medal

After tears in Paris, tears again in Glasgow.

It leaves even the great Adam Ramsay-Peaty wondering how much of this is worth it.

“I work a lot harder than what it says on the scoreboard,” the Englishman said after taking 100m breaststroke bronze at the Commonwealth Games, his eyes and cheeks red with emotion.

“It hurts too much. I have got to approach training differently now because it hurts too much.”

Ramsay-Peaty has done it all in this sport.

Three Olympic gold medals. Eight world titles. The 14 fastest times in history.

But after taking a break from swimming amid a wave of mental health issues in 2023, he is still searching for that winning feeling again on the big stage.

He was pipped to Olympic gold in Paris two years ago. In Glasgow, despite coming into the final as the fastest qualifier, he had to settle for bronze.

He was beaten by Australia’s Sam Williamson but also Jersey’s history-maker Filip Nowacki, the 18-year-old he has taken under his wing.

Ramsay-Peaty was third at halfway and could not close the gap.

“It took a lot of courage to get back into the sport, so we should be happy with everything we get, but then that contradicts the athlete inside me and what I work for,” he said.

“I just think I deserve more. I know sport isn’t about what you deserve or even what you work for – it’s who gets it on the day.

“I just know I’m a better athlete than that. It’s very disappointing.”

Ramsay-Peaty has spoken about the difficult decisions that come with being an elite athlete. The time away from his son, whom he held in his arms after the Paris silver. The events at home he has to miss.

“They are not even sacrifices; they are choices,” he said.

“It’s like getting knocked out in the group stages in the World Cup for a very good team. You know you’re better and it hurts because you know you have to wait for a very long time for the next championships.

“This is probably – realistically – my last Commonwealth Games and I thought I’d trained for better. I could do better. I’ve been faster this season. That’s where the frustration is.”

Ramsay-Peaty has made no secret of the fact he is still competing in the quest for Olympic gold.

He considered retirement again after Paris, but committed to another four years when the 50m race was added to programme for Los Angeles 2028.

This 100m breaststroke is his event – the one in which he went unbeaten in eight years – but there may be a time when he has to let it go.

The 50m race – a dash down one length of the pool – would be less taxing on the body, and Ramsay-Peaty is due back in the pool for that event on Sunday morning.

“Is the 100 even viable any more? I don’t know,” he said.

“When it hurts like this, the 50 is probably my super strength with my power.

“With the Olympics, that’s probably going to be more realistic, but it’s too early to tell.

“I just feel like I couldn’t have given more this cycle. If I had given less, would it have even equalled more?”

Given the emotion, there are times you wonder how close Ramsay-Peaty is to walking away entirely.

He appeared to walk to the edge but always turned back, insisting the drive for LA remains.

“Of course,” he said.

“I know I’m a sprinter. I know I can do very well because I’ve done it. It doesn’t disappear overnight.

“It requires me to look at the formula and see how I can get to that speed again.”

Having grown up on an island with about 100,000 inhabitants, Nowacki is rapidly become one of the best breaststrokers in the world.

He left Jersey to train at Millfield School and will move to Loughborough after the Games to continue his swimming as part of Team GB’s elite squad preparing for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Nathan Jegou, who coached Nowacki as a youngster and is managing the Jersey swimming team in Glasgow, says he is excited at what the islander can do.

“It’s just the start of his journey, and the last two years for him has been phenomenal,” he told BBC Jersey.

“I’m excited to see what he does and we’re proud that he’s one of us.

“We’re such a small island, to come here and get a silver medal, it means everything to him, means everything to us, and we hope he can maybe do it again later in the week.”

When it comes to fear of heights, Maddi Haferling was born with the opposite gene — loving heights.

The Woodbridge High senior started climbing a door at home at age 4 trying to reach a pull-up bar. By 10, she was signed up for a climbing academy. At 17, she won a gold medal in speed climbing last week at the USU19 National Championship in Salt Lake City.

On Thursday, she leaves for Arco, Italy, to compete at the Youth World Championships.

“It’s pretty cool,” she said.

At 5 feet tall, her challenge is climbing a standardized 15-meter wall course and finishing with the fastest time going against an opponent climbing an identical course. She’s attached to a safety rope in case there’s a fall.

Maddi Haferling of Woodbridge won a gold medal in speed climbing.

(Haferling family)

Being a climber, I have a lot of strength that oust don’t have,” Haferling said. “I can do 25 pull-ups that can impress you.”

So what happens if a Woodbridge football player challenges her to a pull-up contest?

“I think they know they’d lose,” she said.

She trains five days a week, three hours a day at a Santa Ana climbing facility lifting weights and practicing speed climbing techniques with other team members.

“It’s nice I can push myself in a sport and commit to something,” she said. “Being on a team is amazing.”

June 19 (UPI) — President Donald Trump has awarded the Medal of Honor to three veterans, honoring their acts of heroism in battle in Vietnam and Afghanistan.

At a White House ceremony on Thursday, Trump awarded the nation’s highest military honor to retired Marine Corps Maj. James Capers Jr. and retired Army Maj. Nicholas Dockery. He also awarded the medal posthumously to Marine Corps Col. John Ripley, who died in 2008, with the honor accepted by his son, Tom Ripley.

Trump opened his remarks by touting the stock market and lower oil prices, then appeared to joke that he wanted to award himself the nation’s highest military honor but was told he could not. He then introduced Capers, saying he was the first Black Marine in history to receive a battlefield commission during wartime when he was promoted to second lieutenant during the Vietnam War.

Capers was awarded the medal for his “acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty” in the spring of 1967, when he led a four-day reconnaissance patrol that made contact on three separate occasions with a superior enemy force, and on the final day, was ambushed, the White House said in a release.

Trump said Capers was hit by an explosion that sent him into a tree, “ripping open his abdomen.” His body was pierced by 17 pieces of shrapnel and his leg was broken, but despite his injuries, he refused to be extracted before his men were safe.

Trump said that Capers was recommended for the award that year, but his commanding officer died before he could sign the paperwork.

“That’s a bad break. But now you’re doing it. This is maybe, this is better,” he said, adding that “The nation kept you waiting far too long.”

Ripley was also awarded the medal, though posthumously, for acts of heroism during Vietnam. The White House said Ripley played a pivotal role in halting a major North Vietnamese mechanized assault by destroying a bridge in the village of Dong Ha.

Trump described Ripley as completing five trips to move explosives into position on the bridge while under gunfire.

“When John detonated the explosives, the bridge collapsed into the river, crushing the advance and saved the hope of a free Vietnam for Easter morning,” the president said.

Dockery received the medal for actions taken to save his platoon in Kapisa Province, Afghanistan, on Oct. 2, 2012.

Trump said about 150 Taliban fighters ambushed Dockery’s platoon that fall day as they were guarding the governor’s compound. For more than four hours, he fought the Taliban, risking his life on several occasions to protect and evacuate three wounded members of his platoon, according to the White House.

Trump said Dockery personally rescued members of his platoon and at one point killed a Taliban fighter and detained two others, and killed two others in a separate confrontation. He also administered CPR on one of his platoon members whom he found unconscious “until the sergeant’s heart kicked back in,” Trump said.

“As we approach the 250th anniversary of our founding, we remember that we owe everything to heroes like those we celebrate today — men who went willingly to the darkest and most dangerous corners on Earth to defeat evil so we could live free,” Trump said.

“That’s exactly what happened. These are great men, great people.”

CLOVIS —  Jurupa Valley senior AB Hernandez placed third in the CIF state championship long jump on Saturday, medaling in the event for the second consecutive year.

Hernandez, who is transgender, has faced harassment and ire from anti-trans protesters and conservative pundits during the past two years. She jumped 20 feet, 2 1/4 inches on Saturday, behind first-place finisher Ellie McCuskey-Hay of St. Ignatius (20-3½) and Gianna Gonzalez of Moorpark (20-3½).

Under CIF policy, transgender athletes who place at the state championships receive medals but do not displace cisgender girls in the final standings. The federation announced last year that the policy would apply specifically to the long jump, triple jump and high jump — the three events Hernandez competed in — and the rule remained in effect for her three events this weekend.

Hernandez shared her third-place podium with St. Mary’s Berkeley jumper Corrine Jones, who reached 19-9 ½.

Hernandez secured her place in Saturday’s finals on her opening long jump attempt Friday, posting a mark strong enough to hold the top qualifying position. She passed on her remaining two attempts after safely locking up advancement.

The atmosphere surrounding the state championships was notably calmer than a year ago, when demonstrations over Hernandez’s participation drew national attention. On Friday, the most visible protest activity came before the meet, when Republican California gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton held a news conference outside Veterans Memorial Stadium, noting that the primary election was just four days away.

Standing before signs reading “Hey, CIF: Girls’ Sports Girls Only” on Friday, Hilton criticized the California Interscholastic Federation’s policies governing transgender athletes.

On Saturday, the Rainbow Families Action group hosted a news conference outside in support of Hernandez. Counter-protesters showed up toward the end and shouted toward the Hernandez supporters and the two sides exchanged some words before dispersing.

Inside the stadium, however, the focus largely remained on the competition. Spectators cheered as Hernandez began her long-jump approach, and some fans wore bracelets bearing the message “We Stand With AB.”

Event organizers prohibited signs inside the venue. Unlike last year, when advocacy groups on both sides staged more visible demonstrations, the off-track theatrics were largely absent.

Meanwhile, Democrat Tom Steyer released a video on X on Friday featuring a previous conversation with Hernandez, in which he expressed support for her participation in high school athletics.

The 17-year-old arrived in Clovis after sweeping all three of her events at the Southern Section championships.

Entering the state meet, Hernandez ranked among the nation’s top 10 performers in all three events. She shared California’s best high jump mark, was tied for second in the long jump and ranked second in the triple jump. She will compete in the high jump and triple jump later Saturday.