I couldn’t stop listening to these albums in 2021.
Eventually, when I look back at the year that was in 2021, those memories will need a soundtrack. Ultimately, that’s what these albums are.
When I reflect on the past 365 days, of course, I’ll also think about all of the sounds that accompanied many of the experiences that I’ve had — both with the company of others and also by myself.
Sure, there were more popular albums than the ones that I’ve picked for you.
In all honesty, there are some that I even spent more time with as well. Even just a couple of times listening to Kanye West’s Donda ends up as a fairly massive undertaking. I probably ended up hearing Certified Lover Boy or An Evening with Silk Sonic playing in the background more times than I could count.
But at the end of the day, these were the best albums that defined my year.
NASCAR fans often debate a winner-take-all championship race vs. a cumulative, season-long title hunt. We have a solution in the middle.
When it comes to NASCAR’s playoff format for determining a Cup Series champion, there seem to be two large factions of fans with opposing schools of thought. And since it’s been a little more than a week since Kyle Larson was crowned the latest champ, we figured it’s the perfect time to offer a new proposal for the playoffs.
Some people like the current system of a 10-race postseason, which whittles the championship contenders from 16 drivers down to four, who then compete in a winner-take-all season finale. Some people prefer a cumulative approach like in days of NASCAR past — and similar to other motor sports championships, like Formula 1 — where drivers earn points throughout an entire season, rewarding dominant performances over several months.
So why not try to meet somewhere in the middle with a championship round of three races instead of it boiling down to just one? That approach — or one similar, like with a round of two or four races — could appease both groups of fans.
Now a NASCAR champion, Kyle Larson needs to use his growing platform to continue fighting racism and inequality.
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Kyle Larson’s 2021 NASCAR Cup Series championship isn’t a redemption story. It’s not a comeback. And his monumental success on the track this year shouldn’t be confused for amends made after he missed most of the 2020 season.
Larson was absent from NASCAR for the majority of last year because he said the N-word during a live-streamed iRacing event that April. His sponsors quickly bailed, NASCAR suspended him and Chip Ganassi Racing fired him. So yes, he returned to NASCAR this year behind the wheel of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, but his dominating 10-win championship season should not be portrayed as a typical sports story where an athlete triumphs over adversity.
“I haven’t once felt like this year has been a redemption tour or anything like that,” Larson said last week. “I’ve had lots of people ask if I felt that way, and I don’t.”
He wasn’t an underdog, he wasn’t sidelined with an injury and he wasn’t racing for a team on the brink of closure. He used a racist slur — a disgusting and derogatory word that perpetuates anti-Black sentiments and shouldn’t have been anywhere near the tip of his tongue.
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Facing the consequences of his words, Larson’s wounds were self-inflicted, his punishments deserved and his atonement remains a work-in-progress. Nothing he does behind the wheel can accelerate that, and his performance shouldn’t be viewed as compensation for the harm and pain he caused last year.
“We always like giving second chances to really bad actors,” said Dr. Louis Moore, a sports historian and professor at Grand Valley State in Michigan.
“We always give them these opportunities to move on. And that’s fine, that’s NASCAR’s business. But it doesn’t mean we have to forget what happened. … And maybe that’s the punishment, that people’s memory, he gets judged by that.”
( Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports)
As a generational talent, Larson was almost certainly going to get a second chance in NASCAR. And even after he signed with Hendrick Motorsports, no one could have predicted this level of consistent dominance throughout the season, culminating in his first Cup title — also a first for an Asian American driver and alumnus of NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program.
Success for him was expected, though. So the latest test for the 29-year-old driver and newly crowned champ is what he does next as he crosses the threshold to a new level of stardom.
“He’s definitely been the most dominant driver this year, so what does that success look like?” said Mike Metcalf Jr., a Chip Ganassi Racing pit crew coach who is Black, was on Larson’s former pit crew and is still the No. 42 team’s fueler. “How are you using your influence and resources to empower the communities?”
If Larson continues on this professional track, he’s going to be a NASCAR star for years, maybe decades, to come. Now that he’s a champion, his job security seems more stable than ever — he’s signed through 2023 and team owner Rick Hendrick said Sunday he hopes Larson retires with him – and perhaps more sponsors are likely to team up with him. His fan base is growing, and multiple drivers said he had the largest impact on NASCAR this season. So will he use his growing platform to fight inequality and be actively anti-racist?
“Regardless of your stance on politics or race or whatever, I think everybody can agree that none of this stuff moves quickly,” Metcalf continued last month. “[I’m] more interested in the long run. It would be real easy for him to write a donation check to somewhere and go do some appearances. But I think the real measure is how you do it five, 10 years from now.”
So Larson worked to educate himself and help push back against inequalities to create change. He volunteered with and fundraised for organizations that provide educational opportunities for children of color and underserved communities, including the Urban Youth Racing School in Philadelphia and retired soccer star Tony Sanneh’s foundation in Minneapolis.
“At the Urban Youth Racing School, pretty much all their children they have there are Black, and so that’s why it was important to me to work very closely with them because I’d already had a relationship with them in the past and really wanted to grow on that this year,” said Larson, who’s worked with the school since 2017, according to founder Anthony Martin.
“They’re able to pick up the phone and call me whenever they want to ask me questions. I’ve donated a couple iRacing simulators to their school, and usually it’s them calling me and asking how to get around a certain track and stuff. It’s been it’s been great working with them.”
Kyle Larson and Urban Youth Racing School founder Anthony Martin at Pocono Raceway in June 2021. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Larson said this fall, he visited the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. He said he spent “a few hours” in the mammoth museum, gaining a “better perspective on life” and “learning more about experiences that African Americans had to overcome to even get to where they’re at today.”
Earlier this year, he also launched the Kyle Larson Foundation — which aims to help communities in need through “hands-on support” — and through it, the “Drive for 5” initiative with a goal of raising $500,000. For the fundraising effort, he pledged personal donations of $5 for every lap completed and $5,000 for every top-5 finish, which amounts to $145,000 for the 2021 season. Larson said last week it’s raised more than $200,000 with help from other contributions.
The money, per Hendrick Motorsports, will go toward at least five student scholarships through the Urban Youth Racing School, provide daily meals to at least five families in need through The Sanneh Foundation and help at least five communities through school grants. And Larson said he hopes those types of contributions can become an annual tradition.
Martin, his wife, Michelle, and several others from the Urban Youth Racing School were at Sunday’s championship race, watching the finish near the No. 5 team’s pit box and celebrating on pit road. He hopes the school can expand with franchises in other cites to help “increase the participation of African Americans” and “have a major, major impact” on racing.
Larson’s fundraising efforts are a good next step that could have real-world impacts. But much of his efforts in the last year and a half seem to be about proving he’s not racist when taking steps to be actively anti-racist could help accomplish both.
“Actions speak louder than any word could ever speak,” said Martin last month. “You can talk all day about what you plan on doing in the community, or you can have goals and ideas of what you want to do in the community. But if you’re not doing those things in the community, it means absolutely nothing. And what Kyle has been doing — he’s actually been putting in the work.”
“You cannot let up what you’re doing,” Martin continued. “You have to continue to do great things and do things within the community and helping folks.”
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It’s OK to think that Larson deserved a second chance in NASCAR. It’s OK to believe his remorse is genuine and his efforts to grow and create positive change are authentic. Martin, sitting on the pit wall after the race, said he believes Larson has sought real change and continues to be willing to put in the work. Michelle Martin agreed, adding: “Off track is where he has had his biggest wins.”
So it’s OK to root for him and to celebrate his massively successful season. But his accountability hasn’t ended with his return to the sport and a championship.
We see it happen in sports all the time: An athlete’s controversy away from competition is erased or rewritten with their return to the field, court or race track. And with Larson winning his first championship and having a massively successful NASCAR season, his professional successes shouldn’t mitigate his personal failures or his responsibility to employ his growing platform to help dismantle inequalities.
So it’s OK to be happy for Larson and celebrate his success while also holding him to a high standard of accountability and expecting more from him to come. Those things aren’t mutually exclusive.
The Clash — the NASCAR Cup Series’ preseason exhibition race — got a new look at the beginning of the 2021 season, moving from the Daytona International Speedway’s iconic 2.5-mile oval to the venue’s road course.
Well, for the 2022 season, it’s reportedly getting a total makeover and moving across the country.
NASCAR has been in “serious talks” and is on the verge of finalizing a deal to move The Clash “to a purpose-built short track” at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for the 2022 exhibition race, The Athletic reported Monday.
The idea to move The Clash to the LA Coliseum — the famous home field for USC Trojans football which has also hosted two Olympics, two Super Bowls and so many other major events — is fun, different and could be really, really cool. Sure, it’s clearly a gimmicky move for NASCAR, but some gimmicks work.
The views are almost guaranteed to be spectacular — assuming Mother Nature opts for sunshine instead of rain. And if the quality of racing is high, this could be a thrilling event that gets NASCAR fans amped up for the season and draws in casual fans or curious outsiders for a shorter-than-usual race.
“NASCAR would hold the race in early February, likely two weeks before Feb. 20 Daytona 500, and use the event to build hype for the upcoming season and the launch of the Next Gen car, which is scheduled to race starting in 2022.
It has not yet been decided whether NASCAR’s new car will be used in the exhibition race; some teams have expressed reservations about racing the Next Gen in an event that doesn’t award points and likely will be a high-contact race due to the tight confines of the track. …
The Coliseum track will resemble the layout of Bowman-Gray Stadium, a historic quarter-mile short track in Winston-Salem, N.C., that encircles the football field where Winston-Salem State University plays each fall.”
Now, some NASCAR purists probably aren’t in love with this idea.
Traditionally, the Clash has been part of Daytona Speedweeks, which is typically a couple weeks’ worth of on-track action culminating with the season-opening Daytona 500. For the 2021 season, the big NASCAR events were condensed to just six days in the week leading up to the biggest race of the year. Couple that with The Clash being held on Daytona’s road course in 2021, and some NASCAR fans didn’t like all the changes.
So moving The Clash away from Daytona International Speedway altogether — away from the historic venue, away from the home of the Daytona 500 and away from the birthplace of NASCAR — might not sit well with a lot of people.
(John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports)
But NASCAR has been trying new things to freshen up its schedule and to attempt to grow its fan base. One thing that has some real potential to to that? Racing at the LA Coliseum.
Of course, until NASCAR reveals official details about The Clash leaving Daytona for the LA Coliseum, we won’t fully know what to expect, including whether this could be a great success, a total waste of money or just another exhibition race.
But the idea itself should be celebrated and could create some needed buzz for NASCAR, which will already have to compete with the Super Bowl and the 2022 Winter Olympics at the start of the season in February.
It’s unclear if this would be a permanent move for The Clash, so here’s hoping this deal comes to fruition for 2022.
Some Ohio State fans wanted C.J. Stroud benched vs. Minnesota. That’s a little hasty.
No. 4 Ohio State walked away from its season opener against Minnesota with a 45-31 win in a game that felt a bit closer than the final score. But someBuckeyesfans were ready to give up on quarterback C.J. Stroud by the end of the first half when Ohio State trailed, 14-10.
Because for the first time in what feels like forever, the Buckeyes don’t have a consistent, reliable and seasoned starting quarterback — yet. But there’s no reason for fans to panic about that — yet.
Stroud is not Justin Fields. He’s not Dwayne Haskins or J.T. Barrett or any other dominant Buckeye passer of recent memory, and that’s OK.
He is a 19-year-old redshirt freshman who made his first start Thursday night for a College Football Playoff-regular team on the road in front of a rowdy Gophers crowd against a Big Ten opponent that clearly came ready to play.
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The expectations for Ohio State and Stroud are enormous, but let’s cut this teenage quarterback a break after just one game. His college experience before this was, as a true freshman last season, playing in one game and not attempting a pass but still putting up a 48-yard run against Michigan State.
Initially against Minnesota, Stroud looked a little nervous and understandably so, given all the aforementioned factors at play. And it showed, particularly in the first half when he threw his first interception of the season and went 8-for-14 for 58 yards. Not a great opening half, and it was made worse when the Gophers ultimately scored off of Stroud’s interception to take the lead.
“I talked to him before we went into this game that no matter what happens, we’re just gonna keep pushing and keep throwing it,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day told FOX Sports after the game. “And he missed a couple early on, but we just kept working through that. And when you’re a freshman quarterback — you’ve never thrown a college pass before — you have to get into a rhythm. He did, and I thought the older guys really helped him out in the offense — the offensive line, obviously, the guys on the perimeter.”
Stroud appeared to settle down a bit in the second half and get more comfortable with Ohio State’s powerhouse receivers while still relying on the talented run game. The freshman passer finished his first career start going 13-for-22 for 294 yards, four touchdowns and one pick.
Which brings us to the next reason Ohio State fans shouldn’t panic just yet. Stroud’s youth, nerves and first-game pressure aside, he’s got some solid receivers to work with, particularly senior Chris Olave, who’s one of the best in the country and reminded the college football world of that against Minnesota.
Olave is fast and tough to beat, and he was able to get open against the Gophers with relative ease while getting in the end zone twice off passes from Stroud. He finished with four catches for 117 yards, including this 61-yard touchdown.
Plus, the Buckeyes also have junior wide receiver Garrett Wilson and freshman running back TreVeyon Henderson, who both scored huge 50-plus-yard touchdowns off Stroud’s passes in the second half.
And then there’s Ohio State’s strong group of running backs, like Henderson, junior Master Teague III and freshman Miyan Williams, who led the run game with 125 yards and a touchdown.
So again, all this is to say there’s no need for Ohio State fans to panic about Stroud or the season yet after just one game. He’s a teenage freshman quarterback whose first start was far from a cupcake game on national TV.
He and the Buckeyes will get another dose of that against No. 11 Oregon next weekend, but at least that game will be in front of friendly home crowd in Columbus.
If Stroud struggles through September games against the Ducks, Tulsa and Akron, then maybe fans can start worrying a bit as the Buckeyes get back to Big Ten play. But with so much talent around him, it seems likely that he, Day and the whole offense can find a way to make it work.
As my colleague Evan Thorpe said, “He has too many weapons to fail.”
Joey Logano explained why he got the COVID-19 vaccine, but not every driver shares his approach.
With the NASCAR Cup Series’ 10-race playoffs set to begin in September, one of the 16 drivers in championship contention could be eliminated if he has to miss a race this fall because of COVID-19 protocols. And with that on the line, 2018 Cup Series champion Joey Logano said he recently decided to get vaccinated.
“There’s one thing I learned when we won [the championship]: it affects so many people’s lives with bonuses and other stuff,” Logano said, via the Associated Press. “So if I get COVID and miss the race, then I’m taking away food from other people’s families.”
But not every driver seems to share Logano’s approach. He, Denny Hamlin, Bubba Wallace, William Byron and Tyler Reddick are the only top-tier drivers to publicly confirm they’ve been vaccinated, per NBC Sports, and several other drivers expressed feeling conflicted about the uncertainty of the situation, even when the best-possible solution is staring them in the face.
Get vaccinated.
Aside from those with specific situations preventing them from getting the COVID-19 vaccine, those who can do it should do it to protect their own health and lives, their loved ones and their communities — along with their seasons and championship hopes. It’s the responsible and decent thing to do, if you are able to, and one of many things people do to participate in society, including doing your day job.
NASCAR — like in other professional sports — has different rules for vaccinated and unvaccinated athletes based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines. And as the highly contagious Delta variant continues spreading around the country with deadly consequences, the governing body has been tightening its rules.
Currently, unvaccinated drivers who have close contact with someone who tests positive for COVID-19 have to quarantine for seven days, produce a negative test five days after exposure and have no symptoms before returning to the NASCAR garage. If they don’t have symptoms and don’t want to take a COVID-19 test, they can also quarantine for 10 days.
If a vaccinated driver is exposed to someone who tested positive for COVID-19, that driver can doesn’t have to quarantine but must produce a negative test from three-to-five days after the close contact. If a driver is vaccinated and still tests positive, that person has to quarantine for 10 days.
So vaccinated drivers could be exposed to COVID-19, but that wouldn’t necessarily prevent them from racing. If drivers won’t get vaccinated to protect themselves, their loved ones, their teams or society at large, they could do it to protect their seasons and championship hopes — especially since NASCAR isn’t regularly testing its athletes.
Corey LaJoie is the latest NASCAR driver to face the consequences of the sport’s COVID-19 protocols, which included him missing Sunday’s race at Michigan International Speedway. He came in close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, and he had a mandatory seven-day quarantine.
And as the Associated Press reported about the Michigan race, Kyle Busch competed without his usual spotter, while Hamlin and Brad Keselowski were both without a tire changer all because of positive tests or NASCAR protocols.
“I don’t know what you do about it,” 2020 Cup champion Chase Elliott said, via NBC Sports. “Some things you can’t control. You can be smart about what you do and where you go, but that still doesn’t guarantee it’s not going to happen to you, so it’s a tricky situation is the best way for me to put it without getting political. I feel like it’s just tricky. Especially for our situation this time of year. You can’t really afford to miss a race. Especially once the playoffs start.”
The world is still suffocating because of the COVID-19 pandemic, so Elliott is right that there are some things that will still be out of everyone’s control. Nothing is guaranteed when a driver could still miss a race regardless of vaccination status.
But if drivers are worried about being sidelined and ruining their championship runs, getting vaccinated is the best option for working to ensure that doesn’t happen — in addition to protecting their own lives and health and that of those around them and in their communities.
“There’s no real facts that say vaccinating or unvaccinated is really any different these days,” Martin Truex Jr. said, via NBC Sports. “I’m really happy that they haven’t went down the mandatory road (of vaccinations) because I don’t think that’s fair from any perspective at all. I just don’t think it’s fair you can force someone to do something that they don’t want to do. If they want to take the chance, they take the chance.
“We see other sports leagues doing that. You can’t play if you don’t get vaccinated. So it’s a controversial subject obviously. I’m happy with the route NASCAR is taking.”
Truex’s first sentence in that quote is decidedly inaccurate because there is an abundance of evidence pointing to the potentially life-savinghealth benefits of being vaccinated against COVID-19.
According to the CDC, vaccines are “highly effective” in preventing the contraction, spread and symptoms of COVID-19, including the Delta variant. It notes that “the greatest risk of transmission is among unvaccinated people who are much more likely to contract, and therefore transmit the virus.”
As a CDC study released Tuesday explained, compared with vaccinated people, those who are unvaccinated are about 29 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 and are about five times more likely to be infected. And as the Delta variant surges, particularly among the unvaccinated, hospitals and healthcare resources nationwide are strained in crisis.
Additionally, the American Medical Association explains that breakthrough COVID-19 infections among vaccinated people are not common and most are mild in terms of symptoms, and it still recommends getting vaccinated.
NASCAR isn’t requiring vaccinations — though it should — but president Steve Phelps has encouraged drivers and their teams to do so. And if they don’t, as Truex said, they’re taking a chance and are aware of the risks. No one is forced to get vaccinated, but that can come with the terms of participating in some elements of society, like attending a public school.
So while drivers have the option to forgo a shot or two, they’re fully aware of the risks of their decisions and the possible severe consequences they could face, threatening their seasons as well as the lives of those they come in contact with.
After winning the first-ever women’s 1,500 free Olympic gold, Katie Ledecky thought of the swimmers who never had the opportunity she did.
If there was one race Katie Ledecky was destined to win at the Tokyo Olympics, it was the 1,500-meter freestyle. And she crushed it.
The 24-year-old distance swimmer dominated the final Wednesday morning in Tokyo and won the first-ever women’s 1,500 free Olympic gold medal by a comfortable 4.07 seconds ahead of silver medalist and fellow American Erica Sullivan, while Germany’s Sarah Kohler won bronze. Ledecky’s gold medal-winning time was 15:37.34.
Ledecky’s win is not just her eighth Olympic medal and sixth gold, nor is it just another tally on Team USA’s medal count. Her victory is one for all the distance swimmers of the past and present — from Debbie Meyer to Janet Evans to Ledecky herself — who previously were denied the opportunity to swim the same events as the men.
The longest event in the pool is also Ledecky’s best, but garbage, sexist thinking kept the mile out of the women’s Olympic lineup until now — despite the event being offered at a slew of other international meets.
“I just think of all the great female swimmers the U.S. has had that haven’t had that opportunity to swim that event,” Ledecky said after the race while being interviewed with Sullivan. “I think of Debbie Meyer, Janet Evans, Chris von Saltza, Kate Ziegler, Katie Hoff. So many people that I looked up to — I still look up to. They’re great friends of mine, and I’m so glad we could do it in the best possible way.”
The most dominant female swimmer in history, Ledecky owns the top-13 fastest times in the world in the mile and six of the top-7 times in 2021. She also set the Olympic record for it in prelims Monday at 15:35.35. She’d been waiting for this opportunity her whole career and got it, unlike so many of her peers and swimmers who have long been retired.
Women were first able to swim at the Olympics in 1912, but it was only in two events: the 100-meter freestyle and the 4×100-meter freestyle relay. And it wasn’t until the 1968 Mexico City Olympics that the women’s 200-meter and 800-meter freestyle events were added, with the latter being the longest distance in the women’s lineup.
But the 1,500 free was absent.
As Swimming World magazine previously noted, women were thought to be too “delicate” for longer distances. Three-time Olympic gold medalist Debbie Meyer put it more bluntly when I spoke with her in 2016 for Vice Sports and said women were considered “second-class” athletes who weren’t tough or strong enough to compete in distance races.
Meyer — who won Olympic gold in the 200, 400, and 800 during the 1968 Mexico City Games at 16 years old — elaborated Tuesday in an interview with For The Win and said that “old-school thinking” was “a bunch of BS.” Along with the fact that swimmers practice for far more than 1,500 meters daily, that reasoning was even more asinine when you consider Meyer first broke the 1,500 world record in 1967 — and three more times through 1969.
Decades later, women were still waiting for the inclusion of the 1,500 at the Olympics, as the IOC’s reluctance to add the event robbed countless athletes of the chance to swim it at the Games. And equity aside, not having the women’s 1,500 at the Olympics limited athletes who excel at it because their options were the 800 free in the pool or the open-water 10K — a “rough” jump, as now-three-time Olympic marathon swimmer Haley Anderson put it in 2016.
Now, the 1,500 finally made the Olympic program, and Ledecky was able to race in her best event on the sport’s largest stage.
“I’m jealous of Katie and Erica getting to swim it — and everybody else that made the finals because that was my favorite race,” Meyer said. “And it’s a totally different race to train for than the 400 or the 200 or even the 800. So I wish I had been able to swim it, but I’m really happy that they finally put it into the competition, into the Olympics. It’s taken them a long time, that’s for sure.”
Regardless of how Ledecky swam (or will swim) in her other events in Tokyo, there was little doubt the first-ever gold medal in the women’s 1,500 would go to her. And the heats and final should be celebrated for simply existing — no thanks to the IOC and FINA dragging their feet for literally decades.
“I love it,” Evans said at U.S. trials in June, via The Washington Post. “It’s a little bittersweet for me because it was my best race. But I just love it. It’s so great that women finally have this opportunity.”
Gender equity in swimming has come a long way in the last 100+ years, but the fight for it is also far from over.
Along with the 1,500, Ledecky swam the 200-meter freestyle final and finished fifth. That’s a ridiculously difficult double to do — and do twice with prelims and finals — and Ledecky pulled it off in about 90 minutes. But, as we’ve previously noted, the men’s lineup forces no such double because their 1,500 free is paired on the same day as the 50-meter free. The logic checks out because it’s unimaginable that an elite-level swimmer could be so exceptionally versatile to swim both the shortest and longest races in the pool.
While Ledecky’s ability to compete in the 200 and 1,500 is also quite rare, the women’s events and schedule should be identical to the men’s, so they’re offered every advantage in an already grueling sport.
Part of the (at least) 6,000 meters she’ll race this week, Ledecky deserves all the praise she’s getting for accomplishing such a feat. But it’s ridiculous that she even had to, and the IOC and FINA unquestionably need to address this for future Games — in addition to the international governing body’s blatant discrimination against swimmers of color, particularly Black women.
Still, Ledecky’s dominant victory swim was truly a spectacle to watch, as she cruised body lengths ahead of her competitors. At the end of the event, all 33 athletes who swam in the women’s 1,500 free at the Tokyo Olympics — and those who came before them — finally won.
The men’s and women’s Olympic swimming events are finally the same, but the scheduling puts people like Katie Ledecky at a disadvantage.
Katie Ledecky made history Wednesday night when she became the first U.S. woman to ever qualify for the Olympics in the 1,500-meter freestyle — and she did it in her typically dominant fashion.
The women’s 1,500 free will debut at the Tokyo Olympics this summer, finally offering Ledecky a chance to swim her best race on the sport’s biggest stage. She owns the 10-fastest times ever in the event, including her world record.
Yet what should be a celebrated moment in the Olympics — the decades-overdue addition of the women’s 1,500 (often referred to as the mile), along with the men’s 800-meter freestyle, providing identical lineups — is marred by an inexplicable scheduling decision for the women’s events, showing true equity isn’t quite here yet.
Did you know @katieledecky’s broken the world record in the 1500m free SIX times?
Wednesday in Omaha for the U.S. Olympic Trials, Ledecky’s 1,500 final came just one hour, nine minutes and 28.64 seconds — according to USA TODAY Sports’ Christine Brennan on site — after she won the 200-meter freestyle final. And her time of 15:40.50 for the 1,500 was still the fastest in the world this year, despite being about 20 seconds slower than her world record.
Racing 1,700 meters in one day is an unimaginably formidable task, even for the most dominant female swimmer ever. But 24-year-old Ledecky had to do it at trials and will have to again in Tokyo because, for some baffling reason, the women’s 200 free heats and the 1,500 free heats are on the same days, as are the subsequent finals two days later, while the men’s respective events are not.
“I’m just so grateful that we have the mile in (the Olympics) now,” Ledecky said, via USA TODAY Sports. “I’ve spoken about the equity that we finally have there and I think that’s a big step. We’re making history tonight and we will be in Tokyo, so that’s fun in its own way.”
The International Olympics Committee adding the women’s 1,500 was a necessary and stupidly belated step forward, correcting an outdated and sexist approach to the Olympic program. But with the women’s 200 and 1,500 freestyle events held on the same days when the men’s events are not, the IOC still hasn’t reached equity in Olympic swimming.
The IOC did not immediately offer clarification on scheduling decisions.
Throughout the week, NBC Sports’ broadcast of the trials has discussed Ledecky’s grueling task of swimming both the 200 free and 1,500 free in the same day, as she likely will do twice in Tokyo. And it caught the attention of swimming fans on Twitter as well because it’s such a brutal lineup.
At the Olympics, why is the women’s 200FR & 1500FR finals on the same night? When the same events for men are on different nights?
Women finally get to swim the 1500 at the OGs & they have to do it this way.
Racing in — and winning — both the 200 and 1,500 on the same day is beyond amazing and impressive, to be sure, and highlights the absolute beast Ledecky is in the pool.
But she and others in those women’s events shouldn’t have to prep for double duty when those on the men’s side don’t have that pressure.
For the men’s events, the 200 and 1,500 are on different days. The men’s mile, the longest pool event, is logically paired on the same day as their 50-meter freestyle, the shortest. (It’s pretty inconceivable that someone could excel at both events on the Olympic level.)
So why isn’t it the same for the women’s events? Why are the swimmers, like Ledecky, in both the women’s 200 free and 1,500 free at a disadvantage because of the lineup when this situation was clearly avoidable for the men’s events?
On the final day of the Olympic swimming program this summer, the only individual events are the men’s 50 free, the women’s 50 free and the men’s 1,500 free.
And with the addition of the men’s 800 free and the women’s 1,500, the events available are identical, so shouldn’t the lineups be identical too?
This isn’t to say it’s an impossible task for Ledecky and anyone else versatile enough to tackle the 200 and the mile in the same day. It’s definitely doable.
But if the Olympics schedule didn’t have to be set up this way for the men’s events, it certainly shouldn’t be this way for the women’s ones.
In 2020, NASCAR drivers committed to speaking up about racism and injustice. But where are they now?
Nearly a year after Bubba Wallace successfully pushed NASCAR to take the long-overdue step of banning the Confederate flag from its events, he’s continuing to use his platform to talk about racism, injustice and police brutality.
Only this time, Wallace is having those conversations mostly alone, with little to no help from his fellow drivers or NASCAR itself.
When Wallace tweeted last week the names of Daunte Wright — a 20-year-old Black man killed by a Minnesota police officer not two weeks ago — and Adam Toledo — a 13-year-old Latino boy killed by Chicago police last month — NASCAR as an organization and those who compete in it remained largely silent.
“It seems like every day now is a different hashtag,” Wallace said last week during a press conference. “Just sad.”
During the months of nationwide and global protests following Floyd’s murder and up through the verdict, athletes everywhere were largely united in its efforts to keep conversations going and push the simple and crucial message: Black lives matter. But in the wake of the verdict, Ryan Blaney, who is white, was the only top-tier NASCAR driver besides Wallace to tweet about Floyd or any substantial reaction to the guilty verdict.
So yet again, the burden of openly talking about and fighting racism falls on Wallace, NASCAR’s only Black driver. And, at least publicly, he’s shouldering it nearly by himself when those in the predominantly white sport committed otherwise.
Wallace said he’s saddened, angered and frustrated by the frequency at which names become hashtags as a result of violence, and understandably so: If the shamefully recurring news of police killing Black people and people of color doesn’t elicit those emotions, at a minimum, you’re not paying attention or don’t care to.
“What are we supposed to do?” Wallace rhetorically asked.
“It’s unfortunate to watch and to see everything that’s going on. It’s tough to talk about, honestly, because it seems like there’s no progress being made — especially [the video] I watched last [week] where [police] shot the 13-year-old kid and [his] hands were up. So that’s simply doing what you’re asked to do. And still not good enough.”
Last year after Chauvin murdered Floyd, NASCAR released a statement, which read in part:
“For us to heal and move forward as a nation, we all need to listen more and be united in the stand against racism, hatred, senseless violence and loss of life. And we must all hold ourselves accountable to driving positive change.”
(As we noted at the time, the statement lacked names, calls to action or any mention of police brutality and systemic oppression.)
A week later, drivers released a collective video statement pledging to listen, learn and “use this education to advocate for change in our nation, our communities and, most importantly, in our own homes, even after the headlines go away.”
Headlines about police killing Black people and people of color are tragically ever-present. So why aren’t NASCAR and those in it speaking up now?
They were ready and eager to stand with Wallace and follow his lead last summer when it was perhaps more convenient — or when it was easy to belatedly acquiesce to banning the Confederate flag. But when it came to the trial that’s captured the nation’s attention for weeks while police extrajudicially killing people of color dominated the news, only two stars in the premier Cup Series said anything.
It’s not as if NASCAR drivers are unattuned to other national tragedies, either. Denny Hamlin — the co-owner of Wallace’s No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota — spoke out about the FedEx shooting in Indianapolis and honored the victims on his FedEx car last weekend.
After listening and learning, the next natural step is to speak out and act, and part of that is continuing to talk about racism, how it affects people and what tangible steps can be taken to address it. Another part is not allowing Wallace to bear the burden of keeping that conversation going — regardless of how uncomfortable it may make his white peers.
“It’s much easier for me to talk about these topics of unarmed Black men and being a part of discrimination by the police,” Wallace said. “Like them, I’ve been a part of it. When it affects you directly, it makes it easier, and it makes you, unfortunately, comfortable to talk about those things versus anybody else in the field.
“I tried to do my best at encouraging my peers and other competitors to do the same,” he continued, “because you know the great quote of: ‘If it doesn’t affect you indirectly, doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect the other ones around you directly.’ So that’s big, and so the more people that understand that is huge. So to be comfortable and to be in a spotlight that I am, yeah, I am the one to talk about it. People are going to come to me and talk about it, so they know that I’m going to give them [an] honest and true answer.”
But in NASCAR, it shouldn’t be Wallace’s responsibility to talk about racism. To be sure, Wallace is a magnetic leader. But in a sport dominated by white men, addressing racism in and outside of the sport isn’t his responsibility at all.
“It was the right thing to do,” Blaney said during a press conference Thursday when asked about tweeting about the Floyd family and the guilty verdict.
“I wanted to say something just showing support just because I thought it was the right thing to say. I think the right thing to do was the verdict that came out. … You’re never going to be able to repay a life to the Floyd family. But the best thing you can do is have someone who is held accountable for their actions, like that officer was.”
To its credit, NASCAR recently announced it’s working with several organizations — including Institute for Sport and Social Justice, RISE, the Women’s Sports Foundation and The Trevor Project — to help “accelerate change and empower” people both in and outside of NASCAR. Wallace quote-tweeted the governing body’s announcement with Wright’s name and later said he’s “proud of the efforts from NASCAR.”
On an organizational level, these partnerships seem like a good start and follow NASCAR president Steve Phelps’ promise to advocate for inclusion in the sport. But to be an effective leader and push its fans and audience to critically think about what Wallace described as a “never-ending battle” against pervasiveness of racism, NASCAR needs to be vocal as well. It needs support Wallace when he addresses racism and help amplify his voice while still speaking out on its own.
Wallace and Blaney aside, drivers should be embarrassed they’re so regularly silent about violence in this country, particularly against people of color. Many of them have significant platform, but they’re letting the burden of talking about racism largely fall to the driver who surely experiences it far more than his competitors. They continue to fail to adequately address the subject of racism.
“It is all of our responsibility to no longer be silent,” they collectively said in their 2020 video about listening and learning.
The bare minimum effort when it comes to making “real change” is to keep talking about the issues that must be fixed, and NASCAR drivers haven’t even been able to do that. They need to do better.
Kyle Larson’s on-track success shouldn’t shape a misguided redemption arc after being fired for saying the N-word.
You could see the narrative coming from miles away, literally. As Kyle Larson led the final 30 laps of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on his way to victory, you could see the potential for his on-track success to shape a misguided redemption arc in his return to the sport’s highest level.
With a dominant performance, the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driver claimed his first checkered flag of the 2021 season. It was also his first win since his previous team fired him in April after saying the N-word during a live-streamed iRacing event.
But, as the congratulations pour in, it’s imperative to remember that Larson’s early 2021 win cannot be mistaken as redemption for saying the racist slur. It cannot be part of some absolution narrative about his hypothetical growth, nor viewed as compensation for the pain he caused and perpetuated.
Professional success mitigating personal failures is a common and noticeable pattern throughout the sports world, and we should halt it as it begins to unfold here.
After Larson’s win, Chip Ganassi — who fired Larson after he used the racist slur last year — tweeted about the driver’s “nice comeback,” as if the 28 year old persevered after a brutal injury or is trying to bounce back after a down stretch of races.
“Everybody loves a good redemption story,” Brad Keselowski said after finishing second to Larson. “He’s fought really hard for his opportunity to come back and making the most of it. … I told him I wanted to win the damn race. But if I couldn’t, I’m glad he did. We’ve all been kind of pulling for him.”
This isn’t a comeback story like a questionable return after a scary wreck or a team suddenly folding and leaving everyone scrambling to save their careers and livelihoods. Larson was — and should continue to be — held accountable for his words, and any fighting he did was simply trying to recover from the consequences of his own behavior.
After the race, Keselowski was among those to congratulate Larson in person, as was Bubba Wallace, the only Black driver in the Cup Series who previously condemned Larson’s language but advocated for him getting a second chance in NASCAR.
Rooting for Larson is one thing. But establishing his win as part of some contrived redemption arc is a fallacy.
Larson is an exceptional driver, and it was an impressive win. But it’s not some arbitrary signal that he is off the hook for his heinous behavior last year because, really, there is nothing he could possibly accomplish on track to make up for the harm he’s done outside of it.
Before the season-opening Daytona 500 in February, Larson acknowledged that he still has work to do to atone for what he did. As I wrote at the time, that work needs to go beyond making amends and include him consciously, actively and vocally being anti-racist.
A check in the 2021 win column doesn’t change that.
Larson’s absence from all but four races during the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season was no one’s fault but his own, so treating his on-track success like he’s overcome a gigantic hurdle is an insult, particularly to the people he harmed and offended. It makes it seem like their pain and disappointment can be erased with enough strong lap times or wins.
He said something racist, hateful and demeaning that contributed to centuries’ worth of violence and injustice against Black people. Fast cars, fun races or checkered flags don’t compensate for that.
This isn’t to say don’t congratulate Larson or ignore how his early success this season could impact the rest of the year. But we can’t conflate a win on track with his humanity off it.
