2017年1月8日 星期日

WEEK 9 : Michael Phelps Chosen to Lead U.S. Team at Opening Ceremony

RIO DE JANEIRO — Nathan Adrian was stressed, but for reasons unrelated to having to defend his Olympic 100-meter freestyle crown.
Adrian, a captain for the United States men’s swimming team, was assigned to speak in front of American representatives from other sports and make a case for his teammate Michael Phelps to be the United States’ flag-bearer at the Rio Games’ opening ceremony on Friday. Phelps is the most-decorated Olympian, with 22 medals, including 18 golds.
“I thought that he deserved it,” Adrian said, “and if he didn’t get it, it was going to be on my shoulders.”
To Adrian’s great relief, and to Phelps’s apparent disbelief, that argument carried the day. Phelps, the first American male swimmer to qualify for five Olympic teams, became the second swimmer, after Gary Hall Sr. in 1976, to receive the honor of leading the United States delegation into the stadium for the opening ceremony of a Summer Games.
Hall, who was appearing in his third Olympics, was a new father in 1976, as is Phelps, who has a 3-month-old son with his fiancée, Nicole Johnson.
Phelps was informed of the honor Tuesday night, and the announcement was made Wednesday morning.
“I honestly never thought a swimmer would get it again,” said Phelps, 31, who had other reasons to believe that he would not be the one to end the drought.
Along with his 22 Olympic medals, Phelps has had two arrests on charges of driving under the influence. The more recent one came in September 2014 and prompted his removal from the United States team that competed at last summer’s world championships.
Chuck Wielgus, U.S.A.’s Swimming executive director, who oversaw Phelps’s removal from the 2015 squad, said in a statement that there was no better person than Phelps to lead the American team into the Olympics and that “I can’t wait to see him parade in our delegation.”
After his second arrest, Phelps spent six weeks at a treatment center in Arizona and emerged, he said, with a sense of self that was not just predicated on his swimming success. He has been open about his past struggles and the coping mechanisms he has since acquired.
“When they first told us in the team meeting that he was being nominated, everybody got so excited because it feels so right to have the most decorated Olympian of all time being our flag-bearer and leading us,” said Missy Franklin, a two-time Olympian. “And outside of the pool, having someone who has overcome so much internally, externally, and shared that with everyone and just shown people what an inspiration he is.”
Phelps has never walked with the United States team in the opening ceremony. In his last three Olympic appearances, he competed in the 400-meter individual medley, which he described as the “decathlon of the sport.” The event is held in the first two sessions of swimming, which start the day after the opening ceremony, precluding him from spending hours on his feet the night before.
However, Phelps’s first individual event of these Games is on Monday. He is also in the mix for a berth in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay on Sunday.
Before the United States trials in June, Phelps said he doubted he would take part in the opening ceremony.
“It’s a lot of standing on your feet, six hours, seven hours on your feet,” he said. “Getting older now, so I don’t know if I can handle that.”
When Phelps realized he was a flag-bearer candidate, he sought the advice of his longtime coach, Bob Bowman. On a scale of 1 to 10, he asked Bowman, how strongly did Bowman feel that he should lead his American teammates in the parade? If Bowman said 8 or above, Phelps said, “there was no question I’m doing it.”
And what did Bowman say? “He said 7.8,” Phelps said with a laugh.
Phelps has never been one to ignore Bowman’s instructions at major meets, but this time he made an exception.
“It’s a no-brainer,” he said. “I have to do it.”
One of Phelps’s suite-mates in the Olympic Village is Ryan Lochte, his longtime rival in the individual medley events. When Phelps told Lochte he had been chosen to carry the flag, Lochte was happy for him but also a little envious. The American flag-bearer will wear a jacket that glows with electroluminescent panels, which greatly appealed to Lochte, who dyed his hair blue for these Games and has been known to wear bejeweled grills on his teeth on awards podiums.
“I kind of want to steal that jacket,” Lochte said with an impish grin.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/04/sports/olympics/michael-phelps-to-carry-us-flag-opening-ceremony.html

Structure of the Lead:
WHO-Michael Phelps
WHAT-Michael Phelps never walked in the opening ceremony at his previous four Olympic Games.
WHERE-Rio
WHEN-2016 Rio Olympics
WHY-noy given
HOW-noy given
keywords:

  1. captain 隊長
  2. teammate 隊友
  3. deserved 值得
  4. delegation 代表團
  5. stadium 體育場
  6. drought 乾旱
  7. executive 行政人員
  8. coping mechanisms 應對機制
  9. berth 泊位
  10. electroluminescent 電致發光
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WEEK 8 : Complicating ‘Brexit’ Plans, Britain’s Top Envoy to E.U. Resigns

LONDON — Complicating his country’s already fraught preparations for exiting the European Union, Britain’s top diplomat in Brussels resigned unexpectedly on Tuesday, less than three months before withdrawal negotiations are scheduled to start.
The decision by the diplomat, Ivan Rogers, the permanent representative to the European Union, deprives Britain of one of its most knowledgeable officials as it tries to form a coherent strategy for untying more than four decades of European integration.
It also underscores some of the tensions at the highest level of government as Britain’s exit, known as Brexit, dominates the political agenda after last year’s referendum, in which voters opted to leave the bloc.
Mr. Rogers did not offer a public explanation for his departure, but in an email to colleagues he appeared to suggest that warnings about the complexity of Brexit had strained relations with politicians who want to put a more positive gloss on the withdrawal process. “I hope you will continue to challenge ill-founded arguments and muddled thinking and that you will never be afraid to speak the truth to those in power,” Mr. Rogers wrote, according to copies of the message published in the British media.
“I hope that you will support each other in those difficult moments where you have to deliver messages that are disagreeable to those who need to hear them,” he added.
In a statement, the British government said Mr. Rogers had been due to complete his term in October and was leaving early to give his successor a chance to take over before formal exit negotiations start.
But in recent weeks he was the focus of criticism from hard-line supporters of a British exit, after reports surfaced that he had privately warned that trade talks on quitting the bloc could last a decade — and even then might fail.
Nevertheless, his departure took politicians and diplomats by surprise, as many analysts had expected Mr. Rogers to use his expertise to play a leading role in the complex withdrawal talks.
The announcement polarized opinion at home, worrying those who want Britain to manage a smooth withdrawal and to retain a close relationship with the bloc, but pleasing advocates of a swift and sharp break, known as a “hard Brexit.”
On Twitter, Nicholas MacPherson, a former senior civil servant at the British Treasury, described the departure as part of a “wilful & total destruction of E.U. expertise.” Hilary Benn, an opposition Labour lawmaker who leads a parliamentary committee on withdrawal from the bloc, told the BBC that Mr. Rogers’s departure was “not a good thing” so close to the start of negotiations, when “there could not be a more crucial time for the British person in Brussels.”
But some hard-line “Leave” supporters see many British diplomats as voices tainted by their experience in Brussels. In a statement, Arron Banks, a businessman and the chairman of Leave.EU, described Mr. Rogers as “far too much of a pessimist, and yet another of the establishment’s pro-E.U. old guard.”
In Brussels, Mr. Rogers was known and trusted by his counterparts from other member states. At least in the short term, his successor is unlikely to receive such a sympathetic hearing.
Charles Grant, the director of the Center for European Reform, a research institute, said on Twitter that the resignation “makes a good deal on Brexit less likely,” adding that Mr. Rogers was one of the few people at the top of the British government who understood the workings of the bloc.
In its statement, the British government said he was resigning “a few months early,” and had “taken this decision now to enable a successor to be appointed before the U.K. invokes Article 50 by the end of March,” a reference to the treaty article that sets a two-year timetable for a member country to complete withdrawal negotiations.
But reported private warnings by Mr. Rogers over the complexity of a British exit had made him the object of sharp criticism from prominent hard-line supporters of a withdrawal, including Dominic Raab and Iain Duncan Smith, Conservative lawmakers.
When those reports surfaced, the office of Prime Minister Theresa May did not deny their substance but said that the ambassador was reflecting the views of other member countries, and that it was not his own assessment.
Nevertheless, the prospect of a protracted negotiation was a far cry from some claims that a new relationship could be struck within the two-year timetable.
In that respect, the situation underscored the difficulty British diplomats face in trying to advise their political masters on the complexities of the move.
Mr. Rogers was thought to have a good personal relationship with Mrs. May, with whom he worked on European antiterrorism and immigration policies during her time as home secretary. Although she was said to have listened to Mr. Rogers’s advice, his relationships with other government figures may have been more strained.
Nick Clegg, a former deputy prime minister and a Liberal Democrat, said in a statement that “the government needs all the help it can get from good civil servants to deliver a workable Brexit.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/03/world/europe/ivan-rogers-resigns-brexit.html

Structure of the Lead:
WHO-Nicholas MacPherson
WHAT-Many analysts had expected Ivan Rogers to use his expertise to play a leading role in the complex negotiations of Britain’s exit from the European Union.
WHERE-London
WHEN-JAN,3,2017
WHY-wilful & total destruction of E.U. expertise
HOW-NOT GIVEN
keywords:

  1. fraught 充滿
  2. diplomat 外交官
  3. permanent 常駐
  4. untying 解開
  5. tensions 緊張
  6. referendum 全民投票
  7. privately warned 私下警告
  8. departure 離開
  9. withdrawal 退出
  10. pessimist 悲觀主義者

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