NANTERRE, France — Every year on August 3, Katie Ledecky is reminded of her first Olympic gold medal. 

She was just 15 years old, a reserved high schooler who had surprisingly made the U.S. swim team for the London Games. Then she went out and shocked the world, beating everyone in the 800-meter freestyle. 

Twelve years to the day, Ledecky did it again. 

Not a stunner, but one for the ages. 

Gold medal No. 9. 

Ledecky capped another stellar Olympics by becoming only the second swimmer to win an event at four straight Summer Games, holding off Ariarne Titmus, the “Terminator,” to win the 800 free Saturday night. 

It was Ledecky’s second gold medal in Paris and the ninth of her remarkable career, which marked another milestone. 

She became only the sixth Olympian to reach that figure, joining swimmer Mark Spitz, track star Carl Lewis, Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina, and Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi in a tie for second place. 

The only athlete to win more golds: swimmer Michael Phelps with 23. 

Ledecky was very aware of the significance of the date. 

“Every August 3rd, the video [of her first Olympic gold] gets posted somewhere and you kind of reminisce,” she said. “So, when I saw it was August 3rd, I was like, ‘Oh boy, I’ve got to get the job done.'” 

That she did, going faster than her winning time in Tokyo to finish in 8 minutes, 11.04 seconds. Titmus was right on her shoulder nearly the entire race, but Ledecky pulled away in the final 100. 

Titmus, who beat Ledecky in the 400 freestyle, settled for silver at 8:12.29. The bronze went to another American, Paige Madden at 8:13.00. 

Phelps had been the only swimmer to win the same event at four straight Olympics, taking gold in the 200 individual medley at Athens, Beijing, London and Rio de Janeiro. 

Now he’s got company. 

Titmus added some perspective to Ledecky’s consistency over the last dozen years, noting where she was when the American won that first gold in London. 

“I was in grade six in primary school,” Titmus said. “That’s how remarkable she is.” 

Their friendly rivalry has driven both to greater heights. They each won two golds and four medals at these games, which pushed Ledecky to 14 overall and left the 23-year-old Aussie with four golds and eight medals in her career. 

“To think that eight years later, I challenged her into her fourth consecutive in the 800 is pretty cool,” Titmus said. “So I’m really proud of myself and I feel very honored and privileged to be her rival, and I hope I’ve made her a better athlete. She has certainly made me become the athlete I am. I felt so privileged to race alongside her.” 

Dominant for a dozen years

Ledecky has dominated the distance freestyle events over the last dozen years — and isn’t done yet. She’s made it clear she plans to keep swimming at least through the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

 

“It’s not easy,” Ledecky said. “I’ll take it year by year, and we’ll see if I can keep giving everything I’ve got for as long as I have left in me.” 

Another gold for Canadian teenager  

Summer McIntosh stamped herself as one of the swimming stars of the Paris Olympics with her third individual gold medal, winning the 200 individual medley. 

The 17-year-old Canadian chased down American Alex Walsh and held off another U.S. swimmer, Kate Douglass, to finish in an Olympic record of 2:06.56. 

Douglass grabbed the silver in the star-studded final at 2:06.92, but the Americans lost the bronze when Walsh, the silver medalist in this event at Tokyo who recorded a time of 2:07.06, was disqualified because she did not finish the backstroke segment on her back. 

Kaylee McKeown, who touched fourth, was bumped up to the bronze at 2:08.08. 

It was a bitter blow for Walsh, whose younger sister, Gretchen, has won a gold medal and two silvers in Paris. 

McIntosh set several world records ahead of the Paris Olympics, and she backed up the enormous expectations by claiming a starring role at La Defense Arena along with Léon Marchand and Ledecky. 

McIntosh also won gold medals in the 200 butterfly and 400 IM, plus a silver in the 400 freestyle. She fell just 0.88 seconds — the margin of her loss to Titmus — shy of matching Marchand’s four individual golds. 

“It’s pretty surreal,” said McIntosh, who became the first Canadian athlete to win three golds in a single Olympics. “I’m just so proud of myself and how I’ve been able to recover and manage events. 

US sets world record 

 

The United States made up for a disappointing showing in Tokyo by setting a world record in the 4×100 mixed medley relay. 

Ryan Murphy, Nic Fink, Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske held off China for a winning time of 3:37.43, breaking the mark of 3:37.58 set by Britain when it won gold in the wild and woolly event’s Olympic debut three years ago. 

With each team picking two men and two women, the U.S. and China both went with their male swimmers in the first two legs. 

Murphy put the U.S. in front on the backstroke, China’s Qin Haiyang slipped past Nic Fink on the breaststroke, but Walsh put the Americans back in front on the butterfly before Huske held off Yang Junxuan to secure the gold. 

The Chinese team, which also included Xu Jiayu and Zhang Yufei, took silver in 3:37.55. The bronze went to Australia in 3:38.76. 

Marchand swam the breaststroke leg for France but couldn’t add to his already impressive haul of four individual golds. The French finished fourth, more than two seconds behind the Aussies. 

When the British won gold in 2021, the Americans finished fifth. Britain was seventh this time. 

Hungarian claims butterfly gold 

Kristóf Milák of Hungary won the men’s 100 butterfly, chasing down three swimmers on the return lap. 

Milák was only fourth at the turn, but he rallied to touch in 49.90. Canada grabbed the silver and bronze, with Josh Liendo finishing in 49.99 and Ilya Kharun next at 50.45. 

Milák had failed to defend his Olympic title in the 200 butterfly, settling for a silver behind French star Marchand. 

Milák claimed silver in the 100 fly three years ago, but he didn’t have to worry about the guy who beat him in that race. American Caeleb Dressel stunningly failed to qualify for the final, posting only the 13th-fastest time in the semifinals Friday. 

Kharun added another bronze to the one he garnered in the 200 butterfly. 
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LOS ANGELES — Aerosmith says Steven Tyler’s voice has been permanently damaged by a vocal cord injury last year and the band will no longer tour.

The iconic band behind hits such as “Love in an Elevator” and “Livin’ on the Edge” posted a statement Friday announcing the cancellation of remaining dates on its tour and provided an update on Tyler’s voice.

“He has spent months tirelessly working on getting his voice to where it was before his injury. We’ve seen him struggling despite having the best medical team by his side. Sadly, it is clear that a full recovery from his vocal injury is not possible,” the statement said. “We have made a heartbreaking and difficult, but necessary, decision — as a band of brothers — to retire from the touring stage.”

Tyler announced he injured his vocal cords in September during a show on the band’s Peace Out: The Farewell Tour. Tyler said in an Instagram statement at the time that the injury caused bleeding but that he hoped the band would be back after postponing a few shows.

Tyler’s soaring vocals have powered Aerosmith’s massive catalog of hits since its formation in 1970, including “Dream On,” “Walk This Way” and “Sweet Emotion.” They were near the start of a 40-date farewell tour when Tyler was injured.

“We’ve always wanted to blow your mind when performing. As you know, Steven’s voice is an instrument like no other,” the band said in Friday’s statement to fans.

“It has been the honor of our lives to have our music become part of yours,” the band said. “In every club, on every massive tour and at moments grand and private you have given us a place in the soundtrack of your lives.”

Aerosmith is a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee and a four-time Grammy-winning band. In addition to Tyler, its members are Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer.
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paris — It is not enough — it has never been enough — for Simone Biles to do gymnastics.

The 27-year-old American star has been intent almost from the start on pushing the sport in new directions by doing things that have never been done before. That could continue this week when she tries for her eighth Olympic medal in Paris.

Five elements currently bear her name in the Code of Points after she successfully completed them in an international competition: two on vault, two on floor exercise and one on balance beam.

A quick primer.

Biles I (Floor exercise version)

She was just a teenager and recently minted national champion when Biles performed a tumbling pass at the 2013 world championships that she completes by doing a double layout with a half-twist at the end.

The move looks dangerous — Biles is essentially flying blind — but she and former coach Aimee Boorman came up with it because it was less taxing on her legs.

“It was almost kind of necessity is the mother of invention,” Boorman told The Associated Press in 2015. “Her calf was hurting. She had bone spurs in her ankles and she’s really good at floor with landings.”

Biles II (floor exercise version)

Biles returned to the sport in 2018 following a two-year layoff after winning the all-around at the 2016 Olympics.

Not content to merely repeat herself, Biles began working on a triple-twisting, double flip that is now known simply as ” the triple-double.” She unveiled it while winning the 2019 U.S. Championships then did it again at the world championships a few months later when she won the fifth of her record six world all-around titles.

“I wanted to see how it looked,” she explained afterward.

Biles I (vault version)

As with a lot of gymnastics elements, Biles took a Cheng vault and added another layer of difficulty — this one an extra half twist on a vault originally done by China’s Cheng Fei.

The vault requires Biles to do a round-off onto the vault, then a half-twist onto the table before doing two full twists. It entered the Code after she made it part of her routine at the 2018 world championships.

“I’m embarrassed to do floor and vault after something like that,” U.S. men’s gymnast Yul Moldauer said in 2018. “You see Simone do that and she’s smiling the whole time. How does she do that?”

Biles II (vault version)

This may be the most dazzling, most daring one of them all.

The Yurchenko double pike had never been completed by a woman in competition, and few men have even tried. She began tinkering with it in 2021, but it’s in the last year that it has morphed into perhaps the most show-stopping thing done in the sport.

The vault asks Biles to do a round-off back handspring onto the table, then two backward flips in pike position with her hands essentially clasped to her knees. She does it with so much power, she can sometimes overcook it. At the U.S. Olympic trials last month, it drew a standing ovation.

“No, it’s not normal,” longtime coach Laurent Landi said after she drilled it at the 2023 U.S. Championships. “She’s not normal.”

Biles I (balance beam version)

For all of her explosive tumbling, Biles is a wonder on balance beam, too, where she can make doing intricate moves on a four-inch-wide piece of wood seem almost casual.

The same year she debuted the triple-double on floor, she added a double-twisting, double-tucked dismount off the beam. She stuck it at the 2019 world championships, though she has since taken it out of her repetoire.

What does the new uneven bars skill look like?

The skill Biles submitted requires her to do a forward circle around the lower bar before turning a handstand into a 540-degree pirouette. USA Gymnastics teased the move on X ahead of the Games. She didn’t attempt it during the team or all-around competitions but still won gold in both.
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HONOLULU — The parties in lawsuits seeking damages for last year’s Maui wildfires have reached a $4 billion global settlement, a court filing said Friday, nearly one year after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century.

The term sheet with details of the settlement is not publicly available, but the liaison attorneys filed a motion Friday saying the global settlement seeks to resolve all Maui fire claims for $4.037 billion. The motion asks the judge to order that insurers can’t separately go after the defendants to recoup money paid to policyholders.

“We’re under no illusions that this is going to make Maui whole,” Jake Lowenthal, a Maui attorney selected as one of four liaisons for the coordination of the cases, told The Associated Press. “We know for a fact that it’s not going to make up for what they lost.”

Thomas Leonard, who lost his Front Street condo in the fire and spent hours in the ocean behind a seawall hiding from the flames, welcomed the news.

“It gives us something to work with,” he said. “I’m going to need that money to rebuild.”

Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said in a statement that seven defendants will pay the $4.037 billion to compensate those who have already brought claims for the August 8, 2023, fires that killed 102 people and destroyed the historic downtown area of Lahaina on Maui.

Green said the proposed settlement is an agreement in principle and would “help our people heal.”

“My priority as governor was to expedite the agreement and to avoid protracted and painful lawsuits so as many resources as possible would go to those affected by the wildfires as quickly as possible,” he said in a statement.

He said it was unprecedented to settle lawsuits like this in only one year.

“It will be good that our people don’t have to wait to rebuild their lives as long as others have in many places that have suffered similar tragedies,” Green said.

Hawaiian Electric CEO Sheelee Kimura said the settlement will allow the parties to move forward without the added challenges and divisiveness of litigation.

“For the many affected parties to work with such commitment and focus to reach resolution in a uniquely complex case is a powerful demonstration of how Hawaiʻi comes together in times of crisis,” Kimura said in a statement.

Hawaiian Electric said the settlement will help reestablish the company’s financial stability. It said payments would begin after final approval and were expected no earlier than the middle of next year.

Gilbert Keith-Agaran, a Maui attorney who represents victims, including families who lost relatives, said the amount was “woefully short.” But he said it was a deal plaintiffs needed to consider given Hawaiian Electric’s limited assets and potential bankruptcy.

Lowenthal noted there were “extenuating circumstances” that made lawyers worry the litigation would drag on for years.

Now that a settlement has been reached, more work needs to be done on next steps, like how to divvy up the amount.

“This is the first step to allowing the Maui fire victims to get compensation sooner than later,” Lowenthal said.

More than 600 lawsuits have been filed over the deaths and destruction caused by the fires, which burned thousands of homes and displaced 12,000 people. In the spring, a judge appointed mediators and ordered all parties to participate in settlement talks.

Four other defendants did not immediately respond to email messages or phone calls seeking comment. They are Maui County, Hawaiian Telcom, Kamehameha Schools — formerly known as Bishop Estate — and West Maui Land Co.

Spectrum/Charter Communications declined to comment.
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CHICO, California — Firefighters battling California’s largest wildfire of the year are preparing for treacherous conditions entering the weekend when expected thunderstorms may unleash fire-starting lightning and erratic winds that could erode progress made over the past week. Dry, hot conditions posed similar threats across the fire-stricken West.   

Weather, fuels and terrain will pose challenges for the 6,000 firefighters battling the Park Fire, which has spread over 614 square miles (1,590 square kilometers) since allegedly being started by arson in a wilderness park in the Sierra Nevada foothills east of the Sacramento Valley city of Chico.  

The fire’s push northward has brought it toward the rugged lava rock landscape surrounding Lassen Volcanic National Park, which has been closed due to the threat.  

“Lava rocks make for hard and slow work for hand crews,” Cal Fire said in a situation report. “Crews are being flown into access areas that have been hard to reach because of long drive times and steep, rugged terrain.”  

After days of benign weather, increasing winds and a surge of monsoonal moisture were expected to increase fire activity and bring a chance of thunderstorms Friday night into Saturday, said Ryan Walbrun, incident meteorologist with the National Weather Service.  

“The concern with thunderstorms is any gusty outflow winds that would push the fire itself or create some new fire ignitions within the vicinity of the Park Fire,” Walbrun said. 

Collapse of thunderstorm clouds can blow wind in any and all directions, said Jonathan Pangburn, a fire behavior analyst with Cal Fire.  

“Even if there’s not lightning per se, it is very much a safety-watch-out environment for our firefighters out there,” Pangburn said. 

Walbrun said there was little prospect of beneficial rains from the storms and the forecast for next week calls for continued warming and drying.  

“As we look forward in time, we’re really just entering the peak of fire season in California,” he said.  

The Park Fire, which has destroyed at least 480 structures and damaged 47, is one of almost 100 large fires burning across the western U.S.   

A wildfire on the edge of metro Denver crept within a quarter-mile of evacuated homes, but authorities said Thursday they were hopeful that hundreds of threatened residences could be saved despite sweltering temperatures and firefighters suffering heat exhaustion.  

The Quarry Fire southwest of the Denver suburb of Littleton encroached on several large subdivisions. Neighborhoods with nearly 600 homes were ordered to evacuate after the fire, of unknown origin, spread quickly Tuesday afternoon and overnight when relatively few firefighters were yet on the scene. 

Jim and Meg Lutes watched from an overlook near their house northeast of the fire as smoke plumed up from the ridges. Their community west of Littleton was not yet under evacuation orders, but the couple had been ready to start packing a day earlier when flames could be seen blanketing the mountains.   

“It can come over that hill pretty quick if the wind changes,” said Jim Lutes, 64, pointing to a nearby ridge.  

Five firefighters were injured Wednesday, including four who had heat exhaustion, said Mark Techmeyer, a spokesperson with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.  

The fire was in steep terrain that made it difficult to access but had been held to about a half-square mile (1.4 square kilometers) with no houses yet destroyed, authorities said.  

Miles to the north near the city of Lyons, Colorado, officials lifted some evacuations and reported making progress on the Stone Canyon Fire. It has killed one person and destroyed five houses. The cause was under investigation. 

The fire was among several threatening heavily populated areas of the Colorado foothills, including one in which a person was killed earlier this week.  

New, large fires were reported in Idaho, southeastern Montana and north Texas.  

Scientists say extreme wildfires are becoming more common and destructive in the U.S. West and other parts of the world as climate change warms the planet and droughts become more severe.
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Three Americans unjustly detained in Russia stepped foot on U.S. soil again late Thursday. Waiting for them, President Joe Biden and their loved ones. VOA’s Jessica Jerreat reports.
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washington — The realignment of the United States armed forces in Japan, announced on the heels of the latest U.S.-Japan security talks, will focus on developing warfighting capabilities in the Indo-Pacific region, former U.S. military officials and experts say.

During a meeting of the Japan-U.S. Security Consultative Committee in Tokyo on Sunday, the two nations agreed to upgrade the command and control of the U.S. Forces Japan (USFJ), converting the current USFJ structure into a joint force headquarters.

The new headquarters will be given “expanded missions and operational responsibilities,” according to a statement released after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with their Japanese counterparts, Yoko Kamikawa and Minoru Kihara.

Jerry Martinez, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant general who served as the USFJ commander from 2016 to 2019, said this move is “a gigantic step forward” for the United States, Japan and the alliance at large.

“This action signals the high regard in which both countries view the alliance, as well as the need to ensure Japan is always ready to withstand any threats in the region,” Martinez told VOA Korean via email on Wednesday.

“It sends a strong signal to potential threats that Japan as a whole is trained, prepared and operationally ready to meet any challenges,” he said.

Harry Harris, former U.S. ambassador to South Korea during the Trump administration, told VOA Korean in an email on Tuesday that the USFJ headquarters will take on more operational command responsibilities.

“It greatly expands the heretofore limited role of the existing USFJ,” said Harris, who was also commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command from 2015 to 2018.

“USFJ was not responsible for joint war planning,” he said, adding that the move to set up a new headquarters recognizes “the importance in Japan of effective joint planning between the U.S. and Japan.”

The reconstitution of American forces stationed in Japan, scheduled for March 2025, is widely seen as the most substantial transformation since its establishment in 1957.

“This will be the most significant change to U.S. Forces Japan since its creation and one of the strongest improvements in our military ties with Japan in 70 years,” Austin said in a press conference Sunday in Tokyo.

According to experts in Washington, the changes are aimed at giving USFJ an actual warfighting command, which has, up to now, been largely assumed by the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, headquartered in Hawaii.

“It was more of a command that focused on kind of day-to-day management of resources in Japan,” Robert Peters, research fellow for nuclear deterrence and missile defense at the Heritage Foundation, told VOA Korean by phone on Wednesday.

“USFJ is going to have more responsibilities and more capabilities, so they’re going to be able to make their own decisions when a war breaks out,” he said.

Peters, who served as a special adviser in the Office of the Secretary of Defense during the Obama administration, said the new USFJ will be “more relevant to the warfighting.”

James Przystup, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute’s Japan Chair, told VOA Korean via email on Tuesday that the focus of the new joint command will be the closer operational integration of U.S. military assets, which encompass elements of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force.

“USFJ as it stands today serves an administrative function,” Przystup said. “Establishing a joint force headquarters provides for the closer operational integration of U.S. forces deployed in Japan.”

According to the joint statement of the Security Consultative Committee on Sunday, the new U.S. joint force headquarters will serve as a counterpart to Japan’s Joint Operations Command, facilitating deeper interoperability and cooperation on joint bilateral operations.

The USFJ’s cooperation with the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) is expected to take a form different from the Combined Forces Command in South Korea, a joint warfighting headquarters consisting of U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) and the South Korean military.

Retired U.S. Army General Robert Abrams, who served as the commander of the USFK from 2018 to 2021, told VOA Korean in an email on Wednesday that the USFJ and JSDF are completely separate.

“There is no mention of the newly converted USFJ headquarters becoming a combined command or implying that this USFJ headquarters would have operational control of Japanese Self-Defense Forces,” Abrams said. “Japan’s minister of defense made clear that there was no plan to put JSDF under U.S. command.”

Przystup said the new USFJ Joint Forces Command, along with Japan’s own Joint Operations Command, will facilitate closer U.S.-Japan defense cooperation in dealing with security challenges posed by China as well as North Korea, “in particular with respect to operational integration of Japan’s counterstrike capability within the alliance, thus enhancing alliance-based deterrence.”

While Austin stressed during the Sunday press conference that “our decision to move in this direction is not based upon any threat from China,” the U.S. and Japan made it clear that China’s external stance and military actions pose a serious concern.

In response to an inquiry from VOA Korean, the Chinese Embassy in Washington said Tuesday that China is not a threat to global stability and peace.

“The so-called ‘China threat theory’ is groundless and should not be used as an excuse for military expansion,” Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said in a written statement via email. “U.S.-Japan relations should not target other countries, harm their interests or undermine regional peace and stability.”
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