SUMMARY: It's drawn millions of fans, its competitors get paid big money, and the Olympics are considering adding it. As an industry, eSports -- professionals playing video games for spectators -- is set to gross nearly $1 billion by the end of 2018. Economics correspondent Paul Solman reports from DreamHack Austin.
SUMMARY: A Michigan courtroom erupted in clapping as former sports doctor Larry Nassar was sentenced to as many as 175 years in prison for sexually assaulting scores of women and girls, including three Olympic gold medal gymnasts, under the guise of medical treatment. Judy Woodruff talks with Robert Andrews of the Institute of Sports Performance about how the abuse continued for so long.
SUMMARY: At a remarkable sentencing hearing in Michigan, more than 100 girls and women have confronted the man who abused them sexually for years about the lasting psychological scars. Larry Nassar worked for USA Gymnastics for 29 years, including as a team doctor for four Olympic Games, and at Michigan State University. Judy Woodruff talks with Christine Brennan of USA Today.
SUMMARY: They may not be winning gold, but their stories are certainly medal worthy. The first-ever Refugee Olympic Team is competing in Rio, stacked with athletes like 18-year-old Yusra Mardini, who saved herself and other Syrians stranded during a dangerous Aegean crossing. Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, says that the team aims to counteract negative global sentiment toward refugees.
JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour): And we turn to another big story of these Games, away from the medal podiums.
Across the globe today, there are some 65 million people who've been forced from their homes, an unprecedented number. Ten refugees are now on the world stage in Rio.
He didn't win the 100 meter butterfly yesterday, not even close, but 25-year-old Rami Anis, a Syrian refugee now living in Belgium, did get a standing ovation; 18-year-old Yusra Mardini, also from Syria, won a preliminary heat in her race before failing to advance further. Still, by the very special terms she'd set for herself, this was a victory.
YUSRA MARDINI, Swimmer, Refugee Olympic Team: For the refugees in Brazil, and all the refugees around the world, we are going to represent you guys in a really good picture. And I hope you are going to learn from our story that you have to move on, because life will never stop with your problems or anything. And I hope that everyone will continue to achieve their dreams.
JEFFREY BROWN: Just last year, both Yusra Mardini and Rami Anis made the dangerous voyage across the Aegean Sea that's become a symbol of an international refugee crisis.
On Mardini's trip, the motor failed and she and her sister, also a swimmer, were the only ones strong enough to swim the crowded boat to safety. One week ago, to a resounding welcome, the two young Syrians and eight other athletes made history as the first ever Refugee Olympic Team.
Filippo Grandi, U.N. high commissioner for refugees, was there, and spoke with us yesterday from his Geneva headquarters.
FILIPPO GRANDI, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: I was so nervous, like if I was going to give an exam, I can tell you. And we had to wait for the whole ceremony, because they were the last but one team to enter before the hosts, Brazil. And when they entered, the emotion was unlimited.
SUMMARY: On Friday, long-distance runner Alexi Pappas will compete in Rio in her first-ever Olympic race. But unlike many of her Olympic peers, Pappas does not put all her talent in one basket. In addition to training as a world-class runner, she is also a filmmaker, actress and poet, and she writes about what she knows, track. “As a storyteller, I want to tell stories that I can uniquely tell,” she says.
GWEN IFILL (NewsHour): Now, a poet and filmmaker who also happens to be an Olympic runner in Rio. She'll be competing tomorrow.
And, as you'll see, there are a number of connections for her between the way she writes and the way she runs.
ALEXI PAPPAS, Olympic Long-distance Runner, Greece: My name is Alexi Pappas. And I'm a professional long-distance runner with Nike. And I'm also a filmmaker, actress and poet.
This summer, I will race in my first Olympic Games in the 10,000 meters on the track. I will be running for Team Greece. I'm a duel citizen and decided to compete for Team Greece because I can compete at the highest level, but I can also reach a young generation of girls who don't necessarily have the long-distance role models that we are lucky enough to have in the United States. So, I'm very excited.
I think I was a more serious poet before I was a serious runner. What I find with writing that is so special, and in poetry in particular, is, there's such an economy of words. And I like having absolute freedom within boundaries.
And in running, similarly, there are these limitations. So, in a race, you might have a certain lane that you have to stay in or a certain number of laps or a course. But within those boundaries, there's so much room for freedom and creativity and personality.
“Breaking Tape.”
“It happened like I imagine it would feel to throw open big double doors, the kind from a mansion or dollhouse. I looked maybe like a very strong princess charging through the gate towards the castle I built myself.”
“Tracktown” is a film that we have just made and premiered and is inspired by my observations and experiences as an elite runner in Eugene, Oregon. And when I moved to Eugene to run a fifth year with the Oregon Ducks, after I graduated Dartmouth, I found that the town and the community embraced running in a way that I had never seen before.
WOMAN: “A goal is a dream with a deadline” — Napoleon Hill.
ALEXI PAPPAS: As a storyteller, I want to tell stories that I uniquely can tell and stories in highly specific worlds that most people don't get the chance to see.
SUMMARY: Swimmer Katie Ledecky has been blowing by the competition and setting records at the world championships in Russia. She’s currently on pace to sweep the 200, 400, 800 and 1,500 meter freestyles at a single world championship. To find out more about Ledecky’s incredible feats, Hari Sreenivasan speaks to sports commentator and former Olympic gold medalist Summer Sanders.
HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour): Just to try to put this in perspective, if Katie Ledecky wins tomorrow, she will have completed an unprecedented sweep of the 200, the 400, the 800 and 1,500 meter freestyles at a single world championship.
She also set world records this week. And assuming all goes well, she will have raced 6,200 meters in seven days when you include heats and relays. Since winning the gold medal at the 2012 Olympics, she has set 13 of the fastest racing times in history.
Summer Sanders is a former Olympic gold medal swimmer herself, as well as a sports commentator and reporter who’s been watching all of this. She joins me now from Salt Lake City.
You know, there’s a lot of people who don’t follow swimming who are starting to wake up to this story. Why is this so spectacular?
SUMMER SANDERS, Olympic Gold Medal Winner, Swimming (1992): Well, I think it goes back in history.
I think most people remember Janet Evans, the queen of distance swimming. She held most of these world records up until Katie broke them. And so we haven’t seen this dominance from the American swimmers in the sport of distance swimming. Honestly, most kids, if they have the distance gene, prefer to push themselves to the 400 and 200, because it’s so difficult to train for the 800 and 1,500.
But the fact that Katie is doing it and she’s dominating time and time and time again — and she just sort of has this inner personality. I describe it as like she’s a sprinter personality on the inside, but a distance on the outside. I love her fist pump when she wins and her enthusiasm that she is showing. She’s making distance swimming cool.
HARI SREENIVASAN: She are incredibly different events. Training for a 200 meter, a sprint-type event, vs. essentially a mile in the pool, and she actually did both races in one day earlier this week.
SUMMER SANDERS: Ya, she had the semifinals of the 200 freestyle right after she, like, shattered her own record in the 1,500 freestyle.
Fukushima hopes to host some of the events for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo to show the world that the worst days of the 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster are behind it.
"We need to set a goal so that we can show how much Fukushima has recovered," Masao Uchibori, who was elected the new governor of Fukushima Prefecture in October, said Tuesday.
"The Olympics is meant to show to the world the Tohoku region's reconstruction. We want to cooperate as much as possible," he said, as cited by Reuters.
Uchibori made no mention of which events Fukushima Prefecture would aim to host, but football is the likely choice, on account of the schedule and large number of stadia needed for the Olympic tournament.
In September 2013, Tokyo successfully won the bid to host the 125th International Olympic Committee (IOC) session, beating out Madrid and Istanbul. Japan last hosted the Summer Olympics in 1964 – the first Olympics ever held in Asia. Tokyo was actually supposed to host the 1940 Summer Olympics, although Japan’s invasion of China saw the games moved to Helsinki before ultimately being canceled because of World War II.
Tokyo said the event would help the country recover from the 2011 tsunami and earthquake which sparked the Fukushima nuclear crisis.
“Japan needs hope and dreams,” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said after the IOC announcement.
Just days before Tokyo won the bid, Abe told the IOC that ongoing leaks of radioactive water at Fukushima would have no impact on the country’s ability to host the 2020 Olympics.
“There have been some expressions of concern over the leak of polluted water at Fukushima, but the government will take a lead in achieving a complete resolution of this problem,” Abe told reporters at the time. “I will explain carefully that we are doing our utmost with a firm resolve and that in 2020, seven years from now, there will be absolutely no problem.”
The president of the Japanese Olympic Committee further attempted to assuage fears by saying the radiation level in Tokyo was “the same” as in other major global capitals such as London, New York and Paris.
But Mitsuhei Murata, a former Japanese ambassador to Switzerland, said it was “immoral” to invite people to the Olympic Games in Japan, saying “the health environment cannot be secured,” the UK Independent cited him as saying at the time.
He called for the bid to be rescinded.
Later that month, Abe ordered that two Fukushima reactors which survived the 2011 disaster be permanently decommissioned.
The president of Tokyo Electric Power Company, which operated the disabled Fukushima plant, promised Abe it would finish treating contaminated water at Fukushima by March 2015.
Earlier this month, Japan’s nuclear watchdog said the radioactive water that has accumulated at the plant must be decontaminated and dumped into the ocean.
Fukushima water to be cleaned, dumped into Pacific, watchdog says
Some 400 tons of untainted groundwater are believed to be seeping into the buildings of the Fukushima plant on a daily basis. It is then mixing with the toxic water generated in the process of cooling the crippled reactors. TEPCO collects the radioactive groundwater and stores it at the site of the plant. However, storing the groundwater becomes more difficult each day, as the water quantity continues to increase.
The March 11, 2011, incident at Fukushima was the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986. Despite TEPCO’s intensive cleanup operation at the site, it will likely take four decades to completely decommission the plant’s four damaged reactors.
SUMMARY: The London Games will be remembered for many firsts, like women's boxing and 'blade runner' Oscar Pistorius racing for South Africa. Olympians pushed the limits of athleticism, breaking more world records. Jeffrey Brown talks to USA Today's Christine Brennan about the most memorable moments of the 2012 Summer Olympics.
SUMMARY: Forty years ago, when Title IX was first enacted, only one in 27 girls played sports. Fast-forward to 2012 and the numbers have increased to 2 out of every 5 girls. Kathryn Olson of Women's Sports Foundation talks to Jeffrey Brown about the amazing performance of American women at the London Olympics.
SUMMARY: U.S. Gymnastic's all-around champ Gabby Douglas struggled to keep focus in individual events, while track and field events ramp up with 100-meter dash, hurdles and high jumps. Margaret Warner talks to USA Today's Christine Brennan about the latest results from the London Games, including the success of British athletes.
SUMMARY: Jeffrey Brown continues his Olympics conversations with Christine Brennan of USA Today, with commentary on the 'breakthrough' win by Gabby Douglas, more results in men's swimming, including a match-up between Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte, and the badminton scandal that brought down the Chinese women's team.
SUMMARY: Using hashtags like #NBCFail, Olympics fans have tweeted complaints of delayed and incomplete programming and streaming restrictions for the London Games. Gwen Ifill talks to USA Today's Christine Brennan and The New York Times' Richard Sandomir about how online viewers are experiencing NBC's coverage of the 2012 Olympics.
SUMMARY: As the torch for the Olympics traveled through London, anticipation for the opening ceremonies was palpable. Independent Television News' Geraint Vincent reports from London while final preparations are completed for the start of the 2012 Games.
SUMMARY: Olympics-watchers have more options than ever for following the Games as they happen. Ray Suarez talks to sports writer Christine Brennan from London about security, how to watch and what to watch, including high-profile swimming, track and field and gymnastics match-ups, plus the story of a South African double-amputee runner.
GWEN IFILL (Newshour): A little more than a week before the torch is lit at the London Olympic Games and organizers are still grappling with a series of problems. They range from a decision today to trim opening night ceremonies that would have lasted past midnight to much more serious concerns, like a shortage of private security guards.
The British Home Office wrestled today with what to do about the security issue.
Keir Simmons of Independent Television News begins our coverage with this report.
KEIR SIMMONS: Already, the government is drafting in 3,500 extra military. They were continuing to set up camp in East London today. They may need plenty of space. Another 2,500 could be called upon.
Such is the failure of G4S to provide security staff. The company is training more people. But the opening ceremony is now desperately close.
The issue they are facing in here tonight comes down to this. Do they trust G4S if it says it now has enough staff, and get blamed if that turns out to be wrong again? Or do they call in even more service men and women and get criticized if they aren't needed? And they need to make the decision in the next 24 hours.
ITV News has learned that the home secretary overruled a plan to cut training like this in order to get more security guards. One proposal was even to teach G4S employees on site whilst they were already working. The idea that this was even suggested has some deeply worried.
KEITH VAZ, Home Affairs Select Committee: The concern yesterday was whether or not G4S would have the numbers on the day. The concern today is that those who turn up perhaps have not been trained as well as they should be to pick up those pieces of information and those telltale signs which mean that they should stop people.
KEIR SIMMONS: Tonight, the prime minister was visiting troops in Afghanistan. Some of the military working at the Olympics will have been serving here just weeks earlier.
DAVID CAMERON, British Prime Minister: When it comes to the Olympics, we have to have -- be ready for any contingency. We have to make sure they're a safe and secure Olympics. I salute and applaud what the military have done to step in, and I think they're doing an excellent job. If there are further steps we have to take, of course, we will take them.
KEIR SIMMONS: All the same, in Coventry and at venues across the country today, police were again needed, because too few G4S staff have turned up.
SUMMARY: ith a little more than a week until the Olympic opening ceremonies, issues such as transportation, weather and security have arisen. Gwen Ifill talks with Stephen Wilson of the Associated Press and Kevin Wamsley of Western University about whether organizers are fully prepared for the start of the games.
