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As Marquise Tillman led deputies on a high-speed chase through rural Mississippi in March 2019, Sheriff Todd Kemp issued a blunt order over the radio: ''Shut him down and beat [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon, USA TODAY Nestled among Lexington's rolling hills, the University of Kentucky is steeped in horse culture. Some of the best thoroughbreds in the world graze in wide-fenced [...]

Byline: Kenny Jacoby, Rachel Axon, Lindsay Schnell and Steve Berkowitz, USA TODAY To salute the 50th anniversary of Title IX and its women's sports program, the University of South Florida [...]

Byline: Lindsay Schnell and Rachel Axon, USA TODAY Thursday marks the 50th anniversary of the passage of Title IX, the landmark law that banned sex-based discrimination in schools. Initially introduced [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon and Lindsay Schnell USA TODAY Like at most four-year colleges, enrollment at Western Kentucky University leans female while its athletic program skews male. About this series USA [...]

Byline: Kenny Jacoby, Lindsay Schnell, Rachel Axon, Steve Berkowitz,, Dan Wolken and Nancy Armour, USA TODAY Fifty years after the passage of Title IX, the landmark law banning sex discrimination [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon, USA TODAY ZHANGJIAKOU, China - For going on two decades, action sports have been a reliable source of medals for the U.S. team. Since freeskiing joined the [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon, USA TODAY ZHANGJIAKOU, China - The U.S. men's success in the halfpipe hardly came as a surprise, even if it did come with suspense. All four American [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon, USA TODAY David Wise couldn't know it as he lay atop an Austrian mountain feeling his hip move and his foot fall limply, but the broken femur [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon USA TODAY ZHANGJIAKOU, China - Each in their own way, Alex Hall and Nick Goepper have dismayed at the spin-to-win direction of freeskiing. Don't get it twisted [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon, USA TODAY ZHANGJIAKOU, China - Eileen Gu knows she skis better under pressure, but, try as she might, she couldn't manufacture it herself. Seeking her second medal [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon, USA TODAY ZHANGJIAKOU, China - Even Eileen Gu was sweating the slopestyle qualifier. The Chinese freeskier needed a cleaner second run to advance to the final, where [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon, USA TODAY ZHANGJIAKOU, China - Lindsey Jacobellis looked at the final results and laughed. Not at the outcome, but at the birth years. Only one other rider [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon, USA TODAY ZHANGJIAKOU, China - It wasn't making history that got to Chloe Kim, at least not the span-of-Olympic-snowboarding kind where her second gold medal set a [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon, USA TODAY ZHANGJIAKOU, China - American Chloe Kim is in position to claim gold again. The Olympic champion in Pyeongchang four years ago, Kim easily advanced in [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon, USA TODAY ZHANGJIAKOU, China - It wouldn't be easy. Of course, it wouldn't be easy. Not this season, not these Olympics, Shaun White's last. The legendary snowboarder, [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon, USA TODAY ZHANGJIAKOU, China - Perhaps it was Shaun White toying with the triple cork in the halfpipe that made this day inevitable. Maybe it was the [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon, USA TODAY Taylor Gold knew it was a risk, was reminded often of the gamble he was making by not following the snowboarding crowd. As the world's [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon, USA TODAY ZHANGJIAKOU, China - It's hard enough to win one Olympic gold medal, let alone two. Just ask the female snowboarders who have tried in the [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon, USA TODAY ZHANGJIAKOU, China - A year after he won Olympic silver in Pyeongchang, Max Parrot couldn't have been further from a snowboard. The Canadian had been [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon, USA TODAY ZHANGJIAKOU, China - Zoi Sadowski-Synnott had barely rode out of a gold medal-winning run before her fellow medalists piled on her, tackling the New Zealander [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon, USA TODAY ZHANGJIAKOU, China - By their nature, slopestyle courses require creativity. No two are the same, with the rail and jump sections varying with each contest. [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon, USA TODAY ZHANGJIAKOU, China - Tucked somewhere underneath her ski jacket and layers to keep her warm, Jaelin Kauf wore two necklaces. The silver one featured the [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon, USA TODAY A video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi seeming to slur her speech at an event tore through the internet, gaining steam on Facebook. Share after [...]

Byline: Kenny Jacoby and Rachel Axon, USA TODAY San Jose State University must pay at least $1.6 million to female athletes sexually abused by its longtime sports medicine director, after [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon, USA TODAY TOKYO - The American women had been trending toward leading the medal count. In the Tokyo Olympics, they hit the accelerator. The U.S. women finished [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon USA TODAY TOKYO - The only way Lasha Talakhadze wasn't winning the Olympic super heavyweight competition was if he missed the bus. But the Georgian weightlifter didn't [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon, USA TODAY TOKYO - Sarah Robles made history at the Tokyo Games on Monday, becoming the first American woman to win two Olympic weightlifting medals. Robles lifted [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon, USA TODAY TOKYO - Alex Massialas planned to be his sister's Olympic guide. All the experiences he'd had before, in London and in Rio, he would introduce [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon USA TODAY TOKYO - After the Tokyo Games, the International Olympic Committee will release updated framework on transgender athlete participation that seeks to balance fairness and inclusion. [...]

Byline: Nancy Armour and Rachel Axon, USA TODAY TOKYO - Simone Biles is not a mint. Expecting Biles to produce medals on command, or not seeing her for anything beyond [...]

Byline: Nancy Armour and Rachel Axon, USA TODAY TOKYO - A swimmer who continues to compete while struggling with mental health issues might finish half the pool behind their competitors. [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon, USA TODAY TOKYO - Simone Biles could read the stress on her teammates' faces. Moments after she withdrew from the Olympic team final, the greatest gymnast her [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon, USA TODAY TOKYO - Organizers for the Tokyo Olympics created coronavirus prevention measures blind to participants' vaccination status. Everyone has to wear masks and take tests, and [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon, USA TODAY GAINESVILLE, Fla. - For six days in the Smoky Mountains, all that mattered to Caeleb Dressel was finding water and making camp before dark. Everything [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon, USA TODAY TOKYO - Alexis Sablone has seen the shifts in women's skateboarding. She came into the sport with her own idols - Elissa Steamer and Jaime [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon USA TODAY TOKYO - Olympic athletes who were nursing their children felt as if they had to choose: pursue their athletic goals or care for their infants. [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon, USA TODAY TOKYO - The U.S. women cannot win all the gymnastics medals, and it's not just their international competition holding them back. It's also the International [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon, USA TODAY TOKYO - Anastasija Zolotic entered these Olympics as a young taekwondo star, one with potential to impact the sport in years to come. She'll leave [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon, USA TODAY TOKYO - Olympics organizers didn't reinvent the wheel on COVID-19 protection measures. Mask use and distancing, frequent testing and contact tracing have become part of [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon, USA TODAY The global anti-doping system often finds itself playing catch-up with dopers. Heading into the Tokyo Olympics, it adds a global pandemic to already numerous hurdles [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon, USA TODAY Olympic athletes who are nursing, including U.S. marathoner Aliphine Tuliamuk, had pleaded publicly for Tokyo organizers to allow them to bring their infants to Japan. [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon, USA TODAY Suni Lee doesn't expect finishing ahead of Simone Biles to be anything other than an aberration. Like all other gymnasts, she knows Biles is in [...]

Byline: Sky Chadde and Rachel Axon, Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting, and USA TODAY Triumph Foods failed to protect its workers in the critical months leading up to a COVID-19 [...]

Byline: Kenny Jacoby and Rachel Axon, USA TODAY San Jose State University's longtime sports medicine director, who resigned in August amid reports he sexually abused female athletes more than a [...]

Byline: Dinah Voyles Pulver, Rachel Axon, and Erin Mansfield, USA TODAY An attorney for an Ohio militia member charged with conspiracy walked back a controversial claim that implied Jessica Watkins [...]

Byline: Rachel Axon and Josh Salman, USA TODAY They broke through barricades, shattered windows and seized control of the U.S. Capitol, some making death threats against members of Congress hiding [...]