7 days, 7 good news stories: a heroic victory in the Tour-de-France, a head wash for the bathing cap ignoramuses and a football club taking a stand against racism.
LISTICLE/06/23/2021
07

7 Days, 7 Good News: A Week Dominated by the LGBTQ Movement, the Closing of the Gender Pay Gap in the Women's Basketball League and a Happy Ending Better Than Hollywood

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We think: Every now and then you need good news. Especially from the world of sports. In our Good News from ISPO, we serve you seven news items every week that make our - and hopefully your - athlete's heart beat faster. Because the news is fun. Because they are trend-setting. Because they show new trends. Because they sprinkle a pinch of absurdity in a much too serious world. Or because they simply bring joy. The main thing is to be in a good mood, that's our motto in this news format. And we're about to get started. With a week dominated by the LGBTQ movement, the closing of the gender pay gap in the women's basketball league a happy ending better than Hollywood and much more.

So much for a working group that doesn't know what to do...

When someone is at a loss, they set up a working group, as experience with politics has told us in recent years. At Reebok, they have also set up such a working group - but - huzzah and applause - in this case with determination and a clear compass. Employees of the sporting goods manufacturer put more than 2700 hours into a new edition of the Reebok Human Rights Award. Having been around for nearly 20 years from 1988 to 2007, the award's comeback is timely for its goals of making strides in our society to combat racism and promote diversity and inclusion. And clearly, the $15 million program announced last year was well received. More than a hundred organizations from eleven countries applied for the award. On August 12, it will be announced who won - at which point, thanks to the money, the working group will become real work for a good cause. Reebok itself is flanking the whole thing with a "Human Right Now" product capsule of shoes, apparel and accessories that will be launched in parallel.

Women Want Air Sovereignty from "Air Jordan"

He's also without getting to his legendary jumper against those ladies Michael "Air" Jordan. But even though the NBA basketball legend easily towers over all the women basketball players in the WNBA in this photo, women are now sensing morning air in the battle for media exposure against men's basketball players. Zat To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the WNBA - the women's basketball league - Jordan took part in a Nike campaign. Ming Smith, the first black photographer with work purchased by the Museum of Modern Art, photographed Jordan with nine WNBA players. The US Women's Basketball League (WomenNBA) is now looking to narrow the gap after many years of lower salaries and significantly worse endorsement deals than the men. There has been some initial success, with ratings up 15 percent in the recent WNBA Finals. The women also earn their increased visibility through their political activism. Atlanta Dream players showed solidarity with Black Live Matters. The entire past WNBA season was dedicated to Breonna Taylor and the "Say her Name" campaign - Taylor was killed in her boyfriend's shootout with police.

A Cocktail for Longer Life

Fancy a cocktail? That was a mean question, sorry. Because our purveyor of good news, Keith Diaz, is less inclined towards deck chairs and crushed ice when it comes to his cocktails. The expert from Columbia University in the US wants to tempt us to the exercise cocktail instead. Because Diaz and other researchers have found that the right exercise cocktail gives our life expectancy a good boost. This also and especially applies to office stools. Those who juxtapose their constant sitting with even light physical activity of 30 minutes or more win. For the British Journal of Sports Medicin, researchers analyzed six studies involving more than 130,000 adults in the UK, Sweden and the US. As Runners World quotes from the study, those who exercise at least half an hour a day have a significantly lower risk of premature mortality. That's nothing surprising. But the researchers found something new: Namely, those who incorporate lighter activities in various combinations are much more likely to live longer. That's where the cocktail comes in. Diaz recommends a mix of 3 to 1. That is, an hour of sitting gets three minutes of moderate to vigorous activity as a trade-off. Alternatively, it can be twelve minutes of light activity, which then includes climbing stairs or going out into the garden. The main thing is that the cocktail is varied!

A Casual Outing In The Sport Of Homophobia

It's the most casual statement from a man in a sport that stands for struggle and toughness: "I just wanted to take a moment to say I'm gay," footballer Carl Nassib, who plays for the Las Vegas Raiders in the US professional league NFL, said in a video message. Finally outed, the 28-year-old will have thought after the posting - finally an outing, some other homosexual footballers may have thought. After all, the NFL is considered to be a sports league with a particularly stereotype-distorted image of the hard man. A few years ago, the British Guardian described the most important US professional league as "virtually homophobic in its entire history". Now Nassib is the first active football player to make his sexual orientation public. And he did it with a charm, a joie de vivre and a confidence that would become style-setting. "I'm a very private person and I hope you know I'm not doing this for attention. I just think it's important to be visible and show up," Nassib said. He continued, "At the same time, I hope videos like this and this whole coming out process are unnecessary. But until it does, I'm doing my best to model a culture of acceptance and compassion." The NFL Football League responded "proudly" to Nassib - we wish our Man of the Week gets his wish, and that he makes any stress about coming out moot by moving forward.

Seven Summits you must cross...

Admittedly, when we think of the Seven Summits we think a little bit of Peter Maffay. "Over seven bridges you must go, seven dark years überstehn...". The second line closes the circle to our most sportive and at the same time most humanly impressive performance of the week. Erin Parisi is no longer far away from being the first transgender woman to have climbed the seven peaks, and in doing so, also de-tabooing the topic of transgender people. "I never thought in my life that I could be both trans and adventurous," Parisi says. For Parisi, her mission is also an examination of society and herself. "All the Seven Summits meant to me was resisting that stigma and saying I could own my own narrative," she said in a film about her project. In just six months in 2018, she had reached the first three of the seven summits, including Kilimanjaro. Without a passport that assigned her a clear gender, Parisi would have feared violence in Tanzania or Russia. That's another reason Parisi wants to bring transgender issues out of obscurity and into the light. She's currently raising money to climb Mount Everest - which she hopes will be the pinnacle of her campaign.

A Happy Ending Better Than Hollywood

Fancy a real happy ending, better than Hollywood? Then read the story of Jon Rahm, winner of the 121st US Open and living proof that the sugar-coated stories of movie factories love to become reality in sports. The film begins with a flashback. Rahm, a Spaniard, leads by six strokes, almost uncatchable, before the final hole at the Memorial Tournament in Ohio State earlier this month. But as if the evil witch had scattered her poison, the 26-year-old tests positive for Corona shortly before the triumph and is disqualified from the tournament. Tears, drama, depression, that's how one person would react - but the other is Rahm. Our hero, who proclaims on Twitter that it's moments like this that shape an athlete. Shortly after, he gives us the full happy ending program. He picks up his first win at a major tournament. "It had to happen in a beautiful setting like this one," he said after edging out rival Louis Oosthuizen by just one stroke. In doing so, Rahm immediately located higher powers. His victory fell on Father's Day in the United States. His own parents were at his side for the first time at the US Open. And Rahm himself was playing his first major tournament as a dad - three-month-old son Kepa arrived on dad's arm after the triumph. We are touched.

Munich is Rainbow

The good news, probably the best news, of the week comes from Munich. No, it is Munich. The capital of Bavaria is still considered by some to be a bit sleepy, like the city turned constable Dimpflmoser of the robber Hotzenplotz. But the way Munich behaved around the German European Championship match against Hungary shows who is really sleepy and who is bursting with freshness: The football association Uefa is sleepy, the ban on rainbow colours for the Munich football stadium is as backward-looking as otherwise only the Vatican. But luckily there is Munich: At the city hall, at the windmill next to the stadium, at the Olympic tower - in many places Munich showed rainbow colors, making a demonstration against the anti-LGBTQ actions of the government in Hungary. This radiated beyond Munich to other German cities and to the entire European Championship.

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