Simone Biles’ sponsors, including Athleta and Visa, are lauding her decision to put her mental health first and withdraw from the gymnastics team competition during the Olympics. It’s the latest example of sponsors praising athletes who are increasingly open about mental health issues.
(AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)
Two of the world’s top athletes have raised awareness of mental health issues on the Olympic stage. An Olympian explains why mental training can be as important as physical training.
Canada’s Lisa Roman, Kasia Gruchalla-Wesierski, Christine Roper, Andrea Proske, Susanne Grainger, Madison Mailey, Sydney Payne, Avalon Wasteneys and Kristen Kit celebrate on the podium after winning the gold medal in women’s eight rowing competition at the Tokyo Olympics.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
Canadian women’s success at the Tokyo Games bodes well not only for our future generations of athletes, but for our nation as a whole.
The 1964 Olympics in Tokyo banned all athletes who took part in a counter-competition a year earlier called the Games of the New Emerging Forces, which were dubbed the left-wing Olympics
(AP Photo)
The Olympics claim not to be political, but in the 1960s a counter movement organized by left-leaning countries put politics front and centre.
People receive a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at a mass vaccination clinic at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto in June 2021.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston
Vaccine hesitancy is declining in Canada but hasn’t disappeared. New research shows many of those initially less hesitant have since been convinced. With continued efforts, others can still be reached.
Canada’s Margaret Mac Neil swims to a gold medal in the women’s 100 metre butterfly final during at the Tokyo Olympics.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn
The past 18 months have tested the mental and physical limits of Olympic athletes in their pursuit of the Tokyo Games. That’s what makes the performances during these Olympics even more remarkable.
Information on COVID-19 vaccines for pregnant or breastfeeding individuals has been inconsistent and hard to find.
(AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Exclusion from clinical trials, lack of data and inconsistent information made it difficult for pregnant and breastfeeding people to make decisions about COVID-19 vaccines early in the rollout.
Hundreds of residents of Toronto’s M3N postal code, a hotspot for COVID-19 infections, line up at a pop-up vaccine clinic on In April 2021.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston
Hotspot neighbourhoods with greater COVID-19 risk exposure continued to have higher infection rates even when they achieved vaccination levels equal to lower-risk neighbourhoods.
Wearable technology can help elite athletes, but sometimes too much data can be a problem.
Shutterstock
The future of wearable technology holds limitless potential for elite athletes to optimize and enhance their athletic performance.
Women’s 800-metre silver medal winner Margaret Nyairera Wambui, left, shakes hands with gold medal winner Caster Semenya on the podium at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia. Both runners have refused to take hormone-reducing drugs so they could compete at the Tokyo Olympics.
(AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Concerns about holding the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games during a state of emergency highlights just how much power the International Olympic Committee wields over the global sporting world.
Sha'Carri Richardson celebrates during the U.S. Olympic Track and Field trials on June 18. Shortly after the trials, Richardson was suspended for a month for testing positive for marijuana – a ban that will keep her from competing at the Tokyo Olympics.
(AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
In the wake of debate about cannabis, performance-enhancing drugs and the Olympic Games, athlete-driven doping legislation is the way forward.
Families and youth aged 12 and older lined up for a COVID-19 vaccine at Gordon A Brown Middle School in Toronto in May.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
With youth ages 12 and over eligible for COVID-19 vaccination — and as trials for younger children move ahead — parental hesitancy is emerging as the new challenge for COVID-19 vaccine programs.
A statue in honour of U.S. Olympians Tommie Smith, left, and John Carlos is seen on the campus of San Jose State University in San Jose, Calif. The pair of sprinters were expelled from the Olympics in 1968 after they raised their fists on the medals stand to protest racial inequality in the United States.
(AP Photo/Tony Avelar)
The International Olympic Committee’s Rule 50 still restricts the freedom of speech of athletes, despite the recently relaxed stipulations. A respected Olympian says the IOC must change its policy.
People cooled off at a beach in Chestermere, Alta., as a heat wave settled over Western Canada.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
New normal. Record-breaking. Unprecedented. In recent days, as Western Canada and the United States have been broiling under a climate-fuelled heat crisis, all sorts of superlatives have been used to describe…
Two public health nurses vaccinate adults at a polio clinic in Southey, Sask. in 1960.
(Canadian Nurses Association fonds. Library and Archives Canada)
At the height of polio and H1N1, Canadians were keen to get vaccinated, but vaccine enthusiasm waned once the crisis had passed — what does that mean for COVID-19?
Efforts to manage the invasive caterpillar L. dispar have cost billions of dollars in Canada and the United States.
(Chris MacQuarrie)
The caterpillar, Lymantria dispar, has eaten through 17,000 square kilometres of trees since the 1980s. The invasive insect was imported in the 1880s to launch a North American silk industry.
Part of the answer to a more functional and sustainable city may lie in your garden.
(Shutterstock)
Cities are among the harshest habitats on Earth. But when planned properly, private gardens can help improve their liveability.
A person lays several shoes on the steps of City Hall in Kingston, Ont., to honour the 215 children’s graves discovered on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg
Non-Indigenous Canadians are right to feel shame about Indian Residential Schools. But what comes next?
Members of the Tsuut'ina Nation take part in a silent march in memory of the 215 children whose remains were found in Kamloops.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
Acts of genocide were strategically implemented by church and the Canadian government to remove Indigenous people from their land and, in turn, their culture.
Researchers say conspiracy theories around COVID-19 are spreading at an alarming rate across the country — and they warn that misinformation shared online may lead to devastating consequences.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
Gardening provides a helpful metaphor to help us understand how individual and platform approaches to misinformation need to be accompanied by policy and cultural reforms.