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Athlete Kent Waldrep, Injury Leading to Advocacy, Dies at 67

In 1982, with growing fame in disability circles after traveling to the Soviet Union and returning to Texas to establish the short-lived International Spinal Cord Research Foundation, he was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the National Council of the Disabled. Mr. Waldrep eventually became vice-chairman of the council, a federal agency that evaluates laws …

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Meet the Athlete with Challenging Ideas of What’s Possible

Climbing and skiing at 20,310 feet in Denali, Alaska, is strenuous. Climbers endure blizzards, high altitude and weeks in sub-zero temperatures as they slowly ascend to North America’s highest peak. Vasu Sojitra did it on one leg. At the age of 9 months, Mr. Sojitra’s right leg was amputated due to septicemia, a blood infection. …

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Jenise Spiteri Becomes Malta’s First Snowboarder, Sole Athlete at Olympics

In January 2012, Jenise Spiteri, then a college student, posted a Facebook status “Wanted: Someone’s going to teach me to smoke a pipe tomorrow. Anyone available?” The post received two likes, 10 comments and one share. Ten years later, 29-year-old Spiteri competes in the women’s snowboard half-pipe competition at the first Olympic Games. He is …

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Nathan Crumpton Unveils Ceremony’s New Shirtless, Greased Athlete

Fans of oil-soaked, shirtless Pacific islanders looked likely to be disappointed after Pita Taufatofua, a Tongan taekwondo and cross-country skier. 2016, ’18 and last year’s tokyo gamesHe said he wouldn’t be coming to the Beijing Games. But surprise! Who should appear at the parade of nations on Friday, but another shirtless athlete in native dress …

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‘Untold: Caitlyn Jenner’ Review: Honoring the Athlete

Caitlyn Jenner is best known as a tabloid celebrity and family member of the Kardashian clan who publicly transitioned as a transgender woman. However, “Untold: Caitlyn Jenner,” an episode of the new Netflix documentary series “Untold,” highlighting under-appreciated sports-related stories, illuminates the events that brought Jenner her first international recognition; that is, the gold medal …

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Afghan Paralympic Athlete Begs for Help to Leave Country

Amid fear and turmoil in Afghanistan, the country’s two Paralympic athletes have been barred from traveling to the Games that begin next week in Tokyo. A day after the Afghanistan Paralympic Committee announced that the two athletes would not participate because they had difficulty getting out of the country, one of them, taekwondo athlete Zakia …

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US Pole Vault Athlete Sam Kendricks Tested Positive for Covid

TOKYO — Sam Kendricks, reigning world champion in men’s pole vault, expelled from Tokyo Games after testing positive for coronavirus, US Olympic officials announced on Thursday. His positive result instantly resonated in the athletes’ village. All 41 athletes and 13 officials from the Australian track and field team returned to their rooms and were briefly …

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Syrian Hend Zaza, Youngest Athlete of the Olympics, Loses in Table Tennis

TOKYO – After the last point, after everything he’s been through, Hend Zaza, the youngest Olympian of the Tokyo Games, wept. Reaching the Olympics from war-torn Syria, where it’s hard to find a safe place to train with uninterrupted electricity, let alone 12, is no small feat. But Zaza’s Olympic appearance was short-lived. She lost …

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