Saints who Sport | 8/30/24

ParaOlympics | Paris, France 

• https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/meet-the-latter-day-saints-competing-in-the-2024-paris-paralympics
  • Started 8/28
  • 8 athletes 
    • Wheelchair rugby
      • Josh Wheeler
        • Won Silver ‘21 and ‘16
      • Mixed men and women
    • Archery
      • Eric Bennett
        • Most experienced archer for team USA of all time
        • Never medaled
        • HS physics teacher
    • Wheelchair basketball
      • Paul Schulte 
        • Two Bronze medals
        • Gold in Tokyo
        • Multiple world championship medals
        • Spinal injury at 10
        • In a bishopric now
    • Swimming
      • Tupoue Neifu
        • New Zealand
        • Gold in Tokyo
        • Hit and run left her brain bruised. Left side paralysis 
      • Alejandra Diaz
        • Dominican Republic
        • First swimmer from DR in Tokyo
        • 4’3”
        • Brittle bone disease
    • Track and Field
      • David Blair
        • Discus
        • Eagle Mon UT
        • Gold in Rio
          • Olympic record
        • Club foot
      • Lindi Marcusen
        • Spokane, WA
        • 100m
        • Amputated right leg after car accident
    • Canoe
      • Peter Cowan
        • New Zealand
        • Silver in world championships 
        • Hit by a car on his bike and had right leg amputated 
  • https://www.ldsliving.com/the-faith-of-irish-paralympic-sprinter-dancing-with-the-stars-winner-jason-smyth/s/12334?utm_source=ldsliving&utm_medium=email
    • Jason Smyth
      • Former paralympian as a runner
        • 6x champion
      • 9 world gold medals, 6 European titles
      • 100m sprinter
      • Blind
      • Dancing with the Stars champion
        • https://youtu.be/_B_DwCjn9ws?feature=shared 

 

NFL

• https://zonecoverage.com/2024/minnesota-vikings-news/jaren-hall-is-a-rock-whos-willing-to-roll/
  • Jaren Hall
    • Minnesota Vikings
    • Drafted in 23
    • BYU grad
    • Only played one full game with 50% completion
    • Had a great 24 preseason
    • Waived yesterday
• https://deseretnews-deseretnews-prod.web.arc-cdn.net/sports/2024/08/28/utah-ties-nfl-active-rosters-2024-utah-byu/

  • Utah or BYU: Who has more players on NFL active rosters after cutdown day?

  • Utah-19
  • BYU-16
  • Both had 15 last year.
  • 54 total from Utah schools

 

MLB

• https://www.deseret.com/faith/2024/08/15/see-the-list-of-latter-day-saint-apostles-who-have-thrown-baseballs-ceremonial-first-pitch/
  • 13 Apostles
  • Bednar and Anderson are tied at 2
  • First was L. Tom Perry who broke the Red Sox curse 

 

Soccer

• https://www.deseret.com/faith/2024/08/25/how-olivia-moultries-lds-faith-religion-influences-her-nwsl-career/
  • Olivia Moultrie
    • National Women’s Soccer
    • Portland Thorns
    • 18 years old
      • 4th season
    • Recvd scholarship from UNC at 11 years old
      • Gave back scholarship and went pro at 13
    • Due to regs, women couldn’t go pro till they were 18, unlike men
      • She took it to court and won
        • Signed with the Thorns thereafter
        • Now 20 teens are pro
    • Didn’t make Olympic team due to injury
    • I’ve had a lot of firsts and a lot of hard situations that I put myself into to get to where I am today, and I really think the backbone of all of that has been my ability to have my faith and just really believing everything happens for a reason and that the decisions I feel motivated to make and compelled to make, I feel like there is a reason behind those things…There may be expectations from other people, but they’re never expectations that I haven’t already put on myself. I’m a very ambitious person.”
    • “With all the Sunday games that’s not always applicable, but just making any moments I can in my day to kind of like ground myself, I think that’s important…The nice part about it is, obviously, like my faith can, it’s always with me, and so it’s not something that like I feel I have to necessarily attend something to feel (it).”
      • Gen Z do religion differently

 

Karate

• https://www.thechurchnews.com/members/2024/08/22/latter-day-saint-karate-champion-democratic-republic-of-the-congo-lds/
  • Junior Omatoko
    • 16year old pro
  • Multiple championships across Africa
    • African champion this year
  • Receives a blessing from his father before each competition
    • “Each time he does, I feel peace and assurance that nothing bad can happen to me and that God will bless my efforts.”

NCAA

• https://www.thechurchnews.com/members/2024/08/22/meghan-hunter-ncaa-woman-of-the-year-nominee-byu/
  • Meghan Hunter
    • 800m
  • NCAA Woman of the Year nominee
  • Competed for Olympic spot but didn’t make it  

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