Funkerstation » another four, five candidates, so well see.[url=

In July and August, espnWs weekly essay series will focus on body image.?Dominique Dawes was one of only seven to make it to the Olympic team in 1996, out of millions of girls who practice gymnastics.Aside from the near impossibility of this achievement, there were even more predetermined challenges set for Dawes from the moment she entered the gym -- simply because the sport wasnt cultivated for black girls like her. Her body was considered deviant or exotic even before she began her routine.In a 1995 Los Angeles Times?article, writer Maryann Hudson documented that Dawes critics believed that her look wasnt quite right, her legs were bowed or knees knobby and her hair askew. Dawes faced more than skewed perceptions of body image at the time -- she confronted centuries of racial prejudice that had grown in the sport of gymnastics.?The sport began in ancient Greece, but Germany and Czechoslovakia produced the current form of gymnastics in the early 19th century. In the second half of the 1900s, gymnasts from the Soviet Union dominated.Some of the most accomplished gymnasts were Larisa Latynina and Olga Korbut, who were described by publications as beautiful and pixie, images that invoked their elegance, diminutiveness and attractiveness.?Then during the Cold War, while the Soviet Union and the U.S. competed militarily, economically and politically, the tension manifested in gymnastics.?As Ann Kordas wrote in the book Girlhood: A Global History, the U.S. used images of young, productive, female gymnasts to demonstrate their countrys superiority, showing the American gymnast was able to discipline her body to produce superhuman-like strength.***Not only does the female gymnast represent liberation through her movement -- which can arguably be seen as feminist -- but she smashes social conventions on how a woman should present herself, according to Ann Chisholm, assistant professor in the department of communication studies at California State University, Northridge. When a gymnast flies in the air and bends her body before landing back on the floor in a balanced, poised form, that execution disregards natural law and physical restriction.For the female gymnast, her movement liberates her from expectations of what her body can and cannot do. Female gymnasts are generally petite and almost?perpetually styled with a smile on their faces. They generate this idea of cuteness and adorableness.When Dawes leapt through the air, stretching and contorting her body in front of a room teeming with white faces, she showed them, as well as the rest of the world, how black women could move and excel in traditionally white spaces, even if they had to take flight to do so. As a black woman, unlike her white female teammates, she was not afforded the chance to be cute or innocent.Its been 20 years since that fateful summer of 1996, but Dawes influence still reverberates throughout our present-day, brown-skinned, world-famous gymnasts. We live in an era when black gymnasts are more prolific, when it doesnt take much effort to find a Gabby Douglas or a Simone Biles. But the racism is still as pervasive.In 2012, Douglas was criticized for her hair despite becoming the first African-American woman in Olympic history to become an individual all-around champion. She was also given the nickname Flying Squirrel, which Dawes dismissed, arguably because it reduced Douglas to an animal and not a black woman. (Dawes nickname was Awesome Dawesome.) And after Biles became world champion, Italian gymnast Carlotta Ferlito joked that maybe she should paint her skin black in order to win, as if the sport was not nurtured for white women like her.In the August issue of Teen Vogue, Douglas admitted that the criticism of her hair and her muscular arms was so immense that she often felt like quitting. Biles said that she used to be self-conscious of her body, since it is stockier than those of her contemporaries, but that she has been able to move past that insecurity.Dawes legacy is unconventional, not only because of the way she found gymnastics but also because the sport, like many others, was not one in which every competitor had equal standing. By her presence alone, her body was politicized and isolated from everyone else. It was also under more intense scrutiny.Yet all of that disappeared when she performed.?When Dawes took to her floor routine in the 1996 Summer Olympics and landed her double layouts, 2.5-twist punch front through and full-in back-out without her knees wobbling or her legs giving out on her, she did more than just make history as the first African-American to win an individual Olympic medal in womens gymnastics, she subverted it.She did not get rid of the social and gendered dichotomies; rather, those notions harmoniously coexisted in her one body and the world has never been the same. Dominique Dawes body might not have been the norm, but neither was a black female in the history of gymnastics. And thankfully, because of her perseverance and sheer talent, she made it possible for more gifted black female gymnasts like herself to receive attention and acclaim.Morgan Jerkins is a New York writer and contributing editor at Catapult. 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Let us know which side youre on for UFC 167 use the hashtag #TeamLynch or #TeamJC on Twitter.SOELDEN, Austria -- Innsbruck would have an excellent chance of hosting the 2026 Winter Olympics if the Austrian city decides to bid for the games, a top IOC official said Friday.International Olympic Committee executive board member Gian Franco Kasper told The Associated Press that Innsbruck would need to join with other cities -- probably Salzburg and venues in Italy or Germany -- to be able to stage all events.They will have to find probably some partners. Nowadays its possible with the new Agenda 2020, Kasper said, referring to the IOCs reform program that allows more flexibility in hosting the games, including the possibility of using venues in other cities, and even in neighboring countries.They can go to northern Italy, to Bolzano for instance, with ice hockey, Kasper said. They could go to Munich also with (events on) ice. They could go to Salzburg, which is another possibility. All the outdoor sports can be done in Innsbruck directly. That could be good games.Kasper, who is president of the International Ski Federation, spoke a day after Austrian officials announced a feasibility study into a possible Innsbruck bid.He said hes very happy with the initiative by the Austrian Olympic Committee, the city of Innsbruck and the province of Tyrol, who jointly announced the study into financial, infrastructural and economic aspects of a potential candidacy.Innsbruck has hosted the Winter Games twice, in 1964 and 1976. Since then, Austria had several failed bids, most recently with Salzburg for the 2014 Games.If the feasibility study is positive outcome, a referendum will be held.dddddddddddd Lack of public support has recently been a stumbling block for many potential bid cities. In Austria, Vienna backtracked from plans to bid for the 2024 or 2028 Summer Olympics after a vast majority of its inhabitants voted against.For various reasons, all European candidates quit the race to host the 2022 Winter Games, which were awarded to Beijing. Potential bids from Germany and Switzerland were earlier rejected in referendums.With the 2018 Games taking place in South Korea, Europe seems in a strong position for 2026, which would be its first Winter Games in two decades.The IOC, and especially president Thomas Bach, has indicated to us in several meetings that bids from traditional winter sports areas, who have decade-long experience with staging big events, have good prospects, Austrian Olympic Committee president Karl Stoss said.Innsbruck is predestined for sustainable, likable games as it proved once again with the Youth Olympics in 2012, Stoss added.The IOC will accept bids for the 2026 Olympics next year, with the host to be chosen in 2019. Canada, Sweden, Switzerland and Ukraine have also expressed interest in bidding.I wouldnt say its Europes turn (in 2026), Kasper said. We have been in Asia three times with Summer and Winter Games but Sapporo is also candidate for 2026. Sapporo is in Asia of course but has a good chance, too. We will have another four, five candidates, so well se another four, five candidates, so well see.[url=l] ' ' '