The U.S. Olympic Committee has taken preliminary steps to revoke USA Gymnastics’ status as the governing body for the sport, after it fumbled attempts to reorganize after a sexual abuse scandal.

In an open letter to the U.S. gymnastics community, U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Sarah Hirshland wrote, “You deserve better.” Invoking the decertification process would usher in new leadership, she added, acknowledging that the interim period could be rocky: “I do not know how long the process will take, and we will make every effort to proceed quickly.”

This dramatic step can be traced to the scandal that rocked the sport last year, when it came to light that a former team doctor, Larry Nassar, had abused hundreds of athletes under the guise of medical treatment. He is now serving the equivalent of a life sentence in prison.

The organization has cycled through three leaders in less than two years. Former USA Gymnastics CEO Steve Penny, who presided over the organization during Nassar’s tenure, resigned in early 2017. Last month Penny was arrested for allegedly tampering with evidence related to the Nassar case. Penny pleaded not guilty.

Penny’s two successors were also pressured to step down. Mary Bono, a former member of the U.S. House, lasted less than a week as interim CEO before resigning last month. On social media, Bono had criticized Nike for featuring football quarterback Colin Kaepernick in an ad campaign. Kaepernick has knelt at NFL games to protest police brutality and discrimination against African-Americans.

Simone Biles, the biggest star in gymnastics and a Nike-sponsored athlete, took to Twitter to register her disapproval of Bono’s since-deleted tweet.

Bono resigned shortly afterwards. Before her, the job was held for less than a year by Kerry Perry.

Despite the USOC’s move, the USA Gymnastics board said it would continue to serve the gymnastics community: “Our commitment will always be to ensure the health and safety of our members while they pursue their love of the sport.”

Despite the disarray at USA Gymnastics, the female team has triumphed in international competitions. They dominated at the World Championships this week, and Biles took home a record four gold medals.

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At the New York City Marathon on Sunday, the race’s top long-distance runners greeted an ideally brisk and sunny fall morning with near record times.

It was a day of many personal firsts, as a field of more than 50,000 sought to push their way through the city’s five boroughs in the annual race.

Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia won the men’s race — his first in New York — in 2 hours, 5 minutes, 59 seconds.

“This is my dream,” Desisa, 28, said after the race, The Associated Press reported. “To be a champion.”

Shura Kitata, also of Ethiopia, took second place in the men’s race with a time of 2:06:01. Last year’s title defender, Kenya’s Geoffrey Kamworor, was favored to win going into the race, but ultimately placed third with a time of 2:06:26.

In the women’s race, fellow Kenyan Mary Keitany, 36, became the third person to win the NYC marathon four times, according to The New York Times. She ran the course in 2:22:48, the second fastest time for a female runner in NYC marathon history. Kenya’s Margaret Okayo’s record of 2:22:31 from 2003 remains unbroken.

Keitany said that setting a course record was never on her mind, according to the AP. She just wanted to win.

“For me, winning was the most important,” she said.

Keitany outran Vivian Cheruiyot, 35, of Kenya, who came in at 2:26:02. American Shalane Flanagan, 37, who finished third with a time of 2:26:22, ran faster than last year when she won the race.

In the wheelchair division, Daniel Romanchuk became the first American to win the men’s race, finishing in 1:36:21. Switzerland’s Marcel Hug trailed about one second behind Romanchuk, followed by David Weir of Britain, to round out the top three.

Manuela Schar of Switzerland won the women’s wheelchair division for the second time, at 1:50:27. Tatyana McFadden of the U.S. finished as runner-up at 1:50:48 and Lihong Zou of China came in third.

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A cheerleader for the San Francisco 49ers knelt during the U.S. national anthem on Thursday evening, just before a game against the Oakland Raiders. The woman has not been identified, and her decision to kneel echoes player protests against racism and police brutality.

Football player Colin Kaepernick started the protests when he kneeled during a pre-game anthem in 2016. He is a former player for the 49ers.

Spectators photographed the cheerleader kneeling while the rest of her squad held up pom-poms in unison during the Star Spangled Banner.

NBC reporter Damian Trujillo also tweeted a shot of the cheerleader kneeling on one knee, with her hands on her hips.

This may be the first time an NFL cheerleader has kneeled during the anthem. Cheerleaders for college-level football teams have kneeled in protest before. Last year five members of Kennesaw State University’s cheerleading squad in Georgia knelt during the national anthem. A local NBC affiliate reported that four of the five cheerleaders were not asked back on the team.

Kaepernick left the 49ers in 2016, and still has not signed on with another team. He is suing the NFL for allegedly freezing him out of playing professional football because of his activism.

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The chairman of University System of Maryland’s Board of Regents resigned on Thursday amid outrage from faculty, trustees and students after the board’s handling of an investigation into a football player’s death earlier this year.

“In my estimation, my continued presence on the board will inhibit its ability to move Maryland’s higher education agenda forward. And I have no interest in serving as a distraction from that important work,” James Brady wrote in a statement Thursday afternoon.

“Accordingly, I will step down from the Board of Regents immediately,” he said.

Brady informed the board of his plans to step down in a closed-door meeting following days of public outcry for the chair to resign. His announcement is the latest in a whirlwind of personnel decisions this week at the University of Maryland, involving the football head coach and the university president.

On Tuesday the board said it would allow DJ Durkin to resume his position running the football program. He had been on paid administrative leave. Durkin was forced to step aside as President Wallace Loh launched investigations into allegations that the football program fostered a “toxic culture” and into the events surrounding the death of offensive lineman Jordan McNair. The sophomore collapsed of heatstroke during a team workout in May. He died two weeks later.

Also on Tuesday, Loh revealed he would resign as of June, and he apparently still intends to do that.

Both decisions led to widespread condemnation of the board of regents and a day later Loh fired Durkin. In a statement, Loh said he had met with student organizations, deans and campus leaders who “expressed serious concerns about Coach DJ Durkin returning to the campus.”

“This is a difficult decision, but it is the right one for our entire University,” Loh added.

The move, however, did not stem the backlash against the regents from members of the University of Maryland College Park Foundation Board of Trustees, who, on Thursday, claimed the regents “evidently forced” Loh into retirement.

They are calling for Loh to remain at the helm of the university.

In a Thursday letter to regents chair James Brady, Foundation Chair Geoff Gonella slammed the regents for their handling of the aftermath of the young football player’s death. He accused them of deliberately taking steps designed to undermine Loh and “create the false impression that Dr. Loh had mismanaged the issues surrounding the death of Jordan McNair.”

The regents had overreached by “meddling” in the “hiring or firing of football coaches on campus or any other personnel for that matter,” Gonella wrote, adding that its actions may have derailed the university’s fundraising efforts for the state’s flagship campus.

“Let us remind you that we are in the middle of a $1.5 billion campaign to raise funds for the Flagship of the System. … You may have dealt our efforts a fatal blow,” Gonella said.

Also on Thursday, university Provost Mary Ann Rankin and more than a dozen deans expressed similar sentiments in a letter to the regents.

“Through its intervention, the Board of Regents usurped the President’s authority and intervened in the ability of the President to carry out his full duties and responsibilities. Neither the by-laws of the Board of Regents nor state law give authority to the Regents to take such actions,” Rankin wrote.

She also called for Loh to rescind his resignation: “We believe Dr. Loh’s leadership is critical for the university at this challenging time and we call upon the Board of Regents and the Chancellor to publicly affirm its support for Dr. Loh’s continued leadership of the state’s flagship university.”

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who originally appointed Brady to the board of regents, had called on Brady to resign in the wake of the board’s recommendation to retain Durkin, saying in a statement that he was “deeply concerned about how they could have possibly arrived at the decisions announced.”

Upon learning that Brady had quit on Thursday, Hogan’s spokeswoman Amelia Chasse told NPR, “The governor believes that the university system must move forward in an open and transparent manner to restore public trust in Maryland’s flagship university.”

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Hall of Fame first baseman and one of the most beloved former members of the San Francisco Giants, Willie McCovey died Wednesday.

His death at age 80 was announced by the Giants. The team didn’t specify an exact cause of death, citing instead “on-going health issues.”

McCovey was nicknamed “Stretch” because his height at 6-foot-4. Left-handed throwing made him a natural at first base. He was best known for his 521 career home runs, 18 of which were grand slams — the most by any player who spent his career exclusively in the National League. McCovey was the National League’s home run leader three times and RBI king twice in his 22-season career. He played 13 of those years on the Giants with teammate Willie Mays and together they formed one of the most powerful hitting duos in baseball history.

A native of Mobile, Ala., McCovey announced his arrival in baseball’s major leagues in July 1959 when he debuted batting 4-for-4, hitting two triples and two singles, scoring three runs and batting in two other runs. He batted .354 overall and won the National League’s Rookie of the Year award despite playing only 59 games that season.

Ten years later in 1969, McCovey was the NL’s Most Valuable Player, after leading the league with 45 home runs, 126 RBIs and an on-base percentage of .453.

McCovey spent 19 of his 22 major league years with the Giants. He was traded to the San Diego Padres in 1973 and then played briefly with the Oakland A’s in 1976. He returned to the Giants in 1977 hitting 28 home runs and winning the Sporting News NL Comeback Player of the Year award.

As ESPN reports,

“One honor that eluded McCovey was a World Series ring. He came close in 1962, coming up short in a nail-biting seven-game series against the Yankees. McCovey went to the plate with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, his team down 1-0, with runners on second and third base. McCovey sliced a hit toward right field that looked like it could drive in the winning run but instead was caught by Yankees second baseman Bobby Richardson to end the game and the series. The moment was so iconic that it was featured in a Peanuts comic strip.”

That comic strip is shown here.

McCovey retired in 1980 and voted into the Hall of Fame in 1986, and stands tied for 20th on the league’s all-time home run list.

He remained a fan favorite over the years, making frequent appearances at AT&T Park and always projecting an easy-going, dignified demeanor. In 1980, the Giants established the “Willie Mac” Award, an honor bestowed on the player who “best exemplifies the spirit and leadership” shown by McCovey.

The San Francisco Bay water just beyond the right field wall at the park is known as “McCovey’s Cove” even though he never played in that stadium. A statue of McCovey stands at the mouth of the Cove.

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Five months after the death of University of Maryland football player Jordan McNair, the university system’s board of regents has decided that football coach DJ Durkin and athletic director Damon Evans can both keep their jobs.

University President Wallace Loh, however, will retire in June.

At a press conference in Baltimore on Tuesday, Chairman of the Board of Regents James Brady said that the board had accepted all of the findings and recommendations from an independent commission’s study on the culture of the university’s football program.

That report, released publicly last week, found that the program did not have a “toxic” culture, but was an environment where problems festered because many players feared speaking out.

Brady said that the commission had interviewed many people about Durkin, and admitted that many were critical of the coach and his leadership style. But others, he said, spoke with affection for him.

After meeting with the coach, who has been on administrative leave since August, the regents decided that he should be allowed to keep his job.

“We believe that Coach Durkin has been unfairly blamed for the dysfunction in the athletic department. And while he shares some responsibility, it is not fair to place all of it at his feet,” Brady said. “We believe that he is a good man, and a good coach who is devoted to the well-being of student athletes under his charge. He is also at the beginning of his coaching career, with a great deal of promise, and much still to learn. We believe he deserves that opportunity.”

Loh, the university president since November 2010, said the regents had asked him to “steer the ship to calmer waters” by implementing reforms including improving the culture of the football program.

“In August, I accepted legal and moral responsibility for the mistakes that were made in the diagnosis and treatment of Jordan McNair,” Loh said Tuesday. “Today I stand by that statement 100 percent. And I will do everything possible to fulfill that responsibility.”

As NPR’s Vanessa Romo previously reported, McNair, 19, “died two weeks after collapsing from heatstroke during practice on May 29. He reportedly had a temperature of 106 and was hospitalized following the incident. But a McNair family attorney said the team personnel was slow to seek medical attention. According to ESPN, they waited an hour after the offensive lineman suffered a seizure before calling 911.”

Rick Court, the strength and conditioning coach who was leading McNair’s last workout, resigned in August.

The Washington Post reports that when Durkin rejoined the team in a meeting on Tuesday afternoon, multiple players walked out. Some players, parents and boosters had called for Durkin’s firing, including McNair’s father.

“He shouldn’t be able to work with anybody else’s kid,” Martin McNair said in August.

In statement Tuesday afternoon, Athletic Director Damon Evans said the university would implementing every recommendation of the external commission. “We have committed to doing everything in our power to make sure something like this never happens again, and that all of our student-athletes have a supportive environment.”

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