by tyler | Apr 3, 2023 | CNN, sport
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is one of the greatest ever sprinters – accustomed to winning Olympic and world titles – so when she took part in a race at her son’s sports day, no one else really stood a chance.
Fraser-Pryce can be seen sprinting off into the distance in video footage which has since gone viral on social media, leaving the other parents trailing meters behind her.
The 36-year-old is the third fastest woman of all time, with only Florence Griffith-Joyner and Elaine Thompson-Herah recording faster times in the 100 meters.
Fraser-Pryce’s speed has carried her to eight Olympic medals – three of them gold – as well as 10 world titles, and now victory at her son’s sports day.
“Every point counts,” she commented, alongside a heart, smiley face, and rocket emojis, on a Facebook post showing the video.
But it seems that Fraser-Pryce is one of the only athletes to push it to the limit outside of the sport’s top echelons, as four-time Olympic champion Michael Johnson recalled skipping out on his son’s sports day on Twitter.
“At my son’s school parent sports day I was long retired and some of the parents were younger than me. Increased risk of ‘I’m John and I just beat Michael Johnson in a race.’ Nope!” he tweeted.
With Paris 2024 on the horizon for Fraser-Pryce, it doesn’t seem likely that she will take it any easier in next year’s edition should she take part. Sorry, other parents.
by tyler | Apr 3, 2023 | CNN, sport
LSU star Angel Reese defended the gesture she aimed at Iowa Hawkeyes’ Caitlin Clark near the end of the Tigers’ first NCAA women’s basketball national championship victory on Sunday, saying “I don’t take disrespect lightly.”
Reese could be seen approaching Clark before moving her open hand in front of her face – popularized by WWE star John Cena to mean “you can’t see me” – before pointing to her ring finger in a gesture some interpreted as a reference to the place her newly-acquired championship ring might sit.
Clark made a similar gesture to another player earlier in the tournament.
The gesture has sparked much debate, especially on social media. Some have criticized Reese, while others have defended her actions, highlighting how there was no public outrage in response to Clark’s gesture earlier in the tournament.
Sports journalist Jose de Jesus Ortiz called Reese’s actions “classless,” while former ESPN host Keith Olbermann called Reese an “idiot” for the gesture.
In the press conference after the victory, Reese referenced the difference in reaction she received as a result of her gesture as compared to the one Clark received.
“All year, I was critiqued for who I was. I don’t fit the narrative,” Reese said. “I don’t fit the box that y’all want me to be in. I’m too hood. I’m too ghetto. Y’all told me that all year. But when other people do it, and y’all don’t say nothing.
“So this is for the girls that look like me. For those that want to speak up for what they believe in. It’s unapologetically you. And that’s what I did it for tonight. It was bigger than me tonight. And Twitter is going to go into a rage every time.
“And I’m happy. I feel like I’ve helped grow women’s basketball this year. (…) I’m looking forward to celebrating and then next season.”
Reese had 15 points and 10 rebounds in the 102-85 victory and won the women’s March Madness’ Most Outstanding Player award.
In the post-game broadcast, Reese referenced the similar gesture Clark made to a Louisville opponent in the Elite Eight.
In the same game, Clark said to an opponent: “You’re down by 15 points. Shut up,” according to the Bleacher Report.
“Caitlin Clark is a hell of a player but I don’t take disrespect lightly,” Reese said. “She disrespected [LSU’s] Alexis [Morris] (…) and I wanted to pick her pocket. But I had a moment at the end of her game. I was in my bag, I was in my moment.”
After the Championship game, Clark herself said she didn’t notice anything at the time.
“I was just trying to get to the handshake line and shake hands and be grateful that my team was in that position,” Clark said in the post-game press conference. “All the credit in the world to LSU. They were tremendous. They deserve it. They had a tremendous season.
“(LSU head coach) Kim Mulkey coached them so, so well. She’s one of the best basketball coaches of all time, and it shows. She only said really kind things to me in the handshake line, so I’m very grateful of that too.
“But honestly I have no idea. I was just trying to spend the last few moments on the court with especially the five people that I’ve started 93 games with and relishing every second of that.”
LSU head coach Mulkey said she had “no clue” about what transpired.
Among those defending Reese on social media were ESPN’s Holly Rowe and former NBA star Etan Thomas.
“People hating on Angel Reese or Caitlin Clark. Stop. Unapologetically confident young women should be celebrated NOT hated. Get used to it,” Rowe wrote on Twitter.
Former Washington Wizards, Oklahoma City Thunder and Atlanta Hawks player Thomas wrote: “Hold on now!!!! It was cute when Caitlin Clark did it. Y’all didn’t have any issues with it at all. So don’t be all outraged and talking about class and sportsmanship when Angel Reese does the same thing. We’re not doing double standards here.”
Reese said the negative reaction on social media throughout the season has helped fuel her excellent season, having finished averaging 23.0 points and 15.4 rebounds in her first season with LSU after transferring from Maryland.
“Twitter can say what they want to say,” she said. “I love reading those comments. I have all the screenshots of what everybody has said about me all season. What are you going to say now?”
by tyler | Mar 31, 2023 | CNN, sport
CeCé Telfer calls it the moment her dreams seemed to be shattered as she questioned whether years of “blood, sweat and tears” were in vain.
Last week, governing body World Athletics (WA) announced it would be prohibiting athletes who have gone through what it called “male puberty” from participating in female world rankings competitions.
That includes Telfer, an American 400-meter hurdler who became the first out, transgender athlete to win an NCAA title in 2019.
“The overriding feeling was definitely devastation for myself and for many around the world,” Telfer, speaking about her initial reaction to the announcement, tells CNN Sport in an exclusive interview.
She says the regulation change smarts even more because it comes into force on March 31 – which coincides with Trans Day of Visibility – but has also emboldened her hopes of one day competing at the highest level of her sport.
“I’m still going to keep pursuing my dreams and keep competing and keep running as much as I can, wherever I can, however I can,” Telfer adds.
Under previous WA regulations, transgender women with serum testosterone levels below five nanomoles per liter for at least 12 months were able to compete in women’s categories of elite competition.
The new policy follows similar regulations introduced by swimming governing body World Aquatics last year, which say that transgender women athletes are only eligible to compete in the women’s categories if they demonstrate that they did not experience “any part of male puberty beyond Tanner Stage 2 or before age 12, whichever is later.”
“The science shows that anyone who has gone through male puberty retains male anatomical differences that provide an athletic advantage,” World Athletics said in a statement to CNN last week.
“The World Athletics Council was unwilling to compromise the integrity of the female category without evidence that these male advantages can be ameliorated.”
The science on these alleged advantages, however, is not conclusive. A 2017 report in the journal Sports Medicine that reviewed several related studies found “no direct or consistent research” on trans people having an athletic advantage over their cisgender peers.
A WA document obtained by CNN earlier this year acknowledged that there is “limited existing experimental data” on the perceived advantages of transgender women competing in women’s categories, and WA president Sebastian Coe said a working group would be set up to evaluate the issue of transgender inclusion over the next 12 months.
The working group, World Athletics says, will include a transgender representative and will “consult specifically with transgender athletes to seek their views on competing in athletics.”
Trans rights groups argue that the new regulations are discriminatory, while opponents of trans inclusion in women’s athletics see them as a victory for upholding what they call fairness in the women’s category.
For Telfer, the decision all but ends her hopes of competing for Team USA at the Paris Olympics next year – though not the end of her track and field career altogether.
“Honestly, I’m not ready to hang up my spikes yet,” she says. “I have so much left in me. The fight has just started.
“To throw that all away – my life of training will be for nothing. I’m going to keep doing what I have to do and show my people and society moving forward that I’m never going to give up.”
Telfer competed for NCAA Division II Franklin Pierce University men’s track and field team for three years, although she told FOLX Health last year that she “never saw myself as a male athlete.”
Competing on the women’s team as a senior, she won the NCAA title in the women’s 400-meter hurdles in 2019.
In 2021, the Jamican-born Telfer competed in and won prize money while taking part in events sanctioned by USA Track and Field (USATF).
She says she was given formal permission to take part in the Olympic trials for the Tokyo Olympics that year but was told the day before those trials began that she had not met eligibility requirements.
Then ahead of the 2022 national trials for the World Athletics Championships, she says she was told she had submitted her blood tests in the wrong format, leaving her unable to compete.
Despite the regulation change, Telfer is still able to compete at track meets that fall outside the jurisdiction of WA and plans to compete at the Bryan Clay Invitational next month in Azusa, California.
She is, however, worried about how she will be received in her first race of the outdoor season.
“I’m sure there is going to be a lot of people giving me the side-eye, wondering what I am doing here,” Telfer says.
“But I’m going to always show up no matter what, and I’m just going to have to stay focused.”
The 28-year-old also says she feels a growing sense of isolation within the athletics community and will attend the meet alone as she doesn’t currently have a coach.
Telfer says she has reached out to more than 500 coaches asking to work with them but has so far not received any long-term offers.
“There were coaches that were interested, but after researching me and seeing the controversy that revolves around an athlete like me, a lot of coaches feel as though their reputation is going to be jeopardized or their career is on the line,” says Telfer, speaking to CNN Sport before the WA regulation change.
“A lot of them are just like: good luck, we wish the best for you, but we’re not the ones to coach you right now.”
On one occasion, she says she started training with an Olympic coach in Los Angeles but was dropped after the other athletes in the group said they did not “feel safe or comfortable” training alongside her, according to Telfer.
“Something inside of me knew it wasn’t going to last too long,” she says.
“When he called me after practice and told me that it was brought to his attention that I am transgender – because he didn’t know – and his athletes brought it to his attention, I knew in my soul. It was kind of like an ‘oh there it is’ moment.”
As she continues to train in the hope of one day competing on the international stage, Telfer also hopes to have a hand in shaping the sport’s future by contributing to WA’s review of its transgender regulations.
And even though her NCAA title feels a long time ago now – like “a dream I woke up from,” according to Telfer – she says she’s dependent on athletics to bring joy and sanity to her life.
“There’s a place for each and every one of us and I know where I belong,” says Telfer. “I just want the world to know that.”
by tyler | Mar 31, 2023 | CNN, sport
Ukraine has decided to boycott Olympic qualifying events in which Russians are competing for the Paris 2024 Games.
Oleh Nemchinov, the Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, announced the decision in a televised interview on Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne on Thursday.
This follows International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach outlining new guidelines on Tuesday that would allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as neutrals, paving the way for their participation.
Athletes from the two nations were banned from most international competitions in February 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and following the IOC executive board’s recommendation.
“Today at the government meeting a protocol decision was made based on the proposal of my colleague (Ukrainian Sports Minister and Ukrainian National Olympic Committee President Vadym) Gutzeit that we participate only in the qualifying competitions where there are no Russians,” Nemchinov said.
Nemchinov acknowledged it was not an easy decision, and that it meant some Ukrainian athletes would miss their chance to participate in the Olympics.
“You know, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone,” he said when he asked what would happen to Ukrainian athletes.
“Yesterday, I attended another funeral of a good acquaintance of mine, who gave more than 20 years to athletics and died in the Kharkiv area. He left behind three children. He volunteered for his second war. And he wasn’t a canteen cook, let’s put it that way. That is, he was serving in combat units,” Nemchinov said.
“So, I want to tell our fellow athletes who are worried that because of the IOC’s decisions and the admission of Russians or Belarusians to the competitions, respectively, that Ukrainians will not be able to participate, that their careers will be ruined or something to that effect. But actually, you and your children’s lives will be saved,” Nemchinov added.
Ukrainian skeleton star and Beijing 2022 Winter Olympian Vladyslav Heraskevych told CNN’s Amanda Davies on Wednesday that the IOC’s decision to allow Russian and Belarussian athletes to participate in international competitions comes as “a slap in the face, not only to Ukrainian athletes but to all Ukraine and all Ukrainians.”
But Heraskevych also told CNN that boycotting Paris 2024 should be up to athletes and that “athletes should decide their own road.”
According to the IOC’s latest recommendations, athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport must compete only as individual neutral athletes and meet all anti-doping requirements, while those who support the war or are contracted to military or national service cannot compete.
The IOC also said that a decision about the participation of athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games would be made at a later stage.
The Kremlin has described those guidelines as containing “elements of discrimination.”
Last month, the US and more than 30 other “like-minded” countries backed a proposed ban of Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing in international sports, according to a joint statement.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s sports minister said in January the country would not rule out boycotting the Olympics if Russian and Belarusian athletes are allowed to compete at Paris 2024.
Last week, World Athletics president Sebastian Coe announced Russian and Belarusian athletes will still be excluded from World Athletics Series Events “for the foreseeable future,” reaffirming the organization’s March 2022 decision.
by tyler | Mar 30, 2023 | CNN, sport
With multiple women coming forward about their disturbing experiences in the chess world, including accusations of sexual misconduct by a grandmaster, the historic game is having its own #MeToo moment.
Popular online chess streamer Anna Cramling says she’s also had uncomfortable experiences during her career in the game.
The 20-year-old, who boasts almost 400,000 subscribers on YouTube, says being a woman in chess has sometimes led to unwanted comments by men that left her feeling uncomfortable and lonely during tournaments.
“I’ve had weird experiences in the chess world ever since I was a kid,” Cramling told CNN Sport.
“From adult men complimenting me at chess tournaments, to receiving DMs from my chess opponents saying things such as ‘I couldn’t stop looking at you’ during our chess game.
“This made me feel very uncomfortable, as a chess game typically takes four or five hours, so it felt weird knowing that someone so much older than me had been thinking about me in that way for so many hours.”
As the daughter of two grandmasters – her mother, Pia, was the fifth-ever female grandmaster and her father, Juan Manuel Bellón López, a five-time Spanish champion – chess has always played an important role in Cramling’s life.
Born in Spain, Cramling said she spent a lot of time traveling with her parents to tournaments around the world and eventually decided to develop her own skills.
She says she started taking chess more seriously after moving to Sweden with her family, studying the game for up to two hours every day.
“Even if I didn’t study every day, I constantly heard about chess, I constantly saw my parents analyzing their chess games, talking about chess,” she said.
According to Chess.com, Cramling reached a peak International Chess Federation (FIDE) rating of 2175 in 2018 which qualifies her as a Woman FIDE Master – the third-highest ranking for women, behind the woman grandmaster and the woman international master.
Since 2020, however, Cramling says her focus has been more on building her social media platforms.
Cramling recalls the moment when an arbiter questioned her outfit during a youth tournament that she was part of when she was 15.
It was summer, she said, so like many she was wearing shorts, and had gone over to speak to some friends she knew competing in the men’s tournament.
She said a tournament official approached her and told her she was “distracting all the male players.”
“I remember going back to the women’s section of the tournament and feeling so embarrassed and guilty that I couldn’t concentrate throughout my whole game – I just wanted to leave,” she said.
“One of the main issues has been that there are so many more guys than girls that play chess, and being a woman at a chess tournament can sometimes feel lonely.
“I have sometimes played in tournaments with over 300 participants, where only five have been women.
“I think that one of the reasons so few women compete is because the environment in chess tournaments can be very hostile to them, and I know that many, many women have stories like mine, or worse.”
Despite these incidents, Cramling still has an obvious passion for the game that is visible on her online platforms.
She regularly uploads videos, such as informal matches against grandmaster Magnus Carlsen, and streams her games online.
The world of chess streaming may be relatively new, but it certainly has an audience.
In addition to her growing YouTube channel, Cramling boasts 301,000 followers on Twitch and almost 150,000 on Instagram. She says that most of the feedback she receives online is friendly.
Cramling says her presence and subsequent following have grown monthly, and she was recently nominated for Best Chess Streamer at The Streamer Awards this year.
She’s come a long way since her first video, which she says she made using her then boyfriend’s laptop.
By chance, her decision to experiment with streaming coincided with the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw the world of online chess experience a boom in popularity – online platform Chess.com said earlier this year it had more than 102 million users signed up, a 238% increase from January 2020.
Cramling says she is grateful that her knowledge and enthusiasm for chess have found an audience.
“I never thought I was going to make a living out of this,” she said. “It was so fun in the beginning, and I still think it’s really fun.
“I think that also translates into streams, people see that I’m having fun and I think that’s the most important thing.
“The moment when it starts not being fun, I think it’s really hard to make good content.”
Cramling says she wants her content to serve as more than just entertainment.
According to researcher David Smerdon, only 11% of FIDE-rated players and only 2% of grandmasters – the highest chess title awarded by the sport’s governing body – are women.
Just like her mother was her role model, Cramling now wants to inspire other women to play chess, but says tournaments must do their part.
She says she wants officials to be more engaged in monitoring behavior toward women and has called on them to take charge if an issue arises.
“Chess trainers, players and especially tournament officials should all set an example to make everyone feel welcome, no matter who they are. Chess is a game for everyone,” she said.
“I hope that, through my online presence, I can contribute in showing that women have a voice in chess and inspire more women to play.
“I know that chess tournaments will not forever look this way, we just need to get more women to play.
“The more we talk about how badly some women are treated at tournaments, and the more we listen to everyone’s stories, the more we are able to make a change.”
CNN reached out to FIDE for comment but hadn’t received a reply at the time of publication.
by tyler | Mar 30, 2023 | CNN, sport
Baseball is back with a fresh set of rules. On Opening Day, Major League Baseball will introduce a slew of brand-new regulations in the hopes of speeding up the pace of play, encouraging more game action, and making the sport more compelling to fans.
For the first time ever, MLB will utilize a pitch clock. Each inning break will be two minutes and 15 seconds, and there will be only 30 seconds allowed in between batters. Pitchers must begin their windup before the clock expires. They will have just 15 seconds between pitches with no runners on base, or 20 seconds with runners on base, to start their motion. If the timer hits zero, the runner gets an automatic ball.
Hitters will also be impacted by the time constraints. Batters must be in the box and looking at the pitcher in eight seconds or less, or else they get an automatic strike.
“If [fans] want a faster pace game, they’re going to get it,” three-time Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander told CNN Sport’s Andy Scholes. “If it’s good for the game and the fans enjoy it, then I’m all for it.”
This upcoming season is the first time these time restrictions will be tested at the Major League level. However, MLB says they have tested the clock in more than 8,000 minor league games and in spring training games to prepare for this season.
“At last check, the pitch timer had reduced the average time of game in MiLB by about 26 minutes,” said MLB.
The shift is a defensive strategy in which defending players move away from their traditional positions on the field into more optimal positioning for certain hitters. For example, when a left-handed player comes up to bat, the shortstop or third baseman might move over to right field. To put it simply, players shift their position to an area that the ball is more likely to get hit towards.
In recent years, the shift has become increasingly more popular and evolved into a staple of MLB. However, teams will no longer be able to employ the strategy.
Moving forward, infielders must keep both feet within the outer boundary of the infield when the pitcher starts in motion. Two infielders must be positioned on each side of second base when the pitch is released. And finally, infielders may not switch sides or move to the outfield unless there is a substitution.
Without the shift, fans can expect some players’ batting averages to go up, more ground balls and doubles hit per game, and more athletic plays at second base.
Dusty Baker, manager of the Houston Astros, told CNN that eliminating the shift will put a greater emphasis on players’ defensive abilities.
“It’s going to cause teams to be more athletic,” Baker said. “You won’t be able to put just anybody here, anybody there and depend on the shift to make up for whatever deficiencies that they might have.”
The size of the bases will be increased by three inches. This should encourage more stolen bases, and according to MLB, decrease the number of injuries that occur near the bases.
Washington Nationals’ first baseman Dominic Smith has already noticed the impact on player safety.
“I think it’s a great move though because now you aren’t seeing as many collisions,” he said. “It’s keeping the game safer, and that’s all we can ask for.”
Although the bigger base gives the defending player more room, the change is more advantageous to the runners. Because the bases are larger, the distances between first, second, and third bases are shortened by 4.5 inches.
Ultimately, the league and the players seem to share one common goal: growing the game of baseball.
Two-time All Star Alex Bregman discussed how the new changes will benefit younger generations of fans.
“With young kids being able to watch a full 9 innings now… That’s one way to bring the younger generation into the game, make sure more kids are going to the ballpark,” Bregman said. “I think there’s a bunch of ways we can make a difference in making a lot of kids love baseball and grow up wanting to be big leaguers.”
