Simone Biles will return for one last event at the Tokyo Olympics, USA Gymnastics announced Monday.
Biles will compete in the balance beam final on Tuesday, the final women's gymnastics event of this year's games and what could ultimately be the final event of Biles' Olympic career.
Biles previously decided to withdraw from multiple events earlier in the Olympics to prioritize her mental health.
Biles said on Instagram that she decided to temporarily step away from the competition because her ‘mind & body [were] simply not in sync’ while attempting her dismount during her vault performance during the team final on July 27.
She also explained that she was experiencing the ‘twisties,’ a frightening sensation gymnasts feel of suddenly being lost in the air.
Biles hasn’t competed since withdrawing after the first event, and the team has been evaluating her daily to determine her ability to safely compete.
On Monday, USA Gymnastics tweeted confirmation Biles will return for the balance beam final, along with her teammate Sunisa Lee. The final event will be an opportunity for Biles to potentially come away with a gold in Tokyo.
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U.S. gymnast Simone Biles won the bronze medal on the balance beam at the Olympics on Tuesday after returning to competition following a week-long break for her mental health.
It was her last event of the Tokyo Games and potentially her last Olympic appearance ever, unless she continues her career at the 2024 Games in Paris.
'This one is definitely sweeter,' Biles said of the bronze medal win. Biles now has 7 Olympic medals, tying with Shannon Miller for the most won by an American gymnast.
In a guest essay for The New York Times, Alex Azar, former secretary of health and human services, expressed his frustration with vaccine hesitancy.
‘The reluctance and even refusal of many Americans — including many of my fellow conservatives and Republicans — to get a Covid-19 vaccine is a frustrating irony for those of us who worked to expedite these vaccines,’ Azar said.
Azar cited the Trump administration’s efforts to fast-track vaccine authorization through Operation Warp Speed.
Quinn, a 25-year-old midfielder for the Canadian women’s national soccer team, is set to become the first out transgender and/or non-binary athlete to win an Olympic medal.
Canada defeated the U.S. national team on Monday, ensuring they will finish the Tokyo Games with either a gold or silver medal. Quinn, who plays professionally for the NWSL club OL Reign, also won a medal with Canada at the 2016 Games in Rio, but they were not out at the time.
‘[I’m] getting messages from young people saying they’ve never seen a trans person in sports before,’ Quinn said after the team’s victory on Monday, via CBC.
Rep. Jackie Speier told CNN's Brian Stelter that she sees similarities between cult leader Jim Jones and former President Donald Trump.
Jones commanded a cult known as the Peoples Temple, which fled San Francisco in the 1970s to Guyana. In Guyana, they established their own community, Jonestown. And, coming from Speier personally, that comparison is particularly noteworthy.
In 1978, Speier was a 28-year-old aide to Rep. Leo Ryan of California. Ryan, Speier, and several others traveled to Jonestown to inspect the compound and investigate allegations of abuse against Jones.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is being criticized after a photo surfaced of her at an indoor wedding reception without a mask, potentially in violation of her own executive mask order.
Tiana Lowe of the Washington Examiner first surfaced the photo. On July 29, Mayor Bowser announced D.C. would be readopting an indoor mask mandate, effective Saturday, July 31. Daily averages of new COVID-19 cases in D.C. have spiked sharply in recent days.
Bowser reportedly officiated the wedding, with the ceremony itself being held outdoors. Bowser's reps, however, have pushed back against claims she violated her own policy, claiming the photo was taken when the mayor was eating during the wedding's dinner portion.
Sen. @BernieSanders (I-VT) tried to harness the power of an iconic meme to encourage Americans to get vaccinated.
@BernieSanders ‘I am once against asking you to get vaccinated,’ Sanders tweeted on Monday, invoking the language of a 2019 meme.
@BernieSanders The meme was created from a fundraising ad released by his campaign, featuring Sanders in a heavy winter coat and text that read, ‘I am once again asking for your financial support.’