Media gushes over drag queens mocking Christians in Olympics opening ceremony
A few media outlets appeared to praise the drag queens’ performance and depiction of “The Last Supper” at the Paris Olympics, which was widely criticized by conservatives.
“In an unprecedented display of inclusivity, drag queens took center stage at the Paris Olympics opening ceremony, showcasing the vibrant and influential role of the French LGBTQ+ community — while also attracting criticism over a tableau reminiscent of ‘The Last Supper,’” the Associated Press reported.
The group of drag queens appeared to portray the “Last Supper” scene famously painted by Leonardo da Vinci, which depicts Jesus and his apostles sharing a final meal before his crucifixion.
The Associated Press’ piece was syndicated by both ABC News and the Washington Post.
The performance was also hailed by NBC News Chicago as a dazzling “display of inclusivity” at the Paris Olympic Games.
“Inclusivity took center stage at the Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony as the lights beamed, flags of Olympic teams were carried over the Seine River and drag queens captivated the world,” the local affiliate reported.
NBC News described it as an “unabashed” performance while reporting on the criticism of the depiction of “The Last Supper.”
PARIS OLYMPIC FLAME RELAT ROUTE FEATURES 3 DRAG QUEEN TORCH BEARERS
“Last night’s mockery of the Last Supper was shocking and insulting to Christian people around the world who watched the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said in a post on X. “The war on our faith and traditional values knows no bounds today. But we know that truth and virtue will always prevail.”
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Jillian Michaels was among those criticizing the performance.
“Dear fellow gays… We demand tolerance and respect but then make a mockery of something sacred for over 2 billion Christians,” Michaels wrote in a post on X.
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“This type of hypocrisy and lack of understanding is a bad look. We get outraged when the extreme right bashes us, but then we do this s—. What kind of reaction do you think they will have towards the LGBTQ+ community after this. This is NOT how we break down barriers, it’s how you build them,” she added.
Trump responds to concerns over female Secret Service agent who ‘shielded him’
BUTLER, Pa. – Former President Trump leaped to the defense of a female Secret Service agent who “shielded” him during an assassination attempt, after she faced blistering online criticism.
“I don’t know how they didn’t get hit,” Trump told thousands at a St. Cloud, Minnesota, rally on Saturday as he recalled how “bullets were flying” and the security detail had rushed to shield his body.
“Every one of them – there wasn’t one that was slow. A woman who was on my right, she was shielding me,” he said. “Beautiful person – she was shielding me, everything she could. And she got crushed. And she got criticized by the fake news because she wasn’t tall enough.”
Trump said that the unidentified female agent was “so brave” and “wanted to take a bullet” for the 45th president.
“Well, you know, she wasn’t tall enough. Because I’m tall, and she wasn’t tall enough. And she was criticized – she was so brave, she was shielding me with everything, she wanted to take a bullet, because the bullets were flying. Incredible.”
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Following the Butler, Pennsylvania, assassination attempt on July 13, the female agent was criticized by online pundits as well as from Trump donors.
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“Watch these female agents who have no clue what to do, or what they are doing,” conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza wrote on X following the incident. “The Secret Service has been trying to raise the number of its female recruits to meet a 30% goal. This is DEI!”
Podcaster Matt Walsh wrote that there “shouldn’t be any women” in the Secret Service following the assassination attempt.
“There should not be any women in the Secret Service. These are supposed to be the very best, and none of the very best at this job are women,” Walsh posted on X the morning after the assassination attempt. “If there’s a woman doing a job like this, it 100 percent means that a more qualified male was passed over.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk argued that the Secret Service agents must be “large enough” to cover the subject.
“Having a small person as body cover for a large man is like an undersized Speedo at the beach – doesn’t cover the subject,” Musk wrote on X following the incident. “Could be a man or a woman, to be clear, just needs to be large enough to do the job.”
The Secret Service has faced increased scrutiny after the security lapses that led to Thomas Matthew Crooks successfully opening fire at the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Kimberly Cheatle, who had served as Secret Service director since August 2022, stepped down following bipartisan calls for her to immediately resign after the agency she headed allowed Crooks to get within 135 meters (157 yards) of the stage where the former president was.
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“I take full responsibility for the security lapse,” she said in her resignation letter. “In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as your director.”
In the aftermath of the attempted assassination, the House Homeland Security Committee launched a full investigation and issued subpoenas into the incident.
Republicans test a top Democrat to see if he ‘really cares about democracy’
Republicans have been urging Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to pick up a key legislative proposal that would require states to verify proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections.
They argue the bill is critical to ensuring election integrity in November, but it has so far stalled in the upper chamber.
Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., co-chair of the House Election Integrity Caucus, spoke to Fox News Digital about this on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wis.
She described election integrity as the “premiere issue” of the 2024 election cycle, noting that only five Democrats voted in favor of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which was introduced by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah. The bill aims to require states to obtain proof of citizenship – in person – when registering an individual to vote and require states to remove non-citizens from existing voter rolls.
“Everyone should be talking about the SAVE Act and the fact that 198 Democrats voted for non-citizen voting in our elections,” Tenney said. “Nothing interferes more with our elections and our democratic process than to allow people who have not created and given up the responsibilities of citizenship, but are receiving the benefits of citizenship. And I think that’s really important. One citizen, one vote.”
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“Make sure that no one’s vote is diluted, that that’s sacred, the right to vote. The most profound expression of our self-governance is that sacred right to vote,” she said.
Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, R-N.Y., also criticized Schumer for not calling the bill for a vote in the Senate given there have been more than 10 million known encounters of people illegally crossing American borders during the Biden administration and another estimated 2 million known “got-a-ways” who evaded Border Patrol and escaped into the U.S. interior.
“We’ve been urging Chuck Schumer to take a lot of Republican legislation up over the 118th Congress. I mean, you rewind back to last April when we passed H.R.2, the Secure the Border Act. It would have given us the ability to secure our border. It was a border security bill. And it would have, probably avoided the over 10 million people that have come into this country illegally, the over 2 million known got-a-ways that are now in this country and millions more,” said D’Esposito, who sits on the House Administration Committee, which oversees the Federal Elections Commission and got the SAVE Act to the floor to pass.
“That is sitting on Chuck Schumer’s desk collecting dust,” D’Esposito said. “The SAVE Act says it all. And, you know, if there’s people that are wondering and they lay in bed at night as so often I do and think to yourself, ‘Well, why do the Democrats keep allowing all these people to come into this country illegally?’ Well, the fact that nearly 200 people voted against the SAVE Act, the fact that Chuck Schumer still has yet to take it up in the Senate and probably won’t, is an indicator as to exactly why that border’s wide open.”
Democrats have been scrambling after President Biden made the bombshell announcement Sunday that he was discontinuing his bid for a second term and endorsing Vice President Harris.
As Harris heads out on the campaign trail for the first time since entering the race, and with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressing Congress last week, the election integrity bill has fallen to the back burner.
“My senator, one of my senators, Sen. Chuck Schumer, should be taking this bill up immediately,” Tenney told Fox News Digital. “If he really cares about democracy, and he really cares about the rule of law, and he really cares about the citizens that we represent in the state of New York and across this nation. He should tell every Democrat to vote for the SAVE Act in the Senate.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Schumer’s office seeking comment, but they did not respond.
Schumer, who initially held off on doing so when the charges were first brought, called on Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., to resign after being convicted in a federal corruption case, and Menendez complied on Tuesday, revealing he would resign from the upper chamber after Aug. 20. Tenney suggested that the change in balance of power could result in the SAVE Act coming to a vote after all.
“That could tip the balance of power in the Senate and could maybe make Chuck Schumer recognize that a couple of vulnerable Democrats are not going to want to vote against the SAVE Act,” Tenney said.
Biden had promised to veto the legislation if it passes. Doing so, Tenney argued, would be the “death knell” for the election of Democrats. “If you’re going to undermine citizens of this great country by saying that their vote is not important in a democracy, which the Democrats decry all the time, then you are going to undermine our system of government,” she said.
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President Biden in 2021 signed Executive Order 14019, which was billed by the White House as “promoting access to voting.” But Republicans argue the order’s broad interpretation of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993 essentially mobilizes the federal government apparatus to become voter registration agencies.
“That executive order tasked federal agencies to become vote collection sites,” Tenney said. “I think it’s a violation of the Hatch Act, which is undermining an election as well.”
Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen, a Republican, has been sounding the alarm about how state agencies receiving federal funding are required under Biden’s executive order to send out voter registration information to anyone who comes into contact with those agencies without any verification of citizenship.
Essentially, Allen told Fox News Digital at the convention, the order “really weaponizes and federalizes the entire federal government apparatus to be voter registration agencies.”
“I just don’t believe the federal government has any role in voter registration that should be left to the states,” he said. “Voter file maintenance is the foundation of election integrity.”
“We have reached out to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services and asked them, please send us a list of your legal non-citizens that you have on file so we can run them against our voter file to make sure no one slipped through the crack,” he said. “But unfortunately, they have denied access to that data. But we’re going to keep pushing. I think there’s a crack in the door, hopefully, for us to get our hands on that data. That’s data that is funded by you as a taxpayer, me as a taxpayer. Everyone funds those lists. And it just makes common sense that only American citizens should be voting in our American elections.”
Allen said he had a chance to visit with House Speaker Mike Johnson while at the convention to discuss the SAVE Act.
“That 198 Democrat members of Congress would vote against giving us, as secretaries of state around the country, the tools to verify citizenship is just beyond me. I don’t understand it. But I told Speaker Johnson, keep pushing. That’s why we need to get Trump back in the White House. That’s why we need to have a Senate GOP majority and a House GOP majority,” Allen said.
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As for Schumer, Allen urged the Senate majority leader to reconsider calling the bill up for a vote.
“Only American citizens should be voting in our elections,” Allen said. “Give us the tools, the secretaries of state around the country, to verify citizenship. Allow us to do that, and to make sure we have clean voter files.”
How Harris’ successor as vice president would be chosen if Biden steps down
There is a constitutional process of succession that would take effect if President Biden were to step down from his role as commander in chief.
Speculation over whether Biden can finish the remainder of his current term heightened after he suddenly withdrew from the 2024 presidential race. If the president did decide to resign before the end of his term, several steps would be taken to form a new cabinet.
According to Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution, the vice president becomes president if the president is unable to discharge duties due to death, resignation, removal from office or other reasons. So, if Biden were to step down as president today, Vice President Kamala Harris would be sworn in as the 47th president and serve out the remainder of his term.
If a vice president is promoted to president, the vice presidency is vacated.
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House Speaker Mike Johnson is third in line to the presidency, but he would not step into the position if Harris became president. The only case where the sitting speaker of the House becomes president would be if both the president and vice president died or resigned at the same time.
When the vice president assumes the role of president, the new president is responsible for appointing a new vice president, as stated in Section 2 of the 25th Amendment. If this scenario were to unfold today, Harris would become president and nominate a vice president.
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However, the pick needs to first be approved by a majority in both chambers of Congress, which has a party split with Republicans enjoying a majority in the House and Democrats leading in the Senate.
Both the House and the Senate would vote on the approval of the vice president.
The House held up all legislative business for nearly two weeks to vote on a new speaker of the House in 2023 after Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., introduced a motion to vacate Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R–Calif.
Republican lawmakers have also proposed an alternative scenario to dismiss the current commander in chief.
If the vice president and Cabinet members believe the sitting president is unable to serve, they can invoke the 25th Amendment and oust him from the postilion.
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In this case, the vice president would become acting president, but the president can still claim an ability to serve. A two-thirds vote by Congress would be necessary to oust the president in that case.
Piers Morgan claims Harris will make American history with one outlook
Kamala Harris made history as the most far-left American senator, according to British journalist Piers Morgan, and that title could lead her to do the same if elected president this November.
“She’s getting a[n] amazing honeymoon, and it’s going to last about a week. Then reality will kick in, and Donald Trump will start going very hard, as he already is, about her record, and her record is she’s literally probably the most far-left senator in modern American history,” Morgan said, sitting down with a panel on “Fox News Saturday Night” this weekend.
Vice President Harris, who served as one of California’s senators before becoming second-in-command, is slated to become the Democratic nominee after President Biden announced last Sunday that he would not seek re-election amid fellow party members’ calls that he step down.
Biden threw his support behind Harris shortly thereafter.
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Other prominent Democrats, including former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama, have endorsed Harris as well.
Less than 36 hours after Biden suspended his re-election campaign, Harris announced in a social media post that she had locked up the party’s nomination, pointing to support from a majority of the 4,000 delegates slated to head to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month.
Morgan, elaborating on the support Harris is amassing from the left side of the aisle, quipped, “The analogy I would give you [about Democrats supporting Harris] is, if you were on the Titanic, which the Democrats were with Biden, and he’s hit the iceberg, and it’s going down, and the last lifeboat has just disappeared… into the moonlight, you will take any vessel you can see.”
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“What chance do you have of actually getting to land? You’ll just jump on anything, and that’s where we are.”
Morgan also accused Democrats of mixed-messaging concerning support for Harris.
“This is quite amusing to me because, on the one hand, you have the Democrats shouting at Republicans, ‘Don’t you dare make this about her skin color or her gender and, on the other hand, they’re saying, if you don’t vote for the Black woman, you are a racist, misogynist,” he told Fox News’ Jimmy Failla.
Fox Nation subscribers can stream select past episodes of “Piers Morgan Uncensored.”
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State’s school districts roasted for defying teaching requirements in classes
Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters’ directive to integrate the Bible into the public school curriculum isn’t meshing well with some districts.
At least eight large districts across the Sooner State are pushing back against the requirement, as it continues to receive criticism from some and support from others, reports say.
Walters, speaking to “Fox & Friends Weekend,” offered a message for those districts.
OKLAHOMA SCHOOLS NOW REQUIRED TO TEACH BIBLE, TEN COMMANDMENTS: SUPERINTENDENT
“I’m going to tell these woke administrators, if they’re going to break the law and not teach it, they can go to California because… here in Oklahoma schools, we’re going to make sure that history is taught,” he told “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Sunday.
“What we’re doing is making sure teachers have resources in order to teach these concepts that the left has pushed out of our schools. We’re making sure that the guidelines were given out last week to make sure every individual teacher understands exactly what we’re talking about here, the historical references, where these are located in our standards. Because we need our kids to understand our history. We want our kids here in Oklahoma to understand American history better than any in the country, and we’re laying out a roadmap for every state to follow.”
Oklahoma educators are expected to incorporate the Bible into lessons about its influence on U.S. history and the Founding Fathers, per the directive.
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It will also see that each classroom has a Bible from which to teach.
Walters insisted the requirement has support from parents across the state.
“When I ran three years ago, they were crystal clear. Why in the world are we not teaching our kids that our rights came from God? Why in the world are we not referencing all these unbelievable moments in American history where the Bible was cited? It is absolutely part of our history,” he said.
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He added, “Our kids have to understand the history of this country and what made it great in the first place, and we won’t allow the ACLU and the teachers unions to attack our schools and say, ‘No reference to God, no reference to the Bible, even when it was one of the most cited books in American history.’”
Louisiana garnered similar controversy earlier this year after passing a law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom.
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Reporter mistakenly introduces Serena Williams’ husband at Olympics opening ceremony
The South Sudan Olympic men’s basketball team nearly upset Team USA before the Paris Olympics
began and on Sunday the squad picked up its first ever victory at the Games.
South Sudan defeated Puerto Rico 90-79 in Group C play. Carlik Jones led South Sudan with 19 points as they put together a second-half rally to top Puerto Rico. Marial Shayok scored 15 points in the win.
“We’re not a secret anymore,” South Sudan head coach Royal Ivey said after the game.
South Sudan’s Nuni Omot scored 12 points in the win. He said the mix up with the national anthem helped fuel the team to a win.Officials played the wrong national anthem before tipoff.“It gave us fuel. It gave us fuel to the fire,” Omot said.
“Obviously, we felt disrespected when that happened. … I feel like for us we’ve got to continue to show the world what we’re capable of.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A Dutch men’s beach volleyball competitor was booed as he took the sand for warm-ups ahead of his first Paris Olympics match against Italy on Sunday.
Steven van de Velde was convicted of having sex with a 12-year-old girl in 2016. He didn’t speak to reporters after the three-set loss but team spokesman John van Vliet was asked if they were protecting a convicted child rapist.
“We are protecting a convicted child rapist to do his sport as best as possible and for a tournament which he qualified for,” Van Vliet said. “The general matter of sex conviction and sex-related crime is definitely a more important issue than sport. In his case, we’ve got a person who has been convicted, who did his sentence, who did everything afterwards which he can do to be able to compete again.”
Van de Velde served 13 months in prison over the conviction. He previously called the incident the “biggest mistake” of his life.
The Associated Press contributed to this post.
A Paris 2024 official defended the opening ceremony at the Olympics amid an uproar over the depiction of The Last Supper during the event.
The ceremony’s segment appeared to resemble a depiction of The Last Supper, famously painted by Leonardo da Vinci. The performance ensemble included drag queens, a transgender model and a naked singer who was stylized to resemble the Greek god Dionysus.
Paris 2024 spokesperson Anne Descamps spoke about it on Sunday.
“Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. (The opening ceremony) tried to celebrate community tolerance,” Descamps told reporters, via Reuters.”We believe this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offense, we are really sorry.”
The ceremony sparked criticism from American and world leaders and figures in the sports world, including Super Bowl champion kicker Harrison Butker.
An LGBT leader in France also defended the ceremony.
“We know in the LGBTQ community in France we are far from what the ceremony showed. There’s much progress to do in society regarding transgender people. It’s terrible that to legally change their identity they are forced to be on trial,” Inter-LGBT president James Leperlier said.”If you saw the opening ceremony last night you’d think it was like that normally, but it’s not. France tried to show what it should be and not what it is.”
American mountain biker Haley Batten won the silver medal in the mountain bike women’s cross country on Sunday at the Paris Olympics, finishing behind France’s Pauline Ferrand Prevot and ahead of Sweden’s Jenny Rissveds.
It was the first medal for Batten in her cycling career and the first for Team USA on Sunday as they looked to maintain pace with South Korea and Australia for the most medals of the Games.
Batten had a time of 1:28:59 and was nearly three seconds behind Ferrand Prevot.
Batten qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the mountain bike women’s cross country. She finished in ninth place as Swiss riders Jolanda Neff, Sina Frei and Linder Indergand took home the first three places on the podium.
She won gold at the Pan American Championships in 2019 in the U23 cross-country competition and took home bronze in the 2022 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in France.The United States now has six medals in total.
Alexis Ohanian, the husband of Serena Williams and the co-founder of Reddit, was mistakenly introduced for the Paris Olympics opening ceremony red carpet as an “umbrella holder.”
British sports reporter Lauren Woods made the remark as she covered the event on Friday, according to Page Six.
“(Williams) looks absolutely incredible. She’s got someone just behind us holding an umbrella,” Woods said. “Those are the levels you aspire to. To have an actual umbrella holder behind you.”
Ohanian appeared to laugh it off in a post on X.“I’m also Olympia’s personal umbrella holder,” he wrote on X.
Williams and Ohanian married in November 2017 and just had their second child nearly one year ago. The tennis great is among those taking in the action at the Paris Olympics.
She won a gold medal in the 2012 London Olympics and was the last American tennis player, man or woman, to achieve the feat.
American swimming champion
Katie Ledecky showed off her bronze medal on Sunday in a post on X, after finishing behind Australia’s Ariarne Titmus and Canada’s Summer McIntosh in the women’s 400-meter freestyle.
Ledecky took a selfie with Titmus and McIntosh with their medals.
“In the 400! Always an honor to race the best in the world and earn a medal for @teamusa,” she wrote on X. “Let’s keep going.”
The 400-meter freestyle isn’t Ledecky’s top event – even though she won gold in the 2016 Olympics. She will defending her 2020 Olympic gold medals in the 800-meter and 1500-meter freestyles later in these Games.
Ledecky’s third-place finish was among the five medals the Americans finished with on the first medal day of the Paris Olympics.
The United States didn’t win gold until Caeleb Dressel, Jack Alexy, Hunter Armstrong and Chris Guiliano led the team to a victory in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay.
The president of an LGBTQ group in France defended the performances in the Paris Olympics opening ceremonies as criticism has risen over the mocking of The Last Supper.
The opening ceremony featured drag queens, ménage à trois and the parody of one of the most revered moments in Christianity. However, Inter-LGBT president James Leperlier said the country still had a ways to go on inclusivity.
“We know in the LGBTQ community in France we are far from what the ceremony showed. There’s much progress to do in society regarding transgender people. It’s terrible that to legally change their identity they are forced to be on trial,” Leperlier said.
“If you saw the opening ceremony last night you’d think it was like that normally, but it’s not. France tried to show what it should be and not what it is.”
Thomas Jolly, the artistic director for the opening ceremony, also responded to the criticism.
“It feels like the words of somebody who didn’t get on the guest list. We could all be laughing together. It’s sad to me, honestly,” Jolly said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Former Major League Baseball star Roy Oswalt was among those who spoke out after a performance during the Paris Olympics opening ceremony mocked The Last Supper.
“Going out on a limb here, but I’m guessing this will be the least watched Olympics in decades with that insulting opening!” he wrote on X.
Oswalt played for the Houston Astros and Philadelphia Phillies, among other teams, during his 13-year MLB career. But he was far from the only person who tuned in and was appalled by what they saw on Friday.
The performance, which also included a young child, drew harsh criticism.
Other acts during the opening ceremony also received mixed reviews from viewers on social media. In one scene, a woman and two men were seen embracing – seemingly suggesting a ménage à trois.
United States and world leaders also weighed in on the controversy of the course of the first weekend of the Games.
Simone Biles earned top scores in the balance beam, floor exercise, vault and uneven bars as she looked like she was back to her old self on Sunday at the Paris Olympics.
All eyes were on Biles as she returned to Olympics competition three years after suffering through the twisties. She scored a 14.733 on the balance beam, 14.600 on the floor exercise 15.33 on the vault and 14.433 in the uneven bars.Biles was nearly flawless during her uneven bars routine and smiled big after sticking the landing.
Even with the apparent injury, she was still the best on Team USA in those disciplines.
She appeared to tweak something in her lower leg and performed in floor, vault and uneven bars exercises with a taped-up ankle. After he finished off the uneven bars and stuck the landing, she was all smiles.
Biles showed her toughness and will be competing for more gold later in the Olympics.
Simone Biles powered through an apparent left ankle issue to complete her floor exercise in the women’s gymnastics qualification round on Sunday at the Paris Olympics.
Biles was warning up for the competition following a successful run on the balance beam and appeared to tweak something around her ankle and lower calf on her left leg. Biles lost a point performing one of her signature moves, but the difficult was so high already that any missteps on her top moves weren’t doing to cost her too much.
She scored a 14.600. Even with the injury, it was the highest on the team.
Meanwhile, defending floor exercise gold medalist Jade Carey fell trying to compete one of her moves and didn’t score high enough to get to the finals for the event. She scored a 10.633.Carey was expected to get back to the final of the floor exercise after he success in Tokyo last year.
Simone Biles officially returned to Olympics competition
on Sunday – three years after she was forced to miss some events at the Tokyo Games because of the twisties.
Biles scored a 14.733 on the balance beam as the Americans started their rotation. She finished first on her team. Suni Lee scored a 14.033, Jordan Chiles had a 13.600 and Hezly Rivera had a 12.633. It was all Smiles for Biles after she stuck the landing. She’s looked back to her old self.
As Biles warmed up for the floor exercise, Biles appeared to tweak something on the lower part of her leg. Biles was seen talking to trainers and receiving tape around her foot on the sidelines.
“This is definitely our redemption tour
,” Biles said after she wrapped up U.S. trials and secured a spot on the Olympics team. “I feel like we all have more to give.”
Biles is still determined to get back to the podium this summer.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
China added another medal overnight as Xie Yu won the 10-meter air pistol men’s final over two Italian competitors, Federico Nilo Maldini and Paolo Monna.
China has three gold medals to its tally as Sunday’s portion of the Paris Olympics began. There are several events that will award medals over the course of the day.
The women’s 10-meter air pistol women’s final, women’s cross country mountain biking, women’s team archery, judo, women’s skateboarding street final, women’s kayak single final, men’s 400-meter individual medley in swimming, women’s 100-meter butterfly final, men’s 100-meter breaststroke final, women’s foil gold and bronze medal matches and men’s epee individual gold and bronze medal matches.
The United States and Australia are tied for the most total medals at this point. But China and Australia each have three gold medals.
The lone U.S. gold came in the 4×400-meter freestyle relay on Saturday. Caeleb Dressel, Chris Guiliano, Jack Alexy and Hunter Armstrong all picked up the win.
The first full day of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games has come to a close, and many medals were handed out on Saturday to various countries to kick things off.
As expected, the United States is at the top of pack, collecting five Olympic medals across several competitions. They share the lead spot with Australia, though the Aussies own more gold medals, tallying three to the States’ lone gold.
In total, the United States won one gold, two silver and two bronze medals to kick off their Olympics. Let’s take a look at each victory:
GOLD: MEN’S 4X100-METER FREESTYLE RELAY
Chris Guiliano, Jack Alexy, Hunter Armstrong, and the veteran Caeleb Dressel as the anchor leg blew past their competition to secure the first Olympic gold for the U.S. in these Games.
Thanks to a fantastic third leg by Armstrong, Dressel dove into the water needing to just keep pace to collect his eighth career Olympic gold, and he did just that as he finished two seconds over the Australians, who won silver. Italy came in third for bronze, edging out China – another U.S. rival in Paris.
SILVER: WOMEN’S 4X100-METER FREESTYLE RELAY
The Australians won gold for the fourth straight Olympics in this event, but Simone Manuel made sure that the United States had silver around their necks, as she finished strong at 3:30.20, while China took bronze.
SILVER: WOMEN’S SYNCHRONIZED 3M SPRINGBOARD
The first United States medal of the Paris Olympics goes to divers Kassidy Cook and Sarah Bacon, as the long-time friends and teammates finished just behind China to get the medals started for their country.
Cook and Bacon have known each other since they were eight years old, and that connection bode well for their trip to the podium.
BRONZE: KATIE LEDECKY CLOSER TO HISTORY
It wasn’t the 27-year-old Ledecky’s best in the women’s 400-meter freestyle, but she still managed to collect a bronze medal to add to her illustrious career resume.
After finished 4:00.86 in the event – Australia’s Ariarne Titmus finished at 3:57.49 to secure gold for the second straight Olympics – Ledecky saw the 11th Olympic medal of her career around her neck.
Ledecky will be competing in more events throughout the Olympics, and the current record for most medals by a women’s swimmer is 12.
BRONZE: CHLOE DYGERT RECOVERS FROM CRASH
During the women’s individual time trial in cycling, Dygert was battling some rough downpours throughout the Paris streets as she raced.
At one point, Dygert took a hard fall on the road, but she managed to get back on her bike and finish strong. She was highly emotional after the race after dealing with several health conditions for years prior to competing in Paris, including various leg ailments.
“I’m just thankful that I’m here, you know?” Dygert said. “It’s been a long road with my leg… and I’m just really grateful to cross the finish line.”
Flag bearing duties for Italian high jumper Gianmarco Tamberi went a bit awry during the opening ceremonies of the 2024 Paris Olympics
, and it had nothing to do with the green, white and red flag he was waving.
He lost his wedding ring.
Tamberi revealed in an Instagram post that the Seine River, where all the country’s boats had been traveling on during the opening ceremonies, is the new home for his wedding ring as it fell to the bottom.
Tamberi wrote an open letter apology to his wife, Chiara Bontempi, to whom he’s been married for two years.
“I’m sorry my love, I’m so sorry,” he wrote in Italian on Instagram, which was translated to English. “Too much water, too many kilograms lost over the last few months and maybe the uncontrollable enthusiasm of what we were doing. Probably all three things.”
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News’ Scott Thompson.
The 2024 Olympic Ceremony opened up the games in Paris, France on Friday night, providing spectators with a taste of French culture and blasphemous art, leading to Christians around the world being offended and at least one sponsor dropping out.
Mississippi-based telecommunications and technology company C Spire posted on X that it had pulled all of its advertising from the Olympics over the ceremony’s mockery of painting created to show a biblical moment crucial to the Christian faith.
“We were shocked by the mockery of the Last Supper during the opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics,” the company posted. “C Spire will be pulling our advertising from the Olympics.”
The four-hour spectacle was held along the Seine River, featuring global stars like Celine Dion and Lady Gaga, both of whom are considered icons for the queer community.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox Business’ Greg Wehner
Superstar American gymnasts Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas and others have certainly helped shine a light on the sport in recent years.
A legendary American gymnast is doing her part to build off that momentum by making sure young athletes who are interested in the sport, particularly those who are growing up in underserved communities, are not left behind.
Wendy Hilliard rose to fame when she became the first Black rhythmic gymnast to represent the U.S. on the global stage. She later launched the Wendy Hilliard Gymnastics Foundation in 1996. The organization seeks to “empower the lives of young people from underserved communities by improving physical and emotional health through the sport of gymnastics.”
“I became a coach after I retired… moved to New York. My gymnast made the Olympic team in 1996, and then I wanted to go back to grassroots training because the sport was not so diverse. So I started a foundation and we were pretty quiet for a while,” Hilliard told Fox News Digital.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News Chantz Martin.
Team USA swim star Caeleb Dressel was leading the pack in the men’s 4×100-meter freestyle relay final on Saturday night at Paris La Defense Arena, as he chased his eighth Olympic gold medal.
And while Dressel was giving it his all in the pool for the United States’ first Olympic gold medal in these Paris Games, every U.S. supporter in the crowd was on their feet going wild.
Among them was legendary rapper Snoop Dogg and Dressel’s wife, Meghan, with their sleeping baby in hand going wild together as the race came to its dramatic finish.
A video that circulated on social media shows Dogg and Dressel screaming toward the pool, egging on Team USA to secure the gold. Luckily for Baby Dressel, earmuffs were on to keep his sleep intact.
Once it was certain the U.S. would win the medal, Dogg and Dressel high-fived in elation for what they just witnessed.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News’ Scott Thompson.
Olympic Games organizers said they “deeply apologize” for introducing South Korea’s athletes as North Korea during the opening ceremony on Friday. The South Korean boat was announced in both French and English as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. South Korea is the Republic of Korea.
“We deeply apologize for the mistake that occurred when introducing the Korean team during the opening ceremony broadcast,” the IOC said in a post on X in Korean. IOC President Thomas Bach called South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Saturday and apologized over the incident, Yoon’s office said in a statement.
Yoon told Bach that the South Korean people were “very shocked and embarrassed” over the incident and asked for an apology and to ensure that the mistake does not happen again. IOC spokesperson Mark Adams called the error “clearly deeply regrettable.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Canadian women’s soccer team was dealt a heavy blow Saturday after FIFA announced the women’s national team would be deducted six points from the standings in the Paris Olympics after staffers were caught using drones to spy on New Zealand during closed-door training sessions.
Following its investigation, the FIFA Appeal Committee announced the Canadian Soccer Association was responsible for failing to ensure its staff members were in compliance with Olympic rules.
FIFA said Saturday that head coach Bev Priestman and two staffers were banned “from taking part in any football-related activity for a period of one year.” Canada Soccer was also fined $226,000.
Canada Soccer can appeal the decision before the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The points deduction, if upheld by the CAS judges, does not eliminate Canada from the tournament, but it could mean the team must win all three games in Group A to advance with three points, likely as a runner-up in the standings.Canada’s next match is Sunday against France.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News’ Paulina Dedaj.
Fitness guru Jillian Michaels slammed the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics for what she called a “mockery” of “The Last Supper.”
Michaels addressed the LGBTQ+ community on social media for the “hypocrisy” and “lack of understanding” that she says she saw in the parody of “The Last Supper,” which featured several drag queen performers.
“Dear fellow gays… We demand tolerance and respect but then make a mockery of something sacred for over 2 billion Christians,” Michaels wrote in a post on X.
“This type of hypocrisy and lack of understanding is a bad look. We get outraged when the extreme right bashes us, but then we do this s—. What kind of reaction do you think they will have towards the LGBTQ+ community after this. This is NOT how we break down barriers, it’s how you build them.”
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News’ Paulina Dedaj.
The best athletes in the world all compete in the Olympics Games for one thing: a gold medal.
But what is the medal actually made of? It turns the gold medal is actually made up out of mostly silver. According to The New York Times, the IOC has required that gold medals must be made of at least 92.5 percent silver. The gold medal only contains about six grams of gold, which encases the exterior part of the medal.
The silver medals are made of pure silver, while bronze medals are about 95% copper and 5% zinc. But the 2024 Paris Olympic Games medals will have their own special touch.
Each medal will contain an 18-gram, hexagonal piece of wrought iron from the monumental Eiffel Tower. The iron was removed from the Eiffel Tower in the 20th-century renovation and has been preserved. The back of the Olympic medals will have the standard Olympic rings and the Greek goddess of victory – Nike.
The United States men’s soccer team dropped its opening game at the Paris Olympics, but they bounced back on Saturday and cruised to a 4-1 victory over New Zealand.
The win was crucial for the men’s team, as they entered Saturday’s game needing to come out victorious in order to avoid an early exit from the Summer Games.
France shutout the U.S. earlier in the week, while New Zealand defeated Guinea — the USMNT’s next opponent.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News’ Chantz Martin.
In her Olympic debut, Gretchen Walsh set the Olympic record in the 100-meter women’s butterfly.
Walsh, 21, completed the semifinal in 55.38 seconds, just two-tenths of a second away from breaking her own world record that she set last month. In just the last year, Walsh has set American, U.S. Open and NCAA records in the 50-meter freestyle, 100-meter butterfly and the 100-meter freestyle while attending the University of Virginia.
She is the younger sister of fellow Team USA Olympian Alex Walsh, who won a silver medal in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in the women’s 200-meter individual medley.
Fox News’ Ryan Canfield contributed to this report.
Team USA has earned its first gold medal of the 2024 Paris Olympics in the men’s 4×100-meter freestyle relay.
Caeleb Dressel, Jack Alexy, Chris Guiliano, and Hunter Armstrong came out on top with an official time of 3:09.28.
They defeated silver medalist Australia by one 1.7 seconds, followed by Italy with a time of 3:10.70.
The first event of the skateboarding competition at the Paris Olympics was postponed after rain continued overnight and into the morning on Saturday.
The rain was steady throughout the opening ceremony on Friday while boats made their way up the Seine River.
Skateboarding is played at the outdoor venue of La Concorde Urban Park in Paris. The sports governing body, World Skate, cited adverse conditions for the move. The men’s street skateboarding has been moved Monday, while the women’s event is unaffected and scheduled for Sunday.
No other events have yet to be disrupted by the rain.
American swim legend Katie Ledecky has kicked off her Olympics journey in Paris with a medal in her first swimming final on Saturday, earning a bronze medal in the women’s 400-meter free.
She finished behind first place winner Ariarne Titmus of Australia and Canada’s Summer McIntosh. Ledecky finished with an official time of 4:00.86, more than three seconds behind Titmus.
Her bronze medal finish followed heartbreak on the men’s side after first time Olympian Aaron Shackell failed to podium in the men’s 400-meter free.
Tommy Paul will be officially representing the Stars and Stripes this month in Paris for the second time – but that’s nothing new for him.
Paul is a one-time Olympian (he was ousted in the first round back in 2021 in Tokyo), but after a Wimbledon quarterfinal appearance earlier this month, he likes his chances this time around.
“I’m so excited. The last time, I didn’t go into the Olympics super prepared. I was coming off an injury, so I’m looking at it like the last time I went to be an Olympian – this time, I’m trying to bring back a medal,” Paul said in a recent interview with Fox News Digital.
Sure, if he wins gold in Paris, it’d be the first time Paul would hear the national anthem after a victory in an individual setting. Again, this is where he officially represents his United States.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News’ Ryan Morik.
Team USA’s men’s basketball team certainly doesn’t need any words of encouragement, but if Peyton Manning is offering, that’s a different story.
The Hall of Fame quarterback stopped by to see the men’s national team in Paris before they take the court in their first game against Serbia on Sunday.
Team USA is by far the most successful Olympic basketball team. They have a 138-5 record, including 16 gold medals, one silver and one bronze. The Americans have won four straight gold medals in the last four Summer Games.
Fencing is one of the five sports that permanent fixture at the Olympic Games since the modern Games inception in 1896.
The lamé is an electrically conductive garment worn over the scoring area for each fencing sword type. The lamé enables hits to register automatically.
The lamé may cover more or less of the body depending on which blade the fencer uses. There are three different kinds of blades used in the modern fencing: foil, épée, and sabre.
The foil blade weighs a maximum of 500 grams (1.1 lbs.) and is a thrusting weapon. When using the foil only the tip of the blade counts with the target area of the torso, which is covered by lamé.
The foil is the most familiar of the three disciplines. It has the smallest target area and is light, allowing for numerous different attacks.
The épée is also a thrusting blade but has a maximum weight of 775 grams (1.7 lbs.). Only the tip of the blade counts when making contact with the opponent, but your own target area is the entire body so there is no lamé.
The main differences from the épée and the foil, is that you cannot use the “flick attack” with the épée blade because it is so much heavier. The other difference is the whole body is a scoring area.
The sabre is a cutting and thrusting weapon with a maximum weight of 500 grams (1.1 lbs.). The entire blade can be used to score with the target area being the upper half of the body, that includes face mask and neck bib. The entire upper half is covered by lamé.
The main difference with the sabre blade is that the body of the blade scores in addition to the tip.
The first to 15 points wins with the action taking place in three three-minute periods, with one-minute intervals as breaks.
Lionel Fatu Elika, the national boxing coach of Samoa, died at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Friday after reportedly suffering cardiac arrest while at the Olympic village.
He was 60 years old. The Samoa Association of Sport and National Olympic Committee (SASNOC) released a statement confirming the news of his death.
“Lionel was one of Samoa’s top boxing coaches
and a great believer in the Olympic ideal,” Samoa NOC president Pauga Talalelei Pauga said.
“Our thoughts and those of the entire Samoan sporting community are with Lionel’s family, his boxers, and friends. He will be greatly missed.”
According AFP, he suffered cardiac arrest while at the Olympic village, where he was treated by emergency services. His cause of death was listed as “natural causes.”
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News’ Paulina Dedaj.
There are technically no countries competing in the Olympic Games, but rather athletes from National Olympic Committees (NOCs).
There are 206 NOCs and the IOC’s Refugee Olympic Team (EOR) taking part of the 2024 Paris Games.These Games will be the third Olympics for the EOR team. The EOR team made their Olympic debut at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games with 10 athletes on the team.
The IOC created the team to make sure people displaced from their country would have access and funding to participate in sports at the highest level.
Despite COVID, the EOR had 29 athletes at the 2020 Tokyo Games. The 2024 EOR team consists of 37 athletes from 11 different nations.
These are the nations the athletes come from:
- Iran
- Afghanistan
- Syria
- South Sudan
- Sudan
- Eritrea
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Cameroon
- Ethiopia
- Venezuela
- Cuba
Two-time Olympic medalist Chloe Dygert earned another medal at the 2024 Paris Games after winning bronze in the women’s cycling time trial with an official time of 39:38.24 on Saturday.
Dygert’s third medal came amid heavy rains in the streets of Paris which made for a slick course. The reigning time trial world champion, who was the favorite heading into the event, had to quickly remount after crashing out hard on a left-hand turn.
She finished behind gold medalist Grace Brown of Australia, and Anna Henderson of Britain.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Though the Olympic Games are filled with a number of entertaining sports, there are some excluded from the summer events that might be a surprise to many.
Baseball, America’s favorite pastime, has been part of the Olympics before. However, it will be absent this year as the typical 162-game MLB season is within the same time as the Olympics. Because of this, scheduling conflicts for professional players have halted the game from being played.
Softball is also excluded from the 2024 Summer Olympics. This is due to the popularity of the sport, as host cities are the ones allowed to add sports to their program, according to the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) rules.
Karate debuted as an Olympic sport in 2020, but will not be returning in 2024, as organizers felt the sport “lacked entertainment value and the ability to attract a younger audience.”
In 2028, the United States will be hosting the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California, and although karate still didn’t make the cut, baseball and softball will be included.
Fox News’ Gabriele Regalbuto contributed to this report.
Not many would be able to shut out Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards, but the U.S. table tennis team thinks they could easily do so on their own court.
While doing an interview during the Paris Olympics opening ceremony, Team USA teammate Steph Curry interrupted to tell Edwards that members of the table tennis squad were doing a little friendly trash talking.
“They said they can smack you 21-0,” Curry said
“I don’t believe it, I don’t believe it,” Edwards responded. “I’m not having it… I’m scoring one point.”
The U.S. has four athletes competing in table tennis: Kanak Jha, Rachel Sung, Amy Wang, and Lily Zhang. Their events begin Saturday.
Every athlete has a process for getting mentally prepared for the task ahead, especially those getting ready to represent their country in the Paris Olympics.
For United States women’s national soccer team captain Lindsey Horan, she uses the national anthem to get focused every time she steps foot on the pitch. While the national anthem has been a controversial topic for the U.S. women’s national team, including this past year’s Women’s World Cup, Horan has been spotted singing the anthem while lined up with her teammates before a match.
Ahead of this year’s Paris Olympics, Horan explained why she loves singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” as it rings out through stadiums all over the globe, and how it gets her mind right before a competition.
“I think obviously it’s an individual choice,” Horan told Fox News Digital, while discussing her partnership with Francis Ford Coppola Winery and its Diamond Collection launch earlier this week.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News’ Scott Thompson.
Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker slammed the Paris Olympics opening ceremony after one of the performances included drag queens among other performers parodying “The Last Supper.”
Butker, who went viral back in May for sharing his faith-based views during a commencement speech at a Catholic college in Kansas, took to social media to share his take.
“This is crazy,” he wrote on a post in his Instagram Stories.
In a clip of the scene shared by Butker , several drag queens and other performers can be seen mocking the scene famously painted by Leonardo da Vinci which depicts Jesus and his apostles sharing a final meal before the crucifixion.
This is an excerpt from a report written by Fox News’ Paulina Dedaj.
Not only is Noah Lyles the face of track and field in the United States, he just might be the face of the sport around the globe.
The 26-year-old is fresh off three gold medals in the World Championships last year in Budapest, and now he is gearing up for the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Lyles is the heavy favorite to win the 200-meter, and he’s a candidate to break Usain Bolt’s world record of 19.19. He’s set to compete in four events: the 100-, 200-, 4×100- and 4×400-meter races.
However, Lyles says
representing the country is “contradicting.”
“It’s a bittersweet moment. I’m American, and I truly believe that we are the best in the world, especially when it comes to sports. We have definitely been proving that dominance. … And it feels good to add on to that collection that the U.S. is the best,” Lyles said in a recent interview with Fox News Digital.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News’ Ryan Morik.
American swimming legend Katie Ledekcy took first place in the women’s 400m free prelim on Saturday, out pacing Australia’s Ariarne Titmus in the final lap of their heat.
The win comes amid a heated rivalry between Team USA and Australia. Earlier this year, comments made by Australian swimmer Cate Campbell resurfaced just before the Olympic trials.
In an interview after the 2023 World Championships, Campbell characterized the U.S. competitors as “sore losers” after Australia captured more gold medals at the event.
“Australia coming out on top is one thing, but it is just so much sweeter beating America,” Campbell said. “There were a couple of nights, particularly the first night of competition, where we did not have to hear the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ ring out through the stadium, and I cannot tell you how happy that made me. If I never hear that song again, it will be too soon. Bring on Paris, that’s all I have to say. U.S., stop being sore losers.”
Campbell failed to qualify for Paris after finishing in seventh place in the 50m freestyle last month.
The women’s 400m free final is scheduled for 2:52 p.m.
The first Olympic events started roughly 48 hours before the opening ceremony, and now, just mere hours afterward, medals are about to handed out.
Soccer and rugby began on Wednesday, while handball and archery started their competitions on Thursday; Friday marked the start of shooting.
Here’s a look at all the medal events slated for Saturday.
Cycling
Both the men’s and women’s road final take place early Saturday morning beginning at 8:30 a.m. ET.
Judo
The women’s 48kg and men’s 60kg divisions will crown their champions on Saturday.
Skateboarding
It’s the men’s street final coming and going early – competition starts at 11 a.m.
Rugby Sevens
The winners of South Africa and France, and Fiji and Australia, will go right back at it on Saturday to try for gold.
Fencing
The women’s individual épée men’s individual sabre winners will both be crowed in the 3:00 p.m. ET hour.
Swimming
One of the most popular sports in the Olympics will already be hot and heavy on Saturday, as we will have both the women’s and men’s 4×100-meter freestyle relay.
Three-time national champion Brody Malone is off to a rough start at the Paris Olympics.
The 24-year-old former Stanford standout fell twice during his routine on the men’s horizontal bars – an event where he won gold in the 2022 World Championships and 2022 Pan American Championships.
He got back up and finished with a score of 12.233 in the men’s qualifying heat for that event.
Malone returned to competition after his career was nearly derailed by a devastating right knee injury in March 2023 that required three surgeries.
“It was just a rough day, there’s really no other way to put it,” Malone told NBC’s broadcast after the event.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Caeleb Dressel, 27, is a two-time Olympian making his debut at the Rio Olympic Games in 2016 and then later in the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020.
Dressel is a seven-time gold medalist: in 2016 he won gold in the 4 x 100m men’s freestyle relay, 4 x 100m men’s medley relay, and the 100m men’s freestyle. In 2020 he won gold in the 100m men’s butterfly, 100m men’s freestyle, 4 x 100m men’s medley relay.
Dressel went to the University of Florida, where he was a 28-time All-American selection – the most that can be achieved in a four-year career. He is also a 10-time NCAA champion, surpassing Ryan Lochte’s eight for the most in school history on the men’s side. Dressel has one of the greatest college swimming resumes of all time.
Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.
Americans Sarah Bacon and Kassidy Cook took home the first medal for the United States in the Paris Olympics on Saturday as they finished with a silver in the women’s synchronized 3-meter springboard event.
Bacon and Cook finished behind China’s team of Yani Chang and Yiwen Chang and ahead of Great Britain’s Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen. They had 314.64 points in the event.
Bacon and Cook missed out on the Olympics last year. But Cook competed in the 3-meter springboard competition in the 2016 Olympics and finished in 13th.
Both divers are renowned on the world stage with multiple medals. Bacon won a gold in the 2019 World Championships in the 1-meter springboard.Chang and Chen dominated the event with 337.68 points. The two divers picked up their first Olympic medals of their careers and add more gold to their resumes. They have multiple gold medals on the world championships.
China already picked up a gold medal in shooting earlier in the day and now have two on their total.
China’s Huang Yuting and Sheng Lihao picked up the first gold medal of the 2024 Paris Olympics on Saturday as they topped South Korea’s Keum Ji-hyeon and Park Ha-jun in the 10-meter air rifle mixed team, 16-12.
It’s China’s 68th medal in the sport of shooting and 27th gold medal. It was Huang’s first medal in the sport and Sheng’s second medal. Sheng won a silver medal in the 10-meter air rifle at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
The Chinese pair’s win in Paris followed their gold medal victory in the World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan last year.
It’s the first Olympic medals for the South Korean pair. Keum won a gold medal in the women’s 10-meter air rifle at the World Cup earlier this year.
Kazakhstan took home the bronze medal in the event earlier in the day. It was the country’s fourth medal in the sport – its second bronze. They topped Germany 17-5. Alexandra Le and Islam Satpayev were the representatives for Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan’s Alexandra Le and Islam Satpayev were awarded the first medals of the Paris Olympics on Saturday as they defeated Germany’s Anna Janssen and Maximilian Ulbrich in the 10-meter air rifle mixed team.
The Kazakhstan team won the match 17-5. Le and Satpayey topped Great Britain’s Seonaid McIntosh and Michael Bargeron on Thursday.
Kazakhstan took home eight medals, all bronze, at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. The team had 17 total medals, including 10 bronze, five silver and two gold, at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.
The Kazakhstan team only had three medals in the sport going into bronze medal match. The team won two silver and a bronze and now have more bronze to add to their total.
Sergey Belyayev had two silver medals in the men’s 50-meter rifle prone and the men’s 50-meter prone meter rifle three positions in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Vladimir Vokhmyanin won the men’s 25-meter rapid fire pistol.
The Paris Olympics are officially off and running after Friday night’s incredible opening ceremonies that saw athletes float down the River Seine.
On Saturday, the first official medals will be handed out. Several events were underway as Americans and others in the Western Hemisphere began to wake up.
Competitors in shooting, cycling road, judo, rugby sevens, fencing and swimming will be receiving the awards over the course of the day. A bronze medal match started the events in 10m air rifle mixed between Kazakhstan and Germany. The gold medal match was immediately after between China and South Korea.
Later in the day, a medal in women’s 400-meter freestyle will be given out. It will be an event most people will be tuning in to watch. Katie Ledecky, Ariane Titmus and Summer McIntosh will certainly look to steal the show on Saturday afternoon.
“I’m looking forward to the 400 free, day one. I like my chances,” Ledecky said, via the Olympics’ website. “I’m prepared and ready to race.”
The Olympic Village is comprised of 10,000 athletes, and a dining hall that can accommodate 3,500 people that will be open around-the-clock.
The dining hall will offer an array of diverse cuisines or grab-and-go options for athletes who are on the go.Some of the athletes are sleeping on cardboard beds with a mattress on top of them. A main theme of the Paris 2024 Games is sustainability, and all the cardboard beds will be recycled and reused.
The Olympic athletes
must reside with their country’s team, there are no sharing apartments with another country.The security is airtight, no friends and family are allowed in the Village. The only people residing in the Village are athletes, coaching staff, medical personnel, and security.
Athletes who are minors, must room with only other minors on the team.
Quiet hours are enforced daily from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. local time.
This year the Olympic Village will be located north of the center of Paris in the communes Saint-Denis, Île-Saint-Denis and Saint-Ouen, just five minutes away from Stade de France.
Following the Games, the Olympic Village will turn into a place for 6,000 inhabitants, as the city is using the Olympic Games as an opportunity for urban development.
For the first time in Olympic Games history, there will be a ‘Floating Olympic Village’ on a 230-passenger ship named Aranui 5 for those athletes who taking part in the water-based events in Tahiti.
The same rules regarding who can enter the ship will be the same for those staying in the Village at Paris.
Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.
The Olympic Village was created a century ago, at the Paris 1924 Olympic Games.
“In bringing young people from every nation together, (the Olympics will) help foster this sense of cordiality that teaches men to become acquainted with each other better first and then hold each other in higher esteem,” Frantz Reichel, the secretary general of the organizing committee of the Olympic Games Paris 1924, said in the Official Report of the Games.
Fast-forward to present day, and now most Olympians cannot imagine what the Games would be like without it. The Olympic Village serves as a melting pot for all the athletes from all across the world to mingle and make friendships.
“If you get rid of the Olympic Village
, you get rid of a part of the Games,” Henri Specht, the director of the Olympic and Paralympic Village project at SOLIDEO, said, via the IOC.
“It’s probably the only place and the only time on the planet when you have so many countries coming together at the same location. I think that every nation is very attached to the Village and the athletes who have in it have come out with a unique life experience.”
Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.
The Olympic rings are plastered all throughout the world during Olympic times. But what do they actually stand for?
The logo was designed and hand-drawn in 1913 by Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games
.
The five rings were drawn to pay tribute to Games’ athletes. Each ring was representing a region of the world where the athletes came from: Africa, the Americas, Europe, Asia.
The rings colors – from left to right – are blue, yellow, black, green, and red. They are put over a white background to symbolize the Olympics universality.
While the iconic design was done in 1913, and the flag with the logo coming a year later in 1914, it was not until 1920 where the rings made their Olympic debut.
“These five rings represent the five parts of the world now won over to the cause of olympism and ready to accept its fecund rivalries.” Founder of the Olympic Movement Pierre de Coubertin said.
“What is more, the six colors this combined reproduce those of all nations
without exception.”
Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.
The Olympic motto comes from before the official Olympic Games began.
The original motto was first said in 1881 by the Dominican priest Henri Didon in the opening ceremony of a sports event.
In Latin, the motto is, “Citius, Altius, Fortius.” In English that translates to “Faster, Higher, Stronger.”
Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the Olympic movement, was in the crowd for Didon’s speech and adopted those words as the Olympic motto in 1894.
“It expresses the aspirations of the Olympic Movement,” the IOC said. “Not only in its athletic and technical sense but also from a moral and educational perspective.”
The motto was changed during a session of the International Olympic Committee in July of 2021.
It now reads in Latin, “Citius, Altius, Fortius – Communiter.” Which in English translates to “Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together.”
The change was made to recognize the “unifying power of sport and the importance of solidarity.”
Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.
The 2024 Olympics opening ceremony in Paris has sparked international outrage with drag-queen themed imagery of religious and historical figures.
One display on Friday showed what appear to be numerous performers, including drag queens and a large woman in an aureole halo crown, parodying “The Last Supper,” a universally recognizable painting by renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci of Christ and his apostles.
Harrison Butker, an NFL football player who made headlines with his speech about Catholic faith quoted scripture to condemn the display, writing, “Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting.’ Galatians 6:7-8.”
“Men in wigs front & center at the Olympic Games,” OutKick’s Riley Gaines wrote in a social media post of her own. “No one ever tell me this group is ‘oppressed’ or ‘marginalized’ again.”
This is an excerpt from a report written by Fox News’ Alexander Hall.
The Summer Olympics may only take place for a couple of weeks, but the impact they have on France’s economy can stretch out for years.
A study done by the French Center for Sports Law and Economics back in 2016 said that the 2024 Olympics “may generate at up to $11.6 billion and up to 247,000 jobs.”
“Of the $11.6 billion, approximately $1.5-$3.79 billion (13-33%) is attributed to tourism-related economic impact,” the study said.
This study was conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic and the surge in inflation, so you must take the above numbers with some caution.
Hotel rooms have been at a premium, and with that the cost of hotels in and around Paris have skyrocketed. Three-star to five-star hotel prices have risen anywhere from 41%-64% above the yearly average during the Olympic Games.
To go along with the price increase, the tourist tax
is now up to 200%. The tax brings room prices from $2.82 to $16.23 per night per Oxford Economics.
The hope for the French is that the tourists who visit during the games may come back and see things they did not get a chance to see during the Games.
France will draw about 101 million international tourists this year, the most of any Europe destination and up from 98 million tourists in 2023 according to Oxford Economics. However, most of those tourists are coming for the Olympic Games.
International tourism from before and after the Olympic Games is down compared to what it normally is. The high tourism tax’s duration is not just for the Olympic games and could be deterring travelers from visiting France outside of when Games occur.
The IOC understands the ramifications of what the Olympic Games can mean to a city and a country in the long term.
“As the first Olympic Games aligned with Olympic Agenda 2020, Paris 2024 is proving that the Games can bring substantial economic benefits to their hosts, while being socially and environmentally responsible.” Olympic Games executive director Christophe Dubi said via the IOC.
“These are Games that truly adapt to the needs of their host and to the times we live in, creating an impactful legacy before the Opening Ceremony and long after the sporting competitions have ended.”
Per the IOC, about 181,000 people are currently working or set to work in roles connected with the Games.
“Eighty per cent of the public investment is going to Seine-St-Denis, one of the youngest and most disadvantaged departments in France. The Olympic Village, for example, situated in Seine-Saint-Denis, will provide 2,800 housing units and two new schools, benefitting 6,000 residents.”
The goal for the IOC is for the Olympics not to just have a short-term impact on the economy, but a long-term one that leaves the host city in a better place after the games than before.
Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.
How expensive is it to host the Olympics? In short, quite expensive.
Paris has already spent $9.7 billion on Olympic expenses, and the French taxpayers are paying for about $3.25 billion of that according to The Associated Press.
There is no guarantee you end up making that money back either.
The IOC projects Paris’ will receive $12.2 billion of economic benefit from these games, leaving them in the black should they come true.
The IOC says that the “economic benefits for the city, region, and country and predicted to far outweigh the Games-related investments.
Yet the numbers from past games tell a different story.
In 2012, London spent $14.6 billion and generated $5.2 billion. In 2010, Vancouver spent $7.6 billion yet only brought in $2.8 billion.
In 2008, Beijing spent a whopping $42 billion and only brought in $3.6 million.
According to the University of Oxford, every Olympics since 1960 – except for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles – has been over budget by an average of 172%.
The reason the 1984 Olympics were profitable for Los Angeles was because most of the infrastructure required for the Games were already built.
A lot of cities that were over their budget built brand new stadiums for the Olympic Games. Those stadiums have been seldom used since the Games left their respective cities.
Paris has only built one competitive venue for the 2024 Games, relying on previously built infrastructure and temporary venues to avoid having to build so many new venues.
Time will tell if the 2024 Paris Games can join the 1984 Los Angeles Games as being the only Olympics that has been profitable in the last 64 years.
Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.
Singing atop the Eiffel Tower, Céline Dion performed Edith Piaf’s “Hymne à l’amour” to close out the opening ceremony. It was her first live performance since announcing her ongoing battle with stiff-person syndrome.
Dion was diagnosed with SPS in late 2022, causing her to postpone a tour. It is described by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke as a rare and progressive neurological disorder which causes rigid muscles and painful muscle spasms.
The beloved singer has opened up in the past about how the condition has affected her ability to sing and walk.
Onlookers, including Kelly Clarkson on NBC’s broadcast, were left speechless and brought to tears by
the Olympic performance.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The 2024 Paris Olympics have officially begun after the Olympic cauldron was lit by a pair of French Olympians, three-time Olympic Judo gold medalist Teddy Riner and Marie-José Pérec, a three-time Olympic gold medalist in track and field.
About 10,000 people were chosen to carry the flame across France from the southern city port of Marseille, where it arrived on May 8, to the opening ceremony on July 26.
In the final leg of the relay, tennis greats Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams were among the group of athletes that took the torch by boat back up the Seine River where French tennis legend Amélie Mauresmo would take over and run it through the streets of Paris to the Louvre.
Several other French athletes, including the oldest living French Olympian Charles Coste, got a chance to pass the torch before the cauldron – a hot air balloon – was lit.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach officially welcomed the more than 6,800 athletes that participated in the opening ceremony on Friday night with a strong message about “solidarity.”
“You have come to Paris as athletes, now you are Olympians. Stepping into the Olympic village like generations of athletes before you: now I’m part of something bigger than myself. Now we all are part of an event that unites the world,” he said.
“As olympians we care for each other. We not only respect each other, we live in solidarity with each other.”
“In a world torn apart by wars and conflicts, it is thanks to this solidarity that we can all come together tonight.”
There are 205 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) participating in the Paris Olympics.
The face of U.S. men’s track and field is reminding everyone that that is still the case.
Noah Lyles is the overwhelming favorite to win the 200-meter race at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris (he’s even going for the world record), and he’s very likely to medal in the 100-meter, as well.
The 27-year-old Gainesville, Florida, native has yet to bring home Olympic gold (he earned bronze in the 200-meter in 2021), but he tore it up in the world championships recently to make himself a force to be reckoned with.
Lyles has taken home six golds in worlds, including three last year in Budapest (100-meter, 200-meter and 4×100-meter relay). Understandably, he’s confident in what he can do in Paris.
So, prior to heading out on Team USA’s boat for the opening ceremony, he put one word on his fingernails: “ICON.”
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News’ Ryan Morik.
Seeing sports as unifying is not a new concept.
Earlier this week, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach spoke to an audience that included French President Emmanuel Macron and other officials, addressing the importance of promoting “Olympic values” during a period of overwhelming global conflict. He later met with hundreds of Olympic athletes in the Olympic Village to share a message, “Give peace a chance.”
“When our founder, Pierre de Coubertin, revived the Olympic Games
130 years ago — right here in Paris — he saw it as a way to promote peace among all nations and people of the world. He was a true ambassador for peace. Today, you — the Olympic athletes — you are the peace ambassadors of our time,” Bach said.
It’s a sentiment two-time Olympic gold medalist Ryan Crouser shares.
“It’s been a long time since we, as the world, have kind of had a proper Olympics,” Crouser told Fox News Digital in an interview Wednesday.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News Paulina Dedaj.
Olympic gold medal pole vaulter Katie Moon shouted out her home state of Ohio on social media in a selfie with NBA great LeBron James.
James, also an Ohio native and Cleveland Cavaliers legend, was selected alongside rising tennis star Coco Gauff to be the flag bearers for Team USA.
Olympic organizers were expecting unpleasant weather for the opening ceremony on Friday, but the constant rain didn’t appear to dampen the mood for the roughly 6,800 athletes participating in the Parade of Nations.
An intermittent drizzle cleared up before the parade began, but as the boats made their way down the Seine River, it picked back up again.
Comfortable temperatures in the upper 60s are more than enough to keep spirits high.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Breaking, more commonly known as breakdancing, can be traced back to the Bronx, New York, during the 1970’s.
Breaking is a part of hip-hop culture which is shown through a combination of dance moves, spins, flips, and other techniques. The term “breaking” comes from the instrumental breaks in song that are usually accompanied by beats.
The 2018 Youth
Olympic Games in Buenos Aires was the event to put Breaking on the map, and it is now in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The athletes are called “B-Boys” and “B-Girls” and the matches are called “battles.”
The inaugural Olympic competition will take place on Aug. 9-10.
Thirty-two athletes qualified for the event. As the host country France was offered two host quotas (one per gender) while four universality places (two per gender) were on offer.
To be eligible for a universality place the athlete must have competed in the Olympic Qualifying Series (OQS) and placed in the top 24.
The other 26 athletes qualified through their performances in last year’s world championships, the respective continental Games (Africa, Asia, Europe, Pan Am, and Oceania) and the OQS held in Shanghai and Budapest in May and June, respectively.
The scoring is made up of five categories: musicality, vocabulary, originality, technique, and execution. Each category makes up 20% of the judge’s score.
The battles are best-of-three, and each athlete has 60 seconds to complete their routine. Athletes can be penalized for misbehavior at the judge’s discretion.
Each day starts with a round-robin phase consisting of four groups of four. The top two in each group advance to the quarterfinals followed by the semi-finals and into the final battle for medals.
Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.
A heavy metal-opera mash up featuring the French band, Gojira, and opera singer Marina Viotti received mixed reviews on social media after the opening ceremony performance included a headless woman dressed in red, symbolizing Marie Antoinette.
Thomas Jolly, the artistic director of the opening ceremony, said the inspiration behind all performances was to reinterpret the way the world sees France.
“The extraordinary thing is that everyone in France and the rest of the world has an idea of what France is all about. And I want to play with that, that’s where I want to start from – breaking down clichés, because clichés come along other things,” he said, according to the Olympics website.
Former President Barack Obama took to social media on Friday to voice his support for the American delegation competing in Paris, adding “You represent the best of the best in our country.”
Simone Biles will not be present at the opening ceremony in order to “rest up” for Sunday’s qualifying events, her family revealed during an interview with NBC.
Biles, 27, is the most decorated gymnast of all time. She has four Olympic gold medals, one silver and two bronze.
More than 10,000 of the world’s best athletes set sail in nearly 100 boats on the Seine River on Friday evening. The 3.7 mile parade route highlights some of Paris’ most iconic landmarks.
Greece led the Parade of Nations for the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony on Friday, which has been a tradition held since 1928. The tradition is a nod to the birthplace of the Olympics.
The Hellenic Olympic Committee has 101 athletes in its delegation, including NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo went for a swim in the Seine River on Wednesday, fulfilling her promise to show the river was clean enough ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games.
Since 2015, organizers have spent $1.5 billion trying to clean up the Seine River before the Olympics.
People were banned from swimming in the river for over a century due to concerns about the rivers flow and pollution. Even as recent as early June tests done by the monitoring group Eau de Paris indicated unsafe levels of E. coli bacteria until recent improvements.
After taking a dip, Hidalgo called today “a dream” and a “testimony that we have achieved a lot of work.”
Cleaning up the Seine River has been a longtime goal for the French. Former French President Jacques Chirac vowed to clean up the river back in 1988 when he was the Paris Mayor but to no avail.
Hidalgo was initially supposed to swim the Seine River in June, but it had to be delayed due to snap parliamentary elections in France.
When the date was announced of Hidalgo’s swim, the French people got “I’m pooping in the Seine” trending online to protest the Olympic games by defecating upstream before the mayor’s swim.
Despite the threat, today’s event went without incident as numerous city officials and athletes invited to swim were throwing a ball around in the water and having fun.
The Seine River will be featured during the opening ceremony and will be the host of several open water swimming events during the Olympic Games including marathon and swimming and swimming legs of the Olympic and Paralympic triathlons.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Team USA has two flag bearers: LeBron James (basketball) and Coco Gauff (tennis).
For the American side, team captains and fellow players normally choose flag bearers.
The Paris Games will be James’ fourth Olympics. The NBA legend made his Olympics debut in 2004. The 39-year-old helped team USA win gold in 2008 and 2012, and was named the 2012 USA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year.
When he steps on the court for his first game, he will join Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant as the only three players to ever play in four Olympics for Team USA men’s basketball.
Gauff is only 20 years old and is a rising star in the tennis world.
The U.S. Committee selected Gauff to play alongside Jessica Pegula in the 2020 Tokyo Games but she had to pull out after testing positive for COVID-19. The Paris 2024 Olympics will be Gauff’s Olympic debut.
Gauff won her first grand slam title
when she won the U.S. Open in 2023.
Sue Bird (women’s basketball) was the flag bearer for Team USA in the Tokyo 2020 Games.
Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.
U.S. swimmer Regan Smith is an Olympic medalist, a world record holder, a world champion and even an adoring cat owner. But the 22-year-old former Stanford swimmer might best describe herself as a proud American.
Smith qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris
after her dominating performance in the women’s 100-meter and 200-meter backstroke and the 200-meter fly at the recent U.S. Olympic Swimming Team Trials in Indianapolis. She set the world record in the 100-meter.
She described it as a “gratifying” experience, one that has again given her the chance to wear a swim cap with the American flag alongside her name.
Ahead of her second appearance in the Summer Olympics, Smith told Fox News Digital that she first got the opportunity to represent the U.S. when she was 15.
“It almost moved me to tears,” she said.
In Smith’s retelling of this moment, she didn’t make mention of medals or records, just the pride she felt.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News Paulina Dedaj.
Even though some of the Games began on Wednesday, the Opening Ceremony will take place on Friday, July 26, at 1:30 p.m. ET.
For the first time in Olympic history, the ceremony will not take place or lead into a stadium. The opening ceremony will be a boating parade through the recently cleaned Seine River. Since 2015 organizers have spent $1.5 billion to clean up the river before the Olympics began.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo recently swam in the river to prove that the Seine River was once again safe to swim in again after people were banned from doing do due to health concerns.
The parade will run about 3.7 miles, taking the 10,500 athletes participating in the games through the center of Paris. The parade route will conclude in front of the Trocadéro, where the rest of the Olympic protocol and final shows will take place.
The Opening Ceremony will be the largest attended in the history of the games, as residents of Paris along with tourists from around the world can go along the river and watch.
Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.
Katie Ledecky, 27, is already one of swimming’s all-time greats.
With her seven Olympic gold medals and 21 World Championship titles, Ledecky holds the most medals of any women’s swimmer in history. The Maryland native won her first gold medal at age 15 in the 2012 London Olympic Games defeating reigning world champion Kate Ziegler in the 800m freestyle.
In the 2016 Rio Olympic Games her success in the 200m, 400m, and 800m, saw her claim the most individual titles in the pool. She also set new records in the 400m and 800m that year.
Ledecky is also the most decorated woman
in World Championship history. She is the only swimmer to win five consecutive world titles in an individual event, the 800m freestyle. No one has beaten Ledecky in the 800m freestyle in over a decade. She has been honored with the USA Swimming Golden Goggles Award for Female Swimmer of the Year seven times.
Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.
How Costco’s ‘aggressive’ move could impact your next shopping trip
Costco is looking toward technology to improve the customer experience at its brick-and-mortar and online stores without significantly changing the retail giant’s proven business strategy, the company’s chief financial officer said.
Costco CFO Gary Millerchip was taking questions from analysts during Costco’s third quarter earnings call earlier this year when he was asked what the company thought about being “more aggressive” with the evolution of its retail business model by deploying more technology in its store and adding options like buying online and picking up in store.
“We are working on all those aspects right now,” Millerchip said, according to The Street. “We’re rolling out an expanded buy-online-pickup-in-warehouse. That is always going to be limited in scope based on the volume in our warehouses that we have.”
Millerchip said that Costco can’t expand to all categories, though it is currently expanding on electronic items currently in stores, such as televisions, and sees that as a “real opportunity for us.”
COSTCO HIKING MEMBERSHIP FEES FOR FIRST TIME IN SEVEN YEARS
“Technology is going to be one of our key priorities moving forward,” the CFO said. “How do we improve that member engagement and the relationship we have with them in our brick-and-mortar warehouses, as well as online, and through other aspects such as travel and so forth?”
Millerchip said that Costco is always looking to innovate when it comes to its relationship with its members.
“Technology we see is a great opportunity to enhance the member relationship with Costco and also drive a lot more business for us as well as we move forward,” he said.
COSTCO GOES VIRAL FOR ‘APOCALYPSE DINNER KIT’ THAT COULD LAST UP TO 25 YEARS
Millerchip watered down expectations for any significant changes to what he called the company’s “proven strategy” for big-box retail.
“I wouldn’t expect major changes as we have a proven strategy now,” he said. “But as we’ve done for the past 41 years, we continue to innovate to the needs of our members.”
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| COST | COSTCO WHOLESALE CORP. | 817.60 | +2.81 | +0.34% |
Costco’s third-quarter revenue beat expectations in May, with a total revenue of $58.52 billion, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $58.07 billion, according to LSEG data.
The company also posted a profit of $3.78 per share, above estimates of $3.70.
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Earlier this month, Costco announced plans to increase annual membership fees by $5 to $10 in the U.S. and Canada, effective Sept. 1 – the retail giant’s first price hike in seven years.