American track and field legend Carl Lewis took to Twitter and didn't hold back in his assessment of the US men's 4x100m relay team after the quartet finished sixth in its semifinal on Thursday.
Lewis tweeted:
The USA team did everything wrong in the men's relay. The passing system is wrong, athletes running the wrong legs, and it was clear that there was no leadership. It was a total embarrassment, and completely unacceptable for a USA team to look worse than the AAU kids I saw.
Democrat Shontel Brown won a special election primary Tuesday in Ohio’s 11th Congressional District. Brown joined MSNBC's Morning Joe to discuss the primary and her win against former state senator Nina Turner. Watch the interview below.
Sydney McLaughlin shattered her own world record to win gold in Tokyo in the women's 400-meter hurdles on Wednesday. Fellow American Dalilah Muhammad broke the world record too en route to a silver medal.
McLaughin ran 51.46, to break her previous WR mark of 51.90. Muhammad ran in 51.58.
“I saw Dalilah ahead of me with one to go,” said McLaughlin. “I just thought: ‘Run your race.’ The race doesn’t really start till hurdle seven. I just wanted to go out there and give it everything I had. I’m absolutely delighted.”
McLaughlin also praised her coach Bobby Kersee, who guided the career of Florence Griffith Joyner, having switched to train with him last year. Under Kersee’s direction, McLaughlin focused on her form and running shorter hurdles courses to improve her technique. Training alongside Allyson Felix also helped.
“It’s just about trusting your training, trusting your coach, and that will get you all the way round the track,” she added. “What a great race. I’m just grateful to be out here celebrating that extraordinary race and representing my country.”
Shontel Brown, the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party chair and a county councilwoman, on Tuesday won the Democratic primary in the race for former Rep. Marcia Fudge's seat, after opponent Nina Turner conceded.
Brown will be the overwhelming favorite to win the Nov. 2 general election.
"I am eternally grateful," she told a group of supporters on Tuesday night. "I am completely overwhelmed by all of you that have showed up and showed out on my behalf. This was a collaborative partnership of the community."
She added: "This isn't an all-or-nothing thing. This is about making progress. Sometimes, it takes compromise."
As Tamyra Mensah-Stock celebrated winning her Olympic gold medal, she hoped her victory would encourage Black girls in the United States to consider wrestling.
When she defeated Nigeria’s Blessing Oborududu 4-1 in the women’s 68-kilogram freestyle wrestling final on Tuesday, she became the first American Black woman to win Olympic gold in wrestling and the second American woman overall.
“These young women are going to see themselves in a number of ways and they’re going to look up there and go, I can do that,” she said. “I can see myself.”
Mensah-Stock, the No. 1 seed, blitzed through a formidable field. She defeated Japan's Sara Dosho — a 2016 Olympic gold medalist — 10-0 in the first round.
She beat China’s Feng Zhao 10-0 in the quarterfinals, then beat Ukraine’s Alla Cherkasova — a former world champion — 10-4 in the semifinal.
She finished the dominant run by defeating Oborududu, the No. 2 seed and a three-time Olympian, in the final.
“Well, you’ve got to beat the best to know that you’re the best,” Mensah-Stock said. “And that’s what I keep telling myself. It doesn’t matter the draw. You go out there and you beat whoever is in front of you because that’s how you tell somebody that you were the best. I’m the bad draw.”
