BOSTON — Researchers have diagnosed chronic traumatic encephalopathy in a Major League Soccer player for the first time, saying Tuesday that former Sporting Kansas City defender Scott Vermillion suffered from the degenerative brain disease.

The Boston University CTE Center said Vermillion, who died of an accidental drug overdose in December 2020 at the age of 44, had CTE. Although it is not possible to connect any individual case to a cause, the disease has been linked to repeated blows to the head.

CTE has been found in more than 100 former NFL players as well as semi-pro and high school soccer players. Vermillion is the first from MLS.
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“Mr. Vermillion has shown us that soccer players are at risk for CTE,” said Dr. Ann McKee, director of the BU CTE Center. “We need to make every effort to identify players who are suffering and provide them compassionate care and appropriate medical support.”

Vermillion began playing soccer at the age of 5 and continued for 22 years, culminating in four MLS seasons for D.C. United, the Colorado Rapids and Sporting KC. He also played for the United States at the 1993 Under-17 World Championship and made some appearances for the Under-20 team in 1996.

After retiring in 2001 with an ankle injury, his family said, he became depressed and had problems with impulse control and aggression. Eventually, he suffered from memory loss and developed a substance abuse problem.

All have been associated with CTE, which has been linked to concussions or subconcussive blows in athletes, combat veterans and others who sustain repeated head trauma.

“This disease destroys families, and not just football families,” said Vermillion’s father, Dave Vermillion. “We hope this will be a wake-up call to the soccer community to support former players and get them the help they need, so some good can come from this tragedy.”

The MLS Players Association called upon the league to break with the sport’s international governing bodies and adopt a rule expanding substitutions to allow for players with concussions.

“We must not sit by and wait for them to do the right thing. MLS should unilaterally adopt a full concussion substitution rule immediately,” the union said in a statement. “Current substitution rules do not give medical professionals sufficient time to properly diagnose potential concussions without putting a team at a substantial competitive disadvantage.”

The Concussion Legacy Foundation has called for rules that would limit tackle football and heading in soccer to children over 14. CLF co-founder Chris Nowinski said dementia has already been linked to repetitive heading by pro soccer players in Britain.

“It is time for the global soccer community to have a real conversation about heading, especially in the youth game,” Nowinski said. “We urgently need to investigate how far this crisis extends into amateur soccer and immediately put in place reforms to prevent CTE in the next generation.”

Two-time Olympic gold medalist Crissy Perham was walking her dog to a coffee shop in San Antonio on Friday morning, when her husband pulled up alongside her, in his car, to deliver some upsetting news. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court had overturned Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutional right to an abortion. Her husband’s words landed like a gut punch. Perham was one of more than 500 women athletes who filed an amicus brief last September supporting Roe v. Wade. Perham and her fellow athletes wrote that they “are united in their deeply-held belief that women’s athletics could not have reached its current level of participation and success” without that right to end a pregnancy.
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For Perham, a former U.S. swimmer who won two gold medals and a silver at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, the issue is deeply personal. In the brief, she went public with her story for first time: while a scholarship athlete at the University of Arizona, she was in a long-term, monogamous relationship and used birth control but accidentally got pregnant. She decided to have an abortion. “I wasn’t ready to be a mom, and having an abortion felt like I was given a second chance at life,” Perham wrote. “I was able to take control of my future and refocus my priorities. I got better in school, I started training really hard, and that summer, I won my first national championship. My life would be drastically different if I had been pregnant and forced to sit that race out, because that race changed the course of my life.” A year later, Perham made the Olympic team, as a swimming co-captain.

Now, she sees a terrible hypocrisy in the timing of today’s Supreme Court ruling, coming a day after the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the landmark legislation that mandated equal athletic opportunities for women and girls. Many of the same people cheering for the right of women to play sports didn’t seem to mind them losing a right to control their bodies. “How ridiculous is it that 24 hours ago, they’re praising Title IX and all the opportunities that were created for girls and women that wanted to participate in sports at a higher level and possibly become professional athletes,” Perham tells TIME. “And literally the next day, they said, ‘By the way, if you get pregnant, you’re gonna have to have a baby.'”

Read More: The Fight Over Abortion Has Only Just Begun

Athletes are now worried that Friday’s Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization could roll back some of the advances of Title IX. Women who participate in most sports have a narrow window to maximize their athletic potential, and these years often coincide with childbearing age. While many athletes have managed to juggle difficult pregnancies, and the physical and financial taxations of motherhood while returning to competitive sports, others couldn’t afford to do so. In her memoir, five-time Olympic medalist Sanya Richards-Ross revealed that she got an abortion two weeks before flying to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where she won a 4X400-meter relay gold medal. “The culmination of a lifetime of work was right before me,” Richards-Ross writes in the book. “In that moment, it seemed like no choice at all.”

The right to an abortion helped level the playing field between women and men: expectant fathers don’t have to undergo nine months of physiological changes, and the physical demands of labor, while pursuing a career in sports. As one soccer player put it in the amicus brief: “Being an elite athlete my entire life, I know what having control over my body feels like. I’ve been putting blood, sweat, and tears into my sport since I was five years old, a sacrifice that I made in order to accomplish my dream of playing at the highest level. Once I became sexually active, I knew that a pregnancy had the potential to jeopardize that dream, so having access to an abortion was always the safeguard I had in case my birth control failed. Knowing I had the right and access to an abortion should I need it made me feel secure in myself as a woman athlete, and allowed me to pursue greatness on and off the field.”

Read More: The Failure of the Feminist Industrial Complex

If enough states ban abortions, fewer women and girls may participate in sports, and less money will be directed toward women’s athletics. Colleges in states with restrictive abortion rights may stand to lose women athletes. “From where I stand, the future looks bleak,” U.S. water polo goalkeeper Ashleigh Johnson, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, tells TIME. Johnson, who also signed the amicus brief, calls today’s decision a “devastating” setback for women’s sports. “It’s really disappointing as someone who went through the collegiate system, played college sports, and is now playing for a professional league,” Johnson says. “It’s just one more barrier. It’s really hard to consider sports this clear pathway for girls to find empowerment and for women to really pursue their dreams if they don’t have these protections.”

Perham, who coached high school swimmers after Barcelona and now has two sons in their 20s, grows emotional when recalling how she her life changed improved after her abortion. She says early on in college, her grades were lacking and she didn’t practice consistently in the pool. “I am thankful every day for the last 30 years of my life not because I had an abortion,” she says. “But because I had that opportunity and people gave me a chance to better myself, and I took advantage of that chance.”

“I’m not here to like, be some weird cheerleader for abortion,” says Perham. “It’s not, ‘yay, abortion.’ It’s, ‘Hey, this is my body, and I want the ability to do with it what I choose, which includes being an athlete.’ I never want to sound like I need anybody to think like me. What I would respectfully ask is that you allow someone with a uterus to decide what’s best for them and their uterus. That’s really what it is.”

Read More: What the Supreme Court’s Abortion Decision Means for Your State

Abortion rights haven’t just allowed elite Olympians like Perham to thrive. They’ve assisted athletes on all levels, and the benefits extend far beyond the field. As one former club lacrosse player wrote in the amicus brief: “Two months into my freshman year, I was raped by a man much older than me. Young and eighteen years old, I had no idea what to do, say, or think. I had to navigate uncharted waters on my own and I completely internalized being raped. I started to miss class, my grades dropped, and I was struggling deeply with my emotions. I suffered severe PTSD and became suicidal. Lacrosse was the only thing keeping me going. Between the structure, the physical activity, and the sense of being a part of something larger than myself, I found reprieve when playing. I can’t even begin to imagine what my life would have looked like without lacrosse being a safe haven to turn to. Had I gotten pregnant from that rape, I would have aborted for my emotional and physical health. I emotionally and physically depended on lacrosse, and I wouldn’t have been able to handle a pregnancy, school, and my sport at the same time.”

“If I did not have the option to abort, I would have certainly taken my own life.”

Allyson Felix, who at Tokyo Olympics in 2021 became the most decorated woman in track and field history with 11 medals—seven of them gold—is returning for one last season of racing, for one reason: to start a new childcare initiative in track and field that could help future generations run for as long as she has.

On Tuesday, Felix and her primary sponsor, Athleta, announced that they are partnering with a non-profit organization, &Mother, to provide free childcare for athletes, coaches, and other participants at the 2022 U.S. National Championships in Eugene, Ore., which run from June 23-26. At a hotel ballroom Vivvi, a national childcare provider, will be offering programming for infants, toddlers, and school-age kids: activities could include ice-cube painting with food coloring, playdough-making for toddlers, and card and board games for older children. Felix, along with the Women’s Sports Foundation and Athleta’s Power of She Fund, will also open up their next round of $10,000 childcare grants to qualified athletes: Athleta and the Women’s Sports Foundation have already awarded $200,000 in grants to elite athletes since last year: among the recipients is Elana Myers Taylor, the Olympic bobsledder who gave birth to her son Nico in 2020. Myers Taylor won two more medals at the 2022 Beijing Olympics to become the most decorated Black athlete in Winter Olympics history.
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Read more: Motherhood Could Have Cost Allyson Felix. She Wouldn’t Let It

Felix, who gave birth to her daughter Camryn in 2018, hopes this free childcare model becomes the norm in track and field. “That’s the one reason why I felt like I wanted to come back and run this season,” says Felix, 36. “It’s that important to me.”

This announcement marks the next phase of Felix’s evolution as an athlete advocate. In 2019, Felix testified on Capitol Hill about the racial disparities in maternal mortality: she suffered from severe preeclampsia and survived life-threatening complications during pregnancy and childbirth. “We need to provide women of color with more support during their pregnancies,” Felix told the House Ways and Means Committee. “Research shows that racial bias in our maternal health care system includes things like providers spending less time with Black mothers, underestimating the pain of their Black patients, ignoring symptoms and dismissing complaints.” That same year Felix left Nike, her longtime sponsor, after a public dispute over payments to pregnant athletes. Nike eventually changed its policies and added payment protections for pregnant women and new mothers. A year ago, Felix took full agency over her legacy and career by launching her own footwear and apparel brand, Saysh. Felix won gold and bronze medals at the Tokyo Games while wearing Saysh spikes. The company just closed an $8 million Series A investment round, whose participants included Athleta, a Gap Inc brand: Gap now has a 2% equity stake in Saysh.

Read more: Allyson Felix Launches Her Own Shoe Company Two Years After Breaking Up With Nike

After the Tokyo Olympics, Felix was on the fence about coming back to run. Last fall, however, she spoke to Billie Jean King, who encouraged her to pursue a new childcare initiative for her sport: if it’s successful, it could spread to other sports and industries. Felix thought back to a track meet from a decade ago, in Arkansas, when her training partner struggled to find proper care for her daughter. “During the race, she would pass off her daughter to athletes and different people on the staff, and I remember when we watched the race back on TV, you could hear her daughter crying,” says Felix. She recalled her own experiences with Camryn, bringing her from meet to meet during that first season after her birth. Felix had to wash bottles and order an extra hotel room for her mom: Felix knew she was fortunate that she could afford the help. But what about other track and field athletes who couldn’t? “If there was something in place where we could just drop her off, that would be less stressful,” she says.

She recalls a conversation with a former Olympian, who told Felix that she might have pursued another run at the Games if she had more childcare support. It became clear that though a daycare center at a track meet seems like a relatively small change, it could have enormous consequences for careers. Mothers could continue to compete and maximize their athletic earnings and potential if they had more help. “How many athletes can come and get a hotel room, separate from what’s provided?” says Felix. “Who can bring a family member? To me, that’s like a huge barrier and burden and reason why women drop out and just say like, This is not going to happen. It’s one less thing to have on your plate. One less thing to think about.”

BUDAPEST, Hungary — World swimming’s governing body has adopted new rules for transgender athletes, only permitting swimmers who transitioned before age 12 to compete in women’s events.

FINA members voted 71.5% in favor of the new “gender inclusion policy” at the organization’s extraordinary general congress on Sunday. It will apply to all its events from Monday.

The 24-page policy also includes proposals for a new “open competition” category. FINA said it was setting up a “a new working group that will spend the next six months looking at the most effective ways to set up this new category.”

The vote came after members heard presentations from of three specialist groups – an athlete group, a science and medicine group and a legal and human rights group – that had been working together to form the policy following recommendations given by the International Olympic Committee last November.

The IOC urged shifting the focus from individual testosterone levels and calling for evidence to prove when a performance advantage existed.

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Title IX, the federal legislation mandating equal opportunities for men’s and women’s participation in sports, turns 50 on June 23. The golden anniversary offers opportunities to recognize the advancements of women’s athletics, such as the pioneering collective bargaining agreement, agreed to on May 18 by the United States Soccer Federation, the U.S Women’s National Team Players Association and the United States National Soccer Team Players Association, that creates true pay equity in the sport. Players like Megan Rapinoe, who along with teammate Alex Morgan was the leading goal-scorer for the United States during its 2019 World Cup championship run, had long advocated for equal pay, going so far to sue their employer, US Soccer, that year in a gender discrimination case.
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While female athletes have enjoyed great gains, inequalities do persist in sports. TIME caught up with Rapinoe to discuss how Title IX can be improved, the leadership lessons that came out of the equal pay fight, and the importance of transgender inclusion in sports.

(For coverage of the future of work, visit TIME.com/charter and sign up for the free Charter newsletter.)

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

What does Title IX mean to you?

Oh, goodness. I mean, Title IX gave me the opportunity to play soccer in college and get a scholarship. I don’t think I even knew about it until probably I got to college, or a little bit after. It wasn’t in my consciousness. That’s kind of the amazing thing about my generation is, we didn’t have to think about it. It was just there for us.

Take the elite aspect out of it, how many women that have just been able to go to college and play a sport? To go to college and to get a scholarship and to not be saddled with student debt? What’s the impact of that in the workplace and thought leadership in business and, every aspect of life? Multiple generations of women, for the first time, we’re able to have these opportunities and break out of the extremely restrictive roles that we had been assigned to for so long. So the impact is immeasurable. I think not only in this country, but around the world. It was a transformational piece of legislation.

What do you think the shortcomings of Title IX have been, and how do we fix them?

I think the holes probably mirror the holes in society. I’m sure there’s a racial blind spot. I’m sure there’s an LGBTQ blind spot. I’m sure there’s an immigrant blind spot, all of that. Title IX is also charged with handling sexual assault and rape on college campuses. We know that that is continuing to be rampant and underreported. And even when it is reported, it’s so difficult to get anything done.

You and more than 500 female athletes signed an amicus brief in support of Roe v. Wade: the brief argued that Roe was essential for the effectiveness of Title IX, as choice offered many women the opportunity to pursue sports. Is it a sort of cruel irony that on the 50th anniversary of Title IX, a leaked Supreme Court opinion indicated that Roe may be overturned?

Completely. I think it’s terrifying to be honest. I don’t think anything is safe. Why would it ever? I mean, [the Court] struck down the voting rights act. Are we insane? So we’re potentially on the verge of striking down Roe v. Wade. I mean, I don’t think that this Republican Party will stop at anything. We absolutely need to be vigilant. It is really sad that 50 years on from Title IX, and that so far on from Roe v. Wade, we’re bringing up not just settled law, but a settled desire and progression that the majority of the country really wants. This is not the will of the majority of the people, by any means at all.

Where do you think women’s sports is going in the next 50 years?

I’m, by nature, hugely optimistic. I think that there’s enough going on right now, we can look at our lawsuit, the success of our team, look at the WNBA, we can look at a million different places and see that progress is really taking hold. And it’s not just because, oh, it’s the right thing to do. It’s the smart thing to do. It’s the right thing to do for your ROI. I think that the we are at the bottom of a hockey stick of growth in women’s sports.

One of the trappings that’s really easy to fall into for women’s sports is trying to mirror and mimic every single thing that men’s sports has done. I don’t think that’s the goal. It’s different, right? And that’s okay. It doesn’t have to be exactly the same. We don’t have to use every single thing that men’s sports has done, because frankly, not all of it has worked. We should use the benefit of hindsight, and we should understand what’s good to take, and where can we innovate, where can we move forward. It’s going be difficult in a lot of ways for men’s sports to be as nimble as women’s sports, even though we don’t have a fraction of the money or the budget or the influence or the power. We can be nimble and we can be really innovative and we can go into new frontiers probably a lot quicker than men’s sports can. I don’t think my imagination can even capture what’s possible with women’s sports in the next 50 years.

Where can women’s sports innovate?

Something that is just woven into the fabric of women’s sports is that sort of cross section between sports and doing good to change the world. When we think about, not just in America, but other places in the world, developing nations, how can we use sports to spur education, equality? Women’s sports has a leg up on everyone. While having it be a very successful business model, we can use sports to change the world in so many ways.

(For coverage of the future of work, visit TIME.com/charter and sign up for the free Charter newsletter.)

Right before this 50th anniversary of Title IX, US Soccer, the women’s national team and the men’s national team agreed to a historic Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that insures true equal pay: the women and men will split FIFA’s pot of World Cup prize money evenly. What leadership lessons did you learn during the protracted fight for equal pay?

Girl. Don’t even get me started. I learned that just because you’re the “leader”—and I think this can be in business or whether you’re the CEO or the captain or whatever—don’t think you know everything. You bring a lot. And you bring probably a very special talent, and maybe a talent that is more glorified in society—not necessarily more important— and that’s maybe why you’re at the top. But the best leaders know how to say, I don’t know. Know how to delegate and know how to not only get the most out of themselves, but try to get the most out of everyone else. Allowing people the space to be themselves and bring their special talent to the table is the most important thing. Even within the team, if just the loudest people in the room are talking, Becky Sauerbrunn is not going to talk over them. She will never talk louder than me. But that doesn’t mean that I should be speaking. She’s smarter than me in a lot of different ways. And I need to understand, as a leader and as someone who does have a loud voice, I need to recognize I don’t know everything and create that space for Becky.

Are you worried about US Soccer delivering on the promise of the CBA? You’ve been fighting the federation for so long, it would be human nature to be skeptical.

I can’t hold every single grudge that I have. That’s not right. And that’s also not how progress is made. And that’s not what’s going to be best for the next generation. Contrary to what people think, I’m not that combative. I don’t like conflict. And it took up a lot of energy and a lot of time, a lot of emotional energy. And that’s not the goal, just to keep fighting. I’d rather keep growing.

This is day one of not only a new contract that means a lot to all of us, but it’s a new relationship. And that requires both parties to show up with an open mind and an open heart and vulnerability to build that together. So that we can move forward because there was a lot of contention and pain. The healing has to begin. What I’ve always said about this relationship, is that we’re wasting our f-cking time and we’re wasting our f-cking money. Them and us. Why don’t we do this together in a way that is fair and equal? Yes, you will have to pay them a lot more money than you used to. But ultimately we’re all going to be better for it. We will all make more money for it. We will all grow the sport in a much more healthy and vibrant way moving forward than we ever would if we just continue to fight.

What do you think is the biggest shortcoming you’ve had as a leader and how have you tried to work on that?

I am not always as thoughtful and analytical and slow as I need to be. Sometimes I want to wriggle out of being uncomfortable, and so you can just make quick decisions, when it’s better to sit in it. Picking and choosing those right moments to use the cudgel of pink hair, I think is a growth area, for sure.

Has there been an example where you weren’t as slow as you needed to be?

It’s no secret that [former US coach] Jill [Ellis] and I had a little bit of tension. I don’t really like swallowing pills, right? It’s definitely necessary. And I think there were times I didn’t and it was not appropriate, whether that’s talking back or having a certain attitude or having a chip on my shoulder.

What leadership lessons did you learn during the 2019 World Cup, when, while you were attempting to lead the US team to the title as one of the co-captains, the President of the United States was attacking you on Twitter?

In that instance, obviously it was not that comfortable. I don’t think [Donald] Trump is a serious person. I was one of many women that he went after. But I think it was really important to keep my anxiety or fear or uncertainty that I had around that to myself. And so outwardly, it was kind of a funny joke within the team. Like, bro, the f-cking president is tweeting at you, what on earth? And I’m like, I know, this is insane. So that ability to almost like dissociate from the reality that the President United States is trying to dunk on his own citizen and a player that’s trying to win the World Cup, and just being able to shoulder a lot of that myself. We decided to sue the Federation. We have all the pressure on us in the world. I’ve like dyed my hair pink. The President is trying to dunk on us. This could wreck teams. This could completely fold your chances at a World Cup. So I think that ability to kind of make a joke out of it, but also allow the team to be relaxed. It felt like a must win World Cup. I know we feel all that, but we have to laugh. We have to celebrate our goals. We have to enjoy ourselves. I think we all did a really good job of preparing the team and shielding the team from what they didn’t need to deal with.

What’s been the biggest challenge in your role advocating for LGBTQ rights?

Once I figured it out, I was like: Oh, this is awesome. I’m gay and my whole life makes sense now. For a long time, I was the only player that was out. And so just being the only spokesperson and making sure I’m setting the right example, saying the right things, whether it comes to gay marriage or difficult and nuanced topics like trans inclusion in sports. Those are the challenges of just continuing to stay educated. I am not just speaking for me, I’m speaking for a lot of people. I don’t want to make anything weird. Nothing goes unsaid. Speak it plainly. And I’m gonna speak it loudly, and I think that that helps other people who maybe don’t have the ability to do that, or who aren’t in a place to do that quite yet.

Read more: TIME’s Athlete Of The Year: US Women’s Soccer Team

You mentioned the issue of transgender inclusion in sports, which is such a hot subject right now, as many states have passed bills that ban or limit transgender sports participation. Where do you stand on this issue?

I’m 100% supportive of trans inclusion. People do not know very much about it. We’re missing almost everything. Frankly, I think what a lot of people know is versions of the right’s talking points because they’re very loud. They’re very consistent, and they’re relentless.

At the highest level, there is regulation. In collegiate sports, there is regulation. And at the Olympic and professional level. It’s not like it’s a free-for-all where everyone’s just doing whatever.

And I think people also need to understand that sports is not the most important thing in life, right? Life is the most important thing in life. And so much of this trans inclusion argument has been put through the extremely tiny lens of elite sports. Like that is not the way that we need to be framing this question. We’re talking about kids. We’re talking about people’s lives. We’re talking about the entire state government coming down on one child in some states, three children in some states. They are committing suicide, because they are being told that they’re gross and different and evil and sinful and they can’t play sports with their friends that they grew up with. Not to mention trying to take away health care. I think it’s monstrous.

I would also encourage everyone out there who is afraid someone’s going to have an unfair advantage over their kid to really take a step back and think what are we actually talking about here. We’re talking about people’s lives. I’m sorry, your kid’s high school volleyball team just isn’t that important. It’s not more important than any one kid’s life.

Show me the evidence that trans women are taking everyone’s scholarships, are dominating in every sport, are winning every title. I’m sorry, it’s just not happening. So we need to start from inclusion, period. And as things arise, I have confidence that we can figure it out. But we can’t start at the opposite. That is cruel. And frankly, it’s just disgusting.

So, we need to really kind of take a step back and get a grip on what we’re really talking about here because people’s lives are at risk. Kids’ lives are at risk with the rates of suicide, the rates of depression and negative mental health and drug abuse. We’re putting everything through God forbid a trans person be successful in sports. Get a grip on reality and take a step back.

You’re on the roster for the upcoming CONCACAF Women’s championship, a key qualifier for the 2023 World Cup and 2024 Olympics. How do you view your role now? So do you see yourself as more of the veteran mentor? Or do you still want to be the focal point of the offense, scoring lots of goals?

Well, I certainly hope my role has changed because I don’t think I’m going to be able to play 90 minutes, six or seven games in a row in a World Cup. It’s most certainly changed, and that’s something I’m honestly really excited about. I think that, just from a soccer perspective, I think I still have a lot to give. Can I give everything that I gave in the last World Cup? No, I don’t think that’s possible. Unless there’s some sort of miracle that happens.

But I can still give a lot on the field and particularly in the mentorship role. It’s not like I can’t play soccer anymore. I think people have a little bit of a short memory when it comes to me and when it comes to aging athletes. Everyone just needs to pump the brakes. And I think I’ve earned a little bit of grace.

At the Tokyo Olympics last summer, those last few games had the feel of a swan-song for you and some of the other veterans. Do you still have desire to play in next year’s World Cup and the 2024 Olympics? Are you all in on this cycle?

I think I’m all in on this next World Cup. I’ve probably played my last Olympics. With the smaller roster, that feels like a lot. That’s a difficult cycle. You go two years back-to-back and I think other players are going to be in a much better position to be successful than I would.

I’ve had injuries this year. That kept me out for a while. But it feels like a new dawn and a new day.

BOSTON — The Golden State Warriors are NBA champions once again, topping the Boston Celtics 103-90 on Thursday night for their fourth title in the last eight seasons.

Stephen Curry scored 34 points and was named the NBA Finals MVP as the Warriors claimed the franchise’s seventh championship overall. And this one completed a journey like none other, after a run of five consecutive finals, then a plummet to the bottom of the NBA, and now a return to greatness just two seasons after having the league’s worst record.

“We found a way to just get it done,” Curry said after the Warriors accepted the championship trophy and celebrated on the court.
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With tears in his eyes and hoarse with emotion, Curry struggled to speak as he explained what allowed the Warriors to capture their latest crown.

“It’s part of a championship pedigree, our experience,” he said. “We built this for 10-11 years. That means a lot when you get to this stage.”

For Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala, it’s a fourth championship. The first three rings came in 2015, 2017 and 2018, when Golden State was dynastic and made five consecutive trips to the finals.

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“They’re all unique, they’re all special,” coach Steve Kerr said of the multiple titles. “This one might have been the most unlikely. … It takes a group effort to get it done and we had a great group.”

Injuries, including ones that sidelined Thompson for 2 1/2 years, and roster changes changed everything. But this season, with Thompson returning around the midway point, the Warriors were finally back.

Back on top, too. Champions, again, denying the storied Celtics what would have been their record 18th championship, one that would have allowed Boston to break a tie with the Los Angeles Lakers for the most in league history.

This tale for the Warriors ended much differently than what was their most recent finals appearance against Toronto in 2019, one that saw Kevin Durant tear his Achilles tendon in Game 5 and then Thompson tear his ACL in what became the Raptors’ title-clincher in Game 6.

The aftermath of that loss was exacerbated by Durant’s decision to leave that summer in free agency to join the Brooklyn Nets and Thompson’s own Achilles injury while rehabilitating his knee injury.

“It all paid off,” Thompson said. “It was dog days, a lot of tears shed. … You knew it was a possibility, but to see it in real time. … It’s crazy.”

It thrust a Golden State team into a rebuild that became a reload. The Warriors used their two-year hiatus from the NBA’s biggest stages to retool their roster – adding a past No. 1 draft pick in Andrew Wiggins, who excelled in his first finals, along with another rising star in Jordan Poole.

“This one hits different for sure knowing what the last three years meant, what it’s been like,” Curry said. “Injuries, the changing of the guard, rosters, the young guys. … Now, we got four championships. Me, Dray, Klay and Andre.

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“Finally got that bad boy,” Curry added, referring to the MVP trophy. “It’s special. … Everybody mattered in that process.”

Yes, it all clicked.

For Kerr, it’s a ninth championship overall after winning five as a player. He’s the sixth coach to capture four titles, joining Phil Jackson, Red Auerbach, John Kundla, Gregg Popovich and Pat Riley.

Jaylen Brown led the Celtics with 34 points but Jayson Tatum finished with just 13, shooting just 6 of 18 from the field. Boston also committed 22 turnovers, dropping to 1-8 this postseason when committing 16 or more.

It was just the fifth defeat in 22 title-series appearances for Boston, which turned its season around to have a chance at this crown. Boston was 25-25 after 50 games, then went on a tear to get to the finals and nearly claim what would have been just the franchise’s second championship since 1986.

It was the third consecutive season where things were affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic, and while things were closer to normal, pictures and video of the championship celebration will serve as a forever reminder that the virus was still an issue.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver could not be at the game because he remained in the league’s health and safety protocols related to the virus. The redesigned Larry O’Brien Trophy – the golden souvenir given to the NBA champions – was presented to the Warriors by deputy commissioner Mark Tatum instead.

Boston trailed by as many as 22 points but battled back and cut the deficit to eight. A Jaylen Brown 3-pointer made it 86-78 with 5:33 to play, but the Warriors never relinquished the lead.

“Just couldn’t withstand their runs,” Celtics center Robert Williams said. “Messing up. They played harder and won tonight.”

Curry sent Boston fans streaming toward the exits with his sixth 3 of the night to give the Warriors a commanding 15-point lead, 96-81 — then clasped his hands against face as he ran back down the court, signaling an end to Boston’s hopes of extending the series.

“We’ve had so many great players,” Kerr said, “but Steph, ultimately is why this run happens.”

TIP-INS

Warriors: Went 19 of 45 from the 3-point line. … Improved to 20-1 when Green makes a 3-pointer.

Celtics: Boston’s 13-point loss marked the first finals without a single-digit game. … Former Celtic Ray Allen, a member of Boston’s last championship team in 2008, sat courtside. Hall of Famer Robert Parish was also in attendance.

A RUN, AND A RESPONSE

The Celtics came out firing, riding the energy from a deafening TD Garden crowd to take an early 14-2 lead.

Golden State wasn’t rattled and responded with a 35-8 run that stretched into the second quarter on the way to building as much as a 22-point lead. The Warriors outscored the Celtics 27-17 for the period and carried a 54-39 lead into the second half as some Celtics fans booed the home team as they left the court.

Boston fought back in the third, but the Warriors found their range from beyond the arc, connecting on six 3s in the quarter.

In late November of last year, while driving up I-5 north of Los Angeles, golf journalist Alan Shipnuck received the phone call that would shake up the sport in 2022. Phil Mickelson, the six-time major champion who, a year ago, charmed sports fans worldwide in becoming the oldest person, at 50, to win a major title—at the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island, S.C.—was on the line. Shipnuck was writing a biography of Mickelson, and had been itching for an interview; Mickelson’s reps, however, had run interference. Until now.

Mickelson had been in conversations about joining a Saudi Arabia-backed golf entity that threatened to rival the PGA Tour. This development, naturally, came up in their conversation. Mickelson told Shipnuck that he knew that the Saudis were engaging in “sportswashing,” or using athletics to change the narrative about the country’s human rights violations. “They’re scary motherfuckers to get involved with,” Mickelson said. “We know they killed [Washington Post reporter and U.S. resident Jamal] Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates. They’ve been able to get by with manipulative, coercive, strong-arm tactics because we, the players, had no recourse. As nice a guy as [PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan] comes across as, unless you have leverage, he won’t do what’s right. And the Saudi money has finally given us that leverage. I’m not sure I even want [the Saudi Golf organization] to succeed, but just the idea of it is allowing us to get things done with the [PGA] Tour.”
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Shipnuck knew Mickelson had said the quiet part loud. And that the game of golf could be forever altered.

In February, Shipnuck published Mickelson’s comments on the website of his new media company, the Fire Pit Collective. (His book Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf’s Most Colorful Superstar was released in May). The fallout indeed proved explosive. His words drew the battle lines between the Saudi startup, called LIV Golf, and the PGA’s existing monopoly over the sport. It drew attention to LIV Golf, and the eye-popping prize money the Saudi startup was offering golfers. Mickelson took an extended leave of absence from the sport. Last week, he and other major-title winners like Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, and Bryson DeChambeau officially joined LIV Golf; the PGA Tour announced these and other players who signed up would be suspended.

The first LIV Golf event teed off outside London last week, and Shipnuck again was involved in probably the biggest news event of the tournament, when he was ejected from a Mickelson press conference. (Shipnuck shared a text message from LIV chief Greg Norman feigning ignorance about Shipnuck’s ejection; meanwhile, a photo showed a Norman standing behind Shipnuck while security badgered him). Now, Mickelson—long a fan favorite on tour— is playing in the U.S. Open in Brookline, Mass., with his legacy tainted. He suffered through an uncomfortable press conference early in the week. Families of 9/11 victims have criticized Mickelson and other LIV players.

TIME caught up with Shipnuck, who’s in Brookline, Mass. covering the U.S. Open, to discuss this surreal situation in golf.

(This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity)

What was your reaction when Mickelson called you to unload on Saudi Arabia and the PGA Tour?

In the final analysis, Phil just couldn’t help himself. He had been told by his people not to talk to me. But he wanted to explain to me how he had won all these political battles and that he was smarter than Jay Monahan, PGA Tour commissioner, and he was smarter than Greg Norman, the Saudi frontman, and he had gamed the system and he was getting everything he’d always wanted. And he just couldn’t stand the idea of me not knowing this for this book. It’s been clear that Phil has some issues with impulse control. You see it on the golf course. He’s recently admitted to a gambling addiction. And I think that there was a thrill in it for him to call the one person he probably shouldn’t have shared this with, the one person on the planet who was writing this book about him. It certainly turned his world upside down, and mine as well.

How do you think his comments impacted golf?

This has been percolating for over a year, the Saudi seduction. But it was all happening in the shadows. It was all these secret backroom negotiations. And so this just brought it to the fore and became the biggest story in golf and it continues to be so. What Phil said just put a huge spotlight on it. The Saudi threat was real to the PGA Tour. The sportswashing was real. The players knew it. They knew they were pawns in this larger game. But the money was so fantastical. They weren’t going to be able to say no. But it also highlighted that, for a lot of players, it’s just about the money. For Phil, there’s more at work here. He’s been battling the PGA Tour his whole career, sometimes publicly, sometimes in private. And he’s always been stymied because he had no leverage. There are a half-a-dozen superstars in golf, and there are 150 journeymen and the Tour has to cater to all of them. And so on anything, Phil is badly outvoted by the sheer number of other players whose concerns are very different from his. They’re just trying to keep their job. So he’s always been frustrated that he didn’t have more traction. Nobody gets in bed with the Saudis unless there’s a huge payday. We know that that’s obvious. But for Phil, it was also a chance to reshape the sport in his image and to be this maverick and this agent of change. He’s always craved that role, but he never had the juice. He never had the leverage. And the Saudis gave him that.

And so, he was really working both sides of the street as long as he could, where he was negotiating with the Saudis and he was negotiating with the Tour. But finally, you know, he had pledged his allegiance to one side or the other. And he turned his back on the PGA Tour. But even before he did that, he had accomplished a lot of what he wanted. I mean, the Tour started funneling a lot more money to the players to try and thwart his Saudi threat. Law. They established this NFT platform that was an obsession of Phil’s. I’m not saying he gets all the credit for these things. But he gets some. And I’m sure they’re going to reexamine how they treat the players and their media rights. So that’s one of the ironies in this. He was winning some of these battles, and he had support from a lot of players up to a point. But he kind of overplayed his hand.

Phil’s always been one of the most popular players with fans. Do you think the backlash to his LIV involvement has left him feeling hurt?

Phil is the consummate showman. He thrives off the love and the energy of the crowd. It’s painful for him to know that some fans are outraged and some will never forgive him. That hurts him on an almost spiritual level. But at the same time, Phil did his time for his crime. He spent four months in exile. We’ve already seen it in the gallery here at Brookline, in the practice rounds, he’s getting a lot of love from the fans. They’re just happy he’s back. They like watching him play. They certainly don’t seem overly bothered by the geopolitics of it all.

He’s still going to play in the most important tournaments there are, which are the major championships. The suspensions of these PGA Tour members who’ve thrown in with LIV Tour, that’s written in pencil, not blood. This is all going to get negotiated. At some point, a middle ground is going to be forged. It’s hard to believe Phil will never play Pebble Beach, where he’s won five times, again. That doesn’t serve the PGA Tour. It doesn’t serve the tournament. It doesn’t serve the sponsors and the fans. They want Phil to be there. Even though some of them are mad at him at the moment.

At the first LIV event last week, you were pushed around by security guards when trying to attend a press gaggle after Phil’s round. What was that experience like?

The whole thing was absurd. I was mostly just laughing and shaking my head because it was like the Keystone Cops. Initially, they hadn’t responded to my request to be credentialed. And in fairness to the tournament organizers, I was coming in last minute. So I actually went on the website and bought tickets for myself. I was just going to show up and watch with my own eyes and observe the whole thing. And then the day that I arrived, they wound up giving me a press credential. But when it was handed to me, the tournament official said, you know, Phil’s has made it clear to us that he doesn’t want to speak to you this week. And I was like, Yeah, I can’t really commit to that. I just traveled 6,000 miles. He’s the biggest newsmaker in a very important moment for the sport. I’m not really inclined to be censored by Phil Mickelson.

But we just kind of left it at that. It wasn’t a formal sit-down press conference, it was kind of like this outdoor flash area. And all the reporters are standing and I was in the back row. I’m not sure he even really saw me. It just started, and these guys literally grabbed me by the arm and it was such a wild overreaction. This is just a golf tournament. I’m just a lowly golf reporter. I was not going to ask a gotcha question. I want to talk to him about, you know, what he learned about himself during his time away. That was my question. You could call it a softball, but that’s really what I wanted to know. And I never got that chance. They really hustled me out of there. In the days that followed, I was trying to understand what exactly happened. It’s more clear to me now that it actually wasn’t Norman who sent those guys who asked me to leave. It was Phil’s people. And that’s actually more troubling. On a procedural level, the tournament organizers control the credentials and they have the authority to revoke a credential for whatever reason they can come up with. But for a player to try to get a reporter removed, that’s a very troubling precedent.

And it speaks to the kind of Saudi-style censorship. Norman certainly could have stepped in and prevented it from happening. So he’s culpable as well. I mean, it’s his party. He’s the Supreme Leader of LIV Golf. He could have done the right thing there. He chose not to. It speaks to how under siege they feel and this sense that you know, everyone’s out to get them when in reality, this is all Phil’s doing. No one made him collude with the Saudis. No one made him take the money. He could have walked away and come back to the PGA Tour. He would have been embraced as the savior of the PGA Tour, the guy who might have sunk this Saudi threat to the game. But that wasn’t his choice. You can’t have the money without the accountability. You can’t have the glory without the scrutiny. It’s just not how it works in this world.

Do you think the LIV Tour has staying power?

Yeah, because the Saudis have unlimited resources to float this thing. This is not a traditional business venture where there’s a mandate to make a profit. Right now, this is about laundering their reputation on the world stage. So that has value to them. They’re willing to pay for it. What the Saudis want is to buy legitimacy. At the Centurion Club, Yasir Othman Al-Rumayyan, a top Saudi official, is getting hugs from some of the best golfers in the world and is embraced and thanked. The adulation, that’s what they’re trying to buy. And you can’t put a price tag on how much that week meant to this guy and his people. And so I think they’re in it for the long haul.

Charl Schwartzel had become a complete non-factor in the sport and in three days, he won $4.75 million. And guys who beat him week after week [on the PGA Tour] are earning a fraction of that. So of course they’re going to look around and be like, well, I want a slice of that pie. The PGA Tour is trying to turn this into a moral argument. They’ve already lost that debate. I mean, professional golf has long been played in China, in the United Arab Emirates, in Qatar, for years. Golfers have voted with their feet and their pocketbook. They are at peace with taking money from oppressive regimes. That’s just a fact. It’s indisputable. And so they’re not worried about where the money’s coming from. They just want the money. And there are players like Roy McIlroy, who have become the conscience of the sport. He’s said no. But it appears he’s going to be in the minority. So the Saudis will continue to buy more and more players. The LIV tour is going to become an inescapable part of professional golf.

Guess this isn’t a bad time to start a golf media company.

It’s a gift from the content gods. This story has spilled out of the golf arena into the larger sports world, and even just general news. There’s a lot of personality. You’ve got Saudi Arabia, which is a huge part of our life. Joe Biden’s flying over there any day now. On the global stage, the Saudis have never been more influential. Former President Trump, he’s hosting two of their events. So you have the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia is in the mix here. You’ve got Donald Trump. You have Greg Norman. He’s long been kind of a pariah in the game and a polarizing figure. Norman adds a lot of energy to it. You know, Phil, one of the biggest stars of the last 30 years, also a polarizing figure. And even the players they’ve signed up are not wallflowers. Bryson DeChambeau, Sergio Garcia, Kevin Na, Patrick Reed, these are some of the most controversial players in the game, and they move the needle. They’re not the best players. They don’t have the loftiest world-ranking positions. But they have some of the biggest personalities. They inspire conversation. You may want to, but you can’t really ignore the LIV Tour anymore.

Where does the game of golf go from here?

What the Saudis very cleverly realized is that there are some marketing efficiencies. The PGA Tour has never had competition. So its product has grown very stale. There’s no innovation in the format. The TV streaming and social media presentation is terrible. It’s a very lumbering organization. That’s being exposed. So competition is good. I mean, the Tour is going to have to evolve, it’s going to have to improve. For the golf fan, that’s going to be a win. Both organizations are going to have to be more dynamic and more nimble and rethink how they reach the fans. And so this could actually be a great thing for golf fans. But it’s messy. The genteel veneer of golf has been stripped away.

On Monday just past noon a foursome approached the tender dogleg of the first hole during practice for this week’s US Open at the Country Club—sorry; The Country Club—in Brookline, Massachusetts. Each of the quartet had driven well, not that it mattered, and were sorta setting up for approaches. These men had landed in Boston only hours before, so this was a wake-up call—easing into an easy day. Rain had been forecast but the weather was fine, turning sunny and warm. Just above them to the right, tan-oil-applying fans in the Corona Garden bleachers broke from talking about the Celts’ itchy prospects to note some men at play. One asked, “Who’s the big guy in the gray shirt?”
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“Dustin Johnson.”

“Huh? Really? He wasn’t announced.”

“No, he’s not on the sheet. That happens sometimes with practice rounds.”

“Ah . . . Does it?”

Johnson swung largely, per style. A couple in the Corona realm clapped their hands lightly. Two guys booed. They bothered to boo. They roused themselves to boo. Someone else noted there were two armed Boston policemen escorting the golfers. Later, elsewhere on the grounds, the cops would hobnob with a beefy guy in an FBI Bomb Tech T-shirt. Take this wherever you will. The golfers made their laconic way into US Open Golf, Genus 2022. The next four hours would be smoother sailing than press conferences. For sure.

With Johnson and a few other big-name golfers—particularly six-time-major winner Phil Mickelson—having recently shunned the PGA Tour for a new Saudi Arabia-backed upstart, LIV Golf, this sporting moment summoned different items in the minds of different fans who were lubed in different ways, all of them observing from the Coronasphere on high. It conjured golf at its best in the large and fluid swing of DJ, it conjured Francis Ouimet and that uplifting movie, thoughts of the loveliness of sport, of glamour and money, of the need for more money, of maltreated pro golfers, of “sportswashing,” of Adolf Hitler, the Berlin and Munich Olympics, Jimmy Carter, Moscow and L.A., Beijing, the missing Chinese tennis player, Brittney Griner, Putin, Sochi, FIFA, Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman, President Biden’s sitdown with Saudis, the new Saudi tour, 9/11, $150 million for DJ, even more for Phil?, where is Phil anyway?, placing a bet?, ha ha!, “blood money,” the Tour’s hard line, Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas, Rory’s win in Canada, who won the LIV event in London anyway?, Tiger’s reaction, the relativity of Greg Norman’s sanity v. senility (murders as “mistakes”; booting sportswriters from press rooms), human rights generally, the institutionalized persecution of women specifically, the dismemberment of a truth-telling American journalist from The Washington Post, Jamal Khashoggi, who in all probability was killed in the Saudi embassy in Istanbul in October, 2018, under orders from bin Salman, who himself is now into golf. If anyone raised the war in Ukraine, gun violence or six-dollar gas, it’s understandable. To be fair: These last issues were not related, or only marginally so, to Monday’s golf. Still and all . . . a good walk spoiled?

Phil was on the grounds. He dropped by to meet the press. He had hit balls at the closed club on Sunday, presumably to avoid creating an Opening Day stir. This time, for once in his Phil Blue Moon, he was circumspect in answering pregnant questions, none of which involved his game. For once Mickelson wasn’t talking about how he knows they’re butchering people and they’re horrible to women and it’s really sad, but he has a true hero’s chance to crush the godforsaken PGA Tour.

The bad guys—Phil, Dustin, a few others—had flown in from London, where they had finished behind nobodies in the inaugural event of the Saudis’ LIV tour, which will come to America for five events later this year, two of which will be held at Donald J. Trump courses, which will stimulate lively multi-pronged protests outside gilded gates. The good guys who’ve pledged loyalty to the PGA Tour —Rory, Justin, others—had arrived from Toronto after contesting mightily in the Canadian Open, a PGA Tour event that Rory had just won for the second year in a row, Justin finishing solo third. The bad guys had just been told, basically, that they would play PGA Tour golf nevermore, unless or until they apostatized. The good guys would remain sorely impoverished but popular with the proletariat (as much as golf has a proletariat). All of this . . . all of this stuff hit the fan during a tumultuous two weeks of play conducted well clear of fairways and greens. The stuff convened on Monday in Brookline, which is not actually but essentially the birthplace of good old fun-loving American golf. So, to reiterate: While surprisingly clement of sky and breeze, this Monday was not a Kumbaya day.

Rory, though, looked fresh and happy as he strolled his practice round alongside World Number Two Jon “I’ll never play LIV” Rahm. These lads had a large crowd following, and everything was less fraught than when DJ had toured. At one point Rory chipped from the rough onto a slanted green and watched the ball gather speed and finish four feet beneath the hole. This being practice, he dropped and tried again. The curve was tighter and that ball stalled two feet from. He swiped a third time and his ball popped-and-rolled 50 feet to target, plop. He needed to remember his landing spot so he chipped a fourth time. Bingo again! He smiled and the crowd laughed and clapped as one, everyone forgetting for an instant such things as dismemberment and the Dow becoming a Bear that very afternoon. Everyone marveled at golf marvelously played by a fun guy having fun playing golf.

It wasn’t the first time there had been communal rapture upon this hallowed ground. Some few in the Monday crowd had been present for the thunderous Ryder Cup comeback of ‘99. And, of course, there was the original and forever win on September 21, 1913.

That was when the Ouimet kid, who lived a mere fade from the links in a small house at 246 Clyde that some fans are hoping to bronze as an artifact, won in a playoff, thereby stoking a sweet Caroline of a party in Beantown, astonishing the sporting globe from Sydney to St. Andrews and assuring that, one day, handsome Shia LaBeouf would portray him in a feature film called The Greatest Game Ever Played. Ouimet had beaten two veteran, Snidely-mustachioed Brits, Vardon and Ray, and it was said that young Francis had fired the shot that sparked America’s first golf revolution—doing so, not incidentally, only a mashie and niblick down the Battle Road from Concord and Lexington, where an earlier geopolitical dustup had occurred some years prior. With Ouimet’s impossible win a new question was being asked about whether Americans—goddam Americans?!—might ably compete on the world stage. Yes, sports fans, crazy as it might sound today, the big new issue was about . . . golf.

Robert Sullivan has written on sports for Time, Sports Illustrated, LIFE and The Economist.

MOSCOW — WNBA star Brittney Griner will remain in Russian custody through at least July 2, Russian state-run news agency Tass reported Tuesday.

The 31-year-old American basketball player has been held in Russia on drug-smuggling accusations since February. The U.S. Department of State last month reclassified her as wrongfully detained.

The Khimki district court of the Moscow region extended Griner’s detention for a third time, according to the Tass report, which also cited a top Russian diplomat as saying that Moscow will not consider including Griner in a detainee swap “until a court investigation into her case is completed.”
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Read More: WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert Addresses Brittney Griner Arrest

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, according to Tass, was responding to US media reports that the Biden administration had offered to exchange convicted arms trader Viktor Bout for Griner. Ryabkov gave no timeline for the proceedings in the player’s case.

Griner’s supporters continue to advocate for her release, with some raising concerns that Moscow might use her as a bargaining chip amid tensions over the war in Ukraine.

Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist who plays in Russia during the WNBA offseason, was detained at a Moscow airport after authorities there claimed that she was carrying vape cartridges containing cannabis oil. She is accused of “smuggling significant amounts of a narcotic substance,” an offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison in Russia.

The Houston native plays for the Phoenix Mercury.

State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters Tuesday that it was his understanding that department officials learned of the extension in her detention only through Tass, which he said was problematic.

“This case is problematic from top to bottom,” he said. “It is precisely why we have characterized Brittney Griner as an unlawful detainee. It’s precisely why we are doing everything we can to seek and to affect her prompt release from Russian detention.”

(BAKU, Azerbaijan) — As Charles Leclerc’s Formula One title challenge falls apart, Max Verstappen is there to take advantage.

Verstappen extended his Formula One championship lead by winning the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday after Leclerc retired from the lead with an engine failure.

Leclerc started from pole but immediately lost the lead to Sergio Pérez, Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate, in the first corner. The Ferrari driver regained the lead with a smart strategy call to pit under “virtual safety car” speed restrictions while the two Red Bull cars stayed out.

Leclerc seemed poised to challenge for the win, but the Monaco driver’s car started spewing smoke on lap 20 of 51 and he had to pull into the pits. It was his second retirement in three races.
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“It hurts. We really need to look into that for it to not happen again. I don’t really find the right words to describe, obviously it is very disappointing,” Leclerc said.

Verstappen had passed Pérez shortly before Leclerc’s failure and the reigning F1 champion cruised to his fifth win of the season.

Verstappen took the win a year after he was headed to victory in Baku, only for a blown tire to hurl him into the wall while leading with three laps to go. There were more late reliability concerns Sunday when Verstappen told his team the car felt odd under braking, but he was able to make it to the finish.

“You can never make up what you lost last year but I think today we had incredible pace in the car, we could really look after the tires and chip away at it and pass for the lead,” Verstappen said. “But then of course, also, maybe a tiny bit lucky with (Leclerc’s) retirement. I think nevertheless our car was really quick today and could have closed that gap.”

Red Bull went 1-2 in the race with Pérez finishing second, while Mercedes was third and fourth with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.

Pérez, who won in Azerbaijan last year, said Red Bull made the “right call” not to let him fight Verstappen for the win and said he struggled with worn tires.

Ferrari had a terrible day as both Leclerc and teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. failed to finish, as did the Ferrari-powered cars of Zhou Guanyu and Kevin Magnussen.

It was the first time since the Italian Grand Prix in 2020 that the Ferrari team had to retire both cars.

The slump in Ferrari reliability comes as Red Bull seems to have solved its own issues. Verstappen and Pérez both ground to a halt in the opening race of the season in Bahrain, Red Bull’s first race since bringing engine production in-house for 2022.

Verstappen leads the standings by 21 points over Pérez, while Leclerc dropped to third and is 34 points behind Verstappen.

Seven-time champion Hamilton has complained of back pain from the Mercedes’ tendency to bounce at high speed, and he was holding his lower back as he gingerly climbed out of the car Sunday after finishing fourth.

“Let’s definitely make some changes,” he told team boss Toto Wolff.

Pierre Gasly was fifth for AlphaTauri and Sebastian Vettel sixth for Alfa Romeo.

Fernando Alonso of Alpine held off the two McLarens of Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris to finish seventh, and Alonso’s teammate Esteban Ocon was 10th.

Many NBA players have made the move from the basketball court to the big screen—and in honor of Adam Sandler’s new Netflix basketball drama Hustle, we’ve compiled a list of some of the best basketball players turned actors. This isn’t about who is the G.O.A.T.—though, the leading contenders for that title did make this unranked list. No, this is about shouting out those pro-ballers who are training to become the Meryl Streep of the NBA. Most of the players included here have been cast as fictionalized versions of themselves on screen, but many have shown they’re not afraid to poke some fun at their public personas. Others have revealed they can also tackle characters that have no athletic prowess.
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From a former “Bad Boy” to a 20-season legend and so many former Los Angeles Lakers in between, here are the NBA players who have shown they can do way more than dribble.

LeBron James

The Kid From Akron made his big screen debut in the 2015 Amy Schumer comedy, Trainwreck. James played a fictionalized version of himself, who is trying to make Cleveland a vacation destination and is as frugal as they come (a trait apparently shares with the real LeBron). James made clear with this early performance that if you surround him with a strong cast, he can pull off some amazing feats of comedy, from giving Schumer’s Trainwreck character the third-degree on her relationship with his bestie, sports surgeon Aaron (Bill Hader) or trading dad jokes with Bugs Bunny in Space Jam: A New Legacy.

Shaquille O’Neal

With his megawatt smile and gentle giant demeanor, Hollywood quickly came calling. Unfortunately, many of Shaq’s star vehicles aren’t very good. (Sorry, Kazaam apologists.) That’s not to say the big guy doesn’t have any talent. To the contrary, his role in the 1994 drama Blue Chips showed that given the right material, he’s an absolute slam dunk.

Marques Johnson

The hardest part about being an NBA player-turned-actor is convincing the audience you’re not just an NBA player-turned-actor. The former Milwaukee Buck, who now covers the team as a sports analyst, achieves that and more in 1992’s White Men Can’t Jump as Raymond, a street baller who doesn’t take kindly to getting hustled by Sidney Deane (Wesley Snipes) and Billy Hoyle (Woody Harrelson). His over-the-top reaction, which includes swinging around a switchblade, is one of the funniest moments in the beloved sports comedy.

Kevin Garnett

The former Boston Celtic made his acting debut alongside Adam Sandler in 2019’s Uncut Gems. In it, Garnett plays a version of himself that is hellbent on getting his hands on a black opal owned by Sandler’s eccentric jeweler Howard Ratner. The athlete believes the rare gem will bring him good luck in the NBA playoffs. Garnett’s intense performance showed that anything is possible from this basketball player who is known for his tenacity.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

The Laker legend is known for his calm, but stern demeanor, which is probably what makes his supporting turn in Airplane! as a pilot named Roger Murdock who looks a lot like Kareem so laugh out loud funny. When he lets the young passenger whose dad is not a fan know that he “works his buns off” every night on the basketball court, you can’t help but believe him. Just look at how good he is at selling these silly jokes on the big screen.

Ray Allen

What’s harder than hitting a clutch off-balance three to tie a win-or-go-home Finals game? Going one-on-one with Denzel Washington in Spike Lee’s 1998 basketball drama, He Got Game. Somehow Allen matches Washington’s intensity in the film in which the now retired NBA star, who won championships with the Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat, plays the acting legend’s estranged son. It doesn’t hurt that Allen is really good at playing basketball when the cameras are rolling.

John Salley

For those who never got the pleasure of watching Salley’s beloved Detroit Pistons team, better known as the “Bad Boys,” in action, they might think the four-time NBA champ is just an actor. No, he’s just that good. While he’s appeared in Eddie, Nappily Ever After, and Sneakerella, his breakout role is in 1995’s Bad Boys where he plays Fletcher, the Coke-bottle glasses-wearing computer hacker. Fletcher was such a fan-favorite, Salley reprised the role for the 2003 sequel, Bad Boys II.

Dirk Nowitzki

The retired Dallas Maverick isn’t the star of 2002’s Like Mike, that would be Bow Wow. But in a matter of seconds he manages to steal the movie. In his second film, Netflix’s Hustle he also manages to outshine the movie’s star Adam Sandler in one perfect scene. Dirk clearly knows there are no small parts, only small actors.

Rick Fox

The former Laker has been working steadily in Hollywood since 1994 when he made his acting debut in Blue Chips alongside Shaquille O’Neal. It’s safe to say, the man’s got range; he’s been a baseball legend in the feel-good family film Holes, the love interest in Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns, and a questionable councilman in the coming-of-age drama Dope. But his standout role may be his most serious turn in HBO’s prison drama Oz, where he plays a famous basketball player with a history of assault who’s hoping to find the notoriety he didn’t find on the court in jail.

Amar’e Stoudemire

The former New York Knick has built up quite an acting reel thanks to appearances in projects such as Trainwreck, The Mindy Project, and New Year’s Eve. (He also produced 2014’s Beyond the Lights.) But it’s his cameo in 2010’s Macgruber, which marked his big screen acting debut, that solidified him a place on this list. Seriously, just go watch that Will Forte comedy and you’ll understand why.

Michael Jordan

No one will mistake one of the world’s greatest athletes for the world’s greatest actor. Yet there is definitely something to be said about Jordan’s performance in 1996’s Space Jam, where he’s forced to act with a lot of big men in green screen suits. It’s nearly impossible to be more animated than Bugs Bunny, but MJ tries—and mostly succeeds—to bring some life to this 2-D sports comedy. There really is nothing better than watching Jordan posterize the Monstars.

The cast of Adam Sandler’s latest Netflix film, Hustle, streaming now, is a real who’s who of NBA stars. In the drama, big-time basketball fan Sandler plays Stanley Sugerman, a down on his luck Philadelphia 76ers talent scout, who finds himself fighting to save his career with help from an exciting foreign-born draft prospect. The problem is, Stanley seems to be the only one in Philly who believes the young athlete has the goods to make it in the NBA. On his journey, he runs into basketball icons, members of the current 76ers roster, and Anthony Edwards. No, not the actor who plays Goose in Top Gun, but the young star of the Minnesota Timberwolves.
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Not all of the current and former NBA stars in the film play themselves, which gives these guys a chance to really show off their acting skills. Though many actual 76ers players fill the cast, the team’s brightest star Joel Embiid is unfortunately nowhere to be found. Another notable hooper that is missing? The film’s producer, LeBron James. Don’t worry, the King’s absence just gives other NBA icons and soon-to-be legends a chance to prove that their talents spread far beyond the basketball court. Below, see the notable NBA stars that appear in Hustle.

Juancho Hernangómez

Hernangómez makes his film debut as Bo Cruz, a standout rookie prospect who gets Stanley’s attention when he sees him dominating a streetball game in Spain wearing khaki cargo shorts and a pair of Timberland work boots. Stanley soon makes it his mission to help the kid, who he describes as “Scottie Pippen and a wolf, if they had a baby,” into the NBA draft through intense Rocky-like training montages. The 26-year-old Hernangómez entered the league in 2016 and has moved around a bit, playing for the Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Boston Celtics. He now plays for the Utah Jazz.

Anthony Edwards

The Minnesota Timberwolves star plays Kermit Wilts, a cocky top draft prospect who gets under Bo’s skin with a bit of trash talk. Like his character, the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft is known for talking a little trash both on and off the court, but he’s also quickly gotten himself a reputation for being one of the funniest players in the NBA for his post-game interviews. Who knows, maybe Sandler can put him in one of his next comedies.

Kyle Lowry

The former Toronto Raptors star who helped Drake’s favorite NBA team win its first championship in 2019, shows up in the film to watch Bo hoop and throw a little shade. Lowry, a proud Philly native, joined the Miami Heat in 2021 after spending nearly a decade with the Raptors.

Kenny Smith

The retired NBA player plays Leon, Stanley’s closest friend and confidante who is now a successful sports agent on the level of Klutch Sports founder Rich Paul. Smith, nicknamed “The Jet,” played from 1987 to 1997, winning back-to-back championships with the Houston Rockets in 1994 and 1995. He’s now best known as one of the commentators on TNT’s Inside The NBA, where he’s worked alongside longtime host Ernie Johnson since 1998.

Mark Jackson

The former NBA player and coach pops up at the Bronx game to weigh in on Bo’s on-court skills. Jackson is now a game analyst for ESPN, often calling games with his former New York Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy and legendary announcer Mike Breen.

Julius “Dr. J” Erving

Viewers first see the Philadelphia 76ers legend slam dunking at the age of 63 in a viral video Stanley shows his teenage daughter. The NBA icon, who is considered one of the greatest players of all time and one of the greatest dunkers of all time, returns later in the film to help Bo go viral at Harlem’s legendary Rucker Park, where Dr. J got his start. He also gives Bo the nickname “The Boa,” which is way cooler than Stanley’s nickname for him: “The Cruz Missile.”

Dr. J got his start in the American Basketball Association (ABA) in 1971 before joining the NBA two years later when the leagues merged. Over his 16-year career, he won three championships, four MVPs, and three scoring titles. He was recently chosen for the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team. His dunking abilities also led to the creation of the popular slang term to “posterize,” which is when a player dunks over a defender and the move is so good, it needs to be recreated on a poster.

Boban Marjanović

The “Big Serbian” is the first player Stanley meets in the opening scene of Hustle. He claims he’s 22 years old, the maximum age a player can be to enter the draft, and that a “big fire” destroyed his birth certificate. But the Big Serbian’s son, who looks to be in his mid-teens, gives Stanley pause. The 33-year-old Marjanović, who was born in Serbia, currently plays for the Dallas Mavericks, but might look familiar to fans of John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum where he fights Keanu Reeves’ titular character in the New York Public Library.

Moe Wagner

Wagner plays Haas, a 19-year-old German player nicknamed the “German MJ” that the 76ers want to draft. However, Stanley isn’t so sure the kid is the real deal. Wagner was drafted in 2018 by the Los Angeles Lakers, but now plays for the Orlando Magic alongside his younger brother Franz Wagner.

Read More: You Might Predict Every Move in Hustle, But That Doesn’t Make It Any Less Enjoyable

Shaquille O’Neal

The former Laker and commentator on Inside the NBA is one of Bo’s famous fans. Shaq is one of the greatest players of all time in the NBA—a four-time champion, three-time Finals MVP, and the 2000 MVP—but he’s also no stranger to Hollywood. After making his film debut in 1994’s Blue Chips, he starred in Kazaam, Steel, and Uncle Drew. He’s also a frequent feature of the Sandlerverse, appearing in four of Sandler’s movies including Grown-Ups 2, Blended, and Hubie Halloween.

Charles Barkley

Shaq’s fellow Inside the NBA analyst and former Philadelphia 76er is also riding the Bo Cruz wave. Known as the “Round Mound of Rebound,” the former Phoenix Suns player was an 11-time All Star and was named the League’s MVP in 1993. He played himself in 1996’s Space Jam, Suits, and Modern Family. He has also hosted Saturday Night Live four times.

Tobias Harris

The Philadelphia 76er makes a cameo in the film, taking on Bo at Rucker Park. After being drafted in 2011 by the Milwaukee Bucks, the 29-year-old has done stints with the Orlando Magic, Detroit Pistons, and Los Angeles Clippers. He’s played for the 76ers since 2019.

Allen Iverson

The former Philadelphia 76er is once again talking about practice, taking to his Instagram to declare that Bo “don’t need no practice.” The NBA icon known as “the Answer” didn’t either. In his 14 seasons, Iverson became one of the most prolific players in the League despite being only 6 foot. When he was named the 2001 MVP, he became the shortest player to ever win the award.

Matisse Thybulle

Another Philadelphia 76er star who pops up throughout the film to check out Bo’s progress and get a front row seat to Stanley nearly torpedoing his career. Thybulle has played for the 76ers since entering the League in 2019 and has become known for his defensive prowess. The 25-year-old also became a bit of an internet sensation during the NBA’s 2020 Bubble Season held in Orlando, Florida during the early months of COVID-19 thanks to his YouTube videos, which took a behind-the-scenes look at what it was like living in Disney World.

Dirk Nowitzki

Stanley FaceTimes the Dallas Mavericks legend in hopes the retired power forward, who is the highest scoring foreign born player in NBA history, can convince Bo that he’s for real. Turns out, Nowitzki, who won the Mavericks only championship in 2011, doesn’t only have game. He also has great comic timing.

Khris Middleton

The Milwaukee Bucks small forward shows up as himself in the film to support Bo’s adversary, Kermit. In 2021, Middleton and his team, which included Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jrue Holiday, won the championship. It was Milwaukee’s first in 50 years.

Aaron Gordon

Since Gordon is known for his impressive slam dunk skills, it’s only right that he gets to dunk in Hustle. After spending his first seven years in the NBA with the Orlando Magic, he’s now a member of the Denver Nuggets.

Brad Stevens

The former coach of the Boston Celtics, who is currently the team’s president of basketball operations, is seen scouting Bo. He might have a real knack for this kind of thing. In Stevens’ first year as president, the Celtics managed to make it to the 2022 NBA Finals.

Trae Young

The Atlanta Hawks star shows up at a secret game in the Bronx and is not interested in passing to Bo. To be fair, Young, better known as “Ice Trae,” is known for his knock-out 3-point shooting so passing isn’t really his thing.

Jordan Clarkson

The 29-year-old Utah Jazz star is also one of the players who shows up to the Bronx game. In 2021, Clarkson won the Sixth Man of the Year Award.

Candace Parker

Blink and you’ll miss the WNBA star’s cameo in the final moments of the film in which the TNT analyst and commentator shows up on TV to talk about that night’s game between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Boston Celtics. Parker played her first 12 seasons in the WNBA for the Los Angeles Sparks, winning a championship in 2016. The two-time MVP and Rookie of the Year joined the Chicago Sky in 2021. She won her second championship that same year.

Tyrese Maxey

Drafted by the 76ers in 2020, the 21-year-old Maxey makes a cameo in the film to give a bit of advice to his struggling new teammate Haas on how to become a better defender: Play “like Jrue Holiday, bro,” a reference to the Milwaukee Bucks star who is considered by many of his fellow NBA players as the best defender in the League.

Seth Curry

The former Philadelphia 76er, who now plays for the Brooklyn Nets, shows up to watch Tobias Harris take on the man known as The Boa. While he might not be as famous as his older brother, Steph Curry, Seth currently ranks third in NBA history in career three-point shooting percentage.

Luka Dončić

The Dallas Mavericks star shows up in the film to shout out to Bo on his Instagram and let his fans know the unknown athlete is the real deal on his Instagram. Since joining the NBA in 2018, Dončić has racked up accolades including Rookie of the Year. Some have even compared the 23-year-old to LeBron James, predicting he will become the face of the League for his ability to dominate the game.

James Goldstein

The eccentric Goldstein, known for his unique fashion sense, has never played basketball, but he’s a NBA legend in his own right. The businessman frequently shows up courtside for Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers games wearing big floppy hats and bedazzled jackets. He’s gotten a reputation as the NBA’s biggest superfan, but his home is nearly as famous, popping up in a few films including The Big Lebowski.

Doc Rivers

The current head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers shows up to tease his new assistant coach, Stanley, about his suit. The former NBA player began his coaching career in 1999 with the Orlando Magic and won Coach of the Year during his first season with the team. He went on to coach the Boston Celtics from 2004 to 2013, winning the championship in 2008.

After three NBA championships, 13 All-Star appearances, and 16 years in the league, Dwyane Wade knows how it feels to be dominating on the court. But the retired superstar knows that’s not when he had the most power.

“My most powerful wasn’t my ability to score and dunk and win championships,” he said at the TIME100 Gala Wednesday in New York City. “My most powerful is my voice and just me being a human and understanding what’s going on in the world and speaking on it.”
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The 2020 TIME100 list member has been increasingly finding his voice in speaking out against injustice. He delivered a powerful speech during the opening of the 2016 ESPYs award show, urging his fellow athletes to use their fame to promote social change. He continues to advocate on behalf of communities of color and disadvantaged youth through the Wade Family Foundation.

“We’re going to continue to support people on the ground [who are] doing the work,” he said. “We will continue to use our voice, continue to do the things that we can to make sure that this world is a better place.”

At the TIME100 Summit on Tuesday, he spoke out passionately against lawmakers who are passing antitransgender laws, as he expressed fear for the safely of his trans daughter Zaya.“Come and live a day with my daughter,” he said Tuesday. “Come and see how it is to walk through this world as her.”

While on the red carpet at the Gala, Wade also sent a message to transgender youth and those facing discrimination due to their sexuality and feelings. “I want to tell them I love them,” he said. “I’m proud of them. Continue to be who you are. Don’t let anybody tell you who you are. I knew what I wanted to do when I was young, so no-one needs to tell you.”

Returning after two years on pause, the TIME100 Gala is TIME’s annual celebration of the TIME100 list of the world’s most influential people, released this year on May 23. The Gala brings together icons, leaders, change-makers, and celebrities from across industries and nations for one lively evening of meaningful dialogue and celebration. This year’s Gala features live performances from Miranda Lambert and Mary J. Blige, two honorees on the 2022 TIME100 list. Further attendees from this year’s list include actors Andrew Garfield, Ariana DeBose, and Amanda Seyfried, musicians Jazmine Sullivan, Jon Batiste, and Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, athlete Eileen Gu, director Taika Waititi, and legal activist Chase Strangio,

TIME is teaming up with ABC to bring viewers inside the exclusive TIME100 Gala for the first time with a special television event. TIME100: The World’s Most Influential People airs Sunday, June 12 at 8 p.m. EDT on ABC, featuring host Simu Liu, director Quinta Brunson, Ukrainian journalist Sevgil Musaieva, and more.

Eileen Gu believes sports can help bring together people and countries across the world. And she wants to be a part of that work.

“I have always said that sports are this unique avenue to global communication, to interconnection and to building those bridges. It’s this microcosm that really gives me hope for society at large. I think that the Olympics are the biggest platform for that,” Gu said.

The Olympic freestyle skiing champion, who grew up in the U.S. and now skiis for China attended the TIME100 Gala Wednesday in New York City with her mother. The 18-year-old appeared on the 2022 TIME100 list this year after she became the youngest freestyle ski champion in Beijing, where she won the gold medal in both big air and halfpipe, along with the silver in slopestyle.
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Gu announced yesterday at the TIME100 Summit that she will serve as an ambassador for the U.S. bid to host the Winter Olympics in either 2030 or 2034 in Salt Lake City.

On the Gala red carpet, she explained why that work is in line with her beliefs about the power of sports. “Now there’s this amazing opportunity to introduce 15 more countries at the Salt Lake City Olympics, so it all comes together and I wanted to be a part of it,” she said.

Later, she said: “People have more impact than they realize,” adding, “Anybody can make that impact. I think as long as you find a way to make the world better in your own way, then that’s all we can ask.”

Gu also noted that she was one of the younger attendees at the TIME100 Gala.

“It is an honor beyond words to be a part of the TIME100 community now. As one of the younger people here it is my job to represent the younger generation and show that we have our voices too and that we want to be empowered, we want to see change, we want to find communication and connect with one another,” Gu said. “That’s something that I think is really beautiful. To be in this room with all these movers and shakers is a great honor to me.”

Returning after two years on pause, the TIME100 Gala is TIME’s annual celebration of the TIME100 list of the world’s most influential people, released this year on May 23. The Gala brings together icons, leaders, change-makers, and celebrities from across industries and nations for one lively evening of meaningful dialogue and celebration. This year’s Gala features live performances from Miranda Lambert and Mary J. Blige, two honorees on the 2022 TIME100 list. Further attendees from this year’s list include actors Andrew Garfield, Ariana DeBose, and Amanda Seyfried, musicians Jazmine Sullivan, Jon Batiste, and Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, athlete Eileen Gu, director Taika Waititi, and legal activist Chase Strangio,

TIME is teaming up with ABC to bring viewers inside the exclusive TIME100 Gala for the first time with a special television event. TIME100: The World’s Most Influential People airs Sunday, June 12 at 8 p.m. EDT on ABC, featuring host Simu Liu, director Quinta Brunson, Ukrainian journalist Sevgil Musaieva, and more.

—Mariah Espada contributed to this report.

(Detroit) — Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles and dozens of other women who say they were sexually assaulted by Larry Nassar are seeking more than $1 billion from the FBI for failing to stop the sports doctor when the agency first received allegations against him, lawyers said Wednesday.

There’s no dispute that FBI agents in 2015 knew that Nassar was accused of assaulting gymnasts, but they failed to act, leaving him free to continue to target young women and girls for more than a year. He pleaded guilty in 2017 and is serving decades in prison.

“It is time for the FBI to be held accountable,” said Maggie Nichols, a national champion gymnast at Oklahoma in 2017-19.
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Under federal law, a government agency has six months to respond to the tort claims filed Wednesday. Lawsuits could follow, depending on the FBI’s response.

White noted the 2018 massacre at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The FBI received a tip about five weeks before 17 people were killed at the school, but the tip was never forwarded to the FBI’s South Florida office. The government agreed to pay $127.5 million to families of those killed or injured.

The approximately 90 claimants include Biles, Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney, all Olympic gold medalists, according to Manly, Stewart & Finaldi, a California law firm. Separately, 13 claims were filed by others in April.

“If the FBI had simply done its job, Nassar would have been stopped before he ever had the chance to abuse hundreds of girls, including me,” said former University of Michigan gymnast Samantha Roy.

An email seeking comment was sent to the FBI.

Indianapolis-based USA Gymnastics told local agents in 2015 that three gymnasts said they were assaulted by Nassar, a team doctor. But the FBI did not open a formal investigation or inform federal or state authorities in Michigan, according to the Justice Department’s inspector general, an internal watchdog.

Los Angeles agents in 2016 began a sexual tourism investigation against Nassar and interviewed several victims but also didn’t alert Michigan authorities, the inspector general said.

Nassar wasn’t arrested until fall 2016 during an investigation by Michigan State University police. He was a doctor at Michigan State.

The Michigan attorney general’s office ultimately handled the assault charges against Nassar, while federal prosecutors in Grand Rapids, Michigan, filed a child pornography case.

In remarks to Congress last year, FBI Director Christopher Wray acknowledged major mistakes.

“I’m especially sorry that there were people at the FBI who had their own chance to stop this monster back in 2015 and failed. And that’s inexcusable,” Wray told victims at a Senate hearing.

At that same hearing, Biles, widely considered to be the greatest gymnast of all time, said an “entire system” enabled the abuse. Maroney recalled “dead silence” when she talked to FBI agents about Nassar.

The Justice Department in May said that it would not pursue criminal charges against former agents who were accused of giving inaccurate or incomplete responses during the inspector general’s investigation.

Failures by federal law enforcers have led to major settlements, including $127.5 million for families of those killed or injured in 2018 at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The FBI received a tip about five weeks before 17 people were killed, but the tip was never forwarded to the South Florida office.

Michigan State University, which was also accused of missing chances over many years to stop Nassar, agreed to pay $500 million to more than 300 women and girls who were assaulted by him. USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee made a $380 million settlement.

China’s Olympic freestyle skiing champion Eileen Gu announced Tuesday at the TIME100 Summit that she will serve as an ambassador for the U.S. bid to host the 2030 or 2034 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

“I think that’s this beautiful example of globalism and of the capacity that we can use skiing and we can use sport and we can use winter sport to connect people,” she told TIME senior sports correspondent Sean Gregory in New York City. “Salt Lake specifically wants to become a global destination for athletes everywhere to come train there and they want to incorporate 15 new countries into the Winter Olympics. I think that’s something that’s really beautiful and I’ve always stood for that and so I’m really honored to be a part of the whole thing.”
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In a time of great geopolitical tension between the United States and China, a prominent Chinese figure helping a U.S. cause is rare. “Having somebody with Eileen’s fantastic profile worldwide, particularly with the youth, is just a dream come for us,” says Fraser Bullock, president and CEO of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games.

The 18-year-old Gu said she doesn’t regret representing China rather than the U.S. at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Gu became the first extreme sports athlete to win three medals—two of them gold—at a single Olympic Games earlier this year. But her success was accompanied by controversy surrounding her decision to ski for China in the Olympics despite being born and raised in the U.S.

Gu, whose mother is from Beijing, announced on Instagram in 2019 that she would be competing for China in the 2022 Olympics to “help inspire millions of young people” in her mother’s home country and “unite people, promote common understanding, create communication, and forge friendships between nations.”

While Gu has been widely embraced inside China, she has faced scrutiny for dodging questions about her nationality and whether she still holds U.S. citizenship. China does not allow dual citizenship, but there is no record of her having renounced her American citizenship.

“Every day when I start looking at my social media and I see DMs and I see hundreds of young girls sending me messages saying…’Because of you, I feel like I am better as a person.’ When I read messages like that, it galvanizes me too,” she said on Tuesday. “It’s this positive reinforcing cycle in which it’s not really an idol and a fan, it’s friends moving together….And it’s been this incredible opportunity worldwide. It’s not just in China. It’s in the U.S, it’s in Canada, it’s in Europe. It’s in all these places where free skiing wasn’t visible before and now it is. And that’s the bottom line.”

As for what’s next for Gu, she’s not stopping at Olympic domination. In addition to starting at Stanford University this fall, Gu says she’s in the process of writing a book and is also interested in exploring international relations and quantum physics. “My biggest goal has always just been to leave a positive legacy and to leave the world a little bit better than the way I found it,” she said.

The TIME100 Summit is the live event extension of the annual TIME100 list of the most influential people in the world. It convenes leaders from the global TIME100 community to spotlight solutions and encourage action toward a better world. This year’s summit features a variety of impactful speakers across a diverse range of sectors, including politics, business, health and science, culture, and more.

Speakers for the 2022 TIME100 Summit include Apple CEO Tim Cook, producer Mindy Kaling, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation co-chair Bill Gates, filmmaker Taika Waititi, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, musician Jon Batiste, Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley, NBA champion, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Dwayne Wade, former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, #MeToo founder Tarana Burke, ACLU deputy director for transgender justice Chase Strangio, Christian Siriano founder and creative director Christian Siriano, Brother Vellies founder and creative director Aurora James, Netflix head of global TV Bela Bajaria, author and poet Cathy Park Hong, author, poet, and Mellon Foundation president Elizabeth Alexander, filmmaker Betsy West, filmmaker Julie Cohen, BioNTech SE senior vice president Dr. Katalin Karikó, Ukrayinska Pravda editor in chief Sevgil Musaieva, and TIME co-chair and Salesforce chair and co-CEO Marc Benioff.

Retired NBA superstar and philanthropist Dwyane Wade spoke emotionally about his fears for his 15-year-old transgender daughter Zaya at the TIME100 Summit Tuesday—as states across the country move to restrict the rights of trans youth.

“As blessed as it is for my daughter to have parents who can support her, I’m still afraid every moment she leaves the house,” he told CNN’s Poppy Harlow at the event in New York City. “And not just because of gun violence, but because of the way people perceive her in this world.”

Wade also criticized lawmakers who have worked to deny access to gender-affirming medical care for trans youth, and block trans athletes from competing in grade school sports aligned with their gender identity. “To me, it’s a joke. This is our life. We live this. When you’re out there making rules, if you’re not experiencing this,” he said. “Come and live a day with my daughter. Come and see how it is to walk through this world as her.”
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Trans athlete bans are currently under consideration in nearly 20 states, according to Freedom for All Americans, which tracks legislation considered discriminatory against the LGBTQ population. This week, Louisiana banned transgender women from competing in women’s sports.

Alongside his wife Gabrielle Union, Wade has been open about sharing his family’s story as their daughter Zaya came out as trans in 2020. He spoke about gender equality and the ways in which being a parent taught him about listening and following his child’s lead. “I went years without telling my chef that I don’t like cilantro on my burger—as an adult, it took me years to have the confidence to say that,” he said. “My daughter, at eight years old, had the confidence to say ‘This is who I am. This is who I want to be.”

He called on lawmakers and parents to learn about the LGBTQ community before “closing the book” with laws like Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, which bans public school districts from teaching about sexual orientation or gender in certain grade levels. He worries the restrictions on LGBTQ rights are a result of people losing “the human side of us.”

Over his 16-year-NBA career—which featured three NBA championships and 13 All-Star appearances—Wade has been no stranger to speaking out against politics. But, when Harlow asked if he might run for office one day, Wade was hesitant: “I don’t know. I won’t say no.”

The TIME 100 Summit is the live event extension of the annual TIME 100 list of the most influential people in the world. It convenes leaders from the global TIME 100 community to spotlight solutions and encourage action toward a better world. This year’s summit features a variety of impactful speakers across a diverse range of sectors, including politics, business, health and science, culture, and more.

Speakers for the 2022 TIME 100 Summit include Apple CEO Tim Cook, producer Mindy Kaling, filmmaker Taika Waititi, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, musician Jon Batiste, Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley, former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, #MeToo founder Tarana Burke, ACLU deputy director for transgender justice Chase Strangio, Christian Siriano founder and creative director Christian Siriano, Brother Vellies founder and creative director Aurora James, Netflix head of global TV Bela Bajaria, author and poet Cathy Park Hong, Olympic freestyle skiing champion Eileen Gu, author, poet, and president of the Mellon Foundation Elizabeth Alexander, filmmaker Betsy West, filmmaker Julie Cohen, BioNTech SE senior vice president Dr. Katalin Karikó, Ukrayinska Pravda editor in chief Sevgil Musaieva, and TIME co-chair and Salesforce chair and co-CEO Marc Benioff.

CARDIFF, Wales — Ukraine missed out on qualifying for the World Cup on Sunday after the war-disrupted team was beaten 1-0 by Wales in the European playoff final for the FIFA soccer showpiece.

Andriy Yarmolenko inadvertently headed the ball into his own net while trying to clear Wales captain Gareth Bale’s first-half free kick.

While Wales heads to a first World Cup in 64 years — opening against the United States in November — this was an agonizing end to Ukraine’s emotionally charged mission to qualify for Qatar while remaining under invasion by Russia.

The right leg of Wales goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey kept out Viktor Tsyhankov’s poked shot 10 minutes into the second half as Ukraine searched in vain for an equalizer. Artem Dovbyk’s header in the 84th minute looked destined for the corner of the net until it was pushed away by Hennessey’s left hand.

Back home, on the 102nd day of the war, Ukrainians took respite from the pain and suffering by watching the game from Cardiff in bars, including in the capital Kyiv which had been hit by Russian airstrikes earlier in the day.

The specter of the war was evident in the Welsh capital with a message of peace in English and Ukrainian on the screens in the Cardiff City Stadium. Rivalries were put aside when the Ukrainian national anthem was played and it was applauded by the home fans.

Of the 1,800-seat allocation for Ukraine, 100 free tickets were given to refugees who have been forced to flee Ukraine since the invasion began in February, which led to Russia being disqualified from World Cup qualifying.

There were protests by the Russian Football Union on Sunday against the jersey being worn in Wales because Ukraine featured Crimea — which Russia annexed in 2014 — as being part of its map.

For Rafael Nadal, there’s no place like home.

Roland Garros has been his abode for years. And no amount of injury or age, it turns out, can cause him discomfort at the French Open. On Sunday, Nadal won his record 14th French Open title—and 22nd major championship, the most-ever for a men’s player—beating Casper Ruud of Norway, 6-3, 6-3, 6-0. On his second championship point, Nadal fired a backhand winner along the the right sideline; he put his hands over his mouth, tossed his racquet against the bench, and raised his arms, enveloped by the adoring Paris cheers.
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The Spanish superstar increased his majors margin over rivals Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer to two—both those players trail him with 20. He’s now tied with Steffi Graf for the second-most majors, for a woman or man, in the Open Era: now in his sights, the all-time record, 23 major singles titles, held by Serena Williams.

Hanging over this victory, however, is the question of how long Nadal can keep playing, and the distinct possibility that we have seen the last of Nadal at Roland Garros. Nadal has been open about how chronic foot pain has disturbed his life. “Unfortunately, my day-to-day is difficult,” Nadal said in mid-May. His status for Wimbledon, the next Grand Slam event on the tennis calendar, remains in question: Nadal’s publicist has said he will “try everything within limits” to compete at Wimbledon. Before this year, Nadal has never won the season’s first two majors—the Australian Open and French Open—in the same year. So missing Wimbledon, where Nadal is a two-time champ, would forfeit his chance to take all four major tournaments in the same year; no men’s player has won such a Grand Slam since Rod Laver in 1969.

Read More: Iga Swiatek Beats Coco Gauff for Second French Open Title

Even so, Nadal’s continues a golden era for aging men’s players. Nadal has now won 8 Grand Slam championships after his 30th birthday, as has Djokovic. Roger Federer took two titles at age 35, and another at 36. Other champions of the past haven’t sustained such success: Pete Sampras, for example, won a single title after turning 30.

Nadal simply dominated Ruud, 20, the first Norwegian player to make a Grand Slam final. Ruud grew up idolizing Nadal, and trains at Nadal’s academy in Spain; the pair have trained together and have a strong relationship. Ruud can’t help but remain in awe of him after Nadal’s performance. If Ruud dried a drop shot, odds are a relentless Nadal would bull-charge towards the net to smack it past his opponent. In the second set, Ruud broke Nadal’s serve to go up 3-1. Would this be a turning point? Nadal, however, broke right back, and didn’t lose a game the rest of the match. Nadal won 11 straight games to dispatch his training buddy. He’s now 14-0 in French Open finals.

Nadal beat Ruud 17 years to the day after he won his first French title, while wearing white capri pants and a headband, just after turning 19-years-old. After the match on Sunday, Nadal said this victory was more emotionally satisfying than that one, given how surprised he was, after fighting injuries, to be holding the trophy nearly two decades later.

Earlier in the year, Nadal came back from a two-set deficit against Russia’s Daniil Medvedev to win the Australian Open; this year’s French proved that in the biggest moments, he can crush his opponents while ahead, or still fight to the finish from behind. He is, quite simply, one of the greatest forces in all-sports history. Pain may keep him out of Wimbledon and prevent him from winning more championships, but the beauty of Rafael Nadal: you can never doubt him. He’s at 22. And counting.

PARIS — Top-ranked Iga Swiatek beat 18-year-old American Coco Gauff 6-1, 6-3 in the French Open women’s final Saturday to collect her second title at Roland Garros and stretch her winning streak to 35 matches.

Swiatek’s unbeaten run equals one by Venus Williams in 2000 as the longest this century.

Swiatek has now won her past six tournaments and is 42-3 this season.

She has emerged as a dominant figure in tennis, with 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams out of action for nearly a year and three-time major champ Ash Barty announcing in March she would retire at age 25 and relinquish the No. 1 ranking.

That allowed Swiatek to move up to the top of the WTA and she’s shown she is a deserving resident there. Her last loss came in February to 2017 Roland Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko.

Swiatek has a game that works on all surfaces, but her greatest triumphs so far have come on red clay. That includes her 2020 trophy in Paris, which made her the first player from Poland to win a Grand Slam singles title.

Rafael Nadal will face Casper Ruud in the men’s final Sunday.