PARIS (Reuters) – Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo finally swam in the River Seine on Wednesday, fulfilling a promise to try to convince doubters that its waters will be clean enough to hold Olympic swimming events.

Hidalgo took the plunge around 10 a.m. on a glorious summer’s day in Paris, with visitors crowding on nearby bridges to catch a glimpse of her after several postponements due to heavy rain and doubts about water quality.

Hidalgo, clad in a wetsuit and goggles, was joined in the Seine by Tony Estanguet, the head of the Paris Olympics Organizing Committee, among others. At first she paddled and then swam front crawl with her face in the water.

‘We have worked very, very hard and then you go down into the water and it seems natural,’ Hidalgo said after the swim. ‘The water is very, very good, a little bit cool.’

The triathlon and marathon swimming legs of the Olympics, which run from July 26 to Aug. 11, are due to be held in the Seine.

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According to the most recent July 12 Seine water quality bulletin, based on the Eau de Paris water analysis, the water quality would be suitable for swimming in six out of seven days at the Olympics swimming sites.

Decisions on whether to run Olympics events will be taken the night before, and early that same morning, with a technical committee including athletes, international federation, regional authorities and Meteo France making the call.

‘The first athletes are arriving tomorrow, and so this is a very important message that, finally, the Seine is swimmable, and the triathlon and swimming events can be held here,’ Estanguet said.

Paris has been working on cleaning up the Seine so that people can swim in it again, as was the case during the 1900 Paris Olympics. Former Paris Mayor Jacques Chirac in 1988 promised he would swim in the Seine ‘in the presence of witnesses’, but his plunge never materialised.

The city has built a huge storage basin capable of holding 46,000 cubic metres of waste water before it flows through a tunnel to a treatment plant. When the water meets the required health criteria, it will then be poured into the Seine.

If the river is not deemed to be suitable, organisers have contingency plans: the marathon swimming event will take place at Vaires-sur-Marne, where the rowing and canoeing events are held, and the triathlon will be turned into a duathlon.

Jenn Fluet, a 21-year-old tourist visiting from New York, said Hidalgo was brave. Asked if she would follow suit, Fluet said: ‘Hell no! It’s dirty.’

Quentin Mazars, a 33-year-old swimming club member who joined Hidalgo in the Seine, said he ‘was careful not to swallow any water’.

Pierre Suzeau, a 66-year-old member of an outdoor swimming group, emerged from his dip energised.

‘We are very happy to finally see swimming in an urban environment become a reality,’ he said. ‘We hope that the Seine and the canals will soon all be swimmable.’

French Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra had already taken a swim in the river on Saturday.

When Simone Biles withdrew from the gymnastics team final at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, filmmaker Katie Walsh was at the Biles’ family home in Texas, capturing footage of what was expected to be another celebratory moment for the iconic American gymnast.

‘When I look back now, I can start to see the cracks,’ said Walsh, who had been filming Biles since 2019. ‘But I had not heard of the twisties. … I was not prepared for that.’

Though Walsh said she was as stunned as everybody else by Biles’ withdrawal in Tokyo, and subsequent hiatus from competitive gymnastics, she also said she had a hunch about what would come next: Biles’ return in 2023.

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That comeback is the focal point of ‘Simone Biles: Rising,’ a four-episode docuseries on Netflix that also will follow Biles through the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympics. The first two episodes of the series debuted Wednesday, while the third and fourth episodes are still being produced and will be released after the Games.

‘I think she needed to come back for herself,’ said Walsh, who is directing the project, ‘to really just prove to herself that she can do it under those circumstances.’

Walsh said she benefited from having a prior relationship with Biles, who will be heavily favored to win multiple gold medals in Paris. Before ‘Rising,’ Walsh served as the supervising producer on another docuseries about Biles called ‘Simone vs. Herself,’ which covered some of the same ground − including Biles’ performance in Tokyo. Both of the series were produced by Religion of Sports.

Walsh said her goal with ‘Rising’ wasn’t to do anything different than her past Biles’ docuseries, but rather double-down on the filming and interviewing approaches that had worked during the COVID-19 pandemic − and give Biles the space and freedom to continue telling her story.

‘My whole approach with this film was that there’s this idea of the way the outside world looks in at her, and then there’s the way that she’s experiencing the world that’s around her,’ Walsh said. ‘Sometimes those things align. Sometimes she is the GOAT, and we see the GOAT. And sometimes we see the GOAT, and she feels insecure. And sometimes you see just this one side of her, and we get to see these other sides of her.’

Walsh said the decision to pursue the project ‘came down to the last minute’ as Biles weighed whether she was ready to share more of her story from Tokyo and the 732-day layoff that followed. Filming didn’t begin until late September, just before the 2023 world championships where Biles won four golds, including in the all-around and team competitions.

The 27-year-old sat for two lengthy interviews over the winter, Walsh said, ‘plus lots of little ones’ − including an hour-long session during the week of the U.S. Olympic trials. The director praised Biles for her candor and said they worked together to address particularly challenging subjects − such as Biles being a survivor of sexual abuse and some of her trauma from Tokyo − on Biles’ timeline and at her discretion.

‘It takes a lot. It’s emotionally taxing to go back to all these things,’ Walsh said. ‘If somebody were constantly bringing up these traumatic experiences in your life and asking you about them, it just emotionally takes a lot. So I’m aware of that.’

While covering the expected topics, like Biles’ return to competition and preparation for Paris, the docuseries also shows her life away from the sport, including her marriage and relationship with NFL player Jonathan Owens. Walsh thought it was important, for Biles personally and the project generally, to try to capture all the different sides of the world’s top gymnast − portraying her not just as ‘the GOAT’ but ‘a well-rounded human being.’

Walsh said Biles would not see any of the episodes before they were released on Netflix. When asked if it is important to her that Biles likes the series, Walsh said she hopes that it will feel ‘authentic to her.’

‘I don’t think I put this together with the idea of, ‘is Simone going to like this?’ ‘ Walsh said. ‘I think as long as I stay true to her and her story, I think that’s what’s most important. But I’m always thoughtful about her feelings. … I’m just trying to create a space for her to be her. I’m not trying to create a narrative for her. She should be the one that is leading the charge on who she is and how her life is.’

Walsh didn’t offer any specific predictions on how Biles will perform at the Paris Olympics, which begin July 26, nor whether Biles will choose to retire from competitive gymnastics afterwards.

‘I’ve joked many times that I will gladly babysit if she wants to compete in 2028,’ the director said, with a grin. ‘I hope whatever she decides to do, it’s on her terms and that she feels really happy with these next steps that she takes moving forward.’

Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on social media @Tom_Schad.

ARLINGTON, Texas − This will forever be known as Pittsburgh Pirates rookie sensation Paul Skenes’ coming out party, but Shohei Ohtani once again reminded everyone Tuesday night at the All-Star Game that he’s still the greatest player in the world, while Boston Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran’s storybook breakout season added a new chapter.

The American League won the All-Star Game, 5-3, with Duran joining Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski as the only Boston Red Sox outfielders to win the MVP award.

Still, even after pitching just the first inning of the game without a strikeout, everyone was still talking about Skenes.

He arrived into town Sunday with his famous girlfriend Livvy Dunne and left with everyone at Globe Life Field believing the All-Star Game could be an annual trip.

It blew Skenes’ mind that he grew up watching and idolizing these All-Stars, and now, here he was one of them. On Monday night, he sat next to Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow and Pirates outfielder Bryan Reynolds at Home Run Derby On Tuesday night after pitching one inning, he sat next to Atlanta veteran starter Chris Sale on the bench and ate in the clubhouse with Glasnow and starters Hunter Greene of the Cincinnati Reds and Logan Webb of the San Francisco Giants.

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“I think that’s probably the coolest part about it all,’’ Skenes said. “I think the coolest part about it is they’re so accepting and welcomed me with open arms into the clubhouse, and they’re super supportive, watching my start. It was really cool.

“Definitely feel like I’m one of them.’’

While most players leave after coming out of the All-Star Game, Skenes opted to stay, watching Ohtani hit a three-run, 400-foot homer in the third inning.

“I think I’ve been answering questions about Shohei for like four or five years at All-Star Games,’’ said All-Star first baseman Freddie Freeman, Ohtani’s teammate. “I still never have words to describe what he’s doing. We always talked about him pitching and hitting, and now he’s recovering from Tommy John for the second time, and he’s still going out there and being the best player in the game.

“So, it’s pretty amazing.’’

Skenes, who gave up a home run to Ohtani last month, was just grateful he could be teammates one night with Ohtani and watch him inflict damage on someone else.

“It was really cool to watch him do that,’’ Skenes said. “Really cool to watch him go about his business and get to meet him and all that.

“I don’t know of any hitters I’ve faced that’s better than him in my career.

“So, to be able to share a dugout with him was surreal.’’

The NL players shared the same sentiments about Skenes, talking to him about his blazing fastball, his splinker pitch, his background of being an Air Force Academy cadet, and now emerging as one of the greatest rookie pitchers in history.

“It was awesome to talk to him,’’ Webb said. “I talked to a lot of pitchers and learned a bunch of stuff from guys.’’

What did he learn from Skenes?

“I wish I could,’’ Webb said, laughing, “but I don’t throw 102.’’

Skenes’ coming-out party was uneventful on the field. He opened the game by inducing a lazy fly-out from leadoff hitter Steve Kwan, who leads the major leagues with a .352 batting average. Gunnar Henderson, who is hitting .286 with 28 homers, was the next victim, hitting a 50-mph bouncer to the mound.

That brought up Juan Soto.

Soto battled Skenes for seven pitches and drew a walk when Skenes missed with a 84.7-mph curveball, and then again on a 100-mph fastball.

“I was trying to take him deep,’’ Soto said. “No lie.’’

Up stepped Aaron Judge, the American League home run champion who’s leading the major leagues with 34 homers. Skenes threw a 99.7-mph fastball. Judge swung and hit a routine grounder to third base.

Skenes’ night was over.

“That was pretty cool,’’ Skenes said.

The pitch he’ll remember the most?

“Probably the first pitch,’’ he said, “just being out there. I don’t think I blacked out when I was out there, but I was pretty close. It was cool to be on that mound, but just being able to share this with my family and have them out here and just being able to experience it.’’

Certainly, it will be a night that Duran will never forget either, hitting a go-ahead, two-run homer in the fifth inning in his first at-bat. The homer enabled him to highlight his advocacy for mental health that plagued him early in his career. He wears a shirt underneath his Red Sox jersey reading “[Expletive] ‘em’’ and held up the MVP trophy with the phrase ‘Still Alive’ written on his taped-up wrist.

Now, he’s got some hardware too.

“It’s kind of hard to put into words,’’ Duran said, “but honestly, I couldn’t stop thinking about my family. It’s a surreal moment. …

“I mean, All-Star Game, first home run, All-Star Game MVP. I’m just very thankful. It’s hard to put into words.

“It won’t hit me until I try to go to sleep tonight.

“Who knows if I’ll be able to sleep tonight.’’

The one All-Star you can be assured who won’t get any sleep is AL starter Corbin Burnes. He didn’t get to the ballpark until Tuesday morning, spending the past two days with his wife, son and newborn twin daughters. He pitched one inning and immediately flew back home to Phoenix, planning to spend the rest of the All-Star break with his family.

“They’re just over two weeks old,’’ Burnes said, “so it was good to go home to see them. The last time I saw them, they were a couple of days old. It was tough to tell them apart at that point. I’m glad I can tell them apart now.

“So, I’ll go back, change some diapers, give the girls some bottles and spend as much time as possible with them before heading back.’’

It would have been easy, of course, for Burnes to have skipped the All-Star Game. He didn’t need to be here. Everyone would have understood.

“I couldn’t do that,’’ he said. “Every year my wife says, ‘You never know when it’s going to be your last.’ So, if you get the honor to come, I think you should not only represent Major League Baseball, but the team I’m part of.

“I wanted to enjoy the experience.’

It turned out to be a night that few will forget.

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Seeing Simone Biles, Jordan Chiles, Suni Lee and Hezly Rivera playing in the confetti after US gymnastics trials in June was a powerful moment, four women of color celebrating their status as Olympians in what has traditionally been a predominantly white sport.

Less than two weeks later, Talladega College announced it was dropping its women’s gymnastics program after just one season because of a lack of resources, leaving Fisk University as the only HBCU school with a team.

The contrast between these two events represents the challenge gymnastics faces. Elite gymnastics, the national team in particular, has become a model of representation and inspiration while diversity elsewhere in the sport remains harder to sustain, if not elusive.

But there is hope that just as Biles, Lee, Gabby Douglas and Dominique Dawes sparked interest from little girls of color, this generation of athletes — and the prospect of an Olympics in Los Angeles in four years — will do the same among community leaders and decision makers.

“We need more programs in more diverse areas,” said Derrin Moore, founder of Brown Girls Do Gymnastics. “We already have the parents and the kids who say, ‘I want to do the same thing Simone did!’” Moore said. “Now it’s the city officials or (community groups). The people who can write checks are now starting to see it, and I think it’s affecting it on that level.”

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Paris will be the third Olympics for Biles, who is now one of the most recognizable athletes in the world. She’s redefined her sport and rewritten its record books over the last decade-plus, putting a sledgehammer to the idea that gymnastics isn’t a sport for people of color.

As great an impact as Biles has, though, she is at the top of what has been a rising wave in US gymnastics. She, Douglas and Lee, the last three Olympic all-around champions, are all women of color. Since 1992, every US women’s team but one has had at least two athletes of color.

In Paris, four-fifths of the women’s team that is heavily favored to win gold are people of color, as are Frederick Richard and Asher Hong on the US Olympic men’s gymnastics team.

Quite the change from when Biles was growing up, and mother Nellie recalled her two daughters and one of Biles’ best friends often being the only girls of color in the gym and at competitions. Now the World Champions Centre, owned by Nellie and Ron Biles, champions diversity while developing winners.

“When a girl, it doesn’t matter what her ethnicity is, sees someone they can relate to on the television screen, they say, ‘I want to be just like her,’” Nellie Biles said. “I think the diversity is getting broader simply because there are Simones that people can relate to. More and more Black girls are in the sport. More and more Asian girls and Hispanic girls are in the sport.

“It’s very good for the sport.”

Yet gymnastics overall remains overwhelmingly white. Most coaches are white. Same for judges. In USA Gymnastics’ most recent survey of its members, 60% identified as white while less than 14% identified as Black (4.53%), Hispanic (5.15%) or Asian (3.09%); 7.46% identified as two or more races.

Roughly 19% of the respondents either left the question blank or said they were choosing not to answer, but the numbers are similar to a survey ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.

This isn’t because people of color aren’t interested in the sport. After every Olympics, Moore said, she’ll hear from people who want to know how they can get their daughters involved in gymnastics. Her group is now planning to start Brown Boys Do Gymnastics because of demand.

But interest alone isn’t enough.

Because most gyms are located in suburban areas, accessibility is an issue. Moore’s group is trying to encourage community-based organizations to add even intro-level gymnastics programs so kids, and their parents, can decide whether this is something they really want to pursue.

Even at the lower level, gymnastics is not an inexpensive sport, making cost an issue, too. Hostile or indifferent atmospheres are also a turn-off, Moore said.

“People will reach out and say, ‘Hey, I want to get my daughter involved in gymnastics, where do I go?’” Moore said. “Then the conversation becomes, ‘It costs $175 a month’ or ‘It’s too far’ or ‘My daughter doesn’t feel like she’s getting the attention,’ and they’re not doing it anymore.

“The interest comes about, but it just doesn’t stick for whatever reason.”

That has a trickle-up effect. If there are fewer gymnasts of color in high school and college programs, schools like Talladega see the gymnastics team as expendable. Talladega supporters have launched a fundraising campaign to try save the program, and BGDG is using its annual conference that begins Thursday in Atlanta to amplify the message.

If kids of color leave the sport early, or never have the chance to start gymnastics in the first place, it also means they probably won’t become coaches. Or judges.  

But given the chance and the support, gymnasts of color can do anything in the sport they want. Just look at the Olympic team.

“It is exactly what it should have been all along,” Moore said. “If you have a team that for years is all white and you walk down the street and that’s not what you see, something’s wrong. You may not know where, but something’s wrong. We had to break down barriers when it should have been normal.”

Interest in the sport is there, thanks to Biles, Douglas, Dawes, Lee and so many others. Now the access must follow.

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

For much of its first 19 years, Pauley Pavilion was best known as a place where history was made on hardwood. But for one week in the summer of 1984, the floor of UCLA’s storied sports arena was transformed into a brilliant cacophony of mats, bars and beams.

Like John Wooden, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton before them, it was at this venue that the 12 gymnasts representing the U.S. at the Summer Games in Los Angeles left an indelible mark on their sport.

Over the course of six nights, the U.S. men’s and women’s Olympic gymnastics teams flipped, tumbled and vaulted their way to Olympic glory. They captivated sold-out crowds on their way to collecting a total of 26 medals — 10 of them gold — announcing American gymnastics’ arrival on the world stage.

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Night one: men’s team all-around

July 31, 1984

When the U.S. men’s gymnastics team entered Pauley Pavilion for the first time on the evening of the team all-around final, it did so through a small tunnel that connected the venue to a warm-up gym a few hundred yards away.

In that tunnel, away from the gaze of the thousands in attendance, the athletes huddled for one final time before taking the floor. The nerves had settled in. Outwardly, they shared high-fives and encouragement but inside, they had their doubts.

“We had no dream of getting a gold medal,” said Bart Conner. “We thought China was so good, I [didn’t] know if there was any way we could do that.”

Sensing the unease that pervaded his group, coach Abie Grossfeld decided it was time to deliver a unique pep talk.“He called us over at one moment, right before we got out there,” recalled Mitch Gaylord. “And he goes, ‘Hey guys, I just want you to remember, there’s nothing to be nervous about here. There’s only 2.2 billion people watching you around the world right now.’ ”

It was the perfect way to break the ice.

“We all just started cracking up,” Gaylord said. “We were like, ‘Whatever. Let’s just go out there and have some fun.’ And that’s what we did.”

By the time Peter Vidmar stepped up to the high bar as the final U.S. performer on the last of the six apparatus rotations, the Americans had already broken the first-place deadlock with the Chinese and secured their spot atop the medal podium.

“There was a sense of surrealness, if that’s a word,” Conner said. “You always think, ‘Oh, wouldn’t it be cool?’ And then all of a sudden we’re standing up there and they’re playing the national anthem and they’re putting a medal around our necks. It’s mind-boggling.”

Night two: women’s team all-around

Aug. 1, 1984

Sitting in a cramped UCLA dorm room in the nearby Olympic village, the U.S. women’s gymnastics team had its eyes glued to the television screen.

A few minutes’ walk from Pauley Pavilion, the gymnasts watched the live broadcast of the men’s team all-around competition, and they celebrated — jumping and dancing around the room.

“It was so exhilarating,” said Michelle Dusserre Farrell, a member of the 1984 U.S. women’s gymnastics team. 

But soon, elation turned to nervousness as they realized the magnitude of the task ahead. “We knew the spotlight was going to turn onto us the very next day,” she said. “We knew it was going to be inevitable that we would have that same expectation.”

But as the tension mounted on the night before the women’s team all-around competition, levity came from an unexpected source.

Inspecting their now iconic star-spangled leotards for the first time, the women initially laughed at how ridiculous they believed they would look in them. But those feelings changed once they tried them on.

“This [was] the most comfortable leotard I’d ever worn,” Kathy Johnson Clarke said. “It felt like a second skin.”

With their snug new uniforms and the home crowd cheering, the U.S. was the top scorer in two of the four team events. But despite Julianne McNamara’s perfect 10 on the floor and uneven bars, and Mary Lou Retton finishing with the highest individual score, the Romanians proved too much to overcome, securing first place in the team all-around by a single point.

Still, the 1984 team became only the second American women’s team to medal in the team all-around, and the first to win silver.

Night three: men’s individual all-around

Aug. 2, 1984

Vidmar was at home in Pauley Pavilion. By the summer of 1984, the Los Angeles native and five-time NCAA champion had spent several years competing in that arena during a prolific gymnastics career at UCLA.

Alongside fellow Bruins Gaylord and Tim Daggett, Vidmar’s Olympic experience was the culmination of a long, arduous journey that started in Southern California.

“It’s a lifetime of effort and work,” Vidmar told the Resilience to Brilliance Podcast in January. “I lived in the gym with these guys (Gaylord and Daggett). There were so many days where it was really hard … not fun and that’s when I think you learn the most about yourself.’

Coached from a young age by a former U.S. Olympian, Makoto Sakamoto — who later served as Vidmar’s assistant coach at UCLA and on the 1984 Olympic team — Vidmar was constantly taught to test the limits of what he believed he could accomplish in the gym.

“I tried to lead by example,” said Sakamoto, who was in his mid-30s when he coached Vidmar at UCLA.

It was a common occurrence at training sessions in those days for him to challenge his athletes to a friendly competition of handstand push-ups on the parallel bars.

“I’d say to the guys, ‘Hey, see if you can beat me,’ at the end of practice. A really hard practice,” Sakamoto recalled. “I never lost to them, (but) they really tried.’

Steeled by his work ethic and the fierce competitors who surrounded him in Westwood, Vidmar’s triumphant swan song at his old college gym included a silver medal in the individual all-around competition, when he became the first American man to medal in that event.

Night four: women’s individual all-around

Aug. 3, 1984

For the first time in days, Pauley Pavilion was dead quiet. The gravity of the moment had settled in for the 9,023 spectators.

After a back-and-forth women’s individual all-around competition, in which Romania’s Ecaterina Szabo held a slight lead entering the final rotation, Mary Lou Retton would need to score a 9.95 on the vault in order to secure the gold medal, and a perfect 10 to win it outright.

In an instant, the cheers halted and the chatter subsided. The weight of an entire country fell on the strong shoulders of one diminutive teenager.

“I hope she has her wings on today for this vault,” said analyst Cathy Rigby McCoy on the ABC broadcast as Retton readied her approach.

For Retton, getting airborne was the easy part. What she struggled with, according to Johnson Clarke, was sticking the landing.

“You’ve got to be able to be that high, that explosive, and somehow come to a complete stop and then not move your feet and hold a position for a stick. Mary Lou never did that,” Johnson Clarke said with a laugh.

But when it mattered most, Retton left no doubt.

“Oh my gosh, did she find that landing,” Johnson Clarke said. “I wanted to genuflect. Talk about the stars aligning so perfectly. For that final star to just land right in place, in that moment when she needed a 10 to win. There it was.”

In a matter of seconds, Retton launched herself from relative obscurity to Olympic superstardom. Bela Karolyi, her coach, knew it instantly.

“That’s a 10!” Karolyi shouted over and over again as the arena exploded with applause. So boundless was his excitement, it didn’t even matter that he didn’t have a place to stay that night.

When Bob Condron, then the director of media services and operations for the U.S. Olympic Committee, went to pick up Retton and Karolyi for a television appearance the next morning, they found the boisterous coach wrapped in a quilt behind Pauley Pavilion.

“He was sleeping in an alley,” Condron said. “We basically woke him up and grabbed him.”

Night five: men’s apparatus finals

Aug. 4, 1984

Four days after their historic gold medal victory in the team event, the U.S. men’s team returned to Pauley Pavilion for one final time.

With six events and at least 18 medals up for grabs, the Americans took home six to put an exclamation point on their odds-defying Olympic run.

“For me, it was perfect timing,” Gaylord said. “I’m from Los Angeles,  it was the L.A. Games. I went to UCLA, gymnastics was in Pauley Pavilion. Everything kind of lined up for success and that felt incredible to me. We were here to do something really, really special.”

Gaylord’s team-high three podium finishes that Saturday — a silver and two bronze — cemented his place as one of the most decorated U.S. gymnasts of all time. Vidmar’s gold medal on the pommel horse and Conner’s gold on the parallel bars only added to the legend that was the 1984 squad.

“There’s a brotherhood there,” Conner said. “When we see each other, we hug each other in a different way because there’s no way any of us would have been standing up there individually if it weren’t for those other guys on the team.’

That bond, first forged in the fires of NCAA competition and then shaped into a lasting friendship on the Olympic stage, played a critical role in allowing this group to reach heights previously unforeseen in U.S. men’s gymnastics.

“What they did was make a conscious decision,” Johnson Clarke said. “They left their egos outside the door every time they walked into this gym to train together, to compete together, to perform to their fullest together.”

Night six: women’s apparatus finals

Aug. 5, 1984

On the sixth and final night at Pauley Pavilion, in a week that had turned this basketball mecca into a medal mine for U.S. gymnastics, the women’s team took to the mat for a chance at individual glory.

For Johnson Clarke, 24, this was a long-awaited curtain call on an unconventional-yet-storied gymnastics career that began at 12.

“Everything was not lined up perfectly for me to be at the Olympic Games,” she said. “Nothing was actually ideal, but in a way it was perfect. It was perfect for me because it grew my heart. It grew everything that’s important to me and what makes me love this sport.”

Johnson Clarke’s bronze on the balance beam ensured that at least one American woman medaled in all four events that evening. McNamara’s silver on the floor exercise and gold on the uneven bars set the pace, while Retton added three podium finishes to her already transcendent performance.

With 13 medals to their names, the “Silver Sisters” — as they still call themselves — left the ‘84 games with close friendships that would last far into the future. At the center of it all was Johnson Clarke, captain and “team mom.”

“I was able to follow (Kathy’s) lead in many ways,” said Dusserre Farrell, the youngest member of the 1984 team. “To sort of lean on her experiences, her support, her leadership, her ability to handle a lot of the stress and the pressure. We were all kind of in it together, so we leaned on each other a lot.”

After nearly quitting the sport altogether five years earlier, Johnson Clarke fully embraced her maternal role. Even now, she said, the love and respect each of the women share for one another is just as strong as it was in 1984.

“The relationship that we started even years before we ever shared that moment in history together is what makes it so deep and so rich,” Johnson Clarke said. “And then the life after in these subsequent 40 years that we have been there for each other, we’ve had each other’s backs.”

A Hilton, New York, man returned home with a huge fish story.

Chuck Zimmerman set a New York state record for longnose gar, the state Department of Environmental Conservation announced.

Zimmerman hooked the monster 15-pound, 14-ounce fish on Butterfield Lake in Redwood, Jefferson County. It toppled the previous record, which stood since 2018, by 1 pound, 4 ounces.

Zimmerman used a topwater swimbait and was fishing on an annual weeklong friends trip when he caugt the gar, which measured more than 53 inches. The world record longnose gar is 60 inches in Mississippi in 2017.

The longnose gar is considered a living dinosaur as the species dates back 100 million years to the Cretaceous Period. The fish have long, cylindrical bodies and are grayish to olive in color. Their long needle-like snouts are filled with rows of razor-sharp teeth.

The gar have thick scales that doesn’t make them susceptible to many natural predators once they reach full size, and are often found in shallow weedy areas near the water’s surface. In New York, most populations are in the St. Lawrence River, Niagara River, Lake Champlain and eastern Lake Ontario, and the larger tributaries to those waters. They eat fish along with frogs, snakes, turtles and waterfowl.

‘DEC congratulates Mr. Zimmerman on an impressive catch,’ DEC interim Commissioner Sean Mahar said. ‘From the Hudson River to the St. Lawrence River, Lake George to Chautauqua Lake, New York waterways support strong, healthy fish populations and provide world-class fishing opportunities for anglers of every level.’

The DEC has a newly overhauled Angler Achievement Awards Program, which tracks individual achievements and state fishing records. Anglers can enter freshwater fish that meet qualifying criteria to officially document their catch and receive species-specific stickers.