RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – Hailing the first-ever refugee team
as “true Olympians”, UNHCR Deputy High Commissioner Kelly T. Clements
has praised its 10 members of for helping to change world’s perception
of refugees.
“This team has captured the world’s attention and in a short period
of time, changed the conversation about refugees… There is no doubt that
they have left a legacy with their presence at these Olympic Games, but
they have also inspired all of us to do more to work for peace and help
those forced to flee,” she said.
Clements, who enjoyed breakfast with the team and their support staff
at the Rio’s Olympic Village on Saturday, said she was blown away by
the refugee team’s “extraordinary talent, determination, and a past that
unfortunately 65 million people share.”
She said taking part was as important as any result.
“The Olympic spirit is really the way one competes, and how one
presents his or herself,” she said. “And these athletes were true
Olympians in terms of how they’ve cheered on others, how they made
friends with people from all over the world.”
Now, she admitted, attention turns to the future and said both the
International Olympic Committee and UNHCR would remain committed to
supporting the athletes’ future.
“There is no doubt that they have left a legacy with their presence
at these Olympic Games, but have also inspired all of us to do more to
work for peace and help those forced to flee,” Clements added. “The IOC
and UNHCR will continue to work together to provide opportunities for
these refugee athletes and others to help find a future in the face of
adversity.”
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – In a dazzling celebration of life, Brazil
has brought down the curtain on an Olympics which enchanted and inspired
millions around the world with powerful stories of triumph over
adversity.
The Rio2016 Games – the first-ever Olympics to witness the participation of a Refugee Olympic Team – came to an end in a colourful explosion of music and dance.
Fittingly for an event which has consistently championed diversity,
the closing ceremony paid tribute to the many facets and rich cultural
variety of the first South American country to host the Olympics.
Dancing athletes from the 207 delegations, including 10 members of
the refugee team from Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, South
Sudan and Syria, entered Rio’s famed Maracanã stadium to the pulsating
sound of music combining modern and traditional Brazilian rhythms.
“We will continue to stay at your side.”
A tropical downpour could not dampen the enthusiasm. Flags waved and
fireworks exploded as thoughts turned to the future. The Olympic Flag
was symbolically passed to Japan, which will hold the next games in
2020.
Both the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the UN Refugee
Agency, UNHCR, which worked together to produce the Refugee Olympic
Team, have pledged to remain committed to supporting the athletes’
future and promoting sport among those driven from their homes by
conflict and persecution.
In his official closing address, IOC President Thomas Bach said:
“Thank you, dear refugee athletes. You have inspired us with your talent
and human spirit. You are a symbol of hope to the millions of refugees
in the world. We will continue to stay at your side after these Olympic
Games.”
Hailing the first-ever refugee team
as “true Olympians”, UNHCR Deputy High Commissioner Kelly T. Clements,
who attended the closing ceremony, praised its members for helping to
change world’s perception of refugees and displaced, now numbering some
65 million.
“This team has captured the world’s attention and in a short period
of time, changed the conversation about refugees… There is no doubt that
they have left a legacy with their presence at these Olympic Games, but
they have also inspired all of us to do more to work for peace and help
those forced to flee,” she said.
“These athletes were true Olympians – they cheered on others, they
made friends with people from all over the world,” she said. “The IOC
and UNHCR will continue to work together to provide opportunities for
these refugee athletes and others.”
‘It was so amazing to be here.”
The athletes themselves have all spoken of their determination to carry on training and improving.
Earlier in the day Yonas Kinde, the last of the 10 refugee team
members to compete, ran in the marathon and fulfilled a lifelong
ambition.
‘It was so amazing to be here. It showed respect for refugees. We
have to remember that so many people have sacrificed their lives. We
have to remember… Today, I did something for refugee people. We are the
symbol of a fight. It gives hope to refugees. We have showed that all
refugees can do something, if they have a chance,” he told UNHCR after
crossing the finish line.
It was Saturday night when Darryl Strawberry heard about Dwight
Gooden’s implied denial of a drug problem in his life, via a text to me
that ran in a Daily News story, in which Doc dismissed Strawberry’s own
public concern for him as “unreal.”
And that’s when the former Met slugger decided enough was enough.
“I have to try something before he’s dead,” was the way Strawberry put it.
So he called me late Saturday night, then Sunday morning, to take his comments of last week — after Gooden failed to show
for an appearance with Strawberry — considerably further, saying that
he has no doubt his old Met teammate has an out-of-control cocaine
problem. Dwight Gooden’s son releases statement regarding father’s health
Darryl
Strawberry, seen here with Dwight Gooden at Citi Field in 2010, is
speaking out about his ex-teammate's condition with the hope that more
will come to the aid of Gooden, whose struggles with substance abuse are
well-documented.
(Seth Wenig/AP)
“He’s a complete junkie-addict,” Strawberry said. “I’ve been trying
behind the scenes to talk to him and get him to go for help, but he
won’t listen. He thinks he can manipulate and BS his way through
everything. His son called me to beg me to help his dad before he dies.
“The condition Doc is in, it’s bad, it’s horrible. It’s like cocaine
poison. I feel like I’ve got to get it out there because nobody else is
doing anything to help him, and it might be the only way to stop him.”
With that, Strawberry put me in touch with three people he said were
close to Gooden, including a woman named Janice Roots who says she had a
live-in relationship with Doc for four years, before his cocaine use
finally drove her to leave in February.
Darryl Strawberry says he has no doubt his old Met teammate, Gooden, has an out-of-control cocaine problem.
(Richard Harbus/for New York Daily News)
“It breaks my heart because Dwight is a loving, compassionate man who
took care of me when I had health problems,” Roots said by phone on
Sunday. “But then he morphed into a cocaine monster. Doc Gooden's ex pens letter urging Mets legend to quit drugs
“I don’t even know if he realizes what he’s doing. He turns into a
different person. He’s a great guy who takes care of his family members,
but being around him, there were times when it was just a very toxic,
dangerous environment.
“I felt helpless to do anything. I finally left because to sit there and watch somebody kill himself was devastating.”
The two other people with whom Strawberry put me in touch spoke only on
the condition of anonymity, citing business concerns, but they painted a
similarly dark scenario. One said he was in Gooden’s apartment in
Jersey City on Thursday, the night Doc was scheduled to appear with
Strawberry for a WFAN event hosted by Joe Benigno.
According to this person, Gooden locked himself in the bedroom of his
apartment late in the afternoon, when he was supposed to be leaving for
the appearance, and wouldn’t come out despite repeated urging from the
person in question, as well as three of Doc’s adult children, who were
there at the time. Gooden thought he was done when he couldn't K News' Harper
“At one point I’m banging on the door,” the person said, “and he
finally came barreling out of the room, but only to yell at me to stop
banging on the door before I broke it. Then he went back in his room and
wouldn’t come out.
Darryl Strawberry, Janice Roots and Dwight Gooden.
(Photo courtesy of Janice Roots)
“It’s not the first time this has happened. We all love him but we’ve all been enablers to addict behavior. It has to stop.”
None of this can be completely shocking to anyone familiar with
Gooden’s saga, going all the way back to his playing days with the Mets,
when his cocaine addiction played a role in derailing a potential Hall of Fame career.
In recent months, especially, whispers that Gooden’s old habit had
kicked up again seemed to be everywhere, especially after a
well-publicized ESPN “30 for 30” documentary with Strawberry that left
many alarmed by Doc's gaunt appearance. In 2016, Dwight Gooden probably wouldn’t have finished his no-no
Dwight "Doc" Gooden and Darryl Strawberry, Yankees picture day at Tampa, Florida.
(Cataffo, Linda)
“I don’t think he weighs 150 pounds soaking wet right now,” Strawberry said.
In May I did a sit-down interview with Gooden before the 1986 Mets reunion, and he seemed brutally honest at the time about his daily fight to stay clean,
admitting the temptation is always there, and that staying out of strip
clubs, which would lead to drug use, was his biggest weakness.
But if Strawberry and the others are right about him, apparently Doc
wasn’t being honest when he said then that he hadn’t used cocaine since
2011. Janice Roots, in particular, said that Gooden has been in a
drug-induced spiral since January 2014.
Daily News front page headline, April 2, 1987
(Daily News)
Front page of the New York Daily News for August 20, 2016.
(New York Daily News)
“That’s when I noticed a big change in him,” she said. Dwight Gooden, by the numbers
Roots said that Gooden always tried to shield her from his usage, never
allowing her to see him using cocaine. But she recounted stories
similar to that of last Thursday, when Doc would lock himself in his
bedroom or his bathroom for hours at a time, running the water in the
sink to cover up any noise he made.
“It got to a point where he just succumbed to his addiction,” she said.
Dwight Gooden greets fans on the red carpet before at Citi Field for the 30th anniversary of the 1986 championship season.
(Elsa/Getty Images)
Roots said Gooden’s usage was understood between them, as they would
talk about him going to rehab, as he had in the past, but this time he
would never take the step.
“He was embarrassed,” Roots said. “He went on his book tour (in 2014)
and told everybody that he was OK. He’s a celebrity. I think that’s part
of the fear. He felt like others would judge him, and they probably
would. Most people don’t understand addiction. Follow the Daily News Sports on Facebook. "Like" us here.
“But the man is dying. Everybody around him knows the truth. And it doesn’t matter what Dwight says: He knows the truth.”
Teamwork: New York Mets' Darryl Strawberry (left) and Dwight Gooden share a coconut ice pop at Shea Stadium.
(Farrell, Dan)
Finally, it was Gooden’s denial on Saturday, saying via text that he
missed Thursday's event because he was dealing with “minor health
issues,” that convinced Strawberry and the others to attempt what is
essentially a public intervention of sorts here.
“Doc won’t let me or anybody help him,” Strawberry said. “By us coming
forward like this, he’ll realize that he’s been exposed and it will
challenge him to get help.
“The worst thing we can do for him is stay silent. That was a common
thread in some of these other celebrity deaths, like Prince and Whitney
Houston and Michael Jackson. Silence can kill people.”
Strawberry thinks Doc is especially vulnerable since his mother died in July.
Strawberry thinks Doc is especially vulnerable since his mother died in
July. Roots said she went to the service in Tampa and saw that only a
handful of Gooden’s friends, including Strawberry and longtime Yankee
executive Ray Negron, showed up to support him.
“It just showed there are only a few people who truly care about
Dwight. He needs the support. His mother used to tell me, ‘Don’t give up
on my son.’ When I finally left, he was very angry with me, but I still
have health problems myself, and I had to do what was right for me.
“Now I just want what’s right for him. There’s no malice here, from me
or Darryl or anybody who cares about Dwight. This is done out of love
and concern. I just want to save his life.”
In truth, nothing else has worked over the years. I’ve known Gooden
long enough to believe that, for all his problems, he’s a guy with a
good heart who has always been worth rooting for.
No doubt he’ll be humiliated by some of the comments here, but as Strawberry said, better now than to wait until he’s dead.
Pictures posted to Whatsapp show Usain Bolt in bed with Brazilian student Jady Durate, 20, after a night of partying in Rio after he was done competing in the 2016 Summer Olympics.
He might've crossed more than the finish line.
Pictures of a shirtless Usain Bolt kissing a 20-year-old Rio student appear to suggest the Olympian allegedly cheated on his girlfriend.
Jady Duarte told Extra Globo she met the track star at the Rio nightclub Boate All Saturday night and sent photos of their "normal" encounter to her friends via WhatsApp. The images were leaked just hours later.
"It was not a big deal," she told Extra Globo. "I'd rather not talk about it."
Bolt has been dating 26-year-old fashionista and fellow Jamaican Kasi Bennett for nearly three years, according to People. Throughout his work at the Olympics, Bennett has been tweeting her support for her boyfriend.
Extra Globo reports that one of the leaked photos appears to show Duarte receiving money, but the Brazilian quickly shot down any such notion.
Usain Bolt’s girlfriend Kasi Bennett
(Kasi Bennett via Instagram)
"No way, he did not pay me anything. I received no money, "she said, clarifying that she asked Bolt to take the pictures.
Duarte said she didn’t even know who Bolt was at first when they met.
Since the photos have hit the internet, Duarte posted a message on Facebook stating she didn't have Instagram or Twitter, as it would appear someone has set up accounts in her name on both social media sites.
“It's been very negative. I never wanted to be famous,” Duarte told Extra Globo. “I'm dying of shame.”
