Fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad made history in 2016 by being the first US-team member to compete in the Olympics wearing a hijab. It was a year that saw rising anti-Muslim sentiment in the country with then-candidate Donald Trump’s talk of a so-called “Muslim ban”. This engagement with African American history as a student paved the way for Muhammad to create her …
April Ross was 24 years old when she first started playing beach volleyball, the sport that would eventually send her to four Olympics. Sponcil and her 25-year-old partner, Kelly Claes, are the first generation to come up through an NCAA beach volleyball program that didn’t exist until 2012 — long after Ross graduated from Southern California. That changed in 2012, …
