Latest news with #OlympicandParalympicCommittee
NBC Sports
6 days ago
- Sport
- NBC Sports
MORE THAN 100 HOURS OF LIVE COVERAGE OF 2025 WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS BEGIN THIS FRIDAY EXCLUSIVELY ON PEACOCK
Live Streaming Coverage of Swimming, Diving, Water Polo, Open Water Swimming, and Artistic Swimming from Singapore Presented July 11-Aug. 3, Exclusively on Peacock U.S. Women's and Men's Water Polo Open Their Campaigns on Friday at 12:10 a.m. ET and 10:35 p.m. ET, Respectively Katie Ledecky, Leon Marchand, and Torri Huske Headline Swimming Action Beginning July 26 Additional Coverage, including Preliminaries, Presented Live on Team USA TV STAMFORD, Conn. – July 9, 2025 –More than 100 hours of live coverage of the 2025 World Aquatics Championships from Singapore will stream exclusively on Peacock beginning this Friday, July 11 at 12:10 a.m. ET. All finals in all disciplines across swimming, diving, water polo, open water swimming, and artistic swimming will be presented live on Peacock. From July 11 through Aug. 3, Peacock will stream over 100 hours of live coverage featuring many of the top U.S. Olympic medalists from Paris competing against elite international fields in swimming, diving, water polo, artistic swimming, and open water swimming. This will be the first time that Singapore has hosted this event. Live coverage begins this Friday with U.S. women's and men's water polo at 12:10 a.m. ET and 10:35 p.m. ET, respectively, and with open water swimming beginning Monday at 9 p.m. ET with the women's 10km final. Team USA TV will present preliminaries and select semi-finals action from the artistic swimming and diving competitions. Team USA TV is a free ad-supported TV channel, launched in partnership by the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, NBCUniversal, and FAST Studios. Team USA TV brings fans the incredible stories of Team USA athletes and their journey to represent Team USA at the Olympic and Paralympic Games and is available now on Peacock, Roku TV, Amazon Freevee, LG Channels, and Tablo. For more information, click here. The U.S. men's water polo team earned the bronze medal at the Paris Olympics, their first trip to the podium since 2008, while the women finished in fourth place. The U.S. men are currently ranked sixth in World Aquatics' world rankings, while the women are third. All U.S. water polo matches will be presented live on Peacock. The U.S. is sending an impressive contingent of athletes to Singapore for artistic swimming and open water swimming, with 2024 Paris Olympic team silver medalists Anita Alvarez and Dani Ramirez and Paris Olympic 4x200m freestyle silver medalist Claire Weinstein, who recently won the 5km at the U.S. National Open Water Championships, all expected to compete. Olympic gold medalists Katie Ledecky, Leon Marchand, and Torri Huske headline swimming coverage beginning Saturday, July 26, live on Peacock. Additional details on the swimming portion of the World Aquatics Championships will be released closer to the start of competition. NBC Sports' Coverage Schedule, Friday, July 11 – Saturday, Aug. 9 (all times ET) *Encore presentation --NBC SPORTS--
USA Today
02-07-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Lia Thomas records erasure illustrates NCAA transgender policy change
The federal investigation into the University of Pennsylvania surrounding transgender athletes reached a resolution that will wipe out the school records of Lia Thomas. The U.S. Department of Education announced the resolution on July 1, stating the university will comply with Title IX after it allowed Thomas, a transgender athlete, to be part of the women's swimming team. Now, the university must not allow transgender athletes to compete in female athletic programs, in addition to erasing Thomas' achievements. The agreement comes as President Donald Trump has made it a point of his presidency to ban transgender athletes from competing female sports. He's passed executive orders and threatened legal action regarding the issue, and it's resulted in changes to college sports. Did NCAA allow transgender athletes in women's sports? Yes. Thomas began transitioning in 2019 with hormone replacement therapy and followed the then-established NCAA and Ivy League rules. In 2022, the NCAA updated its transgender athlete policy. The update took a sport-by-sport approach that "preserves opportunity for transgender student-athletes while balancing fairness, inclusion and safety for all who compete." At the time, it aligned with decisions by United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, as well as International Olympic Committee. Under the policy, at the start of the 2022-23 academic year sports calendar, transgender student-athletes had to document sport-specific testosterone levels at the beginning of their season, six months after the first and four weeks before championship selections. Thomas won the NCAA Division I title in the women's 500-yard freestyle event in the spring of 2022 before the policy went into place. How Trump Administration impacted transgender athletes Trump had emphasized during his president campaign his goal of blocking transgender athletes from competing in women's sports. On Feb. 5, less than a month into his presidency, Trump signed an executive order that bars transgender women and girls from playing on school sports, and it would cut off federal money for schools that don't comply. The executive order directs the Department of Education to pursue "enforcement actions" under Title IX, the federal law prohibiting discrimination based on sex at educational institutions that receive federal funding. In April, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced legal action against Maine for refusing to ban transgender athletes from participating in women's sports. In June, Trump threatened fines in California and the Justice Department threatened to sue the state's public high schools after a transgender athlete was allowed to compete and won two medals at the track and field state championship. Did NCAA transgender athlete policy change? Yes. One day after Trump's executive order, the NCAA changed it's policy to only allow student-athletes assigned female at birth could compete in women's sports. The policy was "effective immediately and applies to all student-athletes regardless of previous eligibility reviews under the NCAA's prior transgender participation policy." The updated policy states a student-athlete assigned female at birth "who has begun hormone therapy' may not compete on a women's team, and if they participated in any NCAA competition, the team would not be eligible for NCAA championships. The organization did state individual schools have the autonomy to determine athletic participation on their campus. 'We strongly believe that clear, consistent, and uniform eligibility standards would best serve today's student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions. To that end, President Trump's order provides a clear, national standard," NCAA President Charlie Baker said in a statement. How many transgender athletes are in the NCAA? Less than 10, according to what Baker told a Senate panel in December. There are about 510,000 men and women who compete in the NCAA. The number reflects a similar percentage to how many transgender athletes compete in sports, starting at youth sports. According to the UCLA Williams Institute, transgender youth make up only 1.4% of American teenagers. A 2017 study of 17,000 young people found that about 1 in 10 transgender boys said they played sports, and it is roughly the same figure for transgender girls. Lia Thomas records: What happens to them? What happens to Thomas' NCAA records is unclear. The NCAA did not respond to a request for comment. Thomas won the women's 500-yard freestyle event in 2022, and she tied for fifth in the women's 200-yard freestyle and eighth in the 100-yard freestyle. However, Thomas' records at Penn will be erased. She currently holds the records for:
Yahoo
23-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Caitlin Clark's Team USA Snub Controversy Resurfaces With New Statement
Caitlin Clark's Team USA Snub Controversy Resurfaces With New Statement originally appeared on Athlon Sports. Caitlin Clark's rookie season in the WNBA featured several highly-publicized storylines, including her omission from Team USA's Olympic basketball roster. Advertisement Despite her rising superstardom and elite on-court production, Clark was left off the Olympic roster that ultimately went on to win gold at the 2024 Paris games. The decision to leave Clark off the team sparked some serious controversy around the basketball world. USA Today writer Christine Brennan even accused Team USA coach Cheryl Reeve of "stunningly bad behavior" regarding Clark's consideration in the selection process. Before the 2024 WNBA season, Reeve publicly criticized the league for only advertising Clark's preseason debut with the Indiana Fever. These social media posts came out during the Olympic selection process. Now a year later, this controversy is resurfacing. Advertisement Earlier this week, Brennan doubled down on her criticism of Reeve with comments on "The Adam Gold Show." 'How on earth is that okay with the Olympic and Paralympic Committee and USA basketball, that its coach is actively tweeting and going on social media about someone who is in the selection pool?' Brennan asked. A few days later, Reeve fired back with a response on "Golic & Golic." 'What she wrote is fiction. And if she were paying attention, one of the things I have done for years is hold the league accountable for their missteps, mishaps, their lack of representation of all teams," Reeve said. Advertisement "So that particular situation had nothing to do with Caitlin Clark,' she continued. 'It had everything to do with a WNBA social media post that promoted one preseason game and not all preseason games. And so I simply said that, by the way, the Minnesota Lynx are playing the Chicago Sky." Team WNBA guard Caitlin Clark (22) alongside USA Women's National Team head coach Cheryl Reeve during the 2024 WNBA All Star Game at Footprint Center.© Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images Reeve recognized that she's the "villain" in Brennan's story. 'If Christine Brennan were being thorough and a legitimate reporter in this situation, she would have gotten full context," the Minnesota Lynx coach concluded. "But it didn't fit the narrative. Christine Brennan likes to have a villain in her storytelling. I am Christine Brennan's villain, that's the sword she's going to die on. Advertisement "It's a fiction, the stuff that she has written about me and my interest in Caitlin Clark being on or off the team." Related: WNBA Fans React to Caitlin Clark's Historic Achievement on Sunday This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 23, 2025, where it first appeared.
USA Today
05-06-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
USA Gymnastics leader who revived federation after Nassar scandal stepping down
USA Gymnastics leader who revived federation after Nassar scandal stepping down USA Gymnastics president Li Li Leung, who restored the federation to respectability after it had lost the trust of its athletes, sponsors and the general public in the wake of a horrific sex abuse scandal and its own missteps, is leaving. Leung announced Thursday that she will step down at the end of the year. USA Gymnastics has already hired CAA Executive Search to find her replacement. 'The opportunity to lead USA Gymnastics has been the honor and privilege of a lifetime,' Leung said in a statement. 'Thanks to the dedication of the entire gymnastics community, we are now in an incredible position as we turn our attention to the L.A. Olympic Games. 'The last several months have been a time of great reflection, and I know that now is the right time to pass the torch to the next leader, with the sport and organization thriving,' she added. 'I wanted to ensure the board has the opportunity to conduct a thorough search and also give my successor a long runway into the 2028 Olympic Games.' A former gymnast, Leung was a longtime NBA executive when USA Gymnastics hired her in early 2019. The job at the time seemed as thankless as it did impossible. USA Gymnastics was still reeling from the revelations three years earlier that former team and Michigan State physician Larry Nassar had sexually abused Olympic champion Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman and hundreds of other girls and young women, often under the guise of medical treatment. USA Gymnastics was facing a lawsuit from Nassar's survivors, sponsors had fled and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee had started the process to decertify the federation. Leung moved quickly to try and restore trust in the organization, apologizing to the survivors and acknowledging that USA Gymnastics' harsh culture had fostered the environment that allowed Nassar and physically abusive coaches to prey on athletes. She overhauled the federation's management team — nearly 70% of the staff has turned over — and initiated a culture centered around the athletes. USA Gymnastics established an Athlete Bill of Rights in December 2020 and created a program that provides mental health visits for athletes and coaches. It was one of the first federations in the Olympic movement to have therapy dogs at its competitions, a practice that has now spread. As part of a $380 million settlement reached in 2021, Nassar survivors now have a permanent seat on the USA Gymnastics board. The USOPC also dropped its decertification efforts as part of the settlement. USA Gymnastics is by no means perfect. There are still complaints of a lack of transparency and insensitivity, and Biles said someone from the federation referred to her as a 'gold-medal token' at the Tokyo Olympics. But no one can deny the federation has made tremendous strides under Leung's leadership, with even Biles acknowledging the cultural change. That's also been reflected in the return of big-name sponsors. That includes Nike, which has a five-year deal with the federation that runs through Los Angeles. 'Li Li was the right leader at the right time for USA Gymnastics and accomplished in six years what many thought was not possible,' Kathryn Carson, chair of USA Gymnastics' board, said in a statement. 'Her deep passion for gymnastics and extraordinary dedication to leading transformation has positioned USA Gymnastics to move boldly toward LA28.' Leung isn't sure what she'll do next, saying she's going to take some time 'to reset' before she decides. 'I look forward to USA Gymnastics accomplishing great things in 2025 and beyond,' she said.
NBC Sports
25-04-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Milan Cortina Olympics International Roadshow highlights inclusivity, logistical feat of 2026 Winter Games
Thousands of miles from the site of next year's Olympic Winter Games in Milan Cortina, the Italian delegation met with representatives of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee at the Italian Consulate in New York City to build excitement for the 2026 Games. After stops in Munich and Paris earlier this year, New York was the only U.S. stop on the Roadshow. The meeting served as an opportunity to further strengthen the bond between the U.S. and Italy in the buildup to the Winter Games. The event was organized by the Milan Cortina Foundation (officially, La Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026) in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and several other Italian governing bodies. The Milan Cortina Winter Olympics and Paralympics are scheduled for February 6-22, 2026, and March 6-15, 2026, respectively. Before enjoying prosciutto and prosecco, institutional representatives and key figures from both countries emphasized the opportunity for these Games to represent not only sport at its highest level, but also unprecedented logistical coordination. That coordination will be paramount at the 2026 Winter Games as Milan and Cortina will become the first cities to officially co-host an Olympics. All events will take place across northern Italy over three main regions: Lombardy, Veneto and Trentino-Alto Adige. 'The sport lights of the whole world will be in our cities, and we will demonstrate how sport can be a driver of sustainable development, economic growth, and social inclusion,' Vice President and Councilor for Budget and Finance of the Lombardy Region Marco Alparone said. Emily Iannaconi Though the 2026 Winter Games present unique logistical challenges, Italy is no stranger to hosting the Olympics. The 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics will mark the fourth time Italy has hosted the Games. Italy was home to the Winter Games twice before – in Cortina in 1956 and Torino in 2006 – and hosted the summer Games in Rome in 1960. This will be Italy's second time hosting the Paralympic Winter Games (2006 Torino) and its third time hosting the Paralympics overall. Italy served as the host of the first-ever Paralympic Games in Rome in 1960. 'It is an honor for us to host, here in New York, the International Roadshow, which is not only a window into what will be next year's major world event, but something bigger,' Italian Consul General in New York City, Fabrizio di Michele said. 'I don't want to sound rhetorical, but the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games will carry a message of peace, equality, internationality and fair play. Values that are and will forever be the true essence of the Games.' The Italian delegation also included Andrea Varnier, CEO of Fondazione Milano Cortina and Nicola Polito, COO of Trentino Marketing. The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic movement was represented by United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee Chair Gene Sykes, along with Sarah Hughes and Declan Farmer. Hughes won a gold medal in figure skating at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics and Farmer is a Paralympic champion in sled hockey. Italian American journalist Mario Platero moderated the panel. A post shared by Sarah Hughes (@sarahhughesnyc) There have been many changes since the last time Italy hosted a Winter Games. In Torino in 2006, 2,508 athletes competed across 84 events in seven different sports. In 2026, approximately 2,900 athletes are expected to compete in 116 events across 16 sports, up from 109 events across 15 sports at the 2024 Beijing Games. There will be one new sport in the 2026 Winter Games – ski mountaineering – and eight new events across ski mountaineering, freestyle skiing, luge, ski jumping and skeleton. The Paralympics have also expanded since Italy last hosted. In 2006, 474 para-athletes contested 58 medal events across five sports. At the 2026 Milan Cortina Paralympics, there will be 79 events across six sports compared to 78 events in six sports in Beijing. There will be one new event: mixed doubles in wheelchair curling. About 665 athletes are expected to compete from approximately 50 delegations. Polito (of Trentino marketing) explained what makes the Trentino region uniquely positioned to host some of these events. Nick Zaccardi, 'Trentino is a paradise for sport lovers,' Polito said. 'Sport is part of our region's culture, supported by excellent facilities and strong organization. In Trentino, sport is a way of life, that is practiced all year round, whether it is climbing, hiking or biking, everyone can find their favorite activity here. Now we are very excited to have the chance to host cross-country skiing competitions, ski jumping competitions and Nordic combined next February, and then para cross-country and para biathlon in March'. Enthusiasm for the Games is already building. According to Varnier, more than half of the tickets for the Olympics have been sold, and the U.S. is third among nations with the highest number of tickets bought. Varnier added that they have received volunteer applications from over 100,000 people, many of whom are from the United States. With the U.S. stop complete, the International Roadshow will travel to Tokyo, Oslo, Stockholm, Seoul and Beijing in the coming months to continue to spread enthusiasm for the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics. 'These Games will be a model of sustainability and at the same time they will leave a lasting legacy for future generations,' Alparone said. 'The Lombardy region and Italy are ready to welcome the world with passion and professionalism.'
