Path of sprinter Kenny Bednarek led to Olympic silver medals. Now 'Kung Fu Kenny' searches for gold.

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Path of sprinter Kenny Bednarek led to Olympic silver medals. Now 'Kung Fu Kenny' searches for gold.

2025-04-04 03:28 Last Updated At：03:41

The path of sprinter Kenny Bednarek has been far from easy or conventional. Plenty of uphill climbs, too.

His experiences, though — foster care, being adopted, going the community college route, constantly overshadowed — has only added power to his alter ego, “Kung Fu Kenny.” That version of him emerges when he steps on the track and slips on his signature headband.

That version of him looks at his two Olympic silver medals in two ways — reminders, yes, of the success he's had, but a motivator for the success still yet to achieve.

This season, he’s sharpened his burst out of the starting blocks and took his nutrition to another level in an effort to turn silver finishes into gold. That starts possibly later this season at world championships in Tokyo and down the road at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

“I know I have the capability of being a champion,” said Bednarek, who races this weekend in Kingston, Jamaica, at the inaugural event of Grand Slam Track, a new professional league. “I’ve always just been hungry.”

Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he and his fraternal twin brother, Ian, were adopted out of foster care at 4 years old by Mary Ann Bednarek, who'd already taken in two girls. The family moved to Rice Lake in northwest Wisconsin when he was 12.

“I had a lot of issues when I was a kid,” the 26-year-old Kenny Bednarek explained. “My mom took so much time to help me become the person I am today. I mean, without her love, care and support, I don’t know where I would be.

“I might not be ‘Kung Fu Kenny.' I might be somewhere stranded. She’s the big reason why I'm here today.”

Track, too. Because on the track, Bednarek could let his mind wander — to the places his feet might one day take him.

“Track was just the gateway that let me feel free,” explained Bednarek, who also played football. “It was just me against the clock."

Bednarek didn’t go to a big-time track powerhouse out of high school. Instead, he spent a season at Indian Hills Community College in Iowa.

That one season, though, showed Bednarek's vast potential. He won 200 and 400 national titles at the 2019 NJCAA DI Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

Still, he's been largely overlooked in a crowded field of high-profile sprinters that includes Americans standouts Noah Lyles, Fred Kerley and Erriyon Knighton, along with Andre De Grasse of Canada and Botswana's Letsile Tebogo.

Playing second-fiddle used to bother Bednarek and especially his alter ego, “Kung Fu Kenny.”

“I had a really big chip on my shoulder,” he said. “It was annoying.”

Winning medals solved that. Maybe not always the favorite in a race, Bednarek always found a way to be in the mix.

Like at the Tokyo Games in 2021, when he finished runner-up to De Grasse in the 200 meters. Or a year later at world championships when he took silver behind Lyles. At the Paris Games last summer, he won another silver in the 200 behind Tebogo.

Last summer's medal remains special because his mom was watching in the stands. She was so happy for him, crying tears of joy, as they embraced after the race.

“Just to be able to shine bright and have my mom witness that, it meant a lot," he said.

These days, he’s working out in Winter Garden, Florida, under coach Dennis Mitchell. His training group includes Sha’Carri Richardson and Christian Coleman.

“We just have this iron-sharpens-iron mentality," said Bednarek, who's sponsored by Nike. “We’re all making each other better.”

His top task this spring is sharpening his starts out of blocks.

“If I can get that down, I feel like nobody is going to be able to beat me,” said Bednarek, whose top time in the 200 is 19.57 seconds. “I’m always trying to add something that makes me 1% better.”

For his dedication to nutrition — he's eliminated gluten — and overall health, he credits Sharmila Nicollet, a professional golfer from India who he's been dating since 2020.

“I used to think, 'Oh, I can sleep whenever I want, play video games whenever I want, and I’ll be fine,’” Bednarek recounted. “She opened my eyes. It was like, ‘OK, this is how you become an Olympian and a medalist. This is what you've got to do.’"

Bednarek is among the runners of all distances — and hurdlers — taking part this weekend in Grand Slam Track, which was founded by Hall of Famer Michael Johnson. The new league includes stops in Kingston, Miami (May 2-4), Philadelphia (May 30-June 1) and Los Angeles (June 27-29). In Kingston, Bednarek will face Kerley & Co. in the 100 on Friday and again in the 200 on Saturday.

“It’s an incredible opportunity just to be able to represent this league,” Bednarek said. “It’s all about speed, personalities and telling great stories.”

Like his.

One question he constantly receives: What's the story behind his alter-ego “Kung Fu Kenny?” Bednarek said it really stems from his love of anime. His favorite character is Naruto, a young ninja who's seeking recognition.

“He’s a very persistent character and doesn’t give up no matter what,” Bednarek explained. “I kind of resonate with that. Whatever you want to achieve, it will not come to you — you have to work for it. You have to go get it.”

AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports

Informal ties with US philanthropists like Howard Buffett firm despite shaky US–Ukraine relations

2025-04-08 07:22 Last Updated At：07:31

BOBRYK, Ukraine (AP) — As uncertainty in U.S.–Ukraine relations grows, informal ties with some U.S. philanthropists built over three years of war with Russia are holding firm.

One such benefactor is Howard G. Buffett, a Republican and son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett. He's making his 18th visit to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The trip comes as the new U.S. administration led by President Donald Trump is trying to broker a temporary ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. But the fighting has continued, and it remains unclear whether the United States will maintain its support for Ukraine in repelling Russia’s invasion.

“It doesn’t change anything we do. We’re on track,” Buffett told The Associated Press, adding that his foundation will surpass $1 billion in aid to Ukraine this year. He called the prospect of a peace deal “impossible.”

“Putin doesn’t want it, and he won’t respect it,” he said. “There’s no easy way to end the war. So, we’ll stick with it as long as we need to.”

The AP caught up with Buffett aboard a train with Ukraine’s Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko on Saturday. Their shared commitment to humanitarian demining brought them together in 2023, and they’ve remained in close contact since then. Svyrydenko calls him “one of the greatest friends of Ukraine.”

Buffett is among a number of Americans across the U.S. political spectrum who support Ukraine’s war effort, either through financial aid or volunteer military service, who say the U.S. hasn’t done enough to help Ukraine defeat Russia over the past few years.

On this trip, Buffett and Svyrydenko traveled to the country’s northern Sumy region, where the situation has significantly worsened following Ukrainian forces’ loss of ground in Russia’s Kursk region.

They visited the villages of Popivka and Bobryk, which — like much of the region — lie in a high-risk zone for land mines. Parts of the area were occupied by Russian forces in 2022 and are now considered potentially contaminated. They also stopped at a local school that had been relocated to a basement, where children now study during hours-long air raid alerts.

Buffett’s foundation, which focuses on humanitarian needs like agriculture, infrastructure and mine clearance, has contributed about $800 million to Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion, including $175 million in humanitarian demining. Svyrydenko’s ministry is responsible for Ukraine’s humanitarian demining infrastructure.

“He understands very well that if a country that can feed 400 million people cannot clear its fields and loses at least $12 billion of GDP every year due to mined land, it’s a major challenge,” Svyrydenko said of Buffett.

According to Ukraine’s Ministry of Economy, the country’s agricultural sector has lost 20.5% of its farmland since the invasion — due to land mines, occupation and ongoing fighting.

Roughly 139,000 square kilometers (53,670 square miles) of Ukrainian land — about the size of the state of New York — are potentially mined. Two-thirds of that territory consists of fertile farmland where generations of Ukrainians have grown wheat.

Since the beginning of the war, 335 people have been killed and 823 wounded in mine-related incidents. An estimated 6.1 million people live in areas considered at risk of landmine contamination.

Despite rocky relations and growing uncertainty in the United States, Buffett said he believes many U.S. lawmakers still support the principles of freedom and democracy and won’t abandon Ukraine as it fights for its sovereignty.

“At the end of the day, I think the U.S. will do the right thing, but it may be a painful process and there may be a lot more Ukrainians that die,” he said.

The Buffett Foundation funded several bipartisan U.S. congressional delegations to Ukraine in 2023 and plans to bring another group in May.

Buffett, whose foundation has worked in conflict zones for over two decades, said witnessing the conditions firsthand is critical to understanding the war’s scale. He recalled one drive in particular — from Kharkiv to Borova, near the front line —where he passed through village after village flattened by Russian attacks.

He added that atrocities committed in towns like Bucha, Borodyanka and Irpin, where Russian forces were accused of torturing, raping and executing civilians, are often forgotten outside Ukraine.

“That’s why showing up matters. Hearing it from the people living it is the only way to truly understand.”