(FRISCO, Texas) — A day after reaching a historic agreement with the U.S. Soccer Federation in their equal pay lawsuit, the U.S. Women’s National Team scored big on the field, beating Iceland on Wednesday to win the SheBelieves Cup.
The U.S. shut out Iceland 5-0 to take home the title. It’s the team’s fifth SheBelieves Cup in seven attempts.
Midfielder Catarina Macario and forward Mallory Pugh each scored two goals for the U.S., with the fifth and final goal coming from midfielder Kristie Mewis in the 88th minute of the match, which was held in Frisco, Texas.
The victory came after the USSF agreed on Tuesday to pay $22 million to the players in the equal pay lawsuit, which will be distributed by the USWNT players and approved by the district court. USSF will also pay an additional $2 million into an account to benefit the USWNT players in their post-career goals and charitable efforts related to women’s and girls’ soccer. Each player will be able to apply for up to $50,000 from this fund, according to the settlement.
The lawsuit, which had been pending since March 2019, was filed by athletes on the world champion U.S. Women’s National Team against USSF on International Women’s Day, for gender discrimination.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Tuesday’s sports events:
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Ottawa 4, Minnesota 3
St. Louis 4, Philadelphia 1
Columbus 4 Toronto 3 (OT)
Nashville 6, Florida 4
NY Islanders 5, Seattle 2
Anaheim 4, San Jose 3 (SO)
(NEW YORK) — Professional golfer Phil Mickelson has apologized for comments he made supporting a Saudi Arabia-backed golf tour, after they appeared to cost him one his biggest sponsors.
The global tax firm KPMG said Tuesday it had dropped its sponsorship of Mickelson in the midst of Mickelson’s ongoing feud with the PGA Tour over a controversial splinter league backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
The move follows the publication earlier this month of backlash-inducing comments Mickelson made in November to author Alan Shipnuck, in which Mickelson expressed no reservations about working with the Saudis despite the 2018 murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, which a United Nations probe determined was a “premeditated execution” for which Saudi Arabia was responsible.
“They’re scary … to get involved with,” Mickelson told Shipnuck about working with the Saudis on the new league. “We know they killed Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates.”
On Tuesday, Mickelson apologized for those comments even as he suggested they had been taken out of context.
“I’m deeply sorry for my choice of words,” Mickelson in a statement on social media. “I apologize for anything I said that was taken out of context.”
“The specific people I have worked with are visionaries and have only been supportive,” he said. “My intent was never to hurt anyone and I’m so sorry to the people I have negatively impacted.”
“The past 10 years I have felt the pressure and stress slowly affecting me at a deeper level,” he added. “I desperately need some time away to prioritize the ones I love and work on being the man I want to be.”
A spokesperson for KPMG told ABC News on Tuesday that the company and Mickelson have decided to part ways.
“KPMG U.S. and Phil Mickelson have mutually agreed to end our sponsorship effective immediately,” said Ichiro Kawasaki in a statement. “We wish him the best.”
Representatives of the Saudi Public Investment Fund did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
None of the other sponsors listed on Mickelson’s website, including Workday, Callaway, and Rolex, have commented on the matter.
(NEW YORK) — The U.S. Soccer Federation and the U.S. Women’s National Team have reached a historic agreement in the equal pay lawsuit, which was filed three years ago.
The lawsuit, which has been pending since March 2019, was filed by athletes on the world champion U.S. Women’s National Team against USSF on International Women’s Day, for gender discrimination.
The lawsuit blasted the sport’s governing body for allegedly paying mere “lip service” to gender equality and dishing out higher pay to the men’s team.
“We can’t go back and undo the injustices that we’ve faced,” USWNT player Megan Rapinoe told ABC News’ Good Morning America following the settlement announcement. “The only justice coming out of this is that we know that something like this is never going to happen again and we can move forward in making soccer the best sport that we possibly can in this country and setting up the next generation so much better than we ever had it.”
According to the settlement, USSF will pay $22 million to the players in the case, which will be distributed by the USWNT players and approved by the district court. USSF will also pay an additional $2 million into an account to benefit the USWNT players in their post-career goals and charitable efforts related to women’s and girls’ soccer. Each player will be able to apply for up to $50,000 from this fund, according to the settlement.
“This is a huge win for for all women,” Rapinoe said. “I think we’re going to see that in the coming days and hopefully this will be a day we look back on in a number of years when we’re a little bit older and say that’s the moment that everything changed.”
“This is just such a monumental step forward in feeling valued, feeling respected, and just mending our relationship with U.S. Soccer,” USWNT player Alex Morgan told GMA. “I not only see this as a win for our team or women’s sports but women in general. It’s just an incredible day and a day that we’re all really proud of.”
While the lawsuit was filed in 2019, the USWNT players’ fight for equal pay has been years in the making. In 2016, a group of players filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint against the USWNT over inequality in pay and treatment.
The following year, the women’s team reached an agreement with the USSF for the EEOC complaint. The agreement included direct and bonus pay increases and per diems equal to the men’s team, according to ESPNW, as well as improved travel and financial support for pregnant players or players looking to adopt children. While it was an improvement, it was still unequal.
The equal pay lawsuit, which was filed in 2019 on International Women’s Day, came three months before USWNT prepared to defend its title at the FIFA World Cup in France. Along with pay disparities, the suit also cited the denial of “at least equal playing, training, and travel conditions; equal promotion of their games; equal support and development for their games; and other terms and conditions of employment.”
“Obviously [pay equity] is the hot button issue but in order to have I think a fair and a balanced conversation around compensation, we need to look at everything,” Rapinoe told GMA in 2019.
Now that the settlement has been reached, USSF President Cindy Parlow Cone told GMA, “We’re focused on moving the game forward. So this is actually a great transition moment. We still have a lot of work to do with repairing the relationship with our players but we’re on the road to that. Looking forward, they’re not only the best players in the world, they’re great ambassadors for our sport.”
(NEW YORK) — Juwan Howard, the head coach of the Michigan men’s basketball team, has been suspended for the final five games of the Wolverines’ regular season for hitting Wisconsin assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft after Sunday’s game, the Big Ten Conference announced on Monday.
Howard, 49, was also fined $40,000 for the altercation.
“Big Ten Conference coaches and student-athletes are expected to display the highest level of sportsmanship conduct,” conference commissioner Kevin Warren said in a statement Monday. “I am grateful for the partnership with Michigan Athletics Director, Warde Manuel and Wisconsin Athletics Director, Chris McIntosh. Our expectation is that the incident yesterday will provide our coaches and student-athletes with the opportunity to reflect, learn and move forward in a manner that demonstrates decorum and leadership on and off of the court.”
Wisconsin Badgers head coach was also fined $10,000 for violating the conference’s sportsmanship policy, while Michigan forwards Terrance Williams and Moussa Diabate and Wisconsin guard Jahcobi Neath each received a one-game suspension.
(BEIJING) — Kevin Rolland, a French halfpipe star, found out how dangerous and unforgiving a discipline freestyle skiing can be after a serious fall in April 2019.
The freestyle-skiing champion and five-time X Games gold medalist had been training to break the world record of the highest jump, around 36 feet. After a fall, he suffered head trauma, had multiple contusions to his liver, kidneys and lungs, and fractured his ribs and pelvis, he said.
“The doctor was telling me that it might be over, I’m not going to be a skier anymore, I have to think about something else now,” Rolland told ABC News last week in Beijing.
Defying predictions, 32-year-old Rolland took part in his third Olympic Games this year, making it to the halfpipe finals on Friday and finishing sixth.
Rolland’s now one of a few Olympic athletes who are talking openly about the need for mental health awareness, saying it’s OK for daredevil athletes to speak out about their struggles with fear.
In a documentary, Résilience, Rolland told the story of the world record attempt that almost cost him his life in April 2019 and the long rehabilitation that ensued.
“I was scared,” he said in the film. “The biggest challenge was to ski again for pleasure and forget the fear.”
Team USA’s downhill skier Jacqueline Wiles was also seeking redemption in Beijing. A serious leg injury in a crash at a World Cup race in 2018 cost her her Olympic dreams for the PyeongChang 2018 Games. Wiles afterward was told by a doctor that she may have been struggling to focus because of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), she said.
Athletes being shamed for their fears or failures has long been the norm and it continues to be an issue, she said. Four years after recovering from her debilitating fall and several surgeries later, Wiles told ABC News she believes in the importance of sport psychologists and mental health support for athletes.
“Now when I am in the start gate, I have the moment of fear … I don’t try to fight it now, I try to accept it,” she told ABC News.
Wiles’s teammate, Mikaela Schiffrin, who came up short at these Games, shared on social media some of the negative messages she received after failing to finish her third event. Star U.S. gymnast Simone Biles came out in support of Shiffrin, saying, “I know this all too well, I’m sorry you’re experiencing this,” referencing to the criticism aimed at her during the Tokyo Summer Games in 2020.
Now a proud dad of two, Rolland said he owes his comeback to his family. Rolland’s girlfriend gave birth while he was still recovering from his 2019 call in the hospital.
“I pretty much wake up [from the coma] as a dad, which was really weird,” Rolland told ABC News. “I was in the hospital, unsure I’d be able to get back to normal, but at the same time I had a kid and I was so happy, so happy to be alive and a dad.”
(CLEVELAND) — Team LeBron and Team Durant were neck and neck throughout Sunday night’s NBA All-Star Game, with the winner being determined in the final seconds of the fourth quarter.
Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James hit a one-legged jump shot with just seconds to spare in the game to clinch a 163-160 victory against Kevin Durant’s team.
But James, an Akron, Ohio native, wasn’t the only player to shine in his home state. Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry, also born in Akron, was named the game’s Most Valuable Player after hitting a record-breaking 16 3-pointers and scoring 50 points.
Watch highlights from the 2022 NBA All-Star Game, which took place in Cleveland, below:
(NEW YORK) — Erin Jackson made Olympic history in Beijing, becoming the first Black woman to ever win a gold medal in speed skating.
“It was amazing. After I crossed the line, I was like, ‘OK, I at least get a medal, but I came here to win gold. Let’s wait and see,'” she told Good Morning America of the anticipation after her race finished. “It was an amazing rush of emotions.”
Jackson’s individual gold in the 500-meter event comes 20 years after Vonetta Flowers made history as the first Black and African American to notch gold at the Winter Olympics for bobseld. Now, she hopes her story and win will inspire a new generation of athletes.
While Jackson felt “a lot of happiness and relief” post-win, she said there’s “excitement for the future — of Team USA and U.S. Speed skating, but also the winter sports and getting more people to try them.”
The 29-year-old from Ocala, Florida, made Team USA for the 2022 Winter Games with the support from teammate Brittany Bowe, who initially deferred her spot in the individual event after Jackson slipped on the ice and came in third place, one spot shy of what she needed to make the team.
Many American fans and celebrities were quick to celebrate the Olympian online, including an artist whose lyrics became a slogan for the speed skating star.
“I had some shout-outs from Samuel L. Jackson, Viola Davis, Michelle Obama, Gabi Union, Oprah and Gayle [King], a lot of really cool people, Vanilla Ice too,” she said. “At the last Olympics I had ‘ice ice baby on the back of my shirt.'”
Jackson, who catapulted to the top of her sport after coming up short in 2018 trials, said she had “a lot of good training” and explained that “the athletes can’t do it on their own for sure.”
