American Gold Sports Alliance

Archives for June 2024

SIMONE BILES WINS 9TH ALL-AROUND TITLE AT U.S. GYMNASTICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

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by: Emma Hruby | Just Women’s Sports

Simone Biles took home a ninth All-Around title at the US Championships this weekend, extending her own record and setting the scene for a possibly dominant Olympics run.

Biles also won all four individual apparatus events she competed in: Floor, Beam, Vault, and Uneven Bars. Following the meet, Biles said she “couldn’t be more proud.”

“I couldn’t be more proud of how I’m doing this time in the year and just gaining that confidence over and over, getting myself back in front of a crowd and just doing what I do in practice,” Biles told the NBC broadcast on Sunday.

A 37-time world and Olympic medalist, Biles automatically qualified for the Olympic trials with her win. A third-straight Summer Games is now firmly within sight for Biles, who suffered from a mental block at the Tokyo Olympics that pulled her from the All-Around competition. 

Biles took two years off from gymnastics after the Tokyo Games, emphasizing her ability to have fun as an essential component of her success.

“It took a lot mentally and physically to just trust my gymnastics again and most importantly trust myself,” Biles said at a news conference after Sunday’s competition. “I think that was the hardest part after Tokyo is I didn’t trust myself to do gymnastics.

“Everyone says I look like I’m having fun, so that’s good because I feel like most of the time if I’m not stressing or having anxiety, I do feel like I’m having fun.”

The reigning World Champion, the 27-year-old is once again looking like a front-runner to win the All-Around gold medal. 

“Now, having gone to two Olympics, each one gets a little bit more stressful because I know exactly what to expect,” she said. “I know exactly what I expect from myself.”

Even amidst her dominance, Biles took the time to encourage her fellow competitors. Following a fall by Suni Lee, Biles offered up words of support to her former Olympic teammate, saying she knew exactly what Lee was going through.

“I dealt with that in Tokyo,” Biles said Sunday. “I just knew that she needed some encouragement and somebody to trust her gymnastics for her and to believe in her, so that’s exactly what I did.”

“I don’t think I could have done it without her,” Lee said about Biles after the meet. “She’s been one of my biggest inspirations for a long time. I know that we’re kind of teammates and competitors, but she’s somebody that I look up to.”

The Future of Women’s Sports is Bright in Austin

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by Jahmal Kennedy | CBS

Support for women’s sports is expanding across the United States, and today the City of Austin dipped its foot into that pond. At a city council meeting Thursday, the proclamations were given out, and groups were celebrated.

District 8 Councilwoman Paige Ellis announced June 8-15 as Women and Gender Expansive Sports Week. For those in attendance, it was an emotional day at City Hall. “Having the city recognize that and also put that out there to the rest of the city, and hopefully garner some more fans or some more support for each of these teams is really huge,” said Austin Rise FC Co-Founder Katie Reed.

Members in attendance represented various women’s sporting clubs around town including Austin Rise FC (women’s soccer), Austin Outlaws (women’s full tackle football), League One Volleyball (volleyball), Austin Torch (women’s ultimate frisbee), Texas Roller Derby, Austin Valkyries Rugby, and Round Rock Rage Rugby. Promoted Links Empty heading PetSafe Seaside Stainless Steel Cat Water Fountain, 60-oz $38.95 – Chewy.com KEYE ALSO| 14 state attorneys general urge DOJ to investigate Garrett Foster killing Lily Messina represented the Austin Outlaws, who are entering their 24th season in women’s full tackle football. She said she got emotional while listening to Councilwoman Ellis read off the proclamation, as it marked the first time the city fully embraced women’s sports. “It kind of denotes that there’s power in numbers and together we can achieve more than [an] individual,” she said. Reed says the women’s teams came together a few weeks back to form a coalition. To see everyone lined up together Thursday morning meant meant a lot Messina says. “All the teams that have been a part of this have all been so very supportive of each other,” she said. T

hursday provided a chance to push the women’s sports scene forward says Debra Hallum. “It’s just up from here,” Hallum said. Messina calls Hallum the leader of the coalition. Hallum is the co-owner and co-founder of ATX Women’s Sports Pub. While the pub is still searching for a home, its goal is to promote women’s collegiate and professional sports. Hallum says she and her co-founder and owner traveled to Portland and Seattle where they were inspired by how much support women’s sports had in the Pacific Northwest. “We were very inspired by that and looked at each other and said Austin has this incredible community that loves sports and women’s sports, and we can make this work in Austin, Texas,” she said. That support is something Juliann Faucette knows all too well.

Faucette was a three-time All-American and the 2010 Big 12 Player of the Year for the Texas Women’s Volleyball team. After a long career overseas, Faucette will get to play professionally in the United States for the first time as a member of the League One Volleyball-Austin team in their inaugural season. “It’s an exciting time,” she said. “A sense of pride for me and this being my home.” Faucette says it’s been a long time coming for women’s sports in Austin. “Women have been working really, really hard in this industry. And to see everything come to fruition it’s just a proud moment,” she said. A series of events and games will be held during the Women and Gender Expansive Sports Week, Reed hopes that leads to bigger things. “Every single fan counts. Every single dollar counts. Every single bit of support that we can get for these teams is incredible,” she says. “I think honestly, the limits are just endless for women’s sports here.” As for the future of women’s sports in Austin to Messina, it looks like equal coverage with men’s sports. “I hope that it just leads to normalcy,” said Messina.

For soccer, Reed says it looks like establishing a professional women’s soccer club. “I think this city deserves it,” she said. “I think there’s so much love for sports in general, but especially for women’s sports.” In order for the future to remain bright, Hallum says it’s going to take support from everyone. “People think that women are the only ones we need to support women’s sports and that’s just not true. We need everyone to support female athletes,” she said.

The cultural change at the ‘MCG of the Desert’

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By: Sarah Black | AFL

THERE’S one main road into Ltyentye Apurte, or Santa Teresa – it’s an 80km route south-west of Alice Springs, and about 60km of it is unrelenting, bumpy red dirt.

As you drive in (four-wheel drive territory only, particularly after it rains, when it turns into QUITE the wet’n’wild adventure), there’s a big cross on the mountain, above the white church at the end of the road.

On your right, the general store, with the school and basketball court just next to the church.

But on your left? The ‘MCG of the Desert’, Santa Teresa oval.

An impossibly green, grassed oval, surrounded by rich red clay, courtesy of a fundraising drive which was directed in part by Melbourne and the MCC.

Launched in 2021, the grass has held up remarkably well considering its location, although there’s plenty of green scrub surrounding the area as we head into the cooler months.

It’s here that a slow cultural change is taking place – teenage girls are playing football.

Friday marked an AFL9s Kungkas Grand Final for local girls in the area, with a composite Central West side taking on the Ntaria (Hermannsburg) Bulldogs.

A few weeks earlier, an extraordinary football festival had played out at Yulara, in the foothills of Uluru, a tournament attracting young women from Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory.

Most of the local community in Santa Teresa are members of the Arrente mob, but Kungkas is a Pitjantjatjara word for “young women”.

For many, football has been for the brothers and uncles, and there’s “shamejob” (embarrassment) attached to being the first women in the area to play the game.

But these teenagers are – kick by kick, mark by mark – forging a new path, one that their little sisters, who are now thriving in Auskick clinics, can now follow.

The players were given a guard of honour out onto the field, much to their initial reluctance, but they ran together as one, breaking apart into their teams for a pre-game chat.NEWS2024 AFLW FIXTURE: Swans rewarded, mid-week footy bonanza

They say the dry conditions mean desert footy is played in the air, compared to the ground-style of the more humid Tiwi Islands up the other end of the Territory. To generalise, think Shane McAdam vs Maurice Rioli jnr.

Tackling wasn’t a huge feature – the crowd and players collapsing in helpless giggles as a Central West girl had a moment and took down her own teammate – and it was a game played on the run, the ball pinging from one end to the other.

Players had received new boots, half of which were abandoned by half-time as the blisters kicked in and the familiarity of bare feet or socks came calling.

The boots were courtesy of the rebel Boot Drive in Adelaide during Gather Round this year, where pre-loved or donated new boots were cleaned and sorted by recycler TreadLightly, and distributed on Friday to both the young women and the kids of the community.

The Ntaria Bulldogs side had a handful of players who also participate in the competition in town, the six-team Central Australia women’s football league in Alice Springs, and it shows on the day.

Faye, a silky mover through the midfield, was named best on ground as the Bulldogs romped home – both sides wearing guernseys they designed themselves – while skipper Taren, a rock at full-back with a thumping bare foot, won her side’s coach’s award.

Taren – who spray-painted the front of her hair in the Bulldogs’ colours of red, white and blue, complete with a long red ribbon around her pony-tail – is the first woman in her family to play, and hopes her younger sisters will eventually join her as they grow up.

“I came from a family that’s crazy about footy, and I also play in town with the Pioneers,” Taren said.

“I’m the first girl in my family to play. I’ve got four little sisters, too.

“I grew up playing footy with my brothers, so I decided to join, too.”

Family and community members were dotted in the two small grandstands (five metres wide at most), dogs roamed and hassled those eating sausages and hamburgers from the barbeque, while the younger kids played endless kick to kick with whomever they could rope in.

The teenage boys had their own kicking partners – Kozzy Pickett and McAdam.

Ahead of the men’s match against Fremantle, the Demons were in town, along with AFLW clubmates Tyla Hanks, Sarah Lampard, Maeve Chaplin, Saraid Taylor and Lily Johnson.

Chaplin enthusiastically took the imaginary goal umpire flags for the Grand Final, creating her own unique and elaborate way of signalling goals, while head of AFLW Jessie Mulholland ran water.

After helping run an Auskick session with the younger kids – which has a deliberate bent towards unstructured and free play, building skills in that way rather than a focus on rigid drills – the remaining quartet of AFLW players continued to muck around with those not playing.

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AFLNT has between 9-12 remote development managers who clock up thousands of kilometres a week, living in the communities and delivering clinics in their areas.

At Santa Teresa, it’s Alice-based Simon Treiber and Tommy Dutton, who focus just as much on empowering local community members to run their own sessions as the kids themselves.

The kids jump all over the shorter Tommy, taking mock speccies, and he takes it all in his stride, grinning as he bustles from task to task on the day, cognisant of the far-reaching impact of his job.

Melbourne vice-captain Hanks – also a smaller target at 157cm – was also used as a launching pad for speccies.

“Today’s about coming out here and representing the club, but for us, it’s more so trying to lead where we can and help girls be involved in footy. Sport gives us a lot of lessons in life, and as much as we think we’re giving them and their community something, we’re learning a lot too,” Hanks said.

“It’s not a one-way relationship, we’ve all volunteered to be here just before pre-season to get exposure and experience in these communities. We’re trying to make a difference where we can, but we’re also gaining an understanding of our communities in our NGA zone out here.

“As soon as we got here, kids just wanted to kick the footy, and there’s just a genuine love for the game. Some of the girls are playing in bare feet now, but footy is such a strong part in how they connect. It’s similar ground we’ve got.”

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