The best of Austrian track and field star Ivona Dadic in images
Dadic's career hit the grandest international stage, too, with the heptathlete representing Team Austria at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England, and the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
Austrian heptathlete Ivona Dadic
Austrian heptathlete Ivona Dadic
Austrian heptathlete Ivona Dadic
Austrian heptathlete Ivona Dadic
Austrian heptathlete Ivona Dadic
Austrian heptathlete Ivona Dadic
Austrian heptathlete Ivona Dadic
Austrian heptathlete Ivona Dadic
Austrian heptathlete Ivona Dadic
Austrian heptathlete Ivona Dadic
Austrian heptathlete Ivona Dadic
Austrian heptathlete Ivona Dadic
Austrian heptathlete Ivona Dadic
Austrian heptathlete Ivona Dadic
Austrian heptathlete Ivona Dadic
Austrian heptathlete Ivona Dadic
Austrian heptathlete Ivona Dadic
Austrian heptathlete Ivona Dadic
Austrian heptathlete Ivona Dadic
Austrian heptathlete Ivona Dadic
Austrian heptathlete Ivona Dadic
Austrian heptathlete Ivona Dadic
Austrian heptathlete Ivona Dadic
Austrian heptathlete Ivona Dadic
Austrian heptathlete Ivona Dadic
Austrian heptathlete Ivona Dadic
Austrian heptathlete Ivona Dadic
Austrian heptathlete Ivona Dadic
Austrian heptathlete Ivona Dadic
Austrian heptathlete Ivona Dadic
Austrian heptathlete Ivona Dadic
Austrian heptathlete Ivona Dadic
Austrian heptathlete Ivona Dadic
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38 minutes ago
Ilona Maher wants America to fall in love with rugby during Women's World Cup
SUNDERLAND, England -- Ilona Maher's mission at the Women's Rugby World Cup is about more than just winning games. Heading into the United States' tournament opener on Friday, the world's most followed rugby player on social media wants to get more eyeballs on the sport as it ramps up attempts to crack the market in America. 'Not many people know that there's a Women's Rugby World Cup going on, so we try to get as many people as we can to spread that knowledge,' Maher said ahead of the match against host England in the World Cup curtain-raiser in Sunderland. 'We want the fans in America to see us play here because we've got a World Cup there in eight years and we need to start building for that.' Rugby authorities see America as a vital new market for the sport. The United States will stage the men's Rugby World Cup in 2031 and the women's tournament in 2033. The presence of Maher is key to attracting attention on rugby in the U.S., given she has 5.2 million followers on Instagram and 3.6 million on TikTok — platforms on which she promotes body positivity. The 29-year-old Vermont native believes she and her teammates are 'changing the game on and off the field a lot.' 'This is a time where women's rugby is in a state where it could grow massively,' she said, 'and I do believe this team is at the forefront with how we present ourselves and people's perception of us.' Maher certainly stands out, having been named as the best breakthrough athlete at the ESPYs last month. In an interview with the BBC ahead of the World Cup, she said she has been approached by the WWE — joking that her ring name would be 'Maher-vellous' if she ever became a wrestler — and that she'd love to get into acting. First, though, she wants to deliver at the World Cup, starting with the match in front of 40,000 spectators against England, the tournament favorite, in the north of the country. A star in rugby sevens, in which she won a bronze medal with the U.S. team at the Paris Olympics last year, Maher also had a three-month stint at English club Bristol in the 15 players-a-team format at the start of 2025. 'I think it's so cool,' Maher said, 'that we're up here, so far away from maybe where rugby union is big, and yet we're getting 40,000 people out to a game.' The Americans also will play Australia and Samoa in Pool A at the World Cup.
New York Times
39 minutes ago
- New York Times
‘Trust' is at the center of Dani Busboom Kelly's new era of Nebraska volleyball
LINCOLN, Neb. — The only returning first-team selection among four All-Americans back on the Nebraska volleyball roster, Andi Jackson, received an invite to compete this summer with the United States as part of the Volleyball Nations League. The annual tournament serves as a training ground for the best players in the world. The opportunity for Jackson to play for U.S. national team coach Erik Sullivan could have been pivotal in her bid to make the Olympic squad ahead of the Los Angeles Games in 2028. Advertisement Jackson turned it down after consulting with Dani Busboom Kelly, Nebraska's first-year coach. 'I was super excited and humbled,' Jackson said. 'But there's just a time and a place for everything. Right now, my commitment is to this team. When I talked to Erik Sullivan, I thanked him. But I told him, right now, it's my first priority to win a national championship.' Such an action requires trust. Trust in Jackson's teammates. And trust in Busboom Kelly, the 40-year-old former Nebraska national champion as a player and an assistant coach who returned home in January after the retirement of her mentor, four-time national champ John Cook, to take over the most high-profile program in college volleyball. At the center of Busboom Kelly's first seven months back in Lincoln stands a pillar of trust that she worked hurriedly to build. She has made an imprint, marked by some changes of a subtle nature and others more bold. Whatever she does, a rabid fan base watches every move. Busboom Kelly, as a Nebraska native and the new caretaker of this state's most prized sporting possession, is in higher demand than third-year football coach Matt Rhule. 'I love the fact that she's who she is,' Rhule said. 'She is just so comfortable in her own self.' Her first team, ranked No. 1 in the preseason, opens Friday at 6 p.m. CT on Fox against No. 3 Pittsburgh in the AVCA First Serve Showcase. The Huskers host No. 6 Stanford on Sunday at 2 p.m. on ESPN as part of the same event. Both matches long ago sold out Pinnacle Bank Arena, Nebraska's 15,500-seat basketball venue. The Huskers normally play at the 8,309-seat Devaney Center. They've sold out 337 consecutive home matches, a record for NCAA women's sports, including the August 2023 spectacle at Memorial Stadium that drew a crowd of 92,003, the largest in the world to watch a women's sporting event. Advertisement This month, the Huskers sold out their arena for an intrasquad scrimmage and an exhibition against alumni. The volleyball program generated more than $7 million in revenue in 2023-24, the most recent fiscal year for which data is available. More than $2 million came from ticket sales, placing it in a class with only UConn basketball among women's sports, and Nebraska volleyball was the only women's program to turn a profit. This is what Busboom Kelly inherited. It's what Nebraska trusts her not to maintain — but to build upon and make better. If the Nebraska and Penn State teams that met in the Final Four last December could replay the fourth set of their semifinal match from the point when the Huskers led 22-16, Nebraska might win nine out of 10 times. But in the only instance it was actually contested, Penn State stormed back to take it 28-26, then outlasted the Huskers 15-13 in the decisive fifth set. How, as a returning cornerstone for Nebraska, does a player reconcile such a harsh reality? It requires accepting the truth, said Bergen Reilly, the Huskers' junior second-team All-American and two-time Big Ten setter of the year. It takes accepting what Busboom Kelly observed about those tense times late in the Nebraska-Penn State match. She saw it unfold in person, as the Louisville coach whose team had upset Pitt in the earlier semifinal and awaited the winner. Busboom Kelly said she has re-watched the video of the final points of Nebraska's 2024 season many times. 'Fear was coming in,' Busboom Kelly said on Terry Pettit's 'Inside the Coaching Mind' podcast. 'And a lack of leadership really came out in those big moments.' Without hesitation, Reilly agreed. 'It's the honest truth,' she said. 'We needed people to step up, including myself, and we didn't. And that was ultimately the result.' Advertisement She's heard the critique from her new coach. 'She is going to say what she thinks,' Reilly said. 'But it's not said in a way to put us down. When she does have to express the hard truths, we know that it's said out of love. That's a good coach.' In her first practices this spring with the Huskers, Busboom Kelly said she watched balls hit the floor in ways that reminded her of the Huskers' finish last year against Penn State. Over time, they built trust on the court. Leadership has blossomed. 'They're hungry,' Busboom Kelly said. 'They're motivated. You don't ever feel like you have to push them in practice. When you come to work, you feel like everybody is excited to be here and ready to work. There's no tug and pull or pushing that I have to do.' Busboom Kelly was named national coach of the year in 2021. She directed Louisville to national championship matches in 2022 and 2024. In her last four of eight seasons with the Cardinals, her record of 120-15 outpaced Nebraska's Cook, who was 118-19 over the same time. At Nebraska, Busboom Kelly coaches the setters — a job that Cook delegated to assistant coach Kelly (Hunter) Natter. Busboom Kelly retained Cook's full staff, and none of the nine players with remaining eligibility left the team. Natter's responsibilities expanded into other realms. Reilly embraced the changes. 'It sucks, but Louisville made it farther than we did last year,' Reilly said. 'She does things different than (Cook), but she's really successful. So it's just trusting that. After last season, I thought I needed a change. I wanted something a little different.' Conversations with Busboom Kelly, according to Reilly, are a two-way street. The coach's communication style encourages feedback. It promotes trust. And with the roster that Busboom Kelly has assembled, trust is a must. Cook, in 25 seasons at Nebraska, won 15 conference titles and 87.5 percent of his matches. He preferred a roster of 12 to 14 players. Last year, with possibly the deepest group of talent he'd gathered, Nebraska finished 33-3. It wasn't enough for Busboom Kelly. She expanded the roster from 14 to 17. The eight newcomers include a pair of freshmen, outside hitter Teraya Sigler and setter Campbell Flynn, who was named the top player in high school a year ago, and 6-foot-5 Italian opposite hitter Virginia Adriano. She played professionally in her country against the highest level of competition last year. Advertisement The aim for Busboom Kelly is not simply to field the best team. She voted Nebraska at the top spot in her poll. Her reaction to the Huskers' No. 1 ranking? 'I'm not surprised,' she said. Feeling good. #GBR — Dani Busboom Kelly (@danib18) August 14, 2025 Her objective? To make the Huskers better at every position on the court than all of their opponents. It means relying on more than one setter, more than two middle blockers and two outside hitters, more than one libero and opposite hitter. 'If they can all buy in that they're getting opportunities every day and pushing each other and that each person on this team matters,' Busboom Kelly said, 'that's the strongest team in December. Our team is starting to buy into that.' Renee Saunders has won nine consecutive state championships in Nebraska's second-largest high school classification as the coach at Omaha Skutt Catholic. She played on the first Nebraska national championship team in 1995. And she has watched the entirety of Busboom Kelly's career. 'Her consistency and demeanor on the sideline, I think all coaches should aspire to that,' Saunders said. 'She gets that the game should be fun and competitive at the same time.' The Huskers elected Reilly, Jackson and senior Rebekah Allick as captains. Junior Harper Murray returns as a two-time All-American and perhaps the most complete outside hitter in the Big Ten. Adriano smashed six kills on 10 swings without an error in the alumni match. To complement her play, Baylor transfer Allie Sczech, twice a second-team All-Big 12 pick, packs a lefty swing on the right side. Nebraska is deep in the back row, with four specialists, led by Laney Choboy and Olivia Mauch, either of whom could earn all-conference recognition as a libero. And at every position, freshmen appear Big Ten-ready. Advertisement Yes, Busboom Kelly's initial impact is evident up and down the Nebraska roster. 'It's what Anson Dorrance, the great women's soccer coach at North Carolina, used to talk about — the cauldron of competition,' Rhule said. 'If you want to be the best, you've got to beat out the best. To me, that's what she's trying to do.' Busboom Kelly is set to substitute more freely than Cook. Her system employs a slightly faster pace and more creativity, which demands risk. These Huskers, if the message from their new coach resonates as she intends, won't be afraid to fail. 'Ultimate trust,' Jackson said. 'We talk about it a lot. It will make or break a team.' Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Ilona Maher wants America to fall in love with rugby during Women's World Cup
SUNDERLAND, England (AP) — Ilona Maher's mission at the Women's Rugby World Cup is about more than just winning games. Heading into the United States' tournament opener on Friday, the world's most followed rugby player on social media wants to get more eyeballs on the sport as it ramps up attempts to crack the market in America. 'Not many people know that there's a Women's Rugby World Cup going on, so we try to get as many people as we can to spread that knowledge,' Maher said ahead of the match against host England in the World Cup curtain-raiser in Sunderland. 'We want the fans in America to see us play here because we've got a World Cup there in eight years and we need to start building for that.' Rugby authorities see America as a vital new market for the sport. The United States will stage the men's Rugby World Cup in 2031 and the women's tournament in 2033. The presence of Maher is key to attracting attention on rugby in the U.S., given she has 5.2 million followers on Instagram and 3.6 million on TikTok — platforms on which she promotes body positivity. The 29-year-old Vermont native believes she and her teammates are 'changing the game on and off the field a lot.' 'This is a time where women's rugby is in a state where it could grow massively,' she said, 'and I do believe this team is at the forefront with how we present ourselves and people's perception of us.' Maher certainly stands out, having been named as the best breakthrough athlete at the ESPYs last month. In an interview with the BBC ahead of the World Cup, she said she has been approached by the WWE — joking that her ring name would be 'Maher-vellous' if she ever became a wrestler — and that she'd love to get into acting. First, though, she wants to deliver at the World Cup, starting with the match in front of 40,000 spectators against England, the tournament favorite, in the north of the country. A star in rugby sevens, in which she won a bronze medal with the U.S. team at the Paris Olympics last year, Maher also had a three-month stint at English club Bristol in the 15 players-a-team format at the start of 2025. 'I think it's so cool,' Maher said, 'that we're up here, so far away from maybe where rugby union is big, and yet we're getting 40,000 people out to a game.'
