Teenage Paralympians aiming for Team USA’s first badminton medal

Sport

Teenage Paralympians aiming for Team USA’s first badminton medal

2024-08-29 21:44 Last Updated At：21:51

PARIS (AP) — Miles Krajewski and Jayci Simon barely spoke throughout the most pivotal points of their Paralympic debut.

Team USA’s mixed doubles para badminton pair offered brief encouragement between points but moved around each other without a word once the shuttlecock was in the air. The 19-year-olds’ chemistry was on full display on Thursday at La Chapelle Arena in northern Paris as they defeated India 23-21, 21-11 to start their pursuit of Paralympic gold.

Krajewski and Simon already made history as the first U.S. badminton Paralympians and are now chasing their country’s first medal in the sport. They need to finish in the top two of their group to advance to the semifinals in the mixed doubles event in the SH6 category for players of short stature.

“Our coach instilled in us that we’re one when we’re out there,” Simon said. “We work together a lot better now, and it definitely has paid off.”

Krajewski and Simon will both compete in men’s and women’s singles competition before facing Thailand to close group play at 8:00 p.m. Thursday in Paris. A win over Thailand would put Team USA among the final four pairs, one win away from securing the historic medal.

“I think we’ve got to carry some of the confidence along with the fire, because they’re also a really good opponent,” Krajewski said. “We need to bring our energy to hopefully come out as No. 1 in the group.”

Krajewski and Simon say winning a medal would further establish para badminton in the U.S.

“It would really help grow the sport in the U.S. because we would have something to back us up well,” Simon said. “I think that it would create more funding and more opportunities to grow the sport. So I’m excited that after the games, whether we win a medal or not, there’s more visibility now, so it will help us advocate.”

Krajewski says he has seen the sport strengthen its foothold in the U.S. in recent years as more Americans have competed alongside him in international tournaments and more para badminton academies appear around the country.

“It’s been incredible just knowing that since I started, it wasn’t very popular, and seeing it start to grow was really nice,” Krajewski said. “Ever since then, if we bring home a medal, hopefully, it will grow at least five times as big.”

Simon did much of her training without any coaching, using a portable net at a local church’s gym in Saint Johns, Michigan. She was forced to research and create her own workouts, rely on her parents to throw her shuttlecocks, and gain playing experience from the local recreational badminton club at Michigan State University. She is studying exercise science and kinesiology at Lansing Community College on top of part-time work as an optometrist.

The duo’s chemistry slowly grew through two years of playing sporadically when they lived in different states. Krajewski and Simon say they finally found nonverbal chemistry this summer training together full-time at Frisco Badminton Academy in Frisco, Texas.

“It was a lot of fun, just knowing that we’ve been training for three months together full-time,” Krajewski said. “Knowing that I can trust her in certain parts and she can trust me and knowing where we’re at without having to tell each other is really nice.”

The connection has been in the making since 2016, when Simon met Krajewski at a Little People of America sports camp. The 11-year-old Simon, who had never heard of badminton, competed against Krajewski in several sports and impressed his father. Krajewski’s father complimented her athleticism, and in an effort to grow the sport, recommended she try para badminton.

Jack Leo is a student in the undergraduate certificate program at the Carmical Sports Media Institute at the University of Georgia.

AP Paralympics: https://apnews.com/hub/paralympic-games

Power outages bring frustration to New Orleans residents post-Francine

2024-09-14 06:38 Last Updated At：06:41

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Two days after Hurricane Francine knocked out power for nearly half a million people in Louisiana, Alexandra Canary was still waiting for the electricity in her area to come back online.

As her fridge continued to thaw out, the New Orleans resident began to clean out condiments at risk of spoiling. One of her small dogs watched from the couch, panting. Without air conditioning the home heated up quick, as the heat index reached 93 degrees Fahrenheit (33.9 degrees Celsius) on Friday.

“It’s been tough trying to sleep, or even live,” Canary, who is in her 70s said. “Somedays it is actually cooler outside than being in the house.”

Frustration mounted across New Orleans, as crews for the city’s electrical provider, Entergy, worked to restore power.

“Every single storm, every one, no matter how big or how small, the same thing happens,” said Rudy Cerone, 71, referring to the power outages. “Entergy just doesn’t seem to take the necessary preparatory actions to harden this system to provide the power that we’re paying through the nose for.”

An Entergy New Orleans spokesperson said the city had restored power to more than 40,000 customers since Thursday and that many more would regain electricity by the end of the day Friday. Around 6,500 Entergy customers in the city lacked power as of Friday afternoon, part of about 95,000 customers in Louisiana still without electricity, according to the tracking site poweroutage.us.

The spokesperson also said the information used to update outage numbers comes from crews in the field.

“These steps take time, and our teams are committed to providing customers with the latest restoration information as it is available,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

After losing electricity Wednesday night, Richard Smith, 56, owner of Adams Street Grocery & Deli, had been running his New Orleans store off a generator. But the electricity source wasn't enough to power the deep fryer machine. So customers had to settle for cold cuts instead of hot fried chicken sandwiches, and pay in cash instead of with credit cards, he said.

Power was restored late Friday afternoon, not a moment too soon.

“This is the time we are supposed to be busy and we lost a lot of business,” Smith said. “A lot of people thought we were closed.”

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said electricity is the major issue facing the state since Francine rolled through.

“The biggest challenge we have had in this storm is utilities – trying to get the power back on,” Landry said at a news conference Friday afternoon.

Prior to Francine making landfall, utility crews were pre-positioned in areas that would likely be impacted by power outages, Landry said.

Davante Lewis, an elected member of the state Public Service Commission that regulates utilities, did a ride along on Thursday with Entergy to assess the damage. He said much of it was broken branches and trees — likely weakened by recent drought conditions in the state — on power lines.

“I think what we are seeing right now is a lot of vegetation issues and we just don’t have enough hands to move it (debris) that fast or enough hours in the day to safely do so in sunlight,” Lewis said.

Utility crews from Oklahoma, Florida, Texas and elsewhere are working to restore power, Lewis said, with projections for full restoration by Sunday.

“Any amount of time without power in Louisiana, especially for vulnerable communities, is too long,” Lewis said. “But we have seen restoration times a lot shorter than some of the earlier predictions and we are faring better.”

The storm, which drew fuel from exceedingly warm Gulf of Mexico waters, came ashore Wednesday in Louisiana with 100 mph (160 kph) winds and drenched a large swath of the South, including parts of Arkansas and Florida. Forecasters say the storm's slow progress will mean days of heavy rain in the Southeast, creating a flash flooding risk.

Another 3 to 6 inches (8 to 15 centimeters), with about 8 inches (20 centimeters) in some locations, were expected in parts of central and northern Alabama through Sunday. In northeastern Mississippi, western Tennessee, western Georgia and the Florida Panhandle, another 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 centimeters) was expected.

No deaths or serious injuries have been reported in Francine's aftermath.

Rushing water nearly enveloped a pickup truck in a New Orleans underpass, trapping the driver inside. A 39-year-old emergency room nurse who lived nearby waded into the waist-high water with a hammer, smashed the window and pulled out the driver. The rescue was captured live by WDSU-TV.

“It’s just second nature I guess, being a nurse, you just go in and get it done, right?” Miles Crawford told The Associated Press on Thursday. “I just had to get to get him out of there.”

In the coastal community of Cocodrie in southern Louisiana, where many families own seasonal homes along the bayou for fishing, police guarded a road to prevent looting as people cleaned their properties.

For many in the area bordered by bayous, swamps, lakes and the Gulf of Mexico, threats of flooding and hurricanes have become a way of life, Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre said.

Over the years, the area has become more resilient against storms, improving drainage and pumping stations and replacing roofs that can better withstand hurricane-force winds. Residents are also evacuating more quickly when there are significant storm threats, Webre said.

“This population is very resilient. They’re very independent. They’re very pioneering,” he said.

Cline reported from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Associated Press writers Kevin McGill in New Orleans and Curt Anderson in St. Petersburg, Florida, contributed to this story.