EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Middle distance runner Eric Holt circled the track Thursday night feeling faster, flashier and richer than ever.
It's gotta be the shoe deal. Make room, Usain Bolt, because you have company on the Puma team.
Holt, the 29-year-old previously unsponsored and unpaid runner, made his 800-meter appearance at the U.S. track and field trials wearing an orange speed suit and matching Puma spikes. He finished fifth in his heat to advance to the semifinals.
“I look like a superhero,” Holt said.
Holt arrived at trials as a track-world celebrity — the everyday runner who quit his job to pursue his passion of running. He went viral on social media for his story.
He signed a deal with Puma that he said lasts through 2025. For once, money won't be a source of stress. He can afford to take his girlfriend out to dinner — and pay.
“I can now do what I love,” said Holt, who came up short in his bid to make the U.S. team in the 1,500 meters. “I can continue to make more business decisions in my life, be more financially well off. It just relieves so much. Because to be honest, I sometimes feel insecure. I don’t like having only a few $100 in my bank account.”
Even more, he doesn't have to leave his training group behind. He has received permission to still work out in Westchester County with his coach, John Trautmann, and the Empire Elite Track Club. His club's emblem was on his new track outfit, right near the Puma logo.
“I’m so grateful because I honestly was kind of pessimistic in my life. You know, ‘Oh man, no one ever gives me a shot. Can someone just give me a shot?’” said Holt, who's from New York. “To get paid and represent a brand like Puma, what else could I ask for? I’m living my best life.”
This race marked only the second time he has slipped on the pair of Puma spikes. But if they're fast enough for the retired Bolt, the world record holder in the 100 and 200, they're more than fast enough for Holt.
“I feel like I can make an Olympic team in them,” Holt said. “This is insane. I can’t believe I did it.”
AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
Clayton Murphy, Brandon Miller and Eric Holt finish a heat in the men's 800-meter during the U.S. Track and Field Olympic Team Trials Thursday, June 27, 2024, in Eugene, Ore. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
PARIS (AP) — Voters across mainland France have been casting ballots Sunday in the first round of an exceptional parliamentary election that could put France’s government in the hands of nationalist, far-right parties for the first time since the Nazi era.
The outcome of the two-round election, which will wrap up July 7, could impact European financial markets, Western support for Ukraine, and how France’s nuclear arsenal and global military force are managed.
Many French voters are frustrated about inflation and economic concerns, as well as President Emmanuel Macron’s leadership, which they see as arrogant and out-of-touch with their lives. Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration National Rally party has tapped and fueled that discontent, notably via online platforms like TikTok, and dominated all preelection opinion polls.
A new coalition on the left, the New Popular Front, is also posing a challenge to the pro-business Macron and his centrist alliance Together for the Republic.
There are 49.5 million registered voters who will choose 577 members of the National Assembly, France's influential lower house of parliament, during the two-round voting.
Turnout at midday at the first round stood at 25.9 % according to interior ministry figures, which is higher from the 2022 legislative elections at this time of the day. It was 18.43% at midday two years ago.
Macron voted in a Paris voting station along with his wife, Brigitte Macron. Earlier, Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s resurgent National Rally, cast her ballot in her party’s stronghold in northern France.
The vote takes place during the traditional first week of summer vacation in France, and absentee ballot requests were at least five times higher than in the 2022 elections.
After a blitz campaign marred by rising hate speech, voting began early in France’s overseas territories, and polling stations opened in mainland France at 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) Sunday. The first polling projections are expected at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT), when the final polling stations close, and early official results are expected later Sunday night.
The voting is taking place during the traditional first week of summer vacation in the country, and absentee ballot requests were at least five times higher than in the 2022 elections, according to figures from the interior ministry.
Voters who turned out in person at a Paris polling station on Sunday had issues from immigration to inflation and the rising cost of living on their minds as the country has grown more divided between the far right and far left blocs with a deeply unpopular and weakened president in the political center.
“People don't like what has been happening,” said Cynthia Justine, a 44-year-old voter in Paris. “People feel they've lost a lot in recent years. People are angry. I am angry.”
She added that with “the rising hate speech,” it was necessary for people to express their frustrations with those holding and seeking power and cast their ballots.
“It is important for me because I am a woman and we haven't always had the right to vote," Justin said. “Because I am a Black woman, it's even more important. A lot is at stake on this day.”
Pierre Leclaer, a 78-year-old retiree, said he cast his ballot for the simple reason of “trying to avoid the worst," which for him is "a government that is from the far right, populist, not liberal and not very Republican.”
Macron called the early election after his party was trounced in the European Parliament election earlier in June by the National Rally, which has historic ties to racism and antisemitism and is hostile toward France’s Muslim community. It was an audacious gamble that French voters who were complacent about the European Union election would be jolted into turning out for moderate forces in a national election to keep the far right out of power.
Instead, preelection polls suggest that the National Rally is gaining support and has a chance at winning a parliamentary majority. In that scenario, Macron would be expected to name 28-year-old National Rally President Jordan Bardella as prime minister in an awkward power-sharing system known as “cohabitation.”
In the restive French Pacific territory of New Caledonia, polls already closed at 5 p.m. local time due to an 8 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew that authorities on the archipelago have extended until July 8.
Violence flared on May 13, leaving nine people dead after two weeks of unrest, due to attempts by Macron’s government to amend the French Constitution and change voting lists in New Caledonia, which the Indigenous Kanaks feared would further marginalize them. They have long sought to break free from France, which first took the Pacific territory in 1853.
Voters in France’s other overseas territories from Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, Saint-Barthélemy, Saint-Martin, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyana, French Polynesia and those voting in offices opened by embassies and consular posts across the Americas cast their ballots on Saturday.
While Macron has said he won’t step down before his presidential term expires in 2027, cohabitation would weaken him at home and on the world stage.
The results of the first round will give a picture of overall voter sentiment, but not necessarily of the overall makeup of the next National Assembly. Predictions are extremely difficult because of the complicated voting system, and because parties will work between the two rounds to make alliances in some constituencies or pull out of others.
In the past, such tactical maneuvers helped keep far-right candidates from power. But now support for Le Pen's party has spread deep and wide.
Bardella, who has no governing experience, says he would use the powers of prime minister to stop Macron from continuing to supply long-range weapons to Ukraine for the war with Russia. His party has historical ties to Russia.
The party has also questioned the right to citizenship for people born in France, and wants to curtail the rights of French citizens with dual nationality. Critics say this undermines fundamental human rights and is a threat to France's democratic ideals.
Meanwhile, huge public spending promises by the National Rally and especially the left-wing coalition have shaken markets and ignited worries about France's heavy debt, already criticized by EU watchdogs.
Surk contributed from Nice, France.
Follow AP's coverage of elections at https://apnews.com/hub/global-elections
A woman walks past campaign boards for the upcoming parliamentary elections in Paris, Thursday June 27, 2024. Voters will choose lawmakers for the National Assembly in two rounds on June 30 and July 7. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
People gather on the Republique Plaza during a rally in Paris, Thursday June 27, 2024. Anti-racism groups joined French unions and left-wing coalition in protests against the surging nationalist far right as French President Emmanuel Macron called snap elections following the defeat of his centrist alliance at European Union elections earlier this month. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
FILE - Jordan Bardella, president of the far-right National Front party, arrives at the Eurosatory Defense and security exhibition, Wednesday, June 19, 2024 in Villepinte, north of Paris. The perspective of a defeat in parliamentary elections mean he may have to share power with a prime minister from rival political party — that could possibly be far-right National Rally's president Jordan Bardella. Macron defeated twice the National Rally's leader Marine Le Pen in the presidential election, both in 2017 and 2022.( AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)
FILE - French President Emmanuel Macron, right, meets French far-right Rassemblement National (National Rally) leader Marine Le Pen at the Elysee Palace on June 21, 2022 in Paris. The perspective of a defeat in parliamentary elections mean he may have to share power with a prime minister from rival political party — that could possibly be far-right National Rally's president Jordan Bardella. Macron defeated twice the National Rally's leader Marine Le Pen in the presidential election, both in 2017 and 2022. (Ludovic Marin/Pool photo via AP, File)
