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‘This Is Insane’: Piers Morgan Hits out at Transgender Athlete Laurel Hubbard

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One of Britain’s highest-profile media figures has taken aim at Kiwi transgender athlete Laurel Hubbard’s potential participation at the Tokyo Olympics.

Hubbard kept her hopes of competing at Tokyo alive last month when she won the women’s super-heavyweight weightlifting contest at the Roma World Cup, the first Olympic qualifying event of the year.

Controversial media personality Piers Morgan, who has over seven million followers on Twitter, took issue with Hubbard’s potential participation in Japan.

“This is insane. Women’s rights to basic fairness & equality are getting destroyed at the altar of political correctness,” Morgan posted on Twitter.

“Trans women born with biological male bodies have a massive physical advantage against women born with female bodies in any sport where power & strength are significant factors. This shouldn’t be a contentious claim, it’s just a rather obvious fact.

(Read more from “‘This Is Insane’: Piers Morgan Hits out at Transgender Athlete Laurel Hubbard” HERE)

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Olympic Skier Attacks Ivanka Trump for Being Present at Event

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By Aidan McLaughlin. Gus Kenworthy, one of the first openly gay U.S. Olympians, took a swipe at Ivanka Trump on Twitter over the first daughter’s appearance at the Winter Games.

The Olympics silver medalist skier issued a tweet on the Closing Ceremony, noting he was proud of his fellow competitors representing the U.S. at the games.

“Everyone except Ivanka,” Kenworthy wrote. “Honestly, tf is she doing here??”

(Read more from “Olympic Skier Attacks Ivanka Trump for Being Present at Event” HERE)

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Olympic Skier Gus Kenworthy Slammed for Criticizing Ivanka Trump

By Tyler McCarthy. . .Almost immediately, the tweet received some praise as well as some serious backlash as Twitter users pulled no punches to mock him for underperforming at the games and getting too political.

“Didn’t you finish last or in the bottom half of most of our ski competitions? I believe you did. Perhaps you should practice more on making yourself better and leave the political commentary to the experts,” one Twitter user wrote. . .

Ivanka Trump arrived in South Korea on Feb. 23 to lead the U.S. presidential delegation to the games for the closing ceremony. She also met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in about possible diplomatic talks with North Korea.

Kenworthy, despite a disappointing showcase in Pyeongchang, became a bit of a viral sensation in 2018 after posting an image that went viral of himself kissing his boyfriend, Matthew Wilkas, before a qualifying run that was broadcast on NBC. (Read more from “Olympic Skier Gus Kenworthy Slammed for Criticizing Ivanka Trump” HERE)

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Olympic Athlete Charged With Stealing Car

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A Canadian athlete competing at the Winter Olympics has been charged with stealing a car in the early hours of Saturday morning, South Korean police said.

A police official in charge of international crime at Gangwon Provincial Police Agency said the athlete, his wife and manager had gotten into an unlocked car which had been left unoccupied with the engine running in Pyeongchang.

The official said the manager then drove off with the car before it was stopped by police. The manager has additionally been charged with drunk driving.

Once the investigation is complete the results would be sent to the prosecution, the official said, adding that unless the alleged offence was deemed a serious crime, they would be able to leave the country after paying a fine.

At a news conference on Saturday, Canadian Olympic Committee CEO Chris Overholt said they were aware of the situation but declined to confirm the identities of the three. (Read more from “Olympic Athlete Charged With Stealing Car” HERE)

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HERO: This Utterly Mediocre Skier Made It to the Olympics on a Technicality

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Meet the greatest Olympian since Orsippus: Elizabeth Swaney, a 33-year-old mediocre American skier who qualified for the 2018 Olympic Games in PyeongChang by exploiting a loophole in Hungary.

Swaney’s half-pipe run on Monday involved one quasi-trick, no air, and a last-place finish. She frequently did not clear the top of the half-pipe. She qualified for the Olympics by leveraging her grandparents’ Hungarian birth to attend International Ski Federation World Cup events, where she regularly finished among the top 30 skiers because fewer than 30 skiers showed up to compete.

International Ski Federation judge Steele Spence told The Denver Post, “She would compete in [events] consistently over the last couple years and sometimes girls would crash so she would not end up dead last.” Alas, Swaney’s dearth of skill caught up with her on Monday, when he finished her second run in last place.

(Read more from “HERO: This Utterly Mediocre Skier Made It to the Olympics on a Technicality” HERE)

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U.S. Winter Olympics 2018 Medal Winners

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From the only triple axel landed by a female American Olympic skater to the first men’s single medal for USA Luge at the Games, U.S. athletes are making history in the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Athletes from 92 nations are fiercely competing for a chance to stand on those coveted Olympic podiums in Pyeongchang, South Korea. There are 15 different sporting activities and a total of 102 events . . .

Team USA’s Jamie Anderson took home the gold in the 2018 Winter Games after she performed in less-than-perfect weather conditions . . .

The conditions for the men’s snowboard slopestyle were less than ideal, but 17-year-old Red Gerard made it through the swirling winds to capture the United States’ first gold medal of the 2018 Olympics.

At 17, Chloe Kim became the youngest woman to win an Olympic snowboarding gold medal during the Winter Games. Kim dominated two amazing runs on the women’s snowboard halfpipe, earning her the first place spot on the medal podium. (Read more from “U.S. Winter Olympics 2018 Medal Winners” HERE)

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Olympic Oops: Katie Couric Has Now Insulted the Dutch

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By The Daily Wire. NBC believes it’s doing a bang-up job hosting the Olympic Winter Games television broadcast, but in less than two days of coverage, its anchors have already insulted at least two countries.

First, an NBC “Asia correspondent” suggested that Korea was grateful for the presence of Japan’s Olympic delegation, after all Japan had given them (it turns out, the Japanese took more than 200,000 Korean women hostage before World War II to work as “comfort women” for Japanese men). Now, Katie Couric has managed to insult The Netherlands with her quaint, anachronistic (and kind of racist) explanation of the Dutch commute.

While watching the Dutch national team — mostly speed skaters — enter the arena opening night, Couric quipped happily, “‘why are they so good,’ you may be asking yourselves? Because skating is an important mode of transportation in a city like Amsterdam.”

“As you all know, it has lots of canals that can freeze in the winter. So for as long as those canals have existed, the Dutch have skated on them to get from place to place, to race each other and also to have fun,” she continued. (Read more from “Olympic Oops: Katie Couric Has Now Insulted the Dutch” HERE)

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Dutch Mock Katie Couric’s Comments About Speedskating

By USA Today. Katie Couric might want to visit Amsterdam sometime.

The broadcaster is drawing criticism on social media after her unusual reasoning for the Netherlands’ success in speedskating over the years. Couric, who co-anchored NBC’s coverage of Friday’s Olympic opening ceremony in Pyeongchang, said that the Dutch rely on skating as a form of transportation in their capital city, which sits at sea level.

(Read more from “Dutch Mock Katie Couric’s Comments About Speedskating” HERE)

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Olympics: Fresh Push to Allow Men to Compete as Women

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The International Olympic Committee is being asked to reverse its decision to let men compete in women’s events . . .

The article explains what happens when gender is “deemed a social construct that is totally disconnected from our biology.”

The request to the IOC has been made by the non-profit 4 Winds Christian Athletics, which pointed out that transgender Tiffany Abreu, 33, is playing on a top women’s volleyball team in Brazil and “is on track to compete at the 2020 Olympics in Japan.”

“Abreu went through hormonal treatment to control testosterone levels and had sex reassignment surgery,” the ministry said. “And as of 2016, Olympic athletes no longer have to have reassignment surgery but just must keep their testosterone levels under 10 nanamoles through hormonal treatment.”

4 Winds Christian Athletics President Steve McConkey said that as the 2020 Olympics approach, there are transgender athletes competing as females that could impact various sports. (Read more from “Olympics: Fresh Push to Allow Men to Compete as Women” HERE)

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There Won’t Be Gender Restrictions at 2018 Olympics

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The International Olympic Committee (IOC), in charge of making the rules for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea, said that there will be no sex or gender testing required for the upcoming games.

“With regard to Hyperandrogenism in female athletes, there were no regulations in place at the Olympic Games Rio 2016 and there will be no regulations in place at the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 as we are still awaiting the resolution of the Dutee Chand case,” the IOC wrote in a June email in response to an inquiry into how it would regulate the upcoming Olympics.

The response follows controversy that sparked after 800-meter South African runner Caster Semenya won gold at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil. Semenya’s intersex condition causes her to produce more testosterone (hyperandrogenism) than most women, prompting questions about whether she had an unfair biological advantage.

“These kind of people should not run with us,” Italian middle-distance runner Elisa Cusma said. “For me, she is not a woman. She is a man.”

In the past, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the world’s governing body for track and field, sought to preserve the male-female division by administering gynecological exams, chromosome tests, or hormone tests to ensure fair competition. (Read more from “There Won’t Be Gender Restrictions at 2018 Olympics” HERE)

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‘God Restores’: Olympic Gold Medalist Who Grieves After an Abortion Wants to Help Other Post-Abortive Women

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Four-time Olympic gold medalist in track and field Sanya Richards-Ross recently penned a memoir. In it she revealed that she had an abortion right before the 2008 Olympics. The experience left her feeling loss and grief. But after a moment when she experienced God for herself in Bejing, she began the healing process. Now she says God restores, and through her book hopes to help other women who’ve suffered loss because of abortion.

‘The Toughest Time of My Life’

Just before the 2008 Olympics in Bejing, Sanya Richards-Ross found out that she was pregnant. She was at the top of her game and was favored to win gold that year. She didn’t see a way to have a baby during the height of her career and chose to have an abortion. In her new book, Chasing Grace: What the Quarter Mile Has Taught Me About God and Life, Sanya opens up about what she called the toughest time of her life.

In an interview with Newsworthy with Norsworthy, Sanya said she wasn’t sure she wanted to include the abortion in her book at first. “I literally prayed about that for almost two years because it’s something that is really private. A lot of women don’t talk about it.” Sanya felt like she’d been chasing something her entire life, whether that was gold medals or the best version of herself.

God’s Grace

“Ultimately what I learned was, while I was chasing all these things, what really kept me going was God’s grace.” She decided to add the story of her abortion because “I felt like if I didn’t share the moment of my life where I did feel God’s grace the most I felt like it would’ve been disingenuous to my journey.” If it wasn’t for God’s grace, she wouldn’t have been able to recognize that the decision of her abortion didn’t define her. “I am the person I’m striving to be,” she said, “I have to work on it every single day.”

Sanya felt that if she won her race in the 2008 Bejing Olympics it would take her shame away. She’d just had the abortion and was on the brink of a breakdown. “But then,” she said, “there was another part of me that was like, ‘I don’t deserve this victory.’”

God’s Presence

Her experience with God’s presence came as she was getting off of a bus in Bejing just before the race. “I felt literally, emotionally, physically lost. God wrapped His arms around me … He just hugged me and told me He loved me and I was going to be okay.” It was then that she said she felt a peace that passes all understanding. “All of a sudden, I just felt like, Oh my God — God has already forgiven me. Now I’ve got to forgive myself.” It didn’t happen overnight for Sanya, but “it was the beginning of recovery for me.”

She spent time between the Bejing races with her family, talking to her parents and praying. She returned to the last race revived and energized. “I had an amazing experience running from behind and beating Team Russia, so I’m grateful for that.” She received a bronze medal for her individual race but won gold in her team’s relay. She went on to win Olympic gold in 2012 in the 400-meter race.

‘To Glorify God’

While she worried about how people would receive her story, “Ultimately, I did it to glorify God. To tell people that ‘You can come back from any decision no matter how hard it is to make or no matter what you thought about it in the past. You can still have God along with you along the journey.’”

‘God Restores!’

Sanya is continuing to heal from her abortion. She is now looking forward to the birth of her second child. Although she still tears up about her experience, she has a message for other post-abortive women: “God restores!” Every time she tells her story she heals a little bit more, she said. “Healing means ultimately understanding that God has forgiven you. I think when you do that, then it really helps you to process that, ‘Look, God doesn’t love the way I love, you know, He loves me unconditionally and we all make mistakes.’” (For more from the author of “‘God Restores’: Olympic Gold Medalist Who Grieves After an Abortion Wants to Help Other Post-Abortive Women” please click HERE)

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Ryan Lochte Loses Major Endorsement Over Robbery Report Flak

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As the fallout continues over U.S. Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte’s apparently false description of an armed robbery while in Rio de Janeiro, an announcement by one of his key sponsors on Monday revealed significant financial repercussions for the gold medalist.

Speedo USA released a statement on Twitter regarding its business relationship with Lochte, confirming the company has decided to end its sponsorship.

At least a portion of the money Lochte would have received through the partnership is now slated to help fund a charity in 2016 Olympic host country Brazil.

“As part of this decision,” the company announced, “Speedo USA will donate a $50,000 portion of Lochte’s fee to Save The Children, a global charity partner of Speedo USA’s parent company, for children in Brazil.”

While Speedo described its work with the swimmer up to this point as “a winning relationship,” the company concluded it “cannot condone behavior that is counter to the values this brand has long stood for.”

The move earned Speedo some social-media praise from users disappointed in Lochte.

blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”>

Good move, @SpeedoUSA!

— Eric Haywood (@EricHaywood) August 22, 2016

Ralph Lauren followed suit with its own statement announcing its “endorsement agreement with Ryan Lochte was specifically in support of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and the company will not be renewing his contract.”

As Western Journalism reported last week, Lochte was one of two Team USA swimmer indicted on suspicion of filing a false report with Brazilian authorities.

Until additional evidence surfaced casting doubt on his initial statement, Lochte claimed he and three other team members were robbed by armed men displaying a police badge.

His account of the evening’s events have since changed, prompted by an anonymous source who claimed not only that the swimmers were not robbed, but they were responsible for causing extensive damage to a gas station restroom.

Bob Williams, head of Burns Entertainment and Sports Marketing, predicted the controversy would cost Lochte money as the loss of the Speedo endorsement already has.

He predicted the swimmer’s actions will “virtually eliminate him from future endorsements.” (For more from the author of “Ryan Lochte Loses Major Endorsement Over Robbery Report Flak” please click HERE)

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