Most US athletes in survey want Olympic delay: report
When asked if they supported the Tokyo Olympics going ahead as scheduled from July 24-August 9, 41 percent replied they did not back that idea with 34% percent saying the matter was complicated and more information was needed.The two-hour meeting also included athletes being asked when a decision should be made on what to do with the Tokyo Olympics, with a third saying the choice needed to come as soon as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has enough information.Almost a quarter wanted a decision no later than April 15, while 18 percent wanted an immediate decision.USOPC board chair Susanne Lyons said Friday her group will defer to the IOC as it gathers information from around the world. Topics : Almost three-quarters of the 300 US athletes who took part in a virtual town hall with US Olympic officials support delaying the 2020 Tokyo Games, USA Today reported Sunday.The poll followed calls to postpone the Olympics due to the global coronavirus pandemic by USA Swimming and USA Track & Field — the federations set to send the most American athletes to Japan in an expected delegation of more than 600 competitors.In all, 70 percent of the athletes supported a postponement with another 23 percent saying it would depend on the consequences of such a move, according to details of the weekend poll given to the newspaper by a member of the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) Athletes Advisory Council who participated in the meeting.
“At this point in time, we do not feel that it’s necessary for us to insist that they make a decision,” Lyons said.Nathan Adrian, a five-time US Olympic relay swim champion, says he doesn’t want to compete under current conditions.”I would have real moral objections, if the situation was the same as it was today, to competing,” Adrian told USA Today.US hammer thrower Gwen Berry told the newspaper she worries over the IOC’s decision.”I feel the IOC is being really, really selfish in trying to push it,” she said. “And there’s no need to push it.”Some US athletes told the newspaper about the disruption to training that safety measures to avoid spreading coronavirus have caused, including six-time US all-around men’s gymnastics champion Sam Mikulak, who has struggled to find access to equipment to train upon.”I’ve had a plan for four years to do Olympic-level routines, and right now I’d have to drop back to my basic routines,” Mikulak said.”It’s really throwing a four-year preparation out the window if they keep doing this.”
Canada handled the novel coronavirus outbreak better than many of its allies, including the United States, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday, in a rare public comment on the faltering US effort.Canada – with a population one-tenth the size of the United States – has so far recorded 8,711 deaths and 106,167 cases and Trudeau said the situation was stabilizing, although some hot spots remained.In contrast, the United States has recorded more than 3 million cases and 131,336 deaths. Authorities have reported alarming upswings of daily case loads in roughly two dozen states over the past two weeks. “We were able to control the virus better than many of our allies, particularly including our neighbor,” Trudeau told a briefing, saying Canada’s success would help efforts to restart the economy.Canada and the United States have blocked nonessential travel between the two nations since March and are discussing whether to extend the ban when it expires on July 21.Canadian health officials said the death toll could hit 8,900 by July 17.Deputy chief public health officer Howard Njoo said the outbreak was largely under control, while stressing measures such as contact tracing and quarantine would still be essential.”If we relax too much or too soon, the epidemic will most likely rebound, with explosive growth as a distinct possibility,” he told a separate news conference.Although Trudeau’s relations with US President Donald Trump have been good over the last 18 months, he skipped a Washington meeting on Wednesday to herald the start of a new continental trade agreement with the United States and Mexico.Trudeau, who would have had to enter a 14-day quarantine period on his return, repeated concerns about the possible imposition of US tariffs on Canadian exports of aluminum. Topics :
Where is Ernie Banks? When Ernie played for the Cubs, they would ask him if he liked playing a double-header on the 4th; and his answer always was “it is such a nice day, let’s play 3.” Today you not only will not see a double-header, but you may not see every team even playing during the daylight. For a game that likes to sell itself as the Grand Old Game, they have sure given in to the players’ association and have gone away from almost every old tradition there was. You can’t make a team play day games after night games unless there is a special circumstance, and double-headers are usually only emergency makeups for rain outs. They then are played as day/night affairs so the team can collect two gate receipts. A couple of teams had Memorial Day off this year because it was their normal Monday “off day” on the schedule. When a pitcher today throws at a batter, the benches erupt and the League hands out fines and everyone gets worried the game may be getting too violent. In days gone by, the opposing pitcher retaliated, the umpire nodded, and the problem was solved. Those were the old days. Did you notice that no ball is used today after it hits the dirt? Heaven forbid if a pitcher found a way to make a pitch break funny by using such a ball. Some pitchers use a dozen balls an inning because they are so wild. How about worrying about pitchers getting killed from balls hit by steroid goons? This I know didn’t happen in the “good old days”.
Ricky Stephan won his career 100th IMCA Modified feature Saturday at Park Jefferson Speedway. (Photo by Jim Steffens)SOUTH SIOUX CITY, Neb. – Ricky Stephan started his IMCA Modified career 30-odd years ago at Park Jefferson Speedway.Fittingly, he returned there on July 8 to win his 100th feature in the division.“It’s really my home track and I was racing in front of my home fans,” Stephan said. “Plus, Pepsi of Siouxland sponsored the night and I’m a Pepsi guy.”“It was about time. I knew I was capable of doing it,” he continued. “Winning 100 features puts you in the history book. It’s an elite group.”While Stephan is the 50th driver in division history to reach 100 wins for his career, he’s got a resume full of equally impressive accomplishments.He earned his first of 16 career track championships, at Buena Vista Raceway, in his rookie 1987 season. He became just the ninth driver to win four track titles in a single season last year.Add in a couple Side Biter Chassis North Central Regional championships (2001 and 2003) and six Allstar Performance State championships – three in Iowa and a current streak of three in a row in South Dakota – and there’s no disputing the fact that Stephan brings a unique list of achievements to any discussion about the best drivers ever to wheel an IMCA Modified.From South Sioux City, Neb., Stephan turns 51 the day after the upcoming IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s ends.He’s qualified for the big dance on six occasions while making a pair of Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational starts.Stephan’s Racer nickname is an obvious one and was bestowed on him by Wayne King Jr., the son of his long-time sponsor Wayne Sr. Stephan, in turn, began calling Wayne Jr. The Little King.Stephan started racing in 1984 in a limited late model class – his father Richard has only missed one of his races in all those years – and has become accustomed to the growing number of young faces surrounding him at drivers’ meetings.“Kids are faster now and I’m the veteran. It’s hard to believe I was like that 30 years ago,” he said. “I hope I can carry on and get some more wins.”
Indianapolis, In. — The Indiana Manufacturers Association (IMA) today launched an employer-driven education initiative to ensure a pipeline of highly skilled workers will be available to meet the needs of Indiana’s manufacturing industry. The initiative builds on the state’s efforts to help students pursue career and technical education and to help employers establish a pipeline of talent.The Indiana Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education (INFAME) will work with regional manufacturers and educational institutions to implement dual-track training that includes both classwork and hands-on training. When students complete the course they will earn an associate degree that can move seamlessly to a bachelor’s degree program and will have two years of relevant, paid job experience that they can take immediately to the workplace.“INFAME is a natural compliment to the recommendations of the Governor’s Workforce Cabinet and Governor Holcomb’s 2019 workforce agenda,” said Brian Burton, President and CEO of the IMA. “Our manufacturing base is critical to the state’s economic success, and this initiative will not only serve manufacturers, but also help more Hoosiers find successful and rewarding careers in the industry.”The nationally-recognized FAME model currently operates in nine states. In Indiana, local FAME chapters will give businesses the chance to work with the IMA on education programs that meet their specific needs. Higher education partners such as Ivy Tech Community College and Vincennes University will provide tailored associate degree programs that will allow students to move into bachelor’s degree programs if they choose.“Toyota is excited to partner with the Indiana Manufacturers Association in launching the FAME model in Indiana to address the needs of our manufacturing industry,” said Millie Marshall, President of Toyota Manufacturing Indiana, Inc. “The FAME program has a track record of developing a pipeline of the highly skilled workers who are excellent problem solvers and creating opportunities for participants to jumpstart their careers.”INFAME will start by offering an Advanced Manufacturing Technician (AMT) program. The AMT curriculum includes electricity, fluid power, motor controls, maintenance of industrial equipment, programmable logic controllers (PLCs), welding, machining, drawings, robotics and troubleshooting. Students are also equipped with personal development skills such as attendance, communication, innovation, teamwork, and interpersonal relations. In addition to classwork, students will get practical work experience at an area manufacturer. AMT also teaches students safety culture, workplace organization, lean manufacturing, machinery maintenance and reliability and problem solving. In the future, employers who participate in the program can tailor educational programs to their specific needs.“This initiative allows those of us in manufacturing to have direct input on developing the skills we need in our future employees,” said Matt Linville, HR Director at Zimmer Biomet, and a member of both the IMA Board of Directors and the INFAME Board of Directors. “The opportunity to build on the AMT and other workforce offerings through INFAME is exciting, and will offer Indiana manufacturers the flexibility they need to keep pace with the changing demands of the industry.”More information can be found at http://www.indianafame.com.
Lock Donnacha Ryan is also a doubt after incurring a shoulder problem at Murrayfield, while his second row partner Mike McCarthy continues to nurse a knee problem. The prognosis over Craig Gilroy’s groin complaint is better, however, with the Ulster wing expected to train next week. “Donnacha suffered a bruised AC joint. He won’t take part in training this week and will be reassessed on Monday. At this stage he is in some doubt for France,” Kearney said. “Mike is running well and is improving, but he has a number of milestones to reach before being available for selection. At this stage we’d rate his chances of being fit at 50-50. Craig Gilroy suffered a groin strain but scans excluded a tear. He continues to improve and should train fully next week.” Ireland’s Six Nations has imploded amid an awful injury-list and successive defeats to England and Scotland, with the loss of a match in Edinburgh that they dominated particularly damaging. The results have seen calls for Declan Kidney to step down escalate, but the head coach is focusing only on inflicting a fourth successive championship defeat on France. “I haven’t been thinking about that. My only concern is to help this team do as well as they can do. That’s my reason for being here,” Kidney said. “We have a match against France next weekend and that’s all I’m concentrating on. There are huge highs and lows that go with this job and last Sunday was a big low, especially after having created so much.” The erratic leadership of Jamie Heaslip, who replaced Brian O’Driscoll as captain before the championship, has been identified as a weakness, but Kidney has backed the Leinster number eight. “I’m aware there are frustrations out there. Jamie’s done an excellent job for us. He’s making good decisions and I’m very happy with him,” Kidney said. Ireland’s hopes that Jonathan Sexton will be fit for their RBS 6 Nations clash with France on Saturday week are fading. Sexton missed the 12-8 defeat by Scotland with a hamstring injury and team manager Mick Kearney has revealed that his chances of returning for the must-win encounter are receding. “Jonny continues to make progress. He’s back running this week but to reach match level intensity there’s still significant work to do,” Kearney said. “At this stage we are more hopeful than confident of his availability for France. We would say it’s somewhat less than 50-50.” 
Press Association
The Gunners looked to land the Liverpool forward 12 months ago with a bid of £40million plus one pound – but the move proved unsuccessful and the Uruguay international went on to start for a Liverpool side fighting for the title. Suarez, currently banned from all football for four months after biting Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini during a World Cup group game, has now moved to Barcelona – with Gerrard admitting he had told the 27-year-old to stay put last year. Press Association “Last summer when he was out in the cold and training on his own (following an earlier ban for biting) that’s the conversation I had with him. I said: ‘Don’t go to Arsenal’,” the Liverpool captain revealed. “I would have been really sad and disappointed to see Luis go to Arsenal. With all due respect to them, I said to him that he was too good for Arsenal.” But Wenger, who instead signed Real Madrid’s Mesut Ozil for a club-record fee, insists no player would deem themselves too good for his side. “You’re never too good for Arsenal and Steven Gerrard knows that,” he said during his press conference ahead of this weekend’s Emirates Cup. “But I can understand completely that he asked him to stay because he wanted him (Suarez) to play with him and have a chance to win the Premier League. But it didn’t happen, and anyway, Suarez left.” Wenger has been busy again this summer with the addition of Chile forward Alexis Sanchez, whose place at Barcelona has since been filled by Suarez, as well as England youth international Calum Chambers and Newcastle defender Mathieu Debuchy. Those deals mean, for the first time in several years, that Wenger has his new recruits in well ahead of the start of the season – even if he may not yet be finished in the transfer market. “I’m very happy because I did what I wanted, and I am still open to do more,” he said. Arsene Wenger has dismissed Steven Gerrard’s claims that Luis Suarez was too good to move to Arsenal last summer. “Let’s not forget that we are at August 1 today, and the transfer window closes on the 31st. For years, it’s a long time I didn’t sit with you here on the first of August having done quite a lot. “We are a bit ahead of what we usually do, because the availability on the market was bigger and earlier than before.” There may yet be players moving away from the Emirates Stadium as Wenger admitted the future of reported Manchester United target Thomas Vermaelen remains unclear, with the club captain unhappy at his lack of first-team action last season. “At the moment Thomas Vermaelen is here,” added Wenger. “He is injured at the moment with a short-term injury. It (a move) could happen, yes it’s a possibility that he goes. If he goes we have to replace him because he’s an important player in our squad. “I expect him to stay but he, of course, did not play enough games last year. For me he’s a very important player but I couldn’t guarantee him the games he wanted last year.” 
The influential midfielder has had a limited role in recent weeks after an impressive campaign and Swansea revealed before Sunday’s 4-2 Barclays Premier League home defeat to Manchester City that he had undergone minor knee surgery. “All players carry niggles and you have to decide whether you can manage it or it needs to be dealt with immediately,” Monk said. “Ki has been fantastic and you want someone who has done that well to be part of it to the end of the season, but you do not want to take any risks.” The South Korea captain fell out of favour under previous Swansea manager Michael Laudrup and was loaned to Sunderland last season, playing a pivotal role in the Black Cats reaching the Capital One Cup final and winning their battle for Premier League survival. But Monk told Ki he was a big part of his plans after succeeding Laudrup and the 26-year-old signed a new four-year contract last August which ties him to Swansea until 2018. Ki has since enjoyed the most productive spell of his career – making 33 league appearances and scoring a campaign-best eight goals – and underwent surgery now to allow him to return in time for Swansea’s pre-season preparation. “He came back from Sunderland last summer with a sore knee and we were advised he could have the operation then, but he had the World Cup coming up,” Monk said. “Understandably he did not want to miss that so he went, and since then his knee has been fine. “But it had flared up a bit in recent weeks. We have had to manage it and give him a rest but he has still contributed really well.” Swansea conclude their season at Crystal Palace on Sunday having just missed out on Europa League qualification. Press Association The Welsh club have managed their highest Premier League finish of eighth and best points tally, and winger Nathan Dyer said Swansea should keep pushing for European football after tasting it as 2013 League Cup winners. “We want to strive for progress and to get to the top,” Dyer said. “Obviously, we’ve been in Europe before and maybe at that time we weren’t quite ready. “We had a great go and that’s something we’ll look forward to next season, trying to get there.” Swansea manager Garry Monk has revealed the club could take no further risks over Ki Sung-yueng’s long-standing knee complaint.
Due to USC hosting the Special Olympics, some freshman orientation sessions will take place off-campus for the first time.There will be six on-campus sessions, including one for international students in the middle of August, and eight off-campus freshmen orientation sessions, including three sessions in China. The off-campus sessions for freshmen within the U.S. will be held in New York, Chicago, San Mateo, Sacramento and Dallas. The international freshman off-campus sessions abroad will be in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong. Current students who returned home for the summer to these specific locations were selected to help out with the sessions.The on-campus freshman orientations begin on June 11, with the last session being held on August 17. The off-campus freshman orientation sessions began May 30 in Chicago and New York and will finish in Dallas on July 18.Additionally, the university will offer three on-campus orientation sessions for transfer students. There will be no off-campus sessions offered for transfer students.Lisa Starr, director of Orientation Programs, discussed the main differences of the new orientation format. Some of the changes include moving some of the mandatory activities, originally done during Welcome Week, to the first day of the session instead.“The ‘Talk About It’ sessions, that are about forming healthy relationships and the idea of consent in relationships, were mandatory for the first time last year for freshmen coming in, and they were held during Welcome Week,” she said. “But now we’re going to be able to have smaller sessions during orientation and break up into small discussion groups with their orientation advisors later and just have the chance to really talk about it more than they were able to last year.”The structure for Welcome Week will be similar to ones held in past years, but the program will be adding more activities for students and will additionally be revamping its database and website.Starr also emphasized that the idea of orientation was for students to get better acclimated initially, and to assist them in having a healthy approach to their first few months at school.“We’ve restructured the student activities fairs and resources for students so that they understand that they need to manage their time and figure out what works best for them. We want them to have a healthy first year experience,” she said.Amy Suto, an orientation coordinator, also believes that the new structure allows for incoming students to get to know their advisors better during O-Group discussion, rather than just providing them with all the information.“We’ll be doing more team-building exercises with the groups,” she said. “We will also have the students sign up for individual appointments with their orientation advisors to better connect them with resources and help them get a great start at USC.”
Cohen also said that Leach will meet with take part in “listening sessions with student, alumni, and community groups” and will be provided “opportunities to expand his cultural awareness of Mississippi.”ORIGINAL ARTICLE:Mike Leach often posts strange memes on his Twitter account, but his tweet Wednesday made a lot of people upset.The first-year Mississippi State coach tweeted out a meme regarding the coronavirus quarantine. The meme showed a black-and-white photo of a woman knitting a noose with the caption: “After 2 weeks of quarantine with her husband, Gertrude decided to knit him a scarf.” MORE: Dr. Fauci: “We’re not even at halftime” of coronavirus battleLeach’s own Mississippi State players seemed bothered by the tweet. Erroll Thompson, who was a team captain in 2019, responded with a thinking face emoji (before deleting it). Defensive lineman Fabien Lovett and defensive end Kobe Jones replied to Leach’s tweets with “WTF” and “he tripping.”Facts. He tripping. 🤦🏾♂️ @Im3Fly— Kobe Jones (@IAmKobeJones) April 2, 2020Margaret A. Hagerman, a professor at Mississippi State (who has since gone into a private Twitter account), explained why the tweet was troublesome. UPDATE, April 7: Mississippi State athletic director John Cohen said in a prepared statement that the university was “disappointed” in Leach for using an image of a noose in his since-deleted tweet.”No matter the context, for many Americans the image of a noose is never appropriate and that’s particularly true in the South and in Mississippi,” Cohen said. https://images.daznservices.com/di/library/sporting_news/54/83/mike-leach-tweet_18xnl0s9nt4w512by9swbsljgu.png?t=1074237473&w=500&quality=80 From the Clarion-Ledger:Margaret A. Hagerman, an assistant professor of sociology at MSU who received a Ph.D from Emory University in 2014, was much more profound in her response to Leach’s tweet.She said “lynching ‘jokes’ are incredibly offensive anywhere” and “especially in Mississippi.” She also suggested that Leach delete the tweet and visit The National Memorial for Peace and Justice to learn about “this brutal history.”Leach eventually deleted the tweet and offered up an apology the next day.I sincerely regret if my choice of images in my tweets were found offensive. I had no intention of offending anyone.— Mike Leach (@Coach_Leach) April 2, 2020This isn’t the first time Leach has drawn criticism for something he’s posted to Twitter. In February he ended up deleting tweets he sent about Mitt Romney. In 2018 he tweeted a fake video of President Barack Obama that USA Today reports cost his school $1.6 million.