Carli Lloyd on retirement plan, career milestones, more in Q&A

By Nick ZaccardiMar 28, 2018, 11:31 AM EDT

ANA Inspiration/Kelly Kline

Carli Lloyd, a double Olympic gold medalist and 2015 World Cup winner, shared her time while promoting female empowerment and motivating youth at the LPGA Tour’s ANA Inspiration on Tuesday (Golf Channel broadcast schedule). Highlights …

OlympicTalk: You said last year that the national team was still trying to find its identity (after a 2016 Olympic quarterfinal loss and last-place finish at the 2017 SheBelieves Cup). After winning the SheBelieves Cup this month, has the team found its identity and can you put it into words?

Lloyd: I think it has. Obviously, since the 2015 World Cup, we’ve gone through a bit of a transition period. We’ve got younger players. We’ve got players who came through the NWSL who don’t have a ton of experience. And then we also have veterans as well in myself. I think that we just need to mold all of that together. Now we’re starting to hone in on what this team’s about, how we want to play as a team, the identity. I do think we are an exciting team to watch. As we get closer and closer to World Cup qualifying [in October], obviously we’re still the U.S. team with that fight and that mentality, but we also have a lot of talented younger players to help bridge all that together. Great result, the SheBelieves. Now we can continue to push on. We know that we can continue to get better. We all just have to do our part to keep pushing on.

OlympicTalk: You’re at 250 caps. You’re almost at 100 goals (98). Which of those numbers means more to you and why?

Lloyd: I didn’t even [know I hit 250]. After the game, [coach] Jill [Ellis] said in front of the group, congrats on 250 caps. I had no idea where I was even at. It was a bit of surprise to me. It’s really not about those numbers. That’s entirely not my focus. I’m just mainly focused on getting myself back into the groove and continuing to be better and better every single day. I have a lot more that I still want to accomplish. I think the best is yet to come.

OlympicTalk: You said in 2015 that you plan to retire from the national team after the 2020 Olympics. Is that still the plan, and is there anything that could happen at the 2019 World Cup or 2020 Olympics that could change that?

Lloyd: I don’t live too far in the future. The goal is that I will be a part of 2019, 2020. Obviously, I have to continue to keep performing, first and foremost. But I know that the only person that would hold me back is myself. So, as long as I continue to keep working as hard as I can every single day, I know that I will be at those events. Yes, you have to account for injuries and things that happen, but that’s life.

Editor’s Note: Lloyd turns 38 in 2020, when she will be older than any previous U.S. Olympic soccer player. She came back from an MCL sprain for the Rio Olympics and missed time last summer with an ankle sprain. Still, she won FIFA Player of the Year in 2015 and 2016 and was runner-up to Dutch Lieke Martens in 2017.

OlympicTalk: So are you leaving the option open of playing beyond 2020?

Lloyd: Internationally, most likely not. I have no clue, to be quite honest. I’m not going to rule out potentially still playing in the NWSL. I really have to kind of figure that out after 2020 and see where I’m at. The challenging thing for women is starting a family. That is something that is important to my husband and I.

OlympicTalk: What are the chances you would play for Manchester City or another European club again, knowing that the next two years are major tournament years?

Lloyd: Anything’s possible, but as we’re gearing up for these two world events, most likely not. It’s just not really feasible to be flying back and forth from Europe. My time at Manchester City for those three months was merely just for those three months, at the moment. Enjoyed my experience, glad I did it. I’m not going to say never, but, most likely, probably, won’t be going overseas again.

OlympicTalk: Do you think Hope Solo will play for the national team again?

Lloyd: No idea. I know she’s had some major shoulder surgeries. I don’t know where she’s at on that. I honestly have no idea.

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VIDEO: Olympic gold medalist pole vaults in Michelin Man costume

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The wind wasn’t on my side today!💨⛳️🥅🏌🏽‍♀️☀️🤪 pic.twitter.com/9EZk6sU2zM

— Carli Lloyd (@CarliLloyd) March 28, 2018

U.S. women’s rugby team qualifies for 2024 Paris Olympics as medal contender

By OlympicTalkMar 31, 2023, 1:31 PM EDT

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The U.S. women’s rugby team qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics by clinching a top-four finish in this season’s World Series.

Since rugby was re-added to the Olympics in 2016, the U.S. men’s and women’s teams finished fifth, sixth, sixth and ninth at the Games.

The U.S. women are having their best season since 2018-19, finishing second or third in all five World Series stops so far and ranking behind only New Zealand and Australia, the winners of the first two Olympic women’s rugby sevens tournaments.

The U.S. also finished fourth at last September’s World Cup.

Three months after the Tokyo Games, Emilie Bydwell was announced as the new U.S. head coach, succeeding Olympic coach Chris Brown.

Soon after, Tokyo Olympic co-captain Abby Gustaitis was cut from the team.

Jaz Gray, who led the team in scoring last season and at the World Cup, missed the last three World Series stops after an injury.

The U.S. men are ranked ninth in this season’s World Series and will likely need to win either a North American Olympic qualifier this summer or a last-chance global qualifier in June 2024 to make it to Paris.

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Oscar Pistorius denied parole, hasn’t served enough time

Associated PressMar 31, 2023, 1:05 PM EDT

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Olympic and Paralympic runner Oscar Pistorius was denied parole Friday and will have to stay in prison for at least another year and four months after it was decided that he had not served the “minimum detention period” required to be released following his murder conviction for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp 10 years ago.

The parole board ruled that Pistorius would only be able to apply again in August 2024, South Africa’s Department of Corrections said in a short, two-paragraph statement. It was released soon after a parole hearing at the Atteridgeville Correctional Centre prison where Pistorius is being held.

The board cited a new clarification on Pistorius’ sentence that was issued by South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal just three days before the hearing, according to the statement. Still, legal experts criticized authorities’ decision to go ahead with the hearing when Pistorius was not eligible.

Reeva Steenkamp’s parents, Barry and June, are “relieved” with the decision to keep Pistorius in prison but are not celebrating it, their lawyer told The Associated Press.

“They can’t celebrate because there are no winners in this situation. They lost a daughter and South Africa lost a hero,” lawyer Tania Koen said, referring to the dramatic fall from grace of Pistorius, once a world-famous and highly-admired athlete.

The decision and reasoning to deny parole was a surprise but there has been legal wrangling over when Pistorius should be eligible for parole because of the series of appeals in his case. He was initially convicted of culpable homicide, a charge comparable to manslaughter, in 2014 but the case went through a number of appeals before Pistorius was finally sentenced to 13 years and five months in prison for murder in 2017.

Serious offenders must serve at least half their sentence to be eligible for parole in South Africa. Pistorius’ lawyers had previously gone to court to argue that he was eligible because he had served the required portion if they also counted periods served in jail from late 2014 following his culpable homicide conviction.

The lawyer handling Pistorius’ parole application did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.

June Steenkamp attended Pistorius’ hearing inside the prison complex to oppose his parole. The parents have said they still do not believe Pistorius’ account of their daughter’s killing and wanted him to stay in jail.

Pistorius, who is now 36, has always claimed he killed Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model and law student, in the pre-dawn hours of Valentine’s Day 2013 after mistaking her for a dangerous intruder in his home. He shot four times with his licensed 9 mm pistol through a closed toilet cubicle door in his bathroom, where Steenkamp was, hitting her multiple times. Pistorius claimed he didn’t realize his girlfriend had got out of bed and gone to the bathroom.

The Steenkamps say they still think he is lying and killed her intentionally after a late-night argument.

Lawyer Koen had struck a more critical tone when addressing reporters outside the prison before the hearing, saying the Steenkamps believed Pistorius could not be considered to be rehabilitated “unless he comes clean” over the killing.

“He’s the killer of their daughter. For them, it’s a life sentence,” Koen said before the hearing.

June Steenkamp had sat grim-faced in the back seat of a car nearby while Koen spoke to reporters outside the prison gates ahead of the hearing. June Steenkamp and Koen were then driven into the prison in a Department of Corrections vehicle. June Steenkamp made her submission to the parole board in a separate room to Pistorius and did not come face-to-face with her daughter’s killer, Koen said.

Barry Steenkamp did not travel for the hearing because of poor health but a family friend read out a statement to the parole board on his behalf, the parents’ lawyer said.

Pistorius was once hailed as an inspirational figure for overcoming the adversity of his disability, before his murder trial and sensational downfall captivated the world.

Pistorius’s lower legs were amputated when he was a baby because of a congenital condition and he walks with prosthetics. He went on to become a double-amputee runner and multiple Paralympic champion who made history by competing against able-bodied athletes at the 2012 London Olympics, running on specially designed carbon-fiber blades.

Pistorius’ conviction eventually led to him being sent to the Kgosi Mampuru II maximum security prison, one of South Africa’s most notorious. He was moved to the Atteridgeville prison in 2016 because that facility is better suited to disabled prisoners.

There have only been glimpses of his life in prison, with reports claiming he had at one point grown a beard, gained weight and taken up smoking and was unrecognizable from the elite athlete he once was.

He has spent much of his time working in an area of the prison grounds where vegetables are grown, sometimes driving a tractor, and has reportedly been running bible classes for other inmates.

Pistorius’ father, Henke Pistorius, told the Pretoria News newspaper before the hearing that his family hoped he would be home soon.

“Deep down, we believe he will be home soon,” Henke Pistorius said, “but until the parole board has spoken the word, I don’t want to get my hopes up.”

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