Kevin Sullivan, better known to professional wrestling fans as ‘The Taskmaster,’ who became one of the sport’s great villains and later carved out a role as a booker creating intriguing storylines, has died at the age of 74.

A cause of death was not reported, but in May his family had set up a GoFundMe request, saying that Sullivan had ‘suffered a devastating accident’ and ‘underwent emergency surgery that saved his leg and life but faced severe complications, including sepsis and encephalitis.‘

During his lengthy career, Sullivan had major battles with other legends such as Hulk Hogan, Dusty Rhodes, and The Road Warriors.

‘Kevin Sullivan had one of the most unique minds in the history of our industry, pushing creative boundaries and developing some of the most intriguing characters to step into the ring. He had an unwavering passion for what we do. My thoughts are with his family, friends & fans,’ WWE executive Triple H said on social media.

During his early tenure with World Championship Wrestling, Sullivan, who was originally from the Boston area, formed the Varsity Club, Army of Darkness and the Dungeon of Doom, feuding with some of the sport’s biggest names.

SAINT-DENIS, France — High school phenom Quincy Wilson wasn’t at his best in his highly-anticipated Olympics debut.

The U.S. men’s 4×400 relay team featuring Wilson, Vernon Norwood, Bryce Deadmon and Christopher Bailey needed a blistering 44.05 from Bailey on the anchor leg to finish third in the first round of the relay.

Wilson was sluggish as he raced around the track on the first leg. The 16-year-old runner, and youngest U.S. male track and field Olympian ever, ran a 47.30 split to start the race. The U.S. team was in seventh place when Wilson handed the baton off to Norwood. Norwood ran a 43.60 split to get the team in sixth place. Norwood then handed the baton off to Deadmon, who posted a 44.20 running the third led as he got the U.S. team in fourth. When Bailey got the baton he needed to place at least third to qualify for the final. He was in fourth during the final 100 meters, but his final surge propelled Team USA to the third and final qualifying spot at 2:59.15.

‘I know I wasn’t 100% myself, but my team came out here and did it for me,’ Wilson said after the relay. ‘They got me around the track today. My grit and determination got me around the track. I knew I had a great three legs behind me and I know it wasn’t just myself today. If it was just myself, we would be in last place. But these guys came out there and gave it their all. From first, all the way to fourth leg, they ran their hearts out.’

2024 Olympic medals: Who is leading the medal count? Follow along as we track the medals for every sport.

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Wilson declined to answer why he wasn’t 100% himself. His 47.30 split is almost three full seconds off the under-18 world record (44.59) that he set at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials. But Norwood, Deadmon and Bailey rallied to secure the third and final qualifying spot.

‘I was in the moment watching a 16-year-old running in the Olympics, making history, so I was very proud of him,’ Norwood said. ‘And I’m looking at him and I’m like ‘Oh, snap back in and let me get the stick and get it going.’ But I’m super proud to come out here and show his grit for the United States and put us in a good position to go for the gold tomorrow.’

Botswana won the heat, clocking a season-best 2:57.76 and Great Britain finished second with a time of 2:58.88.

Botswana, Great Britain and the U.S. have the top three qualifying times entering Saturday’s final.

SAINT-DENIS, France – Keisha Caine Bishop ran through the bowels of the Stade de France with an understandably frantic look on her face. Her son, Noah Lyles, had been removed from the track moments earlier on a wheelchair. She was trying to find him after he took third in the men’s 200-meter dash at the 2024 Paris Olympics but looked unwell afterward. 

Beside her was NBC track and field reporter Lewis Johnson. As they dashed down a hallway, Johnson turned around and gestured with his hands, making a wheelchair motion toward a volunteer, who pointed him in the direction of the venue’s medical center. 

Johnson later described Caine Bishop as “distraught” during his update on Lyles’ condition; the 100-meter Olympic champion received medical attention on the track and was breathing heavily (Lyles has asthma). 

Concurrently, a rumor started floating through the mixed zone: Lyles had COVID-19. Soon enough, the news was breaking everywhere. Johnson ran back the way he came from, toward his NBC camera station, while speaking on his cellphone. 

Athletes from other events and those who took part in the 200 began trickling through the mixed zone. Some, particularly those who competed shortly after the men’s 200, were clueless about the news cycle that had just begun. 

2024 Olympic medals: Who is leading the medal count? Follow along as we track the medals for every sport.

“Noah? I didn’t know, wow,” said Jasmine Jones, who finished fourth in the women’s 400-meter hurdles. “That’s crazy. Congratulations to him. He’s fantastic for that. That’s really impressive. Congratulations. Hats off. Yeah, wow, I didn’t know that.”

That’s because, Lyles later said while speaking with a mask on in the mixed zone, the circle of people who did know he tested positive Tuesday was small: just his family, his doctor and his coaches. Not even his teammates knew. He raced in the 200-meter semifinals Wednesday. 

“I was going to compete regardless,” Lyles said. “If I didn’t make it to the (200) finals, that would’ve been the sign not to compete.”

Lyles showing up to the mixed zone came as a surprise. His publicist informed the media he would not be speaking and that the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, along with World Athletics, would be releasing statements. He’d disappeared from the cameras only to suddenly pop up again on NBC. He entered the mixed zone shortly thereafter.

‘To be honest, I’m more proud of myself than anything – coming out and getting a bronze medal with COVID,’ Lyles said.

Overwhelmingly, the other athletes cared little that Lyles competed with the virus. 

The winner of the race, Letsile Tebogo of Botswana, first noticed something was wrong with Lyles on Wednesday. He noticed that the 27-year-old was wearing a mask and that the protection remained on his face during the pre-finals warmups. 

“Not in his best shape,” Tebogo said. “He’s going through something.” 

A reporter then informed him that Lyles had COVID. 

“Who said that?” Tebogo replied. 

Lyles did. 

“I don’t think he put anybody at risk,” Tebogo said.

The most laid-back about the night’s drama was Kenny Bednarek, the silver medalist in the 200.

“From what I heard, he’s got something that went on. So, I don’t really know what’s going on with him,” Bednarek said. “I mean, I will probably talk to him after this to see if he’s OK, which I hope so. But yeah, like for me, I don’t really know. I’m kind of out of the loop.” 

Bednarek hugged Lyles after the race and said he was unbothered by Lyles’ decision to race. 

“I’m healthy,” Bednarek said. “I do everything I can to make sure my body’s healthy.” 

Bednarek was asked if he had noticed an uptick of colds circulating throughout the athlete’s village. 

“There was a message that came out saying there was something going around,” he said, “but I haven’t seen it.

“I guess I’m carefree.” 

Lyles said he’d rate his health anywhere from “90 to 95 percent” out of 100, though he wrote on Instagram late Thursday he believes ‘this will be the end of my 2024 Olympics.’ (He was expected to run in the 4×100-meter relay.) He knew that he had one “blow” and that it could be used over those 200 meters. That didn’t stop him from putting on his customary pre-race show, as he bounded out of the tunnel when his name was called over the stadium’s loudspeakers during introductions. He bounced all over the track and even knocked over Lane 5’s marker near the starting block in excitement. 

It wasn’t long before Lyles took bronze in his best event and he laid on the ground looking up at the sky. Then came the wheelchair – and a concerned mother looking for her son, trying to make sure he was OK.

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PARIS – Ange-Jacques Gabriel lived for 83 years, born here during the reign of Louis XIV and departing this Earth with France in the midst of so much economic and social crisis that revolution would only be a handful of years away.

The son and grandson of prominent architects, Gabriel followed them into the family business. He’s responsible, in no small part, for why Paris looks the way it does today. Among the projects he designed were one of the famous gardens at the Palace of Versailles, the historic L’Ecole Militaire and the Place de la Concorde, the 19-acre public plaza that sits at the center of the city and punctuates Paris as one of the grandest urban centers in the world.

It is here, at the very spot where Gabriel envisioned a monument to Louix XV, where I have watched skateboarders glide over rails, basketball players make fadeaway jumpers and BMX cyclists fly through the air while the Luxor Obelisk looms over four makeshift sporting venues and the Eiffel Tower sits in the distance.

Gabriel would not have known about the Olympic Games; he died more than 100 years before they debuted in 1896. But I will go home thinking, hoping, that he would have been proud.

Because the city that Gabriel and architects like Jules Hardouin-Mansart, Charles Garnier, Jean Chalgrin and Gustave Eiffel made one of the world’s most beautiful has shined in an entirely new light during the Paris Games.

In some ways, it’s never looked better. And it has provided a tableau for an Olympics that may be impossible to completely replicate anywhere else in the world.

But it’s a template that every Olympic city should strive for.

For decades and decades, hosting an Olympics meant spending billions – most of it public money – on new facilities that are sold to taxpayers as so-called legacy projects. Often, those promises are either met with a reality that doesn’t match the sales pitch or abandoned completely.

There are too many white elephants that were built in the name of hosting an Olympics.

Paris’ approach was different. I had heard all along that instead of building a bunch of arenas on the outskirts of town like you see in most Olympic cities that will eventually be used for other purposes, the plan was to integrate venues for the Games into the existing structure of this sprawling metropolis. To, essentially, use what was already great and renowned about Paris – its architecture and iconic spaces – as the backdrop for the greatest sporting event in the world.

It’s been the best part of the Olympics.

The grandeur of it all has been most obvious to television viewers with beach volleyball, played in a temporary stadium constructed directly under the Eiffel Tower.

It’s the iconic frame of these Games, but there has been so much more to marvel at in a city briefly transformed almost beyond recognition.

On the morning of the individual triathlon, which had been delayed because of water quality issues, I woke up preparing to make fun of France’s 1.4 billion-euro plan to clean up the Seine after 100 years for this event. There were indeed some easy jokes to be found in the idea that some of the world’s greatest athletes were swimming in a century’s worth of Parisian fecal matter, but that admittedly didn’t do justice to the experience.

At 8 a.m. that morning, I took a seat in stands that had been constructed on the Pont Alexandre bridge. I looked to my left and saw the dome of Les Invalides, built 350 years ago as a military hospital and now a museum where Napoleon is buried. To my right was the Grand Palais. I’ve never been more awed by the beauty of a sporting venue.

Inside the Grand Palais, fencing and later taekwondo competitions took place under its glass atrium roof. The park surrounding Les Invalides was transformed into an archery venue. A half-hour away, the Versailles Palace was the background for an equestrian venue that seemed as natural and noble as the sport itself. Even Roland Garros, one of the most famous tennis facilities in the world, became an electric, 15,000-seat boxing venue during the second week.

Of course, some sports like swimming and gymnastics and the basketball medal rounds were contested in generic arenas in the outlying areas of Paris. But never has an Olympics so seamlessly meshed sports with the architecture, culture and history that French people have been proud of for hundreds of years. At a time when cities are more hesitant to host an Olympics because of how much wasteful spending is often necessary to build infrastructure, Paris showed it can be done without being a multi-billion-dollar boondoggle.

It didn’t happen entirely free of controversy. There were federal investigations into the awarding of some contracts, the long-term value of cleaning up the Seine may not materialize as politicians had hoped and many Paris citizens grumbled about the world taking over their city for a month. Many of them packed up and left town: I’ve been to this densely-populated metropolitan area of 11 million several times before, and it has never felt this empty and easy to move around.

But after two COVID-tainted Olympics in Asia that had no atmosphere, no fans and little joy, the Games didn’t just return to form in Paris – they set a standard that will be incredibly difficult to match. Every stadium was full, bars and restaurants were buzzing well past midnight and nearly every one of these makeshift venues had a French flair that showed the best of this remarkable city to the world.

Of course, there’s only one Paris.

Los Angeles has its own energy and mystique, and Brisbane in 2032 will be set against the sandy beaches of Australia’s Gold Coast. Hopefully they’ll find a way to retain that same feeling of an Olympics truly being part of a world-class city.

But the roots of this visually stunning Olympics were planted hundreds of years ago by visionaries, artists and architects who could have never imagined this modern world. Paris should be praised – and thanked – for bringing their work to life in an entirely different way.

Tara Davis-Woodhall had just won an Olympic gold medal in the long jump and, after an initial celebration that included sand angels in the sand pit at Stade de France in Paris, she sprinted toward the stands to leap into the arms of her husband, Hunter Woodhall. 

“Oh my God, baby,” Woodhall said to his wife. “You’re the Olympic champion.”

“It was such a relief and a ‘finally’ moment,” Davis-Woodhall later told NBC. “I was just looking into his eyes and I didn’t know where I was. I almost blacked out for a second and he just made the moment so much more special.”

It’s among the most memorable scenes to emerge from the 2024 Paris Olympics, and once again shined a spotlight on a heartwarming track and field relationship that has all the makings of a movie someday.

Woodhall is a double amputee runner with three medals in the past two Paralympics – and designs on earning his first gold medal at this month’s 2024 Paralympics in Paris. After Davis-Woodhall made headlines in Paris, here’s what else you should know about Woodhall’s inspirational story and a marriage Team USA’s website declared to be “track and field’s power couple.’

2024 Olympic medals: Who is leading the medal count? Follow along as we track the medals for every sport.

Where is Hunter Woodhall from?

Woodhall was born in Cartersville, Georgia because of his father’s military service, but grew up in Syracuse, Utah.

How did Hunter Woodhall lose his legs?

Woodhall, 25, was born in 1999 with a congenital birth defect called fibular hemimelia in which the fibula bones are either partially or completely missing. When Woodhall was 11 months old, his parents made the decision to amputate both of his legs in order to improve his quality of life long term.

Where did Hunter Woodhall go to college?

Woodhall broke Utah high school state records running on carbon fiber blades similar to the ones made famous by South African Oscar Pistorius at the 2012 Olympics. He then became the first double amputee to earn a Division-I track and field scholarship when he enrolled at Arkansas ahead of the 2017-18 school year. Woodhall finished his career at Arkansas as a four-time, first team all-American competing against non-disabled runners in the 4×400-meter relay.

“I wasn’t going to be seen as just someone with a disability,” he told Sports Illustrated in 2017. “I was going to be seen as an athlete. I knew that’s the only way I was going to change that perception was to become the best athlete possible, to become the most competitive athlete.”     

Hunter Woodhall and Tara Davis-Woodhall relationship, explained

Woodhall and Davis initially met at a 2017 track meet in Idaho, according to a YouTube video they put together explaining the origins of their relationship. They started dating by the end of their senior year of high school.

They continued in a long-distance relationship while Woodhall ran at Arkansas and Davis-Woodhall was at Georgia and Texas on a track and field scholarship. They both competed in Tokyo in 2021. Davis finished sixth in the long jump at the Olympics, while Woodhall took home a bronze medal in the 400m at the Paralympics. 

The couple got engaged in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico in September 2021 and got married in McKinney, Texas on Oct. 16, 2022, according to People.

“I want people to know we’re just two normal people,” Woodhall said in an interview with Archewell, the official website of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. “We bring a lot of diversity into our relationship, and we want to be really transparent about that. Tara is a woman of color. I have a disability. We want people to know that whoever you are, whatever situation you’re in … it’s okay and that’s what makes you special and unique.”

Woodhall also posted a touching message to his wife on Instagram ahead of the long jump competition at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

‘Tomorrow you contend for the Olympic Title,” he wrote. “I’m so humbled by you. You have battled through so much just to give yourself a chance. You’ve inspired so many with your authenticity. Showing it’s okay to struggle, it’s okay to not always be okay. Through everything you continued to fight for your dream. No one has worked harder. No one has been more disciplined. You inspire me every day to be great. Tomorrow is your moment. Enjoy every bit of it. You are ready.”

Hunter Woodhall’s Paralympics accomplishments  

Woodhall won a silver medal in the 200m T44 and a bronze medal in the 400m T44 at the 2016 Paralympics while still in high school. He followed it up with another bronze medal in the 400m T62 at the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo. He also has six world championship medals to his credit.

Woodhall is scheduled to compete in the 100m and 400m T 62 events at the 2024 Paralympics, which are set to begin on Aug. 28 in Paris. He set personal bests in both races at the U.S. Paralympic Team Trials last month in Miramar, Florida. 

Hunter Woodhall and Tara Davis-Woodhall on social media

The two runners have an ample social media following and their own YouTube channel. Woodhall’s story became mainstream ahead of the 2020 Paralympics through a TikTok video he produced about how he became a double amputee. It eventually garnered almost six million views and drew the attention of Ellen DeGeneres. She had Woodhall on her show and chipped in $20,000 to help finance his Paralympic dreams.  

PARIS — The decision, so seismic in the moment, looks so obvious now.

Emma Hayes knew the front line of Trinity Rodman, Sophia Smith and Mallory Swanson had the potential to be something special. But they needed to play together, something that, for a variety of reasons, had rarely happened since Smith and Rodman had come into the U.S. women’s national team.

Olympic teams are small, though, just 18 players compared with the 23 for the World Cup and other tournaments. For Hayes to make her vision happen, she had to do something seemingly unthinkable: She had to leave Alex Morgan behind for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The Alex Morgan. The USWNT’s leading active goal scorer. One of the women who’s defined not just the USWNT but women’s soccer for more than a decade.

“I wanted to go in another direction and selected other players,” Hayes said after the roster for the Paris Olympics was announced. “Having players on the roster that could play more than one position mattered with squad depth. I also think the players on the roster, in the forward areas, are performing well.” 

2024 Olympic medals: Who is leading the medal count? Follow along as we track the medals for every sport.

That now seems incredibly understated.

Brazil, which the USWNT faces in Saturday’s final, has only one player with multiple goals, Gabi Portilho, who has scored twice over five games.

“I think the second we started getting real minutes together, the opportunity to build on those minutes, and build game after game our chemistry, it’s so much fun and it feels so natural,” Smith said Thursday. “I think from the start, from the first time we played together, it was just so much fun.”

For them. For opponents, it’s a nightmare. Stop one, and you’ve left the other two open. Converge on one, and one of the others will find space.

Just ask Germany how well that works out.

‘That’s hard to defend. I can only imagine,’ said Smith, whose goal in the 95th minute of the semifinal against Germany came after several defenders converged on Swanson, who saw a small opening and threaded the ball to Smith.

Making it even more challenging? The way the three can shape shift.

What the front line did against Australia is not going to be the same thing it will do against Brazil. You can try to plan for them, but it’s a guesstimate, at best.

‘We get to see that every day in training, so it’s nothing new for me. But to see them doing it on a stage like this and to take it all in and then move on to the next game and see what else they can do, what else they can bring — I think for each game, those three are bringing something different,’ captain Lindsey Horan said Friday.

The USWNT went through an extended period when everything seemed to be a slog. They looked burdened and uncertain, their love for a game they’ve played since they were kids seeming very far away. That malaise has since lifted.

Of course it’s easier to be happy when you’re scoring lots of goals and winning. But not since the 2019 World Cup have they appeared to be having as much fun as they are in this tournament. There is a looseness and joy to this team that is not dependent upon results or goals scored.

Hayes has made a point of instilling that in the team. But Rodman, Smith and Swanson, dubbed ‘Triple Trouble’ by former USWNT forward Christen Press, are setting the tone.

They also are sublimely skilled. Rodman has footwork usually only seen in video games. Swanson is like a magician, able to maneuver in the tightest of spaces. Smith is a ruthless finisher.

Best, though, is their unselfishness. Any one of the three would be the offensive focal point on pretty much any team. But none of them feels the need to dominate or demands that the offense runs through her.

By playing off each other and with one another, it’s brought out the best in each of them.

“It’s not like, ‘Mal’s going to do her thing, (same for) Soph and Trin. It was a togetherness of, ‘Mal’s going to make this great run to open it up for Soph to then dummy it to Trin.’ We could see it just meshing consistently,” Rodman said.

“I think it was the consistent part where I was like, ‘OK, this is it.’ Because you can play well with talented forwards, but for it to mesh well together is something special,” Rodman added. “And I think we have that.”

Despite the USWNT’s insistence that they have moved beyond last year’s debacle at the World Cup, where their round-of-16 exit was the earliest ever at a major international tournament, these Olympics are something of a make-up tournament for Rodman, Smith and Swanson.

Neither Rodman nor Smith played particularly well in Australia and New Zealand. Swanson didn’t play at all, tearing her left patellar tendon three months before the tournament.

But last year seems very long ago. All three are delivering on the promise they’ve long had and are having a blast doing it.

“The theme you’re starting to hear a lot is that it’s been fun. We’ve been playing with joy,” Swanson said. “For us, this whole tournament, the big theme is stay present, have joy and just focus on us. Obviously, that’s worked out pretty well for us so far.”

Great for the USWNT, who are one game away from their fifth Olympic gold medal. Their opponents, not so much.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.

PARIS — U.S. men’s Olympic basketball coach Steve Kerr knows how good LeBron James is from coaching against him in four consecutive NBA Finals.

But after coaching him for more than a month for the 2024 Paris Olympics, Kerr has a greater appreciation of what James does.

“I just like coaching him rather than coaching against him,” Kerr said just before the U.S. opened group play at the Olympics. “It’s so fun to see him up close and get to know him a little bit and watch him with his teammates. I mean there’s a reason he’s LeBron James – to see him at 39 doing everything he’s doing, dominating games, leading practices, setting an example for everybody. He’s incredible.”

That appreciation grew tenfold, if not more, after James, Steph Curry and Joel Embiid spearheaded a dazzling comeback and saved the U.S. from what would have been a humbling and disappointing loss to Serbia in the semifinals at these Summer Games.

2024 Olympic medals: Who is leading the medal count? Follow along as we track the medals for every sport.

The U.S. defeated Serbia 95-91 on Thursday – after trailing by 13 to start the fourth quarter – and will play France in the gold-medal game on Saturday. Team USA is trying to win its fifth consecutive gold medal.

James was once again spectacular. He had 16 points, 12 rebounds (all defensive) and 10 assists and locked in defensively in the fourth quarter as the U.S. stormed back.

“LeBron James is such an amazing basketball player,” Kerr said. “He guarded (three-time NBA MVP Nikola) Jokic most of the fourth quarter and just all the little stuff that he was doing defensively to thwart Serbia – rebounding, pushing the ball in transition.”

Said James: “Big-time win for us. We knew we were going to be challenged. We knew it was going to be the toughest game up to date, but it was a true total effort.’

It was not a one-man show by any stretch. Curry scored 36 points, Embiid had 19 and Kevin Durant had seven of his nine points in the decisive fourth quarter in which the U.S. outscored Serbia 32-15.

But James led the charge. At 39 years old, he has been the best player at the Olympics.

James was a member of the 2004 Athens Games team that won a disappointing bronze (he played little as a 19-year-old); he was a member of the teams that won gold in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012, then took a break from international play.

So he is relishing this moment.

You don’t need to wonder how seriously James takes this. He wouldn’t have committed to playing for Team USA after a 12-year hiatus if it didn’t mean something to him. And his desire to win another gold medal was on display against Serbia. He was close to losing, but he didn’t let it happen.

It’s his last Olympics, and as the sun begins to set on his basketball career, he acknowledged why this is special.

“I don’t know how many opportunities and moments I’m going to get like this to be able to compete for something, compete for something big and play in big games, and tonight was a big game,” James said.

That James who takes over a game is still around. In the fourth quarter, James had six points, six rebounds and three assists. He scored two of his buckets on coast-to-coast driving layups following rebounds and his aggressive defense on Jokic allowed his teammates to cut off the good 3-point attempts Serbia had in the first three quarters.

Kerr hasn’t passed on an opportunity to praise James.

“LeBron puts his imprint on the game in so many different ways,” he said. “It’s not just his skill and his strength and his size, but it’s his emotion, his confidence, just the way he infuses our team with energy and confidence at 39. It’s just amazing.”

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PARIS — Marta is getting quite the sendoff.

The Brazilian great will play her final international match Saturday, when Brazil faces the U.S. women’s national team in the Olympic final. It’s the fourth time in her career Marta has made the final at a major tournament, and third at the Olympics.

The Brazilians lost to the USWNT in 2004 and 2008. They also lost to Germany at the 2007 World Cup.

“We all wanted to play the final at the Olympics regardless of the circumstances. But of course this is an extra motivation,” Angelina said Friday. “We want to give this medal to Marta. She has given us so much throughout her career. She’s given everything she has to us and women’s football.

“She really deserves to play in the final.”

2024 Olympic medals: Who is leading the medal count? Follow along as we track the medals for every sport.

Marta, 38, is considered the best player in women’s soccer history. She is a six-time FIFA Player of the Year and her 17 goals at the World Cup are a record for any player, male or female. She also was the first player to score at five World Cups, a mark since matched by Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Canada’s Christine Sinclair.

Her influence off the field has been equally significant. She has lobbied passionately for more support of the women’s game and encouraged young women to continue playing regardless of the challenges they face.

Because of Marta, the women’s game is no longer an afterthought in soccer-mad Brazil.

For years, women in Brazil had few opportunities to play “the beautiful game.’ Those who did were ridiculed. But because of Marta, and her mesmerizing style of play, Brazil has gotten behind its women’s team.

She also inspired this current generation of players in her two decades-plus on the national team. As she hoped she would.

“For all of us that love the women’s game, she’s been more than just a role model and icon. She’s been the best player over a long period of time,” USWNT coach Emma Hayes said. “But what she’s done for Brazil and for those women in the generation coming through, the inspiration she’s been to them, I’m happy she gets the opportunity.”

It’s this next generation that ensured Marta will leave the game with another Olympic medal, possibly a gold one.

She received a two-game suspension for kicking Spain’s Olga Carmona in the head in the final group-stage game. Marta was trying to win an aerial ball and jumped with her leg raised to try and bring it down, but connected with Carmona’s head instead.

She was distraught after being shown a red card, sobbing as she left the field.

But Brazil won its quarterfinal, beating host France. It then stunned World Cup champion Spain in the semifinals, cruising to a 4-2 victory.

“For us to be able to get to the final, and for this to be her last Olympics, with the chance to get the gold medal, it’s just dream come true for all of us,” Angelina said. “We’re just really excited to have this opportunity.”

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