Latest news with #ClaraAdams
Daily Mail
18-06-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
High school track star disqualified over controversial celebration reveals she is considering legal action
Clara Adams, the high school athlete disqualified for celebrating her 400m victory by spraying her shoes with a fire extinguisher, is considering drastic action after she was stripped of her gold medal. Adams, 16, copied the celebration first made famous by the American former 100m world record holder Maurice Greene when she crossed the line in first place at the California state high school track and field championships, which were held on May 30 and 31. But the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) decided that the celebration was unsportsmanlike and stripped Adams of her championship. Now, Adams, who was left devastated by the incident, and her father, David, are contemplating taking legal action unless the CIF reinstates her title. 'CIF's rules and regulations are byzantine and outdated,' their attorney Adante Pointer told PEOPLE. 'Nevertheless, we were hopeful they would do the right thing without us having to bring this issue into a court of law as it is clear they did not follow their own rules and regulations which irreparably harmed a young budding track star by robbing her of the state title without proper justification or cause.' 'CIF did not follow their own rules which led to Clara being denied a crowning achievement as the state of California 400-meter champion,' he added. 'This may cost her scholarships, NIL deals and other opportunities now and into the future. Not to mention the emotional distress associated with the track meet officials physically grabbing and yelling at her. She can never relive that moment.' has reached out to the CIF for comment. Adams' father, who also acts as her coach, had handed her the fire extinguisher before racing onto the field when he saw there was an incident unfolding. He accepted that he broke rules by climbing over rails to get to his daughter, but insisted he felt outraged when he saw an official grab Clara by the arm. Adams was disqualified from the meet as a whole by officials for her celebrations - denying her the chance to race in a 200-meter event later. Adams, a sophomore from North Salinas High School, claimed the CIF officials 'overreacted by grabbing me and yelling in my face.' 'As a dad, I still do not understand why the CIF officials berated my daughter, stripped her of her title, banned her from competing in the next race and ignored me when I attempted to get an explanation of what was going on,' her dad David added to PEOPLE 'As a father I was angry about how they physically grabbed and yelled at her. I am still at a loss as to why they treated her and that way. She's a kid and they treated her like an adult and gave her the maximum punishment without any warning or explanation.' The celebration was reminiscent of Greene, a four-time Olympic medalist and five-time world champion, who famously extinguished his own cleats after he won the 100-meter dash during the 2004 Home Depot Invitational. Adams claimed she and her dad didn't settle on the celebration until they arrived in Fresno for the meet and saw the old video of Greene. Adams, who said she was the 'underdog' heading into the event, and David insisted that they carried out the celebration away from her fellow competitors. Earlier this month, Greene himself weighed in on the controversy, claiming disqualification should be overturned if the celebration was performed away from her competitors. 'When I heard, cause it happened, and then people just started calling me 'This girl who just ran the 400 did your celebration' I was like huh? What?' the ex-athlete told KSBW-TV on Monday. 'If it was away from everyone and not interfering with anyone, I would say reinstate her.'
Irish Times
16-06-2025
- Irish Times
Alison Healy on a woman who became one of the world's first and most fearless aviators
The two middle-aged women sitting opposite me on the train were chatting animatedly. I was shamelessly eavesdropping, as is mandatory in such situations. One of them was talking about her adventure-seeking daughter and noted that she was 'mad for road.' It's an apt description for someone who can't stay in one place for long and has a constant yearning to travel. Years ago, it was used in a somewhat critical way, especially if a woman was involved. It seemed to suggest that she would be better employed scrubbing dried scrambled eggs from a saucepan rather than travelling the country's highways and byways. But to me, being mad for road is something to be admired. I was unabashedly mad for road from a very young age. One day, when I was small, I noticed my mother was changing into her good clothes and I asked where she was going. She said she was off to America. READ MORE Did I want to come? Well, I didn't need to be asked twice. I changed into my Sunday clothes as speedily as possible in case she left without me. You can imagine the crushing disappointment when she emerged with her tartan shopping bag and said she was off to the town on her bicycle to get the messages. No airplane required. Now well recovered from that small setback, I am still mad for road and plan to remain so until forced to make that very final one-way journey. But I still have a long way to go before catching up with Clara Adams. Born in Ohio in 1884, she is largely forgotten today despite being one of the original influencers. S he called herself a persistent first flighter, one of those people who flew on maiden flights when air travel was taking off. She gave lectures about her trips and helped to popularise air travel with the masses. She could do this because of her wealth. Her marriage to George Adams, president of the American Leather Tanning company, meant she had no money worries. He was more than 30 years her senior and she was just 44 when he died, leaving her truly free to indulge her longing for the skies. Details of her epic odysseys could fill this entire page, but let's highlight a few. In 1928 she bought the first transatlantic air ticket ever sold to a woman and flew on the Graf Zeppelin airship from New York to Europe. In 1931 she was the first woman to buy a ticket to fly on the largest aircraft ever built at that time - the Dornier DO-X flying boat. She boarded in Rio de Janeiro and flew to New York. 'You could hardly tell you were flying,' she told the New York Times afterwards. When the Hindenburg made its maiden flight from Germany in 1936, she was at the top of the queue. And immediately after the Hindenburg disaster the following year, she put down a $100 deposit for another airship flight, to demonstrate her confidence in the safety of air travel. She was also aboard many Pan Am Clippers for their inaugural flights, including the first passenger flight across the Pacific, and the first flight from New York to Bermuda. But her most famous trip came in June 1939 when she set a world record for an around-the-world flight made on passenger airlines. It took her 16 days and 19 hours and took her from New York to Marseilles and on to places such as Leipzig, Athens, Basra, Jodhpur, Bangkok, Guam and Honolulu. One would imagine that she was exhausted after all that, but, fresh off the plane in New York, she hot-footed it to the World Fair in Queens to talk about her aerial adventures. The New York Times reported that she was wearing a Chinese silk suit bought in Hong Kong, and a Panama hat from Rangoon. She described the trip as 'beautiful beyond description and sublime beyond the most vivid imagination of the human mind.' Similar to something you might say after disembarking from a Ryanair plane in Leeds. The maiden of maiden voyages wasn't done yet. The following September, she flew from San Francisco to New Zealand on Pan Am's first passenger flight. The small matter of the second World War put a halt to her travels and then there were no more maiden flights to take. She offered to go to the moon in 1966 but that was one inaugural flight she couldn't buy a ticket for. Fittingly, her travelling did not end with her death in 1971. At her request, her ashes were scattered over the Atlantic Ocean from an airplane. Now there's a woman who was mad for road. And sky.
CNN
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
Job Corps
Job Corps is a lifeline for thousands of low-income students, and there is bipartisan concern about a Trump administration effort to close the program. Victor speaks about the legal fight now underway with Donna Hay, President and CEO of the National Job Corps Association. After claiming it was impossible to bring back a man mistakenly deported to El Salvador, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is back in the U.S. to face federal criminal charges. There is a lot the Department of Justice is alleging and Ben Osorio, a member of Abrego Garcia's legal team, joins Victor to react. Plus, there is a firestorm in California over a high school track star whose state title was pulled because of her celebration with a fire extinguisher. Was it clever? Or unsportsmanlike conduct? Clara Adams, along with her coach and father David, joins Victor to share what they plan to do next. Later, a historic Black community in Virginia says their neighborhood has flooding problems, but a $20 million federal government grant to help fix that just got cut. Mary-Carson stiff says what's happening is unjust, unlawful, and places residents at risk. She joins Victor to share her concerns about what'll happen now to residents in Aberdeen Gardens and communities like it. And in this week's 'Art is Life' – Victor speaks to the creators of 'She Who Dared,' an opera giving voice to Black women who dared to fight segregation but have since been overlooked by history.
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
California high school sprinter stripped of state title due to 'unsportsmanlike' fire-extinguisher celebration
A California high-school sprinter was stripped of the state title after an "unsportsmanlike" celebration with a fire extinguisher, according to the Los Angeles Times. Clara Adams, a 16-year-old sophomore at North Salinas High, finished the 400-meter finals .28 seconds before her closest competitor, but was disqualified by the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) due to her celebration. Following the win, Adams obtained a "small fire extinguisher" from her father in the stands. Adams then sprayed her cleats, implying they were on fire due to her blazing speed. The CIF disqualified Adams from both the 400-meter finals and the 200-meter finals due to that celebration, which they deemed "unsportsmanlike." Advertisement Adams told the Los Angeles Times she was "robbed," saying she was just having fun with the celebration. "I was having fun,' Adams said, noting her win in the 400 marked her first state title. 'I'd never won something like that before, and they took it away from me. I didn't do anything wrong.' She added: 'I worked really hard for it and they took it from me, and I don't know what to do.' David Adams, Clara's father, said the CIF ruled "unsporting conduct" against his daughter. David claimed officials were "really nasty" to Clara. Unsporting conduct can include "disrespectfully addressing an official, any flagrant behavior, intentional contact, taunting, criticizing or using profanity directed toward someone," per the National Federation of State High School Associations. David said that rule was cited as a "gray area" that the CIF used to justify the decision. David said the celebration was a tribute to Maurice Greene, a former U.S. sprinter who used the same celebration at the Home Depot Invitational in 2004. Broadcasters laughed at Greene's celebration, which took place in the middle of the track. Advertisement David argued Clara's antics didn't qualify as unsportsmanlike because she performed her celebration away from the track, per the Los Angeles Times. "Looking at the film, Clara is nowhere near any opponent,' he said. 'She's off the track, on the grass. Her opponents are long gone off the track already, so she wasn't in their face. It was a father-daughter moment. ... She did it off the track because she didn't want to seem disrespectful toward nobody. And they still found a reason to take her title away. They didn't give her a warning or anything.' The CIF and North Salinas High track and field head coach Alan Green did not respond to the Los Angeles Times when reached for comment. David Adams threatened to take legal action against the CIF if the organization won't return his calls. Following Clara's disqualification, St. Mary's Academy in Inglewood sprinter Madison Mosby was awarded the win in the 400-meter finals.
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
High school sprinter stripped of state title after celebration is deemed unsportsmanlike
North Salinas sophomore Clara Adams, center, wins a preliminary heat in the girls' 400 meters Friday at the CIF State Track & Field Championships in Clovis. She finished first in the finals the next day but was stripped of the title because of a celebration that was deemed by meet officials to be unsportsmanlike. (Steve Galluzzo / For The Times) North Salinas High sophomore Clara Adams ran the fastest time in the girls' 400-meter finals at the CIF State Track & Field Finals last weekend. She crossed the finish line .28 seconds ahead of her closest competitor. Advertisement But Adams is not the state champion. She was stripped of that title after she used a fire extinguisher to spray her cleats while on the field inside the track moments after the race. "I was robbed," Adams, 16, told The Times shortly after being disqualified from that event as well the 200 finals, which took place later in the meet. Adams said CIF officials told her that she was being disqualified because she had been "unsportsmanlike," but that's not how she saw it at all. "I was having fun," Adams said, noting her win in the 400 marked her first state title. "I'd never won something like that before, and they took it away from me. I didn't do anything wrong." Advertisement She added: "I worked really hard for it and they took it from me, and I don't know what to do." Days later, David Adams, who said he is the sprint coach at North Salinas, told The Times his daughter was "doing better" but still trying to cope with everything that unfolded Saturday afternoon at Buchanan High in Clovis. Read more: Transgender track athlete wins gold in California state championships despite Trump threat 'Clara's hurt. She's hurt right now," David Adams said Wednesday. "She's better today than Saturday. Saturday was fresh. It just happened. It was a shock. She felt numb. They made her sit there and watch while they put those other girls on the podium, knowing Clara's the fastest 400-meter runner in the state of California.' Advertisement Clara Adams has been running competitively since age 6, her father said. She finished fourth in the 400 at last year's state meet and won the event with a state-best time of 53.23 at the Central Coast Section championships last month. After posting the top qualifying time in Friday's preliminaries, Adams surged ahead of Madison Mosby of St. Mary's Academy in Inglewood to win the race with a time of 53.24. Immediately afterward, Adams walked over to the wall in front of the stands and found her father, who reached down and handed her what he described as a "small" fire extinguisher. She then walked back across the track into the grass, where she sprayed her cleats as if she was putting out a fire — a move her father said was a tribute to former U.S. sprinter Maurice Greene, who similarly celebrated his win in the 100 at the 2004 Home Depot Invitational in Carson. CIF officials apparently were not amused and disqualified Adams on the spot, awarding first place to Mosby. According to rules established by the National Federation of State High School Assns., "unsporting conduct" is defined as behavior that includes but is not limited to 'disrespectfully addressing an official, any flagrant behavior, intentional contact, taunting, criticizing or using profanity directed toward someone.' The penalty is disqualification from the event in which the behavior took place and further competition in the meet. The CIF did not respond to a request for comment from The Times. Advertisement According to David Adams, the officials 'were really nasty" toward his daughter. They "tugged on her arm," he said, "they were screaming in her face. I could hear it from where I was at. I could see it — I couldn't hear exactly what they were saying, but they were just really nasty." Read more: Long Beach Poly boys' 4x400 relay team shines at state track and field championships Clara Adams said she specifically asked the officials to speak with her father about the disqualification, but they refused. "They kept telling me, 'It's OK,' and I was telling them, 'It's not OK,' and they didn't care," she said. "They were trying to smile in my face, like them telling me 'no' amused them or something." Advertisement David Adams said the officials would only speak to North Salinas head coach Alan Green, who declined to speak to The Times for this story. 'They told him that it was unsportsmanlike conduct," David Adams said of the officials' discussion with Green. "We were asking for the rule, the specific rule of what she did, and they didn't really give anything. It was more of a gray area that gives them discretion to pick and choose what they feel is unsportsmanlike conduct." Read more: Prep talk: Birmingham's Antrell Harris reaches peak form with 10.24 in 100 meters Adams disputes that his daughter behaved in a manner that could be considered unsportsmanlike. Advertisement "Looking at the film, Clara is nowhere near any opponent," he said. "She's off the track, on the grass. Her opponents are long gone off the track already, so she wasn't in their face. It was a father-daughter moment. ... She did it off the track because she didn't want to seem disrespectful toward nobody. And they still found a reason to take her title away. They didn't give her a warning or anything.' He added that his daughter is a "very humble, really sweet kid." "I take responsibility for the situation. I'm taking full responsibility," he said. "Clara has run several championship races and won and walked off the track. It's just weird that she celebrates one time and now people, these strangers, these middle-aged people want to chase after her character?" Greene, the four-time Olympic medalist who inspired Clara's celebration, told KSBW-TV in Salinas that the CIF should reconsider its decision. Advertisement Read more: Greene, Jones Run Like Wind at Carson "If [the celebration] was away from everyone and not interfering with anyone, I would say reinstate her," Greene said. David Adams said he is trying to make that happen but so far the CIF won't return his calls . 'We have an attorney on standby right now," he said. "I don't want to take it there, but I will fight this all the way. As long as I'm breathing I'm gonna fight it. But we're trying to go through proper channels to give the CIF an opportunity to do the right thing. Having an attorney involved is our last resort, that means we tried everything.' Advertisement Sign up for the L.A. Times SoCal high school sports newsletter to get scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
