Category: Olympics

Lloyd: USWNT has embraced Albert after anti-LGBTQ+ controversy

Alexi Lalas said Albert’s Olympic performance said “a lot about her mentality, as a person and as a player”

Carli Lloyd believes that the U.S. women’s national team has embraced Korbin Albert after the controversial midfielder was a vital part of the team’s Olympic gold medal victory.

Albert has been under fire for months after fans discovered homophobic and transphobic social media posts on TikTok, with the 20-year-old called out by USWNT players past and present.

Amid the controversy, the midfielder continued to be an important midfield cog for the USWNT, with head coach Emma Hayes offering her backing after naming Albert to the Olympic roster.

Albert repaid Hayes’ faith at the tournament in France, playing in five of the team’s six games and starting two of its three knockout-round matches — including Saturday’s gold medal game.

Playing at her club Paris Saint-Germain’s home stadium Parc des Princes, Albert delivered the game-winning assist to Mallory Swanson as the USWNT defeated Brazil 1-0 to take home its first gold medal since 2012.

In an appearance on the State of the Union podcast with Alexi Lalas, USWNT legend Lloyd said that from the outside, it appeared that the team had moved on from the controversy.

“She was one of the best players on the field that day (against Brazil) and she played a huge role,” Lloyd said of Albert.

“The midfield looked a little bit more cohesive, and then she played that perfectly weighted pass on for Mallory Swanson to score.

“Ultimately, you silence haters by doing something well on the field and performing. I can’t comment on what’s been going on within the team, but it certainly looks like the team has embraced her.

“When she scored her goal (against Australia), everybody was hugging her and seemed really excited. So hopefully everybody can just move on. And I would imagine that the group has talked about the issue and talked about what happened, and I’m sure they’re wanting to move past it as well.”

Lalas added: “Let’s hope so. Ultimately, she did the job on the field, and she did the job on the field even with all the other stuff that was going on, and the crap that she has been getting off the field. And so it says a lot about her mentality, as a person and as a player.”

In addition to her assist against Brazil, Albert also scored her first USWNT goal in a 2-1 win over Australia to close out the group stage.

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Leroux hails significance of USWNT’s nine Black gold medalists

Nine of the 22 players on the USWNT Olympic roster were Black, triple the number from 2012

Angel City forward Sydney Leroux has hailed the “importance” of the U.S. women’s national team having nine Black players on its gold medal-winning roster, saying that their presence will inspire the next generation.

Leroux was one of just three Black players on the 22-player roster (including alternates) when the USWNT last won an Olympic gold medal in 2012.

This time around, the number of Black USWNT players tripled to include nine of the team’s full 22-player squad for the Paris Olympics.

That included the all-Black front line that came to be known as “Triple Espresso” — Trinity Rodman, Sophia Smith and Mallory Swanson. The other six players were Crystal Dunn, Jaedyn Shaw, Casey Krueger, Croix Bethune, Lynn Williams and Naomi Girma.

Those nine players posed for a photo after Saturday’s gold medal game, which the USWNT won 1-0 over Brazil thanks to a goal from Swanson.

Leroux noted the significance of the moment with a post on X, saying: “The importance of this photo. This makes every little girl who looks like them get to say, ‘I can be her because I am her.’”

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Muffet McGraw praises former players for winning Olympic gold

Always nice to hear from the legend.

[autotag]Muffet McGraw[/autotag] knows [autotag]Jackie Young[/autotag] and [autotag]Jewell Loyd[/autotag] very well. She coached both of them at Notre Dame at separate times and undoubtedly knew the sky was the limit for both of them. That definitely can be said now that both have won their second consecutive Olympic gold medals for the U.S., though Young won her first during the 3-on-3 competition.

McGraw was asked to comment to OSV News about her thoughts on her two former players being Olympic champions for a second time each. While not surprising to read these words, they’re nice to read anyway:

“So proud to see Jackie and Jewell win a gold medal. It’s great to see their hard work pay off. They are excellent representatives of our program and of Notre Dame. I am thrilled to watch them succeed at the highest level of our sport.”

Congratulations again to Jackie and Jewell. Hopefully, at least one of them can return to the Olympics in 2028 to try for a third gold medal.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Raygun the Australian breakdancer gets a Tonight Show parody courtesy of Rachel Dratch

Raygun is everywhere.

Raygun continues to be the Australian breakdancer we loved from the 2024 Paris Olympics, despite the fact that the memes of her performance in breaking are still rolling in.

This time, we got a parody from the great Rachel Dratch on The Tonight Show, who played the Aussie Olympic star, but she doesn’t say a word to Jimmy Fallon, who asked a few questions to her before the pair of them started doing Raygun’s patented dance moves. You had to see this coming now that the Olympics are over.

Take a look and see the quick cameo from Dratch, who definitely nailed some of the moves:

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Mallory Swanson scores game winning goal in Gold Medal game

Another job well done.

The United States Women’s Soccer team won the gold medal on Saturday. The winning goal was scored by former UCLA Bruins soccer star Mallory Pugh Swanson. It was her 100th match for the United States, and the goal came in the 57th minute to beat Brazil.

Swanson was originally set to play her college soccer at UCLA. She played in three non-competitive spring scrimmages with the Bruins in the spring of 2017. But, then later that spring, she elected to turn professional and signed with the Washington Spirit. She is the wife of Chicago Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson.

The 26-year-old is from Littleton Colorado, and plays her professional soccer with the Chicago Red Stars. Earlier in the Olympic games, she scored in the 3-0 win against Zambia. Later, she added a goal in the win over Germany. She has 38 total goals in international play.  This was the first Gold Medal for Team USA in 12 years.

 

Chari Hawkins shares a heartbreaking Olympic video of her devastating heptathlon moment

“I have never watched my own heart break before.”

Chari Hawkins had a really rough moment during the 2024 Paris Olympics that she’s not shying away from on social media.

While competing for Team USA in the heptathlon, she was given a “no heighted” score after failing to clear the 1.71 meter mark in the high jump portion of the event. That had come after she said she didn’t want the points from her previous successful jumps, a decision that backfired as she ended up with zero points.

She shared video on Instagram of her tearful moment caught on camera, and had this to say: “I have never watched my own heart break before. I wish I could give her a hug. Thank you to everyone who has shared kind words and comfort over the last few days. More from me soon.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/C-iGrNLoxlv/

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Relive all of Steph Curry’s incredible Team USA 3-pointers from the 2024 Paris Olympics

Steph Curry had an absolutely amazing Paris Olympics.

Golden State Warriors superstar Steph Curry brought his A-game to the 2024 Paris Olympics, helping lead Team USA to yet another set of gold medals.

His legendary 3-point shooting had no trouble translating from the NBA to the global state at this year’s Olympics, as he hit a number of absolutely thrilling buckets from beyond the arc during the Olympic tournament.

NBC Sports shared a great highlight reel of every single Curry 3-pointer that he made during the Paris Olympics, which is a great way to reflect on how well Curry played to help bring home the gold for Team USA.

We’re still not sure how Curry does it after all these years, but it never gets old.

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Projecting the U.S. men’s basketball roster for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles

Anthony Edwards called next.

Welcome to Layup Lines, For the Win’s basketball newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Have feedback for the Layup Lines Crew? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey. Now, here’s Bryan Kalbrosky.

The 2024 Paris Olympics are in the rearview mirror and to no surprise, the United States once again earned a gold medal in basketball.

Led by a trio of NBA veterans, the U.S. men’s basketball roster was thrilling. Basketball fans were delighted to see LeBron James play with Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant at the same time and the results were incredible.

Now that the Olympics will leave France and the United States will become the next host nation, the focus will shift to what the roster could look like in 2028.

It is an impossible question to answer because so much of this depends on health, interest, coaching, development, and various other circumstances we can’t predict.

But based on what we know so far, factoring in age and relationships with the USA Basketball, here is our best guess as of right now:

GUARDS

Anthony Edwards

Devin Booker

Tyrese Haliburton

Donovan Mitchell

Tyrese Maxey

FORWARDS

Jayson Tatum

Paolo Banchero

Scottie Barnes

Cooper Flagg

BIGS

Bam Adebayo

Chet Holmgren

Evan Mobley

Noah Lyles denies beef with Anthony Edwards

Photos by MARTIN BERNETTI Damien MEYER / AFP

U.S. track and field sprinter Noah Lyles caused some more controversy this weekend:

“Two of the biggest stars from the United States at the 2024 Paris Olympics were Noah Lyles and Anthony Edwards.

Lyles and Edwards both became first-time Olympic gold medalists this summer. Before testing positive for COVID-19 and withdrawing from the Olympics this year, Lyles won a gold medal in the 100 meter for track and field. Edwards was a standout performer on the U.S. men’s basketball roster.

Both gold medalists have signed endorsement deals with the shoe company adidas. Recent reporting suggests that there is potentially animosity between the two, but Lyles is attempting to squash those growing rumors.”

You can read more here.

Shootaround

— 5 things we learned about the NBA (Victor Wembanyama’s rise is truly inevitable) at the Paris Olympics

— Tyrese Haliburton had the most perfect post after winning a gold medal despite limited playing time

— Hoops fans thought A’ja Wilson and Bam Adebayo’s polite handshake was so unsubtle amid dating rumors

— An earthquake interrupted ESPN’s NBA Today show but Malika Andrews handled it like a pro

Tyreek Hill foolishly claimed he would beat Noah Lyles in a race after hearing the gold medalist’s Super Bowl remarks

Did Tyreek Hill forget who won the 100m?

Tyreek Hill is probably the fastest player in the NFL. That’s undeniable. But when it comes to Olympic sprinters, nobody is scared of Hill’s speed — especially not Noah Lyles.

That’s what made Hill’s comments on Monday extra strange when discussing the Olympic gold medalist’s criticism of American sports leagues calling themselves “world champions.”

In an interview with Kay Adams, Hill was asked for his response to Lyles — who left Paris with a gold medal in the men’s 100m and a bronze medal in the men’s 200m. In his response, though, it became clear that Hill forgot that Lyles won gold in the Olympics’ marquee event and went on to claim that he would beat Lyles in a race.

He said:

“Noah Lyles can’t say nothing after what just happened to him. … For him to do that and say we’re not world champions of our sport. Like, come on, bruh. Just speak on what you know about and that’s track.”

Hill then said that he would beat Lyles in a race.

Again, Lyles absolutely can say something as the Olympic champion in the 100m. It seemed like Hill was focused on what happened in the 200m, but the event that Lyles won gold in earned him the title as world’s fastest man.

Plus, if you’re looking at the numbers, Lyles’ time in Paris has Hill’s best 100m time beat by nearly half a second. Lyles even bested Hill’s wind-aided time of 9.98.

It’s a race that Hill doesn’t want to actually happen.

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Angel Reese took issue with media immediately looking towards the 2028 Olympics after Team USA’s gold medal win

Let this team enjoy the moment.

The U.S. women’s basketball team won its eighth straight Olympic gold medal on Sunday, defeating France on its home court by a single point. Team USA had to overcome some serious offensive struggles to close out the game, and really, it was a gutsy win that deserved plenty of praise.

That’s why Angel Reese took exception to some of the postgame media coverage on Sunday.

Immediately after the 67-66 U.S. win, Reese — who was not included on the 2024 Olympic roster — noticed a tweet from ESPN that looked ahead to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. The article wanted to predict the U.S. squad, which could potentially be headlined by Reese and Caitlin Clark. Reese, though, did not want the media coverage to take away with what had *just* been accomplished in Paris.

Reese tweeted that the current team deserves to be congratulated and have coverage that focuses on the gold medal win. Plus, it’s a silly exercise to predict an Olympic roster four years ahead of time. You never know how players develop, who breaks onto the scene and how healthy players will be in four years.

Reese made it clear that 2024’s team warranted the attention, and she’s right.

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