Latest news with #U.S.OlympicTeam
Forbes
23-04-2025
- Sport
- Forbes
X Factors For The NBA Playoffs
Former Phoenix Suns MVP Charles Barkley has a theory about the NBA postseason. The playoffs do not start, he likes to say, until the visiting team wins a game. Given that, things have gotten serious in Denver, Houston, New York and in the Lakers' patch of Los Angeles. The Nuggets, Rockets, Knicks and Lakers squandered home-court advantage with losses at home over the weekend, and all are are faced with making up ground on the road to even things up. Not that it can't be done. No. 6 seed Indiana won two playoff series without the home court advantage to reach the Eastern Conference finals against the Boston Celtics in 2024, and No. 5 seed Dallas won all three Western Conference series as an underdog before losing to the Celtics in the 2024 Finals. Finding the right adjustment is the first step. Difference-maker Leonard has won NBA titles with San Antonio and Toronto, and a case can be made that he could have won a couple more with good health. He missed the 2021 Western Conference finals against Phoenix with a knee injury, the same issue that caused him to play in only two playoff games in each of the last two seasons. The season began on a down note, when Leonard was not included on the gold-medal winning 2024 U.S. Olympic Team because of concerns about his knee. He played only 37 games this season while recovering, but he showed his elite skill with a 39-point game in the 105-102 victory at Denver in Game 2. "I'm just happy that I'm able to move," Leonard said. 'That's what I'm taking pride in is just being healthy. I sat and watched these playoff games and series the past two years. So being able to be frontline out there, it just feels good for me no matter which way the game goes." It it asking a lot for the Houston backcourt to keep up with the Golden State crew, but the Rockets must be better then they were in the 95-85 home loss to the Warriors in Game 1 of their series Sunday. Starters Fred VanVleet and Jalen Green were a combined 7 of 34 from the field and were 2 of 17 from three-point range. While Green led the Rockets with a 21.0 scoring average in the regular season, point guard VanVleet had a sub-par season while shooting 37.8 from the field. After the opener, coach Ime Udoka was asked about altering the rotation for Game 2 Tuesday. Reinforcements are there. Forward Jabari Smith, who did not start Game 1, averaged 14.3 points a game and made 11 3-pointers against the Warriors in four regular-season meetings. Reserve guard Reed Shepherd had 34 points when the Rockies rested their regulars in two late-season games, and he could be an option. Jackson stepped up on the offensive side for he Grizzlies on Tuesday, but that did not prevent host Oklahoma City from posting another decisive victory, this time 118-99 in Game 2 after a 131-80 walkover in Game 1. Jackson's 26 points and and six rebounds Tuesday were a giant step up from his four-point, three-round game in the opener Sunday, but the assertiveness Memphis needs from Jackson on both ends of the floor has not materialized. Granted, Thunder 7-foot-1 power forward Chet Holmgren presents a difficult matchup for any opposing big, and 6-10 Jackson does not get much help from 7-4 Zach Edey. If the Grizzlies cannot not at least neutralize Holmgren, the series will not last long. Holmgen has double-doubles in the first two games of the series, with seven blocked shots. He 20 points, 11 boards and five blocks in Game 2 after going 19/10 in only 21 minutes in the first game. Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau plays his starters more than any coach in the league. While that might have worked in the old-school, defense-first game that he loves, it does not play well these days. ''KAT' looks tired,' former NBA player Marcus Morris said on ESPN about Karl-Anthony Towns, who took only three shots in the second half and and none in the fourth quarter of a 100-94 home loss to Detroit that evened the series at 1-1 Monday. 'They are sending double-(teams) at him. They are playing one-on-one … They need someone to come in and get a couple of effective minutes. They don't get any rest. He goes out for two minutes and he's right back into the game. 'It's a 40-minute game of hard-playing basketball when everybody is playing up to a different level. These guys need more bench production. Quite frankly, 'Tibs' needs to be more consistent with other players.'' Knicks' starters averaged a league-high 179 minutes per game this season Josh Hart led the league in minutes played, Mikal Bridges were third and OG Anunoby was fifth. The Knicks were second in NBA in starters' minutes a year ago, when they were eliminated in the second round of the playoffs as the No. 2 East seed.
Forbes
21-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
2026 Winter Olympic Hopeful: Bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor
Elana Meyers Taylor will be 42 and attempting to make her fifth Winter Olympics Games in Milan Cortina in 2026. She is America's most decorated athlete in the bobsled event, but she has never won gold. Can she do it this time? Elana Meyers Taylor (born Elana Alessandra Meyers) was born October 10, 1984 in Oceanside, California. Her father, Eddie Meyers, a Naval Academy graduate, had been stationed there at Camp Pendleton Marine Base. Eddie was a good athlete having played football at Navy, and as a running back he would set school rushing records. During his five years in Pendleton Meyers would work to stay in football shape and take leave to report to the Atlanta Falcons training camp, but things would never pan out. The family would move to Atlanta, Georgia when Elana'Had I not failed on that day, it's a virtual certainty that this girl who was born in California, raised and still lives in Atlanta, would have never found the inside of a bobsled,' she said, adding that graduates may find failing at a goal to be 'the best thing that ever happens to you.' was in second grade. She would play sports in school eventually settling on softball. She was not very good when she started but she would live and breathe the sport from nine years of age through her teens becoming a star and earning a full scholarship to George Washington University in 2002. Elana would play at GWU for five years. She would also be invited onto the US National Team in 2003–a dream come true. It was while Meyers Taylor was attending GWU that she experienced a profound spiritual conversion. During her sophomore year she found herself searching. 'My sophomore year, our softball team was doing really badly and our season ended up getting canceled,' says Meyers. 'So, that being the center of my life, I got really depressed. I didn't know what to do and I didn't know what my purpose was. I just started researching religions. Something inside of me told me I needed more than this.' She would make a decision over Christmas break to become a christian. When Meyers Taylor returned to the GWU campus she joined an Athletes in Action group and began, along with other student athletes, to grow in her faith as a Christ-follower. In 2008 Elana had finished an outstanding college softball career at GWU as the all-time leader in many offensive categories. Her No. 24 jersey would eventually be retired in 2014. Her personal and professional accolades would include: a masters degree in sports management, an honorary doctorate degree in 2018, the Presidents medal in 2022 and one of GWU's 'Monumental Alumni' as a part of the school's bicentennial celebration in 2021. But in 2008 her ultimate lifetime dream was to make the U.S. Olympic Team. And she failed 'miserably' in her own words. As commencement speaker at GWU in 2022, Elana would recount her crushing disappointment over not making the U.S. Olympic softball team describing it as 'the worst tryout in the history of tryouts.' But instead of giving up on her Olympic dreams, she would pivot. In 2006 while Elana was home from college watching the winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, her mother had suggested she try the bobsled. Elana, who is built like father with a short explosive build, was a natural fit to be a successful pusher; The pusher tries to maximize the speed of the bobsled at the start of the race. She did not heed her mother's advice in 2006. Now after her failed tryout in 2008 her mother's words in 2006 would return to her. If she wanted to pursue this Olympic dream she needed a new sport. As she would tell an audience of GWU graduates and their families at her 2021 commencement speech: 'Had I not failed on that day, it's a virtual certainty that this girl who was born in California, raised and still lives in Atlanta, would have never found the inside of a bobsled,' she said, adding that graduates may find failing at a goal to be 'the best thing that ever happens to you.' Two-person sleds are approximately ten feet long. Two-woman sleds can have a maximum total weight of 730 pounds. A women's monobob (This event was just added in the 2022 Olympics) will have a maximum weight of 550 pds and length of approximately nine feet. Modern tracks are made of concrete and coated with ice. They are required to have at least one straight section and one labyrinth (three turns in quick succession without a straight section). Ideally, a modern track should be 3,900–4,300 feet ong and have at least fifteen curves. Speeds may exceed 75 mph and some curves can subject the crews to as much as 5 'g's' (that is five times one's weight in gravitational force) The two-woman event was first contested at the 2002 Winter Olympics. Elana would throw herself into her new sport with punishing workouts to build up her speed and power as a pusher (the pusher also acts as brakewoman of the sled). Her father Eddie would sit in his 3500 pound Kia Sportage SUV in the driveway in neutral and Elana would push the SUV up their driveway. Her hard work would pay off. On February 24, 2010, Meyers Taylor and driver Erin Pac would win the bronze medal at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games. Their first run was 53.28 seconds. Their second run was 53.05. Their third run was 53.29, and their fourth run was 53.78 for a total of 3:33.40, a combined difference of just 1.12 seconds behind the gold medal team of Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse of Canada. Elana had done it–she had made the Olympic team and won a medal But Meyers Taylor was not done. On February 19, 2014, Meyers Taylor, now acting as driver, and Lauryn Williams would win the silver medal at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. Their first run was 57.26 seconds (a track record). Their second run was 57.63. Their third run was 57.69, and their fourth run was 58.13 for a total of 3:50.71 seconds, a difference, this time just one tenth of a second from first place! And again she would be edged out by Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse of Canada. And again, she was not done yet. In Pyeonchang Meyers Taylor would finally beat her nemesis, Humphries and Moyse of Canada. But she and pusher Lauren Gibbs would again win silver and finish second, this time just seven tenths of a second behind the german bobsled team of Mariama Jamanka and Lisa Marie Buckwitz. At Beijing Meyers Taylor would be chosen to carry the U.S. flag at the opening ceremony but would test positive for Covid 19 and be forced to watch the events on television. Isolated from her team (and her infant son Nico), Meyers Taylor was determined to control her situation. She turned her hotel room into a makeshift gym and threw herself into rigorous physical training, eventually winning a silver in the inaugural monobob race and bronze medal in the two-man bobsled with pusher Sylvia Hoffman. Her triumphs in Beijing would make Meyers Taylor the most decorated black athlete in the history of the WInter Olympics. But being a trailblazer was tough at times as she experienced racism firsthand. In a 2020 interview Elana was quoted as saying 'No amount of Olympic medals-or at least the ones I've won thus far-can save you from experiencing racism.' She has witnessed it on several levels: Sled technology is huge. Races are won and lost on equipment so teams are always searching for the top sleds which can cost upwards of $100,000. 'As a black pilot, I'm able to buy most sleds in the world except one-and that one manufacturer currently makes one of the fastest sleds on tour. But I wouldn't buy it even if I could. This one manufacturer refuses to sell to black pilots and has been quoted saying 'if I wanted to see a monkey drive a sled, I'd go to the zoo.' ' Elana also saw it on the coaching level. A coach from another country was recorded saying several racist statements specifically referencing Meyers Taylor. The basic premise was that there were no good black drivers and that black athletes needed to stay in the back of the sled as they simply lacked the mental capacity to drive. And this was after she had won an Olympic medal and two world championships as a pilot, and even earned a spot on the US Men's team as a 4-man pilot. 'Regardless of my medal tally, the color of my skin apparently was the determinant of whether or not I was a skilled bobsled pilot.' Can Meyers Taylor make her fifth Olympic Games? And can she finally win gold? She certainly deserves it based upon her sheer perseverance. But Elana, via her faith, is keeping it all in perspective. 'God put me here for a specific reason and I don't think it's just to win medals. At the end of the day, I'm in this sport to glorify God, so if that means I come in last place or I win the gold medal, that's what I'm going to do.'
NBC Sports
12-02-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
"I'm here to be visible:" Erin Jackson on health issues and being a role model ahead of third Olympics
Erin Jackson is a quick study. The 32-year-old speed skater is aiming to compete in her third Winter Olympics next year, less than a decade after her first time on the ice. The timeline is even more impressive when broken down: Jackson, a former world-class inline skater, tried skating on ice for the first time in 2016, started working with a coach on her technique in 2017, and qualified for the U.S. Olympic Team on January 5, 2018, with what she estimated to be a cumulative four months of on-ice training behind her. Given what four months yielded – an Olympic spot (she finished 24th in the 500m at the 2018 Olympics in South Korea) – it shouldn't have come as a surprise what four years would bring. She climbed through the international ranks of the sport, finishing 15th at the world championships in 2019 and then 7th in 2020. And at the 2022 Games in Beijing, Jackson became the first Black American woman to win gold in an individual event at the Winter Olympics, after skating her signature 500m (about the distance of five football fields, inclusive of endzones) in 37.04 seconds. 'It's not something that I even realized until a couple days after the medal,' Jackson said earlier this month at a World Cup event in Milwaukee. 'I wouldn't have expected that [milestone] to come in 2022. Hopefully we'll have the second and the third and the fourth coming pretty quickly.' Jackson could be responsible for those medals herself, if all goes well in the coming year. She's an early favorite to finish on the podium again in the 500m, and she hopes to compete in the 1000m as well. Easier said than done, for an athlete who's had ongoing medical issues since 2019, when she herniated three discs in her lower back; she's had semi-regular 'flare ups' in her back since then, the most recent one requiring a procedure to manage the pain in mid-January. She also says she was experiencing gastrointestinal struggles and fatigue symptoms for much of the last six months, which have largely subsided in recent weeks but for which the root cause was never diagnosed. And in 2023, she had a six-hour surgery to remove 16 non-cancerous fibroids from her uterus, which had caused her pain for several years. Jackson does exercises in bed each morning to get her back ready for basic movements. 'It's been a really long time since I've had no pain with just normal things,' she says. She didn't qualify to compete in the 1000m event for Team USA this season after her health issues limited her at the trial events – she called the 1000m 'a sore subject' – but she has a newfound confidence that she'll be back to normal for the Olympic season. 'Normally, I'd have a bit of pain standing up after sitting for a while,' she said before racing in Milwaukee. But since the procedure in January, there is far less pain in what she calls 'everyday things.' Back procedures and fatigue and GI issues notwithstanding, she's remained a contender to be reckoned with at 500 meters: she's won three medals on the World Cup circuit this season, including two in Milwaukee this month, and currently sits in third place in the season-long World Cup 500m standings. That puts Jackson squarely in the conversation to win a second Olympic medal in the 500 meters. The only American woman to win multiple Olympic medals at that distance is Bonnie Blair, Team USA's all-time most decorated Olympic long track speed skater. While milestones like these – and the others she's achieved, like becoming the first Black woman to win a speed skating World Cup, or setting the national record in the 500m (both in 2021) – may not be constantly on Jackson's mind, the gravity of them isn't lost on her. 'I always try to be a good example anyway,' she says, 'but then to have that reminder, like people are looking, people are trying to draw inspiration and things like that, it's a really awesome feeling.' Messages from moms whose kids are starting skating lessons and social media videos of people 'trying to be the next Erin Jackson' are some of the best reminders she receives. But she says she hasn't personally seen increased representation in the spaces she occupies – the top levels of speed skating or at elite training centers in Salt Lake City and her hometown of Ocala, Florida. She spent some time working with EDGE Outdoors, an organization that champions inclusion of minority women in snow sports, and was inspired by that experience to dream of a program that might serve a similar purpose in speed skating. 'I want to give back in the form of helping more people experience sports like this. Because I know the winter sports are really expensive. So I would really like to get to work on some sort of scholarship program, or, you know, something like that, to get people involved in our sport.' That's a goal for when she retires, which she says could be as soon as next year, if she doesn't find a better solution for the back pain. She should have her pick of careers in retirement. She owns a bachelor's degree in engineering and an associate's degree in computer science, and she's currently in two more degree programs, studying business and kinesiology, for which she schedules classes and labs around her training schedule. For now, potential retirement plans and classes may fade into the background as she focuses on the coming 12 months, possibly her final 12 months as a competitive speed skater. But the impact she has made – and knows she can continue to make – never completely fades. 'It's not like I have the individual thoughts (of being a role model) day to day. It's just the overall feeling like I'm here to do something important. I'm here to be visible. I'm here to, you know, make a mark.' Making a mark: something many people spend a lifetime working toward. Sort of like making an Olympic team. But Erin Jackson didn't need a lifetime for that. Why should she take her time now? In the first team combined event in worlds history, the U.S. duo of Mikaela Shiffrin and Breezy Johnson emerged victorious, as Shiffrin earned a record-tying 15th world medal and record-breaking eighth gold. Lindsey Vonn sits down with Cara Banks to talk about the process of her retirement to her return to competition, her appreciation for the team culture now that she's back, the status of her knee and more.
