HS senior Erriyon Knighton becomes 4th-fastest 200m runner in history

Erriyon Knighton, who broke Usain Bolt’s teenage record, set a blistering 200-meter time to break his own record.

Erriyon Knighton gained notoriety in 2021 as he broke Usain Bolt’s teenage U20 200m record and competed in the Olympics at the age of 17, the youngest male U.S. track athlete to do so in 57 years.

On April 30, Knighton broke the U20 record once again. With a scorching time of 19.49, Knighton became the fourth-fastest runner in the world, according to the NBC Olympics Twitter account. Only three runners have eclipsed that time.

NBC added that Knighton’s time is the fastest anyone has run the 200-meter since the 2012 Olympics.

Here is a video of Knighton running in the LSU Invitational in Baton Rouge. Running in lane five, he took a giant lead around the bend and was not seriously challenged after.

The only three people to have beaten Knighton’s time of 19.49 seconds are Bolt, who has done it four times and set the record of 19.19, Yohan Blake (19.26 seconds in 2011) and Michael Johnson (19.32 seconds in 1996), according to NBC Sports.

From here? Knighton returns to class. The night of the LSU Invitational was four weeks out from his high school graduation, NBC Sports wrote.

The Hillsborough High School (Tampa, Fla.) student went professional in January 2021 and is currently an adidas runner, according to NBC Sports.

Former Celtic looking to return to NBA after heart-wrenching injury

Former Boston Celtics center Aron Baynes is recovering from an injury sustained at last year’s Olympic Games.

Last summer, former Boston Celtics center Aron Baynes was in Tokyo with Team Australia in pursuit of an Olympic medal. They would end up finishing with a bronze, but Baynes could only watch from a hospital bed, according to a new story from ESPN’s Brian Windhorst.

Baynes suffered a series of falls in Japan, both on and off the court, that led to internal bleeding and a months-long fight for the full use of his limbs, according to Windhorst. He had to wade through pain medications, treatments, language barriers with doctors and nurses and stringent COVID-19 protocols in both Japan and Australia before being able to get back to see his family again.

He went from dunking and competing at the highest level for his country in the Olympics to struggling to stand and re-learning to walk in the span of weeks.

Now he wants to return to the NBA — partially because referees are allowing more physicality this season, he told Windhorst.

Simone Biles’ docuseries finale shows devastating behind-the-scenes moments at Tokyo Olympics

‘Simone vs Herself’ offers an inside look at the GOAT’s challenges and triumphs at the Tokyo Olympics.

Simone Biles sobs. Speaking to a camera from her hotel room at the Tokyo Olympics, she pauses to catch her breath as she struggles to detail something she says she doesn’t even understand fully.

It’s July 27, the day of the women’s gymnastics team final, which she withdrew from before missing most of the remaining competition. Biles is trying to explain the “mental block” that’s creating an extraordinary amount of fear when she’s about to do a skill, endangering her even more than what’s already guaranteed in a gravity-defying sport. As her voice cracks, you can hear how scared and devastated she’s feeling as she struggles with the “twisties” at the year-delayed Games.

This heartbreaking moment for the greatest gymnast in the world opens the two-part finale of Simone vs Herself, a seven-episode Facebook Watch documentary about Biles’ life in the year leading up to the Tokyo Games and everything that transpired during them.

“I’m getting lost in my skills,” she emotionally explains.

“I’m so prepared that I don’t know if I’m over-thinking,” she continues. “It’s getting to the point where it’s becoming dangerous. It’s like, it could happen at any other time. I don’t get why it happens at the Olympics. In gym, we call it the ‘twisties.’ Should be a forbidden word because it sucks to have them, for anybody.”

Biles breaks down crying, unable to comprehend why something so detrimental is happening to her on the biggest stage ahead of a competition for which she’s been waiting for five years, since the 2016 Rio Olympics.

“I’m starting to get mental blocks where I don’t want go for the skill because I’m afraid I’m going to get hurt because I’m not doing the correct flip. And it’s like, at this point, I don’t know what to do because it’s too dangerous to do. We can’t change the routines, so I’m just gonna have to see. Trying to keep it together, but like, I don’t know. I’m so confused.”

This opening scene is one of many agonizing moments captured in the sixth and seventh episodes of Simone vs Herself. The first five episodes carried viewers through her training journey leading up to the Olympics, including the challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic and her first competitions back.

But much of the final two were shot during and after the Olympics and capture a nearly day-by-day account of how Biles felt and what she was experiencing while sidelined with the “twisties.”

Director Gotham Chopra told For The Win in June the docuseries would be raw and highlight the human side of the GOAT gymnast, but the two-part series finale shows Biles’ vulnerable side and one not many have ever seen. And it’s difficult to watch, even if the viewers’ discomfort pales in comparison to the internal battle Biles describes.

Flashing back to weeks before the Games, the sixth episode focuses largely on the U.S. Olympic trials, and Biles’ coaches, Cecile and Laurent Landi, say the pressure to make Team USA is heavier than at the actual Games because of the elite-level competition.

The first part of the finale ends with Biles explaining her emotions after qualifying for a second Olympics with an added year of training. But that extra year took a toll on her body, she says, and speaks consistently throughout the episode about how much physical pain she is in.

“I’m just proud of how far I’ve come — no matter really what happens over there,” Biles says. “I still did it.”

The seventh and final episode of Simone vs Herself is a near day-by-day account of what Biles felt and experienced at the Olympic Games. Viewers hear and see her frustration while practicing, her confusion about why she’s plagued by the “twisties” in this moment and the heartbreaking phone call she made to her mother to say she’s pulling out of the team competition after her vault.

Biles, at one point, says she’s in denial about what’s happening, partly because she usually needs about two weeks to recover from the “twisties,” and she thought her Olympics were over.

“People were like, ‘Oh, she had a bad turn, she quit,'” Biles says reflecting on the Games. “But it’s like, no, that’s not it. I’ve done gymnastics on broken ribs, my two broken big toes — or shattered, because they’re not just broken; they’re shattered in pieces — kidney stones, I’ve been through sexual abuse, I came back to the sport. There’re so many barriers that I’ve gotten past, and so to say I just had a bad turn and quit, like if you look at all of those, you can see I’m not a quitter. I’m a fighter.”

“I feel like I had a lot of courage. I know a lot of people look down upon it, but I gave the team the best chance at medaling,” Biles continues, while starting to tear up. “And it’s like, five years and I just — I put myself first for once, and I don’t think they realize that. It’s like, how do you work five years to go to a meet and then tell your coach you can’t finish? It doesn’t happen every year, and so I feel like that was really hard for me to relay to people.”

After being confused, she says her emotions shifted to anxious and scared. Then annoyed and angry. But eventually, she says she came to accept that this was supposed to happen, she doesn’t have to explain herself to anyone and “life will move on.”

Still, she says she couldn’t move past wanting to compete at the Olympics just one more time — something that had been her dream for the last five years. So she went with her balance beam routine in the last women’s final because she felt, with a changed dismount, she could safely complete it.

Not expecting to medal, Biles won bronze, in addition to her silver medal for the team competition.

“This bronze feels like a gold to me, I don’t care what y’all say,” she says.

“If you would have told me like a year ago I’m only walking out of 2020 Olympics with two medals, I would have cried,” Biles explains. “But now I’m just — I’m happy. I walked away with two medals I didn’t think we would get, and in one piece, so I’m not mad.”

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Caeleb Dressel on his post-Olympics life, his next big event and teaching his dog to swim

For The Win spoke with Olympic star Caeleb Dressel about his quick to the pool for the International Swimming League’s third season.

Just four weeks after Caeleb Dressel climbed out of the pool for the final time at the Tokyo Olympics, he’s jumping back in the water for another competition.

After bringing home five gold medals — one of five swimmers to ever do that in a single Games — the now-seven-time Olympic gold medalist will be in Naples, Italy this weekend for the start of the International Swimming League (ISL) season.

The ISL is a flashy pro swim league with competitions that are totally different from a typical swim meet, including a WWE-esque style of flair and pizzazz. It consists of 10 teams — the inaugural season had eight teams — from around the globe with some of the world’s top swimmers making up the international rosters and competing in a regular season, playoffs and championship final. The Cali Condors were the 2020 champions, and 25-year-old Dressel is the reigning ISL MVP.

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Other top swimmers competing this season include Americans Lilly King, Natalie Hinds and Ryan Murphy; Australia’s Emma McKeon; Canada’s Kylie Masse; Japan’s Yui Ohashi; Great Britain’s Adam Peaty and Russia’s Kliment Kolesnikov.

The prize money on the line is also getting boost this season, increasing by about 10 to 12 percent, per the ISL. And that includes a $20,000 bonus for the top finisher in the final MVP race.

Competition for the third ISL season began Thursday, and for swimming fans still hungry for more can catch some of the matches on CBS or CBS Sports Network, starting Saturday at noon ET on CBSSN and Sunday at noon ET on CBS. The ISL’s website is also live-streaming the competitions.

For The Win recently spoke with Dressel before his departure for Italy about his Olympics recovery, why he likes the ISL and keeps coming back, especially right after the Games, and what he knows about the league’s latest COVID-19 protocols, as specifics remain unclear.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Simone Manuel opens up on Tokyo Olympics experience, athletes’ mental health and Paris in 2024

For The Win spoke with Simone Manuel after she returned home from the Tokyo Olympics.

Simone Manuel is one of the most decorated swimmers in the world, and after the Tokyo Olympics, she added another medal to her impressive hardware collection.

Manuel anchored Team USA’s women’s 4×100-meter freestyle relay with a 52.96 split and helped the team win a bronze medal behind Australia and Canada. Individually, she also competed in the 50-meter freestyle and tied for sixth in her semifinal heat but failed to advance to the final.

After the swimming program ended, Manuel posted a thoughtful reflection on Instagram and wrote that she’ll “remember this point in [her] career forever” because she “didn’t give up.” At Olympic Trials in June, she missed the final for the 100-meter freestyle — an event she won gold in at the 2016 Rio Games — and opened up about diagnosed with overtraining syndrome in March. She also said she had been dealing with depression and anxiety, which began to impact her physically this year.

For The Win spoke with Manuel — who was promoting her partnership with Toyota — about her experience at this summer’s unique Olympics, athletes’ mental health and what’s up next for the 25-year-old star.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

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Breanna Stewart’s basketball resume just got a little wilder with the Storm’s WNBA Commissioner’s Cup win

This is greatness we’re watching.

Breanna Stewart is the Thanos of basketball. She’s really just out here collecting trophies and accolades like they’re Infinity Stones.

She added another one to her gauntlet on Thursday with the Seattle Storm’s 79-57 win over the Connecticut Sun for the WNBA’s very first Commissioner’s Cup championship game.

So, for those of us out of the know, the Commissioner’s Cup is a new in-season tournament the W put on for its 25th anniversary.

Throughout the season, prior to the Olympic break, there were 10 games per team that were designated as Commissioner’s Cup tournament games sprinkled throughout their schedule.

The two teams with the highest winning percentages in those games played for the championship. It ended up being the Sun and the Storm. The winning team got a $500,000 prize fund.

Obviously, the Storm won. And it was behind a dazzling 17 point performance from Stewart where she shot 6-8 from the field and 3-4 from deep. She was a +27 on the night.

That was all while knocking down shots like this.

And dominating on both ends like this.

Fresh off of the Olympic Games in Tokyo, too. She absolutely dominated. And with that, she won MVP of the Commissioner’s Cup — which is, apparently, a thing.

And that adds yet another stone to the infinity gauntlet that is Breanna Stewart’s resume. It just keeps growing despite the fact that she tore her Achilles in 2019.

It looks a little something like this now.

Just insane. She’s only 26 years old with all of that. This is absolutely the best basketball player in the world.

If she keeps this up, by the end of her career she’ll certainly be the most accomplished, too.

Watch this week’s episode of our sneaker unboxing series, Special Delivery

Watch Caeleb Dressel’s awesome dog absolutely crush this 25-meter swim

Turns out, Caeleb Dressel’s black lab is very fast too.

Caeleb Dressel was a powerhouse at the Tokyo Olympics, winning an incredible five gold medals, including in individual events like the 50-meter freestyle, 100-meter freestyle, 100-meter butterfly.

After a brutal and taxing competition, Dressel is the fastest swimmer in the world right now, and he now has a total of seven Olympic gold medals from two Games.

And it turns out, his dog is pretty fast too. Jane is a black labrador who makes frequent appearances (poolside and otherwise) on Dressel’s Instagram account, but the latest video of her might be the best.

Dressel showed off Jane’s incredible swimming skills by having her swim a speedy 25 meters, which included starting on a block, which alone is amazing.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CSfWMGcJ7t5/

As far as we can tell, this looks like the Florida Gators’ 50-meter outdoor pool, and Jane absolutely crushed her 25.

And fellow swimmers were impressed, including Swedish sprinter Sarah Sjöström and Australia’s Kyle Chalmers, who won silver behind Dressel in the 100 free in Tokyo.

Well done, Jane. Here are some more photos of this awesome dog on Dressel’s Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CFx6UTXJw9k/?hl=en

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https://www.instagram.com/p/CQj58dSpO3u/

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Recapping Florida’s strong showing in the Tokyo Olympics

Florida took home 17 medals in Tokyo Olympics that ranks third among all college programs behind Stanford and USC.

Now that the Tokyo Olympics came to a close on Sunday, it’s time to reflect on Florida’s strong showing in this year’s games. The Gators won 17 medals, including nine gold, in five different sports: baseball, soccer, swimming, softball and track and field. It stands as the third most among all NCAA programs behind Stanford (26) and USC (21).

If UF was recognized as a country, it would’ve finished tied for 17th place in the total medal count. Its nine gold medals would’ve landed 11th among all the countries that collected a medal in the Tokyo Olympics. Florida also had 32 athletes compete which is good enough for fifth among college programs.

The Gators’ 17 medals equal their second-highest total in the Olympics. They collected 21 in the 1984 Olympic Games held in Los Angeles and grabbed 17  in the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Former Florida swimming star Caeleb Dressel earned over half of the Gators’ gold medals with five. He also set two world records in the 100-meter fly and the 4×100-meter medley relay. It is also the most gold medals won by a Florida student-athlete in a single Olympics.

Current Gators swimmer Bobby Finke took home two gold medals in the 1,500-meter freestyle and 800-meter freestyle.

In soccer, Deanne Rose and Adriana Leon helped Canada win its first gold medal in the sport.

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Follow us @GatorsWire on Twitter and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.

U.S. women’s basketball team is our final ‘Hero of the Weekend’ of the Tokyo Olympics

What. A. Team.

The U.S. women’s basketball team beat Japan, 90-75, on Sunday to win its seventh straight gold medal, which is just incredible and shouldn’t be taken for granted by any of us.

Each Monday during the Tokyo Olympics I have provided my “Heroes of the Weekend” and this final one was a no brainer as everyone involved with the women’s hoops team gets this very prestigious award.

Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi each won their fifth gold medal, which is absolutely wild and head coach Dawn Staley won her SIXTH (three as a player, two as an assistant, and one as a coach), which is nuts.

Watch the video above for more details on this unbelievable team.

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