Robinson had to sit out this season with an Achilles injur

Six months before the first whistle of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and much of Arena 2 is covered in plastic tarps.The future home to Augusts Olympic judo and wrestling competitions, Arena 2 remains dimly lit even as the midsummer sun raises temperatures to 100 degrees. A dozen industrial fans try to displace the heavy air, but as wrestlers jog, drill and prep on blue mats, the fans only effect seems to be added noise.I can literally see the Zika on the mat, says Adeline Gray, the 75kg representative for the United States. The worlds top-ranked wrestler at her weight stares at mosquitoes attaching to practice mats laid on the concrete floor.Gray wipes her hand across the surface showing the resulting combination of cleaning liquid and mosquitoes to a friend. Um, this is gross.Its January in Rio, and Zika -- including coverage of the devastating birth defects caused by the virus -- is dominating the news. Women of child-bearing age are nervous. Athletes have contemplated sitting out the Games in Rio, where the virus is rampant. Not Gray. Shes concerned at a World Health Organization level, but the 25-year-old reflects on the news with a blunted affectation. Should it bother me? she says, Im not having babies right now. Im wrestling.Gray is in Rio along with female wrestlers from China, Russia, Mongolia, Brazil and Japan for the Olympic test event, a tournament organized as a dry run of the wrestling procedures in use during the Rio Games. But construction delays, an ongoing bribery controversy and general lack of funding have meant that many test events arent proceeding under Olympic conditions. The wrestling event is no exception, but it has still attracted an unlikely distillation of talent at Grays weight class.Four of the five top-ranked women are entered to compete, including Grays opponents in the last two world championship finals: Brazils Aline da Silva Ferreira (2014) and Chinas Qian Zhou (2015). It was Zhou who also gave Gray the biggest scare of the past few years, opening up an eight-point lead in the first round of the 2014 world championships before Gray made an improbable comeback, using a leg-lace maneuver to earn 10 points and the win.The talent pool makes this a full-throttle Olympic tune-up, and Gray is the woman to beat. She has defeated each of the titleholders and reigns as the only three-time world champion. She also comes into Rio favored to win an Olympic gold medal, a feat no U.S. woman has accomplished. And she has no doubt that shell be the one to do it.Grays confidence, like her wrestling, is stripped-down -- this is a no-frills sort of domination shes imparting on the world. Her quick barbs are subtle, always authentic and refreshingly free of manufactured posturing. (She once responded to inquiry about her favorite male wrestler with, Why would I watch mens wrestling?)Ahead of the Rio test event, Gray pulls her ponytail tight and begins to jog around two of the mats laid down on the arena floor. She seems almost unaware of how steep her competition will be the following day, or more likely, she simply doesnt care. To Gray, the wrestling will just bring her one tournament, one step, closer to achieving her goal of becoming an Olympic champion.Raised in a sports familyGray got her start on the mats in Littleton, Colorado -- an hour drive from Colorado Springs, home to the U.S. Olympic Committee and the national wresting training center. Donna Gray sent her high-energy daughter to practice with an uncle who coached little league wrestling. Adeline liked it well enough, but didnt take to the sport with any more seriousness than her many other athletic pursuits. In middle school I really thought I was going to be a professional soccer player, she says. Which would have been something to see.Before her freshman year in high school, Grays family asked to her to choose a sport to focus on outside of school -- with three little sisters the family could afford the time and money to support one travel or specialty team per child. Grays choice came down to the Olympic opportunity being presented in wrestling.It was weird, but I thought I could be an Olympic champion, Gray says. I mean all of a sudden these women were on TV competing. It was real.When a boyfriend of only a few weeks broke off their courtship because she spent too much time wrestling, it made her choice even more clear.Him saying that kinda made me recognize how much I loved wrestling, says Gray. Before that I guess I thought it was fun, that the Olympics were a distant dream, but that brought my dream into sharper focus.Gray started traveling to the Olympic Training Center to learn from coach Terry Steiner and women on the team. She quit soccer and switched over to cross country in the hope of keeping herself in shape for the season, in which shed mainly compete against boys.It took a while for opponents to treat me like other guys on the team, Gray says. Finally some guy got beat and his friends were making fun of him, and he just yelled OK, fine, you go wrestle her!Gray moved from high school to high school, in part to find the right training situation for her growing competitive appetite. In 2008 she won the junior world championship, a competition for wrestlers younger than 21 years old. She was 17.That summer she moved to a high school in Northern Michigan, where she lived with USA Wrestling team member Jenna Burkert.Shes different than most of us and in so many ways, says Burkert. She can be down like nine points and really believe, like know, she is going to win. I started calling it the Adeline State of Mind. Shes just always been absolutely confident in her ability. Its good for her, but its also contagious. Hang around her long enough, and you think youre unbeatable, too.She finished her high school career with 40 pins, mostly against boys. She made the 2009 junior world team and later her first senior world team, moving back to Colorado to train full-time in Colorado Springs. She enrolled online at DeVry University so that she could devote more time to wrestling (she graduated in February).Hoping to make the 2012 Olympic team, Gray cut almost 25 pounds to wrestle at 63kg. But she was exhausted by the weight loss and failed to make the team. She still won her first world championship later that year, wrestling back up at the 67kg weight class.Heading into the 2013 season, Gray agreed to her coaches request to move up to 72kg for the 2013 World Cup, an annual team-based event, as long as she could move back down to 67kg for the world championships later.She had what it took to be an Olympic champion at 72kg, says Steiner. We knew that, and we could tell her, but she needed to feel it for herself in competition first.Steiner was certain Gray was on the path to Olympic glory, but then an unexpected political event left Gray, and the sport, out of the Games.Olympic upheavalOn February 12, 2013, the International Olympic Committee recommended that the sport of wrestling -- one of the original sports of the Ancient Olympics -- be eliminated from the Olympic Games.I was upset, but I also just thought it was crazy, says Gray. Wrestling was the first-ever sport of the Games and now its, what? Gone? The whole thing was ridiculous. This is my life.As word spread and outrage piqued, the political leadership of wrestlings international federation -- then known by the acronym FILA -- ousted president Raphael Martinetti and elected Serbian businessman Nenad Lalovic as their new head.Lalovics appointment would ultimately prove fateful for the Olympic future of women wrestlers around the world, and especially Gray.At the time of Olympic dismissal, there were seven weight categories for each of mens freestyle and Greco-Roman, but only four for women -- a total of 14 weights to four. Weeks after his election, Lalovic took the issue of gender equity to the IOC and offered to make immediate change, suggesting to redistribute two mens weight classes -- one in each freestyle and Greco-Roman -- to womens wrestling.The change would mean each discipline now had an equal number of Olympic weights (six) to be equally distributed between 48kg and a new weight of 75kg.The decision for six weight classes was fair. Our women are some of the strongest in all of sports and needed more opportunity, said Lalovic. We wanted to ensure gender equity to our athletes and be a good Olympic partner.The consideration of gender equity, along with a multimillion-dollar promotional campaign to Save Olympic Wrestling, helped wrestling earn reinstatement in the Olympic Games. The sport wasnt just back on the program -- it now offered new opportunities to women wrestlers like Gray, ever-stuck in tweener weights.I didnt want to get bigger, says Gray. Im like every woman where I wanted to have thinner hips and look awesome in a bathing suit, not put on more weight. And I was just convinced to go 72kg. Now add another seven-to-eight pounds to that? Its kinda gettin up there.For the 2013 world championships in Budapest, Team USA coaches had bargained with Gray to wrestle at 72kg. By the 2014 world championships, Steiner had convinced her that the newly instated 75kg class should be her home. That year, she breezed into the finals, where she bested Brazils da Silva 2-1.Once Adeline believes in something, shes changed. I think she gets nervous like all of us, says Burkert. But something happens when she steps on the mat. She changes. Shes basically becomes unbeatable.Gold medal in hand and her Olympic journey possible, Gray realized that she was done with yo-yoing between weights.I was the champ, and I kinda looked at 75kg like it was my weight class. And, yeah, whatever, my hips are fine. My hips win gold medals.Prize fighterIn December 2015, Gray stood center mat at the K.D. Jadhav Wrestling Stadium in central Delhi, India, moments away from the start of her fourth professional wrestling match. Fans were waving their hands in almost cartoonish ways, hoping to draw Grays attention just long enough for eye contact -- a moment of recognition from a fast-rising female wrestling celebrity.Womens wrestling in India has exploded in popularity since Geeta Phogat won the 2010 Commonwealth Games -- a quadrennial competition among former members of the British Empire -- and her sister Babita Kumari took silver. That growth has ballooned in the years since. Geeta became the first Indian woman to qualify for the Olympics in wrestling and later took bronze at the world championships. The sisters are so popular that their familys story will be on the big screen this December in the Bollywood film Dangal.And now, there stood Gray on the mat, being applauded by 3000-plus fans, TV cameras capturing her every wink, ready to compete in wrestling as a professional. And ready to cash checks like one too, with tens of thousands of dollars already guaranteed for Gray to wrestle.It was then a week before Christmas, and in the first three matches of her Professional Wrestling League debut, Gray was undefeated and unchallenged. Gray was moving so smoothly that Coach Steiner sent her a text asking her to challenge herself a little more on the mats. Find something new. Fewer throws, more challenging techniques.Terry told me I had work on other stuff, Gray says in a false whimper. Boooo.As powerful as Gray appears, shes equally as flexible. She glided through her pre-match routine with her sister, Geneva, in tow. Wrestling requires a unique combination of strength and elasticity, so Grays preparation included banded stretching, hip-turning calisthenic movements and a cycling through of her favorite techniques.I love this move, Gray says as she began to pinch Genevas head and arm together like she was making her little sister hold a phone and change a light bulb at the same time.Gray shifted her hips and sent Geneva smacking into the mat on her back, moaning and giggling at the same time. The girls on the team wont wrestle with me if I use it, she says of the technique. They call it my Big Bitch Move.The move, put simply, is a painful version of a schoolyard headlock that requires pure brute strength to execute. Fortunately, Gray is among the strongest female wrestlers in the world -- an observation buoyed by the sight of Genevas eyes slowly welling up from a lack of oxygen.Recounting Steiners instructions, Gray repeated, I need to focus on takedowns. No throws, no leg laces -- most of these girls are smaller than me anyway.Gray was soon called to the arena floor to call the coin flip opposite Delhi-based captain Mangalayatan University Dilli Veer Vinesh Phogat, the teams female 48kg wrestler. Her arrival warranted another round of applause.Gray jogged to the edge of the mat wearing her team jacket and turned to her Geneva for some additional hair braiding. She let loose a rapturous grievance concerning a lack of payment by event organizers.I told em Ill fly home right now unless they pay, Gray says. [The organizers] tell me the money is en route, but I dont trust it until I see it in my account.Gray was showing everyone around her a photo she took of a recent receipt delivered by a team owner. She seemed unimpressed, and there was no question of her intent. The money was only about what it represented: respect.After 45 minutes warming up in the back as her team wrestled, Grays name was announced for the sixth bout of the night. She was to face a young Indian heavyweight, Nikki, who has seen limited success in world and league competition.Grays entrance was as triumphant as any at the WWEs Royal Rumbles. Fans erupted as the arena bumped to the sounds of the Mumbai teams anthem (each team has a unique song) and pyrotechnic displays distracted among a mixture of light and smoke.From the first whistle, Gray swatted and bobbed like a cat playing with her food, moving the smaller Nikki from side to side, unfurling leg attacks and snapping down her opponents head. Unable to get underneath, Gray focused on Nikkis head until the Indian wrestler straightened up, offering Gray an exposed arm and leg -- perfect opportunity to hit her big move. It was against the advice, but sometimes doing enough for the win is all thats needed.When the League wrapped up on Dec. 27, Grays Mumbai squad finished in first place, and the worlds top-ranked 75kg wrestler remained unbeaten.She was also paid in full.An Olympic testGrays first opponent in Januarys Olympic test event is hometown hero da Silva. Like so many women on the mats, da Silva was a trailblazer in her country, becoming the highest-ever world placer for Brazil in wrestling when she took silver against Gray in the 2014 world finals.Gray doesnt have as much of an issue in the rematch, but the score is close with Gray scooting past da Silva 2-0.Wrestling is hard enough, says Burkert. But Adeline is the champion and shes the woman with the target on her back. Shes the one that everyone is preparing for, and shes still beating them each time out. That takes extra dedication.Grays semifinal match is against Zhou, the Chinese wrestler who two years earlier was one point away from earning a technical fall before Gray powered back.Zhou opens with a powerful front headlock to take a 4-0 lead, quickly following with another takedown to close the first period with a 7-1 lead over Gray.Sometimes you sit back and wonder how she climbs out of these big ol holes, says Rich Bender, the executive director of USA Wrestling. And even as he paces back and forth, arms crossing and uncrossing, you get the sense he has seen this act before. But watch, shell come back.The Adeline State of Mind.Three minutes of the first period gone and only three more left, Gray opens the second period unflustered. She digs under Zhous arms to find the position to hit her signature move. Zhou stays active in her defense, but loses an angle which gives Gray the chance for a leg-attack takedown.Zhou leads 7-3.Back to their feet after no action on the mat, Gray attacks a backpedaling Zhou with a series of cupped hands to the back of the head. Grays trying to distract Zhou and force her chin up, but Zhou submits to the pressure and drops her hands to the mat, and in a hiccup Gray has another quick go-behind.Zhou leads 7-5.With only two minutes on the clock, Gray needs to score twice. Bender yells generic encouragements. And with coaches barking instructions and fans from all sides cheering, the three-time world champion reaches down and -- as shes practiced a million times before, in practice halls from Colorado to India -- swims her arm through Zhous legs and locks in her leg lace. One, two and then six times around, Gray finds 12 points and another unlikely 17-7 technical fall victory.Coach Steiner claps, and table workers begin to turn their heads to wonder if anyone else was tuning in to that comeback.Told ya! exclaims Bender, slapping a colleague on the back. Gosh darn it, I told ya. Ya cant coach that!Next up for Gray is former top-ranked 75kg Canadian wrestler Erica Wiebe, who, after stumbles at the world championships in September, looked fantastic in quickly disposing of 2013 world champion Fengliu Zhang of China in her semifinal.The finals begin and the script repeats itself. Gray falls behind early, roars back and gives fans of USA Wrestling a minor coronary in the process. This time Gray finishes the match winning 7-4.What. A. Freakin. Stud, says Bender.Gray walks off the mat, smiling broad enough to reveal her thick white mouthpiece. This was her first big Olympic test of 2016, but she knows there will be smaller ones in the weeks ahead. Shell need to figure out what to eat, when to schedule media, find workout partners, map sleep schedules.Over the next six months her opponents will practice repeatedly a defense to Grays leg lace. Theyll pore over film of her big bitch move. Theyll dissect her positioning. They will find weaknesses in her strategy.But so will Gray.Maybe Im immune to criticism, she says. But I take everything said as a compliment and all my challenges as opportunity. I never think its over; theres always a chance. I dont think thats optimism, but probably more just my confidence, like a sign of self-love. Fred VanVleet Raptors Jersey .C. United of Major League Soccer. United chose the defender in the second round of the 2013 MLS re-entry draft. Jonas Valanciunas Raptors Jersey . -- Matt Ryan needed one of the best games of his career to lead the Falcons and their depleted offence out of their three-game losing streak last week. https://www.raptorsrookiesshop.com/Norman-Powell-City-Edition-Jersey/ . The Australian is competing in his final season in Formula One and still looking for his first win this year. He will look to end Vettels run of six straight race wins on Sunday. Webber, who is fifth in the championship, earned his second pole from the past three races and 13th of his career. Devin Robinson Raptors Jersey . There are surprises among the Vezina candidates, but most of the others are standard top-tier performers, even if the two Hart Trophy runners-ups have never been quite as good as they have been through the first half of the season. Delon Wright Jersey . 1 position. The Mustangs (6-0), who beat Queens 50-31 last weekend, earned 17 first-place votes and 287 points in voting by the Football Reporters of Canada. Western was last ranked first in the country in October 2011. The Wings face the Stars in San Antonio on Friday, which theoretically could be -- someday -- a very compelling matchup. But it wont be this week, as these are the bottom two teams in the WNBA standings.San Antonio (6-23) is already eliminated from the postseason. Dallas (9-21) is on the cusp of elimination and has lost 11 consecutive games; the Wings last victory came July 5.But if these two teams, which are 4?-hours drive apart, were ever to be competitive at the same time, that could be a lot of fun, right?Admittedly, that scenario seems distant now. But consider this: If someone had told you in 2009 that Minnesota was just two years away from being a franchise that would go on a stretch of winning three of five WNBA titles (and counting), would you have believed it?The Lynx hit the mega-jackpot with Maya Moore as the No. 1 draft pick in 2011. But Minnesota also had hired coach Cheryl Reeve in 2010 and has continued to make astute personnel decisions to be able to become a consistent powerhouse.So there is always hope that if enough of the right decisions are made, and a little luck occurs, a franchise can turn itself around. In the case of the Wings and Stars -- who face some of the same challenges, but also very different ones -- mutual success could help the development of another WNBA rivalry. And every league needs rivalries.New York and Connecticut are the WNBA franchises located closest to each other, but Dallas and San Antonio are the only league teams to share the same state.Albeit a humongous state. Texas was home to the first dominant WNBA franchise; the Houston Comets won four titles, and one of their top players, Sheryl Swoopes, is being inducted into the Naisimith Hall of Fame this weekend.But with the country in the midst of an economic crisis in 2008, the Comets were among the casualties. A year later, so were the Detroit Shock. They became the Tulsa Shock in 2010, and now are the Wings in their first season in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, playing their games in Arlington.Dallas coach Fred Williams, who has decades of experience in womens basketball, has been happy with how the community has responded in the Wing first season in Texas.Everyone here from a fan standpoint has been very supportive; theyve embraced us well, Williams said. It just takes a little while for that to set in and spread.Williams took over coaching in Tulsa in 2014, and last season, the franchise made its first playoff appearance since leaving Detroit. Hopes were relatively high the Wings could follow up with another postseason trip in their first year in Texas. But Dallas hit a rough patch early in the season, losing six in a row, and then again in July. That skid is on-going.For us, when it gets down to that one key basket or free throw or rebound, we havent gotten it, Williams said. Its been different scenarios in games. We have a young team and weve just got to continue to work hard.Good fortune has not been on the Wings side, and it wasnt when the team was in Tulsa, either. Going back to that 2011 draft, when Minnesota got Moore at No. 1 and Tulsa took Liz Cambage at No. 2, a bit of a Murphys law cloud has hung over the franchise.Last year, the team lost guard Skylar Diggins after nine games to an ACL injury. This year, she has averaged 12.9 points in 23 games. She had one of her better games of the season Sept. 4 against Washington with 25 points and four assists.Right now, Id say shes about 95 percent physically, Williams said of Diggins. But mentally shes 100 percent -- shes a competitor whos going to play hard and wants this team to get better.Now, though, the Wings have lost forward Glory Johnson for the rest of the season to a knee injury. Johnson, who missed llast season while she was pregnant, averaged 11.dddddddddddd3 points and a team-high 8.9 rebounds in 18 games this year.Odyssey Sims (14.7 PPG) leads the Wings in scoring. Plenette Pierson (12.3), Karima Christmas (12.2) and rookie Aerial Powers (10.2) are also averaging in double figures. Dallas 83.3 PPG average is good for fifth-best in the league.But defense is the big problem: The Wings allow the most points of any WNBA team -- 88.2 -- and losing Johnson might make that even worse.So the Wings know what areas they will need to improve for next year on the court. There does seem to be positive momentum, though, in regard to off the court. Mary OConnor was hired as Wings president in July, and she sounds optimistic about continuing to raise brand awareness of the team.I believe there is a playing season and a planning season, said OConnor, who has worked in sports marketing in the Dallas area for many years. In the planning season, we will be working a lot in the community figuring out where we can have the greatest impact.And then how does that align with what our players passions are, so we can help them build their identity in the community. We want a team of players who feel at home in DFW and who can make a difference here.The Wings play at 7,000-seat College Park Center on the campus of UT Arlington. Its a good size building for a WNBA team, and OConnor believes its a realistic goal for the Wings to regularly sell out games.San Antonio, by contrast, plays in the cavernous AT&T Center, and the Stars have had plenty of time to become known in the community. Theyve been in San Antonio since relocating there in 2003 from Utah. However, other than Becky Hammon -- now an assistant coach with the NBAs Spurs -- the Stars really havent had a star.San Antonios best showing was in 2008, when the Stars advanced to the WNBA Finals in a very exciting series with Los Angeles.But San Antonio hasnt won a playoff series since then, getting swept by Detroit in the WNBA Finals, and then losing in the conference semifinals in 2009, 10, 11, 12 and 14. This is the second year in a row the Stars have missed the postseason.They got the No. 2 selection in the 2016 draft, and took UConn guard Moriah Jefferson, who is averaging 12.6 points and 4.0 assists as a rookie. San Antonios biggest struggle is scoring: The Stars are, by a wide margin, the most anemic offense in the league, averaging just 72 PPG. (The next-lowest average is Indianas 79.9.)Injuries are one reason for the Stars offensive woes. Guard Danielle Robinson had to sit out this season with an Achilles injury. Then the Stars lost their leading scorer, guard Kayla McBride, to a fractured right foot in July. She was averaging 17.1 PPG through 17 games.So the Stars have to heal and make some personnel moves for 2017, along with hoping the lottery goes their way and they get the No. 1 pick in the draft. Former WNBA player Ruth Riley, now in her first season as San Antonios general manager, is primarily responsible for changing the Stars fortunes. Shell have to bring in a new coach, as Dan Hughes will step down at seasons end.Riley knows what she has in terms of promising young players, but shes also aware that the Stars just dont have enough talent right now.Moriah has shown herself to be an incredible leader and has made the transition from the college game to the pro game at a really high level, Riley said. Putting more pieces together and getting healthy is going to be key.Thankfully, were going to have the ability to get some players because we have cap space, and we will have a high draft pick. ' ' '