Saturday Open Thread | Michelle Carter wins 1st US Olympic gold in women’s shot put

Posted on August 13, 2016 by SouthernGirl2

Michelle Carter

About SouthernGirl2

A Native Texan who adores baby kittens, loves horses, rodeos, pomegranates, & collect Eagles. Enjoys politics, games shows, & dancing to all types of music. Loves discussing and learning about different cultures. A Phi Theta Kappa lifetime member with a passion for Social & Civil Justice.
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89 Responses to Saturday Open Thread | Michelle Carter wins 1st US Olympic gold in women’s shot put

  2. rikyrah says:
    August 13, 2016 at 10:25 pm

    Black Woman for Heptathalon from BELGIUM….

    um…ok….

    And, she’s 21!!!

    Reply
  13. rikyrah says:
    August 13, 2016 at 9:20 pm

    This University’s Athletes Are Dominating the U.S. Olympic Team

    by Polina Marinova @polina_marinova
    AUGUST 9, 2016, 10:00 AM EDT

    Olympic gold-medalist Katie Ledecky has been called “a speed demon,” “the most dominant swimmer in the pool,” and even “the greatest athlete in the world today.”

    But the 19-year-old will have another title when she returns from the Olympic Games this fall – Stanford University freshman.

    Joining her in Rio will be 30 other current and former Stanford athletes – among them, swimmers Lia Neal, Simone Manuel and Maya DiRado.

    Stanford students and alumni will participate in swimming, diving, water polo, sailing, rowing, soccer, tennis, volleyball, equestrian, rugby, and fencing events this year, according to information provided by the U.S. Olympic Committee. The university has produced at least one medalist in every Olympics in which the U.S. has competed since 1912. Bernard Muir, Stanford’s athletic director, says this achievement is “synonymous with Stanford Athletics’ reputation as the nation’s most successful athletics program.”

    Reply
  16. rikyrah says:
    August 13, 2016 at 9:04 pm

    Simone’s going home with 2 Gold and 2 Silver. Not a bad Olympics…NOt at all….

    Reply
  17. SouthernGirl2 says:
    August 13, 2016 at 9:03 pm

    Kiddos are here and we’re having a fish fry…

    https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/764641973529513985

    Reply
  18. rikyrah says:
    August 13, 2016 at 8:55 pm

    Luvvie weighs in as only she can:

    The Simones Sprinkled Black Girl Gold Dust at the Olympics
    Awesomely Luvvie
    August 12, 2016

    It is a good time to be named “Simone.” Yesterday, Simone Biles and Simone Manuel won gold medals in their respective competitions at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. They both made history while doing it too and I was ready to lose my voice as I hollered last night.

    First Simone B. won the gold medal in all-around gymnastics, which basically means she’s the real MVP of those mats. She’s the chief executive officer of tumbling and the chair of the board of bars. This made her the first woman in 20 years to win back-to-back world and Olympic all around titles.

    All I know is that Simone Biles went to the Olympics and annihilated her opponents with grace. The girl did some gravity-defying moves with her body that made me think gravity was just like “I’m on break” whenever she was performing. My goodness! I tried to do two cartwheels in a row and fell into my closet. Meanwhile, Simone was in Rio catching air and I wondered if she was wearing an invisible jet pack. Wonders shall never cease. There are superheroes who live amongst us.

    ………………………………..

    And just when we thought the name “Simone” couldn’t get any more shine, here comes Simone Manuel, from the American swimming team. Unlike Biles, she had been really slept on. She was not the one who has been getting attention as one to watch.

    Simone Manuel decided she wanted to blow folks outta the water on the stage that mattered the most. And the stone that was rejected became the chief cornerstone when the girl from Sugar Land, Texas, tied to win the gold medal in the 100-meter freestyle. She also broke an Olympics record while doing it, getting a time of 52.70 with Canadian swimmer Penny Oleksiak.

    When she touched the wall and looked back, and saw the number 1 next to her name, the look on her face is THE BEST.

    …………………………..

    And Simone Manuel won the gold medal at the Olympics. I cried watching her cry during the medal ceremony. I cannot imagine how overwhelmed she must have felt. But she got the significance

    …………………………..

    I told y’all it’s the BLACKEST YEAR EVER. It is hella onyx. It is peak noir. The Simones went to Rio to the Olympics to sprinkle Black Girl pixie dust all over the place in Ancestral August and I’M HERE FOR IT. I’m about to start telling people that my 4th middle name is Simone.

    Reply
  25. rikyrah says:
    August 13, 2016 at 8:05 pm

    Simone gets the Silver in the 50!

    Reply
  27. rikyrah says:
    August 13, 2016 at 7:22 pm

    New documentary on black swimmers is right on time
    A dive into the exclusion of blacks in American pools and the culture of blacks and water in the Caribbean
    BY MARTENZIE JOHNSON
    @MARTENZIE

    On Thursday night at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Stanford University swimmer Simone Manuel became the first African-American woman to win an individual swimming medal at any Olympic Games. Manuel tied with Canada’s Penny Oleksiak in the 100-meter freestyle, breaking an Olympic and American record with a time of 52.70 seconds on the way. She was joined in triumph by Stanford teammate and good friend Lia Neal, who earlier in the week captured a silver medal as a part of the 4×100 freestyle relay. Together, along with Maritza McClendon, who in 2004 became the first black female U.S. Olympic swimming team member, these women are also breaking down the barriers of entry for African-Americans into pools.

    The Black Line, a new documentary from Emmy-nominated producer Stan Jakubowicz, takes a deep dive into the historical exclusion of blacks in American swimming pools while also examining the rich culture of blacks and water in the Caribbean. Featuring a star-studded cast including three-time Olympic gold medalist Rowdy Gaines, U.S. women’s swimming coach Dave Marsh and 16-year-old black swimming sensation Reece Whitley, The Black Line is poised to eliminate the stereotype that black people don’t swim. “The fastest woman in the United States is African-American,” a contributor stated. “She’s black.”

    “Nothing about the top layer of your skin has to do with swimming,” another said.

    Reply
  33. rikyrah says:
    August 13, 2016 at 5:24 pm

    A ‘Sex and the City’ for African Viewers
    By JADA F. SMITH
    AUG. 13, 2016

    Let’s get this out of the way up front: “An African City,” the steamy Ghanaian web series about five young women looking for love in Accra, is an unabashed rip-off of “Sex and the City.” There are the ubiquitous five-inch strappy sandals, the scene-stealing dresses made of Fanti fabric and the bevy of men who hop in and out of the beds of Nana Yaa, Makena, Zainab and Sade. The women are as free and liberal about sex as their American HBO foremothers, with the exception of the fifth character, Ngozi, who is such a Charlotte.

    The women fit perfectly into Carrie- or Miranda-type boxes. Nana Yaa, the main character, is a radio journalist who ponders existential dating questions in voice-overs throughout the show. Zainab and Makena both function as a Miranda — fiercely independent and all about their business. Ngozi is the church girl who works for a nongovernmental organization and purses her lips at too much talk about the male anatomy. And Sade is Samantha, with condoms spilling from the designer handbags that her rich, married boyfriend buys for her. The women spend an enormous amount of time sipping cocktails in dimly lit restaurants as they chat about rolling power outages, good condom etiquette and men who expect them to leave their jobs and make fufu all day.

    But the show’s creator, Nicole Amarteifio, who moved from Ghana to New York and then back again, is also presenting an unseen side of culture on a continent that is usually depicted with footage of war, famine and poverty. There is none of that here. Instead, “An African City” struts into the lives of well-off African women. Makena is an Oxford-trained lawyer, and Sade graduated from Harvard Business School. Zainab sits atop a growing shea butter empire, and Nana Yaa’s father is the country’s minister of energy. Through the five women, “An African City” explores what it means to be a westernized young woman readjusting to the culture and surroundings of her home continent.

    The five women are all “returnees,” the children of families who left Ghana for the West and then came home with so-called “returnee savior syndrome.” The phrase “to whom much is given, much is required” could be their unofficial motto, as it frames their interactions and challenges their way of thinking. They are constantly fretting about whether they would tip so little if back in Manhattan, or why the “white wedding” is considered better than a traditional one.

    Reply
  47. Ametia says:
    August 13, 2016 at 3:45 pm

    I’d love it, if NBC would put up videos of the actual GOLD MEDAL CEREMONIES for these GROUND-BREAKING BLACK ATHLETES!

    Just saying

    Reply
  64. rikyrah says:
    August 13, 2016 at 12:14 pm

    Ferguson’s bumbling court costs Naval vet his security clearance
    St. Louis Post-Dispatch 12 hrs ago

    Fred Watson isn’t that guy who gets picked up for a broken taillight and ends up spending the night in jail because he has unpaid traffic tickets.

    Until a couple of years ago, he had a top-secret security clearance. Watson worked in the cybersecurity field for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, or NGA. He didn’t have a record. He owned his home. He pulled down six figures. The Navy veteran describes himself as “meticulous” about everything. His records. His clothes. The way he lives his life.

    “I’m one way,” Watson, 36, says. “There is no in between.”

    On Aug. 1, 2012, though, Watson found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. His life has never been the same. It was two years before Ferguson found itself in the national spotlight, and Watson was in that city’s Forestwood Park, playing basketball with his friends. Watson grew up in St. Louis, but three generations of his relatives lived in Ferguson. He had played basketball at that park for nearly 20 years.

    After five or six games, he sat in his car and cooled off. He changed into dry clothes, folded them neatly in the back, and drove to the parking lot by the baseball field, where a game was going on. He sat in his car, sipped water, cooled down and watched baseball.

    Then Eddie Boyd III showed up. Boyd is, and was, a police officer in Ferguson. He had resigned as a cop in St. Louis after facing multiple internal affairs investigations where he had been accused of roughing up victims. The muni-shuffle brought him to Ferguson.

    Boyd parked his police cruiser in front of Watson’s car, which was legally parked in the parking lot.

    This is the moment when Watson’s life changed.

    “He asked me for my Social Security number,” Watson told me. “I said no.”

    Watson, a law-abiding citizen who had done nothing wrong, was well within his rights. He knew what was coming, a form of harassment common in Ferguson, outlined in detail in the Department of Justice report that would come out following the shooting of Michael Brown, which would happen two full years after Watson’s interaction with Boyd.

    Reply
  67. rikyrah says:
    August 13, 2016 at 11:53 am

    The contextual history that surrounds Simone Manuel’s win..some want to ignore it. Fortunately, Simone is not one of them.

    https://twitter.com/michele_norris/status/764140809528676352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

    Reply
  72. Ametia says:
    August 13, 2016 at 10:34 am

    Good Morning, Everyone. Off for company picnic today.

    Reply
  74. SouthernGirl2 says:
    August 13, 2016 at 9:46 am

    Black women are rocking it out in #RioOlympics2016

    Kerry Washington Mary J Blige Gif

    Reply
  75. rikyrah says:
    August 13, 2016 at 9:16 am

    First American female shot put medal since 1960!

    Reply
  76. rikyrah says:
    August 13, 2016 at 9:15 am

    Good Morning 😊, Everyone 😆

    Reply
  78. Double D (@DubbleDhee) says:
    August 13, 2016 at 6:43 am

    Congrats to Michelle Carter (aka #ShotDiva). 1st ever OlympicGold medal for US women in the Shot Put! Reppin’ for the BBW’s

    Reply
  79. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    August 13, 2016 at 6:07 am

    Congratulations Michelle Carter!!!

    Reply

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