July 28 – Aug. 10, 2024
Welcome to issue four hundred and forty-five of the Sports Doing Good newsletter. This week’s 10 stories include:

1. Meet the viral Olympians winning medals and hearts (CNN)
2. Meet the flower-loving, glitter-wearing, ukulele-playing USA skater who cherished Paris (USA Today)
3. Canadian Soccer Star Jessie Fleming Shows Athletes Can Lead On Climate (Forbes)
4. How athletes struck TikTok gold at the Olympics – while others avoid the distraction (The Athletic)
5. The Tiny Chinese Restaurant That Became an Olympic Hot Spot (New York Times)
6. The unsung hero of the world-beating US women’s gymnastics team is a very good boy (The Guardian)
7. USA Rugby Gets $4 Million Donation From Michele Kang After Bronze Medal Win (Sports Travel Magazine)
8. Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles demonstrate what the Olympics are all about — sportsmanship (Yahoo! Sports)
9. ‘I’m Fighting Gravity.’ Climber Sam Watson Might Be One of the Fastest Olympians in Paris (Time)
10. One Olympian’s Secret Weapon? His High School Coach. (New York Times)


10+
Futebol Social Empowering Youth & Communities in Brazil (Beyond Sport)
https://beyondsport.org/articles/futebol-social-empowering-disadvantaged-youth-and-communities-in-brazil/
Mohammed Jalood: “The Olympic Games are always a source of inspiring stories!” (Sport and Dev)
https://www.sportanddev.org/latest/news/mohammed-jalood-olympic-games-are-always-source-inspiring-stories
Laureus celebrates International Sports Press Association (AIPS) centennial in Paris (Laureus)
https://www.laureus.com/news/laureus-celebrates-aips
A Letter from Paris (by Rose Zhang) (The Players’ Tribune)
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/rose-zhang-usa-golf-olympics
Peace and Sport and the Tour de France organized the ‘Ride for Peace’ parade during the final stage of the Tour de France 2024 (Peace and Sport)
https://www.peace-sport.org/news/peace-and-sport-and-the-tour-de-france-organized-the-ride-for-peace-parade-during-the-final-stage-of-the-tour-de-france-2024/


We present again our “Featured Video” offering(s). With the explosion of video content out there highlighting the good in sport, we want to showcase such content for your enjoyment and learning. This will be an ongoing effort. And now we add podcasts!

Ukrainian Yaroslava Mahuchikh dedicates gold medal to fallen athletes, coaches (CNN)
https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/06/sport/video/ukrainian-yaroslava-mahuchikh-dedicates-gold-medal-to-fallen-athletes-coaches


Introduction
I had to deal with a slight hiccup with this latest issue of Sports Doing Good. I had collected more than 20 stories – there was so much good news! – but when I went to post them online, the file would not open. A bit of a bummer because I loved the collection of stories, mostly from the Olympics, that made up the newsletter. (Lesson learned – make sure to have backup!) However, not all was lost. I had no trouble coming up with a version 2.0 as the world of sports was offering me even more stories to choose from.

What struck me about this latest version of the Summer Olympics were the fans. In 2021, there were no fans allowed in Tokyo due to covid. I was happy the athletes had a chance to compete but without fans, much of the charm of those Games was gone. (See, sports fans still matter!) This year, there were so many instances of family and friends (and Snoop Dogg) wiggling around in their seats during the gymnastics floor exercise routines, skateboarding, diving, swimming, etc. The fans were out in full force. The excitement and drama were everywhere. (Who thought we needed the pommel horse in our lives!)

In case you were not keeping track, there were 32 sports being contested in Paris with over 10,000 athletes, including the very famous – Simone Biles, LeBron James – and the not-so-famous – Winzar Kakiouea from the island nation of Nauru. Winzar was the only athlete repping his country (I guess that made it easy to decide who was going to carry the country’s flag during the Opening Ceremonies.) but had a very interesting story to tell. (“A One-Man Team’s 11-Second Olympics,” New York Times.) For me, the Games are compelling just as much for the great majority of athletes who will not stand on the podium, as the ones who finish in the top three.

I will definitely have a post-Games withdrawal. But I am already looking forward to the Summer Games in Los Angeles in 2028. I feel that the Paris Games re-energized the Olympics (NBC certainly is happy with its ratings) and we can ride that all the way to Los Angeles, when we will see sports such as cricket and flag football as part of the Olympic program for the first-time. For now, kudos and thanks to everyone involved with the Olympic movement. In a world full of division, you gave us something to root for together.


Please continue to send along your stories. You are both our audience and the best source of stories. Our Twitter handle is @sportsdoinggood, and you can find us at www.facebook.com/sportsdoinggood and on Instagram.

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So, enjoy. And have a good week.

Meet the viral Olympians winning medals and hearts (CNN)
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/31/sport/viral-olympians-ilona-maher-fred-richard-cec/index.html

Meet the flower-loving, glitter-wearing, ukulele-playing USA skater who cherished Paris (USA Today)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2024/08/06/bryce-wettstein-skateboard-usa-olympics/74684911007/

Canadian Soccer Star Jessie Fleming Shows Athletes Can Lead On Climate (Forbes)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/vitascarosella/2024/08/05/canadian-soccer-star-jessie-fleming-shows-athletes-can-lead-on-climate/

How athletes struck TikTok gold at the Olympics – while others avoid the distraction (The Athletic)
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5676610/2024/08/06/the-tiktok-olympics/

The Tiny Chinese Restaurant That Became an Olympic Hot Spot (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/06/world/olympics/table-tennis-china-restaurant.html

The unsung hero of the world-beating US women’s gymnastics team is a very good boy (The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/aug/06/beacon-usa-gymnastics-therapy-dog

USA Rugby Gets $4 Million Donation From Michele Kang After Bronze Medal Win (Sports Travel Magazine)
https://www.sportstravelmagazine.com/usa-rugby-gets-4-million-donation-from-michele-kang-after-bronze-medal-win/

Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles demonstrate what the Olympics are all about — sportsmanship (Yahoo! Sports)
https://sports.yahoo.com/simone-biles-and-jordan-chiles-demonstrate-what-the-olympics-are-all-about–sportsmanship-152203806.html

‘I’m Fighting Gravity.’ Climber Sam Watson Might Be One of the Fastest Olympians in Paris (Time)
https://time.com/6996486/sam-watson-speed-climbing-olympics-interview/

One Olympian’s Secret Weapon? His High School Coach. (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/06/world/olympics/grant-fisher-5000m-coach.html


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Our goal is to have Sports Doing Good be a portal housing original content and excerpts from and links to the increasing number of articles, websites, video, and other media that showcase the good in sports and society. We aim to celebrate those concepts, activities, events, and individuals by highlighting them for a wider audience. Much of the news today, whether sports- related or not, is incredibly negative and increasingly polarizing, biased, and quite annoying. We are trying to refocus some of the discussion on the good, with a focus on sports.

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