DEVELOPING Person on fire outside Trump's hush money trial rushed away on a stretcher
A person who was on fire in a park outside the New York courthouse where Donald Trump’s hush money trial is taking place has been rushed away on a stretcher.
Simone Biles will not compete in the Olympics finals for two of the four individual women's gymnastics events, vault and the uneven bars, USA Gymnastics said.
Biles, arguably the world's greatest gymnast, has pulled back from Olympic competition in Tokyo to focus on her mental health. The 24-year-old explained in a series of Instagram posts that she has the twisties, a mental block in gymnastics in which competitors lose track of their positioning midair.
"After further consultation with medical staff, Simone Biles has decided to withdraw from the event finals for vault and the uneven bars," USA Gymnastics said in a statement on Twitter.
"She will continue to be evaluated daily to determine whether to compete in the finals for floor exercise and balance beam."
The women's vault and bars finals are scheduled for Sunday, the women's floor final is Monday, and the beam final is Tuesday.
MyKayla Skinner, who had the fourth-highest score in vault during qualifications, will compete in the vault finals for the US alongside Jade Carey, who finished with the second-highest score, according to USA Gymnastics.
"We remain in awe of Simone, who continues to handle this situation with courage and grace, and all of the athletes who have stepped up during these unexpected circumstances," the statement added.
Biles first stepped away during the women's gymnastics team final on Tuesday, citing mental heath concerns as she attempts to protect "her body and mind."
A day later, she withdrew from the individual all-around final for Thursday. Biles was one of the favorites to win gold in that event, having won every individual all-around competition she had entered since 2013.
Following USA Gymnastics' announcement Saturday, Skinner said in a post on Instagram: "Looks like I get to put a competition Leo on just one more time. Can't wait to compete in vault finals."
Ranked behind Biles and Carey in the qualification round, Skinner initially didn't advance to the vault final because of the two-athlete-per-country limit. She had thought her career as a competitive gymnast was over.
Skinner said she was "doing this for us," tagging Biles in the Instagram post. "It's go time baby!" she added.
In a series of Instagram stories on Friday, Simone Biles shared videos -- which have since been deleted -- of herself struggling with her dismounts on the uneven bars and answering questions about having the twisties.
Biles said her recent bout of the twisties began the morning after the preliminary competition. She said she'd been affected by it before, saying in a post, "btw it's never transferred to bars & beam for me. It strictly likes floor & vault." Then she added, "but this time it's literally on every event. which sucks... really bad."
In two of those now-deleted videos, Biles could be seen struggling with dismounts on the uneven bars.
In the first video, she says she was supposed to perform one-and-a-half more twists on her dismount. Instead, the video shows her landing on her back on the mat.
A separate video shows another dismount, in which she said she still needed to complete another half twist, and she falls to the mat in apparent frustration.
She said the videos were taken Friday morning at practice. In another post she added, "it's honestly petrifying trying to do a skill but not having your mind & body in sync."
Biles said getting rid of the twisties "varies with time" and for her usually lasts two or more weeks, adding it's "something you have to take literally day by day, turn by turn."
In an emotional interview after Tuesday's team final, Biles broke down in tears as she explained her decision, putting the issue of mental health front and center of the 2020 Olympics.
"Whenever you get in a high stress situation, you kind of freak out," Biles told reporters on Tuesday. "I have to focus on my mental health and not jeopardize my health and well-being.
"It just sucks when you're fighting with your own head."
Earlier that day, Naomi Osaka -- who has also talked openly about her own mental health struggles -- was knocked out of the Olympic women's tennis tournament.
A person who was on fire in a park outside the New York courthouse where Donald Trump’s hush money trial is taking place has been rushed away on a stretcher.
Soulful gospel artist Mandisa, a Grammy-winning singer who got her start as a contestant on 'American Idol' in 2006, has died, according to a statement on her verified social media. She was 47.
Scottish comedian Samantha Hannah was working on a comedy show about finding a husband when Toby Hunter came into her life. What happened next surprised them both.
A Manitoba woman thought she found a miracle natural supplement, but said a hidden ingredient wreaked havoc on her health.
One day after a Montreal police officer fired gunshots at a suspect in a stolen vehicle, senior officers were telling parliamentarians that organized crime groups are recruiting people as young as 15 in the city to steal cars so that they can be shipped overseas.
Police in Sault Ste. Marie charged a 22-year-old man with animal cruelty following an attack on a dog Thursday morning.
The Body Shop Canada is exploring a sale as it struggles to get its hands on enough inventory to keep up with "robust" sales after announcing it would file for creditor protection and close 33 stores.
Ontario Provincial Police have landed a suspect following a fishy theft in Beachburg, Ont.
The U.S.’s Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a video that appears to show unauthorized personnel in the cockpit of a charted Colorado Rockies flight to Toronto.
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a grade four student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
A moulting seal who was relocated after drawing daily crowds of onlookers in Greater Victoria has made a surprise return, after what officials described as an 'astonishing' six-day journey.
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.