on November 16, 2024 in New York City, New York. (Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)

“No more spins, no more games. Thank you to the real fans who know what’s up,” he wrote.

The UFC did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Fox News Digital.

Jones is considered one of the best UFC fighters of all time, owning a 28-1-1 record, which includes his last bout with Stipe Miocic, knocking him out to take the heavyweight title belt. He is also a two-time light heavyweight champion.

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

Scott Thompson is a sports writer for Fox News Digital.

Sports

With U.S. at war with Iran, political upheaval could engulf World Cup

Published

5 hours ago

March 10, 2026

Press Room

With U.S. at war with Iran, political upheaval could engulf World Cup

Twelve days ago the U.S., a World Cup host country, launched a full-scale bombing campaign against Iran, a country that has qualified to play in the tournament. That’s never happened before.

Five days later, that same World Cup host began military operations inside the borders of Ecuador, another World Cup qualifier, half a world away. That’s never happened before either.

With the tournament scheduled to kick off in three months, those events have soccer scholar Jonathan Wilson questioning whether it’s wise for the World Cup to go on at all.

“It seems to me, for each passing day, it’s less and less likely that the World Cup can happen,” he said.

That take seems unduly alarmist said David Goldblatt, a British sportswriter and sociologist who is a visiting professor at Pitzer College in Claremont. Anything short of a full-scale war inside the U.S. would not be enough to pull the plug on the tournament now, he said. Especially with FIFA expecting revenues of as much as $11 billion.

“I mean, it’s not a good look,” Goldblatt conceded. “And certainly when set against FIFA’s official pronouncements on its role in encouraging world peace and cosmopolitan celebrations of a universal humanity, none of that sits terribly easily.

“But in terms of actually running the World Cup, I don’t think it’s going to make very much difference at all.”

However, with the Trump administration open to engaging in more international conflicts, there’s little doubt this World Cup, the largest and most complex in history, will also be the most political in history as well.

Complicating things further is the fact the current conflict in the Middle East hasn’t been limited to just the U.S. and Iran. Iranian missiles have hit both Qatar and Saudi Arabia, among other countries, and Jordan has fired on U.S. assets.

Those three countries are World Cup qualifiers as well.

The fate of a soccer tournament pales in importance to the death and destruction the conflagration in the Middle East has produced, of course. But the need for unity is the very reason there’s a World Cup in the first place.

When French soccer administrator Jules Rimet founded the tournament 96 years ago, he believed soccer could be a tool for international peace. And in the early years of the tournament, Rimet, FIFA’s longest-serving president and a talented diplomat, was able to limit the impact of geopolitics on the World Cup, watering down Mussolini’s influence on the 1934 World Cup, for example, and steering the 1938 tournament away from Hitler’s Germany.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino has taken a far different approach, courting President Donald Trump’s support despite his growing number of global conflicts.

A week before bombs began falling on Iran, Infantino appeared at the inaugural meeting of Trump’s Board of Peace wearing a red cap with ‘USA’ on the front and the numbers ‘45-47’ — a reference to Trump’s non-consecutive presidencies. That act was so blatantly partisan, IOC president Kirsty Coventry said her organization would investigate whether Infantino, an IOC member, breached the terms of the group’s charter, which requires members to act independent of political interests.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino holds up a USA hat as he attends the inaugural meeting for the Board of Peace at the Institute of Peace in Washington on Feb. 19.

(Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

“Infantino has absolutely breached every FIFA protocol on neutrality,” said Wilson, author of “The Power and Glory: The History of the World Cup.”

“Absolute neutrality is always impossible and not desirable, but it has clearly gone way, way, way beyond. The peace prize looked grotesque at the time. It looks even worse now. And I can’t see how the future will look kindly on Infantino. I think Infantino has to some extent legitimized Trump.”

This is hardly new behavior from Infantino, who had close relationships with Vladimir Putin ahead of the 2018 tournament played in Russia and Qatar’s leaders ahead of the 2022 tournament despite their well-known human rights violations.

The list of countries Infantino is asking to overlook poor relations with the country hosting the majority of World Cup games this summer is growing.

Consider that Denmark, which administers Greenland, an autonomous territory Trump has also threatened to invade, can qualify for the tournament in a European playoff that will take place later this month. Then there’s World Cup qualifiers Haiti, Ivory Coast and Senegal, who aren’t at war with the U.S. but whose citizens have been banned from entering the country to cheer for their teams. That completely contradicts a promise from Infantino, who said “everybody will be welcome” at the 2026 World Cup.

“If I had a crystal ball I could tell you now what is going to happen,” Heimo Schirgi, the World Cup chief operating officer for FIFA, said Monday. “But obviously the situation is developing. It’s changing day by day and we are monitoring closely. [But] the World Cup will go on right? The World Cup is too big and we hope that everyone can participate that has qualified.”

Goldblatt, the Pitzer professor, said Infantino’s action are understandable since he has few cards to play against Trump.

President Trump speaks as he receives the FIFA Peace Prize while FIFA president Gianni Infantino applauds Friday.

“What’s Infantino going to do? What levers can you pull?” he asked. “You can threaten to take it away. That’s not happening. Moral admonishment? Who’s going to take that from FIFA? It is a farcical idea that anybody thinks that the president of FIFA has any kind of collective moral authority or any role as a spokesperson for the progressive part of the world.

“They may fantasize that this is the case. But it is morally and politically absurd that any of us should expect that of these people. So if you are Infantino and that is the case, you know what works with Trump? What works is flattery. So of course he’s gone down that path.”

The games, Goldblatt said, will go on even if bombs are still falling. And that may not be an entirely bad thing.

“Football’s a great distraction. That’s partly why it’s so popular,” he said. “It will be virtually impossible, if the war continues, for that not to be a central element of like, the meaning and the purpose of what we’re all doing here.

“How we’ll feel and what it will look like, I don’t know. It will be very strange. Football is unpredictable and extraordinary. Something will happen that will warm our souls.”

⚽ You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week’s episode of the “Corner of the Galaxy” podcast.

Sports

Australia grants asylum to 5 Iranian women’s soccer players amid Iran conflict

Published

16 hours ago

March 10, 2026

Press Room

Australia grants asylum to 5 Iranian women’s soccer players amid Iran conflict

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Australia granted asylum to five players from the Iranian women’s soccer team who were visiting for a tournament when the U.S.-Israeli attacks against Iran began.

Australian federal police officers on Tuesday transported the five women from their hotel in Gold Coast, Australia, to a “safe location” after they made asylum requests to meet with Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke and to finalize the processing of their humanitarian visas.

“Last night I was able to tell five women from the Iranian Women’s Soccer team that they are welcome to stay in Australia, to be safe and have a home here,” Burke said on X.

The move comes after the team refused to sing the Iranian anthem before their first Women’s Asian Cup match early last week against South Korea, although they later sang and saluted the anthem in two subsequent matches, including ahead of their final match, when they were eliminated by the Philippines.

IRANIAN WOMEN’S SOCCER FANS SHOW SUPPORT FOR TRUMP AS TEAM APPEARS TO PIVOT ON NATIONAL ANTHEM STANCE

Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke poses with five Iranian women soccer players who have been granted asylum in Australia, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (Australia Ministry of Home Affairs)

“I don’t want to begin to imagine how difficult that decision is for each of the individual women, but certainly last night it was joy, it was relief,” Burke told reporters after signing the documents. “People were very excited about embarking on a life in Australia.”

The five women said they were happy for their names and pictures to be published, according to Burke, who emphasized that the players wanted to make clear that they were not political activists.

The Iranian team arrived in Australia for the tournament before the war against Iran began on Feb. 28.

After the team was eliminated from the tournament over the weekend, they faced potentially returning to a country still under bombardment. The team’s head coach, Marziyeh Jafari, said on Sunday the players “want to come back to Iran as soon as we can.”

An official squad list named 26 players, as well as Jafari and other coaches.

While only five players were granted asylum, Burke said the offer was given to everyone on the team.

IRAN FLAG REMOVED FROM PARALYMPICS OPENING CEREMONY AFTER SOLE ATHLETE WITHDRAWS OVER TRAVEL SAFETY CONCERNS

Iran players during their national anthem ahead of the Women’s Asian Cup soccer match between Iran and the Philippines in Robina, Australia, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (Dave Hunt/AAPImage via AP)

“These women are tremendously popular in Australia, but we realize they are in a terribly difficult situation with the decisions that they’re making,” Burke said. “The opportunity will continue to be there for them to talk to Australian officials if they wish to.”

It remains unclear when the remaining players will leave Australia.

“Australians have been moved by the plight of these brave women,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters. “They’re safe here and they should feel at home here.”

“They then had to consider that and do it in a way that did not present any danger to them or to their families and friends back home in Iran,” he continued.

The asylum offer came after U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday called on Australia to grant asylum to any team member who wanted it.

Trump had blasted Australia on social media, saying Australia was “making a terrible humanitarian mistake” by allowing the team to be “forced back to Iran, where they will most likely be killed.”

Supporters react towards a bus transporting Iranian woman players following their Women’s Asian Cup soccer match against the Philippines on the Gold Coast, Australia, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (Dave Hunt/AAP Image via AP)

“The U.S. will take them if you won’t,” Trump said, despite his administration’s efforts to limit the number of immigrants in the U.S. who can receive asylum for political purposes.

Just hours later, Trump praised Albanese in another post.

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“He’s on it! Five have already been taken care of, and the rest are on their way,” Trump wrote.

Albanese said Trump had called him for “a very positive conversation,” about the issue. The prime minister said he explained “the action that we’d undertaken over the previous 48 hours” to support the women.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.