Full-time scientist and part-time basketball player Canyon Barry chases gold in 3x3 at Paris Games

PARIS (AP) — Canyon Barry is a part-time basketball player.

His full-time job is system engineer for a defense and space contractor.

Barry, who will take the courts at the Paris Games searching for a 3x3 gold medal for the U.S. men's team, has an undergraduate degree from the College of Charleston in physics and a master’s degree in nuclear engineering from Florida. So, is he a rocket scientist? A nuclear physicist?

“Scientist, engineer, problem-solver, take your pick,” said Barry, with a slight chuckle and a wink.

As for what his work entails with the aerospace and defense company L3Harris Technologies, Barry is tight-lipped.

“I’ve talked to L3Harris and they’ve said to not give too much specifics in terms of programs that we’re working on for clearance and security reasons,” he said. “But we have a great international compliance and trade security. (And) they briefed me on all this stuff and just said kind of leave it at systems engineering.”

The U.S. men lost their opener Tuesday night against Serbia. The Americans play Poland on Wednesday.

When not with teammates Jimmer Fredette, Kareem Maddox and Dylan Travis preparing for the Olympics, the son of Hall of Famer and NBA champion Rick Barry is often on his laptop working on projects for L3Harris Technologies.

Because of the team’s international travel in the run up to the Paris Games, Barry would be taking zoom calls and doing his day job in the middle of the night while the rest of the team was sleeping.

The 30-year-old Barry appreciates the support he’s received from the company as he's prepared for the Olympics. He’s on vacation from his job during the Games to devote his full attention to the chase for gold.

“Really fortunate to work for that company and what they’ve allowed me to do,” Barry said. “And I also think that they’ve really matched up with the Olympic spirit because they protect our U.S. war fighters abroad and kind of bringing that American spirit is really cool.”

The 6-foot-5 Barry was interested in science from a young age, and despite being born into a basketball family, his mother, Lynn Barry, made academics the top priority in their home.

“She would always say: ‘You never know what’s going to happen with sports in terms of injuries or when might be your last game,’” he said. “So having … a career that you’re passionate about and can kind of have an identity outside of sports means a lot to me. Because now, when the ball does stop bouncing, I know that I have a passion and a job that I can go back to that I find fulfillment in and can really enjoy that for the rest of my life.”

While Barry’s teammates appreciate his intellect and attention to detail on the court, there are times where they tire of him correcting them off it.

“That’s never fun," Fredette said. "He’s always trying to be like no, this is how you say it, or this is the right way to do it. So, he’s always making sure that we’re on our P's and Q's.”

Still, it’s all love between Fredette and Barry.

“You can see it when he plays on the court, he has a similar thinking aspect of how he likes to play the game,” Fredette said. “So, he’s obviously one of my best friends — love the guy — and don’t tell him I said it, but he’s super smart.”

Though his scientific brain is most often used for that top-secret government work, he’s also used physics to justify an unconventional part of his game. His father famously shot underhand free throws or “granny shots” and he’s done the same throughout his career.

“There’s been a bunch of physics articles that have come out in terms of it’s a more repeatable motion,” Barry said. “When you shoot free throws overhanded your wrist, your elbow and your shoulder all have to fire at the correct time and move in to create the proper trajectory and launch angle and arc. Versus for an underhand shot, it’s really just your shoulder.

"So, with one joint, you’re really simplifying the shot.”

Barry’s family is with him in Paris as he’ll try to help the U.S. men have a better outcome than they did in the last Olympics. The men didn’t qualify in the sport's debut at the Tokyo Games — though the American women won gold.

He’ll also have a room full of scientists rooting for him back in Melbourne, Florida. His co-workers hosted an ice cream party as a sendoff, where everyone wore T-shirts they had made in his honor.

“It said: ‘Go Canyon,’ and then had a picture of the Eiffel Tower with a satellite orbiting instead of the basketball,” he said.

And when he returns to Florida, he hopes it’s with some special hardware.

“I would love nothing more than to come back to that office with a gold medal," Barry said, “and let all of them feel it and take pictures with it."

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

Canyon Barry of the United States shoots in the men's 3x3 basketball pool round match between Serbia and the United States at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Team USA basketball athlete, Canyon Barry, talks with people before departing from the airport on Wednesday, July 17, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Canyon Barry of the United States looks to shoot in the men's 3x3 basketball pool round match between Serbia and the United States at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Canyon Barry of the United States runs onto the court at the start of the men's 3x3 basketball pool round match between Serbia and the United States at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Canyon Barry of the United States talks to a referee in the men's 3x3 basketball pool round match between Serbia and the United States at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Canyon Barry of the United States fends off Mihailo Vasic of Serbia in the men's 3x3 basketball pool round match between Serbia and the United States at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

A court in Moscow on Wednesday convicted one of the leaders of a prominent independent election monitoring group on charges of organizing the work of an “undesirable” organization and sentenced him to five years in prison.

Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of Russia’s leading election watchdog Golos, has rejected the charges as politically motivated. The case against him is part of the monthslong crackdown on Kremlin critics and rights activists that the government ratcheted up after invading Ukraine in 2022.

After a judge of the Basmanny District Court delivered the verdict, Melkonyants, 44, told several dozen supporters and journalists from the glass defendant's cage: “Don't worry, I'm not despairing. You shouldn't despair either!”

Golos has monitored for and exposed violations in every major election in Russia since it was founded in 2000. Over the years, it has faced mounting pressure from the authorities.

In 2013, the group was designated as a “foreign agent” — a label that implies additional government scrutiny and carries strong pejorative connotations. Three years later, it was liquidated as a non-governmental organization by Russia’s Justice Ministry.

Golos has continued to operate without registering as an NGO, exposing violations in various elections, and in 2021 it was added to a new registry of “foreign agents,” created by the Justice Ministry for groups that are not registered as a legal entity in Russia.

It has not been designated as “undesirable” — a label that under a 2015 law makes involvement with such organizations a criminal offense. But when it was an NGO, it was a member of the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations, a group that was declared “undesirable” in Russia in 2021, and the charges against Melkonyants stemmed from that.

The defense argued that when ENEMO was outlawed in Russia, Golos wasn't a member, and Melkonyants had nothing to do with it.

Melkonyants, a renowned election expert and lawyer by training, was arrested in August 2023 and has been in custody ever since.

Ella Pamfilova, chair of Russia's Central Election Commission, the country's main election authority, spoke out in his support at the time, telling Russian business daily Vedomosti about the case: “I would really like to hope that they will handle this objectively. Because his criticism, often professional, helped us a lot sometimes.”

Independent journalists, critics, activists and opposition figures in Russia have come under increasing pressure from the government in recent years that intensified significantly amid the war in Ukraine.

Multiple independent news outlets and rights groups have been shut down, labeled as “foreign agents” or outlawed as “undesirable.” Hundreds of activists and critics of the Kremlin have faced criminal charges.

Melkonyants' defense team said after the verdict that they will appeal. Lawyer Mikhail Biryukov told reporters that “there is no evidence" in the case that he and others on the defense team consider “politically motivated, pretentious.”

"We will fight for Grigory’s freedom, because an illegal, unjust verdict should not exist. It should not stand (in the appeal proceedings). We all hope that the law will prevail,” Biryukov said.

Memorial, Russia's prominent human rights group that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, has designated Melkonyants as a political prisoner.

Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of Russia's leading independent election monitoring group Golos looks at the media as he stands in a cage in a courtroom prior to a hearing in Basmanny district court in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of Russia's leading independent election monitoring group Golos looks at the media as he stands in a cage in a courtroom prior to a hearing in Basmanny district court in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of Russia's leading independent election monitoring group Golos looks at the media standing in a cage in a courtroom prior to a hearing in Basmanny district court in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of Russia's leading independent election monitoring group Golos who faces up to six years in prison, looks at the media standing in a cage in a courtroom prior to a hearing in Basmanny district court in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)