78 TIME July 19/July 26, 2021
NEW SPORTS
TOKYO
OLYMPICS
Janja GarnbretSPORT CLIMBING, SLOVENIA
Janja Garnbret grew up
scrambling over furniture
and up trees and hasn’t
stopped since. The 22-year-
old is widely recognized as
the top woman in climbing
and her country’s best hope
for a gold medal in Tokyo.
She’s racked up a whopping
46 World Cup podium fi n-
ishes as well as world cham-
pionship titles in bouldering
and lead climbing—two of
the three disciplines that will
make up the competition in
the sport’s Olympic debut.
The third , speed climbing,
is her weakest event but one
she’s worked to improve over
the past year. With its daring
jumps and superhero-like
moves, climbing is poised
to be a breakout hit of these
Games—and Garnbret an
emerging star. It’s a burden
she happily shoulders.
“I have a responsibility to
show the sport to the world
and to set a good example,”
Garnbret told TIME earlier
this year. “I’m going there
to enjoy it, because I know
if I enjoy it, everything will
be O.K.” —Raisa BrunerGwen BerryTRACK AND FIELD, U.S.
Gwen Berry refuses to shut up and throw the hammer.
When Berry raised a fi st on the medal podium during
“The Star-Spangled Banner’’ at the 2019 Pan Am Games,
the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee put her
on a 12-month probation. It later apologized, but she’s
said she lost sponsors, and 80% of her income, in the
aftermath. At the trials on June 26, where she qualifi ed
for her second consecutive Olympics, Berry turned
away from the U.S. fl ag during the national anthem.
The anthem had been played only once a night, and on
that night it was while Berry was on the podium for plac-
ing third in the hammer throw. “I feel like it was a setup,
and they did it on purpose,’’ Berry said. “I was pissed, to
be honest.” The IOC has said that athletes can protest at
the Games before events but not on the medals stand.
Berry isn’t backing down. “When I get there,” she says,
“I’ll fi gure out something to do.” —S.G.SKATEBOARDING
Some worry skate-
boarding’s Olympic
arrival, like snow-
boarding’s before it,
marks a break from
its counterculture
roots. But that won’t
stop 80 of the world’s
best skaters from
vying for gold in two
disciplines: street and
park. Gravity-defying
tricks will rule the
hollowed-out bowl
design of the park,
while street riders
will navigate a circuit
resembling a city
roadway, with rails,
steps and benches to
grind and slide on.KARATE
The Japanese martial
art was approved for
Tokyo, thanks to a rule
change that allows host
nations to propose addi-
tional sports for inclu-
sion in their Games.
For the kata, or form,
portion of the competi-
tion, 20 competitors
will demonstrate
movements against a
virtual enemy. Another
60 karatekas will go
head to head in kumite,
three-minute sparring
bouts in which athletes
attempt to land a series
of precise blows on
their opponent’s body.
—Megan McCluskeyShaunae
Miller-UiboTRACK AND FIELD, BAHAMAS
Shaunae Miller-Uibo is the defending Olympic cham-
pion in the 400 m, winning gold in Rio in controversial
fashion by diving across the fi nish line to edge out
Allyson Felix. The dramatic moment became something
of a Rorschach test: Did Miller-Uibo violate unwritten
codes of sportsmanship or simply do whatever it took
to win legally? The 27-year-old sprinter, who carried her
country’s fl ag in 2016, not surprisingly takes the latter
view. “I had a lot of people who came to me and they
said, ‘After we saw what you did ... it made me dive into
my dreams and go after them even harder,’” Miller-Uibo
recently told the Olympic Channel. Miller-Uibo could
run both the 200 m and 400 m in Tokyo, but she’s
said she’ll focus on the 200 m, in which she holds the
Bahamian record, as the schedule makes pursuing
the double diffi cult. “Yes, it would have been great to
defend my title,” says Miller-Uibo. “But at the same
time, I wanted a new title as well.” ÑSean Gregory