Vox - Rio 2016: Olympics news and updateshttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/52517/voxv.png2017-06-24T12:25:00-04:00http://www.vox.com/rss/stream/118088512017-06-24T12:25:00-04:002017-06-24T12:25:00-04:00Handstands, explained
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<figcaption>Olympic gymnast Gabby Douglas is very good at controlling her center of mass. | Ezra Shaw/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>It’s simple physics.</p> <p id="shwMr0"><span>The 4-inch-wide balance beam, </span><a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/international/ct-balance-beam-olympic-gymnastics-spt-0808-20160807-story.html">called</a><span> "the most unforgiving surface in sports," may be the most mind-boggling of the four events in women’s gymnastics. It tests even the phenomenal Simone Biles, the five-time Rio Olympics medalist who wobbled and grabbed the beam to keep from falling — but still managed to medal in the event last summer.</span></p>
<p id="o3cgvf">Our brains can handle some balance without much effort: We take thousands of steps a day, and for split seconds between each stride we are balancing on one foot. That’s easy because our legs are strong and our feet have enough relative surface area to hold our weight.</p>
<p id="sv7yRi">But swap your hands or your toes for your feet, and it gets hard. For years, I have tried to teach myself to stand on my hands for long periods of time (more than 10 seconds, let’s say). I have managed to do it, but not consistently. And too often, I use the wall as a crutch — to catch me when I kick up too hard and start to fall backward.</p>
<p id="Lx1PKJ">Perfecting the art of the handstand has deepened my appreciation of gymnasts like Olympian Gabby Douglas, above, who perform exquisite feats of hand balancing on the beam.</p>
<p id="4rkAq4">But I’ve also learned how to think about my body in a new way and appreciate its center of mass. So let's dive into the physics, in honor of <a href="https://www.facebook.com/internationalhandstandday/" target="_blank">International Handstand Day</a>.</p>
<h3 id="rTu6o9">Get to know your center of mass</h3>
<p id="FVMpSg">An object's center of mass is the "average weighted position of all of the tiny masses that comprise the object," according to the American Physical Society’s website <a href="http://physicscentral.com/explore/plus/handstand-physics.cfm">Physics Central</a>.</p>
<p id="4oaR4R">We humans have a center of mass that’s generally right above our bellybuttons. And the key to the handstand is to make sure your center of mass always remains right over your hands. So rather than worry about where your feet are once you’re perpendicular to the ground, you focus on your core.</p>
<p id="GGakcz">The best thing I’ve ever seen that helps explain how this works is this GIF, annotated by <a href="https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/cps/post-docs/jon-matthis.php">Jonathan Matthis</a>, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas Austin who studies visual control in locomotion.</p>
<div id="YIy2AY"><video height="auto" width="100%"> <source type="video/mp4" src="https://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/6925405/k9ryJq7.0.mp4"></source> Your browser does not support the video tag. </video></div>
<p id="dz6eqP">Matthis tells me that he saw the original version on the <a href="https://www.instagram.com/simonsterata/">Instagram feed </a>of the handstander himself, Las Vegas–based Aussie breakdancer and athlete Simon Sterara.</p>
<p id="sCPUcp">Matthis realized Sterara’s video was a perfect case study of the biomechanics of balance. "A person is a very complicated object," Matthis tells me. "But you can condense it down to that point: the center of mass. You can use it to approximate the mechanics of physics of a complex body."</p>
<p id="BhWBRh">What Sterara manages to do in this incredible handstand is move in a perfect vertical line, without arching his back. "All of his movements are balanced, so the center of mass movement only goes straight up and down," says Matthis.</p>
<p id="bK1L2Y">The other secret to handstands is subtle actions of hands and fingers, which can help you steer your center of mass. If you look closely, you can see Sterara pushing into the ground as he descends. "The only place force can come from is in your hands," says Matthis. "You can only push on the ground to push the center of mass toward one line or the other."</p>
<p id="gY5EeH">Here’s more specific <a href="http://physicscentral.com/explore/plus/handstand-physics.cfm">advice</a> from Physics Central on how to use force to control center of mass: "If you start to fall forward, press hard into your fingertips, and your body will oscillate back toward an upright position. Inversely, if you start falling backward, you need to push into the base of your hand at the palm."</p>
<p id="sXPrCx">In addition to grappling with force and mass, you’re going to need core strength, arm and shoulder strength, and open shoulders to nail the handstand. (These <a href="http://www.yogajournal.com/pose/handstand/">step-by-step instructions</a> from Yoga Journal and <a href="http://pccblog.dragondoor.com/handstands-will-make-better-everything/">Progressive Calisthenics</a> are helpful.) You may have to practice everyday. But the beauty of this process is that you can teach your brain to become more comfortable with defying gravity.</p>
<p id="VPJui0">Scientists actually still have much to learn how the brain controls balance and movement. As Thomas Jessell of the Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute at Columbia University <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/07/28/how-does-simone-biles-have-such-incredible-balance-a-neuroscientist-weighs-in/">told</a> the Washington Post, the nervous system of an athlete like Simone Biles might have "innately good ‘wiring.’" But neuroscientists like him still haven’t ever located such special wiring in the brain. So science may one day school us further in the pursuit of the perfect handstand.</p>
<p id="O1tfZH"> </p>
https://www.vox.com/2016/8/11/12132588/balancing-hands-handstand-secretEliza Barclay2016-09-14T14:20:07-04:002016-09-14T14:20:07-04:00Simone Biles refused to be shamed for her ADHD medication after hackers leaked her private records
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<p>Hackers tried to imply Simone Biles was doping. She used the leak to reduce ADHD stigma instead.</p> <p id="qYlIHD">When hackers tried to use Olympic gymnast Simone Biles’s use of prescription medication to downplay her athletic abilities, Biles flipped the script and used the leak to send a personal message about stigma and mental health. </p>
<p id="fyAAer">The four-time Olympic gold medalist was the victim of a cyber attack on Tuesday after a Russian cyber espionage group known as Fancy Bear hacked the World Anti-Doping Association database and released private medical records to the public, WADA confirmed in an <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2016-09/wada-confirms-attack-by-russian-cyber-espionage-group">official statement</a>.</p>
<p id="x19J1i">According to <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/2016-rio-summer-olympics/experts-same-russians-hacked-olympic-whistleblower-democrats-n637871">NBC News</a>, the records showed Biles tested positive for “methylphenidate,” more commonly known as <a href="https://www.drugs.com/methylphenidate.html">Ritalin</a>, in August. She disclosed to the governing body that she was taking the medication for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which she’s had since she was a child, and was approved under WADA’s therapeutic use exemptions.</p>
<p id="K8PiE5">“Please know, I believe in clean sport, have always followed the rules, and will continue to do so as fair play is critical to sport and is very import to me,” Biles <a href="https://twitter.com/Simone_Biles/status/775783400808583169">tweeted</a>.</p>
<p id="Qdhaa4">Biles didn’t stop there. She also rebuked the idea that she should be shamed for taking medication in the first place.</p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Having ADHD, and taking medicine for it is nothing to be ashamed of nothing that I'm afraid to let people know.</p>— Simone Biles (@Simone_Biles) <a href="https://twitter.com/Simone_Biles/status/775785767855611905">September 13, 2016</a>
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<p id="ZHGA06">Hackers attempted to discredit Biles’s <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/video/sports/100000004588694/simone-biles-is-the-worlds-best-gymnast.html">gravity-defying</a> performances as the product of doping and not that of a dedicated gymnast who turned her raw talent into unparalleled skills. But in attempting to “bust” Biles for doping, hackers also tapped into a very present stigma surrounding mental health that many people have been fighting against.</p>
<h3 id="HCuAvu">Destigmatizing mental health care is necessary — especially for people of color</h3>
<p id="v6EJut">A 2011 study showed that <a href="http://apps.who.int/medicinedocs/documents/s19032en/s19032en.pdf">20</a><a href="http://apps.who.int/medicinedocs/documents/s19032en/s19032en.pdf"> percent</a> of Americans take at least one prescription for psychological and behavioral disorders. Still, mental health taboos persist.</p>
<p id="90hisc">“Stigma is one of the most challenging aspects of living with a mental health condition,” Laura Greenstein wrote for the <a href="http://www.nami.org/Blogs/NAMI-Blog/October-2015/9-Ways-to-Fight-Mental-Health-Stigma#">National Alliance on Mental Illness</a> last year. “It causes people to feel ashamed for something that is out of their control and prevents many from seeking the help they need and speaking out.”</p>
<p id="gXovbJ">Last September, blogger Erin Jones, who is on the autism spectrum and deals with anxiety and depression, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/MuthaLovinAutism/posts/977603895635840:0#">posted a selfie</a> with a caption about taking medication for her mental health. The selfie went viral, and sparked the hashtag campaign <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MedicatedAndMighty?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Medicated</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MedicatedAndMighty?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">A</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MedicatedAndMighty?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">ndMighty</a>.</p>
<p id="Y1GTzK">“I have tried living this<strong> </strong>life without prescription help,” Jones <a href="https://www.facebook.com/MuthaLovinAutism/posts/977603895635840:0#">wrote</a> on Facebook. “It seems to have me on top of the world one minute and rocking in the corner the next. There is no consistency. I’m done with that.”</p>
<p id="B91qoA">She added: “Sometimes, folks, we just need help.” But for people of color like Biles, cultural and institutional barriers can get in the way.</p>
<p id="uUmeP5"><a href="http://www.nami.org/Find-Support/Diverse-Communities/African-Americans">According</a> to NAMI, African Americans are 20 percent more likely to be dealing with mental health issues. Among the most common problems are depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. </p>
<p id="kjtNA8">Nonetheless, Monnica T. Williams, a clinical psychologist at the University of Louisville, pointed out at <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/culturally-speaking/201111/why-african-americans-avoid-psychotherapy">Psychology Today</a> that many African Americans don’t seek treatment because they feel embarrassed. It’s also <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/therapists-say-african-americans-are-increasingly-seeking-help-for-mental-illness/2013/07/09/9b15cb4c-e400-11e2-a11e-c2ea876a8f30_story.html">not uncommon</a> for black churchgoers to seek refuge in the church over going to a mental health professional.</p>
<p id="j3PdXG">But racist stereotypes can also compromise care. In a 2016 <a href="http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S46/47/86C24/index.xml?section=topstories,featured">study</a> published in the <em>Journal of Health and Social Behavior</em>, Princeton sociology graduate student Heather Kugelmass tried to examine how race played a role in mental health care. And what she found is that implicit racial bias may deter many black therapy seekers from even getting their foot in the door.</p>
<p id="0KwvTn">For the study, a white patient and a black patient left separate voicemails for 320 New York City therapists. Kugelmass found that 30 percent of white middle-class clients were offered appointments from therapists, compared with 13 percent of black middle-class men and 21 percent of middle-class black women. </p>
<p id="i62C81">"Ultimately, the goal is high-quality care for all, but people need access at multiple stages in the process in order to get to that point," Kugelmass <a href="http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S46/47/86C24/index.xml?section=topstories,featured">said</a> of her study. "There's no quality of care for people who can't get through a therapist's door."</p>
<p id="MlwVRx">It takes an act of courage to take the taboo out of mental health, let alone be transparent about how one manages it. By embracing her status instead of shying away from it, Biles may have helped empower many others to do the same. </p>
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https://www.vox.com/2016/9/14/12913722/simone-biles-adhdVictoria M. Massie2016-09-06T13:00:00-04:002016-09-06T13:00:00-04:00Vogue Brazil digitally removed limbs from actors to promote the Paralympics and completely missed the point
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<figcaption>Actors Cleo Pires and Paulo Vilhena’s images were altered to make them look like amputees | Instragram/ Voguebrasil</figcaption>
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<p>Paralympic athletes are inspiring. Celebrities edited to look like them are not. </p> <p id="eOKZ2g">The Brazilian edition of Vogue magazine published an image from a photo shoot this week that designed to promote the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, which begin this week.</p>
<p id="FxpHo0">Here’s where things got weird: Instead of shooting Paralympic athletes, the publication chose to use actors whose images were edited to make it appear as if they had disabilities.</p>
<p id="KyrGzn">That’s right. Two celebrity ambassadors for the Brazilian Paralympic Committee were edited to look like amputees. Cleo Pires lost an arm, and Paulo Vilhena was given a prosthetic leg.</p>
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<p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"><a target="_blank" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BJfPT7jBleR/">#SomosTodosParalímpicos: para atrair visibilidade aos Jogos Paralímpicos e ressaltar a relevância dos paratletas brasileiros no panorama do esporte nacional, @cleopires_oficial e Paulo Vilhena (@vilhenap) aceitaram o convite para serem embaixadores do Comitê Paralímpico Brasileiro e estrelam a campanha Somos Todos Paralímpicos. Concebido pelos atores com o apoio do @ocpboficial e dos atletas, com direção criativa de @ccarneiro, fotografia de @andrepassos e beleza de @carolalmeidaprada, o anúncio traz Cleo na pele de @bruninha_alexandre, paratleta do tênis de mesa, e Paulo, de @renatoleite10, da categoria vôlei sentado. Os ingressos estão à venda em ingressos.rio2016.com. Vogue mostra os bastidores do shooting com o quarteto no link da bio. #voguenasparalimpiadas</a></p>
<p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A photo posted by Vogue Brasil (@voguebrasil) on <time datetime="2016-08-24T10:29:03+00:00" style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;">Aug 24, 2016 at 3:29am PDT</time></p>
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<p id="cnnTMh">The choice and resulting images of Pires and Vilhena standing side by side with a caption that reads, in part, "We are all Paralympians" seems in really bad taste. After all, a disability is not something you can put on and take off for fun, for shock value, or for publicity. Even<strong> </strong>if it’s for a good cause, making light of a disability for the sake of attracting eyeballs seems disrespectful to those who can’t shed their challenges when the campaign is over.</p>
<p id="HZ9hOG">Plus, critics have pointed out that the magazine missed a chance to highlight Paralympians, or even models with the kinds of physical disabilities athletes competing in the Paralympic Games might have.</p>
<p id="GMp5Mf">"[It’s] hard to understand why Vogue Brazil felt the need to use models who aren’t disabled in a Paralympic photoshoot," Richard Lane, who works for the British disabilities charity Scope, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/vogue-brazil-paralympics-phtoshoot-able-bodied-actors_uk_57beeeede4b0ba22a4d3ac43">told the Huffington Post UK</a>. "It’s so rare to see positive and powerful representations of disabled people in the media."</p>
<p id="yJanQ2">Vogue Brazil’s decision about who to focus on became even more apparent when Instagram posts revealed that two actual Paralympians — Renato Leite and Bruna Alexandre — were on the set but not<strong> </strong>included in the images Vogue shared.</p>
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<p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"><a target="_blank" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BJgyEKyj9Ab/">Pessoal, Venho esclarecer que estou super orgulhosa de fazer parte desta campanha que a revista #Vogue começou a divulgar as primeiras imagens desse lindo trabalho. Nossos Embaixadores Paralímpicos Cleo Pires e Paulo Vilhena, nos ajudaram a intensificar e a propagar a campanha com intuito de gerar visibilidade ao Movimento Paralímpico e convocar a torcida brasileira para marcar presença nos Jogos Paralímpicos Rio 2016. Gostaria, de enfatizar que #SomosTodosIguais e por isso a Cleo Pires me representa. Nos próximos dias, vocês terão acesso completo da campanha. #VemComAGenteBrasil e espero contar com toda a torcida brasileira nas arenas é assim torcendo, vibrando, cantando e comemorando conosco! #CarregoNoPeito o #CoraçãoParalímpico. @cleopires_oficial @vilhenap @ocpboficial</a></p>
<p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A photo posted by Bruninha Alexandre (@bruninha_alexandre) on <time datetime="2016-08-25T00:51:58+00:00" style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;">Aug 24, 2016 at 5:51pm PDT</time></p>
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<p id="5rY9FE">It’s unclear whether Vogue Brazil has plans to share or publish images that include the athletes. The campaign has been widely <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=brazil%20paralympic&src=typd">criticized</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=brazil%20paralympic&src=typd">on Twitter</a> for using only the digitally altered actors in its initial rollout, and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/37194585/disabled-models-and-athletes-outraged-by-brazilian-vogue-paralympic-campaign-photo">BBC</a> spoke to Brazilian models and disability activists who expressed their disappointment.</p>
<p id="JmnWo4">Various publications have reported that Pires, one of the actors featured, defended herself against criticism of the photos in an Instagram video, saying, "We lent our image to generate visibility. And that’s what we’re doing. My God."</p>
<p id="SggGI9">That focus on drawing attention to the games echoes what Vogue Brazil said in a release about the campaign: "‘We’re all Paralympians’ is to bring visibility to the event and to help sell tickets. Fewer than 15 per cent of Paralympic tickets have been sold."</p>
<p id="VuJNTD"><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/08/25/vogue-brazil-criticised-for-photographs-of-able-bodied-actors-di/">The Telegraph</a> reported that the PR agency Africa created the publicity campaign and that Clayton Carneiro, Vogue Brazil’s art director, said it was Pires’s brainchild.</p>
<p id="KUSzf3">As <a href="https://mic.com/articles/152734/vogue-brazil-is-under-fire-for-digitally-altering-models-to-look-disabled?utm_source=policymicTBLR&utm_medium=style&utm_campaign=social#.WMrBGuLoe">Mic’s Rachel Lubitz pointed out</a>, to be fair, the Paralympic athletes who were on set didn’t seem to have any problem with the magazine’s choices:</p>
<p id="VY7cx0">Alexandre wrote on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BJgyEKyj9Ab/">Instagram</a>,</p>
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<p>Personally, I have been clear that I am so proud to be part of this campaign that the magazine #Vogue began to publish the first pictures of this beautiful work. Our Ambassadors Paralympics Cleo Pires and Paulo Vilhena, helped to intensify and spread the campaign aiming to increase visibility to the Paralympic Movement and gathering the Brazilian fans to be present at the Paralympic Games Rio 2016.</p>
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<p id="sQoHPM">Still, the move seems misguided on a deeper level than its potential offensiveness to particular athletes. After all, if interest in the Paralympic Games is low because of the perception that the games are less exciting, less glamorous, and less worth watching than the games’ able-bodied counterpart that just wrapped up, it would seem that Vogue Brazil’s decision to replace the athletes with actors doesn’t necessarily show solidarity but actually reinforces that thinking. The belief underlying the campaign — that actual competitors’ images and achievements aren’t enough on their own to excite potential audiences — is exactly the problem.</p>
<p id="gKlAoR"> </p>
<p id="UwTOsG"> </p>
https://www.vox.com/2016/8/27/12660082/rio-2016-vogue-brazil-photoshop-paralympics-disabledJenée Desmond-Harris2016-09-03T07:00:03-04:002016-09-03T07:00:03-04:00Zero: the number of new Zika cases from the Rio Olympics
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<p id="8ZcsRX">In the lead-up to the <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/5/25/11760228/zika-virus-risk-rio-olympics-2016">Rio Olympics</a>, there was a flurry of <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/5/25/11760228/zika-virus-risk-rio-olympics-2016">panic</a> around whether the games might act as a super-spreading event for the Zika virus, flinging cases out of the hot zone (Brazil) and into the far corners of the earth. <a href="http://harvardpublichealthreview.org/">Some worried critics</a> even called for the games to be postponed or moved. <a href="http://www.bbc.com/sport/golf/36361506">So</a><a href="http://www.bbc.com/sport/golf/36361506">me athletes</a> dropped out in fear of the virus.</p>
<p id="ZcVuL6">But researchers studying Zika and expert agencies like the <a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2016/zika-health-advice-olympics/en/">World Health Organization</a> insisted the fears were unfounded.</p>
<p id="FE3u64">Turns out the experts were correct. On Friday, the <a href="http://terrance.who.int/mediacentre/presser/WHO-RUSH_Zika_4th_Emergency_Committee_presser_02SEP2016.mp3">WHO</a> confirmed that no new infections arose at the Olympics itself, and furthermore, no cases have been reported since travelers and athletes have returned to their home countries.</p>
<p id="PtPYPa">There are two <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/5/25/11760228/zika-virus-risk-rio-olympics-2016/in/11808851">likely reasons</a> for this:</p>
<ol>
<li id="SDLPfX">It’s winter in Rio, so mosquitoes aren’t around in great numbers, biting people. (Mosquito bites are thought to be the main way the <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/4/6/11348908/zika-science">Zika virus</a> spreads.)</li>
<li id="3M2NrG"> The number of new cases <a href="http://www.paho.org/hq/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=35221&Itemid=270&lang=en">recorded in the country</a> has been on the decline for months, while authorities have been taking precautions to kill off and control mosquito populations. </li>
</ol>
<h3 id="BBv0QS">Zika is still an international public health emergency</h3>
<p id="zPv6vD">There is some bad Zika news from the latest WHO report, however: The agency<a href="http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2016-09-02-EU-MED--WHO%20Zika/id-aebbc1829c664d13b968d33da74d7814"> said it still</a> considers Zika an international public health emergency since the virus continues to turn up in new places, bringing potential damage to fetuses wherever it goes.</p>
<p id="VqZq1V"><a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/2/1/10871562/zika-health-emergency-who">In February</a>, the agency first declared the Zika pandemic an international health emergency in the face of mounting science that showed pregnant mothers infected with the virus were more likely to give birth to babies with brain damage and other health complications.</p>
<p id="N6Dyia">The agency met again on September 2 to assess the current Zika threat and determined that it still constitutes a global health crisis. Most recently, more than 100 Zika cases have been reported in Singapore, and <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/9/1/12750110/zika-spread-global">experts anticipate</a> other Asian and African countries will report more cases soon.</p>
<h3 id="F1wDSX">Further reading:</h3>
<ul>
<li id="pieHCV"><a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/7/29/12235578/zika-virus-symptoms-babies-sexually-transmitted-mosquito-bite-questions">Zika is spreading in Florida. Here are 9 facts to calm you down.</a></li>
<li id="dXgLTs"><a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/9/1/12750110/zika-spread-global">Where Zika is likely to spread next</a></li>
<li id="rahKJZ"><a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/4/29/11510478/zika-outbreak-US-mosquito-prepare-pregnancy">Simple Zika advice for pregnant women from a top CDC official</a></li>
</ul>
https://www.vox.com/2016/9/3/12774610/numer-zika-cases-olympicsJulia Belluz2016-08-23T13:40:02-04:002016-08-23T13:40:02-04:00The Olympics left Rio with a few improvements. And a frightening police violence problem.
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<figcaption>Tourists pass by as police stand guard along Copacabana Beach on August 12, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. | Chris McGrath/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>The victims are mostly young and black. During the games alone, police killed eight people.</p> <p id="9R6toT">One of the biggest scandals of the 2016 Olympics in Rio was the story of <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/8/18/12532384/ryan-lochte-robbery-fake-rio-olympics-video">US swimmer Ryan Lochte’s </a>admission to “overexaggerating,” as he called it, about an encounter with security guards at gas station in the early morning hours of August 14, along with swimming teammates Jack Conger, Gunnar Bentz, and James Feigen. </p>
<p id="wzCyxr">While it’s <a href="http://www.latimes.com/sports/olympics/la-sp-oly-rio-2016-report-rio-police-s-account-of-ryan-1471884289-htmlstory.html">still not clear what exactly happened </a>(although it seems very clear the swimmers were not robbed at gunpoint, as Lochte originally claimed), the saga has elicited plenty of interest and scorn. The damage to Lochte’s reputation has even cost him sponsorships from Speedo and Ralph Lauren.</p>
<p id="8JDAdE">But when it comes to tales of gun violence in Rio, even Lochte’s made-up, much scarier version of the infamous night at the gas station is tame when compared with the real-life, deadly confrontations with police that go on all the time in the city’s poor neighborhoods. They were the source of serious human rights concerns before the Olympics, and they continued right through the games, almost unnoticed by the sports fans who tuned in. </p>
<h3 id="d8lt68">Amnesty International says police killed at least eight people in Rio during the games</h3>
<p id="Pn0hnb">The human rights organization <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2016/06/deadly-side-rio-olympics-2016/">Amnesty International</a> has been keeping track of and spreading awareness of this violence — whose victims, in a parallel to police-involved violence in the United States, are mostly black. </p>
<p id="Kein7j">In a press release before the opening ceremonies, the organization warned that “public security” preparations for the event had “unleashed a new wave of violence against favela residents and protestors.” According to Amnesty, in the seven years between the time it was announced that Rio would host the games and the time the games kicked, off, the city’s security forces had already killed more than 2,500 people — 100 of them, the majority of whom were young black men, in 2015 alone. </p>
<p id="wPpkTB">For comparison’s sake, the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/wp/2015/12/26/2015/12/26/a-year-of-reckoning-police-fatally-shoot-nearly-1000/">Washington Post </a>reported that police in the United States killed about 1,000 people in 2015, across the entire country. The numbers Amnesty looked at in Brazil were for Rio alone. </p>
<p id="6FR1EF">That was all before the games even began. </p>
<p id="9RoTrm">Then, according to Amnesty, human rights advocates’ worst fears about the impact of the Olympics in Rio came true. In a <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/08/brazil-rio-s-olympic-legacy-shattered-with-no-let-up-in-killings-by-police/">press release Monday</a>, the organization said “violent police operations” killed at least eight people just during the two-week event. And that number may rise, since information on deaths in two favelas, Acari and Manguinhos, has yet to be confirmed. According to Amnesty: </p>
<blockquote><p id="roJks1">...People who live in those areas have also reported other human rights violations such as home invasions, direct threats and physical and verbal aggressions by the police.”</p></blockquote>
<h3 id="eSbEuo">Olympic protesters faced harsh repression by police </h3>
<p id="kxTpV0">The Olympics inspired a lot of protests of Brazil’s government in the months leading up to the Olympics and during the games,<strong> </strong>largely focused on the way poor residents of Rio’s favelas were displaced and brutalized during preparations for the event, and the way the billions of public dollars spent in conjunction with the games left most of them worse off. </p>
<p id="6mffkO">Vox’s <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/6/27/12026098/rio-olympics-2016-removals-eviction">Johnny Harris reported</a> on the efforts to hide the city’s poor people from view, through bulldozing entire informal neighborhoods, forcibly relocating 77,000 citizens, and cutting off bus lines that connected poor and predominantly black neighborhoods to the area of the Olympic Village. </p>
<div id="s01Sqq"><div><div style="left: 0px; width: 100%; height: 0px; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.2493%;"><iframe src="https://www.vox.com/videos/iframe?id=94995" frameborder="0" seamless="true" marginwidth="0" mozallowfullscreen="true" webkitallowfullscreen="true" name="94995-chorus-video-iframe"></iframe></div></div></div>
<p id="CgTsPX">It seems protesting itself posed a risk for additional violent mistreatment by the government. </p>
<p id="Gqflqz">Amnesty reported that peaceful protesters were “harshly repressed by the police, both inside and outside sports arenas,” during the games. In particular, demonstrations on August 5 and 12 in Rio were met with police officers deploying tear gas and stun grenades and detaining several participants. </p>
<p id="RuQPvL">The action wasn’t limited to Rio. Amnesty reported that in São Paulo, police heavily repressed a demonstration of 100 people on August 5, and detained at least 15 minors.</p>
<h3 id="z2i4sy">You can’t separate police violence from race in Brazil</h3>
<p id="hsCQZC">According to Amnesty, Brazil has the highest homicide rate in the world: a shocking 60,000 murders every year. That’s bad, but what makes the statistic even more disturbing is that thousands of these killings are by police, who are often not held accountable for them. And their victims, according to Amnesty, are often young black men. </p>
<p id="1BpA2x">Christen A. Smith, an associate professor of African and African-American diaspora studies and anthropology at the University of Texas Austin and the author of<em> </em><a href="http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/59mec2dt9780252039935.html"><em>Afro-Paradise: Blackness, Violence, and Performance in Brazil</em></a><em>,</em> wrote about this topic in a <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/27556-black-community-crisis-police-violence-in-brazil">piece for Truthout in 2014</a>, well before the Olympic Games began: </p>
<blockquote id="uPosIB">
<p>The black community in Brazil is in a moment of crisis. Black Brazilians are <a href="http://ultimosegundo.ig.com.br/brasil/sp/2014-04-02/seis-em-cada-dez-mortos-pela-policia-de-sao-paulo-sao-negros-diz-pesquisa.html">three times more likely</a> to be killed by the police than any other subset of the population and victims are often as young as 13 and 14 years old. Recently, the Brazilian Forum on Public Safety reported that Brazilian police kill approximately <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/brazilian-police-kill-6-people-a-day-study-finds/">six people per day</a>: 11,197 over the past five years. That compares to approximately 11,090 people killed by the police in the United States over the past <em>30 years</em>. Yet these numbers are grossly underreported.</p>
<p>Records on police killings are voluntarily kept, produced internally and not reported by most cities. Moreover, the police do not record most of their killings as police-motivated homicides. Rather, they log them as "death caused by resisting arrest" (<em>autos de resistência</em>), a controversial category that allows police killings to be classified as "suicides" for all intents and purposes.</p>
<p>Furthermore, statistics do not take into account police death squads - secret, vigilante-style groups that kill young black people with impunity and hauntingly recall lynching in the United States. Police violence is a type of <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2014/03/police-violence-brazil">"serial killing"</a> in Brazil, and the vast majority of the victims are black.</p>
</blockquote>
<p id="P3xy2T">This issue didn’t receive much if any coverage during the Olympics. But during the entire event, Smith, tweeting under the handle <a href="https://twitter.com/profsassy">@Profsassy</a>, worked to share her knowledge of anti-black police violence and related issues — including the impact on women and myths about Brazilian conceptions of race — using the hashtag <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BrazilFreedomSchool?src=hash">#BrazilFreedomSchool</a>. </p>
<h3 id="MEkNhX">The Olympics may have created some lasting changes to Rio — but not in this area</h3>
<p id="f097s6">The New York Times’s Andrew Jacobs wrote in a post-Olympic piece published Sunday, “But the criticism aside, the <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/o/olympics_2016/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier">2016 Summer Olympics</a> in Rio have profoundly altered this city of six million, yielding a revitalized port; a new subway line; and a flush of municipal projects, big and small, that had long been on the wish list of city planners.” </p>
<p id="RzVj7q">Just a day later, Atila Roque, executive director of Amnesty International Brazil, said in a statement, “We ended the Olympic Games with even more militarized public security policies, focused on a very selective repression, excessive use of force and combat-like police operations in favelas. The outcome has been clear — a rising death toll and other human rights violations of the residents, especially young black men.”</p>
<p id="aDQnex">While the end of the Olympics leaves Rio (or parts of it, at least) with certain lasting aesthetic and infrastructure changes, the city and country are also left with a serious problem of racialized police violence that Olympic investment didn’t even begin to touch, and may have even exacerbated. </p>
https://www.vox.com/2016/8/23/12587144/rio-2016-olympics-police-killings-violence-raceJenée Desmond-Harris2016-08-23T12:00:10-04:002016-08-23T12:00:10-04:00Watch: Stephen Colbert says everything you wish you could say to Ryan Lochte
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<p id="pYrfQ3">Ryan Lochte, via <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/8/18/12532384/ryan-lochte-robbery-fake-rio-olympics-video">his lies about being robbed in Rio</a>, has evolved from slightly lovable American oaf to American embarrassment. In the wake of the debacle and his dishonesty, sponsors like <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37159288">Speedo and Ralph Lauren have dropped the swimmer</a>, but there’s still a lingering feeling of discomfort around Lochte’s privilege and a lack of accountability.</p>
<p id="dYBeuR">A lot of that has to do with his excuses. The first time Lochte told his story, it was about a gunpoint robbery. Then he walked it back a bit, before eventually apologizing for misjudging a situation — a situation that involved a gas station manager and a security guard who were mad at Lochte and his friends for vandalizing the gas station’s bathroom and urinating around the premises.</p>
<p id="TQx0Hq">During the interviews Lochte has given about the incident, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1ClJ-r5dGA">which include a tell-all on </a><em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1ClJ-r5dGA">Today</a></em>, interviewers have <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/sports/olympics/ryan-lochte-robbery-story-nbc.html?_r=0">gone pretty easy on the swimmer</a>,<strong> </strong>without really challenging what he has to say.</p>
<p id="h6zkjb">Enter Stephen Colbert. On<em> The Late Show</em> Monday night, Colbert remixed footage from the <em>Today</em> interview to lay some burns on Lochte.</p>
<p id="rQSSXD">"I overexaggerated that part," Lochte says in the remixed interview.</p>
<p id="CQ2FDW">"Here’s the thing: That part is really the whole part," Colbert says. "Without the gun cocked to your forehead, it’s really just a story about some guys urinating on a gas station. How could you get that so wrong?"</p>
<p id="4mug0y">"I was intoxicated," Lochte responds.</p>
<p id="QVCm9B">The segment is a bit of a comeuppance fantasy, as Colbert mocks Lochte in a way that everyone who’s embarrassed by this American merman’s behavior wishes they could, but can’t. It even includes Colbert performing a sobriety test, and concludes with a simple question: What can we expect if we give Lochte a second chance?</p>
<p id="ZywMk5">"Intoxicated," Lochte says.</p>
<hr>
<h3>Watch: Sexist coverage steals the show at Rio Olympics</h3>
<div data-analytics-viewport="video" data-analytics-action="volume:view:article:middle" data-analytics-label="Sexist coverage steals the show at 2016 Olympics | 22041" data-volume-uuid="9f4c15546" data-volume-id="22041" data-analytics-placement="article:middle" data-volume-placement="article" id="volume-placement-3790" class="volume-video"></div>
https://www.vox.com/2016/8/23/12606948/lochte-colbertAlex Abad-Santos2016-08-22T08:59:00-04:002016-08-22T08:59:00-04:00Life after the Olympics
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<p>"An entire way of life was gone — all at once." That’s how swimming gold medalist Donna de Varona describes her retirement after the 1964 Olympics.</p>
<p>She’s not alone. We talked to eight Olympians, all of whom struggled when they came home from the games. Some wrestled with health problems and financial woes. Some faced public anger or disdain for their politics. Some confronted anxiety, depression, and self-doubt.</p>
<p>But these are not stories of defeat — they are ultimately about renewal and reinvention. Click on the links below to read these athletes' stories in full.</p>
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<h2>John Carlos</h2>
<h3>Track and field, bronze medal</h3>
<p class="o-year">Mexico City, 1968</p>
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<p>"If you're famous and you're black, you have to be an activist." <a data-analytics-link="ssg-readmore-feature" target="_blank" class="readmore-button" href="http://vox.com/2016/7/13/12118332/john-carlos-olympics">Read More</a></p>
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<h2>Jennie Finch</h2>
<h3>Softball, gold and silver medals</h3>
<p class="o-year">Athens, 2004<br>Beijing, 2008</p>
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<p>"To this day, every time I bring out the silver medal, it still stings." <a data-analytics-link="ssg-readmore-feature" target="_blank" class="readmore-button" href="http://vox.com/2016/7/13/12067548/olympics-jennie-finch">Read More</a></p>
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<h2>Jim Ryun</h2>
<h3>Track and field, silver medal</h3>
<p class="o-year">Tokyo, 1964<br>Mexico City, 1968<br>Munich, 1972</p>
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<p>"I was disappointed and angry. Angry at the officials as well as at myself. But my wife and I made a promise to each other: We didn’t want our lives to end there." <a data-analytics-link="ssg-readmore-feature" target="_blank" class="readmore-button" href="http://vox.com/2016/7/13/12077672/olympics-jim-ryun-track">Read More</a></p>
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<h2>Natasha Kai</h2>
<h3>Soccer, gold medal</h3>
<p class="o-year">Beijing, 2008</p>
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<p>"Your place on the national team is always precarious; it's like every day is a new tryout." <a data-analytics-link="ssg-readmore-feature" target="_blank" class="readmore-button" href="http://vox.com/2016/7/13/12101942/natasha-kai-olympics-soccer">Read More</a></p>
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<h2>Greg Louganis</h2>
<h3>Diving, four gold medals, one silver</h3>
<p class="o-year">Montreal, 1978<br>Los Angeles, 1984<br>Seoul, 1988</p>
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<p>"Knowing that my story has affected others, even in a minuscule way, keeps me passionate." <a data-analytics-link="ssg-readmore-feature" target="_blank" class="readmore-button" href="http://vox.com/2016/7/13/12067614/greg-louganis-olympics">Read More</a></p>
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<h2>Maritza McClendon</h2>
<h3>Swimming, silver medal</h3>
<p class="o-year">Athens, 2004</p>
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<p>"Waving an Olympic medal in front of the human resources receptionist doesn’t mean you can skip over the experience section on job applications." <a data-analytics-link="ssg-readmore-feature" target="_blank" class="readmore-button" href="http://vox.com/2016/7/13/12099858/olympics-job-maritza-mcclendon">Read More</a></p>
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<h2>Nick Delpopolo</h2>
<h3>Judo</h3>
<p class="o-year">London, 2012<br>Rio de Janeiro, 2016</p>
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<p>"The International Olympic Committee discovered that I tested positive for marijuana. How could I let this happen?" <a data-analytics-link="ssg-readmore-feature" target="_blank" class="readmore-button" href="http://vox.com/2016/7/13/12067592/nick-delpopolo-pot-brownie-olympics">Read More</a></p>
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<h2>Donna de Varona</h2>
<h3>Swimming, two gold medals</h3>
<p class="o-year">Rome, 1960<br>Tokyo, 1964</p>
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<p>"Back then, only male athletes were offered sports scholarships." <a data-analytics-link="ssg-readmore-feature" target="_blank" class="readmore-button" href="http://vox.com/2016/7/13/12067560/olympics-donna-devarona-swimming">Read More</a></p>
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<div>Editorial director: <a href="https://twitter.com/eleanorbarkhorn">Eleanor Barkhorn</a>
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https://www.vox.com/2016/7/13/12046050/life-after-the-olympicsVox First Person2016-08-21T19:00:03-04:002016-08-21T19:00:03-04:00We asked 8 Olympians about life after the games. Here’s what they said.
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/SYqxnfqP9yU082AqSfuhBAK16Ok=/0x2:3600x2702/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/50470161/DSC_5927.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Anna Harris</figcaption>
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<p id="X4j20J">The <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/6/27/12044810/rio-2016-summer-olympics">Rio Olympics</a> officially ended on Sunday, with the <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/8/19/12502888/closing-ceremony-time-rio-olympics-watch-online-time-live-stream/in/11808851">closing ceremony</a> in Maracanã Stadium. For the 11,000 athletes who participated in the Rio Games, the closing ceremony marks the end of an intense two weeks of competition and the media attention that comes with it.</p>
<p id="8TISEq">Now they return to their lives away from the spotlight — either to eventually begin training for the Tokyo Games in 2020, or, for athletes who are retiring, to find a new career path.</p>
<p id="fdW38w">What is it like to go home after the intensity of the Olympics? <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/7/13/12046050/life-after-the-olympics">We spoke to eight Olympians</a> about that very question. Here’s what they told us.</p>
<h3 id="1TvkcY">1) The sting of defeat is especially strong when it’s your last Olympics</h3>
<p id="RA94YI">When runner <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/7/13/12077672/olympics-jim-ryun-track">Jim Ryun</a> tripped and fell in a qualifying race during the 1972 Munich Olympics, he appealed to the officials to reinstate him so he could run in the finals. Their response? "It's unfortunate what happened to you. Why don't you come back in four years and try again?"</p>
<p id="iIkA48">But Ryun couldn’t just come back in four years — he’d already decided that Munich would be his final Olympics: "I didn’t want to put my family through the pressure <strong></strong> of having to hold a real job in addition to training all those hours. I wasn't going to do that."</p>
<p id="rt1zo0">So he had to live with the fact that at his last Olympics, he didn’t even get a chance to compete for gold.</p>
<p id="Kc621F">For softball player <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/7/13/12067548/olympics-jennie-finch">Jennie Finch</a>, the 2008 Beijing Games were her last Olympics — but not by choice. The International Olympic Committee had voted to discontinue softball and baseball. So when the US team won silver (the first time in team history that it didn’t win gold), Finch was devastated.</p>
<p id="oLHkfd">"To this day, every time I bring out the silver medal, it still stings," she said.</p>
<h3 id="ztzpHc">2) Your mistakes haunt you long after the Olympics are over</h3>
<p id="jcGKXJ"><a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/7/13/12067592/nick-delpopolo-pot-brownie-olympics">Nick Delpopolo</a>, a judoka, failed a drug test at the 2012 Olympics after he ate a pot-laced brownie at a going away party. He had to leave London early, and was faced with a barrage of mocking press coverage, including a column in his home state newspaper that said, "He’ll always be known as the guy who flunked the drug test for pot brownies."</p>
<p id="h4AXSq">Even after the media attention died down, some of his friends and acquaintances wouldn’t let it go:</p>
<blockquote>
<p id="fRWmvm">I lost many sponsors. One was a local athletic club run by people I’d known almost my whole life. Friends, foes, and internet trolls jeered at me for my stupidity. Fellow judokas spread false rumors about me. One even said they saw me doing hard drugs — crystal meth or heroin — at a party. I was frustrated. How did naysayers have the right to take one mistake and spin it into a bigger lie, a smear campaign?</p>
</blockquote>
<h3 id="w1AH6t">3) Speaking out on controversial issues is risky for Olympic athletes — but worth it</h3>
<p id="MaUcPG">Runner <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/7/13/12118332/john-carlos-olympics">John Carlos</a> raised his fist in protest on the medals podium at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, and paid dearly for it in the days and years that followed. He and Tommie Smith, who also raised his fist, were suspended from the US Olympic team and had to leave Mexico City.</p>
<p id="qJ8m74">It only got worse from there:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A lot of people walked away from me. They weren't walking away because they didn't have love for me or they had disdain for me. They were walking away because they were afraid. What they saw happening to me, they didn't want it to happen to them and theirs.</p>
<p>My wife and kids were tormented. I was strong enough to deal with whatever people threw at me, because this is the life I'd signed up for. But not my family. My marriage crumbled. I got divorced. It was like the Terminator coming and shooting one of his ray guns through my suit of armor.</p>
</blockquote>
<p id="jBClrO">Four-time gold medal-winning diver <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/7/13/12067614/greg-louganis-olympics">Greg Louganis</a> faced condemnation after he told the world he was gay and HIV-positive.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I went into my press tour wanting to debunk myths about gay people with HIV. Instead, my goals were deflected by commentators who focused on a bad dive at the 1988 Olympics, when I hit the 3-meter springboard, cutting my head open; the wound was treated by a physician, and we didn’t have latex gloves on site in those days. My decision to hide my diagnosis after my injury was called <strong><a href="http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1995-03-01/sports/1995060179_1_greg-louganis-ebola-hiv">"indefensible"</a></strong> and <strong><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1995/02/24/doctor-says-he-treated-louganis-without-gloves-because-of-time/de765b3b-31fe-4896-8336-e13b8ce3c57e/">"morally inept."</a></strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p id="vmaPGl">After years of ostracism from fans and the public at large, both Carlos and Louganis say that the difficulties were worth it. Carlos believes that with so much injustice in the world, people with a public platform must speak out against it.</p>
<p id="ROfPBd">"If you're famous and you're black, you have to be an activist," he said.</p>
<p id="12aeXf">Louganis says that he is gratified to know that his story has inspired other athletes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Fellow Olympian Ji Wallace, who is gay and HIV-positive, <strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfn3mV3YPvQ">mentioned</a></strong> he went public with his diagnosis after watching one of my interviews with Piers Morgan during the London Olympics. I simply said that HIV doesn’t take over my entire life. It’s just a small part of who I am. I was blown away that my life could give strength to others after all these years.</p>
</blockquote>
<h3 id="9O2vn9">4) Winning gold in one Olympics isn’t a guarantee you’ll make the team for the next Olympics</h3>
<p id="swfIko"><a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/7/13/12101942/natasha-kai-olympics-soccer">Natasha Kai</a> was a key player on the gold medal-winning United States women’s soccer team at the 2008 Beijing Games. But by the 2012 London Games, she was off the national team: "Soccer is a brutally competitive sport. Your place on the national team is always precarious; it's like every day is a new tryout."</p>
<p id="PSS4As">Injuries can also turn the next Olympics from a certainty into an impossibility. After winning silver at the 2004 Athens Games, swimmer <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/7/13/12099858/olympics-job-maritza-mcclendon">Maritza McClendon</a> was sure she would be competing for gold in Beijing. But a double shoulder injury dashed those plans. "I retired, not wanting to be that athlete who strained her body past her prime," she said.</p>
<h3 id="HyoIJr">5) Finding a new career after the Olympics can be a hustle</h3>
<p id="vYLQZe"><a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/7/13/12067560/olympics-donna-devarona-swimming">Donna de Varona</a> had won two gold medals in swimming by the time she was 17. But she still couldn’t get a scholarship to swim in college. This was 1964, before Title IX. So de Varona retired from swimming — and then had to figure out what to do with the rest of her life.</p>
<p id="EBZImP">She decided to talk her way into a job at ABC Sports:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When I started thinking about my post-Olympics future, I picked up the phone and called ABC producer Chuck Howard. I said, "I really can’t imagine quitting my sport, but if you let me work as an expert it would make this decision easier."</p>
<p>A few months later, at the age of 17, I became the youngest commentator on sports television, and one of the first women to hold that position.</p>
</blockquote>
<p id="0ETd4d">Fellow swimmer <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/7/13/12099858/olympics-job-maritza-mcclendon">McClendon</a> had a harder time finding work after her final Olympics. After Athens, she retired and was faced with the task of finding her first job — at the age of 26.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As a full-time swimmer for more than five years, I’d had no time to take up an odd job during summer breaks. The most intimidating part of entering the real world was putting together a résumé. How could I impress employers with zero bullet points? Sure, people are impressed by Olympic athletes. But waving an Olympic medal in front of the human resources receptionist doesn’t mean you can skip over the experience section on job applications.</p>
</blockquote>
<p id="Nu2hw6">It took her a full year to find a job.</p>
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<h3>Watch: Women led the way for Team USA</h3>
<div class="p-scalable-video"><iframe frameborder="0" src="https://goo.gl/RZz1a0" height="315" width="560"></iframe></div>
https://www.vox.com/2016/8/21/12573972/rio-olympics-2016-closing-ceremonyEleanor Barkhorn