Usain Bolt on meeting President Obama, Lexi Thompson, what he whispered to Ryan Bailey

Usain Bolt, Barack Obama
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source: AP
AP

NEW YORK — Before Usain Bolt races at the Adidas Grand Prix on Saturday (NBC, NBC Sports Live Extra, 1-3 p.m. ET), the six-time Olympic champion discussed recent chats with President Barack Obama, golfer Lexi Thompson and U.S. sprinter Ryan Bailey.

On April 9, Bolt met Obama in Kingston (video here). What did they say?

“It was one of those moments that I never thought would happen,” Bolt said. “I remember when [I was told] we might be able to meet the president. I was playing it cool, but when I actually met him, it was a different situation. I was dumbstruck. I didn’t know really what to say to the President of the United States. For me, it was one of those moments that puts you in awe. It was wonderful. I really enjoyed having a small talk with him. He knew me pretty well, and he knew my pose.

“I didn’t say much. He was saying what I did was great, and, ‘I’m sure your country’s proud of you, continue striving to be the best.’ I was mumbling a lot of stuff. Not a lot of words came out.”

“What surprised me was he said, ‘Yo, let’s do the pose together.’ That, for me, was the best thing. I was mid-sentence as he said it. Right into my pose instantly.”

Adidas Grand Prix preview, schedule, broadcast info

The previous April, Bolt shared a flight to Milan with the golfer Thompson, a fellow Puma athlete, to film this hot-tub commercial.

Here’s what Thompson said of Bolt earlier this week:

“We had a lot of laughs on that airplane ride. We talked about TV shows. He got mad at me for some reason for saying that my favorite show was ‘Criminal Minds’ or ‘Law & Order’ for some reason. He was a very cool guy. I got to spend a few hours with him. He was cracking jokes the whole time. He had a camera in his face the few hours I got to spend with him, and he was just a very laid back, cool guy.”

Bolt’s road to the Rio Olympics and to a planned 2017 retirement will be documented in a film for theatrical release.

Thompson, a 20-year-old ranked No. 11 in the world, could join Bolt at the Rio 2016 Olympics, golf’s first time at the Games since 1904.

Here’s what Bolt remembered from his conversation with Thompson, namely her TV favorites:

“All of those shows are pretty much the same thing, the same episode every week. This is why I stopped watching, ‘Walker, Texas Ranger,’ stuff like that, because the episodes are pretty much the same. Somebody dies, and somebody goes and solves the mystery. It’s the same thing.

“I told her I can’t play golf to save my life. We talked a little bit about golf. I’m not going to be one of those persons that retires to go play golf. I won’t be one of those persons. I’ll probably play basketball or soccer or something.”

Finally, Bolt discussed his mixed-zone whisper to the U.S. sprinter Bailey, after Bailey anchored the Americans to a 4x100m win over Bolt anchoring the Jamaicans at the IAAF World Relays in Nassau, Bahamas, on May 2.

“I told him, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll get you back for that one. Don’t worry.’ He laughed,” Bolt said.

Bolt may get his chance at the World Championships in Beijing. The 4x100m relay, won by Jamaica at the last three World Championships and two Olympics, is Aug. 29 at the Bird’s Nest.

Flashback Video: Usain Bolt at the Athens 2004 Olympics

Football takes significant step in Olympic push

Flag Football
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
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Football took another step toward possible Olympic inclusion with the IOC executive board proposing that the sport’s international federation — the IFAF — be granted full IOC recognition at a meeting in October.

IOC recognition does not equate to eventual Olympic inclusion, but it is a necessary early marker if a sport is to join the Olympics down the line. The IOC gave the IFAF provisional recognition in 2013.

Specific measures are required for IOC recognition, including having an anti-doping policy compliant with the World Anti-Doping Agency and having 50 affiliated national federations from at least three continents. The IFAF has 74 national federations over five continents with almost 4.8 million registered athletes, according to the IOC.

The NFL has helped lead the push for flag football to be added for the 2028 Los Angeles Games. Flag football had medal events for men and women at last year’s World Games, a multi-sport competition including Olympic and non-Olympic sports, in Birmingham, Alabama.

Football is one of nine sports that have been reported to be in the running to be proposed by LA 2028 to the IOC to be added for the 2028 Games only. LA 2028 has not announced which, if any sports, it plans to propose.

Under rules instituted before the Tokyo Games, Olympic hosts have successfully proposed to the IOC adding sports solely for their edition of the Games.

For Tokyo, baseball-softball, karate, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing were added. For Paris, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing were approved again, and breaking will make its Olympic debut. Those sports were added four years out from the Games.

For 2028, the other sports reportedly in the running for proposal are baseball and softball, breaking, cricket, karate, kickboxing, lacrosse, motorsports and squash.

All of the other eight sports reportedly in the running for 2028 proposal already have a federation with full IOC recognition (if one counts the international motorcycle racing federation for motorsports).

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Helen Maroulis stars in wrestling documentary, with help from Chris Pratt

Helen Maroulis, Chris Pratt
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One of the remarkable recent Olympic comeback stories is the subject of a film that will be shown nationwide in theaters for one day only on Thursday.

“Helen | Believe” is a documentary about Helen Maroulis, the first U.S. Olympic women’s wrestling champion. It is produced by Religion of Sports, the venture founded by Gotham Chopra, Michael Strahan and Tom Brady. Showing details are here.

After taking gold at the 2016 Rio Games, Maroulis briefly retired in 2019 during a two-year stretch in which she dealt with concussions and post-traumatic stress disorder. The film focuses on that period and her successful bid to return and qualify for the Tokyo Games, where she took bronze.

In a poignant moment in the film, Maroulis described her “rock bottom” — being hospitalized for suicidal ideations.

In an interview, Maroulis said she was first approached about the project in 2018, the same year she had her first life-changing concussion that January. A wrestling partner’s mother was connected to director Dylan Mulick.

Maroulis agreed to the film in part to help spread mental health awareness in sports. Later, she cried while watching the 2020 HBO film, “The Weight of Gold,” on the mental health challenges that other Olympians faced, because it resonated with her so much.

“When you’re going through something, it sometimes gives you an anchor of hope to know that someone’s been through it before, and they’ve overcome it,” she said.

Maroulis’ comeback story hit a crossroads at the Olympic trials in April 2021, where the winner of a best-of-three finals series in each weight class made Team USA.

Maroulis won the opening match against Jenna Burkert, but then lost the second match. Statistically, a wrestler who loses the second match in a best-of-three series usually loses the third. But Maroulis pinned Burkert just 22 seconds into the rubber match to clinch the Olympic spot.

Shen then revealed that she tore an MCL two weeks earlier.

“They told me I would have to be in a brace for six weeks,” she said then. “I said, ‘I don’t have that. I have two and a half.’”

Maroulis said she later asked the director what would have happened if she didn’t make the team for Tokyo. She was told the film still have been done.

“He had mentioned this isn’t about a sports story or sports comeback story,” Maroulis said. “This is about a human story. And we’re using wrestling as the vehicle to tell this story of overcoming and healing and rediscovering oneself.”

Maroulis said she was told that, during filming, the project was pitched to the production company of actor Chris Pratt, who wrestled in high school in Washington. Pratt signed on as a producer.

“Wrestling has made an impact on his life, and so he wants to support these kinds of stories,” said Maroulis, who appeared at last month’s Santa Barbara Film Festival with Pratt.

Pratt said he knew about Maroulis before learning about the film, which he said “needed a little help to get it over the finish line,” according to a public relations company promoting the film.

The film also highlights the rest of the six-woman U.S. Olympic wrestling team in Tokyo. Four of the six won a medal, including Tamyra Mensah-Stock‘s gold.

“I was excited to be part of, not just (Maroulis’) incredible story, but also helping to further advance wrestling and, in particular, female wrestling,” Pratt said, according to responses provided by the PR company from submitted questions. “To me, the most compelling part of Helen’s story is the example of what life looks like after a person wins a gold medal. The inevitable comedown, the trauma around her injuries, the PTSD, the drive to continue that is what makes her who she is.”

Maroulis, who now trains in Arizona, hopes to qualify for this year’s world championships and next year’s Olympics.

“I try to treat every Games as my last,” she said. “Now I’m leaning toward being done [after 2024], but never say never.”

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