This week’s list of unmissable news brand content includes insight into one athlete’s journey to the Olympics, an Ultraman challenge and what happens next in the US presidential election campaign…
1. The journey to becoming an Olympic rower
Ahead of the 2024 Olympics, The Times spends a day with British rower and medal hopeful Georgie Brayshaw as she prepares for Paris. Brayshaw opens up about her journey, the joy of it and how her story, involving a horse-riding disaster and nine days in a coma, could inspire others.
“You know if you’re in pain you’re giving your absolute all”, says the world champion rower. “That’s what you want out of this sport. You want to give part of your soul.”
2. Farewell Murray
Sports star Andy Murray has confirmed that he will retire from tennis after the Paris Olympics.
According to the Telegraph, the 37-year-old had already announced that he expected 2024 to be his last season as a player, earmarking Wimbledon and the Olympics as his farewell events. It followed an emotional Wimbledon farewell almost three weeks ago where Murray told the Centre Court crowd: “I don’t want to stop.”
The three-time gland slam champion has arrived in the French capital for his final tournament.
3. Great achievements
Former footballer and reality TV star Ashley Cain has reflected on the loss of his daughter in a speech he made after finishing his ‘Ultraman’ challenge. The challenge began on April 24, three years after his daughter Azaylia died from leukaemia, the Evening Standard reports.
In under three months, Cain has travelled from Land’s End to John O’Groats three times, running, cycling and kayaking in a journey of almost 3,000 miles to raise money for research into childhood cancer.
“The only way I’ve known how to live my life in the last three years is to do what I think is right, led by my heart.
“And in that last three years, to do so, all I’ve had to do is to look up to the sky every time things got hard and realise that she’s looking down on me.
“And to be able to continue to do that is a blessing, to be able to battle for 80 days out there is a blessing, to be able to feel pain is a blessing.”
4. “Keep dancing”
Dancer Amy Dowden will be reunited with her fellow ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ co-stars after a year away recovering from cancer treatment, the Express informs readers.
Speaking to followers on her Instagram, Dowden confirmed she’d be returning and was hit with nothing but praise as her fans welcomed her back.
5. Can Harris beat Trump?
This week Joe Biden has stepped down as the Democrats’ nominee for US president, endorsing his vice-president Kamala Harris. The Times’ podcast ‘The Story’ asks whether Harris can beat former president Donald Trump and what happens in the meantime.
