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Andscape at the Olympics is an ongoing series exploring the Black athletes and culture around the 2024 Paris Games.

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PARIS — Seattle Storm guard, two-time WNBA champion and six-time WNBA All-Star Jewell Loyd is the latest player sharing insight into her life on and off the court through a video diary with Andscape during the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

Phoenix Suns guard Bradley Beal and former G League Ignite forward Ron Holland participated in a monthly video and diary for the 2023-24 season. NBA players Draymond Green, Vince Carter, Trae Young, CJ McCollum, Fred VanVleet, De’Aaron Fox, Cade Cunningham, James Wiseman and Josh Jackson have participated in previous diaries.

In Part 3 of her video diary, Loyd talks about her different role in Paris with Team USA compared to in the WNBA, traveling with her girlfriend Téa Adams, being able to be a tourist in Paris during her downtime, her play in Game 1 against Japan, assessing Belgium going into Game 2, trading Olympic pins and more.

“It’s a mindset of you’re here and your role is different,” Loyd said. “Every time you’re on the court, the things you do help the team win, and that’s what I’m about — winning.

“It’s always interesting because your role is so different. So sometimes you can get in your head like, ‘I didn’t get enough shots, I didn’t do my job, I’m not good enough. What’s going on? Why didn’t coach play me? Why didn’t I do this?’ and all these things. Then you realize, ‘my 10 minutes, my 15 minutes, my 20 minutes, all these minutes are for us to win. That’s the end goal, to win a game.’ “

—Part 1: Jewell Loyd Olympic diary: ‘This one is going to be special’
—Part 2: Jewell Loyd Olympic diary: ‘You’re constantly reminded why you are here’

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Andscape at the Olympics is an ongoing series exploring the Black athletes and culture around the 2024 Paris Games.

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There are ways that sports can feel like a contrivance – predictable phrasing about the “face” of a league or headlines which double as clickbait. It is refreshing when athletes cut through that noise, undeterred by controversy or contempt.

U.S. sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson is one of those athletes. It warmed my heart the other day to see her in a skincare commercial for Olay, because even in a deliberate attempt to sell a product, her authenticity and defiance shined through. “Sha’Carri Richardson Melts The Competition,” the ad campaign was titled. Her southern twang and smooth, brown skin were rightfully associated with beauty and brilliance.

With the track and field events beginning, I think of the opportunities before her and the words of another Olympic-sized icon, Muhammad Ali: “I don’t have a mark on my face. …I must be the greatest.”

Saying that Richardson is “for the culture” is an understatement. As she prepares to star on the international stage, her presence is a reminder of what it means to be Black, to be American and to inspire callbacks to track and field legends.

The Olympics are a reminder that four years can feel like forever. We might not have the physique or discipline of the world’s best athletes, but we carry the successes and failures of the last 48 months. COVID-19. Black Lives Matter. Presidential campaigns.

Three years ago, in the face of controversy, we embraced Richardson, her triumph and trauma. We all lost somebody and needed to vent. The IOC had its rules, but they felt rigid. The term “Olympic trials” hits differently now, not just for the athletes, but for all of us. The world feels like a different place since the last Games – a perpetual test of the body, the mind and much more. Richardson’s cosplay as Denard Robinson during her first 100-meter heat at the U.S. Olympic track trials led to an initial stumble, and then, a 10.88 jaunt to the end zone.

“I’m not back, I’m better,” she kept telling us.

Our sister made things right long before she ran the fastest time of 2024 in the Olympic trials final. It’s hard to imagine now that she was an afterthought last year, in the last lane at Budapest at the World Championships, before running down the Jamaicans in the 100 meters. She would anchor the 4×100 relay at those same World Championships, another win for the Americans, but one picture broke through the rivalry and tension. Richardson and the gold standard for the 200-meter dash, Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson, embraced after they advanced to the final. It was a reminder of the power of the African diaspora, and a sign that Richardson had healed beyond the heartbreak of 2021.

It is said that you can’t outrun your past, and such an idea is ironic within the framework of track and field. Florence Griffith-Joyner’s 100-meter time of 10.49 is in striking distance at these Olympics, and talking about the contenders of today invariably will lead to an appreciation of the sport’s greatest sprinters.

More than a month ago, a YouTube channel with a track-named theme caught up to the legendary Gail Devers, a feat in and of itself. The interviewer, with his rich Jamaican accent, led off the dialogue with a tongue-in-cheek lament of how Devers bested Jamaica’s best, including her stunning photo finish over Merlene Ottey in 1996.

Devers offered a pearly-grinned and playful apology, and then, the interviewer inquired about her nails. “They were a little longer back then. I cut them a couple of months ago,” she said. “[But] they grow fast.”

There’s lineage in those nails, racing DNA. Devers and Flo-Jo are linked through Bob Kersee, the legendary coach (and husband of the incomparable Jackie Joyner-Kersee) whose tutelage is still relevant, as evidenced by the success of world-record holding hurdler Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. Like Sha’Carri, Kersee also pushed back against controversy and tragedy after Flo-Jo’s passing in 1988:

It has never been proven by anyone that Florence had ever used anything illegal to improve her performance. It has not been proven by anybody that any athlete that I have coached has used any illegal drugs. …Unfortunately, it’s come to a time where athletes and/or organizations play the game of tarnishing someone because if they can’t beat them and it [affects their] endorsements and praise, they say, ‘If I can’t beat you one way, I’ll beat you the other way.

Laymen might think those nails have no function beyond fashion. But they are a sign of strength, and a reminder that over time, what’s broken can grow back better.

Family adds to the mythos of our people. The Olympic Games were built on the rhetoric of gods and goddesses. So many of our legends are built and maintained at the altars of praying grandmothers.

“Everything I am, it’s because of that strong, Black woman,” Richardson said of her grandmother, Betty Harp, to Rolling Stone after the Olympic trials.

“I made her tough,” Harp said of her gifted granddaughter.

There’s a lot at stake in Paris. Devers’ photo finish represents the last time an American woman won the 100 meters. Once again, the Americans and Jamaicans will rival one another. And at the center of it will be a beautiful and brash Black woman.

Folks are saying that the Paris 2024 logo looks like Mary J. Blige. Perhaps when it’s all said and done, they’ll change the bob into an afro.

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Andscape at the Olympics is an ongoing series exploring the Black athletes and culture around the 2024 Paris Games.

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PARIS – Welcome to Andscape at the Olympics, a video series in which Andscape columnist William C. Rhoden, senior NBA writer Marc J. Spears and Andscape/ESPN commentator Ari Chambers discuss the key topics about Black athletes and culture at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

In Episode 3, Rhoden and Spears take the conversation to a park to discuss Simone Biles’ triumph with the U.S. women’s gymnastics team winning the gold medal and the U.S. men’s gymnastics team winning the bronze medal (0:50), whether the USA Basketball teams will be threatened (2:40), what events they’re interested in and have seen in their spare time (10:42) and which sports that aren’t in the Olympics should be added to the Games (14:30).

–Episode 2: Andscape at the Olympics: Talking US women’s sports from Simone Biles to Sha’Carri Richardson
–Episode 1: Andscape at the Olympics: Talking USA Basketball, opening ceremony

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Andscape at the Olympics is an ongoing series exploring the Black athletes and culture around the 2024 Paris Games.

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VILLENEUVE-D’ASCQN, France – Duke University’s incoming freshmen are preparing for move-in day Aug. 17. As for 17-year-old Khaman Maluach, he is busy as the youngest competitor in men’s basketball in the 2024 Paris Olympics while playing for a historic South Sudan team.

Maluach was born on Sept. 14, 2006, in Rumbek, Sudan, now South Sudan. The 7-foot-2 center is the youngest basketball player — the next oldest player is nearly three years player is Bilal Coulibaly of France, born July 26, 2004, of the Washington Wizards. Chinese skateboarder Zheng Haohao is the Games’ youngest competitor at 11 years and 11 months.

“To me, this whole experience is sometimes feels like I’m living in a dream at 17 years old. Big dreams. And I’m just a small-town kid chasing big dreams in the big city,” Maluach told Andscape after South Sudan upset Puerto Rico 90-79 on Sunday.

South Sudan is the youngest nation in the Olympics. It gained independence from Sudan following a referendum in 2011. The split came after years of war between Sudan and what now is South Sudan over a shared border and natural resources. With the guidance and financial aid of former NBA star Luol Deng, South Sudan’s men’s basketball qualified for the Olympics for the first time this year despite not having one indoor basketball court.

Like many of his teammates, Maluach is a refugee of South Sudan. His family fled the conflict-ridden country when he was a child and moved to Uganda. The South Sudan men’s basketball team’s first appearance in the Olympic Games was tarnished before it started when the wrong national anthem was played before its opener against Puerto Rico. The East African nation, however, recovered to make history, winning in front of nearly 27,000 fans at Pierre Mauroy Stadium. Maluach’s mother and other family members from Kampala, Uganda, attended the game.

“To me, it’s a big thing for my family. Being able to come see me, to come watch me play,” Maluach said. “I’ve only dreamt about them leaving the country and seeing me on a big stage like this.

“Right now, we’re going to celebrate our win, be grateful for our first Olympic game and our first win. So, I’m going to celebrate until 12 midnight. We put this game aside and get ready for the next game.”

The next game for Maluach and South Sudan is against the United States, the defending gold medalists from the delayed 2020 Tokyo Games in 2021, on Wednesday.

Team USA has four consecutive gold medals at the Olympics dating back to 2008. South Sudan proved that it wasn’t just a pushover program as it narrowly lost 101-100 in an exhibition game against Team USA in London on July 21. South Sudan was up by as many as 16 points before missing a buzzer-beater for the win.

While Maluach is projected to be an NBA player, the chance to play the Americans twice is a great learning experience for him.

“It’s really different because I’ve been seeing all these people, watching them on TV and the NBA playoffs,” Maluach said. “I stayed up late nights in Africa to watch. I watched LeBron [James]. The NBA Bubble [in Orlando in 2020]. I watched Joel Embiid. Me being on the same floor with those guys was a different feeling. I was like, ‘Dreams really come true.’ Me playing against Joel Embiid and LeBron James, I always looked up to those guys.”

Maluach scored two points on 1-of-2 shooting and grabbed two rebounds in six minutes of action against Puerto Rico before being benched in the second half. South Sudan coach Royal Ivey, a Houston Rockets assistant coach, is being patient with the teenager who he believes is the future face of South Sudan basketball.

“He is our second big. Our backup big,” Ivey said of Maluach after the game against Puerto Rico. “I wanted to inject him early to see what he gave us, see if he could help us with rebounding. Just think about it, he’s 17 years old. He’s learning against grown men. Some days he has good days. Some days, not so good. He is still in the rotation. I believe in him.

“He’s a talent. In five years, this is going to be his team. I got to throw him out there and put him in the fiery moments. When he makes mistakes, I have to pull him as a coach. He’s OK and he will be fine the next game.”

“My role obviously changes game to game depending on the size and the talent. Whatever it takes for my team to win, I’ll do that. It doesn’t matter,” Maluach said.

The NBA Academy Africa successfully recruited Maluach at age 14 in 2021 after one of its scouts watched him during an outdoor workout in Uganda. The academy is an elite basketball training center in Saly, Senegal, that opened in November 2018 for the top male and female prospects from Africa. Maluach, the 2023 Basketball Without Borders Africa MVP, also played three seasons in the NBA-sanctioned Basketball Africa League.

Maluach was on South Sudan’s roster when it qualified for the Olympics during the 2023 World Cup after finishing as the top African team. He also represented South Sudan in April at the Nike Hoop Summit in Portland, Oregon, a showcase game of top American high school players versus top international teens.

“The entire African continent is excited and proud to follow South Sudan’s journey at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games,” BAL president Amadou Fall told Andscape. “It is great to see Khaman again, after being the youngest player at the FIBA World Cup last summer. He is the perfect example of what’s possible now in Africa with the pathway we’ve established, from grassroots to elite.

“He was a young raw talent at age 14, through the NBA Academy Africa and the BAL Elevate program, now on the biggest global sporting stage with his South Sudan National team. We also commend the remarkable work our NBA legend and BAL ambassador Luol Deng has done in building this world-class basketball program.”

With a 7-4.5 wingspan and 9-8 standing reach, Duke is adding Maluach to a top-ranked 2024 class that includes 2024 No. 1 recruit Cooper Flagg. Maluach plans to return to Durham, North Carolina, immediately after the Olympics for school and basketball, but until then he will continue to enjoy this hoop experience as a teenager with lots of room to grow.

“This whole experience to me, it’s been like a movie,” Maluach said. “It was the same with the World Cup, because it’s been a lot of stuff in just a small amount of years. Two years of experiencing a lot, and to me, stuff goes by quicker every time I think about it. I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m in this place and it’s a big experience.’

“I went outside there [at the arena] and I saw the crowd and I got chills. I was kind of nervous. I was like, ‘Wow, this is what it’s all about.’ It’s been a great experience so far.”

“It’s an incredible experience for a 17-year-old. He’s the heart and soul of this team. The court jester. He’s one of the funniest guys on the team. He’s so lighthearted, so innocent. He doesn’t even know what is happening half of the time. And once he gets that fire in his heart, he is going to be a really good player,” Ivey said.

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Andscape at the Olympics is an ongoing series exploring the Black athletes and culture around the 2024 Paris Games.

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PARIS — It’s only fitting that the great gymnast Simone Biles would make a powerful Olympic comeback in Paris. This is the city where African American artists have found favor since the beginning of the 20th century, a city where Black American women have become stars.

Paris is where the great entertainer Josephine Baker became a legend and where Althea Gibson won the French Championships, now the French Open, becoming the first African American to win a Grand Slam tennis event. The 27-year-old Biles has used the Paris Games to cement her claim as the greatest gymnast of all time.

Three years after withdrawing from the delayed 2020 Tokyo Games in 2021 and beginning a long overdue conversation about mental health, Biles returned to Olympic competition with tornadic force. On Sunday, she finished first in the all-around in team qualifying despite competing with an injured left calf.

On Tuesday, Biles led a powerhouse U.S. team to its third gold medal in four Olympics. On Thursday, Biles will go for the all-important all-around gold medal and over the weekend she can win multiple medals on individual apparatus.

Biles and Team USA have called the Paris Olympics a redemption tour. Team USA won the silver medal in 2021 at the delayed 2020 Tokyo Games, but that was considered a failure. On July 27, 2021, Biles stunned the gymnastics world when she withdrew from the women’s gymnastics team competition finals. A day later, Biles withdrew from the individual all-around competition. Team USA was a heavy favorite in Tokyo and failed to win gold largely because Biles withdrew from the final because of a mental block called the twisties that did not allow her to perform.

That silver medal in Tokyo ended the United States’ consecutive team winning streak at two and Biles would miss 732 days away from the sport.

Far be it from me to quibble with Biles about redemption, but that seems to have put additional pressure on Biles and the team to win gold when all she did in 2021 was chose to take care of herself.

Biles is too great to chase redemption.

The 2024 Olympics are less about redemption than validating what we all know: Biles is the greatest gymnast of all time. She has five gymnastic skills named after her and is the most decorated gymnast of hers or any other generation. Biles won her fifth Olympic gold medal Tuesday. She is a six-time world all-around champion and has more World Championship medals (30) and World Championship gold medals (23) than any other gymnast in history.

When asked about the medal count, Biles said she’s not counting.

“Honestly I would have had to Google that,” she said Tuesday when asked about her medals. “I don’t keep count. I don’t keep stats. I just go out here and do what I’m supposed to and I’m doing what I love and enjoying it, so that’s really all that matters to me.”

Perhaps it’s because Biles realizes that she is also the culmination of so many decades of hopes and dreams crushed and deferred simply because the sport was not willing to accept diversity and inclusion.

Last week, I looked at the Wendy Hilliard Gymnastics Foundation website, which compiled a section dedicated to the shoulders on which Biles has stood. In 1979, Hilliard became the first Black athlete to represent the U.S. internationally in rhythmic gymnastics. Her site is dedicated to detailing the history of African Americans in gymnastics.

I looked at the timeline and listened to familiar stories of isolation and frustration. Like swimming, gymnastics for aspiring African American athletes has been a lonely space.

• In 1972, Alexandra Nicholson became the first Black woman to win an individual medal at the World Championships. She won gold on the trampoline.
• In 1980, Luci Collins became the first Black woman to be named to the U.S. Olympic gymnastics team. Her dream died when the United States boycotted the Moscow Games.
• In 1983, Dianne Durham became the first Black female U.S. all-around champion and the first to win an individual national event title. She just missed making the U.S. Olympic team.
• In 1991, Betty Okino became the first Black gymnast to win the American Cup and in 1992, Dominique Dawes became the first Black female gymnast to win an individual Olympic medal and the first to make multiple U.S. Olympic teams.
• In 2012, Gabby Douglas became the first Black gymnast to win an Olympic all-around gymnastics title. She was also the first American to win all-around and team golds at the same Games.

Biles made her first Olympic team in 2016 and has never looked back.

But Biles has become a pioneer in her own right. She continues to compete and excel, well beyond the age when most gymnasts have left the sport. Biles is the oldest American woman to win an Olympic gold in gymnastics in 60 years. Perhaps she is showing future generations of gymnasts that their careers can have a longer runway.

And like Baker, Biles is a force of nature. The comparisons between Baker and Biles are intriguing but not always precise. Baker became a star when she came to Paris while Biles was already a star when she arrived. On the other hand, both women were impetuous and successful at an early age. Baker was 19 years old when she arrived in Paris in 1925 and became a hit virtually from her first bold performance. Biles was 19 years old when she won her first Olympic gold medal and became a dominant, revolutionary force.

And just as Baker did more than sing during her life in Paris, Biles did more than flip. During World War II, Baker was a member of the French Resistance and a rights activist. Biles brought international attention to mental health when she made the bold move to withdraw from Olympic competition in 2021. Since then, Biles has helped change the way athletes approach training with an emphasis on self-care.

Just as significantly, Biles has created a community of elite Black women in her Houston gym. In her documentary, Simone Biles Rising, what comes across is a part of Biles many may not know — a side that is committed to nurturing and supporting fellow gymnasts, not as a superstar but as a friend and as a sister.

In the interview room after Tuesday’s match, Biles talked about how the powers that be in gymnastics once wanted to put young gymnasts in a box that took the joy out of the sport. She has used the last three years to put the joy back in the sport. There’s a lightness now that was missing for a number of years. There is a work/life balance between competing hard and self-care.

“We can show off our personalities, really have fun,’’ she said, “but then also know that once we get on the floor we’re going to put in work and we’re going to show the results and we don’t have to be put in the box anymore.”

In 2021, Baker became the first Black woman to enter France’s Panthéon mausoleum of outstanding historical figures. Biles already has a foot in the pantheon of legendary athletes.

She still has more work to do this week. She’s not finished just yet. But just as Baker’s legacy went beyond the stage, Biles’ legacy goes beyond a medal count. Her stature has grown, and she has found her voice, she has found her power.

Josephine Baker would be proud.

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Andscape at the Olympics is an ongoing series exploring the Black athletes and culture around the 2024 Paris Games.

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PARIS — These Olympics can be defined as the Games of women’s empowerment, in particular Black women power. There is the historic dominance of the USA women’s basketball team, the seismic impact of gymnast Simone Biles and the quest of sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson to win the gold medal she felt was denied in 2020.

Then there is Ashleigh Johnson, a two-time Olympic champion regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers in women’s water polo — she made 80 saves at the delayed 2020 Tokyo Games in 2021, more than any other goalkeeper in the women’s and men’s tournaments. Johnson is a mainstay on a dominant U.S. Olympic women’s water polo team going for its fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal.

Johnson helped lead Team USA to gold at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and the delayed 2020 Tokyo Games in 2021. On Saturday, her team opened its title defense with a dominant 15-6 victory over Greece. Johnson recorded 10 saves through three-plus quarters. On Monday, Team USA lost to Spain 13-11 in group play.

Johnson, who played water polo for four years at Princeton, made her first Olympic team when she was 21. Now at 29, Johnson has become a sage, a keeper of the flame, and has cautioned this Olympic team that it has to write its own story.

“The legacy of this team is very strong — the U.S. women’s water polo team has won three consecutive golds, and this is an opportunity to get a fourth one,” she said. “But this specific team, this group of women, has not accomplished anything yet. We have not won a gold medal, we have not been to an Olympic Games. This is our first opportunity to prove ourselves. We’re making our own way and writing our own stories.”

That defines Johnson’s journey from taking local swimming lessons, leading her Miami high school to three consecutive Florida state championships, playing intercollegiate water polo at an Ivy League school and becoming a dominant force in a sport devoid of a Black presence.

In 2016, Johnson became the first African American woman to make a U.S. Olympic women’s water polo team. For all of the talk about progress and a misplaced backlash against diversity, Johnson is a testament to the efficacy of diversity and the power of inclusion.

Just ask the opposition. Johnson played four years at Princeton and became the all-time career saves leader. Johnson’s journey was an arduous and lonely learning experience, one that gave her new insights into what other pioneers had to endure to break through previously segregated disciplines.

The greatest challenge was internal, testing her belief in herself. The first was her choice of a college.

“I played the sport through high school and making the decision to go to college for water polo wasn’t easy,” she said. “I chose Princeton, which was a very atypical path for a water polo player, but I was going to play water polo there, which I did for the four years.’’

After her sophomore year, Johnson made the difficult decision to leave college and train to make the U.S. Olympic women’s water polo team. “That decision was difficult because I never saw anybody who looked like me on that team. I never imagined myself doing that. I always wanted that balance between my life and sports, and it felt like making the decision to move to California from New Jersey was a huge decision to leave that balance and let go of that balance in my life.”

She had to overcome self-doubt, but finally tapped into the positive energy of family and friends who encouraged her to make the leap. “I was like, ‘OK, here are all of these people who believe in me, who believe that I can do this. Let me take a chance and believe that I can do this, believe in myself, and just go for it.’ So, I did. I worked hard for two years and ended up making my first Olympic team.”

In many ways, Johnson’s journey defines the journey of every athlete who made an Olympic team in any sport. She was stretched and pushed in ways she could never have imagined. Even the isolation of being a pioneer became strengthening.

“We trained twice a day, we lifted four times a week. It was a lot more than I’d ever done,” Johnson said. “I’m glad that I took the risk, but it was strange.”

As an East Coast transplant on the West Coast, Johnson was a fish out of water. “Water polo is based on the West Coast, so coming from the East Coast and translating what I knew about water polo, how I played to the national team, was a very hard transition. And then being the only one who looked like me, I was like, ‘OK how do I fit in when no one looks like me, no one has my background and then what do I want to take from them? What do I want to give? How open, how vulnerable am I going to be with this team?’ ”

And what would happen if she did all this, made the sacrifices, opened up and still didn’t get the result she wanted?

Johnson discovered that letting go of fear was liberating.

“That was a hard journey,” she said. “But I ended up making the team and also letting go of the fear of not making it, which is hard when you have such a big goal.

“That’s something that a lot of people don’t realize about the Olympic journey. It’s like the tighter you hold onto the fear of not achieving it, the harder it hurts when you don’t get there and the less you actually experience the journey along the way, which is actually the best thing that you get out of it.”

Three Olympics later, Johnson has become a leader and rock on Team USA. Her mission now, besides helping her team win a fourth consecutive gold medal, is opening up the pathway and bringing more young women who look like her into the sport.

She was heartened in July when the 65-year-old rapper Flavor Flav signed a five-year sponsorship deal to support men’s and women’s water polo national teams.

“I’ve met a lot of young Black girls in my sport. A lot of them connect with me by reaching out on Instagram through USA Water Polo,” Johnson said. “Just sharing stories and encouraging and being a fan of the people who are coming up in our sport, being the voice that’s guiding them telling them that they’re on the right path, they’re doing the right thing, there’s space for you here.

“I think that telling the new story is something that I try to do, saying that we belong here that we excel here and then mentorship. That’s big for me.”

When she was 21 and on the lonely path of the pioneer, Johnson fought hard to find joy in her journey. Today, she said, her joy is abundant.

“I think that finding joy in what you’re doing is all about asking yourself why you are doing this,” she said. “I play because it brings me joy even in a low moment. Like, jumping in the pool is one of the hardest things I do all day, but I reflect on the fact that, as my job I get to play a game with my friends and it’s the same game that I’ve been playing since I was young. The game hasn’t changed, I’ve just gotten better at it, so I play a game that I’m really good at with my friends every day.”

There is also a greater joy at this Olympics than there was at the Tokyo Games when the world was in the throes of a pandemic.

Johnson said there is a lightness and atmosphere of joy that was missing in 2021.

“One of the biggest differences between the Tokyo Olympics and this Olympics are the fact that we are past the pandemic, and that affected a lot of athletes,” she said. “A lot of people were grieving losses, a lot of people were figuring out how to come back from financial losses, social losses and being so distant.

“We didn’t have any interaction with other athletes [in Tokyo]. The Olympic spirit was there, but it was dulled. So, coming into this Olympics, that Olympic spirit has been revived. As much as I’m excited to play, people are excited to go and be a part of the Olympic spirit. There’s been an infusion of energy for all of us.”

Winning a fourth gold medal will bring joy, but so will seeing her sport become more diversified, so will being at peace with whatever results her team achieves.

Joy has become multifaceted.

“The pandemic gave us the proper perspective,” Johnson said. “ ‘OK, I play water polo and I’m an athlete, but what else am I?’ — understanding that you are more than an athlete, you are more than whatever you do for your work. I need to go on a walk every day or I like to cook, I like to read. Getting in touch with those things that bring you joy.’’

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Andscape at the Olympics is an ongoing series exploring the Black athletes and culture around the 2024 Paris Games.

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PARIS – Welcome to Andscape at the Olympics, a video series in which Andscape columnist William C. Rhoden, senior NBA writer Marc J. Spears and Andscape/ESPN commentator Ari Chambers discuss the key topics about Black athletes and culture at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

In Episode 2, the crew gathers at Le Gramont to give their take on the opening ceremony (0:45), the vibe surrounding women’s sports at the Games from gymnast Simone Biles making even more history to rapper Flavor Flav supporting women’s water polo (9:08) and the racial tone of France toward Black people (11:57). Then they turn their attention to the state of the 5×5 USA women’s basketball team (15:20), the Caitlin Clark and Team USA (16:20), 3×3 basketball (18:25), Black men in gymnastics (20:10), and the outlook for USA men’s and women’s basketball (21:25). Finally, they conclude by discussing what Chambers is looking forward to in women’s track and field, including sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson (24:59) and more.

“It was emotional for all of us to see the champ holding that torch and walking up there,” Snoop Dogg said of the honor, alluding to late boxer Muhammad Ali, who won an Olympic gold medal in 1960 and drew tears from the world when he lit the Olympic flame at the 1996 Atlanta Games. “This is my own version of it. I don’t want to get too emotional, but I know that this is special. This says a lot about America as far as where we’re at in this world,” later adding, “I would have never dreamed of nothing like this.”

It was not shocking that Snoop Dogg was in an unusually reflective mood during his conversation with NBC sports commentator Mike Tirico. The 52-year-old’s journey is a story of hip-hop, redemption, Black joy and the coronation of pop culture’s ultimate unifier.

In true Snoop Dogg fashion, NBC hired him as a special correspondent to appear on Primetime in Paris for the Games following his hilarious Olympic commentary with comedian Kevin Hart in 2021 during the delayed 2020 Olympics. Clips of the pair reacting to a replay of an equestrian competition instantly became a viral classic. In short, it was Snoop being Snoop.

Still, it cannot be overstated just how fantastical it is to witness the artist formerly known as Mr. “1-8-7 on a undercover cop” who single-handedly drew the ire of politicians, community activists, Black faith leaders, law enforcement organizations, and women’s groups in 1993 become Mister Rogers in blue Chucks.

Back in 1993, a young Snoop Doggy Dogg was basking in the record-breaking glow of his multiplatinum album Doggystyle, which sold more than 800,000 copies in its first week, the most for a debut album at the time. Snoop Dogg was also public enemy number one in 1996, charged with first-degree murder along with his bodyguard in the shooting death of Philip Woldermariam. As he awaited his judgment, the hottest rapper in the world was facing public backlash from all sides, including Grammy-winning music legend Dionne Warwick.

Warwick invited Snoop Dogg, Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight and other rappers to her home to discuss what she viewed as the West Coast MC’s misogynistic content. Warwick dared Snoop Dogg and crew to call her a “b—-.” Snoop Dogg was shaken. “We were the most gangsta as you could be, but that day at Dionne Warwick’s house, I believe we got out-gangstered that day,” he recalled in the 2021 CNN film Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over.

Even after Snoop Dogg was acquitted of the murder charges in 1996, his story could have just as well tragically ended before the start of the new millennium. Following his very acrimonious fallout with Knight, he told Master P that he was planning on dropping a new album titled F— Death Row. The No Limit Records founder gave Snoop Dogg a sobering, lifesaving talk that changed the course of his career and he went on to sell more than 37 million albums worldwide.

“You ain’t gon’ live to see that album out,” Master P told him before offering the embattled rhymer a recording deal. Snoop Dogg moving his family to New Orleans and becoming a No Limit Soldier was just one in a series of intriguing and sometimes stunning side missions that have taken him on his road to the Olympics. In 2005, he established the Snoop Youth Football League to keep kids between the ages of 5 to 13 off the streets of Los Angeles, producing several college and NFL stars, most recently Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud.

Snoop Dogg appeared on business executive and TV personality Stewart’s cooking show in 2008, kick-starting the oddest of odd couple business partnerships. They co-hosted Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party for two seasons on VH1 starting in 2016, were featured in a 2021 national campaign for BIC’s EZ Reach lighter and a 2023 Skechers Super Bowl commercial. He recorded a reggae album, Reincarnated, using the reggae persona Snoop Lion, leading many fans and critics to ask is this dude for real. He most certainly was.

And so we arrive at Snoop Dogg, Olympic darling and living proof of hip-hop’s limitless possibilities. This unlikely happening is especially significant given that 56 years ago, African American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who won gold and bronze medals in the 200 meter race, respectively, were virtually banished from track and field after raising their fists in a silent protest at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. It was a long time coming, considering the racist treatment such Olympic heroes as sprinter Jesse Owens, tennis player Wilma Rudolph, and Ali faced back home.

Today, Snoop Dogg has company. Public Enemy’s legendary hype man and reality show star Flavor Flav has become the official face of the U.S. women’s water polo team, which will compete for its fourth consecutive gold medal. Rapper Cardi B appeared in an Olympic promo video in July with world champion sprinter Sha’ Carri Richardson and became emotional over the track star’s comeback. Richardson was suspended from Team USA in 2021 after she tested positive for THC, a banned substance.

“I’m really, really proud of you,” Cardi B told Richardson. “Because you came back stronger than ever with your talent. You have evolved.”

Evolved. A powerful word that Snoop Dogg can more than attest to.

With 48 combined men’s and women’s medal events, there are countless storylines that have come out of   trials held in June. Defending Olympic 800-meter gold medalist Athing Mu fell during the trials, costing her a chance to defend her title. Three-time Olympian Lolo Jones attempted a comeback at age 41 and advanced to the semifinals of the 100-meter hurdles. After breaking her foot during the 2021 Olympic trials cost her a spot in Tokyo, heptathlete Anna Hall finally earned her spot at the Games after winning gold at this year’s trials.

But with less than a month until the track and field events commence, Andscape looks at the top 5 American storylines coming out of the trials.

5. The high school phenom. The only headline you need to read about Quincy Wilson is this: youngest American male track athlete to appear at an Olympics. After capturing the world’s attention June 24 at the trials, the 16-year-old high school student is headed to Paris as a member of the men’s 4×400 relay pool. Wilson, who doesn’t have his driver’s license yet and has plans to start his own Twitch account, burst onto the scene after breaking the under-18 world record in the 400 meters at last week’s trials — twice. That record (44.69 seconds set by Darell Robinson in 1982) had stood for 42 years before Wilson ran 44.66 seconds in the first round at the trials and 44.59 seconds in the semifinals. Wilson’s 44.94 finish in the finals placed him in sixth and out of the 400 meters for Paris, but it was his third time finishing under 45 seconds over three days and led to his inclusion in the relay pool.

4. Can anyone catch Gabby Thomas? Thomas, the bronze medalist in the 200 meters at the Tokyo Games in 2021 and the 2023 world championships silver medalist, is already a favorite to take gold in the 200 in Paris, as she owns the two fastest times in the event this season, both of which came during the Olympic trials. If Thomas were to finish in first in Paris next month, she’d be the first American woman since 2012 (Allyson Felix) to win gold in the women’s 200. That path has become easier because two-time defending Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah of Jamaica will miss this year’s Games due to injury. Never mind, though: Thomas casually held her wrist and smiled after running a world-leading 21.78 seconds in the women’s semifinal June 28, showing that it might just be that easy for her at the Olympics. That is, unless Ole Miss redshirt senior McKenzie Long, who owns the third-fastest 200 meters time this season (21.83 seconds) when she won the NCAA championship in the event, has something to say about that.

3. The best to do it. The only reason Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone isn’t a bigger American track star is because her event, the 400-meter hurdles, isn’t as sexy of a race as the short sprints or relays. Know this though: McLaughlin-Levrone is the best there is, best there was, and best there ever will be in the hurdles. She set a world record in the hurdles back in 2021 — 51.46 seconds — and went on to set records four times over the last three years. It’s not so much if McLaughlin-Levrone wins gold in Paris next month, but rather what will be her time when she wins. No woman has broken the 50-second mark in the 400 hurdles, but with the way McLaughlin-Levrone has constantly reset the bar over the last few years, it may just happen. To further drive home just how good McLaughlin-Levrone is: She has the fastest time in 400 meters and sixth-fastest time in the 200 meters this season.

2. Can Noah Lyles make history? Possibly the least noteworthy thing about Lyles is him being the best sprinter in the world right now. His — no pun intended — track record speaks for itself. World leader in the 200 meters this season. Three-time reigning world champion in the 200 meters. Top American men’s sprinter. But no, instead it’s all of Lyles’ high jinks and shenanigans that make him one of the more fascinating athletes headed into Paris. His star turn came in 2023 when, after taking gold at that year’s world championships, he criticized NBA Finals winners for calling themselves “world champions.” That started a beef with American hoopers, that when you think about it, Lyles actually had a point. Now a year later and Lyles is whipping out rare Yu-Gi-Oh! trading cards while at the starting blocks before his races and puffing his chest after cruising to victories. Aside from a possible spoiler in Kishane Thompson of Jamaica, who set the world-leading 100 meters time (9.77 seconds) at his country’s Olympic trials June 28, Lyles could become the first American man since Carl Lewis in 1984 to win the Olympic 100/200 meter double at the Olympics.

1. Sha’Carri Richardson is back. Richardson’s story is well known. After taking first place in the 100 meters at the 2021 Olympic trials, Richardson was banned from the 2021 Games after testing positive for THC. Richardson didn’t take the loss well — she lashed out at critics on Twitter and had an embarrassing last-place finish in the 100 meters at the Prefontaine Classic meet in August 2021 against Jamaican sprinters Thompson-Herah, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson. But after a two-year hiatus, Richardson returned with a come-from-behind victory over Fraser-Pryce and Jackson in the 100 meters at the 2023 World Athletic Championship in Budapest, Hungary. Richardson continued her comeback story, with a gold in the 100 meters June 24. While Richardson placed fourth in the 200 meters, failing to qualify for Paris, that was due more to circumstances than skill: She had the second-fastest time in the prelims, and sixth-fastest time of the year, at 21.92 seconds but had run five races by the time she ran in the 200 meters final. Richardson seems primed for a rematch with Jackson and Fraser-Pryce in the 100 meters in Paris, which based on performance so far — she has four of the fastest 11 times in the world this year in the 100 — makes her the favorite.