Sports

Murky waters of Olympic triathlon make for picturesque but dicey races

Published

2 years ago

July 31, 2024

Murky waters of Olympic triathlon make for picturesque but dicey races

PARIS – The dawn rain slowed to a drizzle just before 8 a.m. Wednesday in Paris, just as 46 of the fittest women in the world trotted onto the Pont Alexandre III, descended a flight of stairs onto a floating dock and dove into the Seine, bacteria be damned.

After years of planning, construction of a $1.5 billion sewage retention tank system, months of jitters, and a final 24-hour delay as mother nature cleaned up the latest sewage overflow as best it could, this elite collection of Olympic distance triathletes did the thing that has grossed out pretty much everyone for 100 years.

Was the river clean? Let’s say clean enough, and leave it at that.

At 3:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Olympic organizers and representatives of a regional environmental agency, the City of Paris and the prefecture of the Ile-de-France region performed the test that the Seine has been failing since the weekend downpour that soaked the opening ceremony and sent untold gallons of fresh sewage into the urban waterway.

Unlike the previous three days, when organizers canceled two training swims and postponed the men’s race for 27 hours, this time the river passed the test. But, officials determined, with levels of E.Coli and enterococci under the threshold risk for bacteria, viruses and other diseases that health experts and the world governing bodies for triathlon and swimming have set for open-water competition.

Swimmers finally entered the Seine on Wednesday morning. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

And so, with the sound of a high-pitched bleep, they set off, thrashing through the murky gray-brown waters on a day when the more immediate hazards turned out to be the slick pavement that caused a series of spills as cyclists tried to avoid one another and navigate the tight turns of perhaps the most picturesque of urban courses.

The Eiffel Tower and the Grand Palais loomed above the 1,500-meter swim. The triathletes cycled past the Musee D’Orsay and the Assemblee National. The Arc de Triomphe flashed within sight as they zipped onto the Champs-Elysées during the seven loops that comprised the 25-mile ride. And they hit many of the hot spots once more during the 6.2 mile run.

This was one of those moments organizers had dreamed of when they first designed the plan for these Games a decade ago – competition through the heart of Paris, a video postcard from one of the world’s most breathtaking cities.

And hopefully no one gets sickened from ingesting or dousing in that river water.

Taylor Knibb of the United States said she crashed in training over the weekend and had the cuts and scabs all over lower left leg to show for it. She debated for days whether to take antibiotics before going into the water. She opted not to.

She said she simply decided to not think about the pollution and just focus on the race. Struggling to swim upstream, she thought: “I just want to be done with this.”

Her teammate, Taylor Spivey said a real issue Tuesday was the current and swimming back upstream in the second part of the first leg. It was as strong a current as she has ever competed in, she said, since triathlons generally don’t take place in rivers.

“I felt like I was on a treadmill,” she said.

None of this came as a surprise to anyone who had anything to do with locating the race in the Seine. Olympic organizers, Paris officials, the leaders of World Triathlon, all of them wanted their competition at the center of the city and the Games themselves. The alternative likely would have been a lake far outside of town. No one fancied that.

Also, the Olympics often serve as a way to unleash spending on dream projects that might never get done ordinarily. Officials have been talking about making the Seine swimmable for more than 30 years. The sewage retention project became one of the legacies of the Games, something organizers could point to when asked whether going through all this trouble to host was worthwhile.

Next summer, three swimming areas in the Seine will open to the public. That is the plan anyway, along with three more races in the river before these Games finish.

To the racing: Flora Duffy of Bermuda, the defending Olympic champion, led a tight lead pack by a hair after the swim, the segment that is more about survival and trying to put some hurt on competitors than establishing a lead. The cycling leg brought some thinning, with Duffy sharing the work at the front with Maya Kingma of the Netherlands, Georgia Taylor-Brown of Britain and the hometown favorite, Cassandre Beaugrand of France.

Still the way triathlon has evolved, with more and more standout runners migrating to the sport and learning to swim and cycle adequately enough to get to the final leg, this race was always going to come down to the run. After 82 minutes, Julie Derron of Switzerland slipped on her running shoes and led the race into its final segment.

Beaugrand runs to victory at Pont Alexandre III. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Spivey, of the United States, was the first of the contenders to slip off the back of the pack. Duffy, who needed to push the pack harder on the bike but wasn’t able to, and Taylor-Brown fell off by the end of the first loop, as a lead group of four separated from everyone else.

As it so often does, that made for some cruel Olympic math. Four contenders, three medals, with two Frenchwomen, Beaugrand and Emma Lombardi, hanging with Derron and Beth Potter of Britain, as legs all over the course began to turn to goo.

Derron ran without fear, sticking to the front on a still, thick morning with no headwind to worry about, her stride smooth, her shoulders steady. Beaugrand edged onto her shoulder with two miles left, with Potter and Lombardi trailing stubbornly behind as the bell sounded, signifying the final loop.

Then Beaugrand made her move. Coming in, one of the big questions other than the health of the river was whether the racing in front her home fans would inspire Beaugrand or whether the pressure would prove too heavy a burden.

In the final mile, with thousands of flags waving and the noise building in the heart of the city, Beaugrand left no doubt, surging, three then seven then 10 and 20 meters ahead and grabbing the tape at the finish and pulling it to her face before collapsing onto the carpet. Derron took the silver. Potter nabbed the bronze.

Alex Yee, right, runs out of the Seine toward the next leg of the race during his gold medal run. (Marijan Murat/picture alliance via Getty Images)

In the men’s race, Alex Yee of Britain won a brilliant and dramatic gold medal. The 26-year-old upgraded the silver he won in Tokyo three years ago to gold after surging clear of New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde, coming back during the run (of course).

He becomes only the second British man to bring home individual triathlon gold after Alistair Brownlee did so in back-to-back Games in London and Rio de Janeiro. France’s Leo Bergere made it a multi-event medal double for the hosts.

Italy’s Alessio Crociani was first out after navigating the energy-sapping 1.5km section the best of the field before embarking on the six-lap, 40km bike, which was tight throughout. Wilde surged on the second lap of the 10km run, putting him in strong position for gold.

But in one of the most dramatic finishes of these Games so far, Yee roared back, passing Wilde on the entry to the Pont Alexandre III with only meters remaining before slowing to an almost walk to take the tape and Olympic glory.

“I have so much respect for Hayden and how much he made me dig there,” Yee said. “He was an amazing athlete and for me, almost two laps in I thought that silver was on the cards but I owed it to myself to give myself one last chance.”

While Tuesday was a triumph for organizers, the Seine has a long way to go.

Three more Olympic races are supposed to take place in the river – the mixed triathlon relay, and two long distance swimming races.

That is the stated program, at least. Another downpour could turn the triathlon into a duathlon and send the swim races out to the flat water canoe venue east of the city.

Less glamorous, perhaps. But less contaminated, too.

Ben Burrows contributed reporting.

(Top photo: Michael Steele/Getty Images)

Sports

Brooke Slusser sparks liberal social media meltdown by speaking about SJSU transgender volleyball scandal

Published

7 hours ago

March 11, 2026

Press Room

Brooke Slusser sparks liberal social media meltdown by speaking about SJSU transgender volleyball scandal

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Left-wing social media users launched a volley of insults at 23-year-old Brooke Slusser in recent days.

In response, dozens of high-profile women’s rights activists have come to the former San Jose State University volleyball player’s defense.

Slusser has addressed the critics herself in a statement to Fox News Digital.

“I would just say people that don’t know my life or my trauma don’t have room to say how good or bad my time at SJSU was. I hope they never have to understand going through something as awful as that,” she said.

She has also acknowledged the responses in a series of TikTok posts, as she has become more active on the platform this week to speak about her alleged experience at SJSU.

The online hate campaign started after Slusser shared details about living arrangements in the same apartment with transgender volleyball teammate Blaire Fleming while at San Jose State university, in an interview with Fox News Digital.

During the interview, she said, “You find out you’re just chilling in a bed with a man that you have no idea about… I [was] unknowingly sharing a bed at that time with a man,” and alleged SJSU volleyball coach Todd Kress encouraged her to live in the same apartment as the trans teammate when another group of players were also looking for a final tenant.

The fallout of the interview has prompted high-profile activists, lawmakers and even an actor to speak out, taking a side behind or against Slusser.

Many critics echoed the sentiment that “nothing bad” happened to Slusser, despite the fact that the anxiety from the situation ultimately led to her developing an eating disorder and not being able to complete her college degree.

Former “Glee” actor Kevin McHale even appeared to mock Slusser’s appearance.

A coalition of “save women’s sports” activists rushed to Slusser’s defense, with OutKick host Riley Gaines, XX-XY Athletics founder Jennifer Sey, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., women’s tennis legend Martina Navratilova and former ESPN star Sage Steele leading the charge to defend Slusser from the pro-trans detractors.

“Brooke has every right to feel violated. This is a violation of her personal space and boundaries. She was lied to. She would not have agreed to room with or play with a man,” Sey wrote in response to one critic.

Navratilova wrote in response to that same critic, “Brooke has every right to be mad. Try again with the punishment wish…”

Slusser finds herself at the center of a sports culture war flashpoint at a time when the conflict over her school’s handling of her transgender former teammate has reached a political impasse.

‘HORRIBLE’ MOMENTS EXPOSED FOR UNR VOLLEYBALL PLAYERS WHEN THEY WERE ROPED INTO THE SJSU TITLE IX SCANDAL

After the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) announced at the end of January that an investigation into the university for its handling of a trans athlete and other players concluded that the school violated Title IX, SJSU and the California State University system declined to resolve the violation.

Instead, SJSU President Cynthia Teniente-Matson announced Friday that the school and the California State University (CSU) system are suing the federal government to challenge the investigation.

“Because we believe OCR’s findings aren’t grounded in the facts or the law, SJSU and the CSU filed a lawsuit today against the federal government to challenge those findings and prevent the federal government from taking punitive action against the university, including the potential withholding of critical federal funding,” Teniente-Matson said Friday.

“This is not a step we take lightly. However, we have a responsibility to defend the integrity of our institution and the rule of law, while ensuring that every member of our community is treated fairly and in accordance with the law. Our position is simple: We have followed the law and cannot be punished for doing so.”

The school is also requesting that OCR rescind its findings and close its investigation.

Teniente-Matson affirmed the university’s commitment to defending the LGBTQ community in the announcement.

“Our support for the LGBTQ members of our community, who have experienced threats and harms over the last several years, remains unwavering. We know the attention the university has received around this issue and the investigative process that followed have been unsettling for many in our community,” the university president said.

Among ED’s findings, it determined that a female athlete discovered that the trans student allegedly conspired to have a member of an opposing team spike her in the face during a match. The department claims “SJSU did not investigate the conspiracy, but later subjected the female athlete to a Title IX complaint for ‘misgendering’ the male athlete in online videos and interviews.”

Slusser alleged in a November 2024 lawsuit against the Mountain West that she and former assistant coach Melissa Batie-Smoose were made aware of a meeting between Fleming and Colorado State women’s volleyball player Malaya Jones on Oct. 2, 2024, during which Fleming discussed a plan with Jones to have Slusser spiked in the face during a match the following night.

Slusser’s own lawsuit partially survived motions to dismiss last week as well.

Colorado District Judge Kato Crews dismissed all the plaintiffs’ charges against the Mountain West Conference but did not dismiss charges of Title IX violations against the CSU system.

Crews deferred his ruling on whether to dismiss those charges until after a decision in the ongoing B.P.J. v. West Virginia Supreme Court case, which is expected in June.

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Brooke Slusser #10 and Blaire Fleming #3 of the San Jose State Spartans call a play during the first set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym on October 19, 2024 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)

The CSU provided a statement to Fox News Digital in response to Crews’ ruling.

“CSU is pleased with the court’s ruling. SJSU has complied with Title IX and all applicable law, and it will continue to do so,” the statement said.

The outcomes of the lawsuits by and against SJSU on this issue could ultimately set a consequential precedent for the future of women’s sports in America.

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Jackson Thompson is a sports reporter for Fox News Digital covering critical political and cultural issues in sports, with an investigative lens. Jackson’s reporting has been cited in federal government actions related to the enforcement of Title IX, and in legacy media outlets including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Associated Press and ESPN.com.

Sports

Jessica Pegula’s commitment to hard work every day has turned her into a leader

Published

7 hours ago

March 11, 2026

Press Room

Jessica Pegula’s commitment to hard work every day has turned her into a leader

INDIAN WELLS — Jessica Pegula never needed tennis.

She simply kept showing up for it anyway, through the long and often anonymous slog of the professional tour.

Now 32 and the oldest player in the top 10, Pegula is having her best season start yet.

The fifth-ranked American reached the Australian Open semifinals for the first time in January, falling to eventual champion Elena Rybakina. She followed that by capturing the Dubai 1000-level tournament, just a rung below the majors.

She is 15-2 so far in 2026, tied with Victoria Mboko in match wins and second only to Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina (17-3), who she defeated 6-2, 6-4 in the Dubai final.

Pegula is guaranteed to emerge from this week’s BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells as the top-ranked American, overtaking No. 4 Coco Gauff, if she reaches the final.

Jessica Pegula kisses the Dubai trophy after defeating Elina Svitolina in the finals on Feb. 21.

(Altaf Qadri / Associated Press)

First, she will have to get past No. 12-seed Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, her fourth-round opponent on Wednesday. Bencic has not dropped a set in four previous meetings with Pegula.

“That will be a challenge for me,” said the characteristically even-keeled Pegula after defeating former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in the third round on Monday.

A late bloomer, Pegula has taken the long road.

She failed to qualify for Grand Slam main draws in 12 of 14 attempts from 2011 to 2018, and didn’t reach the third round at a major until the 2020 U.S. Open at age 26. All three of her Grand Slam semifinal runs — along with her 2024 U.S. Open final — have come after she turned 30.

Pegula said this week that her patience and persistence stem from “always being a little more mature for my age even when I was younger.”

“I think as I’ve gotten older, your perspective changes as well,” she added.

Pegula, whose parents are principal owners of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, acknowledges that her wealthy family background can cut two ways.

Financial security offers freedom to push through the sport’s early years on tour, when results are uncertain and the grind is relentless. That same cushion might make it easier to walk away if the climb becomes too frustrating.

Jessica Pegula plays a backhand against Donna Vekic during their match at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.

Pegula says her motivation to pursue tennis came well before her family’s fortune grew.

“I’ve been wanting to be a professional tennis player and No. 1 in the world since I was like 7,” she said in a small interview room after beating Ostapenko this week.

“It’s a privilege, but at the same time I don’t want to do myself a disservice of not taking the opportunity as well,” she explained. “I’ve always looked at it that way.”

In the last few seasons, that maturity on the court has dovetailed with a growing leadership role off it.

Pegula has served for years on the WTA Player Council and was recently tapped to chair the tour’s new Tour Architecture Council, a working group tasked with examining the increasingly demanding schedule and structural pressures players say have intensified in recent seasons. The panel is expected to explore changes that could reshape the calendar and player workload in coming years.

Pegula said she hadn’t put up her hand to be involved but agreed after several players approached her to take the lead role — though she declined to say who they were.

“I think maybe as you mature … you realize how important it is to give back to the sport,” she said last week.

Life has also provided grounding and a wider lens.

Pegula’s mother, Kim, suffered a serious cardiac arrest in 2022, a situation she discussed in detail in a moving 2023 essay for “The Players’ Tribune.”

The Buffalo native and Florida resident also married businessman Taylor Gahagen in 2021. Gahagen helps “holds down the fort” at home with the couple’s dogs and travels with her when possible. He is with her in Indian Wells.

“I have an amazing support system,” Pegula says.

Despite winning 10 WTA singles titles, achieving a career singles high of No. 3 in 2022 and the No. 1 doubles ranking, Pegula’s low-key demeanor means she flies a bit under the radar.

She’s not one for fashion statements, outlandish antics or attention-seeking initiatives, her joint podcast with close friend Madison Keys notwithstanding.

Instead, Pegula tends to go about her business quietly, relying on a calm temperament and a methodical style that wears opponents down over time.

She gets the job done — the Tim Duncan of the women’s tour.

“She’s just all about lacing them up and competing between the lines, and then trying to be as big an asset as she can to her peers off the court,” says Mark Knowles, the former doubles standout who has shared coaching duties with Mark Merklein since early 2024.

“I think one of her great attributes is she’s very level-headed,” Knowles adds. “She doesn’t get too high, doesn’t get too low.”

Her tennis identity echoes her steadiness.

Instead of bludgeoning opponents with power, the 5-foot-7 Pegula beats them with savvy, steadiness and tactical variety. A careful student of the game, she studies matchups and patrols the court with a composed efficiency that incrementally drains big hitters and outmaneuvers most rivals long before the final score confirms it.

Keys calls that consistency her “superpower.”

“She doesn’t lose matches that she shouldn’t lose,” the 2025 Australian Open champion said this week.

Because of injuries in the early part of her career, Knowles says Pegula might have less wear-and-tear than other players her age. And he and her team have prioritized rest and recovery, which included the decision to skip the tournament in Doha last month following her tiring Australian Open run.

On brand, there was no panic in Pegula after dropping the first set in her two matches so far at Indian Wells. As she’s done all season, she steadied herself to earn three-set wins.

Bucket-list goals remain, however. Chiefly, capturing a Grand Slam title.

Jessica Pegula returns a shot to Jelena Ostapenko during the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells on Monday.

Pegula jokes that she briefly interrupted a run of American female success when she fell in the 2024 U.S. Open final to No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka. But seeing close friend and teenage phenom Keys capture her major in Melbourne last year — after many wondered if her window had passed — hit closer to home.

“I think Madison winning Australia just motivated me even more,” Pegula says.

Although Pegula believes she is among the best hardcourt players in women’s tennis, that confidence hasn’t translated into success in the California desert. She has reached the quarterfinals just once in 10 previous appearances in Indian Wells.

“Why not try and add that one to the resume?” says Knowles, noting that she had never won the title in Dubai until last month. “She’s playing still at a very high level.”

Pegula says the key to keeping things fresh is maintaining her love of the game by continuing to improve and experiment with new ideas, a process that keeps her engaged mentally and eager to compete.

“I’m not afraid to kind of take that risk of changing and working on different things,” she says, “which just keeps my mind working and problem solving.”

For a player who never needed tennis, she remains determined to see how much more it can give her.

Sports

Miami Heat star Bam Adebayo makes NBA history with 83-point game

Published

19 hours ago

March 11, 2026

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Miami Heat star Bam Adebayo makes NBA history with 83-point game

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Miami Heat star Bam Adebayo made NBA history on Tuesday night.

Adebayo scored 83 points, all while setting league marks for free throws made and attempted in a game for the Miami Heat in a 150-129 win over the Washington Wizards. It is the second-highest scoring game for a player ever, only to Wilt Chamberlain’s famed 100-point game.

“An absolutely surreal night,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra told reporters after the game.

Adebayo started with a 31-point first quarter. He was up to 43 at halftime, 62 by the end of the third quarter. And then came the fourth, when the milestones kept falling despite facing double-, triple- and what once appeared to be a quadruple-team from a Wizards defense that kept sending him to the foul line.

He finished 20 of 43 from the field, 36 of 43 from the foul line, 7 for 22 from 3-point range.

After the game, he was seen in tears while he hugged his mother, Marilyn Blount, before leaving the floor after the game.

“Welp won’t have the highest career high in the house anymore,” Adebayo’s girlfriend, four-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson, wrote on social media, “but at least it gives me something to go after.”

MAGIC’S ANTHONY BLACK MAKES INCREDIBLE DUNK OVER FOUR DEFENDERS IN HISTORIC NBA GAME

Bam Adebayo #13 of the Miami Heat celebrates during the fourth quarter of the game against the Washington Wizards at Kaseya Center on March 10, 2026, in Miami, Florida. (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)

The NBA’s previous best this season was 56, by Nikola Jokic for Denver against Minnesota on Christmas night. The last player to have 62 points through three quarters: one of Adebayo’s basketball heroes, Kobe Bryant, who had exactly that many through three quarters for the Los Angeles Lakers against Dallas on Dec. 20, 2005.

He wound up passing Bryant for single-game scoring as well. Bryant’s career-best was 81 — a game that was the second-best on the NBA scoring list for two decades.

Adebayo scored 31 points in the opening quarter against the Wizards, breaking the Heat record for points in any quarter — and tying the team record for points in a first half before the second quarter even started.

He finished the first half with 43 points, a team record for any half and two points better than his previous career high — for a full game, that is — of 41, set Jan. 23, 2021, against Brooklyn.

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Adebayo’s season high entering Tuesday was 32. He matched that with a free throw with 5:53 left in the second quarter, breaking the Heat first-half scoring record.

Adebayo’s 43-point first half was the NBA’s second-best in at least the last 30 seasons — going back to the start of the digital play-by-play era that began in the 1996-97 season.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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