By TOM NOUVIAN

SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — Just four days before the start of the Paralympic Games, the athletes village was buzzing with activity on Saturday as athletes from 168 delegations were settling into their temporary home, preparing for their upcoming competitions.

The village, nestled in the northern suburbs of Paris, in the Seine-Saint-Denis department, closed its doors on Aug. 13 after the conclusion of the Olympic Games, giving organizers a week to make necessary adjustments for the upcoming Paralympics.

Laurent Michaud, head of the Paralympic Village, discussed the rapid yet meticulous transformation. The village had been built with inclusivity in mind from the start, but this final week was crucial for fine-tuning details to ensure that every aspect was perfectly suited to the para-athletes’ needs.

“All roadways, sidewalks and access points are fully accessible for people with reduced mobility. It is a 100% accessible village,” he explained.

The village reopened on Aug. 21, transformed to meet the specific needs of the 4,400 para-athletes.

Among the most significant adjustments were additional ramps and enhanced lighting throughout the village, making it easier for athletes to navigate, regardless of mobility or visual impairments. Sandy floors and grates that could have posed challenges to wheelchair users were covered with mats.

Motorized devices were also made available for wheelchair users, offering a powered boost that made getting around the village faster and more enjoyable. These quickly became a favorite among the athletes, adding an element of fun to their mobility.

One scene that captured this joy involved three athletes from Iran. They were spotted zipping through the main alley leading to the dining hall, with one athlete using the motorized device while the others clung to their companion’s shoulders, laughing as they enjoyed the ride.

Ludivine Munos, a former French para-athlete and head of integration for Paris 2024, praised the village’s setup, calling it a “paradise” for the para-athletes.

“The goal was to provide the best possible experience for the athletes during their stay, ensuring that they could focus entirely on their performance without worrying about accessibility issues,” Munos said.

Smaller adjustments were also made to enhance daily life. In the dining hall, tables were spaced out for wheelchair accessibility and some chairs were removed to create a more open layout.

Philipp Wurz, head of food and beverage, emphasized these subtle yet important changes. Products in fridges were displayed on all shelves to ensure that wheelchair users or athletes of short stature could easily access them. Volunteers were also on hand to provide assistance to athletes who required help carrying their trays. For those who wished to carry them on their laps, a thin layer of rubber was added to prevent food from slipping.

Within the living quarters, electrical outlets were installed at a height of 45 cm (17 inches) from the ground, eliminating the need for wheelchair users to strain themselves by reaching down. In the bathrooms, grab bars were strategically placed—one attached securely to the wall and another with suction cups, providing flexibility for different needs.

“The smallest details can make major improvements for para-athletes,” Wurz noted.

Beyond these practical adjustments, para-athletes could also enjoy a range of services, including a bakery, massage salon, grocery store, 24-hour gym, hair and nail salon and a free clinic all available within the village.

The Paralympic Games will begin on Aug. 28, and conclude on Sept. 8.

PARIS (AP) — Being the follow-up act to the Paris Olympics is no easy task, but the Paralympic Games that begin Wednesday promise to offer up their own fair share of memorable sporting moments.

This is an event that highlights the human ability to overcome hardships and disabilities, so the word “insurmountable” isn’t one you’re likely to hear in Paris over the next two weeks as around 4,400 athletes with a wide range of life-impacting impairments compete for medals in 549 events across 22 sports.

“If it seems impossible, then it can be done!” Italian fencer Bebe Vio says on her website.

She will be vying for her third consecutive gold medal in wheelchair fencing. After contracting meningitis as a child, doctors amputated both her forearms and both her legs at the knees to save her life.

Here’s a look at some of the other events that athletes will be competing in at the Paralympics and how competitors are categorized based on their disability or impairment.

Which sports are in the Paralympics?

Of the 22 Paralympic sports, only two do not have an Olympic equivalent — goalball and boccia.

Goalball is played on an indoor court the size of a volleyball court with goals set up at each end. Teams of visually impaired or blind players (wearing eyeshades to ensure fairness) take turns rolling a ball containing bells toward the opposing goal while the defending team’s players act as goalkeepers.

In boccia, players throw or roll leather balls as close as they can to a small ball called a jack.

Other wheelchair sports include basketball, fencing, rugby and tennis.

The other sports are sitting volleyball, blind soccer, and para archery, athletics, badminton, canoe, cycling, equestrian, judo, powerlifting, rowing, shooting, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo and triathlon.

Blind soccer involving teams of five playing with a ball containing rattles will be played beside the Eiffel Tower.

Who can qualify to compete at the Paralympics?

To compete at the Paralympics, athletes must have “an underlying health condition that leads to a permanent eligible impairment,” the International Paralympic Committee says.

Impairments can be caused by the likes of cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, amputations, physical injuries or an intellectual impairment, blindness or reduced sight.

How are athletes classified?

To ensure fair competition between Paralympians, athletes are grouped by how limited they are by their impairment — in other words, how much of an effect it has on their ability to compete in their chosen sport.

The classifications aim to ensure that every competitor has a fair chance to win and that “sporting excellence determines which athlete or team is ultimately victorious,” the International Paralympic Committee says.

Different types of impairments

The Paralympics divide impairments into the three groups: physical, visual and intellectual. Physical impairments are further divided into eight categories, including impaired muscle power, impaired range of movement, limb deficiency and short stature.

Every individual Paralympic sport determines which impairment types they have competitions for.

Some, like para athletics and para swimming, have competitions for athletes with every type of impairment, while others have just one category. Goalball, for instance, is only for teams of players who are blind or visually impaired.

Assessment and sports classes

All Paralympians undergo an assessment by a panel of experts to determine which sports class they should compete in based on the degree and nature of their impairment. Each sport has its own criteria for how to assess the eligibility of competitors. Some, like para powerlifting, only have one sports class. Para athletics, which is open to athletes with any impairment, has more than 50 sports classes.

The classification system focuses on grouping together athletes with similar functional abilities rather than similar disabilities, so athletes with different impairments can compete against each other if they are allocated to the same sports class.

By TOM NOUVIAN

PARIS (AP) — Creative director Thomas Jolly has some lofty goals for Wednesday’s opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games, when the heart of Paris will once again become the stage for a stunning artistic display.

The outdoor ceremony at the Champs-Elysees and Place de La Concorde — a site where several members of the royal family were beheaded during the French Revolution — is aiming to challenge and reshape society’s perceptions of disabilities.

“When we cut off the heads of the king and queen here, it changed society once. Maybe this ceremony will be the second time we change society,” said Jolly, who was also in charge of the opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics last month.

On Monday, under the sweltering Parisian sun, a hundred dancers, including 20 performers with disabilities, gathered at La Concorde for a final rehearsal under the secrecy of huge banners closing the square. The site hosted several competitions during the Olympics and has now been transformed into a grand open arena centered around the ancient Luxor Obelisk, the French capital’s oldest monument.

Jolly said dance will be central to the show, celebrating all types of bodies through the universal language of movement. Swedish director Alexander Ekman has crafted a rhythmic spectacle where dancers — using crutches, wheelchairs, or adapted tricycles — will interact with pulsating beats.

The music of the event is once again in the hands of Victor Le Masne, who also composed the entire score for the Paris Olympics.

On the eve of the Paralympic rehearsals, Le Masne welcomed a group of journalists into a secluded Parisian studio, offering a sneak peek of the track titled “Sportography,” a blend of organic sports sounds and drum rhythms that captures the essence of athleticism, incorporating real-life elements like the screeching of shoes and the hard breathing of athletes.

Reflecting on his recent collaborations with Céline Dion and Lady Gaga for the Olympic Opening Ceremony, Le Masne shared a few insights into the intense creative process.

He vividly described attending a private rehearsal at the top of the Eiffel Tower, where Dion performed “Hymn to Love” at 3 a.m., just hours before the ceremony. Despite obstacles like rain and Dion’s ongoing health challenges, Le Masne knew that her performance would be nothing short of grandiose.

And he was equally impressed by Lady Gaga.

“I had to work on the ‘Mon Truc en Plumes’ arrangement and then flew to Los Angeles to pitch the idea to her management,” he said. “They loved it, and Gaga immediately immersed herself in learning about French cabaret culture, even perfecting the pronunciation of the old-timey French song. Her professionalism was awe-inspiring.”

For the Paralympics, Le Masne’s approach has evolved.

“This time, I wanted to put the athletes first,” he said, emphasizing the importance of incorporating the physical and emotional sounds of sport.

The ceremony will also see the athletes parade down a section of the Champs-Elysees, Paris’s most iconic avenue, and special efforts have been made to ensure accessibility. The traditional cobblestones have been temporarily covered with a thin layer of asphalt to accommodate wheelchair users. That asphalt layer will be removed after the end of the Paralympic Games, on Sept. 8, said Thierry Reboul, who oversees all Olympic and Paralympic ceremonies.

Unlike the Olympic Opening Ceremony on the Seine, which was marked by stringent security and pouring rain, this event will allow the public to freely watch from along the Champs-Elysees and near the Louvre Museum.

The weather promises to cooperate this time, too, with bright sunshine and clear skies in the forecast.

“But we’re still pretty cautious about that last part,” Reboul joked about the weather conditions.

By AMANDA VOGT

PARIS (AP) — More than 4,000 athletes from around the world will compete in 22 sports during the Aug. 28-Sept. 8 Paralympics in Paris.

Here are some of them:

America’s veterans

Tatyana McFadden and Jessica Long are legends on the Paralympic stage.

McFadden, a wheelchair racer, and Long, a swimmer, will each make their sixth summer games appearance in France.

In 2014, McFadden even made a Winter Paralympics appearance in Sochi, and she dominated the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro with six medals, including four gold. She was honored that year by the U.S. Olympic Committee and won the Whang Youn Dai Achievement Award at the Rio Paralympics for outstanding performance and sportsmanship. She also was featured in “Rising Phoenix,” a Netflix film about the Paralympic movement.

Competing in sprinting and various distance track events, McFadden also will help defend her gold medal in the 4 x100-meter universal relay. The event debuted in Tokyo, where she was a part of a world-record setting team.

Long, meanwhile, has earned a staggering 29 medals, including eight gold, in swimming events since she was 12 and the youngest American on the 2004 U.S. team in Athens. And she, too, has made a pop culture impact, as the subject of a 2021 Super Bowl commercial from Toyota.

After the Paralympic swimming trials in Minneapolis, Long was one of 21 female swimmers selected to the 2024 U.S. team. Leading up to Paris, she spent time training in the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

Nick Mayhugh — United States

Soccer is his love, but sprinting made him a Paralympic gold medalist.

At 14 years old, Nick Mayhugh was diagnosed with cerebral palsy — a “dead spot” on the right side of his brain affects the mobility of the left side of his body.

Yet he never stopped competing. Mayhugh played Division I soccer at Radford University before representing the U.S. on the seven-a-side National Soccer Team in 2017. In 2019 he helped earn bronze at the Lima Parapan American Games with eight goals in six games.

However, since soccer is played between blind athletes at the Paralympics, Mayhugh started to train as a sprinter. He left Tokyo with three gold medals, one silver and the world records for his classification in the 100 meters and 200 meters.

Now he’ll be back sprinting in the 100-meter and 400-meter races and Mayhugh also will try medaling in a new event for the first time — the long jump. The first time Mayhugh ever competed in the long jump in a major competition was at the Paralympic Trials in July. He won his classification with a jump of 6.19 meters (20 feet, 3.7 inches).

Valentina Petrillo — Italy

Italy’s Valentina Petrillo will become the first transgender athlete to compete in the Paralympics.

In Paris, the 50-year-old runner will compete in the 200 meters and 400 meters in the women’s T-12 classification for athletes with visual impairments. At 14, Petrillo was diagnosed with a degenerative eye condition.

Between 2015 and 2018, Petrillo won 11 national titles in the men’s category before transitioning in 2019. Last year, Petrillo won two bronze medals at the World Para Athletics Championships.

She sees competing at the Paralympics as a symbol of inclusion in world sport.

Maximiliano Espinillo — Argentina

With a bronze in Rio and a silver in Tokyo, Maximiliano Espinillo looks to complete the set and earn a gold in Paris.

The Argentina soccer player has been blind since age 4 because of a virus resulting in retinal detachment.

Espinillo, Argentina’s star striker, first competed in the 2015 Toronto Parapan American Games before making his Paralympic debut one year later in Rio.

In last summer’s ISBA Men’s Blind Football World Championship, Argentina defeated China after a penalty shootout in the championship match and Espinillo was awarded as the tournament’s MVP.

The rivalry between Argentina and Brazil runs deep. Since blind football was introduced to the Paralympics in 2004, Brazil has won every gold medal and never lost a Paralympic match.

The two played in a group stage match at the Parapan American Games in Santiago last fall where Espinillo’s lone goal was enough to defeat the sport’s powerhouse. Ultimately, Brazil did win the title, and Argentina finished in third. But it was still a step in the right direction for the Argentines and potentially a sign of what’s to come in Paris.

Alexis Hanquinquant — France

The Normandy native will defend his triathlon gold medal on home soil. Hanquinquant is the heavy favorite to finish with another gold medal. He ranks No. 1 in the World Triathlon Para Rankings for the PTS4 classification and has already won three triathlons this year.

The six-time European and world champion had his right leg amputated just below the knee in 2013 after a work accident about three years earlier where agricultural equipment crushed it.

Before the accident, Hanquinquant was a multisport athlete and he knew that wouldn’t change. He wanted to challenge himself by training for the triathlon. In 2016, he won his first event, but it was after the qualification window for the Rio games passed, so his Paralympic debut had to wait.

Competing in Tokyo was a milestone moment but now, three years later, Hanquinquant will be one of France’s flag bearers during the opening ceremony on Wednesday.

Sarah Storey — Britain

Since 1992, Sarah Storey has found glory at the Paralympics. The 2024 Games will be her ninth time representing Britain but only her fifth as a cyclist.

Storey first appeared on the Paralympic stage as a swimmer and won 16 medals over four Paralympic games, but an ear infection in 2005 forced her out of the water and onto a bike.

As a cyclist, she competes in time trials and road race events. Storey currently has 12 cycling gold medals to her name. Add in the five from swimming and those 17 golds and 28 medals overall and that makes her Britain’s most decorated Paralympian.

In Tokyo, she struck gold in the pursuit, road race and road time trial events. She will defend all three titles in Paris.

Oksana Masters — United States

Oksana Masters has 17 medals across three Paralympic sports: Nordic skiing, rowing and cycling.

Adopted from an orphanage in Ukraine when she was 7, Masters was born with congenital disabilities because of radiation poisoning from the Chernobyl nuclear accident. When she was 14, her legs were amputated above her knees.

Sports became a way to showcase her power and strength. The 2012 London Paralympics were Masters’ first time representing the United States — Paris will mark her seventh Paralympics. She’s also competed in every winter games since 2014 as a Nordic skier.

In London, Masters took home a bronze medal as a rower, but hasn’t competed in rowing since. While rehabbing a back injury she turned to cycling and hasn’t looked back.

In her first games as a cyclist in Rio, Masters didn’t reach the podium. But in Tokyo, she brought home two gold medals in the time trial and road race events that she will defend in Paris.

Lin Suiling — China

Lin Suiling has been on China’s wheelchair basketball team since 2016, and in 2017 she was named the captain. Rio was Lin’s first Paralympic games and China failed to reach the podium.

In Tokyo, however, China earned silver after falling to the Netherlands 50-31 in the gold medal game. However, it was China’s first ever medal in the sport. Lin is one of the few returners from that team striving for gold in Paris.

Leading up to the Paralympics, China has been dominating tournaments. In January’s Asia-Oceania Wheelchair Basketball Championship, it won all six games for the title. The championship victory directly qualified the team for Paris and Lin was named to the All-Star team as the tournament’s most valuable player.

The Netherlands still poses a strong threat to China. In the 2022 world championships, the Dutch beat out Lin and her team once again, although it was the best China has ever performed in that tournament.

Lin and her teammates are looking to take the final step to gold, and Paris might be the stage where it happens.

Amanda Vogt is a student in the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State.

By CIARÁN FAHEY and TOM NOUVIAN

PARIS (AP) — Let the games begin again.

The Paralympic Games are set to open Wednesday as some 4,400 athletes with disabilities, permanent injuries or impairments prepare to compete for 549 medals across 22 sports over 11 days in Paris.

The French capital, which just hosted the Olympics, again provides the backdrop for what promises to be another spectacle, with many of the same venues hosting Paralympic competitions.

Historic square Place de la Concorde, which hosted skateboarding, breaking and 3×3 basketball during the Olympics, will host the opening ceremony.

Equestrian returns to Château de Versailles, which will host para equestrian events. The Grand Palais transitions from fencing to wheelchair fencing. Archery venue Invalides will host para archery.

The venue beside the Eiffel Tower, which hosted beach volleyball during the Olympics, will host blind soccer, an adaption of the game for visually impaired players in teams of five with a ball containing rattles.

“We’ve got some monstrous iconic sites, and we’re going to get an eyeful,” France’s para triathlon champion, Alexis Hanquinquant, said. “Paris is the most beautiful city in the world. I think we’re going to have some pretty exceptional Paralympic Games.”

Of the 22 Paralympic sports, only two do not have an Olympic equivalent — goalball and boccia. In goalball, teams of visually impaired or blind players take turns rolling a ball containing bells toward the opposing goal while the defending team’s players act as goalkeepers. In boccia, players throw or roll leather balls as close as they can to a small ball called a jack.

Compared to the previous edition of the Paralympics in Tokyo, 10 medal events have been added to give female athletes and those with high-support needs more opportunities.

The Paralympic flame was lit Saturday in Stoke Mandeville, a village northwest of London widely considered the birthplace of the Paralympic Games, and was to make its way via a torch relay under the English Channel to cities all over France before lighting the cauldron during the opening ceremony on Wednesday.

Anticipation has been building with Parisians returning from their summer vacations – the city almost felt empty at the beginning of the month with many away at the coast. For locals who missed the Olympic action, the Paralympics are a second chance to catch some of the excitement.

The athletes — Paralympians — will be the focus of attention starting Thursday in the first day of competition, when there will be medals to be won in para taekwondo, para table tennis, para swimming and para cycling on the track.

As was the case for the Olympics, there will medals up for grabs on each of the 11 days of competition.

Many of the competing athletes have titles to defend.

Para shooter Avani Lekhara, the first Indian woman to win a pair of medals at a single edition of the Paralympics, returns to defend her 10-meter air rifle gold in the SH1 category from Tokyo.

The SH1 category is for rifle shooters with lower limb impairments like amputations or paraplegia who can hold their gun without difficulty and shoot from a standing or sitting position.

American multi-sport specialist Oksana Masters won a hand-cycle road race and time trial at the Tokyo Paralympics, and she will be looking to add to her career total of seven gold and 17 medals overall in both summer and winter events.

Para powerlifter Sherif Osman of Egypt is going for his fourth gold medal, and Italian fencer Bebe Vio is vying for her third consecutive gold in wheelchair fencing. After contracting meningitis as a child, doctors amputated both her legs and her forearms to save her life.

Brazil is unbeaten in blind soccer going back to the first tournament in Athens in 2004, but France harbors hopes of an upset. The hosts kick off against China and Brazil plays Turkey on Sept. 1, a day before the teams meet for a potentially decisive match in Group A.

And there are other storylines.

Visually impaired Italian sprinter Valentina Petrillo will be the first transgender woman to compete at the Paralympics when she races in the heats for her classification in the women’s 400 meters on Sept. 2.

American swimmer Ali Truwit is competing a year after losing her lower leg in a shark attack while snorkeling.

Teenage swimmer David Kratochvil is carrying Czech hopes of a medal after losing his sight because of a serious illness about 10 years ago. The 16-year-old Kratochvil used to play ice hockey but switched to the pool, where he set world records in the 50 and 200 meter backstroke last year.

Many more wait to be told over the next two weeks.

Fahey contributed from Berlin.

Here is the Paris Olympics TV schedule for Sunday, Aug.11.

Highlights include the U.S. women’s basketball team vs. France for the gold medal (9:30 a.m. EST, USA), the U.S. women’s volleyball team vs. Italy for the gold medal (7 a.m. EST, Telemundo, Peacock, replay 1:30 p.m. EST, USA), the U.S. men’s water polo team in the bronze medal game vs. Hungary (4:30 a.m. EST, USA) and closing ceremonies (2 p.m. EST, NBC).

Sunday, Aug. 11

BASKETBALL

Midnight EST

• USA — Men’s Gold Final

5:45 a.m. EST

• USA — Women’s Bronze Final

9:30 a.m. EST

• NBC — Women’s Gold Final
• TELEMUNDO — Medalla de Oro – Baloncesto

3:30 p.m. EST

• USA — Women’s Gold Final

BEACH VOLLEYBALL

2:30 a.m. EST

• NBC — NBC Late Night (Aug. 10)

CEREMONY

2 p.m. EST

• NBC — Closing Ceremony: Live from the 2024 Paris Olympics

10 p.m. EST

• NBC — Closing Ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics

CYCLING

9 a.m. EST

• NBC — Men’s Keirin, Women’s Sprint, Omnium

HANDBALL

7:30 a.m. EST

• USA — Men’s Gold Final

11 a.m. EST

• USA — Men’s Bronze Final

Noon EST

• USA — Men’s Gold Final

SPORT CLIMBING

2:30 a.m. EST

• NBC — NBC Late Night (Aug. 10)

TRACK & FIELD

2 a.m. EST

• USA — Women’s Marathon

Noon EST

• NBC — Women’s Marathon

VOLLEYBALL

7 a.m. EST

• TELEMUNDO — Medalla de Oro – Voleibol

WATER POLO

4:30 a.m. EST

• USA — Men’s Bronze Final

9 a.m. EST

• USA — Men’s Gold Final

1:30 p.m. EST

• USA — Men’s Bronze Final

2:30 p.m. EST

• USA — Men’s Gold Final

WEIGHTLIFTING

9:30 a.m. EST

• USA — Women’s 81+kg Final

WRESTLING

10 a.m. EST

• USA — Finals: M 65kg, 97kg, W 76kg Freestyle

 

By JENNA FRYER

PARIS (AP) — Traffic. What will you do about notorious gridlocked Los Angeles traffic? That’s the one burning question repeatedly posed to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass as she prepares to receive the Olympic flag ahead of the 2028 Summer Games.

“A no-car Games,” Bass said Saturday.

Huh?

Bass and Casey Wasserman, chairman of the LA 2028 organizing committee, highlighted some of the planning already completed before Paris organizers hand the Games over to them during Sunday’s closing ceremony. Bass was preemptive about the traffic, addressing it in her opening remarks.

“We’re already working to create jobs by expanding our public transportation system in order for us to have a no-car Games,” she said. “And that’s a feat for Los Angeles, as we’ve always been in love with our cars. We’re working to ensure that we can build a greener Los Angeles.”

Working from home, that is.

Bass said public transportation will be the only way to access the Los Angeles venues, and her plan to address traffic snarls consists of both using 3,000 buses that will be borrowed from all over the country and asking businesses to allow their employees to work from home during the 17-day period.

It will be the third time Los Angeles will host the Olympics, and Bass noted that widespread panic over traffic ahead of the 1984 Games proved needless.

“Angelenos were terrified that we were going to have terrible, terrible traffic, and we were shocked that we didn’t,” Bass said. “But I will tell you, in 1984, we didn’t have any of the technology that we do today. We learned in COVID that you can work remotely.”

Tom Bradley, mayor of Los Angeles in 1984, had local businesses stagger their workforce hours to reduce the number of cars on the road. Bass likes that approach but wants to go even further, with nonessential workers permitted to work remotely during the Games.

“Part of having a no-car Olympics means getting people not to drive,” Bass said.

Paris has been lauded for how accessible the Games have been, with nearly every venue reachable by Metro, commuter train, tram or bus. Los Angeles has bus and light rail systems but only two subway lines, public transit that pales in scope to metropolitan cities such as Paris, London and New York.

Bass does not yet have a commitment from LA-based businesses to allow their employees to work from home during the Games.

“I think the way that it should work is to meet with the city’s major employers and to talk about staggering work hours, which is something that was done 40 years ago when we had no technical cellphones and personal computers,” Bass said. “I think, frankly, it is not going to be difficult this time.

“I think the workforce, probably around the world, certainly around our country, is grappling with remote work now,” she continued. “So I do think that there might be some employers that we could say, ‘Could you be remote for 17 days?’ It’s going to be a lot easier because we did go through COVID, so people will have some reference point in recent history as to how you could do that.”

Addressing homelessness

The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority said in June there were 75,312 unhoused people in the county and 45,252 unhoused in the city of LA in 2024. Those numbers must be decreased for the city to be able to sparkle on global television.

Paris organizers relocated thousands of unhoused people ahead of these Games.

Bass said she’s working at both the government level and with the private sector and vowed: “We are going to get Angelenos housed.”

“That is what we have been doing, and we’re going to continue to do that,” Bass said. “We will get people housed. We will get them off the street. We will get them into temporary housing, address the reason why they were unhoused and get them into permanent housing.”

Keeping LA safe

Wasserman said LA organizers already are working with the federal government on security plans.

“Our mantra is we need to be the safest place, but we need to be the greatest experience as well and we’re not going to sacrifice one for the other,” he said. “The Olympics is not a normal event. It doesn’t matter in what time it operates or what city it is. The benefit of LA is we have lots of incredibly big global events, so we are used to different security protocols for those events.”

Organizers have an operating budget of $6.8 billion, Wasserman said. That figure does not include security, which will be taxpayer funded.

Effects of US election

LA organizers said there is no way the results of the November presidential election will not impact the Games in some fashion, but Bass or Wasserman were not concerned.

Wasserman noted that three different sitting presidents have supported Los Angeles’ effort, dating back to President Barack Obama’s letter backing the city ahead of its 2017 winning bid.

“I just want to remind people, this is about the red, white and blue,” Wasserman said. “This is not about the red and blue. We all march behind the same flag, the same name, the same anthem, and this is something that’s going to bring our country together.”

By GRAHAM DUNBAR

PARIS (AP) — The Olympics will always have Paris. Next up for the Summer Games: Los Angeles 2028.

The baton will be handed from one third-time Olympic host city to another at the closing ceremony Sunday in Paris, and much will be different in four years’ time.

New sports will make their Olympic debuts, picked by organizers in LA who also are bringing back others that left the program more than 100 years ago.

While Paris had the Seine River, LA has the Pacific Ocean and its beaches.

Paris’ unmatched historic buildings gave the city a cinematic look. LA’s streets are a living history of film and television.

Here’s a look at some things that will be different about the next Summer Games.

Which sports will be new at the Los Angeles Olympics?

Flag football, squash and obstacle racing. Yes, “American Ninja Warrior”-style obstacle racing, to replace the horses and pep up modern pentathlon.

Sports that get invited into the Olympics typically are played across the world. In the modern Olympics, however, they also must be wanted by the host city.

Flag football is a good fit for Los Angeles organizers, who last year told IOC members before they voted that it represents “the future and the tip of the spear for American football’s international growth.”

Squash will join tennis and badminton as racket sports at the Games. Could padel or pickleball one day follow?

Squash lost out in several previous campaigns and, like flag football, now goes Games to Games with no guarantee of staying for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.

Modern pentathlon has been an Olympics staple since 1912 but often has seemed close to being ousted. Equestrian is being replaced as one of the five disciplines as requested by the IOC after a horse was abused in Tokyo three years ago.

In comes obstacle racing in LA, aiming to make the sport more accessible and relatable.

Gone for a century, back in LA

Lacrosse last was played at the Olympics in 1908, cricket not since 1900.

Both return in 2028 with eager support from Los Angeles organizers and in viewer-friendly short formats; Lacrosse in a six-a-side version, cricket in the aggressive, hard-hitting T20 version that does not require five days per match.

Lacrosse pays respect to the Indigenous roots of the sport: “It is truly authentic to the land we are on,” LA 2028 chairman Casey Wasserman said Saturday.

Cricket has been coveted to connect especially with the more than 1.6 billion people in India and Pakistan.

“They are going to be paying attention to the Olympics like they never have,” Wasserman said. Cricket surely will be kept in 2032 by Brisbane, which is home to one of the sport’s most storied venues.

Baseball and softball have perhaps the most unusual modern Olympics story: out after the 2008 Beijing Games, back in at Tokyo in 2021, out in Paris, back in LA. Well, Oklahoma City, in softball’s case.

Home to women’s softball in 2028 is Devon Park that stages the Women’s College World Series each year, about 1,300 miles (2,100 kilometers) from the Pacific Ocean.

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred has said he’s open to allowing Major League Baseball players to participate in the LA Games, but significant challenges remain. Insurance policies for players like Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge, whose contracts are worth hundreds of millions of dollars, may be the biggest sticking point.

Early opening, early closing

The next Summer Games start two weeks earlier than this one, with an opening ceremony on Friday, July 14.

There’s no river in LA to match Paris’ athlete parade on boats on the Seine, though it will use two stadiums instead of one: both SoFi Stadium and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum will be in play.

That plan means flipping the schedule of the modern Summer Games.

Track and field is at the Coliseum — as it was in 1932 and 1984 — and now moves up a week, replacing swimming as the front-loaded anchor sport. That is because So-Fi must be converted into a spectacular temporary venue for swimming with seats for 38,000 fans. Races will move back into the second full week of action.

The July 30 end date in Los Angeles is the first time a northern hemisphere Summer Games will finish so early since the 1924 Olympics closed July 27 in Paris.

How will the Los Angeles Olympics look?

The Paris Olympics often looked incredible on screen. Los Angeles practically invented the look of modern cinema and television and is a creative hub of music and fashion.

The message here to LA is consistently: Don’t try to copy Paris.

“Paris is the most beautiful city in the world,” Wasserman said Saturday. “The 2028 Games will be authentically Los Angeles.”

The IOC’s head of Olympic broadcasting, Yiannis Exarchos, said LA “cannot redo a city (Paris) with a history of 500 years. LA speaks about the future, about new frontiers, about technology.”

Road events such as marathons and cycling can show “where a big part of the mythology of the 20th century has been created, because of Hollywood,” Exarchos said in an interview.

“This is where I am more intrigued. I find interesting to see how we can recreate the television geography of LA.”

By JEROME PUGMIRE

PARIS (AP) — Sunday is the final day for the Paris Olympics. The day will end with the closing ceremony at Stade de France, but 14 gold medals will be decided first.

It begins with the women’s marathon in the morning and continues with the men’s handball final between Denmark and Germany. The women’s volleyball final sees the Americans defending their title against first-time finalist Italy.

Competition concludes with host France facing the U.S. in the women’s basketball final. The Americans are trying to become the first team — in any sport — to win eight consecutive Olympic gold medals, breaking a tie with the U.S. men’s program that won seven in a row from 1936-68.

Here’s a guide of what to look out for:

The women run the Sunday marathon

Breaking from tradition, the women are running the Olympic marathon on the last day instead of the men, who raced Saturday. The marathon route has both a symbolic and historic feel since it traces the footsteps of the historic Women’s March on Versailles, which took place during the French Revolution in 1789. Kenyan runners have won the past two editions. The race begins at 8 a.m. CEST (2 a.m. EDT).

Breanna Stewart and USA basketball go for another gold

The French women face a tall order to win their first Olympic gold medal in basketball at 3:30 p.m. local time (9:30 a.m. EDT).

They must beat Breanna Stewart and the seven-time defending champion United States at Bercy Arena. The U.S women are looking to win their 10th gold since the women’s competition started at the 1976 Games. The final is a rematch from the London 2012 title showdown, which France lost.

In the bronze-medal game, Belgium faces Australia.

US defends a women’s volleyball title, too

The US women defend their gold against Italy, which is appearing in its first final and is guaranteed a first medal. Its previous best finish was fifth. Outside hitters Myriam Sylla and Loveth Omoruyi will look to cause an upset. The match starts at 1 p.m. CEST (7 a.m. EDT).

Modern pentathlon includes equestrian for the final time

The picturesque Palace of Versailles sees the conclusion of the women’s individual final at 12:40 p.m. CEST (6:40 a.m. EDT).

Showjumping features at the Olympics for the last time in pentathlon before being scrapped in favor of an American Ninja Warrior-style obstacle course race. There’s also fencing, swimming and a laser run — a dynamic event combining laser pistol shooting and running laps.

Also of note

Denmark goes for its second Olympic title in men’s handball when it faces 2016 bronze medalist Germany at Pierre Mauroy Stadium at 1:30 p.m. CEST (7:30 a.m. EDT). … Two-time defending Olympic champion Serbia takes on 2012 champion Croatia for in water polo at 2 p.m. CEST (8 a.m. EDT). … Track cycling concludes with the women’s sprint and omnium and with the men’s keirin at the record-breaking Olympic velodrome, all starting between 1:15 p.m. CEST (7:15 a.m. EDT) and 2 p.m. CEST (8 a.m. EDT).

What to watch at the closing ceremony

All eyes will be on what director Thomas Jolly has created this time after the flamboyant open-air opening ceremony. The closing ceremony features the athletes’ parade and the handover of the Olympic flag to the organizers of the 2028 Los Angeles Games. It will also include over 100 performers, acrobats, dancers and circus artists on a huge stage.

The ceremony starts at 9 p.m. CEST (3 p.m. EDT).

PARIS (AP) — Egypt’s Olympic committee says Tokyo bronze medal-winning wrestler Mohamed Ibrahim El-Sayed will be investigated by the sport’s governing body for an alleged groping incident in Paris.

French prosecutors said Friday it had arrested a 26-year-old Olympic wrestler from Egypt on sexual assault charges. The athlete, who was not named by prosecutors, was detained early Friday after allegedly groping a woman from behind outside a Paris cafe, according to a statement from the Paris prosecutor’s office.

The Egyptian Olympic committee later said that el-Sayed would be investigated.

The athlete faces disciplinary measures, including a ban from domestic and international competitions, for “irresponsible behavior” just hours after he had finished his Olympic competition and was scheduled to travel home, the statement also said.

El-Sayed is a Greco-Roman wrestler who competes at 67 kilograms. He wrestled in one match in Paris, a 9-0 loss to Azerbaijan’s Hasrat Jafarov, on Wednesday. He is a five-time African champion and a two-time under-23 world champion.

By JONATHAN LANDRUM Jr.

PARIS (AP) — H.E.R. will perform during the closing ceremony at the Paris Olympics.

The five-time Grammy winner is expected to sing the U.S. national anthem live at the Stade de France as part of the handover for the Los Angeles Summer Games in 2028.

H.E.R. has won an Oscar, Emmy and Grammy awards during her decorated career. The 27-year-old from California won the Grammy for song of the year in 2021 for her protest anthem “ I Can’t Breathe.”

In the same year, she took home best original song for the soulful “Fight for You” from the “Judas and the Black Messiah” soundtrack at the Academy Awards. She co-wrote both songs. The singer also wrote the Netflix animated series “We the People,” which won her an award at the Children’s and Family Emmys.

H.E.R. starred in the adaptation of “The Color Purple” that was produced by Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg in 2023. She made an appearance as a guest performer alongside Usher at the Super Bowl halftime show in February.

Los Angeles will host the Olympics for the third time, with previous Games being held there in 1984 and 1932. It will be the first time the city will host the Paralympics.

By GERALD IMRAY Associated Press

It’s 15 years ago this month that a teenage runner from South Africa was publicly scrutinized over her sex at a major sports event. The lesson everyone was meant to take from that was: never again.

Yet, the humiliation Caster Semenya faced has been repeated for two women competing in boxing at the Paris Olympics, exposing more female athletes to hurtful remarks and online abuse in a contentious divide over sex, gender and identity in sports.

While Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan could be basking in the pride of winning fights for their countries, they are instead having their sex questioned in front of the world after the Olympics-banned boxing federation claimed they failed sex verification tests last year but has given little information about them.

Olympic officials have called the arbitrary testing “so flawed that it’s impossible to engage with it” and stressed that both boxers were assigned female at birth, identify as women and are eligible to compete in women’s competitions. The two have still been bombarded with hateful remarks, sometimes from prominent people outside of the sports world.

“This has effects, massive effects,” Khelif said in Arabic in a recent interview with SNTV, a sports partner of The Associated Press. “It can destroy people, it can kill people’s thoughts, spirit and mind. It can divide people.”

Their stories bear many resemblances to that of Semenya, the runner whose arrival in elite track and field at the 2009 world championships forced the sports world to confront an issue that is highly complex and also still largely characterized by the same misconceptions as back then.

Semenya was just 18 when she was thrust into the spotlight 15 years ago. She was subjected to sex verification tests and became the focus of unsavory rumors over the details of her body.

She went on to become a two-time Olympic champion in the 800-meter race but is likely better known as the woman whose medical condition has meant she is effectively banned from competing in female track competitions unless she medically reduces her testosterone levels.

The noise around Khelif and Lin has mostly been ill-informed outcry, with many repeating false claims — which have been amplified by Russian disinformation networks — that the two are men or transgender. Semenya experienced the same vitriol. Her reaction to the degrading treatment of Khelif and Lin has been to ask how sports authorities couldn’t stop this from happening again.

“Sport is for all people and the constitution says no to discrimination. But the minute they allowed women to be disgraced, it confuses us,” Semenya said in an interview this week with the website SportsBoom.com. She called for leadership that “safeguards, protects and respects women.”

Female athletes of color have historically faced disproportionate scrutiny and discrimination when it comes to sex testing and false claims that they are male or transgender.

Semenya was born with one of a number of conditions known as differences of sex development, or DSDs. She was assigned female at birth and has always identified as a woman. Her condition gives her an XY chromosome pattern and elevated levels of testosterone.

Some sports, including track, say that gives her and other women like her an unfair advantage and have crafted eligibility rules that exclude her on that basis. Semenya has challenged the rules, and the correlation between testosterone and athletic advantage isn’t conclusive.

Another female athlete, Indian sprinter Dutee Chand, also has waged a legal battle against the testosterone regulations and several other runners have been affected and sidelined over the last decade in track and field, the sport that has been most affected by the issue.

Male athletes are not required to regulate their natural levels of testosterone.

More masculine-presenting female athletes have long been bullied and questioned about their sex. That effect is magnified for those whose sexes are questioned at a highly watched international event.

In one of the most personal details of her struggle, Semenya said she was so angry, hurt and confused by her treatment at the 2009 championships that she told athletics officials she would show them her vagina as proof she was a woman. It took her more than a decade to tell that story publicly when she revealed it in an interview with HBO in 2022.

With it, Semenya offered something about how she felt her gender and her identity for her entire life was being overridden by others. She has called references to her being biologically male “deeply hurtful.”

Christine Mboma, a young runner from Namibia, also has a DSD condition. She won a silver medal at the last Olympics in Tokyo when she was also 18, the first woman from her southern African country ever to win an Olympic medal.

But she returned home to more skepticism than praise after her condition became public. The recent “Tested” podcast by public broadcasters NPR in the U.S. and CBC in Canada featured Mboma, outlining how people in Namibia started asking whether she was really a woman.

“It’s a public humiliation,” Mboma’s coach, Henk Botha, said on the podcast. “We need to understand, this is the life of somebody.”

Like Semenya and Mboma, both Khelif and Lin will return home with medals of achievement but possibly burdened by what kind of reaction and misconceptions might follow them. Khelif is 25 years old. Lin is 28.

The incredibly difficult debate over whether women with certain medical conditions have an unfair athletic advantage is relevant for sports. But Semenya said the way Khelif and Lin have been treated is “about principles of life.”

SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — Noah Lyles said he tested positive for COVID two days before he finished third in the 200-meter final at the Paris Olympics on Thursday night.

Here’s what we know about the timeline of Lyles’ illness:

When did Lyles know he had COVID?

Lyles says he quickly got into quarantine after he had tested positive Tuesday morning. He participated in the 200-meter semifinal on Wednesday, where he finished second. Lyles’ coach afterward said the sprinter was “fine.”

Lyles, who usually always takes an opportunity to talk, did not speak to reporters after the semifinal.

The 100-meter champion said he was feeling better as the 200 final approached. He estimated he was about 90-95 percent when the starting gun went off.

“I still wanted to run,” he said after Thursday night’s race. “They said it was possible.”

What happened in his 200-meter race?

Lyles was trailing 200-meter champion Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo as they headed into the homestretch, which is usually where the American puts on a trademark closing finish that has always been the best part of his race. Before this week, he hadn’t lost a 200 since his third-place finish in Tokyo three years ago.

This time, Lyles could not close. Only a desperate push to the line then a collapse onto the purple track.

“To be honest, I knew if I wanted to come out here and win, I had to give everything I had from the get-go,” he said. “I didn’t have any time to save energy. So that was kind of the strategy for today.”

After crossing the line third for the second straight Olympics, Lyles fell to his back and writhed on the ground trying to catch his breath. He got to one knee and stayed there for nearly 30 seconds before getting up, asking for water and getting to the wheelchair.

Why was he allowed to run?

The U.S. track federation released a statement saying it and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee adhered to all Olympic and Centers for Disease Control guidelines.

“After a thorough medical evaluation, Noah chose to compete tonight,” the statement said. “We respect his decision and will continue to monitor his condition closely.”

Three years ago, at the Tokyo Olympics, a positive COVID test would have put an athlete in immediate isolation, forcing them to a special hotel with no contact with other Olympic participants. Even in 2022 at the Winter Games in China, daily tests and strict isolation measures were automatic. COVID rules have been changed in much of society, including sports, school and work. The USATF says they followed current policies.

France, which once had tight COVID restrictions, no longer has rules for people with the virus, just recommendations to those who test positive to self-isolate.

The World Health Organization said Tuesday that 40 athletes at the Olympics had tested positive for the virus amid growing cases worldwide.

What races does Lyles have left?

Lyles was expected to run the anchor leg of the 4×100 on Friday in what many thought would be a quest for a third gold medal in Paris. After the 200, he said he would talk to his relay teammates and come to a decision.

“I want to be very honest and transparent, and I’m going to let them make the decision,” Lyles said, describing himself as being at around 90 or 95%.

But early Friday morning in Paris, Lyles posted on Instagram: “I believe this will be the end of my 2024 Olympics,” indicating that he wouldn’t be on the relay team.

Taylor Blatchford | (TNS) The Seattle Times

Competing on the world stage, Olympic athletes face immense pressure to perform their best and represent their country. Mental health dominated Olympic conversations in 2021 after U.S. gymnast Simone Biles withdrew from the Tokyo Olympics, citing a disconnect between her brain and body and writing that she felt “the weight of the world on [her] shoulders.”

Conversations around the toll elite sports can take on mental health have shifted in recent years, and athletes are talking more openly about the ups and downs of competing.

Five former Seattle-area Olympians spoke with The Seattle Times about the mental pressures of competing on the biggest stage in sports — and the challenge of adjusting back to normal life afterward. They all said the culture around mental health in sports has changed significantly since they competed in the Olympics between 2002 and 2016.

“It’s seen more as a necessary tool in the kit, and it’s not looked down upon as it once was,” said Jeremy Taiwo, a University of Washington graduate who placed 11th in the decathlon in 2016. “If you’re not utilizing it, you are missing out on a super crucial tool.”

Some of the athletes said they had worked with sports psychologists, specialists who use psychology to help athletes train and perform at a high level. But at that point, broader mental health resources were harder to come by for Olympians.

Now, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee has built out its mental health services, employing 14 full-time mental health professionals and maintaining a registry of hundreds of other providers available to see athletes. A 24/7 hotline is available to athletes for mental health and performance concerns.

The Associated Press reported that about half of Team USA athletes at the past two Olympics were flagged for at least one of the following: anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, eating disorders, substance use or abuse.

Dr. Mariah Bullock, a sports psychologist who works with the Canadian women’s national soccer team, said conversations about mental health and sports have changed “100%, night and day” since she played soccer for Stanford University and the Seattle Reign in the early 2010s.

“Players are so much more open, and it’s the norm to say, ‘I speak with a therapist; I have a mental performance coach,’” she said.

Coping with pressure, expectations

Before the 2012 London Olympics, rower Mary Whipple Murray felt pressure. The women’s eight had won the gold medal for Team USA in 2008, and most of the team was returning for another shot at gold. As the coxswain, responsible for running the race plan and directing the boat, she felt extra responsibility to keep the team focused and unified.

“At one point, my coach just talked to me and said, ‘Just be the athlete, let me take away all this other stress,’” Murray, a UW graduate and three-time Olympic medalist, said. “He didn’t want me to feel the weight of that responsibility.”

Mental health was uncharted territory in the sport at the time, she said; the team didn’t have a sports psychologist for her first Olympics in 2004. They focused on blocking out “the extras” that came with the Olympics: free gear, family members asking about tickets, outside distractions creeping in.

Blocking out external distractions has become harder because of social media and technology, speed skater Apolo Ohno, who grew up in Federal Way, said. In the Salt Lake City opening ceremonies in 2002, his first Olympics, there were no cellphones; some athletes carried video camcorders during the Parade of Nations.

He still felt a pressure to “win under any and all circumstances,” more from himself than from media or outside expectations, he said.

“I would finish a World Championships, having won a race, and go back and watch the video replay again in my room alone and be just disgusted by what I saw,” said Ohno, who’s won more Winter Olympic medals than any other American. “How could you possibly have been able to get so lucky to have won this race? It’s kind of ridiculous to even think like that, but that’s how I thought about things.”

Mental health wasn’t a conversation or a priority when he was competing in the 2000s, he said, but he did work with a sports psychologist focused on performance. This helped him improve his visualization and manage nerves to get into a flow state, which he described as “a beautiful experience where time seems to slow down” and the motions of speed skating felt automatic and natural.

“Sports psychology was the single greatest tool that I had, outside of my blades on my feet,” he said. “It really was a game changer.”

Both clinical psychology and sports psychology play a role in athletes’ success at a high level, said Dr. Kelly Schloredt, the director of psychological services for the University of Washington Athletics.

“I think as fans, we have a tendency to almost dehumanize athletes,” Schloredt said. “We put them on great pedestals when they perform well, and we’re often very critical of them when something doesn’t go quite right. They have this incredible talent, and they’re also human; they experience the same ups and down the rest of us do.”

Staying focused during the Games

The mental pressure only intensifies once athletes arrive at the Olympics.

“It’s hard to truly describe how all-encompassing it really feels when you’re there,” swimmer and eight-time Olympic medalist Nathan Adrian, who grew up in Bremerton, said. “It’s your entire world and everybody’s world around you. If you don’t have a good solid base or ability to disengage, you can get caught up in it.”

Working with a mental health professional helped him manage the ups and downs of competing and disconnect when he needed to, he said. Learning to deal with failure and falling short of his goals also kept him grounded.

“I was supposed to have a good 2011 world championships and I didn’t,” he said. “The sun still rose the next day, my friends were still my friends and my parents still loved me. That really was a good experience for me to have leading into the 2012 Games.”

During the Games, athletes said they stay focused by sticking to routine. Adrian described it as “following a script” with scheduled meals and warmups on a race day. Murray led race visualizations in the days before competition, talking the team through each step of the race plan with their eyes closed.

“If I didn’t try to focus on what I’d control, I’d find myself losing sleep at night,” said Rob Munn, a former UW rower who placed fourth with the men’s eight boat at the 2016 Olympics. “If you’re not steadfast and consistent in that mindset, it can be overwhelming.”

Staying present is particularly important in the decathlon, a two-day track and field event where athletes complete four runs, three jumps and three throws. Moving from event to event, Taiwo knew he had to “forget quickly if things didn’t go well.”

“I’m 100% at each event, really staying present in the moment,” Taiwo said. “That’s how this event was meant to happen, time to forget it. I’m going on to the next event and now it’s time to be a high jumper.”

Performance anxiety, the stress of participating in an activity while others are watching, is a main focus for athletes on the Olympic stage, said Bullock, the sports psychologist. The Canadian soccer team she works with won the gold medal in Tokyo in 2021 and medaled in 2016 and 2012; it’s easy to feel like they “can’t go backward,” she said in an interview before the Paris Games.

She helps athletes focus on feeling prepared and limiting negative self-talk after a mistake. If an athlete is injured, she’ll work with them to process emotions and feel confident returning to play.

“If you make a mistake, no problem,” Bullock said. “I help athletes have some sense of self-compassion, then we shift into, what’s the next thing? Where does my focus and attention need to be?”

Coming home and “extracting a portion of your soul”

After the Games end, many athletes describe a “post-Olympic blues”: coming back to normal life after competing at the highest level.

“It’s super hard; there’s no two ways about it,” Adrian said. “You really have to find people who understand it. When people ask me, I tell them it’s almost like surfing: You almost don’t know when a wave is going to hit you.”

When they inevitably retire, athletes described a new challenge: finding who they are outside of their sport. Ohno calls it a “great divorce” from an athlete’s previous identity.

“Coming down after the Olympics, you hit the very bottom,” Taiwo said. “When you do let go of that athlete part of yourself, it’s rough. It feels like extracting a portion of your soul from yourself.”

Living in Leavenworth, Murray threw herself into mountain biking and skiing after retiring from rowing, finding a “team” of women who helped her get better at new sports. She also started The 9th Seat, an organization providing resources and clinics for coxswains.

Taiwo is a firefighter and EMT for the Shoreline Fire Department. Adrian owns a swim club in California. Ohno is a business consultant, author and motivational speaker.

“It’s humbling. I was starting over and restarting a career,” said Munn, who now works for a wine and spirits distributor in Bellevue. “You have that realization that all the work you did in that previous sport doesn’t truly matter for what you’re trying to do next.”

All of them still watch the Olympics but say it’s a different experience after competing: more emotional, more nerve-wracking, more humanizing.

“I look for small behavioral cues. Hopefully NBC gives me a glimpse of their eyes because that’s very important,” Ohno said. “Do they do some pattern and routine? Do they stretch a certain way? I fall in love with the little nuances and details.”

“I love watching the medal ceremony, especially when a team USA athlete wins,” Murray said. “Whenever I hear the national anthem, it definitely hits a little differently and the emotions come up about your teammates and your process.”

___

(c)2024 The Seattle Times

Visit The Seattle Times at www.seattletimes.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — Rarely has an Olympic pin contained so much love.

When French runner Alice Finot got down on one knee and proposed to her boyfriend after her Olympic steeplechase race, she attached a “Love is in Paris” pin on his shirt.

“I told myself that if I ran under nine minutes, knowing that nine is my lucky number and that we’ve been together for nine years, then I would propose,” Finot said.

Finot finished fourth in 8 minutes, 58.67 seconds on Tuesday and then ran over to the stands where she found her boyfriend, Spanish triathlete Bruno Martinez.

“I don’t like doing things like everyone else,” Finot said. “Since he hadn’t done it yet, I thought maybe it was up to me.”

By NOREEN NASIR

PARIS (AP) — The b-girls and b-boys are ready for their spotlight.

On Friday, the breakers, or breakdancers, begin syncing their moves to the DJ’s breakbeat in front of the biggest audience breaking has ever known.

Earlier this week, the dancers-turned-athletes at the Summer Olympics tested out the dance floor of the breaking venue at the Place de la Concorde in Paris ahead of the first competition on Friday. The stage resembles a giant record and the backdrop is a massive replica of a boombox. It’s a nod to the musical root of breaking — the breakbeat itself — the moment when a song’s vocals drop and the DJ loops the beat over and over, to allow b-boys and b-girls to make their mark on the dance floor.

“Even though people weren’t there yet, I could just see the crowd already,” American Logan Edra, or “b-girl Logistx,” said after seeing the stadium for the first time. “And the floor felt amazing.”

The 33 breakers representing 15 countries and the Refugee Olympic Team will take to the dance floor on Friday and Saturday, vying for gold for the first time in Olympic history.

For first-time watchers, there’s a lot to understand about the elements of breaking. Beyond the dance form’s unique culture and history stemming from Black and brown communities in the Bronx in the 1970s, there is no other event like it at the Olympics. Some have likened it to a mix of gymnastics and martial arts, but with music and improvisation. Breaking has its own judging structure — the Trivium judging system, which will allow judges to evaluate breakers on their technique, vocabulary or variety, execution, musicality and originality.

“This is also going to be the only sport where they’re going to incorporate other elements of hip-hop, because there’s going to be a DJ and there’s going to be a host, or an emcee,” said Ronnie Abaldonado, a breaker who is one of NBC’s commentators for the breaking competition.

The DJ has a major role in orchestrating the flow of the competition.

“No matter whether it’s a high-production event or just a local gym, breaking is always about the party,” said Zack Slusser, vice president of Breaking for Gold USA and USA Dance. “And the DJ facilitates that party.”

Slusser described breaking as live storytelling, with characters and emotion all present on the stage, unfolding a narrative in real time.

The DJ “establishes the energy in the room. He’s kind of like the narrator, and then the breakers themselves, they’re the protagonist or antagonist in the story, but the audience at the event, or the people watching — reading the book — they have to feel that energy.”

The breakers won’t know what songs or music they’ll compete to — the element of surprise is just as much a part of their experience as the audience’s. It leads to an atmosphere that’s raw, emotional and energetic. The stadium will be transformed by that energy, said Tyquan Hodac, executive director of Breaking for Gold USA.

“It’s not a spectator sport. The audience is part of the whole show as well, they’re part of the party,” Hodac said. “There’s a feedback loop. It’s a story, a conversation between everyone.”

Breaking itself is made up of four primary elements: Toprock, Power moves, Footwork and Freezes.

Within those elements are an infinite combination of moves that make up a dancer’s routine. Routines are rehearsed, but dancers have to be careful not to be repetitive and keep the spontaneity and improvisational aspect of the performance at its core. And “biting,” or copying, a set of moves from an opponent can cost them.

The Olympic competition will begin in a round-robin phase, when groups of four breakers will face off against each other one by one. Only two will emerge from each round-robin group before the quarterfinals, semifinals and the final matchup to determine the champion by the end of the evening.

The b-girls will begin on Friday with a pre-qualifier between India Sardjoe of the Netherlands, or “b-girl India,” against the refugee team’s Manizha Talash, or “b-girl Talash,” who is originally from Afghanistan and sought asylum in Spain. Talash was a late addition to the Olympic roster — she missed registration for any qualifying breaking events, but her story of breaking and defying the strict rule of the Taliban in her home country captured the attention of the International Olympic Committee executive board, and she was invited to participate.

The b-boys take the stage on Saturday.

Here’s a breakdown of the four elements to look for in the breaking competition:

Toprock

How a breaker starts their dance, while still standing, before going to the floor. It’s an introduction to the dancer and their style, before they launch onto the floor into their footwork and other moves.

Footwork

Also known as “downrock,” there are moves done on the ground, with support from hands, as the breaker moves their legs through a variety of steps.

Power move

Dynamic moves that highlight acrobatics and strength, using repetitive, circular movements, including head spins, air flares and windmills.

Freeze

A static position when a breaker hits and holds a move for a few seconds. It’s most appreciated when it’s synced up with a particular beat or sound in the music.

By TALES AZZONI, AP Sports Writer

LE BOURGET, France (AP) — Sam Watson leaves the Paris Games with another world record in speed sport climbing but without the Olympic gold medal.

The American broke the speed world record on Thursday for the second time at the 2024 Paris Olympics, but the feat came in the fight for the bronze after he was eliminated in the semifinals.

The 18-year-old Watson, the heavy favorite for the gold, lost to Wu Peng of China in the semifinals before setting a record of 4.74 seconds in the third-place heat. Leonardo Veddriq of Indonesia won the gold with a time of 4.75 in the final. Wu ended with 4.77.

“I was just flying and doing my thing. I think nothing really changed between any of my laps,” Watson said. “Just a couple millimeters of an error is really the name of the game in the sport. So no really regrets. I don’t think the pressure really got to me or anything like that. I think I just made a tiny little stumble.”

Watson first broke the record with a time of 4.75 in an elimination heat two days ago. He had held the previous world record of 4.79 since April.

Watson said the world record meant “a lot” and was “a big accomplishment,” but it hadn’t sunk in yet what it meant to go home with the record but not the gold medal.

“I haven’t really gone through it,” he said. “I think all that kind of stuff is external rather than internal. I have a view of who I am in my mind, and that doesn’t really change regardless of my performance. But other people will view me in certain ways, and I hope that way as positive and a good representation of myself, my sport and my country.”

Watson said he will “take a little break, maybe go on a little vacation after trying so hard” in Paris.

But only after finishing the Olympic Village muffin that he had been praising on his social media accounts since arriving in Paris.

“That was the first thing I was doing, is I would get my chocolate muffin that I brought from the village and eat it right after, regardless of what happened,” he said.

___

AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

Kevin Baxter | (TNS) Los Angeles Times

PARIS — On most afternoons, before spectators were allowed inside the swimming venue at the Paris Olympics, seven men and women would silently march on to the pool deck to practice tethering flags to three horizontal white bars suspended from the ceiling.

Their practice was necessary because the task had to be done perfectly. Few moments are more taut with emotion or more fraught with danger than the medal ceremonies at the Olympic Games.

Innocently hang a flag the wrong way — or hang the wrong flag — and what was supposed to be a celebration can become a diplomatic contretemps.

“Our work started more than two years ago,” said Esther Rozenkier, the flag protocol manager for the Paris Olympics. “We make sure every single flag representing every National Olympic Committee, National Paralympic Committee, international sporting federation and other international organizations — 247 different flags in total — is correct and formally approved by each delegation’s representative.

“They approve the way their flag is to be rotated and adapted for a vertical display, how their flag is resized, if necessary. We also identify, for each and every venue what size and what orientation flag we will be able to display, based on estimated quantities of participating delegations for each sport.”

At some outdoor stadiums, for example, the flags are displayed vertically on poles due to space limitations, while at indoor arenas, such as La Defense Arena, the swimming venue, they are displayed horizontally and raised on a motorized system called a trapeze.

The attention to detail is important since the smallest error can have major repercussions.

In 2016, organizers of the Rio Games displayed the wrong Chinese flag during two medal ceremonies. The mistake was slight — the flag’s four small stars were parallel to one another rather than pointed at the larger yellow star. But it was enough to offend millions of Chinese people.

“It’s on the fault line of certain tension,” said Mark S. Dyreson, an affiliate professor of history and the director of research and educational programs for the Penn State Center for the Study of Sports in Society. “There have been times when the South Korean national anthem has been played for North Korean athletes. Or back in the day where there were two Germanys, the West German national anthem for the East Germans or a mix-up in flags.

“That why they practice so much now, because then it becomes a scandal. The host nation has insulted some other country [and] it becomes a sort of international incident; it inflames those national tensions.”

Despite the practice, the Paris Games have not been error-free. Near the end of the opening ceremony, the Olympic flag was raised upside down, with the interlocking blue, black and red rings at the bottom instead of the top. Then two days later, before South Sudan’s Olympic basketball debut, the national anthem of Sudan, the country from which South Sudan seceded, was played. That drew jeers from the crowd, but when venue officials moved quickly to fix the mistake and play the correct hymn the forgiving crowd applauded.

Rozenkier said one reason her team takes their work seriously is because the athletes who trained their whole lives to get do the same. And the moment is one she wants them to remember fondly.

“It is a moment in time that cannot be recreated for them,” she said. “In addition to our obligation to the participating countries to get every detail right, I also feel a very strong obligation to each individual competitor to ensure that such a singular moment as medal ceremony is as perfect as possible.”

Dyreson, an Olympic historian, said mistakes were common in the days before the medal ceremonies became so ritualized.

“Especially early on, when it was newer and you had just some local band playing, whether they got the music right or the right country was sort of haphazard. Or raising the wrong flag,” he said.

The chance of error has been minimized by the use of recorded anthems. But mistakes still happen. In the 2003 Pan American Games in the Dominican Republic, a U.S. swimmer followed a Canadian to the top of the medal stand but someone forget to change the CD. So “O Canada” played as the Stars and Stripes were raised.

Medal ceremonies now seem as much a part of the Olympic furniture as running tracks and swimming pools but the practice didn’t begin until the 1932 Winter Games, with the idea of a medal pedestal borrowed from the 1930 British Empire (later Commonwealth) Games. And while the International Olympic Committee doesn’t mind nationalism — the whole idea of flag-raising and anthem-playing encourages that — it does enforce rules.

“The IOC is trying to take its protocols from international protocols,” Dyreson said. “They don’t want to be embarrassed. But also they don’t want the kind of controversy that comes with athletes having their own agenda on the medal stand. How athletes dress and behave during their national anthems can can be an issue. These ceremonies could get bad publicity fairly quickly.”

Having a Russian and a Ukrainian, a South Korean and North Korean or a Muslim and an Israeli mount the medal podium together, he said, could get uncomfortable.

“It is a national ceremony, and that’s part of part of the heart and I think the appeal of the Olympics. [But] this mixture of international and national a remains a flash point,” he said.

“It always has the possibility for controversy. Both back in their homeland, in terms of how they behave on the stand, and turning into an international event.”

In fact, Rozenkier said, Olympic protocol trumps state protocol during the Games.

“If you want to participate, you have to agree to this protocol,” she said. “The Olympic flag protocol ensures that all participating delegations are treated equally.”

Despite the potential dangers, Dyreson says the medal ceremonies are a vital and valuable part of the Olympic Games, one the athletes cherish and spectators look forward to. It’s also one that sits at the crossroads of peace and war, a junction where Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the French educator and athlete who established the modern Olympics, believed sports were uniquely positioned to direct traffic.

“It has value because occasionally athletes transcend their national tensions. Nations that are bitter enemies, the athletes hug one another and celebrate with one another,” Dyreson said. “There’s plenty of examples of that in the Cold War, with American and Soviet athletes or Eastern Bloc athletes celebrating. But you can all also have these diplomatic snafus.

“This is part of the excitement of the games, right? That they’re both national and global at the same time, which is inevitably bound to create conflict.”

In the meantime, keep practicing. Because raising the wrong flag can mean raising a red flag.

©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By LOTFI BOUCHOUCHI and SAM METZ Associated Press

AIN MESBAH, Algeria (AP) — Relatives and neighbors erupted in cheers on Tuesday when Algeria’s Imane Khelif advanced to the Olympic final in women’s boxing, winning a clear unanimous decision over Janjaem Suwannapheng of Thailand.

In Ain Mesbah, the rural cinder block-built town where the boxer was raised, legions of supporters convened on her uncle’s home to watch Khelif’s match. With news camera lights shining on the gathering, they drank orange juice, waved flags and whistled as Khelif jumped around the ring in excitement about advancing to Friday’s gold medal match.

“Between the quarterfinals and the semifinals, we were on edge,” said Rachid Khelif, referencing the wave of uninformed speculation about his niece’s gender. “We were afraid that these attacks would affect her psychologically. But thank God, we saw Imane in a good state of mind.”

Few Algerians could have imagined that a 25-year-old welder’s daughter from the drought-stricken Tiaret region could unite the population in such a way. But the Muslim-majority country has largely interpreted the backlash against Khelif as an attack on the nation rather than within the context of the debate underway in many Western nations about gender, sex and sports.

In the North African nation’s newspapers, on television and all over social media, Khelif has become a hometown hero, celebrated for her successes and defended amid misconceptions about her gender and scrutiny over her eligibility to compete.

“Imane Khelif, the last round against hate and racism!” read a Tuesday headline in leading Algerian daily Echourouk, which described her as “an iconic figure in national sport.”

Rifka, an Algerian social media influencer with 5.4 million Instagram followers, posted earlier this week showing himself traveling from Algiers to Paris to stream Khelif’s matches and reading headlines about Elon Musk’s misconceptions about Khelif’s gender.

“What? This man does not know Algerians,” he said.

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has called Khelif via telephone to cheer her on and backed her amid the criticisms.

“Thank you Imane Khelif for making all Algerians happy, with this strong and wonderful qualification for the final,” he wrote on X after her semifinal rout on Tuesday. “All Algerian women and men are with you.”

Khelif earlier this week said that the spread of misconceptions about her gender “harms human dignity” and, throughout the Olympics, both family members and Algeria’s leading politicians echoed that description, describing the attacks against her as misguided.

Salah Goudjil, the speaker of Algeria’s Senate, lauded Khelif on Tuesday evening for “her well-deserved qualification for the 2024 Olympic final, amid a hateful racist campaign.”

Khelif, who grew up with six siblings, was not always so embraced, however. In a pre-Olympics interview with Canal Algerie, she noted the challenges of growing up in a sheep farming community where many neighbors and family members were not accustomed to young girls pursuing certain sports.

“I come from a region and family that are conservative. Boxing was a sport for men only and the hardest thing for me was traveling between my village and the town where I trained,” she said, recounting how she sold bread in the street.

Apart from Khelif’s aunt, the audience watching her match at her uncle’s home was nearly all men. But young girls continue to train at her boxing gym in nearby Tiaret, the larger town she traveled to for training during her childhood.

A flag hangs on the wall behind the gym’s boxing ring, next to signs reading “Don’t Give Up” and “Try Again to Win.”

“We tell Imane Khelif: Continue your career and pursue your dream, which is to win the gold medal,” said Yousra Messousa, a young girl who frequents the Tiaret gym. “Imane is a woman. She was born a girl, lived as a girl and boxes as a woman. Criticism and attacks don’t affect her.”

The controversy about Khelif’s gender and eligibility stems from the Russian-dominated International Boxing Association’s decision to disqualify her and a boxer from Taiwan from last year’s world championships. The association said Khelif’s disqualification — which came after she defeated a Russian opponent — was due to failing an unspecified eligibility test.

Its leaders and procedures have since come under fire from the International Olympic Committee, which a year ago banned the association after years of serious concerns about its financial transparency and competition governance.

The IOC has called the testing done on Khelif and Lin “ impossibly flawed,” and seemingly another part of a Russian-fueled defamation campaign directed at an Olympic Games from which its athletes are mostly banned from competing.

Such debates about gender identity may be animating the United States and Europe, but they’re mostly foreign in Algeria. Abdelkader Bezaiz, a coach at Tiaret’s boxing center, told The Associated Press, “it only strengthens Imane Khelif’s determination and will to prove that she is the boxing champion of these Paris Games.”

“All the Algerian people are happy. Everyone was waiting for this victory,” said Khelif’s cousin, Walid Djobar. “I really hope she gets the gold medal and I have a feeling she’s going to bring it home.”

AP Sports Writer Greg Beacham in Paris contributed to this report. Metz reported from Rabat, Morocco.