Sports
Paralympics President Rebukes Russia at Opening Ceremony
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BEIJING — The president of the Worldwide Paralympic Committee broke protocol on Friday when he denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in his speech on the opening ceremony of the Beijing Video games.
With President Xi Jinping of China in attendance, the committee president, Andrew Parsons, mentioned he was “horrified” by the invasion. “Tonight, I wish to start with a message of peace,” Parsons mentioned.
It was an unusually frank rebuke by the chief of a world sports activities group and one other signal of the best way the warfare in Ukraine has reverberated on the occasion.
Though the Paralympics are run by a separate nonprofit from the Worldwide Olympic Committee, the group holds the occasion in parallel with the Olympics and with the identical spirit of conduct, whereas utilizing most of the similar services.
The Worldwide Olympic Committee in recent times has reaffirmed its ban on protests and political messages on the Olympics, guidelines which might be typically geared toward athletes. However on this case it was the pinnacle of the Paralympics who injected a political tone, because the warfare continued to dominate the organizers’ agenda within the days main as much as its quadrennial winter showcase.
The delegation from Ukraine, about 20 athletes, entered Beijing’s Nationwide Stadium to modest applause, some with their fists raised as they walked across the flooring of the stadium in the course of the colourful and elaborate ceremony.
Shortly after Parsons spoke, social media customers in China famous {that a} portion of his speech was not translated on Chinese language tv for about one minute, starting when he mentioned, “On the I.P.C., we aspire to a greater and extra inclusive world, free from discrimination, free from hate, free from ignorance and free from battle.”
Throughout that point, the televised signal language interpretation of the speech additionally briefly stopped.
Parsons praised the Chinese language for his or her hospitality, calling the venues “magnificent,” and noting that “tons of of 1000’s of services had been made barrier free” for individuals with disabilities. However he additionally incurred the wrath of social media customers, who famous that in his opening line, Parsons, who’s from Brazil, referred to the “Republic of China,” which is the official title of Taiwan. He might have meant to say “the Individuals’s Republic of China,” and did so precisely later within the speech.
For days, because the invasion compelled the Paralympics committee to deliberate how it will deal with athletes from Russia and Belarus, Parsons burdened that it was incumbent upon the I.P.C. to keep away from politics and to apply neutrality based on its guidelines. However he ultimately conceded that taking motion was unavoidable, noting that the warfare had interfered with the Video games.
On Thursday, Parsons introduced that the committee had reversed an earlier determination and was barring Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing, an uncommon step taken in response to Russia’s assault on Ukraine, which was staged with the help of Belarus.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict: Key Issues to Know
The athletes and delegations from many different international locations had threatened to boycott, Parsons mentioned, and he added that tensions had been rising within the Olympic Village, the place the athletes keep. He mentioned the viability of the Video games could be unsure if the Russians and Belarusians had been allowed to compete.
Russia and Belarus declined to enchantment the choice and their athletes had been making preparations to go away Beijing.
Referring in his speech Friday to the Olympic Truce adopted by the United Nations Basic Meeting, Parsons mentioned, “It have to be revered and noticed, not violated.”
The Paralympics will happen by March 13 and can embody greater than 650 athletes, a document, representing 49 federations competing in 78 occasions. Three federations are making their debut: Israel, Azerbaijan and Puerto Rico.
Germany has gained probably the most medals on the Paralympics, with 365, when medals gained by West Germany are included. That’s adopted by Austria (332), Norway (327) and america (315).
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Sports
Aaron Rodgers makes appearance at UFC 303 amid Jets minicamp absence
![Aaron Rodgers makes appearance at UFC 303 amid Jets minicamp absence](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/06/Aaron-Rodgers3.jpg)
Aaron Rodgers made his first public appearance since the drama over his whereabouts while the New York Jets began mandatory minicamp earlier this month.
Rodgers was seen cageside at UFC 303 in Las Vegas on Saturday night. He was seen with his former Green Bay Packers teammate, tight end Marcedes Lewis. The veteran NFL player now plays for the Chicago Bears.
New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers during UFC 303 at T-Mobile Arena on June 29, 2024, in Las Vegas. (Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
![Aaron Rodgers with Mercedes Lewis](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/06/1200/675/1d75dc5d-Aaron-Rodgers2.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers and Chicago Bears tight end Marcedes Lewis attend UFC 303 on June 29, 2024, in Las Vegas. (Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
The star quarterback has been absent from minicamp. Jets head coach Robert Saleh described it as an “unexcused absence,” which sparked a whirlwind of controversy from sports pundits in the New York City area.
Saleh tried to put all the hoopla to rest.
“Aaron and I are on the exact same page,” Saleh said earlier this month, via the New York Post. “There’s no issue between Aaron (and me]) or his teammates, for that matter. We addressed it (Tuesday). It’s more of an issue for everyone outside the building than it is inside. That’s about it.”
49ERS’ KYLE SHANAHAN HOPES TO REDUCE CHRISTIAN MCCAFFREY’S WORKLOAD NEXT SEASON
Buffalo Bills wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling, who also played with Rodgers in Green Bay, said on “The Herd” on Thursday that he had just worked out with the quarterback in Los Angeles.
“Me and Aaron have been great friends since I’ve been in Green Bay. I hit him up, told him I was coming out to L.A., and said, ‘Let’s run some routes,’” Valdes-Scantling said. “So, we got it in, went out to some high school, and ran some routes together. We’re good. It was good.”
![Aaron Rodgers at OTAs](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/06/1200/675/3876d221-Aaron-Rodgers.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Aaron Rodgers of the New York Jets during OTA Offseason Workouts at Atlantic Health Jets Training Center on June 4, 2024, in Florham Park, New Jersey. (Luke Hales/Getty Images)
Rodgers was at organized team activities earlier in the offseason.
Rodgers was the Jets’ biggest acquisition last year, but only played in four snaps before he tore his Achilles.
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Sports
U.S. gymnastics trials: Frederick Richard flips his way to Paris in all-around triumph
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The man the internet knows as “Frederick Flips” will be flipping all the way to Paris.
Frederick Richard won the all-around at the U.S. Olympic trials on Saturday at Target Center with a two-day all-around score of 170.500 to earn his first Olympic berth. The 20-year-old rising junior at Michigan will lead a U.S. men’s team that’s ready to end a streak of three consecutive fifth-place Olympic finishes.
“Very realistic expectation is podium medals,” Richard said. “I don’t know which — bronze, silver or gold — which one it will be, but I know there will be one and we’ll do whatever it takes to get there.”
Richard, the reigning world all-around bronze medalist who also runs popular Instagram and TikTok pages with behind-the-scenes gymnastics content, already knows what it’s like to end a streak. He helped the United States to a bronze medal at the 2023 world championships, the team’s first world medal since 2014. Richard’s world champion teammates Paul Juda and Asher Hong will join him on the Olympic team in Paris along with second-place all-around finisher Brody Malone and pommel horse specialist Stephen Nedoroscik.
The selection process, which mostly relies on a complex algorithm that computes scores from two-day competitions at U.S. championships and Olympic trials, was designed to maximize the team’s score in Olympic competition, where four athletes compete with three scores counting in the qualification round and three compete and all count during the team final. The math-heavy approach opened the door for Nedoroscik, who competed in just a single event.
The pommel horse specialist totaled 29.300 across the two days, which was second during the trials following Patrick Hoopes’ 29.450. But Nedoroscik had crunched the numbers from U.S. championships, where he led Hoopes by 0.775, and calculated that if he made a mistake, Hoopes would need a 15.100 to tie his three-score average. Hoopes finished with a 15.000 on Saturday.
“I knew going up for that dismount, I was just like please get this dismount, just please stick this landing,” Nedoroscik said. “I almost didn’t. And then in my head I was like, I think I made it.”
Nedorocik’s consistency might have been key to earning his coveted Olympic position over Khoi Young, the reigning world silver medalist on pommel horse. Young was named a traveling alternate, along with Shane Wiskus, who finished third in the all-around backed by a sold-out hometown crowd that cheered on the Spring Park, Minn., native.
Young needed to battle back from a 12th-place all-around finish after the first day. But the bigger problem was that the 21-year-old Stanford star scored just a lowly 11.650 on his signature event on Thursday. He redeemed himself Saturday with a 14.250 on the event, but still trailed behind Nedoroscik.
Stephen Nedoroscik knew 👏 the 👏assignment 👏
He calculated what he needed to make the Olympic team down to the tenth, based on three-score averages from championships and trials. How a specialist books a place in Paris: https://t.co/q2T0kmwZam pic.twitter.com/BZh0hbm4Rh
— Thuc Nhi Nguyen (@thucnhi21) June 29, 2024
Malone, who missed the competition in 2023 while recovering from a career-threatening knee injury, shook off a fall on high bar in the opening event Saturday. He finished just two-tenths behind Richard, highlighted by a second stuck vault in as many days of competition that solidified his second Olympic berth.
Hong’s only major misstep came on pommel horse, where one of his legs appeared to clip the horse during a flare element, sending him crashing to the mat. He slipped from second place in the all-around standings to fifth entering the final event. But the Stanford star left the selection committee with a final exclamation point to consider going into the meeting room by sticking his dismount on rings in the last rotation. His 14.700 was the highest score on the event across both days of competition.
The 20-year-old’s high-flying vault and huge difficulty on rings and floor symbolize a recent trend in U.S. men’s gymnastics to push for bigger skills to compete with world powers Japan and China. The strategy is working faster than expected, men’s high performance director Brett McClure said. He believed initially that the bold strategy wouldn’t truly take off until the 2028 Olympics. But a world bronze medal last year has the Americans on track for an early arrival in Paris.
“It’s doable,” Ruda said of ending the Olympic medal streak. “This team is the best team possible. … It’s been done, we broke the drought once and we’ve got so many returners that are going to have the exact same mindset.”
Sports
Caitlin Clark lauds childhood idol Diana Taurasi ahead of first WNBA matchup: 'One of the greatest players'
![Caitlin Clark lauds childhood idol Diana Taurasi ahead of first WNBA matchup: 'One of the greatest players'](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/06/Caitlin-Clark-smiles.jpg)
Diana Taurasi is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in WNBA history. Meanwhile, rookie Caitlin Clark has helped bring an unprecedented amount of attention to women’s basketball.
Clark and the Indiana Fever will faceoff with Taurasi and the Phoenix Mercury on Sunday. The game will mark Clark’s first opportunity to compete against Taurasi in the WNBA.
Clark was asked about her feelings leading up to the highly anticipated matchup with a player she grew up idolizing.
Caitlin Clark #22 of the Indiana Fever warms up before the game /ah at Wintrust Arena on June 23, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois. (Quinn Harris/Getty Images)
“It’s incredible,” Clark told reporters on Saturday about Taurasi’s two-decade run in the league. “I don’t think people realize how hard that is to do.”
WNBA COMMISSIONER SCOFFS AT NOTION CAITLIN CLARK IS BEING TARGETED BY WNBA PLAYERS
Clark also said taking the court for a game against a player of Taurasi’s caliber was “a dream come true. You get to live out your dream while playing against the best.”
![Diana Taurasi vs Aces](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/05/1200/675/fa0f552a-Diana-Taurasi.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Diana Taurasi #3 of the Phoenix Mercury looks on during the game against the Las Vegas Aces on May 14, 2024 at Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. (David Becker/NBAE via Getty Images)
Clark went on to describe Taurasi as one of the WNBA’s all-time greats. “Obviously, she’s one of the greatest players our game has ever seen, the greatest scorer our game has ever seen,” Clark said.
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Despite Clark’s latest praise, a budding rivalry between the two high-profile players could be on the horizon.
When Taurasi was asked to share her thoughts on facing Clark for the first time, she delivered a brief response. “Yeah, it’ll be fun,” she said.
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In April, Taurasi was asked about what incoming WNBA rookies could expect. She proceeded to suggest that a rude awakening was in store.
“Look, SVP, reality is coming,” Taurasi told ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt during an appearance on SportsCenter on April 6. “There’s levels to this thing. And that’s just life. We all went through it. You see it on the NBA side, and you’re going to see it on this side. You look superhuman playing against 18-year-olds, but you’re going to (be playing against) some grown women that have been playing professional basketball for a long time.”
![Caitlin Clark dribbles](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/06/1200/675/caitlin-clark-2.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Caitlin Clark #22 of the Indiana Fever looks on during the game against the Seattle Storm on June 27, 2024 at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington. (Mollie Handkins/NBAE via Getty Images)
While the comments were about the rookie class as a whole, some believed the remarks were a direct jab at Clark, who dominated at the college basketball level.
Nevertheless, Taurasi and Clark also share some similarities. Taurasi is the WNBA’s career scoring leader, while no one scored more points at the NCAA Division I level than Clark. Both point guards are also strong 3-point shooters.
Taurasi is one of three players on the Mercury’s roster who will represent the US in Paris next month for the Olympics, joining Brittney Griner and guard Kahleah Copper. Team USA will be competing for a record eight consecutive Olympic gold medal.
The 2024 Olympic roster notably does not include any players who recently rose from the collegiate ranks. Clark’s exclusion from the roster sparked considerable debate. Her teammate and the league’s reigning rookie of the year, Aliyah Boston was also left off the roster.
The Fever and Mercury tipoff at 3:00 p.m. EST on June 30.
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