Sadly for this Olympic sports fan, the flame has gone out in Rio. But it’s worth noting that despite the debate over the sexist global coverage of female athletes at the games, there were a number of key female firsts from the event.
By now, we all know about the prowess of Simone Biles, who became the first American female gymnast to get four gold medals at one Olympics. Fellow Team USA member Kim Rhode also set a record in Rio by winning a medal in skeet shooting for the sixth straight Games.
Other history-makers include Jemima Sumgong, the first woman from Kenya to win the Olympic marathon, who tweeted that the day she became champion was the “best day” of her life. Three sisters from Estonia—Lily, Liina and Leila Luik—also ran the marathon, becoming the first set of triplets to compete together at the Games.
Then there’s Dipa Karmakar, the first woman from India to qualify for Olympic gymnastics. Karmakar came in fourth place in the vault competition, where she performed the difficult Produnova move, and made this sweet video after the competition to thank her supporters.
Be sure to check out Coins2Day’ s new weekly show, Broad Strokes, featuring Kristen Bellstrom, of our sister publication, the Broadsheet, as well as Valentina Zarya. The latest episode discusses gymnast Gabby Douglas’s battle with the Twitter trolls and the new equal pay law in Massachusetts.
Also, tune into Coins2Day’s new podcast, Coins2Day Unfiltered with Aaron Task, which features Richard Parsons, former CEO of Time Warner, today.
EUROPE/MIDDLE EAST/AFRICA
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| Power dressing |
| Remember the striking white dress Melania Trump wore during her controversial RNC speech? Its designer, Roksanda Ilincic, not only dresses powerful women such as Michelle Obama, Cate Blanchett, and the Duchess of Cambridge, she runs a successful business that saw revenues rise 41% last year and a shop in London that's made a profit. |
| Financial Times |
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| Self awareness on stage |
| Self awareness is often mentioned by management experts as a key to success. So Adele's admission that "I better warn you. I do talk a lot" during her current concert tour served to humanize her, as did her concession that she doubted herself when she came up with new songs after taking a long break. |
| Wall Street Journal |
THE AMERICAS
| Hillary's headache |
| Hillary Clinton's email headache is still not over. A federal judge has ordered her to send written testimony about the private email server she had as secretary of state to respond to questions that will be posed by conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, but he stopped short of requiring her to appear in person. |
| New York Times |
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| Trumping Trump |
| In other Hillary Clinton news, when it comes to fundraising, she's doing better than Donald Trump. In July, Clinton raised $52.3 million, while Trump brought in just $36.7 million. |
| NPR |
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| Renowned in Rio |
| Along with Simone Biles, whom I mentioned above, a number of other female African-American athletes became stars in Rio. Aside from Biles, swimmer Simone Manuel, shot putter Michelle Carter, boxer Claressa Shields, and other black women came into their own during the Games. This piece is worth a read. |
| NBC News |
ASIA-PACIFIC
| Wrestling with victory |
| Japanese wrestler Risako Kawai was so thrilled to win a gold medal in Rio, she celebrated by throwing her coach down on the mat—twice. Take a look at the scene, in which both Kawai and her coach were laughing the entire time. |
| People |
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| Revisiting Fu's fame |
| I've mentioned the new-found fame of Chinese Olympic swimmer Fu Yuanhui, who attracted more than 11 million views to one of her broadcasts on the Chinese live-streaming platform Inke. But this piece puts her fame into context, saying that she's taught China "to relax" at the Games. |
| New Yorker |
IN BRIEF
| It looks like Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg doesn't plan to retire yet |
| Washington Post |
| Bank of America's Mary Ann Deignan is leaving to join Lazard |
| Bloomberg |
| Britain's Amanda Staveley brokering deal for Chinese stake in Liverpool Football Club |
| The Times |
| Tyra Banks to teach MBA course on personal branding at Stanford |
| Poets & Quants |
| Check out these powerful photos of India's female Olympians |
| Quartz |
| Harvard chief diversity officer Lisa Coleman says there's a "significant" workplace hiring bias |
| Stuff |
| Parsing Hillary Clinton's and Donald Trump's child-care proposals |
| Bloomberg |
PARTING WORDS
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| — Jamaican Elaine Thompson, after she won the 100m and 200m sprints at the Rio Olympics to become the world's fastest woman |
