Category: safety

ex-MSU coach Kathie Klages convicted

A jury on Friday convicted a former Michigan State University gymnastics coach of lying to police when she denied that two teen athletes told her of sexual abuse by sports doctor Larry Nassar in 1997, nearly 20 years before he was charged.

Kathie Klages, 65, was found guilty of a felony and a misdemeanor in a Lansing courthouse where Nassar was sentenced more than two years ago. Klages faces up to four years in prison at her April 15 sentencing.

She is the second person other than Nassar to be convicted of charges related to his serial molestation of young women and girls under the guise of medical treatment. …

Recall that Klages continued to support Nassar during his investigation — even asking Michigan State gymnasts to sign cards of support.

related – In a parallel story, then assistant wrestling coach Jim  Jordan asked his team to deny the sexual abuse of male wrestlers by team doctor Richard Strauss at Ohio State University.

Stauss committed suicide in 2005 after being accused of abusing at least 177 students.

 

Simone for #nocompetition in beauty

Olympic athletes join SK-II to declare #NOCOMPETITION in beauty

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

As the world’s sporting talents are gearing up for Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, a band of top athletes have joined forces to declare a battle against beauty standards that they’ve never signed up for, led by cult-favourite beauty brand SK-II.

… Biles, along with an impressive roster of fellow Olympic athletes, including world-record holder swimmer Liu Xiang and the Japan volleyball team, have joined forces with SK-II for #nocompetition, a new global campaign created to inspire women to live by their own definitions of beauty.

Biles admits that in an image-obsessed era, ignoring the pressure to measure up isn’t always easy, not even for her. “I’ve been dealing with scrutiny my whole life. I had to go through puberty in the public eye. It’s hard and social media doesn’t make it any better, but I think the campaign will help us as women to speak up about toxic beauty standards,” …

Simone Biles Has a Message of Self-Acceptance

Maya Zonneveld is Elite Canada Jr Champ

1. Maya Zonneveld 99.831
2. Cassie Lee 99.231
3. Ava Stewart 98.598
4. Alicia Wendland 97.632
5. Sydney Turner 97.281
6. Rylee Miller 97.097

Full results.

Maya and Alicia are teammates at Revolution Gymnastics.

Clara Raposo won almost everything day 1: AA, Vault, Beam, Floor.

Unfortunately Clara had to withdraw from day 2 after an injury on Vault landing. Competition Vault landing is the single greatest risk in a very dangerous sport.

Read Lauren’s LIVE blog.

 

Katie Sowers – 1st woman coach in Super Bowl

San Francisco 49ers offensive assistant Katie Sowers will be the first female coach and first openly gay person in a Super Bowl.

Katie is not the first female coach, however. There were a number working with NFL teams in 2020.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Rosie MacLennan talks mental health

The double Olympic Trampoline champion sometimes suffers from depression.

Watch it on TSN – As Long As I Breathe

This released in conjunction with the #BellLetsTalk program.

Rosie wants anyone else suffering any kind of mental health problems to feel comfortable talking about it.

Details:

“Over the last decade, the Bell Let’s Talk Community Fund has helped more than 650 organizations on the front line of mental health care drive real change in their communities,” said Bell Let’s Talk Chair Mary Deacon.

“We welcome this year’s fund applicants and look forward to offering our support to even more exciting projects in 2020.”

MarketWatch

former coach sentenced to 50 years

A former gymnastics coach was sentenced Friday to 50 years in prison for sexually assaulting young female gymnasts in North Texas and Oklahoma.

Skipper Crawley, 53, of Kemp, Texas, pleaded guilty …

Still pending against Crawley are 10 counts of lewd child molestation filed in Tulsa County, Oklahoma. …

AP

Transgender women in the Olympics

Obviously everyone has the right to compete in sport.

IOC must decide on rules. Enforce those rules.

There’s no perfect dividing line. It will take many years of fine tuning to get those rules as fair as possible.

Click PLAY or watch it on Facebook.

Rachael Denhollander on USAG

Guardian: It’s been more than three years now since you came forward and this movement started. How do you feel about everything USA Gymnastics has done since?

Rachael Denhollander: Disappointed. They have completely refused any shred of transparency and accountability.

They have refused to identify even one thing that went wrong. They have refused to identify even one coach that was abusive or one abusive situation, to point to something and say, hey, we shouldn’t have allowed that.

And if you cannot even acknowledge the problem, you cannot fix the problem. …

Rachael Denhollander: ‘When you speak out against your own community, you lose everything’

Anti-Doping in Trampoline Sports

The Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) and the Japan Anti-Doping Agency (JADA) are delighted to announce that the effective education programme on clean and fair sport was delivered to more than 1500 elite-level senior to junior athletes and their support personnel at both international tournaments in Tokyo, Japan; 34th FIG Trampoline Gymnastics World Championships, on 26-27 November and the 27th FIG Trampoline Gymnastics Age Groupe Competitions on 3-4 December 2019.

Play True Japan

In addition, more than 60 athletes, representing a wide range of nations, met to discuss proposed changes to the competition format for individual Trampoline and scoring changes for Double Mini and Tumbling.

Alexis Vasquez on mental health as a College athlete

Alexis Vasquez is a fantastic gymnast on one of the fastest improving teams in the NCAA.

I was in the audience when her team defeated both Florida and Oregon State University last season. Alexis was Regional co-Champion on beam. A fantastic performance.

Yet unbeknownst to almost everyone was the fact that Alexis was suffering mental health issues.

She’s decided to share her story in an essay and interview. Click over to Denver Pioneers to see that.