Pedal to the Medal

Welcome to Melanin MVP 👋🏾, where we celebrate minority women athletes making history. I’m checking in from my couch on the 2024 Paris Olympics with this week’s sports highlights. When you reach the last word, let us know! 🥂

Women to Watch 🏅

• Team USA’s 4x400 mixed-race crew broke the world record in their relay heats. They went on to win the silver medal in this event.

• Simone Biles became the most decorated gymnast in history, got blocked by a previous Olympic gymnast, and made hoes mad all in 24 hours. A queen if I’ve ever seen one.

• Panamanian gymnast Hillary Heron lands the Biles 1, a move coined and performed by Simone Biles herself.

• Rebecca Andrade of Brazil made her presence known in the gymnastics world becoming a 3x medalist in this year’s games.

• USA Rugby co-caption Naya Tapper announces retirement after leading team to bronze medal.

• Egyptian fencer Nada Hafez competed while 7 months pregnant. While she didn’t medal, she definitely proved what a woman can do.

• Julien Alfred brings home the gold, the first-ever Olympic medal for St. Lucia, in the 100M race. Sha’Carri Richardson and Melissa Jefferson bring home silver and bronze respectively for Team USA. You can watch the race here. While I was rooting for Team USA to take the gold in this event, they’ll have another chance in the 4x100M relay.

• Team USA women’s 3x3 basketball team got off to a rough start, losing their first 3 games. They’ve since bounced back to win all 5 of their last games, launching them to the semi-finals starting tomorrow.

• Trinity Rodman scores the goal that takes the USWNT to the semi-finals. Absolutely incredible OT performance by the US soccer team.

• Harvard student Lauren Scruggs is now a 2x Olympic medalist receiving individual and team medals in fencing. She is the first Black woman to win an Olympic medal for fencing.

• Avery Skinner and the USA volleyball team are currently 3-1 in their Olympic bid and play France tomorrow. This team won gold in Tokyo and is looking to repeat.

• The Nigerian women’s basketball team got their first Olympic win in 20 years.

• Thea LaFond came to the US at 5 years old and is now bringing her home country their first medal. She earned the gold medal in the triple jump event while competing for Dominica.

Top Stories 📰

• Team USA women's gymnastics team name is still under development, but I know which one I like best.

• Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce announces her new hair care line at the Olympics.

• A’Ja Wilson stars in an ad for Mielle Organics and on the cover of Footwear News, because shining on the court with consecutive double-doubles in her first two games wasn’t enough.

• 12.7M people tuned into the women’s gymnastics final, 66,000 people attended the rugby women’s sevens match (making it the highest attended women’s rugby event), and 3M people watched the women’s 5x5 basketball USA vs Japan game (making it the 5th most watched WNBA game ever). All eyes are on women’s sports!

Only Fans 🏟️

• Janelle Monae narrates the journey of Sha’Carri Richardson.

• Taylor Swift shares a message with women athletes – they’ll never go out of style (and we’re betting on it).

• In case Team USA is looking for their next recruit, this baby gymnast and this 5-year-old in her Team USA leotard are already training.

• Sydney Colson of the Las Vegas Aces is completely over the announcer's commentary scrutinizing Simone Biles. The couch coaches have been out in spades these past few days.

• Leslie Jones has been a steadfast voice of support for Team USA once again in this year’s games. I can’t wait to see how she’ll be showing out for our Olympians when the games come to Los Angeles in 2028.

• Adele stops her concert in Germany to watch the women’s 100M final. Iconic.

• Looking like a proud mom, Megan Rapinoe is overjoyed by Trinity Rodman’s goal, which put the USWNT in the semifinals.

• Here’s an illustrated flipbook of Simone Biles doing flips, just because.

The Last Word 🥂

• I’m interested to see how discourse will unfold around the unfortunate situations that plagued Coco Gauff, Imane Khelif, Sha’Carri Richardson, and Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce. I would even include some of the comments made surrounding Diana Taurasi’s spot on the Olympic team that aren’t shared when speaking about LeBron James and others in a similar age range who are competing for Team USA. There need to be changes surrounding how women of color athletes are treated on arguably one of the largest stages in the world. While it’s common to have discourse around race and gender expression politics here in the States, this is a perfect intersectional occurrence of these conversations happening on a global stage. The investment in women athletes and women's sports is growing rapidly (led in large part by Flavor Flav, Alex Ohanian, Nike, and Michele Kang), but can we match that investment with safety, equity, and sustainable avenues for professional development?

• Many of the sports that Team USA is excelling in on the Olympic stage are not sports that are extremely popular in the United States. Aquatic events (swimming, diving, and rowing) gymnastics, and track & field don’t receive the same crowds or support as American football, basketball, baseball, and soccer. Some of this is due to infrastructure, access, and a lack of widespread broadcasting (like the fact that you can only watch the Olympics on Peacock or NBC rather than on ESPN or another, more popular streaming service). If the investment in women’s rugby and water polo is any example, I hope that investments in these athletes and sports to be seen on the screen and in person with greater frequency (aka not once every 4 years) will continue in the US.

• Since this is a sports media platform, it’s only right to acknowledge the gender, racial, and age disparities present in the sports photographers documenting the Olympics. This isn’t the answer factory, and I know there are no silver bullets to alleviate this problem. I do know that without intentionality and greater diversity, many stories will be mistold, untold, or underrepresented at the Olympic games. If traditional sports media cannot fill this gap, maybe countries will continue to invest in creators who can.

I’m sure there are more stories I’m missing, but I want to hear from you: What events and athletes are you most excited to see this week in Paris? Reply to this email or post them in the comments! We may share them in our next article!