LEE"S PERFORMANCE AT US CHAMPIONSHI LIFTED BY BILES PEP TALKS

Christine T. Nguyen | MPR News

 Sunisa Lee thought her chances of making the U.S. team for the Paris Olympics had crumbled after an awful vault at the national championships earlier this month but some words of encouragement from team mate Simone Biles helped to turn her meet around.

Since winning gold in the all-around at the Tokyo Olympics Lee has spent time sidelined with kidney illnesses and needed a strong performance at the pressure packed competition to stay in the running for the five-person Paris squad.

On the first rotation of the final day, Lee got slightly wrongfooted on her run toward the apparatus, abandoned her planned double twist and landed on her back.

"After my vault, I kind of just walked away," Lee told Reuters. "I really thought, this is going to be the end of my elite career."

Enter Biles, who took it upon herself to seek out and comfort Lee backstage at the arena in Fort Worth, Texas.

"I was in the tunnel kind of having a breakdown, telling myself to get it together and Simone came running over and asked me if I was doing okay," she said.

"She understood everything that I was going through, and basically told me to just remember my keywords, to go out there and do my thing and not focus on anything else."

Lee asked Biles to stand nearby to offer support during her uneven bars routine and the four-times Olympic champion could be heard urging the 21-year-old on during the June 2 broadcast.

Growing in confidence, Lee was aggressive on balance beam, one of her best events, and finished the competition in fourth place, greatly improving her chance of punching a ticket to Paris. The team will be named after this month's Olympic Trials.

Biles battled a case of the "twisties" - a mental block where gymnasts are disoriented in midair - three years ago in Tokyo and used that experience to help open up a wider conversation about mental health.

She took a two-year break from the sport but since returning has been as dominant as ever, including winning the U.S. Championships for a record-extending ninth time.

"She understands more than anyone the pressure and has had to deal with the worst, so it really helped to have her in my corner," Lee said.

In addition to her recent kidney ailments, Lee has long suffered from the skin condition eczema and has partnered with Eli Lilly to raise awareness of it.

"When I was growing up I didn't have a lot of people talking about their eczema and I would just sit with that insecurity, not wanting to go out and compete because in a leotard our skin is very exposed," she said.

"That's why this partnership has been so amazing because it has helped me really embrace it and try to help the younger generations feel more comfortable with it."

WADA CRITICISES U.S. UNDERMINING ANTI-DOPING EFFORTS

 The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) continued to vigorously defend its handling of a drugs case involving 23 Chinese swimmers on Friday while taking direct aim at the United States for trying to undermine the global anti-doping effort.

Following a New York Times report last month detailing events that led to Chinese swimmers avoiding sanctions after testing positive for a banned substance weeks before the Tokyo Olympics, WADA has been fending off criticism and accusations of a cover-up.

But during an extraordinary virtual meeting of its Foundation Board on Friday, WADA blasted its most vocal critic, the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and the organisation's chief Travis Tygart as hypocrites.

Canadian Dick Pound, who established WADA in 1999, came to his organisation's defence, accusing Tygart of lies and distortions and suggesting USADA's claims were politically motivated.

"On behalf of WADA, I am deeply disappointed and disgusted by the deliberate, lies and distortions coming from USADA, including that WADA has swept doping cases in China under the rug," said Pound, a former IOC member.

"That accusation, bereft of any truth, has but a single purpose to deliberately damage the reputation of WADA.

"To claim that WADA has in some way inappropriately favoured China is completely false," Pound added.

"USADA is financed by the United States government, that government currently has a chilly relationship with China's government. Could there be a connection?"

WADA has stood firm against criticism, arguing that it followed rules and procedures laid out in the anti-doping code and had no evidence to challenge China's findings.

The swimmers avoided sanctions after an investigation by Chinese authorities ruled the positive tests were the result of being inadvertently exposed to the drug through contamination.

A report determined all the swimmers who tested positive were staying at the same hotel where traces of trimetazidine (TMZ), which is found in heart medication, were discovered in the kitchen.

INDEPENDENT REVIEW 

WADA announced in April that it would launch an independent review of the matter led by Swiss prosecutor Eric Cottier.

"Trust comes from truth and transparency, not obfuscation and childish bluster." said Tygart, responding to WADA's comments.

"Unfortunately, we all know that when you are afraid of the facts, the classic response is to attack the messenger, distract from the real issues, and make it personal."

Tygart said the meeting today demonstrated that the global anti-doping system needed immediate reform.

"The world has legitimate questions about how WADA could turn a blind eye to 23 positive tests on the eve of the Tokyo Olympic Games, and today WADA reinforced those concerns by admitting they purposefully tried to keep this information from going public — the very definition of sweeping it under the carpet," he said.

WADA President Witold Banka said that when it comes to anti-doping, U.S. athletes are some of the least tested in the world and that USADA has used the contamination explanation to clear Americans of positive tests.

"There have been a number of environmental contamination cases in the past, in fact, some of the most elaborate and surprising contamination scenarios have come out of the U.S.," Banka said.

"Just to paint a picture of some inconsistent rule implementation in the U.S. 90% of American athletes, those in the professional leagues and college sport do not compete under the world anti-doping code."

AMERICAN COLEMAN BELIEVES BOLT'S 100M RECORD COUKD FALL SOON

Reuters 

 American sprinter Christian Coleman believes that Usain Bolt's 100-metres record of 9.58 seconds that has stood for 15 years is within reach and said there are several athletes fast enough to break it.

"It seems like the times being run, 9.58 is obviously an extraordinary time but honestly I feel like it's a lot of guys who are competing today who are not that far off, if the track gods see fit for it to happen," Coleman told reporters on Friday ahead of Saturday's Shanghai Diamond League meet.

"But it has to be perfect conditions, on the right day, the right competition and the right venue ... if you're focusing on running properly, like executing a good race, I feel like those type of magical moments happen.

"I feel like it's in my wheelhouse, but I don't try to put too much emphasis or thought on it. I try to just focus on the next practice, the next rep, the next meet and just trying to improve and get better and better and the times will come."

Jamaica's Bolt set his 100m record in Berlin in 2009. American Tyson Gay is the second quickest after Bolt with a time of 9.69 set in Shanghai the same year.

Christian Miller, a 17-year-old from the U.S., ran 9.93 -- the fastest time in the world this year -- at a high school meet in Florida last weekend.

Coleman, a five-times world champion who has a 100m personal best of 9.76 set in 2019, takes on U.S. rival Fred Kerley, silver medallist in the 100m at the Tokyo Olympics, for the first time this outdoor season at the Shanghai Diamond League meet on Saturday.

"I'm the fittest I've ever been," said Kerley, who clocked his quickest 100m of 9.76 in 2022. "I'm learning how to run the 100 still, me and my coaches are working on the phases of the races instead of just running the race like I always have."

The 28-year-old Coleman raced to gold in the 60m at the world indoor championships earlier this season in Glasgow.

- Reuters 

GYMNASTICS BILES TOPS COMPETITION IN FIRST OUTING SINCE TOKYO

USA TODAY Sports 

Simone Biles made a triumphant return to gymnastics on Saturday in suburban Chicago, eclipsing the field by an enormous margin in her first competitive event since the Tokyo Olympics two years ago.

The four-time Olympic gold medalist dazzled fans with her sky-high tumbling and a double-flipping vault so difficult that it has never been performed by another female gymnast.

The sold-out crowd, including many young, hopeful gymnasts, erupted in deafening cheers every time Biles took the podium, and those did not go unnoticed by the 26-year-old.

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