U.S. women romp to World Gymnastics Championships gold

By Nick ZaccardiOct 27, 2015, 6:25 PM EDT

Five U.S. women in red and sparkling silver leotards clutched each other’s hands as they waited for the scoreboard to update one final time, just like the Fierce Five at the London Olympics.

“I got the shivers,” said Maggie Nichols, the only rookie on this year’s team. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.

It wasn’t a matter of if the Americans would win, but by how much.

The U.S. women’s gymnastics team captured its fourth straight global title in a romp, hitting all 12 routines for a wire-to-wire victory at the World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, on Tuesday.

“I think we started off with a bang,” team leader Simone Biles said, “and ended with a bang.”

The Americans totaled 181.338 points, beating silver medalist China by 5.174.

Great Britain edged Russia for bronze by .416, its first World Championships team medal, its gymnasts bawling as the home crowd applauded.

Biles, who will go for an unprecedented third straight women’s World all-around title Thursday, earned her 10th World Championships medal, matching the U.S. record held by the retired Alicia Sacramone. She said her mom locks up all of her medals.

London Olympic champions Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman, the U.S. all-around silver medalist Nichols and Madison Kocian joined Biles on Tuesday. They scored 14.8 points or better on 10 of 12 combined routines and were the only team with no falls.

“We know we can do these routines in our sleep,” Raisman said.

It was a dominating U.S. performance, but not as big of a blowout as its 2014 World title (6.693-point margin). And it came after about 20 days of training with no days off, Nichols said.

“We made a joke that we worked out so much that we were going to go on strike,” Raisman said. “It was all worth it.”

The last nation to win four straight global titles was Romania, which captured the 1997, 1999 and 2001 World titles and the 2000 Olympic title.

“I almost don’t even remember,” U.S. women’s national team coordinator Martha Karolyi said of the streak. “I know that every time that’s where we strive, but we just never assume. … I see sometimes, or in the past, that once somebody gets to the top, think that I deserve to be there just because who I am.”

Karolyi is the secret to the streak, along with plenty of hard work, Raisman said.

Now, the U.S. will go into Rio 2016 with a chance for the first run of five straight global titles since the Soviet Union won six from 1968 through 1978.

“The pressure will be there,” Biles said. “We’re all really good at handling the pressure.”

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Biles, Douglas, Raisman and Nichols set themselves up well this year to make the five-woman Olympic team, which will be chosen after the Olympic trials from July 8-10 in San Jose. The Rio Olympics open Aug. 5.

“Aly and Gabby keep saying this is just like the Olympics,” Biles said of Worlds. “It’s just the title that’s different.”

Karolyi, whose judgment matters the most in deciding the Olympic team, said she’s very pleased with the comebacks of Douglas and Raisman, who took two years off after London 2012 and are trying to become the first U.S. women since 2000 to make back-to-back Olympic teams.

“I think probably with the leftover several months until Olympics, they will be in totally top shape,” Karolyi told media in Glasgow. “I think it’s a great achievement so far.”

Who else is in the running?

Kocian, who competed on one event in the team final, uneven bars. Brenna Dowell, who is also strongest on bars, and went unused in the team final. MyKayla Skinner was the alternate in Glasgow. Her best events are vault and floor exercise.

Then there’s Laurie Hernandez, the U.S. junior champion who will be old enough for the Olympics in 2016 and could become the first U.S. Olympian in any sport born in 2000.

Of the other London Olympians, Jordyn Wieber retired, McKayla Maroney hasn’t competed in more than two years and Kyla Ross finished 10th in the all-around at the P&G Championships in August and withdrew from Worlds team selection.

Olympic silver medalist Russia could be stronger in Rio than in Glasgow, if it gets 2010 World all-around champion Aliya Mustafina back from injury.

Douglas, with gold nail polish, said having a gold medal draped around her neck felt “like old times” but that this year’s team is stronger and more powerful than in 2011, at the start of this dominating run.

“We each bring, like, a different unique treasure to the team,” she said.

NBC Olympics researcher Amanda Doyle contributed to this report from Glasgow.

MORE GYMNASTICS: World Championships broadcast schedule

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SCORES
GOLD: U.S. — 181.338
SILVER: China — 176.164
BRONZE: Great Britain — 172.380
4. Russia — 171.964
5. Japan — 169.887
6. Canada — 167.697
7. Italy — 167.597
8. Netherlands — 162.730

China's Shang Chunsong to @tangdidi : "we wouldn't win the gold anyway so we were very relaxed."

— Will Graves (@WillGravesAP) October 27, 2015

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

By Nick ZaccardiMar 29, 2023, 10:05 AM EDT

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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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IOC recommends how Russia, Belarus athletes can return as neutrals

By OlympicTalkMar 28, 2023, 8:45 PM EDT

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The IOC updated its recommendations to international sports federations regarding Russian and Belarusian athletes, advising that they can return to competitions outside of the Olympics as neutral athletes in individual events and only if they do not actively support the war in Ukraine. Now, it’s up to those federations to decide if and how they will reinstate the athletes as 2024 Olympic qualifying heats up.

The IOC has not made a decision on the participation of Russian or Belarusian athletes for the Paris Games and will do so “at the appropriate time,” IOC President Thomas Bach said Tuesday.

Most international sports federations for Olympic sports banned Russian and Belarusian athletes last year following IOC recommendations to do so after the invasion of Ukraine.

Bach was asked Tuesday what has changed in the last 13 months that led to the IOC updating its recommendations.

He reiterated previous comments that, after the invasion and before the initial February 2022 recommendations, some governments refused to issue visas for Russians and Belarusians to compete, and other governments threatened withdrawing funding from athletes who competed against Russians and Belarusians. He also said the safety of Russians and Belarusians at competitions was at risk at the time.

Bach said that Russians and Belarusians have been competing in sports including tennis, the NHL and soccer (while not representing their countries) and that “it’s already working.”

“The question, which has been discussed in many of these consultations, is why should what is possible in all these sports not be possible in swimming, table tennis, wrestling or any other sport?” Bach said.

Bach then read a section of remarks that a United Nations cultural rights appointee made last week.

“We have to start from agreeing that these states [Russia and Belarus] are going to be excluded,” Bach read, in part. “The issue is what happens with individuals. … The blanket prohibition of Russian and Belarusian athletes and artists cannot continue. It is a flagrant violation of human rights. The idea is not that we are going to recognize human rights to people who are like us and with whom we agree on their actions and on their behavior. The idea is that anyone has the right not to be discriminated on the basis of their passport.”

The IOC’s Tuesday recommendations included not allowing “teams of athletes” from Russia and Belarus to return.

If Russia continues to be excluded from team sports and team events, it could further impact 2024 Olympic qualification.

The international basketball federation (FIBA) recently set an April 28 deadline to decide whether to allow Russia to compete in an Olympic men’s qualifying tournament. For women’s basketball, the draw for a European Olympic qualifying tournament has already been made without Russia.

In gymnastics, the ban has already extended long enough that, under current rules, Russian gymnasts cannot qualify for men’s and women’s team events at the Paris Games, but can still qualify for individual events if the ban is lifted.

Gymnasts from Russia swept the men’s and women’s team titles in Tokyo, where Russians in all sports competed for the Russian Olympic Committee rather than for Russia due to punishment for the nation’s doping violations. There were no Russian flags or anthems, conditions that the IOC also recommends for any return from the current ban for the war in Ukraine.

Seb Coe, the president of World Athletics, said last week that Russian and Belarusian athletes remain banned from track and field for the “foreseeable future.”

World Aquatics, the international governing body for swimming, diving and water polo, said after the IOC’s updated recommendations that it will continue to “consider developments impacting the situation” of Russian and Belarusian athletes and that “further updates will be provided when appropriate.”

The IOC’s sanctions against Russia and Belarus and their governments remain in place, including disallowing international competitions to be held in those countries.

On Monday, Ukraine’s sports minister said in a statement that Ukraine “strongly urges” that Russian and Belarusian athletes remain banned.

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