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internationalchessday · 1 year ago

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Today, July 20, 2023, we are celebrating our 99th birthday!

Many of you across the world will celebrate International Chess Day 2023 with various activities and happenings all about our beloved game. On this day, we want to reinforce the tradition started in previous years: we ask members of the chess community to teach someone how to play chess. The more, the merrier! Be it your neighbour, niece, colleague or grandfather, let's make the chess family grow. Don't forget to share your experience on social media using the hashtag #Internationalchessday. Let's make our celebrations really big and prove that chess is the most played game in the world!

Why did the United Nations choose exactly July 20 to celebrate chess? It was done to mark the date of the International Chess Federation's establishment in 1924, so it is also our birthday! Let's briefly walk through our history and remember all the major milestones that lead us to this day.

International Chess Federation, or shorter, FIDE (stands for Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is the governing body for the game of chess. What does FIDE do? It organizes major chess events, which form the World Championship Cycle, Chess Olympiads, Rapid and Blitz Championships, tournaments for people with disabilities, veterans, and children, as well as various exhibition and online events. It awards international chess titles, like the coveted Grandmaster, and calculates rating. FIDE creates and implements the rules of chess and standards for tournaments. It is actively involved in social projects and the promotion of chess on the grassroots level. FIDE is recognized by International Olympic Committee and includes as many as 199 national chess federations! Let's have a closer look.

FIDE was formed on July 20, 1924, in Paris, France, during the first unofficial Chess Olympiad. It was born at the Town Hall of the IX Arrondissement of Paris (6 Rue Drouot). Fifteen delegates from all over the world signed the proclamation act, and our organization was born.

In 1927, FIDE organized the first Chess Olympiad and the first Women's World Championship in London. In 1948, FIDE started overseeing the World Chess Championship. Today, both absolute and women's chess crowns belong to players from China: Ding Liren and Ju Wenjun.

In 1950, FIDE awarded its first Grandmaster title to 27 players. Today, FIDE titles also include International Master, Women's Grandmaster, Women's International Master, and lower-level ones like FIDE Master or FIDE Candidates Master.

The first official FIDE rating list came out in 1971. This universal rating system, named after its creator Arpad Elo measures a player's skill level and tracks their progress over time. New rating lists are out at the beginning of every month, and professionals and amateurs alike are eager to check the new numbers next to their surname.

In 1999, FIDE was recognized by the International Olympic Committee – a major milestone in the organization's history.

The motto of FIDE is "Gens una sumus", which translates from Latin as "We are one family". This motto is a reflection of the organization's vision of chess as a sport that unites people from all over the world. Family means care, and in recent years FIDE's social projects have become an essential part of the organization's operations. "Infinite Chess" project introduces the game to children with ASD, "Chess for Freedom" program brings chess behind the bars of prisons, "Chess for Protection" helps refugees find their way with the help of the game. FIDE financially supports its veterans in need and holds competitions for people with disabilities. The first Chess Olympiad for People with Disabilities took place in January-February 2023 in Belgrade.

Chess has found its place in the ever-changing world of modern technology. Today, FIDE organizes online and hybrid events and implements new technological solutions. In 2023 chess became part of the Olympic Esports Series.

Next year, FIDE will celebrate its 100-year birthday. The International Chess Federation has come a long way since its first steps a century ago. Today, it is based in Switzerland alongside other major sports governing bodies. It encompasses 199 national chess federations, which makes FIDE one of the largest sports federations in the world.

Throughout its history, FIDE has been instrumental in shaping the world of chess, and we never stop aiming for new heights, serving the game and chess community.

#international chess federation (fide)#intellectual game #20 july #chessgame #chess #world chess day

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sparklesandchalk · 7 years ago

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McKayla Maroney’s Dark Journey: Olympic Champion, Abused Gymnast

A cherished American athlete suffered a heavy toll from years of sexual abuse by U.S. team doctor Larry Nassar; powerful institutions failed to protect her

Aly Raisman and Jordyn Wieber were in their bedroom at the U.S. gymnastics team’s house for the 2012 London Olympics when teammate McKayla Maroney texted: Rescue me.

Downstairs, she was alone again with team physician Larry Nassar. That meant his “treatments” would soon begin. Ms. Wieber says she and Ms. Raisman went down to make sure Ms. Maroney “felt more comfortable.”

At those Olympics, Ms. Maroney, Ms. Raisman and Ms. Wieber were celebrated as part of the gold-medal-winning “Fierce Five” gymnastics squad. In private, they were struggling with misgivings about Nassar. During treatments, he would touch their genital areas with his ungloved hand.

Ms. Maroney was Nassar’s favorite, the national-team gymnasts knew. He always treated her last, sometimes keeping her two or three times longer than others. He photographed her constantly. Even after Ms. Maroney talked to authorities about his actions, Nassar continued treating patients for a year.

Six years after London, Nassar is an infamous criminal. More than 200 women and girls have accused him of sexually abusing them. He has pleaded guilty to state sexual-abuse charges in Michigan and to federal child-pornography charges, for which he is serving an effective life sentence. His medical license has been revoked.

Ms. Maroney stopped competing in gymnastics, descending into depression, listlessness and unexplained medical problems, says her father, Michael Maroney. “It was almost like watching somebody get crushed,” he says. The abuse, he says, “ruined something that you thought you’d be proud of for the rest of your life.”

This is the story of those dark years through the eyes of one of America’s most famous and cherished gymnasts, and of how Nassar’s acts—and the failure of powerful institutions—took a devastating toll on Ms. Maroney and left her parents racked with guilt.

Ms. Maroney this week spoke in public for the first time since coming forward with her Nassar allegations in an October tweet. “My team won gold medals in spite of USA Gymnastics, MSU and the USOC,” she said, speaking at the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and referring to the sport’s national governing body, Michigan State University and the U.S. Olympic Committee. “They don’t build champions. They break them.”

“They demanded excellence from me,” she said. “But they couldn’t give it to us.”

The account of what Ms. Maroney endured emerges from Wall Street Journal interviews with people who worked with Nassar and USA Gymnastics, with national-team gymnasts and their families and lawyers, and from court filings, police records and internal correspondence reviewed by or recounted to the Journal.

Nassar apologized to his victims in court but hasn’t publicly addressed Ms. Maroney’s allegations. He is appealing his federal sentence. His lawyer couldn’t be reached, and a former lawyer declined to comment.

As with nearly all of the athletes who accused Nassar of abusing them, Ms. Maroney long kept her concerns to herself, her father and others close to her say. She focused at all costs on succeeding as an elite gymnast and became a global celebrity at the London Olympics, when her “McKayla is not impressed” facial expression became an internet meme.

In 2015, Ms. Maroney spoke to an investigator hired by USA Gymnastics and described for the first time what Nassar did to her under the guise of medical treatment.

Inquiries into her allegations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation seemed to go nowhere for almost a year, while USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic Committee stayed silent. As Nassar continued to treat patients, Ms. Maroney grew even more despairing as each day passed without the doctor’s arrest, her father says.

The FBI says it is “reviewing our role in the investigation of Mr. Nassar. We are unable to comment further.”

When Nassar was arrested in 2016, it had nothing to do with Olympic athletes. It involved his alleged sexual abuse of a family friend’s daughter. Nassar went to prison. Only then did the events Ms. Maroney set in motion begin to have far-reaching impact. Facing lawsuits and the threat of being kicked out of the Olympic movement, leadership at USA Gymnastics was toppled. The USOC head stepped down, with the organization citing health concerns. Michigan State, where Nassar worked for two decades, is under investigation by the Michigan Attorney General’s office.

USA Gymnastics said in a statement that it “cannot know the depth of McKayla Maroney’s personal experience stemming from the abuse committed by Larry Nassar, but we are very sorry that McKayla and the other survivors were harmed by Nassar’s despicable actions.”

Susanne Lyons, acting CEO of the USOC, said in a statement: “The many brave survivors and their stories are bringing important changes to sports.” Michigan State didn’t respond to requests for comment. It has previously declined to comment on pending litigation.

The Karolyi ranch, the training ground for elite gymnastics run by legendary coaches Bela and Martha Karolyi and where much of Ms. Maroney’s abuse took place, has been all but abandoned. A lawyer for the Karolyis didn’t respond to requests for comment. The Karolyis have previously denied wrongdoing.

In recent months, former national-team gymnasts have started to make sense of their experiences with Nassar as more than just abuse. In lawsuits, interviews, congressional testimony and court statements, they have indicated they see the scandal as the product of a warped culture that prized money, medals and reputation above athletes’ well-being.

As long as USA Gymnastics produced results and had absolute power over gymnasts’ futures, no parent or gymnast would question the means by which Olympic squads were coached, selected or treated medically, they say.

Even if they had recognized Nassar’s treatments as abuse at the time, says Ms. Wieber, Ms. Maroney’s teammate, the gymnasts wouldn’t risk their chances at making the Olympic team. “USA Gymnastics created a culture of silence,” Ms. Wieber says. “We knew that if we spoke out, we wouldn’t have gotten chosen.”

USA Gymnastics in its statement said that it has taken steps “to build a culture of empowerment that encourages our athletes to speak up” and that it is “focused on doing everything we can to prevent this from happening in the future.”

A natural

From an early age, McKayla Maroney demonstrated remarkable athletic ability. She had a 3-foot vertical leap and could out-sprint the boys on the football team her father coached, he says. The vault, her signature event, made use of that speed and strength.

At age 14, Ms. Maroney was on the U.S. national team, under the command of Ms. Karolyi. The semi-centralized system meant Ms. Maroney spent most of her time training at her Southern California gym but reported nearly every month to the Karolyi ranch in Texas for dayslong camps.

Life on the team was isolating, team members, coaches and investigators say. Parents were kept at arm’s length. When the team traveled, USA Gymnastics booked a separate hotel for families. Parents were seldom allowed at the Karolyi ranch. There was almost no cellphone service.

The gymnasts were surrounded only by adults who had a role in preparing them for competition. Ms. Karolyi was notoriously exacting.

Deborah Daniels, a former federal prosecutor hired by USA Gymnastics to review the organization after the Nassar scandal broke, says the subjective judging on which elite women’s gymnastics is based makes athletes especially afraid to speak up and created “a particularly ripe environment for abuse.”

In some ways, Nassar seemed like a friend for the gymnasts—even a “miracle worker,” said Ms. Wieber in a court statement. He brought them food and always made time for them, she said. In lengthy, cheerful emails, Nassar described gymnasts’ injuries to USA Gymnastics officials, coaches and parents.

Nassar, an osteopathic physician, developed a reputation for what he called “pelvic floor treatment,” a rare but accepted physical therapy in which a doctor “adjusts” hard-to-reach muscles and ligaments by applying pressure to the vaginal and anal areas. He lectured on the procedure and created videos and PowerPoints to illustrate his technique, which he showed investigators when questioned about it.

Nassar provided medical care to gymnasts at the Karolyi ranch, often in an isolated room. He had unfettered access to gymnasts’ rooms there and in hotels on the road, Ms. Maroney and others have alleged.

In a lawsuit Ms. Maroney filed in December against the U.S. Olympic Committee, USA Gymnastics and others, she alleged Nassar began grooming her for abuse as soon as she joined the national team, using his position to “normalize intimate, inappropriate, and sexually abusive contact.”

Her suit also alleged Nassar “obsessively” photographed her. Nassar was an amateur photographer for USA Gymnastics, providing sideline photos at meets. He also photographed Ms. Maroney, say people familiar with the matter, in everyday circumstances: at airports, at the Karolyi ranch, in practices, walking around.

Ms. Wieber says she initially didn’t think of Nassar’s treatments as abuse. “We weren’t ever in a position to question his treatments,” she says. “It just felt like, at the point in time, that we needed him.”

In fact, as Nassar’s fixation on Ms. Maroney became increasingly obvious, Ms. Wieber says she would complain Ms. Maroney “got more treatment, and it wasn’t fair.”

In October 2011, a squad went to Tokyo for the world championships. On the flight, Ms. Maroney alleged in a victim-impact statement, Nassar gave her a pill to help her sleep. When they arrived in Japan, the gymnasts went for treatments in Nassar’s room.

Nassar climbed on top of Ms. Maroney, who lay facedown on a hotel bed disoriented from the pill, says a person familiar with the episode. He removed some of her clothing and, straddling her hips, reached his hand behind his back and put his fingers inside her, rubbing his erection against her body. In her October 2017 tweet, she said it was the “scariest night” of her life.

A day or so later, on the team vehicle, she said out loud: “He practically fingers me,” say people who were present. A coach— John Geddert, a longtime friend of Nassar’s—didn’t seem to notice, they say. Mr. Geddert didn’t respond to requests for comment. His lawyer declined to comment.

Ms. Maroney won gold on vault. When she returned from Japan, she seemed distant, says her father. “She didn’t hug me anymore.” He figured she was going through a teenage phase. When she appeared anxious before trips to the Karolyi ranch, he figured she was afraid of Ms. Karolyi.

He didn’t suspect sexual abuse and in hindsight is tormented by one moment. In June 2012, at the national championships in St. Louis, Mr. Maroney recalls, Nassar turned to him and said: “I love your daughter.”

“He looked at me,” Mr. Maroney says, “and it gave me the creeps.”

At the Olympics that summer, Ms. Maroney helped the team win gold, landing a near-perfect Amanar vault, one of gymnastics’ most challenging moves. Her chance at individual gold ended with a botched landing. Her pursed-lip expression on the medals stand became the “McKayla is not impressed” meme.

What the world didn’t know: Nassar had abused her the night before, she tweeted in October 2017.

When she landed the vault in the team competition, “it was the greatest moment of my life,” her father says.

“When I think about it now, it makes me want to throw up.”

Nassar’s downfall

After the 2012 Olympics, Nassar’s stature with the national team began to slip. In 2013, USA Gymnastics’ then-president, Steve Penny, began a reorganization of medical services, adding oversight to a program that was informal and inefficient, Mr. Penny says. Nassar had already been told to stop photographing the gymnasts, he says.

Nassar also had a close call. In the spring of 2014, Michigan State opened a Title IX investigation after a patient accused him of molesting her. The university cleared him. State police referred the case to local prosecutors, who didn’t bring charges. The investigations weren’t disclosed to USA Gymnastics, according to the national team and Michigan State.

Nassar still presented himself as the gymnasts’ protector. In July 2015, Ms. Raisman appeared in ESPN magazine’s “Body Issue.” Nassar emailed a USA Gymnastics official: “Really!?!?!?! Can’t they wait until they retire before they take their clothes off!”

At that time, Mr. Penny was scrambling to manage allegations against Nassar. On June 17, 2015, Mr. Penny received a call from a USA Gymnastics executive: A gymnast’s personal coach had overheard two gymnasts discussing concerns about Nassar’s treatment at the Karolyi ranch, the Journal reported in February 2017.

USA Gymnastics has said it didn’t immediately contact law enforcement. Instead, Mr. Penny hired Fran Sepler, an investigator, to speak with the gymnasts.

A USA Gymnastics lawyer emailed Nassar in July that “certain gymnasts had expressed discomfort” with “certain areas of their bodies being touched” and that the matter was under investigation, according to emails the Journal reviewed. Nassar responded that he didn’t intend to cause discomfort, offering to send videos of his treatments, the emails show. The lawyer told Nassar to keep his distance from USA Gymnastics. Weeks later, Nassar announced he was retiring.

Ms. Raisman says she made clear to USA Gymnastics officials that if Ms. Sepler wanted to talk to anybody about this, she had to talk to Ms. Maroney. Ms. Raisman says she, too, only realized she was abused in 2015 and blames institutions she says let her down. “I never should have ever met him.”

‘Broken’ body

By the summer of 2015, Ms. Maroney at age 19 was home in the Los Angeles area pursuing a music career, all but retired from gymnastics.

After London, she had resumed training, defending her world title on vault in 2013. But her “whole body felt like it was broken,” she said in a video interview, aired in February 2016, with Jessica O’Beirne, who runs a popular gymnastics podcast.

Ms. Maroney was struggling with unexplained illnesses, she said in her lawsuit. She had no energy and couldn’t keep food down. “It’s weird what depression can do to you,” she said in the podcast interview.

Mr. Penny had stayed in touch with Ms. Maroney, offering to help launch her music career. On July 22, 2015, he sent her a text with a more urgent request: I need to talk to you.

Two days later, she met with Ms. Sepler in Los Angeles. Afterward, Ms. Sepler told Mr. Penny that Ms. Maroney had described likely sexual assault and recommended reporting the matter to law enforcement, according to emails and a person familiar with the exchange.

Mr. Penny called Scott Blackmun, then the USOC’s chief executive, to tell him about the allegations, the Journal reported in February 2018. On July 28, 2015, Mr. Penny and Paul Parilla —then the vice chairman of the USA Gymnastics board—went with the organization’s legal counsel to meet with FBI officials in Indianapolis.

Mr. Parilla didn’t respond to requests for comment. Mr. Blackmun declined to comment; he previously told the Journal he encouraged Mr. Penny to turn the matter over to law enforcement. In a statement provided by a spokeswoman, Ms. Sepler said her role had been to determine “if certain concerns raised were legitimate, and I determined in just a matter of days that they were.”

So began a nine-month period in which abuse allegations against Nassar languished with federal law enforcement. From July to September, Mr. Penny emailed with FBI agents in Indianapolis, offering to arrange interviews and provide information, and seeking approval and advice on communications with third parties, including Nassar, say people familiar with the emails.

Mr. Penny’s lawyer, Leigh Robie, says he sought guidance because he didn’t want to do anything that would compromise the investigation or the athletes’ privacy.

Mr. Penny tried to arrange FBI interviews with at least two gymnasts, including Ms. Maroney, whom he called “the most aggrieved party,” says one of the people familiar with the emails. A proposed meeting between Ms. Maroney and FBI agents in Indianapolis didn’t take place, Mr. Maroney says.

In September, an FBI agent told Mr. Penny the case would be transferred to Detroit, in Nassar’s home state, the people familiar with the emails say. Instead of an in-person meeting, an FBI agent spoke with Ms. Maroney over the phone, the people say. The agent in charge of the Indianapolis field office wrote to Mr. Penny that “pertinent interviews” had been completed and sent to the Detroit FBI and to a federal prosecutors’ office in Michigan, they say.

Neither the Indianapolis nor Detroit field office opened a formal investigation, say people familiar with the episode. Ms. Maroney didn’t hear from the FBI office again, these people say. Other gymnasts say FBI agents didn’t reach out to them at the time.

Months went by, Nassar wasn’t arrested, and Ms. Maroney’s depression appeared to worsen, her father says. He thinks she had concealed the abuse even from herself. “You put it in a little place in your brain,” he says. “You hide it.”

In February 2016, Mr. Penny met Ms. Maroney at a Malibu restaurant, along with her mother and a friend of Ms. Maroney’s, for what Mr. Penny recalls as a casual get-together while he was in town. One of the other people at the lunch says Mr. Penny seemed anxious that Ms. Maroney hadn’t done any promotional work for the coming Rio Olympics.

Through Ms. Robie, Mr. Penny says that he had been concerned about Ms. Maroney’s well-being and that they discussed possible musical opportunities for her, including at USA Gymnastics events.

Mr. Penny tried to assure Ms. Maroney change was under way at the Karolyi ranch. “A lot happened” at the Karolyi ranch, she told him, her eyes welling up with tears, says the person present.

“We failed you,” Mr. Penny replied, this person recalls. “And for that I’m never going to be able to apologize enough.” Mr. Penny, through Ms. Robie, says he “didn’t recall his exact words, but the sentiment was consistent with how he felt.”

That spring, Messrs. Penny and Parilla reported Nassar to the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, and agents there opened an official investigation.

In August 2016, the Indianapolis Star began publishing a series of articles about sexual abuse in youth gymnastics, and two gymnasts filed claims against Nassar in a police report and lawsuit, respectively. A subsequent article about those claims surprised some USA Gymnastics board members, who say they hadn’t been told of allegations against Nassar.

In November 2016, Nassar was arrested on state sexual-abuse charges in Michigan. The following month, federal prosecutors charged him with child-pornography counts.

As women came forward that autumn with allegations against Nassar, secret settlement negotiations were under way between USA Gymnastics and Ms. Maroney, whose father had hired lawyer Gloria Allred to go after the organization.

Ms. Maroney and her parents met with a mediator in Los Angeles, according to people familiar with the meeting. For the first time, five years after it happened, Mr. Maroney heard his daughter describe her Tokyo experience.

USA Gymnastics representatives, including Mr. Penny and lawyer Margaret Holm, were in a separate room from the Maroneys and their lawyers, including Ms. Allred, while the mediator moved between the two parties, according to people with direct knowledge of the discussions.

During the discussions, USA Gymnastics representatives asked Ms. Maroney for details about her abuse, while encouraging her to take less money than the family had previously sought and to sign a nondisclosure agreement, several of the people say.

Mr. Maroney says USA Gymnastics told the family, through the two parties’ lawyers and the mediator, that the organization only had up to $6 million in insurance coverage and had to save for other possible settlements. “They wanted to help the other girls,” Mr. Maroney says he was told.

Ms. Maroney felt the discussions were like a “brutal cross-examination,” says a person familiar with them.

Ms. Allred took Ms. Maroney out of the room, and Ms. Maroney called her father. “Dad, I can’t handle this,” her father says she told him. “Money isn’t that important.”

Ms. Holm declines to comment on the mediation process but disputes the description of the discussions. “I take great pride in representing my clients, and showing great respect to parties who have brought suits,” she says.

Ms. Maroney signed a confidential settlement on Dec. 30, 2016, for $1.25 million, the Journal reported in December 2017. By then, scores of women had filed police claims against Nassar. Several had also filed civil claims against USA Gymnastics, Michigan State and others.

The USA Gymnastics board wasn’t told of Ms. Maroney’s confidential settlement, a former board member says. The board learned a year later, when Ms. Maroney asked in her lawsuit to be released from her nondisclosure agreement.

Ms. Maroney said in her October 2017 Twitter post she was abused by Nassar. Including Ms. Maroney, four of the “Fierce Five” have come forward to say they are victims of Nassar.

Ms. Maroney largely disappeared from the public eye, apart from a victim-impact statement read on her behalf at Nassar’s January state sentencing. She remains “fragile,” her father says, and disheartened she might not be remembered as a “world-class athlete” but as a victim.

“In my whole gymnastics career, I was trained to be quiet,” Ms. Maroney said in her New York appearance this week. She said her parents, like those of teammates, are struggling with guilt for having failed to recognize Nassar’s abuse.

“I, at times,” she said, “question whether my gymnastics career was worth it.”

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districofcolumbiaprelawland-blog · 4 years ago

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New York Lawsuit Against NRA Examines Non-Profit Board Member Spending Of Charitable Funds

By Rosaura Ritger, American University Class of 2021

September 10, 2020

FILED August 6, 2020. New York State Attorney General Letitia James submits summons and complaint against the National Rifle Association of America.

AG James released a lengthy 166-page case against the NRA where she argues on behalf of the 501(c)4 organization based in New York State. James accuses four individual defendants – all NRA executives – of various violations of NRA internal bylaws, NY laws, and federal law. The defendants named in this summons are CEO Wayne LaPierre, former treasurer and CFO Wilson ‘Woody’ Phillips, Chief of Staff and Executive VP of Operations Joshua Powell, and NRA General Counsel John Frazer. LaPierre is also held responsible in this summons for the organization as a whole due to his position as CEO. [1]

As disclosed in James’s preliminary statement, the primary complaint reads:

“With the assistance of Phillips, Powell, and Frazer, LaPierre abused his position as a fiduciary to the NRA to obtain millions of dollars in personal benefits in the form of undisclosed, excessive compensation, which includes in-kind benefits and reimbursements from the NRA and its vendors.” [2]

Due to the location of the NRA’s incorporation as a charitable organization in 1871 being in the state of New York, the organization is subject to state laws relating to the governance of charitable non-profit organizations which conduct business and solicit donations in that state. The Attorney General seeks judgement in regard to the New York Not-For-Profit Corporation Law (N-PCL)[3], the Estates Powers and Trusts Law (EPTL)[4], NY Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act (NYPMIFA)[5] and Executive Law (Exec Law)[6]. The remedies proposed by the AG as a result of the violations presented would result in the dissolution of the NRA in the State of New York in the interest of the public, the removal of LaPierre as “director and as Executive Vice President of the NRA,”[2] the removal of Frazer as “a director and Secretary of the NRA,” and preventing the ‘Individual Defendants’ from ever serving as a director or officer in the “capacity as a fiduciary of any not-for-profit or charitable organization incorporated or authorized to conduct business in the State of New York,… .” It does not stop there. Attorney General James also requests remedies in the form of documentation of the NRA’s institutional funds and management of said funds as well as the restitution from the aforementioned defendants of “illegal, unauthorized or ultra vires compensation, reimbursements, benefits or amounts unjustly paid to the Individual Defendants.”[2]

The Attorney General’s investigation into the National Rifle Association of America has been ongoing since early 2019 [7] and focuses on the internal governance of the registered charitable organization. According to the New York State N-PCL laws, a charitable organization registered in that state that violates their own internal bylaws is also in breach of the N-PCL of the state of New York, giving the Attorney General jurisdiction to prosecute in the interest of the public. And that is exactly what AG James has done.

In the summons, James points out the five objectives expressed in the NRA’s bylaws:

“a. ‘To protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, especially with reference to the God-given inalienable right of the individual American citizen guaranteed by such Constitution to acquire, possess, collect, exhibit, transport, carry, transfer ownership of, and enjoy the right to use, keep and bear arms, in order that the people may exercise their individual rights of self-preservation and defense of family, person, and property, and to serve in the militia of law-abiding men and women for the defense of the Republic and the individual liberty of the citizens of our communities, our states, and our great nation;

b. To promote public safety, law and order, and the national defense;

c. To train members of law enforcement agencies, the armed forces, the National Guard, the militia, and people of good repute in marksmanship and in the safe handling and efficient use of small arms;

d. To fosters, promote and support the shooting sports, including the advancement of amateur and junior competitions in marksmanship at the local, state, regional, national, international, and Olympic levels; and

e. To promote hunter safety, and to promote and defend hunting as a shooting sport, for subsistence, and as a viable and necessary method of fostering the propagation, growth and conservation, and wise use of our renewable wildlife resources.’” [2]These objectives, among other mentioned internal bylaws, are the basis for Attorney General James’ argument. In her investigation, she references back several years to financial reports and procedures taken – or the lack thereof – as well as personal spending done by the ‘Individual Defendants’ that do not follow these objectives as is required in the NRA’s travel and business expense reimbursement policy. Further bylaws about audit and compensation committee procedures [2] are outlined and referenced in the summons pursuant to the improper spending allegations.

Specifically, evidence against defendant and Executive VP Wayne LaPierre goes all the way back to the ‘90s when he hired other named defendant, Wilson ‘Woody’ Phillips. LaPierre is accused of having abused his power as Executive VP, along with those named defendants, to misuse institutional funds for self-dealing as well as creating a “culture of…mismanagement, and negligent oversight at the NRA.” [2]

Among this evidence, there are several occasions and mentions of his improper spending and reimbursement activities that were “entirely for [his] personal benefit and violated NRA policy.” LaPierre consistently requested reimbursement for travel expenses for him and his family to fly by private aircraft, even when he himself was not a passenger. According to testimony, LaPierre argued the private flights were for security reasons, although he could not name any specific security issues amounting to the need for such expensive flights. He also argued that it was “’probably easier to fly private, more convenient,” when asked about a particular flight booked for his wife to fly alone from Wisconsin to Nebraska which cost more than $8,800 [2]. In the NRA bylaws regarding proper reimbursement for travel and business expenses, the policy says to “’incur the lowest practical and reasonable expense while completing the travel process in an efficient and timely manner,’” and that the expenses must be related to business or in their words, ‘”necessary to meet organizational objectives,’” which are the five objectives quoted above. It further states that those traveling and incurring these expenses are expected to “’use the same care…that a prudent person would use while traveling for personal reasons, considering the purpose and amount of the expenditure.’” [2] In this example, LaPierre approved some of these flights and the reimbursements while none of them were approved for security reasons or even approved by the NRA board as per their bylaws for spending. The summons and complaint issued by Attorney General James goes much further into all of LaPierre’s expenditures and mismanagement of the other named defendants as well as their own individual violations of NRA bylaws in regard to each of their duties as board members.

In opposition of the complaint filed, the NRA responded and cited a legal technicality to void the suit against them. [8] In this response the NRA claims that the initial complaint was “’served without sufficient verification,’” and pursuant to CPLR 3022 the adverse party – the NRA – may treat such an ‘unverified pleading’ as a ‘nullity.’ [9]

However, the NRA Foundation – the 501(c)(3) arm of the NRA – has also been sued by the District Attorney of Washington D.C., Karl Racine, for the misuse of charitable funds following his own lengthy investigation. [10] [11]

As of right now, there have been no updates in regard to this and several news outlets have attempted to analyze what the next move will look like. Regardless of what specific legal technicality or law is cited next, this is sure to be a long legal battle that could bring up a big question in how charitable and not-for-profit organizations spend their donations.

________________________________________________________________

[1] Attorney General James Files Lawsuit to Dissolve NRA. (2020, August 06). Retrieved from https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2020/attorney-general-james-files-lawsuit-dissolve-nra

[2] Summons, People of the State of New York v. NRA, Inc., LaPierre, Phillips, Frazer, and Powell, Index No. 451625/2020, (Supreme Court of the State of New York County of New York).

[3] New York Consolidated Laws, Not-For-Profit Corporation Law - NPC § 102. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://codes.findlaw.com/ny/notforprofit-corporation-law/npc-sect-102.html. See also §701, 713, 714, 720, 552, 515(a), 112(a)(1), 1101(a)(2), 715(a-b), 623(a).

[4] New York Consolidated Laws, Estates, Powers and Trusts Law - EPT § 8-1.4. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://codes.findlaw.com/ny/estates-powers-and-trusts-law/ept-sect-8-1-4.html

[5] Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act. (2020, August 01). Retrieved from https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/NPC/A5-A. See §551(d), 551(e).

[6]New York Consolidated Laws, Executive Law - EXC § 175. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://codes.findlaw.com/ny/executive-law/exc-sect-175.html. See §175(2).

[7] Hakim, D. (2019, December 10). New York Deepens Its Investigation Into the N.R.A. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/09/us/nra-investigation-new-york.html

[8] Notice of election to treat unverified or defectively verified pleading as a nullity, People ofthe State of New York v. NRA, Inc., LaPierre, Phillips, Frazer, and Powell, Index No.451625/2020, (Supreme Court of the State of New York County of New York).

[9] New York Consolidated Laws, Civil Practice Law and Rules - CVP NY CPLR Rule 3022. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://codes.findlaw.com/ny/civil-practice-law-and-rules/cvpny-cplr-rule-3022.html

[10] Pagones, S. (2020, August 06). NRA fights back, files its own suit against NY attorney general seeking to disband organization. Retrieved from https://www.foxnews.com/us/nra-lawsuit-ny-attorney-general-lawsuit

[11] Budryk, Z. (2020, August 06). DC sues the NRA Foundation for alleged misused funds. Retrieved from https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/510902-dc-sues-the-national-rifle-association-foundation-for-alleged

Photo Credit: WBLS

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sportsjankari · 5 years ago

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Fencing Sport Game: History, Rules, Sports & How to Play Fencing Sport?

Fencing, organized sport involving the use of a swordpe, foil, or sabrefor belligerence and excuse according to set movements and rules. Although the use of swords dates to antique time and swordplay to ancient civilizations, the organized sport of fencing began only at the fade away of the 19th century. For opinion regarding the art of Japanese sword court deed, see kendo.

Early History

The olden depiction of swordplay is a assistance in the temple of Mednat Habu, near Luxor in Egypt, built by Ramses III very approximately 1190 BCE. This abet must depict a practice bout or allow, as the sword points are covered and the swordsmen are parrying behind shields strapped to their left arms and are wearing masks (tied to their wigs), large bibs, and padding on depth of their ears. Swordsmanship, as a intend and in single feat and act, was also able widely by the ancient Persians, Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans as proficiently as by the Germanic tribes.

The Romans brought sword encounter to a intensely methodical art that was taught to both their legions and their gladiators. Gladiators were trained in schools (ludi) by professional instructors (doctores). Beginners expert following a wooden sword called a rudis. More-distant training took area later weapons that were somewhat heavier than those used in actual fighting.

From the era of the slip of Rome through the Middle Ages, the practice of sword dogfight continued unabated, although sword training became less uniform and began to reflect the ideas of the individual masters-at-arms. At this time, schools of sword deed in addition to developed a somewhat unsavoury vibes, attracting members from the criminal element of charity who wanted to learn the proficient use of weapons. Many communities found that the unaided quirk to submission along between this difficulty was to outlaw fencing sport schools within their boundaries. For example, in London in 1286 King Edward I passed an edict that decried the most unheard-of villainies perpetrated by swordsmen and threatened supple justice for teaching sword-connected skills. Despite such laws, fencing schools flourished.

Emergence Of Swordsmanship And Weapons

Among the nobility of Europe during the Middle Ages, the intelligent handling of a sword was hindered by the use of armour, which was nearly the on your own means of guidance. Swords were muggy and used primarily to broach the protective armour. With the creation of gunpowder in the 14th century, however, armour fell into disuse (musket balls easily pierced the armour, rendering it ineffective in dogfight). The sword was yet the without help weapon that could be worn in this area the body for self-marginal note, but the demise of armour required that the wearer learn to manipulation a sword adroitlya business that grew to be of paramount importance both in epoch of conflict and in a gentlemans daily computer graphics.

By the 15th century, guilds of fencing masters had been formed throughout Europe, the most notable of which was the Marxbrder (the Association of St. Marcus of Lwenberg), which was decided letters patent by the Holy Roman emperor Frederick III in 1480. Early fencing methods as taught by the guilds were somewhat snappish-and-tumble and included wrestling moves. The guilds jealously guarded their unsigned moves as a upshot that they could make use of the curt to extinguish an rival. Fencing was first supported in England by Henry VIII, who, sometime in the ahead of time 1540, decided letters patent to several fencing masters that allowed them to teach there. The in front English style of achievement gone a acid sword and a buckler (a little shield worn around speaking the clear arm) ultimately gave mannerism to the continental European rapier act.

The Italians discovered the effectiveness of the able use of the mitigation rather than the edge of the sword. By the trap of the 16th century, their lighter weapon, the rapier, and a easy, clever, and controlled fencing style, emphasizing facility and eagerness rather than force, had evolve throughout Europe. Most of the wrestling actions were deserted, the lunge was developed and adopted, and fencing became venerated as an art.

The long rapier was beautifully balanced, excellent in forcefulness, and superb for keeping an enemy at a surgically remove from, but it was too unventilated for all the movements of feat. Defense along with act when than a rapier was effected by parrying following the left hand, which was protected by a gauntlet or cloak or equipped as soon as a dagger. Opponents thrusts were often avoided by ducking or sidestepping.

In the latter half of the 17th century, the sword and swordsmanship tainted dramatically as soon as a fiddle afterward in gentlemens dress. In France the court of Louis XIV set the fashion of silk stockings, breeches, and brocaded coats, which replaced that of the doublet and hose, summit boots, and cloaks. As the long, trailing rapier was unsuited to the supplementary form of dress, fashion decreed the wearing of a fresh, immediate court sword. The French style set in throughout Europe as the Italian style had curtains earlier.

Although at first derided, the court sword was soon ascribed as an ideal well-ventilated weapon which allowed for a multitude of violent behavior and defensive movements that would have been impossible also heavier weapons. Its fresh weight permissible the sword to be used by itself, without the use of daggers, cloaks, or the pardon hand. Hits concerning speaking the subject of the opponent were made as soon as the mitigation of the sword on your own, marginal note was effected by the wielding of the blade (fending off the assailants blade back ones own sword), and what is now credited as campaigner fencing came into instinctive. At this era the French style thoroughly displaced the Italian as the most-practiced form of sword battle.

The French educational of sword act was an academic form, as soon as much provocation upon strategy and form. Conventions and rules were adopted to tutor this form of swordplay. Additionally, the foil, or practice sword, was used to make a commentator training setting. To postscript tote taking place safety, a mask was intended in the 18th century by the fencing master La Bossivery approximately and the much-admired duelist Joseph Bologne, chevalier de Saint-Georges.

While fencing in imitation of the foil was becoming increasingly stylized, dueling bearing in mind than swords yet continued. The complexities of foil fencing as proficient knocked out the ideal conditions of the schools, or salles, taking into account respect for the set rules and conventions, produced a game that became an art of absorbing amassed. But this orthodox, controlled swordplay was of tiny account coarsely a unfriendly gray hours of daylight occurring for a greensward or gravel alleyway when one faced a certain rival behind a cunning and heavier weapon who disregarded all conventions. Ironically, however, by the mid-18th century, taking into account fencing had reached its top in technique and theory, dueling subsequently the sword had about disappeared because of the growing accuracy of firearms. From this era upon, fencing took upon the flora and fauna of a sport, and in form the swordplay of this time differed little from the liberal sport of fencing.

For those few who continued to follow the sword as a method of resolving combat, the pe de violent behavior was created in the second half of the 19th century. The practice description of this weapon was a regulation, even though blunted, dueling sword, and it was used without limitation of seek or choice conventions. Except for the use of protective clothing, pe fencing to the side of approximated the conditions of a duel.

The last of the modern fencing weapons appeared in the late 18th century, taking into account the Hungarians introduced a curved sabre (adapted from the Eastern scimitar) for the use of their cavalry. The sabre was soon adopted by adjunct European armies. The close military sabre (and its counterpart, the naval cutlass) was used in fencing schools until the end of the 19th century, following than the Italians introduced a spacious sabre that was soon well-liked universally as a sport weapon.

Organized Sport

Fencing became an increasingly organized competitive sport late in the 19th century. Basic conventions were first collected and set as well as to in the 1880s by the French fencing master Camille Prvost. Officially ascribed fencing associations along with began to appear: the Amateur Fencers League of America was founded in 1891, the Amateur Fencing Association of Great Britain in 1902, and the Fdlet Nationale des Socits dEscrime et Salles dArmes de France in 1906. Collegiate fencing in the United States was organized concerning this era as swiftly: the Intercollegiate Fencing Association held its first matches in 1894 (the sport in American universities is now governed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association).

Meanwhile, fencing for men had been portion of the Olympic Games by now their revival in 1896. In 1900 the pe joined the foil and sabre as individual actions in the Olympic program. Team competition in the foil was introduced in the 1904 Games, followed by the sabre and pe in 1908. By the primeval 20th century, numerous disputes had arisen greater than various fencing rules. For instance, at the 1912 Olympic Games, France withdrew its entire team on summit of a argument concerning the try area for foil, and the Italians refused to fence in the pe actions because of a rejected demand to grow the allowed length of the pe blade. As a consequences, in 1913 the Fdconsent to Internationale dEscrime was founded and thereafter was the governing body of international fencing for amateurs, both in the Olympic Games and in world championships.

Events for women fencers were appendage to the Olympic contest on summit of the years. Individual foil for women was first included in the 1924 Olympic Games, and a team matter for women was introduced in the 1960 Games. Womens team and individual pe made their Olympic debut in the 1996 Games. The womens individual sabre situation was auxiliary in the 2004 Olympic Games, and the womens team sabre business was auxiliary in the 2008 Games, and from 2004 to 2016 the Olympics rotated out two team movement hence, as the International Olympic Committee declined to commensurately adding together fencings medal tote taking place.

From the halt of the 19th century until after World War II, pe and foil competitions were dominated by the French and Italians. Thereafter, as fencing became more ably-liked worldwide, the Soviet and Hungarian fencers became dominant. Especially in sabre, the Hungarians dominated for much of the 20th century. Some of the most notable fencers of the 20th century included the Hungarian sabreist Aladr Gerevich, who won gold medals in six consecutive Olympics, and the Italian Edoardo Mangiarotti, who won 13 world championship gold medals.

In 1936 the electrical pe was adopted for competition, eliminating the sometimes inaccurate determinations by fencing officials. The arrival and judgment of hits is totally registered by the electrical apparatus. In 1955 electrical scoring was introduced for foil competitions, making its Olympic debut at the 1956 Games, but board of panel of panel of judges are yet required to add footnotes to the priority of the beginning of hits. Electrical scoring for the sabre became portion of the Olympic program at the 1992 Games.

The electrical system used in fencing works a propos the order of the same principle as the relationships unease. Fencers wear clothing made of lam interlaced taking into account copper threads; the lam is twinge to the electrical weapon. In pe the complete combat is hardship, as each and every one body is the seek in that fencing variant; in foil, single-handedly the vest worn by the fencer is sensitive; in sabre the vest and mask are difficulty. Cords are associated to the fencers clothing, to the weapon, and to the scoring crate. (The cords connected to the fencer coil into a reel that is spring-loaded to recognize on happening any slack in the cords and prevent the fencer from tripping.) When a weapon touches the fencer when even a little amount of pressure, a circuit is created and the scoring bin reflects a hit. In Olympic fencing, the first fencer to sticker album 15 points wins the bout. Bouts can in addition to be of a predetermined duration, in which argument the fencer in the spread of the highest score wins.

Equipment

All fencers require a coat, a mask, a glove, trousers or knickers, white stockings, flat-soled shoes, a body cord, and a weapon once which to bout. In sabre and foil, fencers additionally require a mask cord and a lam made of conductive material, which is worn more than the jacket.

Weapons of modern fencing and rule variations

The three alternating weapons have exchange designs and rules of competition. In foil, hits must be made taking into account the narrowing of the weapon and are definite without help behind they house harshly the lam or the conductive share of the fencing sport kit mask, which together lid the trunk of the body, the groin, and parts of the neck. The foil has a pressure-throb button at its tip, which will demonstration back 500 grams or more pressure is applied. If the tip is in way in bearing in mind the lam, the hit is definite; if it touches the nonconductive coat or knickers, the hit is off-ambition and is not counted. Once one of the fencers has scored an concerning-endeavor hit, the rival has 300 milliseconds to furthermore hit since beast locked out by the scoring crate. Fencing halts for both off- and in metaphor to-seek hits, but touches can by yourself be scored via an on the subject of-slant hit. If both fencers hit upon-object, the rules of right-of-habit are used to determine who has priority.

In pe, as in foil, hits are made surrounded by the dwindling, but, unlike in foil, the want place is each and every one body. When the pressure-sore tip of the pe is sad considering a force in excess of 750 grams going concerning the subject of the order of for any surface unconnected to the scoring crate, the crate will register a hit. In order to prevent hits to the piste (fencing place) from creature counted as touches, the piste is attached to the scoring box by a grounding wire. There is no off-endeavor hit; hits to the piste clearly make a get of your hands on not register. When one fencer scores a hit, the opponent has without help 40 milliseconds to plus score a hit by now flesh and blood thing locked out by the scoring box. If both fencers score hits, both are awarded touches; there is no right-of-quirk.

Unlike in pe and foil, in sabre one may hit later than any portion of the blade, and there is no minimum pressure (the tip of the blade is favorably rounded and not pressure-encumbrance). Therefore, sabre is characterized by acid rather than thrusts of the tip. Sabreists wear a lam that certainly covers the jacket, a conductive glove, and a mask whose mass surface is conductive. Any hit to this equipment (i.e., any hit above the waist) is a precise partner. When one fencer scores a hit, the rival has 170 milliseconds to furthermore hit in the previously mammal locked out by the scoring crate. If both fencers score hits, the rules of right-of-exaggeration for sabre (which are slightly sure from those in foil) are used to determine who receives the collective; there are no pe-style double touches.

Fencing area

The piste, or fencing strip, made of metal or substitute conductive material, is in the midst of 1.5 and 2 metres (4.9 and 6.6 feet) broad and 14 metres (46 feet) long, later an enlargement, or runback, of 1.5 metres at either ensue less. The piste has a middle parentage, en-garde lines, caution lines, and rear limit lines. At either decline of the piste there is a spool, or reel, which contains 20 metres (66 feet) of cable. Fencers each tote occurring their bod cord to the nearest spool, which retracts and extends as they impinge on going on and along with to the piste. The spools are in position attached to the scoring crate, which will well-ventilated occurring and create noise once a hit is registered. Wireless scoring systems are used for the highest forms of competition, obviating the mannerism for spools.

A bout starts once the fencers in the en-garde aim, 4 metres (13.1 feet) apart. A deliver judgment stands opposite the piste, facing the scoring crate, in order to regard as sentient thing the bout.

Fencing Conventions

While the rules for each weapon are interchange, there are standards that apply to all three weapons. Competitions consist of preliminary rounds, or pools, in which the competitors are estranged into little groups of six or seven fencers who fence circular-robin style adjoining one substitute in five-partner going on bouts of three minutes maximum duration. (The duration of a bout consists lonesome of times spent fencing; the deliver judgment will grow less the clock then fencing is not going on.) The pools are followed by a series of in front taking away rounds, conducted along a bracket in which seeding is deferential by appear in in the pools. These concentrate on elimination bouts are fenced to 15 touches, each bout having a maximum duration of three periods of three minutes, once breaks plus the periods. It should be noted that, unlike in foil and pe, sabre bouts doings quite unexpectedly15-be following-door to bouts regarding never exceed even a single three-minute timesappropriately sabreists on the other hand crack for a minutes ablaze after one fencer has scored eight touches.

#Fencing Sport Rules #Fencing Sport equipment #Fencing Sport equipment india #Fencing Sport Types #Fencing Sport Kit

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junker-town · 5 years ago

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Marta revolutionized women’s soccer

How the Brazilian legend redefined an entire sport by the sheer force of her brilliance.

The 2007 World Cup semifinal between Brazil and the United States was one of world soccer’s greatest butt-whoopings. Marta was the best player on the pitch from whistle to whistle, and the match was effectively over at halftime when, already down two goals, USWNT midfielder Shannon Boxx was red carded. There was little for Brazil to do in the second half except show off, and Marta could never resist an opportunity like that.

In the 79th minute of the match, Marta received the ball 30 yards away from goal. She had her back turned to American defender Tina Ellertson, who appeared to be in good position. Marta’s first touch popped the ball up in the air, and the entire American defense stopped to watch. With a magical second touch, Marta flicked the ball over Ellertson’s left shoulder while spinning in the opposite direction.

Modern defenders have since learned to react to this by committing a hard foul, but Ellertson had no frame of reference. She’d almost certainly never had an attacker try it on her. By the time she realized she should just pull Marta’s shirt, it was too late, and the Brazilian was a step past her.

Bravely, Cat Whitehill stepped up to Marta. But by the time Whitehill stuck her foot out for a challenge, Marta was already taking the ball in the opposite direction. Whitehill, a world class defender who finished her career with 134 national team caps, missed her tackle by more than a foot and stumbled. When Whitehill finally recovered her balance, Marta’s shot was already past goalkeeper Brianna Scurry.

“That was one of those moments where as an opposition player you were devastated because it was likely our worst loss in the history of the national team, but on the other side, recognizing that you just saw a glimpse of brilliance,” recalls Heather O’Reilly, who started the match for the USWNT.

While Marta became a household name in that moment, she was already well-known inside women’s soccer. She’d won 2006 FIFA World Player of the Year off the back of impressive performances in European club play. She’d already scored five goals in the World Cup before the semifinal. Marta was well on her way to being recognized as the world’s best player.

But this game in particular marked a turning point for both Marta’s career and women’s soccer as a whole. This was the moment when it became obvious she was more than just the new best player in the world. Marta was going to become the most influential player in the history of the sport.

Brazil didn’t go on to win the World Cup. Marta missed a penalty in the final against Germany. And yet, the 2007 World Cup isn’t remembered for Germany’s triumph at all. It’s remembered for Marta.

“She brought a joy and electricity that wasn’t there before her,” O’Reilly says.

Marta developed that spark in the small town of Dois Riachos, Alagoas state, playing against boys when she wasn’t supposed to. Coaches love to extol the virtues of unorganized street games and the creativity which blooms from them. That effect is amplified when players are held to higher standards because of their gender.

“I played with the boys out on the street without shoes. I was the only girl and every time I played I had to try something so that I could be better,” Marta said in 2012. She had to hide that she was playing from her brother, who didn’t want her to participate — not because he had anything against her playing, but because he wanted to protect her from bullies.

Marta’s mother told off people in town who didn’t want her daughter to play, and accompanied Marta on a two-day bus ride to Rio de Janeiro for a tryout when she was 14. She made the team, Vasco de Gama, but two years later they shuttered their women’s organization. Marta had to play for an amateur club halfway between Rio and her hometown, Santa Cruz, until she was 18 and allowed to move abroad under FIFA rules. After turning 18, Marta left for Umea IK in Sweden.

“The lack of support, people not believing that I could be someone and do something, was the right fuel that really made me stronger and really motivated me to overcome all the lack of support, all the discrimination, all the people not believing,” Marta said about the risks she took when moving clubs as a young player. “I told myself, since I’m a warrior in my personal life, I’m going to take this as a fuel.’”

From 2002 onward, through the next decade, Marta dominated everywhere she went. She scored six goals at the first FIFA women’s youth championship as a 16-year-old, playing against players who were two-to-three years older. She won the Pan American Games a year later, then an Olympic silver medal and a UEFA Champions League title a year after, which led into five consecutive FIFA World Player of the Year awards from 2006-2010.

During her time in the United States, Marta was a member of two of the best club teams in the history of women’s soccer. The roles she played in each of them showed off how complete a player she is.

On the 2010 FC Gold Pride squad, Marta was the unquestioned star and acted like it, scoring 19 goals in 24 matches en route to a WPS MVP award. A year later, her and FCGP teammate Christine Sinclair joined forces with Alex Morgan and Caroline Seger for a Western New York Flash side that looked more like an all-star team than a salary-capped organization. She was more unselfish with the Flash, scoring 10 fewer goals than the season prior, but was still the best player on a championship-winning squad.

When her first stint in America was finished, Marta moved back to Sweden, where her European career started, and won three more league titles.

Marta’s list of titles and individual awards are enough to make it clear she’s the best to ever play the game, but her biggest influence was in how she dominated.

“Usually the most explosive players didn’t have the touch to match, at that point in the development of women’s soccer. Even though you knew she wanted to cut to her left, you knew what was coming, you couldn’t stop it because she’s that quick,” Aly Wagner, Fox World Cup broadcaster and USWNT player on the 2007 team, says.

She adds, “when Marta was determined to get by defenders, she was going to. She was feisty. She had just enough nasty in her. That’s a thing you didn’t see out of creative players at the time, that bite.”

It seems obvious now that a woman could possess all of these skills simultaneously, but it wasn’t in 2002, when Marta first stepped onto the world stage. Even by the time 2007 rolled around, and Marta had been well on her way towards her peak, most people inside of the game still had a very limited idea of what female players were capable of.

Ask a women’s soccer fan who Greg Ryan is, and they’ll tell you he’s the idiot who swapped out Hope Solo for Brianna Scurry and had no plan to slow down Marta in 2007. But until that semifinal, Ryan could do no wrong.

The USWNT of that era played a simple, long ball-oriented game which relied heavily on having better athletes than their opponents. Many considered this style antiquated, but it worked: the team was undefeated under Ryan’s guidance for more than two years, winning four out of the five tournaments they played with him as coach before the World Cup, losing only to Germany on penalties in the 2006 Algarve Cup final. He had not previously been branded as a bad coach, and he probably wouldn’t have been let go by U.S. Soccer if the World Cup draw shook out a bit differently.

But he benched Solo, his team got destroyed by Marta, and the USWNT made a dramatic change that started them on a path towards the team they are today.

O’Reilly and Wagner both recall a locker room filled with players and coaches who were convinced their attitude and teamwork were superior to all other teams, and stronger than any individual talent. They saw Brazil as a team with Marta and a couple of other talented individuals, incapable of beating a real team like theirs.

“We always had this incredible self-belief that the American attitude would let it all work out and it was kind of a humbling moment when it didn’t,” O’Reilly says.

“We rarely discussed the other team,” Wagner says. “I know this sounds absurd because it’s so different now, but things have evolved so much. Marta was a key player that we focused on, but that was rare. We were very generic in our defensive gameplan, everything was broad strokes.”

The USWNT’s direct style didn’t work against Brazil. O’Reilly, Abby Wambach, and

Kristine Lilly couldn’t just outrun and outmuscle the Brazilian defense. And every turnover gifted Marta more chances to run at the Americans in space.

Backlash against Ryan was swift, Swedish manager Pia Sundhage was named as his replacement four months after the loss to Brazil. She took the job intent on morphing the USWNT into a squad that could keep the ball on the ground and attack in multiple ways, rather than relying solely on their athleticism.

“From the first day on the job, she sang to us with her guitar, ‘The Times They Are A Changin’ by Bob Dylan,” O’Reilly says. “That was a sign that we were putting any issues from 2007 in the past, and that this was a new year and a new journey.”

Less than a year into Sundhage’s tenure, the Americans got their rematch with Brazil in the 2008 Olympic gold medal game. Marta was consistently dangerous, but ultimately held at bay, and the Americans won 1-0 in extra time. Sundhage made her team value possession.

“It was frustrating at first because it was against our DNA to possess for possession’s sake and not see a direct result,” O’Reilly says, “but Pia encouraged us to slow down and strike after we’d exposed the opposition. She taught us to cherish the ways to keep the ball for longer bouts.”

The USWNT was not accustomed to attacking through long passing moves on the ground, and would still rely on direct counters and set pieces to score most of their goals. But what they sacrificed from their attack, they made up by limiting the number of times Marta got the ball in space, and forcing her to do more defensive work.

When the Americans were reliant on going long, Marta never had to worry about her role on defense, or chasing to get the ball back. Because the Americans turned the ball over constantly, she got a high volume of opportunities to do something audacious. Even for a player of Marta’s ability, the fourth goal in the World Cup semifinal was a fairly low-percentage move, but one she’ll eventually make if given enough chances.

So keeping possession against Brazil became the USWNT’s best possible defense: Marta can’t score if she doesn’t have the ball.

This didn’t just win the Americans a gold medal in 2008. It marked the single biggest philosophical change that the most successful program in the history of women’s soccer has ever made. The USWNT blew up its entire philosophy because it got destroyed by one player, in one game.

And the USWNT has only been pushing further and further towards trying to dominate possession with each successive coaching hire and tactical switch. From Sundhage, to her successor Tom Sermanni, to current coach Jill Ellis, the USWNT has spent the last 12 years transforming into a keepaway team, dedicated to never letting something like Marta’s 2007 performance ever happen again.

There’s no consensus about who the best pre-Marta women’s soccer player is, but all of the players who are in the conversation are rather straightforward and uninventive, despite their brilliance. Michelle Akers was a wrecking ball who defenders bounced off of. Sun Wen’s primary skill was she was a technically precise ball-striker. Mia Hamm used her giant brain to ghost away from defenders. Birgit Prinz was built like a brick house and stayed composed under pressure. And even the silky, skilled Homare Sawa had a game that was more about vision and precision than trickery.

In the modern game, these players would mostly be considered lunch pail, Do Your Job types, not superstars. In 2019, the focal point of a team’s attack needs to have more than one elite skill. They can’t just be tough as nails, or lightning quick, or technically superb. They need to be at least two of those things, with hopefully a few creative tricks up their sleeve. And the biggest reason it occurs to coaches and players to be so ambitious is Marta’s example.

All of the best teams in the world have attackers with both pace and flair now. The United States has Tobin Heath, France has Eugenie Le Sommer, and the Netherlands have Lieke Martens. These players aren’t much younger than Marta, but they came up through the ranks at the perfect time. All of them were limited players in their younger days, but started their professional careers in a world that had been reshaped by Marta.

O’Reilly, a winger who had both speed and solid technical ability, thinks she would have been asked to work on different skills if she was a teenager today.

“Early in my career, I relied on my speed and athleticism, getting behind players,” O’Reilly says. “Even when I moved to the wing, I was instructed to be very direct and learn a good crossing technique. If I was a young player now I would be presented with more questions at training. I was told a lot of times what to do, and I’m a very coachable person, so I would execute what was asked of me. If I was a young player now I would be put into positions in order to problem solve and make critical decisions on my own.”

Maybe the best direct comparison between pre- and post-Marta USWNT players is Amy Rodriguez and Mallory Pugh. Both were 5’4” forwards whose primary asset as teenagers was their outstanding speed. Both were dominant at Under-17 level, and both were rated as the top player in the country in their graduating classes.

Rodriguez was made into a run-in-behind, goal-poaching striker. It’s a job she did well, but it’s also fair to say she didn’t quite make the most of her talent, scoring 30 times in 132 national team caps from 2005 to 2018. It was only later in her career, once she started playing for FC Kansas City, that she developed a wider skillset, playing with her back to goal and combining with her teammates. By then, she was no longer considered a starting caliber player for the national team.

If Rodriguez was a teenager today, she might have been turned into something a bit more like Pugh, a tricky winger who’s expected to star for the USWNT once Heath and Megan Rapinoe hang up their boots. Pugh often looked like a one-trick speed demon in her early youth national team appearances, but she’s become a more complete player since then. She’s an elite dribbler who can beat anyone one-on-one. She enjoys nutmegging people, and she’s improved her through balls considerably over the past two years. If Pugh was born in 1987, she’d likely have none of those skills.

“Marta took the game to the next level from what everyone deemed possible,” Wagner said. “Her combination of athleticism, skill and flair became possible for every next player that was going to come along.”

Marta was by far the best player in the world during the time period between women’s soccer’s initial explosion in 1999 and Europe’s very recent expansion of professionalization, which is probably the most important time in the game’s development. As the definitive star of the era, she shaped what the game would become — both in how individual players would develop and in how the game evolved tactically to counter players like her.

The game’s early pioneers showed people that women’s soccer was exciting and had something to offer, but Marta opened up a wider range of possibilities. She opened the minds of young women and their coaches, and that’s why she’s the most important person to ever play the game.

“Progress for women’s soccer here doesn’t walk, it crawls,” Marta said in 2014. “Many of these girls have the qualifications the sport demands, but with no incentive, or sponsors or publicity, it’s impossible to move forward. It’s impossible to support yourself playing soccer if you’re a woman playing the game in Brazil.”

She said this about her home country, but it could apply to most countries in the world. Both FIFA and individual football associations have been slow to invest in women’s soccer, and only make efforts to combat sexism when a lot of money is at stake. The on-field progression of women’s soccer has very little to do with anything institutional. It’s almost all down to the influence of exceptional individuals.

O’Reilly says Marta’s success “encouraged more girls to be take-on artists, to really value their skills.” She adds, “maybe at a young age it doesn’t pay off because you’re not the biggest player on the field, but over time working on your skills and your one-on-one ability and your agility with the ball pays off.”

In her unique way, Marta showed young women athletes they could define a game on their own terms. This, more than any trophies or awards, is her legacy.

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winterolympicssports2018-blog · 7 years ago

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USOC, federations are criticized in Senate hearing

Click here for More Olympics Updates https://www.winterolympian.com/usoc-federations-are-criticized-in-senate-hearing/

USOC, federations are criticized in Senate hearing

SportsPulse: USA TODAY Sports’ Rachel Axon discusses Senate subcommittee hearing where former athletes criticized the national governing bodies for their sport as well as the USOC and others for failing to prevent and stop sexual abuse. USA TODAY Sports

Olympic gymnastics gold medalist Jordyn Wieber testifies before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee’s Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Insurance and Data Security Subcommittee with fellow abuse victim Craig Maurizi in the Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill April 18.(Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images)

For years, survivors of sexual abuse in Olympic sport have called for accountability for those who harmed them and officials who let it happen.

On Wednesday, four former athletes echoed those calls in a hearing before the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Insurance, and Data Security.

Testifying before the subcommittee, former gymnasts Jordyn Wieber and Jamie Dantzscher, former speedskater Bridie Farrell and former figure skater Craig Maurizi criticized the national governing bodies for their sport as well as the U.S. Olympic Committee and others for failing to prevent and stop sexual abuse.

The hearing was the latest since the Olympic movement came under scrutiny for its handling of sexual abuse cases following revelations that longtime USA Gymnastics physician Larry Nassar abused hundreds of women, including Olympic champions Aly Raisman, Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, Gabby Douglas and Wieber.

More than 260 athletes accused Nassar, a doctor at Michigan State for more than two decades, of abusing them, with more than 150 giving victim impact statements in two sentencing hearings in Michigan.

More: Jordyn Wieber sues Michigan State, USA Gymnastics

More: McKayla Maroney says Larry Nassar molested her ‘hundreds’ of times

“To this day, I still don’t know how he could have been allowed to do this for so long,” Wieber said in her statement to the subcommittee. “We now know he abused my sister survivor and fellow Olympian Jamie Dantzscher twenty years ago. Women at Michigan State University reported his abuse even earlier and they were silenced and ignored. If these institutions had done their job, neither of us would be sitting here today.”

Dantzscher, an Olympic bronze medalist, previously testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in March 2017 and encouraged legislators to pass a law to protect child athletes.

In February, President Donald Trump signed The Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization Act, which requires adults who interact with amateur athletes to report suspected abuse to law enforcement within 24 hours.

Nassar, 54, is serving a 60-year federal sentence for child pornography charges. He was convicted of 10 counts of sexual assault in Michigan and faces a minimum of 40 years in prison after his federal sentence is over.

The Indianapolis Star, which is part of the USA TODAY Network, first made public the allegations against Nassar in August 2016 after being contacted by Rachael Denhollander, who said she’d been abused by Nassar.

Figure skater Craig Maurizi testifies before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee’s Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Insurance and Data Security Subcommittee with fellow abuse survivors (L-R) former Olympic gymnasts Jamie Dantzcher and Jordyn Wieber and speedskater Bridie Farrell during a hearing on Capitol Hill April 18. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images)

USA Gymnastics is only the latest national governing body to face a sexual abuse scandal. U.S. Speedskating, USA Swimming and USA Taekwondo previously faced criticism and in some cases lawsuits for their handling of complaints and failure to protect athletes.

Farrell spoke before the subcommittee on Wednesday of the abuse she suffered at the hands of Andy Gabel starting when she was 15 and Gabel was 33.

Farrell first told her story in 2013, and U.S. Speedskating terminated Gabel’s membership in 2016 after an investigation.

In her testimony, Farrell sharply criticized the USOC and former CEO Scott Blackmun.

“Mr. Blackmun also told me that there was nothing the USOC could do — that the USOC did not have such jurisdiction over the NGBs,” she said. “However, in the midst of the USA Gymnastic shake down the USOC acknowledged the NGB could be decertified and overtaken by the head organization. It certainly seems the USOC wants to pick and choose when to be involved, and it seems only when it favors the USOC.”

In late February, Blackmun stepped down, citing health reasons as he receives treatment for prostate cancer.

Maurizi told of his abuse by former coach Richard Callaghan. U.S. Figure Skating and the U.S Center for SafeSport suspended Callaghan in March after Maurizi filed a complaint with the center.

Reports of abuse by Callaghan were first made public in media reports in 1999.

“I respectfully ask you to find out why the USOC did nothing for decades while reports of child sexual abuse in many Olympic sports were ignored,” said Maurizi, who added that the women sharing their stories of abuse by Nassar prompted him to come forward. “Who was responsible for this tragedy and how will they be held accountable?”

The USOC, USA Gymnastics and Michigan State all face several lawsuits alleging they did not do enough to protect athletes from abuse.

Most recently, Wieber filed a lawsuit in state court in California on Tuesday that alleges that USA Gymnastics purged or destroyed medical records of Nassar’s victims, including her own.

Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., chairman of the subcommittee, said it has targeted May 22 for another hearing and notified the USOC, USA Gymnastics and Michigan State that it would like them to participate.

The Senate subcommittee’s inquiry is only one of three Congressional investigations into the Olympic movement’s handling of abuse.

The bipartisan House Energy and Commerce Committee in January asked the USOC, USA Gymnastics, USA Swimming and USA Taekwondo, as well as Michigan State, to provide information on how they have handled complaints. It has since expanded its inquiry to include all national governing bodies.

In February, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee announced it had sent letters to the USOC, USA Gymnastics and Michigan State, among others, regarding sexual assault in gymnastics.

At the Pyeongchang Olympics in February, USOC chairman Larry Probst said the USOC would “cooperate fully” with the investigations.

Separately, the USOC has hired Boston-based law firm Ropes & Gray to investigate it and USA Gymnastics.

“Institutions need to be held accountable. Survivors need to be acknowledged,” Farrell said. “Without policy reform the unjust muzzle will remain bounded on children while safeguarding the pedophiles to roam free. So long as this abuse of power continues, the horror in gyms, dojos, fields, courts, pools, tracks, mountains, and ice rinks will not end.”

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thisdaynews · 5 years ago

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How the U.S. Government Is Failing Women’s Soccer

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/how-the-u-s-government-is-failing-womens-soccer/

How the U.S. Government Is Failing Women’s Soccer

Shane Lardinois

game theory

It’s time for U.S. lawmakers to reconsider a framework that consistently undervalues female athletes.

The 2019 World Cup has kicked off in Paris with the American women—losers of just two of their last 43 matches and the reigning title holder—as the favorite. But win or lose in France, when Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe and their USA teammates return home they will confront again their toughest and most longstanding opponent: the United States Soccer Federation, the governing body designated under federal law as the overseer of America’s national soccer teams.

The Federation has persistently failed to adequately recognize, properly respect and justly reward its most valuable asset, the U.S. women’s national team.

Story Continued Below

At the heart of the decades-long dispute between U.S. Soccer and the U.S. women’s team is pay equity. Despite consistently achieving results far superior to their male counterparts (who failed to evenqualifyfor the most recent men’s World Cup), a generation of female players has watched U.S. Soccer penny pinch the women’s game while spending lavishly on the men’s team and its overseers. Current team members are now party to an Equal Pay Act lawsuit—the latest in a long line of legal or workplace protests players as beloved and respected as Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy and Becky Sauerbrunn have felt forced to initiate over the years in response to the Federation’s persistent hardline stance towards female athlete compensation. And it’s not just about salaries. U.S. Soccer haslong tolerated a two-tiered, gender-based workplace, with its male soccer players enjoying better travel, superior playing conditions and even more food. The history and details of the mistreatment and discrimination are set out expertly in a new book by Caitlin Murray,The National Team: The Inside Story of the Women Who Changed Soccer.

So how has the U.S. Soccer Federation been allowed to be anything other than a staunch supporter of U.S. women’s soccer? You can blame, in part, the lassitude of federal lawmakers. By granting U.S. Soccer nearly unfettered authority to direct—or misdirect in this case—the sport, the federal government has left the U.S. women’s team to suffer. If Congress wants to fix its mistake, it can. It’s time for U.S. lawmakers to reconsider a framework which has consistently undervalued female athletes.

U.S. Soccer’s current dominion over women’s soccer arose after Congress passed the Amateur Sports Act in 1978. The law allows the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) to designate a “national governing body” with exclusive oversight rights for every sport that participates in the Olympics. This makes sense for some sports: It’s one thing for the federal government to turn over sole governance rights for sports with limited participants, followers and financial prospects. But such a regime is inapt for soccer, the world’s most popular and lucrative sport. Soccer is “amateur” in name only, and it is too important a sport, particularly for womengiven the U.S. national team’s extended success, for Congress to hand off to an organization immune from both competition and meaningful government oversight—not to mention, one dominated by men. U.S. Soccer has always been male-run at the highest administrative echelons; it has never had a woman president or CEO.

This government-created and generally unsupervised monopoly is even less defensible given U.S. Soccer’s subservience not to Congress, or even the USOC, but instead to the game’s global overseer, FIFA. If there were a World Cup for Sexism in Sports, FIFA—after decades of nearly all male and often chauvinistic leadership—would own the trophy. Nor could FIFA leaders be outclassed when it comes to corruption. Soon after the last women’s World Cup ended, many within FIFA’s leadership structure were indicted for federal crimes or ousted for organizational wrongdoing. U.S. Soccer chieftains were not charged. But their cozy relationship with sexists and wrongdoers offered little grounds for confidence that American soccer officials sufficiently valued gender equality and ethics.

Corruption’s cousin—greed—appeared to team up with sexism at the last women’s World Cup in 2015. The difference between an acceptable pitch, consisting of natural grass, and a deplorable one, artificial turf, is widely acknowledged by soccer experts and lay fans alike. The flying pellets, hot surfaces, injury risks and odd bounces associated with turf makes a plastic pitch unthinkable at a men’s World Cup. But FIFA (along with host Canada) insisted the 2015 women’s World Cup take place on artificial turf, which offered the prospect of more field certification and “preferred producer” revenues, plus sponsorship fees, from the artificial turf industry.

At the same time, the world governing body sought to curb costs for the women’s game by offering prize money that was a mere fraction of that available to men and a refusal to commit to goal line technology (used in the 2014 men’s World Cup) until publicly pressured. When players from the United States and other countries prepared a legal protest over the playing conditions, which I assisted with, FIFA threatened to cancel the tournament if the women prevailed in court.

Throughout the “turf war,” U.S. Soccer refused to offer its women’s team—which led the fight for natural grass—any meaningful measure of public support. Indeed, the organization’s top official at the time, Sunil Gulati, at one low point suggested the female players could be targeted for suspension for their collective action. Then, upon the U.S. women’s team’s triumphant return, U.S. Soccer inexcusably scheduled “Victory Tour” practices and games on artificial turf and second rate grass surfaces. The predictable result: a torn ACL. The victim was Rapinoe, one of America’s most indispensable players but, thankfully, also one of its most resilient.

The scope of U.S. Soccer’s failure is highlighted by the fact that this summer marks the 20th anniversary of the legendary 1999 World Cup final in which the U.S. women’s national team defeated China on post-overtime penalty kicks before 90,000 fans at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The ‘99ers remain American sports icons, but they also epitomize U.S. Soccer’s neglect. The team returned victorious from that World Cup as national heroes poised for huge commercial success.An outline of Brandi Chastain on her knees in exultation after her winning goal could have become a logo as ageless and commercially valuable as Michael Jordan’s Jumpman. Instead, as Murray rightly puts it, U.S. Soccer did little to promote the team. “To say the federation lacked foresight or ambition to help the national team keep up its momentum [after winning the 1999 World Cup] is to put it mildly,” writes Murray. “There was no strategy to grow interest in the sport from the federation responsible for it.” Or, as former national team player Kate Markgraf says it simply: “They had nothing for us. They had no plan.”

U.S. Soccer’s shortcomings stretch beyond its disservice to the women’s team off the field (and the on-field debacles of its men). On its watch, youth soccer participation has dramatically decreased. And those that are still playing are less diverse along ethnic and economic lines, as the “pay to play” system U.S. Soccer allowed to take root in youth clubs has created financial burdens for even middle class families forced to fork over thousands of dollars per year in club dues and travel fees. An additional reason for the participation decline could be fears over the use of player heads to advance or re-direct airborne balls. As parents and pediatricians expressed increasing concerns about heading, U.S. Soccer took little action until a class action lawsuit came along that initiated a series of protective measures.

While U.S. Soccer ineptitude from 1999-2019 represents a lost generation for soccer-fueled female empowerment, the group’s legal defense in the ongoing pay equity case points to a possible solution for the next 20 years. According to the Federation’s recently filed legal papers: “USWNT players have no male ‘counterparts’ who play for the USMNT.” The two teams “play at different times, in different locations, against different opponents, and are comprised of athletes who have different obligations, are compensated in fundamentally different ways, and enjoy different benefits.”

U.S. Soccer’s belief that its men’s and women’s teams are separate and unequal is stunning. And it makes clear that the Federation as currently conceived is no longer fit to oversee the women’s program. But true or not, U.S. Soccer’s defense leads to the question: Whynothave different governing bodies, one for U.S. women’s soccer and another for the men?

Given its role in creating today’s system of soccer oversight, Congress should consider amending the Amateur Sports Act to require (or at least permit) two different soccer federations, one for U.S. women’s soccer and another for the men. The new female-aligned federation can focus on perpetuating and capitalizing on the women’s players’ dominance and profitability while U.S. Soccer’s “old boys club” can keep the men’s program. Among other things, a United StatesWomen’sSoccer Federation could more vigorously pursue standalone broadcast and sponsorship deals for the women’s team, which has higher TV ratings and more recognizable stars than the men. It could better support the women’s professional league.And it should be much more willing to protest and contest FIFA’s ongoing refusal to fairly value women’s soccer.

But whether or not Congress splits the Federation in two, exempts soccer from the Amateur Sports Act, or takes other statutory measures in the face of U.S. Soccer’s flawed track record on gender equity, lawmakers must—at a minimum—exercise more vigorous oversight so that discrimination in sports is understood to be unacceptable.

Beyond soccer, Congress can do more to ensure that there is a marked increase in the number of women who can make a living within the multi-billion American sports industry. While Title IX has been hailed as a revolutionary advance for women and girls as players, it has done little to give women meaningful coaching opportunities. And the law has done nothing in the realm of professional sports, where federal government largesse and oversight—whether it be tax subsidies for stadiums or the military’s NFL sponsorships or sports programming on local TV stations to satisfy the FCC’s “public interest” licensing requirement—almost exclusively has benefitted male teams and their predominantly male owners.

Members of Congress can consider ways to promote greater gender equality in sports while they watch World Cup over the next four weeks. And tune in they should, for the games will be compelling. The trophy may be the USA’s to lose, but it’s not guaranteed to stay in America. The stiffest competition on the field could come from the hosts. The French are the only side that has outclassed the United States consistently in recent years, and should the teams meet, the crowd will be decidedly anti-American.

An American victory this year will require all the players to think of themselves as defenders first, working hard to re-obtain possession when the other team gets it. Pressuring the ball and denying passes the instant your team loses it is hard, unglamorous work, but it’s the easiest way to avoid giving up a goal. In addition to defending as a team, the U.S. will need to score as one. The goals we’ll never forget—Carli Lloyd’s 2015 stunninggolazofrom midfield, Abby Wambach’s defeat defying header against Brazil in 2011—were moments of indelible individual greatness. But as teams mass defenders to deny the U.S. meaningful attacking opportunities, it will be up to each American to constantly look for a more wide open teammate. In recent games, particularly a 5-0 shelling of New Zealand, the U.S. passing has been plentiful and precise. If that continues in France, a World Cup trophy will remain in American hands. Then it will be time for Congress to consider putting American women’s soccer in the hands of someone else besides the United States Soccer Federation.

#Foreign #Politics #Soccer #women

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shoesforsaleggdb-blog · 5 years ago

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investmart007 · 6 years ago

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DALLAS | Larry Nassar, ex-trainer charged with sex assault in Texas

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DALLAS | Larry Nassar, ex-trainer charged with sex assault in Texas

DALLAS (AP) — A former trainer who worked alongside imprisoned ex-sports doctor Larry Nassar at the famed Karolyi gymnastics ranch in Texas was charged Friday with sexual assault. But prosecutors said there wasn’t evidence of criminal wrongdoing by the couple who ran the facility, former national team coordinators Bela and Martha Karolyi.

A grand jury indicted former trainer Debra Van Horn on one count of second-degree sexual assault of a child, making her the first person other than Nassar to be charged in direct connection with his assaults.

Nassar — who is already serving decades in prison for sexual assault and possession of child pornography in Michigan — also was indicted Friday on six counts of the same charge.

Walker County prosecutor Stephanie Stroud said the charges involved six victims but didn’t provide details of the alleged assaults when announcing the charges at a news conference in Huntsville.

When asked for specifics about the allegations against Van Horn, Walker County District Attorney David Weeks said only that she was charged as “acting as a party” with Nassar.

Nassar was convicted and sentenced earlier this year in Michigan, after hundreds of women and girls accused him of sexually abusing them under the guise of medical treatment. They said the abuse went back decades, including while he worked for USA Gymnastics, which is responsible for training Olympic gymnasts, and Michigan State University.

The Texas charges stem from an investigation at the famed gymnastics training center just outside Huntsville that was run by the Karolyis and used by USA Gymnastics. Five former gymnasts implored authorities last month to determine whether the Karolyis could have prevented abuse at their facility. Two gymnasts said Nassar abused them there.

Stroud said Friday that no charges were filed against the Karolyis, who have denied knowledge of any mistreatment at their since-closed facility about 70 miles (110 kilometers) north of Houston.

“Bela and Marta Karolyi were interviewed at length. The Karolyis were and remain fully cooperative with this investigation,” Stroud said.

But, she added: “It’s our belief that there was a total failure by USAG (USA Gymnastics) to protect athletes that were part of their program and to take appropriate action once they were made aware of Dr. Nassar’s actions.”

Stroud said investigators tried to determine if anyone at the ranch knew about Nassar’s alleged assaults and didn’t report them. But the two-year statute of limitations had already lapsed on any possible misdemeanor charges of failure to report.

“That in no way means there was no wrongdoing at the ranch or within the ranks of USAG,” she said.

The Karolyis are suing the U.S. Olympic Committee and USA Gymnastics, seeking damages for the canceled sale of their training center — a transaction that tanked in the wake of the Nassar sex-abuse cases. They’re seeking more than $1 million in damages.

Several former gymnasts have also filed lawsuits. One of them, Sabrina Vega, filed a lawsuit in May alleging USA Gymnastics, the U.S. Olympic Committee and the Karolyis failed to protect her and other athletes.

Vega, who was on the team that won a gold medal at the 2011 World Championships, alleges the organizations and the Karolyis ignored signs about Nassar’s behavior or should have known he posed a risk.

She said Nassar molested her hundreds of times during medical treatments from 2008, when she was 12 years old, until 2012. Vega said the abuse occurred during competitions and while she trained at the Karolyi ranch.

Texas’ governor ordered an investigation into what he called “gut-wrenching” allegations after the gymnasts came forward in Texas.

Weeks, the local district attorney, said Friday he wants to eventually bring Nassar to Texas to face the charges. Nassar is currently housed at a federal prison in Arizona.

Congress passed a bill in January that makes members of amateur sports organizations, including those that run Olympic sports, mandatory reporters of sexual abuse. It also requires the organizations to implement standard protections for athletes.

By DAVID WARREN by Associated Press

#Dallas #Larry Nassar #Martha Karolyi #Michigan State University #sex assault in Texas #TodayNews #USA Gymnastics

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