Des manifestations spontanées rassemblant plusieurs milliers de personnes, ponctuées d’échauffourées avec les forces de l’ordre, ont éclaté lundi à Caracas après la réélection du président Nicolas Maduro. Les résultats suscitent le scepticisme de l’opposition, mais aussi de la communauté internationale, qui réclament une vérification du dépouillement.

Qu’il rende le pouvoir maintenant, ont lancé des milliers de manifestants dans plusieurs quartiers pauvres de Caracas, certains brûlant des affiches à l’effigie du président, ont constaté des journalistes de l’AFP.

Le peuple est énervé. C’est la fraude la plus large du monde, s’insurge Luis Garcia, 23 ans, dans la foule des protestataires à Pétaré, dans l’est de Caracas.

Pour la liberté de notre pays! Pour l’avenir de nos enfants, nous voulons la liberté, que Maduro s’en aille! crie Marina Sugey, 42 ans.

Les manifestants se dirigeaient vers le centre-ville quand les forces de l’ordre ont lancé des grenades lacrymogènes. Certains manifestants ont répondu par des jets de pierres.

D’autres affrontements se sont produits dans les quartiers populaires de Catya et d’El valle.

M. Maduro a été officiellement proclamé président du Venezuela par le Conseil nationwide électoral (CNE). Les Vénézuéliens ont exprimé leur volonté absolue en élisant Nicolas Maduro […] pour la période 2025-2031, a déclaré son président, Elvis Amoroso.

Lors de son discours, évoquant les réactions de l’opposition et de la communauté internationale, M. Maduro a dénoncé une tentative d’imposer un coup d’État fasciste et contre-révolutionnaire au Venezuela.

La veille, M. Amoroso avait dénoncé une agression contre le système de transmission des données qui a retardé le décompte. Ces décomptes par bureaux de vote que réclame l’opposition ne sont pas encore disponibles. Lundi, le parquet a ouvert une enquête, évoquant l’implication de la cheffe de l’opposition Maria Corina Machado dans ce piratage.

Notre fight proceed

Le Centre Carter, un des rares observateurs indépendants présents, a appelé le CNE à publier les résultats du scrutin de dimanche dans chaque bureau de vote.

Selon les résultats du CNE, M. Maduro, 61 ans, l’héritier de l’ancien président Hugo Chavez (1999-2013), a été réélu pour un troisième mandat d’affilée de six ans avec 5,15 hundreds of thousands de voix (51,2 %).

Le candidat de l’opposition, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, 74 ans, qui avait remplacé au pied levé Mme Machado, déclarée inéligible, en a recueilli un peu moins de 4,5 hundreds of thousands (44,2 %).

L’opposition, qui espérait mettre fin à 25 années de pouvoir chaviste, a aussitôt rejeté ce résultat. Mme Machado, pour qui M. Gonzalez Urrutia a obtenu 70 % des suffrages, a dénoncé la violation grossière de la volonté populaire.

Notre fight proceed. Nous ne nous reposerons pas tant que la volonté du peuple vénézuélien ne sera pas reflétée, a lancé M. Gonzalez Urrutia, sans appeler à manifester pour le second.

Transparence réclamée

Si M. Maduro a reçu le soutien de la Russie et de la Chine ainsi que de ses autres alliés – Cuba, Nicaragua, Honduras et Bolivie –, les réactions négatives ou sceptiques ont afflué de la communauté internationale.

Neuf pays d’Amérique latine (Argentine, Costa Rica, Équateur, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Pérou, République dominicaine, Uruguay) ont ainsi appelé lundi dans une déclaration commune à un réexamen complet avec la présence d’observateurs électoraux indépendants.

Le gouvernement brésilien a réaffirmé le principe fondamental de la souveraineté populaire et demandé la vérification impartiale des résultats.

Par le passé, le président brésilien Lula avait longtemps défendu son homologue vénézuélien face aux critiques internationales. Mais Brasilia avait durci le ton à l’approche de la présidentielle.

Luis Gilberto Murillo, le ministre des Affaires étrangères de la Colombie, dirigée par le président de gauche Gustavo Petro, a demandé un décompte complete des voix, sa vérification et un audit indépendant, automobile il est vital de dissiper les doutes sur les résultats.

Les États-Unis ont affirmé sérieusement craindre que le résultat annoncé ne reflète pas la volonté ou le vote du peuple vénézuélien.

La France a quant à elle appelé les autorités vénézuéliennes à faire preuve de transparence totale en publiant l’intégralité des procès-verbaux et des résultats, ce que réclame aussi l’opposition.

Tout comme le chef de la diplomatie de l’UE, Josep Borrell, qui a prôné sur X une transparence totale […] y compris le décompte détaillé des voix.

Caracas a réagi à cette levée de boucliers en retirant son personnel diplomatique de sept pays d’Amérique latine (Argentine, Chili, Costa Rica, Panama, Pérou, République dominicaine et Uruguay), estimant que leur place porte atteinte à la souveraineté nationale.

Ce n’est pas le résultat idéal pour Maduro, a estimé Rebecca Hanson, de l’Université de Floride. En matière d’acquisition d’une certaine légitimité internationale – ce qui était un objectif de M. Maduro –, cette élection a été un désastre.

Je suis un homme de paix et de dialogue

Dimanche soir, Nicolas Maduro a fêté sa victoire sur une scène musicale montée près du palais présidentiel.

Il y aura la paix, la stabilité et la justice. La paix et le respect de la loi. Je suis un homme de paix et de dialogue, a-t-il dit, alors que la campagne et le scrutin se sont déroulés dans une ambiance tendue, l’opposition dénonçant de nombreuses intimidations et arrestations.

Caracas avait limité la possibilité d’observer le déroulement du scrutin.

Le Venezuela, longtemps un des plus riches pays d’Amérique latine, est exsangue : effondrement de la manufacturing pétrolière, PIB réduit de 80 % en dix ans, pauvreté, systèmes de santé et éducatif totalement délabrés. Sept hundreds of thousands de Vénézuéliens ont fui leur pays.

Le pouvoir accuse le blocus criminel d’être à l’origine de tous les maux.

Les États-Unis avaient durci leurs sanctions pour tenter d’évincer M. Maduro après sa réélection déjà contestée de 2018, un scrutin entaché de fraudes selon l’opposition, qui avait débouché sur des manifestations sévèrement réprimées.

Nearly all the pieces went proper for the U.S. males’s basketball crew in its opening sport of the Paris Olympics, a 110-84 romp over Serbia. Kevin Durant dropped 23 factors on simply 9 photographs in his return from a calf damage, LeBron James delivered a classic efficiency and 5 totally different gamers scored in double figures. 

One of many gamers who did not, nonetheless, was Jayson Tatum. Actually, Tatum did not play in any respect on Sunday — one in all simply two gamers head coach Steve Kerr opted to go away on the bench, together with level guard Tyrese Haliburton. Haliburton’s absence is not too large of a shock; he is been the eleventh or twelfth man all summer season. Tatum, nonetheless, registers as an enormous shock, because the MVP candidate and 2023-24 NBA champion had been a key a part of Kerr’s rotation throughout Group USA’s tune-up video games over the previous few weeks.

So, what offers? Even given the embarrassment of riches at Kerr’s disposal, why would a participant of Tatum’s caliber not play in any respect? Let’s dig in to what is likely to be occurring.

Why did not Jayson Tatum play in U.S. sport vs. Serbia?

If you wish to take Kerr at his phrase, this was merely a basketball choice, one spurred on by the return of Durant.

Does that cross the odor take a look at? It makes some sense. First, Durant’s return made the U.S. even deeper on the wing. Second, Kerr has tinkered with lineups all summer season, and has advised the media a number of occasions that he wasn’t afraid to combine and match based mostly on opponent and circumstance. In a sport through which the U.S. wished to push the tempo, each to press its athleticism benefit over Serbia and to attempt to put on out star large man Nikola Jokic, the choice to take a seat Tatum would try.

Tatum is a methodical participant; he prefers a half-court sport, and he prefers to carry the ball and survey his choices. Given the problems that Kerr’s crew has had getting the ball transferring at occasions this summer season, you may type of perceive why the coach would go for totally different gamers who is likely to be extra prepared to push the tempo and simpler taking part in with out the ball — gamers like Tatum’s teammate, Derrick White, who may not be the star Tatum is, however is a wonderful defender and spot-up shooter who likes to throw the outlet cross and get out and run.

It is a lengthy match, with the deepest and most harmful discipline in Olympic historical past. Sooner or later, the U.S. goes to want a participant with the type of scoring and defending chops that Tatum brings, and Kerr’s choice to maintain Tatum on the bench will all be a distant reminiscence. Till then, credit score to Tatum for being totally engaged on the sideline and never making himself the story.

When gymnast Jordan Chiles competes within the Paris Olympics, her dad and mom, Gina and Timothy Chiles, will probably be there cheering her on.

“They’re on this journey with me and nonetheless making sacrifices,” Chiles, 23, mentioned earlier this yr about her dad and mom. “This sport is hard on the athletes, however the dad and mom undergo each emotion too—particularly my mother who can’t watch me with out virtually passing out.”

She added of her mother, Gina, “My mother has been my greatest supporter from the start, and she or he has helped me develop into the individual I’m as we speak. She helped me to keep in mind that my dream was mine and mine alone. It was as much as me to provide the ability to individuals who would gas my journey or to vary instructions and stroll away alone phrases. She taught me that nobody had the ability to simply take it away. She is my rock.”

In the meantime, her dad, Timothy, is “the individual I want within the hardest moments as a result of he has a manner of comforting me after I really feel overwhelmed,” Chiles mentioned. “There’s nothing just like the arms of my dad to make me really feel like all the things will one way or the other be okay.”

This is all the things it’s good to find out about Jordan Chiles’s dad and mom Gina and Timothy—who named their daughter Jordan, after none aside from Michael Jordan:

Who’s Jordan Chiles’s mother, Gina?

Gina is a senior pastor at In line with His Phrase Worship Heart, a church in Vancouver, Washington. She can also be a youngsters’s guide writer, writing Dream Large Little Chick, impressed by Jordan’s gymnastics profession on the Olympics. Jordan mentioned of her mother: “Ever since I used to be little, she all the time instructed me, ‘There’s just one Jordan, so be the most effective Jordan you might be.'”

In 2021, Gina pled responsible to wire fraud. In line with native KOIN 6 Information in Portland, “Court docket paperwork say she admitted stealing from her purchasers and mentioned she spent lots of of 1000’s of {dollars} on private bills.” She was sentenced to 1 yr and at some point in jail, starting her sentence in August 2021, and was launched 4 months early, in April 2022. Per KOIN 6, “Chiles certified for break day her sentence for good habits which possible prompted her early launch.”

Gina could be very lively on social media (@gina.chiles), posting in assist of her youngsters—particularly Jordan’s Olympic journey.

Who’s Jordan Chiles’s dad, Timothy?

Timothy based In line with His Phrase church in 2007. In line with his official bio, “Apostle Timothy C. Chiles Jr. traveled the nation ministering alongside his father in varied church buildings and tent revivals experiencing the miraculous energy of God touching the lives of many. He surrounded himself with music and track the place he basked within the glory of God’s anointing.” He’s additionally president of Higher Life Crusades, a global outreach ministry.

Along with Jordan, Timothy and Gina have 4 different youngsters: Jazmin, Jade, Tajmen, and Tyrus.

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That is an excerpt from CBC Sports activities’ day by day publication, The Buzzer. Subscribe right here to get the newest on the Paris Olympics in your inbox day by day.

Seventeen-year-old swimming sensation Summer time McIntosh gained her first Olympic medal (and Canada’s first of the Paris Video games) on Saturday, taking silver within the ladies’s 400m freestyle.

Although she appeared a bit dissatisfied, that was an excellent outcome for McIntosh. She was an underdog to Australia’s Ariarne Titmus, who repeated as Olympic champion, and McIntosh completed forward of six-time Olympic particular person gold medallist Katie Ledecky in perhaps essentially the most aggressive swimming occasion in Paris.

On Monday, McIntosh steps into the function of favorite. By lots. The betting odds indicate she has a greater than 90 per cent likelihood of profitable gold within the ladies’s 400-metre particular person medley — a gruelling occasion the place swimmers full eight laps utilizing 4 completely different strokes: the butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle.

McIntosh holds the world report within the 400 IM and is the de facto two-time reigning world champion. She gained back-to-back titles in 2022 and ’23 earlier than skipping this 12 months’s worlds — together with a lot of the planet’s prime swimmers — as a result of they occurred too near the Olympics. McIntosh additionally went back-to-back within the 200m butterfly, making her the primary Canadian swimmer to seize 4 world titles.

WATCH | CBC’s Meg Roberts appears forward to Day 3 of the Paris Olympics:

On the 2023 worlds, McIntosh gained the 400 IM by greater than 4 seconds over 18-year-old American Katie Grimes, who was additionally the runner-up in 2022. Different challengers embrace worlds bronze medallists Emma Weyant of the U.S. and Jenna Forrester of Australia. Reigning Olympic champion Yui Ohashi of Japan didn’t qualify.

The ladies’s 400 IM heats begin at 5 a.m. ET, and the ultimate is at 2:30 p.m. ET.

One different Canadian swimmer made Monday’s finals. Mary-Sophie Harvey will compete within the ladies’s 200m freestyle at 3:41 p.m. ET after putting eighth general in at this time’s semifinals. Titmus is favoured to repeat as Olympic champion. McIntosh took bronze within the 200 free ultimately 12 months’s worlds, however she dropped it from her Olympic slate to deal with her different 4 solo occasions.

Different prime Canadians to observe Monday

Judo: Christa Deguchi goes for gold

The 28-year-old Olympic rookie gained her second world title final 12 months and added a silver at this 12 months’s world championships. She’s ranked No. 1 on the planet and is favoured to win gold within the ladies’s 57-kilogram division.

The one-day match begins at 4 a.m. ET. Deguchi has a bye to the spherical of 16 and will probably be within the thirteenth match of the day on mat 1. The medal rounds start at 10 a.m. ET, so Deguchi may have an opportunity to win Canada’s first gold of the Video games.

For essentially the most half, this can be a single-elimination bracket. Besides, the 4 judokas who lose within the quarterfinals transfer right into a repechage draw the place they’ve a chance to win one of many two bronze medals that will probably be awarded.

Gymnastics: Canada within the males’s crew ultimate at 11:30 a.m. ET

The resurgent Canadian squad grabbed the eighth and ultimate spot in qualifying on Saturday. Félix Dolci and René Cournoyer additionally superior to the person all-around ultimate, which takes place Wednesday.

Canada’s ladies’s gymnastics crew certified for his or her ultimate by putting fifth on Sunday. 4-time Olympian Ellie Black led the way in which with an eighth-place end to qualify for the person all-around ultimate. She additionally superior to the vault ultimate with a seventh-place end as she tries to turn out to be the primary Canadian girl to win an Olympic medal in inventive gymnastics. Shallon Olsen will be a part of Black within the vault ultimate after putting sixth.

American star Simone Biles overcame an obvious calf damage to prime the ladies’s all-around leaderboard and lead the U.S. to first place in crew qualifying.

Girls’s basketball: Canada vs. France at 11:15 a.m. ET

The fifth-ranked Canadians have 4 energetic WNBA gamers: Kia Nurse (Los Angeles Sparks), Bridget Carleton (Minnesota Lynx), Laeticia Amihere (Atlanta Dream) and rookie Aaliyah Edwards (Washington Mystics). But it surely’s form of a miracle that they made it to the Olympics. 

At their last-chance qualifier in Hungary in February, all Canada wanted was to not end final within the four-team round-robin match. However they went 1-2, giving Hungary an opportunity to finish its 44-year Olympic drought with a win over Spain within the match finale. The hosts blew a 22-point lead and misplaced 73-72, handing Canada its fourth consecutive Olympic berth. 

Together with seventh-ranked France, Canada will face No. 3 Australia on Thursday and No. 12 Nigeria on Aug. 4. The highest two groups from every group and the 2 finest third-place groups qualify for the knockout stage.

Another issues to know

Divers Nathan Zsombor-Murray and Rylan Wiens go for the rostrum within the 10m synchronized ultimate. The duo took bronze on the 2022 world championships, changing into the primary Canadians to succeed in the rostrum on this occasion. They completed fifth at this 12 months’s worlds. The ultimate is Monday at 5 a.m. ET.

Canada’s ladies’s rugby sevens crew will attempt to preserve its medal hopes alive. After defeating Fiji and dropping to top-ranked New Zealand on Sunday, Canada closes out the group stage Monday at 10 a.m. ET in opposition to China. The quarterfinals start at 3 p.m. ET. The semifinals and medal matches are on Tuesday.

Each of Canada’s rowing boats are on the water Monday. After putting third of their opening-round warmth Sunday, the light-weight ladies’s double sculls duo of Jenny Casson and Jill Moffatt compete within the repechages at 5 a.m. ET. They should end within the prime three of their group to advance to Wednesday’s semifinals. The reigning Olympic champion ladies’s eight crew’s first-round warmth is at 6 a.m. ET. If they do not win it, it is off to the repechage on Thursday.

Canada’s prime seashore volleyball duo hits the sand. Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson, ranked third on the planet, play their ladies’s group-stage opener Monday at 9 a.m. ET. Heather Bansley and Sophie Bukovec will attempt to bounce again from their opening loss at 5 a.m. ET.

Three of Canada’s 4 singles tennis gamers reached the second spherical. Felix Auger-Aliassime, Bianca Andreescu and Leylah Fernandez gained their opening-round matches Sunday on the Roland Garros clay, whereas Milos Raonic was eradicated. Andreescu and Fernandez are scheduled to play once more Monday whereas Auger-Aliassime groups up with Raonic in males’s doubles. Fourteen-time French Open males’s champion Rafael Nadal of Spain additionally superior to arrange a showdown with Serbian rival Novak Djokovic on Monday. This is the complete tennis schedule.

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For a nerve-racking second, it appeared as if Simone Biles’s triumphant return to Olympic competitors was over earlier than it started.

After delivering a surprising beam routine at Bercy Enviornment on Sunday within the girls’s gymnastics qualifying occasion, Biles appeared to tweak her left decrease calf muscle throughout the ground warm-up.

Workforce USA’s medical workers taped up her leg and ankle, however Biles might nonetheless be seen gently limping and hopping – even briefly crawling off the vault runway. (Cécile Landi, considered one of Biles’s coaches, later informed reporters it was an damage Biles felt a few weeks in the past.)

However to those that frightened a few repeat of the Tokyo Video games, when Biles was pressured to withdraw throughout a vault routine after struggling a case of the “twisties” – a phenomenon by which an athlete loses their sense of the place they’re within the air – the GOAT revealed she had different plans.

Biles delivered a robust however not-quite-perfect ground routine, which nonetheless earned the excessive rating of the night time. She then adopted it up with an electrifying “Biles II” vault that garnered an astronomical 15.8 rating. This double pike manoeuvre is the game’s most troublesome vault and it’s named after her, as Biles is the one lady to have carried out it in worldwide competitors.

The 27-year-old, who already has 5 eponymous expertise, hoped so as to add a sixth at this Video games, however when the time got here throughout her uneven-bars portion, Biles performed it secure.

Nonetheless, the worldwide crowd jumped to its ft as one of the vital completed athletes on the earth accomplished her Olympic return.

Biles, who’s a four-time Olympic gold medalist – and likewise holds 23 world titles – comfortably led the ladies’s group with a complete rating of 59.566. She is going to advance to the all-around competitors, and in three of the 4 apparatuses; she simply missed the uneven bars qualifier.

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In the meantime, Workforce Canada achieved considered one of its main Olympic objectives in qualifying for the staff occasion, which will probably be held on Tuesday, after inserting sixth with a rating of 161.563. The Canadian girls’s staff hasn’t competed within the staff remaining in 12 years.

America completed first with 172.296, greater than 5 factors forward of second-place Italy.

Workforce veteran Ellie Black will probably be advancing to the person all-around competitors along with her teammate Ava Stewart, 18, of Bowmanville, Ont. Black additionally certified to advance within the vault equipment alongside Shallon Olsen, a 24-year-old from Surrey, B.C.

That is Black’s fourth Video games and with that have, the 28-year-old Halifax native has been appearing as a mentor to her youthful teammates, two of whom – Cassie Lee of Toronto and Aurélie Tran of Repentigny, Que. – are making their Olympic debut.

“Earlier than they went out at present, although, they’d slightly second within the again room and I might actually see the flicker of their eyes about being on the Olympic Video games. That was heartwarming to me as a result of that’s what it’s all about,” Black mentioned. “It’s about being right here, reaching that objective, and there are solely 5 women in Canada who get to try this.”

It was a packed home at Bercy Enviornment on Sunday, with celebrities resembling Woman Gaga, Snoop Dogg and Tom Cruise exhibiting as much as cheer on Biles.

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Even the Worldwide Olympic Committee acknowledged that Sunday was all about Simone Biles, who’s arguably this Video games’ greatest star. On the every day media briefing, officers acknowledged that the day marked her return they usually wished her effectively – a becoming second provided that the majority of the IOC’s presentation centred on its efforts to correctly elevate girls and girls’s sport.

Paris has styled itself as the primary Olympic Video games to attain parity between women and men.

“Gender equality has been mainstreamed all through every thing,” mentioned Marie Sallois, who runs the IOC’s sustainability technique.

From the symbolic moments – resembling having two flag bearers, a person and lady, gentle the cauldron – to the laborious numbers, officers mentioned there’s gender parity amongst volunteers, Video games’ workers and executives, and the variety of aggressive spots allotted for female and male athletes. (The IOC mentioned it could’t but give the precise breakdown of males to girls athletes, due to “variables within the qualification methods” with totally different federations and nationwide Olympic committees.)

Even the schedule has been created by way of a gender lens. Up to now, in a staff sport remaining, the ladies’s staff has gone first, whereas the lads get the finale, mentioned Yiannis Exarchos, the Olympic govt who offers with broadcasting rights. On the Paris Video games, organizers will probably be mixing it up.

It’s a coverage that’s lengthy overdue, he mentioned, and it comes at a time when among the greatest storylines in sport centre on girls athletes.

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For 11-year-old Nyla Easterling, who got here to Paris from Texas along with her dad and mom Adrian and Latori to cheer on Workforce USA, there are not any greater stars than Biles and her teammates.

“I’m a Stage 7 gymnast and I really like to look at Simone and [American gymnast] Jordan Chiles,” she mentioned.

Easterling and her dad and mom had been bedecked in matching customized T-shirts that had been emblazoned with photos of Workforce USA, with Biles, after all, positioned entrance and centre.

Joel Embiid is the most important NBA star attempting to ship Workforce USA males’s basketball its fifth-straight gold medal on the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Actually. 

Listed as 7-feet and 280 kilos, Embiid’s presence alongside LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and the remainder of Workforce USA makes an already imposing roster appear to be a humiliation of riches.

REQUIRED READING:Observe USA TODAY’s full protection of the 2024 Paris Olympics

The Philadelphia 76ers heart averaged an NBA-best 34.7 factors per sport in the course of the 2023-24 season, only one 12 months faraway from being named the league’s most useful participant. He’ll crew with Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis and Bam Adebayo of the Miami Warmth to kind a trio of massive males not like any on the planet.

However this will probably be Embiid’s first time collaborating in a world competitors, and his path to those Olympics has been completely different from the remainder of his teammates. Embiid had choices, and his option to play for Workforce USA raised eyebrows stateside and overseas.

Right here’s what it is advisable to find out about Embiid’s choice to characterize america, and the way he wound up donning the purple, white and blue in Paris:

The place is Joel Embiid from?

Embiid was born in Yaounde, Cameroon and largely performed soccer and volleyball rising up there. He didn’t begin enjoying basketball till he was 15 years outdated. He moved to america a 12 months later after NBA participant and fellow Cameroon native Luc Mbah A Moute seen him at a basketball camp in Africa.

Embiid has performed within the states ever since then, rising as a five-star recruit at The Rock College in Gainesville, Florida, per his 247Sports Composite profile. He then performed one season at Kansas. Embiid was chosen by the 76ers with the No. 3 general decide within the 2014 NBA draft and has performed in Philadelphia throughout his complete skilled profession.

What nationality is Joel Embiid?

Born in Cameroon, Embiid additionally had the chance to play for France or his native nation within the Olympics. He gained citizenship to France in Could 2022 by a clause there that permits naturalization to a foreigner whose naturalization is “of remarkable curiosity.” Embiid then revealed in September 2022 that he had additionally change into a United States citizen, and cited his son because the motivation.

How is Joel Embiid enjoying for Workforce USA?

A 12 months later, when Embiid introduced he had dedicated to play for Workforce USA in Paris, his household’s connection to america was the figuring out issue.

“It was not simple,” Embiid wrote in a put up on X (previously Twitter) explaining his choice in October 2023. “I’m blessed to name Cameroon, France, and the USA dwelling. “After speaking to my household, I knew it needed to be Workforce USA. I wish to play with my brothers within the league. I wish to play for my followers as a result of they’ve been unimaginable for the reason that day I got here right here. However most of all, I wish to honor my son who was born within the US. I would like my boy to know I performed my first Olympics for him.”

MORE:Workforce USA males’s and ladies’s basketball odds at 2024 Paris Olympics

Was Embiid’s choice to hitch Workforce USA controversial?

It actually has been in France.

When Embiid was granted French citizenship, hypothesis instantly adopted that he was planning to characterize France two years later when it hosted the Olympics. There was the potential to crew with Victor Wembanyama and Rudy Gobert.

Former NBA participant Boris Diaw, who at present serves as the overall supervisor of the French nationwide crew in males’s basketball, insisted to The Athletic that Embiid approached a number of occasions in the course of the 2021-22 NBA season about his curiosity in enjoying for France.

When France beat america 83-76 in the course of the 2020 Olympics, snapping Workforce USA’s 25-game profitable streak in Olympic competitors, Embiid even tweeted, “Allez les Bleus” in celebration.

“Joel got here to us and stated that he wished to play worldwide basketball, he stated he wished to win, and he stated he wished to play for France and he wished to win with France,” Diaw instructed The Athletic. “So we listened to him.”

This led French officers to bypass the standard routes to realize citizenship. Embiid didn’t have direct French heritage, nor had he lived in France for not less than two years. However he and his son have been granted a French passport due to what France may accomplish on the Olympics with him.

Embiid, nevertheless, by no means did play for France, and selecting to play for america was not met kindly by the French. 

“Workforce USA, with him, who can beat you? Come on, no person,” French Basketball Federation president Jean-Pierre Siutat instructed The Athletic. “That is a simple means for him to get an Olympic medal.”

Frederic Weis — the previous French nationwide participant who infamously bought dunked on by Vince Carter in the course of the 2000 Olympics — took it much more personally.

NBA FREE AGENCY:Joel Embiid on the Philadelphia 76ers offseason strikes, together with Paul George signing

“I hate him for the issues that he did. I believe he would not have any respect for France and in addition for all of the people who find themselves asking for a French passport and do not get it. And underneath the pretext that he’s an amazing athlete, he bought it,” Weis stated in April, by way of Eurohoops.web. “I discover it scandalous, I discover it embarrassing. I do not care about his excuses, as a result of they’re his phrases, and his phrases imply nothing.

“I’d take away from him the French nationality and I’d ban him from coming into France,” Weis added. “You’ll not play within the Olympics. You’ll come to the airport with Workforce USA and we’ll say, ‘You do not have the proper to enter the territory, go to your own home. You might be Cameroonian, you might be American, you aren’t French, go away.'”

In the course of the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony, Workforce USA teammate Tyrese Haliburton jokingly sounded an identical chorus in a video posted on his Instagram account.

“Give your passport again,” Haliburton stated.

“I am American, man,” Embiid responded, waving a miniature American flag from the boat carrying america delegation of athletes alongside the Seine River in the course of the parade of countries.

Embiid stated in July at Workforce USA coaching camp he isn’t anxious a couple of impolite reception when he arrives in Paris.

“I do not suppose it needs to be something, but when it is greater than that, I embrace it,” Embiid instructed The Athletic. “I do not suppose you will get worse than enjoying in New York within the playoffs.”

Who else born exterior america has performed for Workforce USA?

Hakeem Olajuwon (born in Nigeria) and Patrick Ewing (born in Jamaica) are probably the most well-known earlier examples of naturalized residents to characterize america in males’s basketball on the Olympics.

Joel Embiid profession highlights

Embiid didn’t play his first two years within the league on account of a lingering foot damage. However within the eight seasons since then, he has amassed fairly the resume. Listed below are a few of his notable accomplishments:

• 2022-23 NBA MVP
• 7-time NBA All-Star
• 5-time all-NBA choice (first crew in 2023, second crew in 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022)
• 2-time NBA scoring champion (2021-22 and 2022-23)

On her first day of competitors on the 2024 Olympic Video games, the gymnast Simone Biles appeared to harm her leg throughout a warm-up routine — an harm that prompted issues however finally didn’t preserve her from finishing her routines and ending in first place.

After the competitors, Biles’s coach, Cecile Landi, downplayed the importance of the harm. “She felt a little bit one thing in her calf,” Landi stated.

Regardless of the harm, Biles posted excessive scores, together with a competition-high 15.8 on the vault. Joined by robust performances from her teammates, it was sufficient to safe a spot for the U.S. girls’s gymnastics group within the group all-around closing on Tuesday, by which the U.S. is a favourite to win gold. The person all-around closing is about for Thursday.

There are at present no issues “in the intervening time” about Biles’s skill to compete in these occasions, Landi stated.

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Biles appeared to harm her leg throughout a warm-up for the ground train, her second equipment of the night time. After touchdown a cross, Biles walked gingerly off the mat the place she consulted together with her coaches then disappeared briefly from the ground. Afterward, she returned to have her ankle and decrease calf wrapped with thick athletic tape.

Regardless of the harm, Biles went on to finish her remaining routines, scoring a excessive of 15.8 on the vault. “By no means in her thoughts” was there a query of whether or not she would proceed, Landi stated.

Expectations for Biles and the remainder of the U.S. girls’s gymnastics group are sky-high at this Olympic Video games in Paris.

Biles, 27, has been performing on the highest degree of her profession since she returned to competitors final yr after a two-year hiatus. She is taken into account the favourite to win at the very least three particular person gold medals, together with a group all-around gold for the U.S.

An harm might set these aspirations again. “At first, I simply wish to make sure that she’s bodily okay, after which we’re simply going to go from there,” stated girls’s group technical lead Chellsie Memmel. “What she was capable of do, with wanting like she had some soreness or one thing in her decrease leg, is outstanding.”

Biles had briefly skilled a problem together with her calf earlier this month, Landi revealed. “After that, it stopped. Then a little bit bit once more at the moment,” Landi stated. “Just a bit ache in her calf.”

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The U.S. girls’s group completed their spherical of {qualifications} with the highest spot on the group rankings. Gymnasts Jordan Chiles and Sunisa Lee, the defending gold medalist within the particular person all-around, each completed about 3.5 factors behind Biles.

“Their objective, it’s totally apparent, is to come back house with a gold medal,” Memmel stated.

In three of Sunday’s rounds, Biles carried out final. Consequently, as her rivals rested, she drew the complete consideration of a crowd of about 15,000, a lot of whom — together with celebrities Snoop Dogg, Tom Cruise and Anna Wintour — had come largely to see her.

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