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olympics

‘Success Today Has A Completely Different Meaning,’ Lindsey Vonn After Third Leg Surgery

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Lindsey Vonn recently gave an update that she had her third successful surgery on the broken leg she unfortunately suffered during the women’s Olympic downhill event on Sunday. 

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Vonn posted photos on Instagram to give the update, including photos of her giving a thumbs up in her hospital bed with a metal frame attached to her leg. 

“I had my 3rd surgery today and it was successful. Success today has a completely different meaning than it did a few days ago.”

“I’m making progress and while it is slow, I know I’ll be okay,” Vonn wrote. 

On Sunday’s race at the Milan Cortina Games, the 41-year-old professional athlete crashed just 13 seconds into her run, and had to be airlifted off the course by helicopter. 

She stated late on Monday that she had suffered a “complex tibia fracture that is currently stable but will require multiple surgeries to fix properly.” 

Additionally, just nine days before her crash on Sunday, Vonn ruptured the ACL in her left knee in another crash. Previously, Vonn was making headlines and excited fans after she returned to the Games from about six years of retirement. 

Alan Kildow, Vonn’s father, told the Associated Press this week that Lindsey is surrounded by family “at all times” at the hospital in Treviso where she is currently being treated. 

Andrea Panzeri, the chief physician for the Italian Winter Sports Federation, also told the publication that some fractures require “external fixation to keep the leg stable,” often until a further surgery is performed. 

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Panzeri has operated on other top skiers after serious injuries such as Sofia Goggia and Federica Brigone. 

“Thankful for all of the incredible medical staff, friends, family, who have been by my side and the beautiful outpouring of love and support from people around the world,” Vonn said. 

“Also, huge congrats to my teammates and all of the Team USA athletes who are out there inspiring me and giving me something to cheer for.”

Vonn holds the record of 12 World Cup victories in Cortina, and returned to racing in December 2024, after she endured a knee replacement surgery in April 2024. 

She was the top speed racer this season as she entered the Olympics, by winning two downhills and finishing on the podium, in seven of the eight World Cup races, she also came in fourth in the other one. 

Vonn has received an outpour of support in her comments just a few hours after delivering her update. 

Hall of Fame tennis star Billie Jean King wrote, “Forever the champion! Feel better soon.” Seven-time Olympic track champion Allyson Felix said, “sending you lots of love.”

Teammate Bella Wright commented of Vonn, “the baddest there is.”

marathon

Global Warming Is Making Major Marathon Events More Dangerous 

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In a new study from Climate Central, rising temperatures caused by global warming around the world is making major marathon events more dangerous, and is preventing elite athletes from breaking records, and recreational runners from hitting their goals. 

The report analyzed 221 races, and it found that 86% of them were less likely to have optimal racing conditions for runners by 2045. This data includes last week’s New York City Marathon and six other major marathons around the world in London, Berlin, Tokyo, Chicago, Boston, and Sydney. 

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“We’ve seen time and time again where athletes are passing out from dehydration and heat exhaustion during races and taking months to recover,” Scottish distance runner Mhairi Maclennan told CNN Sports.

“It has really significant impacts on the thickness of your blood, on how quickly your body is able to recover, on your hydration levels for days, and also your ability to train after that kind of experience, which can then delay other achievements and goals that you’re pursuing.”

The study reported that the optimal temperature for elite male marathon runners is 39 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius) and 48 degrees F (9 degrees Celsius) for elite women.

The Tokyo Marathon this year had a 69% chance of optimal race day temperatures for elite men, the study showed, and the odds are expected to decline to 57% within the next 20 years. The Boston Marathon’s odds are also expected to drop from 61% to 53%, and London’s is expected to go from 22% to 17%. 

For elite women, the likelihood of optimal conditions is expected to decrease at five of the seven major marathons by 2045. 

Copernicus, a climate monitoring agency, released data that showed 2024 was the hottest year on record; 34.88 Fahrenheit (1.6 degrees Celsius) warmer than the period before humans began burning large amounts of fossil fuels.

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Higher temperatures cause greater stress to be placed on the body, especially during exercise in high humidity conditions. This makes hydration even more important throughout a marathon. 

“Some of the exceptional heat experienced at the 2025 Berlin and Tokyo Marathons pushed temperatures far beyond peak performance conditions,” said Maclennan.

“That’s difficult because at the end of the day, sport is a business, and it generates revenue from spectators, and if spectators are there to see fast performances and that’s not happening because of climate change, that’s an issue for the sector.”

“We have marathons in the spring and in the autumn in the northern hemisphere, because those are the times when we get the good, cool temperatures that you need for good running performance,” Andrew Pershing, who leads the Climate Central science team and worked on the new study, told CNN Sports.

“As the climate warms, if you have a race that happens at the same week every year, that good climate is moving past you and it’s moving away. Those good conditions are becoming less and less frequent.”

Organizers could start scheduling earlier start times for races as a solution. Maclennan then said that the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles will likely cause athletes from all over the world to acclimatize. 

“The same is true for any competition where the environment is different to what you train in. There is consideration to be made into how you adapt and how you train your body to compete in those conditions.”

track

US Trans Runner, Evie Parts, Sues Over ‘Bigoted’ Ban From College Track Team 

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Long-distance track runner, Evie Parts, is suing the NCAA, Swarthmore college, and members of its athletic department over claims that they illegally removed her from the track team because she is transgender. 

Reports state that Parts’ lawsuit is saying that the NCAA’s ban on transgender athletes in women’s sports does not have legal grounds due to the fact that it’s not a governmental organization, so it doesn’t have jurisdiction over Pennsylvania state law or the Title IX federal statute.  

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The NCAA is US college sports’ largest governing body. Parts was taken off the team on February 6th, the date that the NCAA issued its new policy on transgender athletes. 

Also named in the lawsuit was Swarthmore men’s and women’s track coach Peter Carroll, athletic director Brad Koch, and athletics officials Christina Epps-Chiazor and Valerie Gomez. The complaint cited that Parts was sent into “such a depressive state that she engaged in self-harm and in one moment told a friend that she wanted to kill herself.”

“We stand by the allegations in the complaint,” said Susie Cirilli, an attorney who represents Parts.

“As stated in the complaint, the NCAA is a private organization that issued a bigoted policy. Swarthmore College chose to follow that policy and disregard federal and state law.”

Swarthmore released a statement that the college “deeply values our transgender community members.”

“We recognize that this is an especially difficult and painful time for members of the transgender community, including student-athletes,” the school stated. 

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“We worked to support Evie Parts in a time of rapidly evolving guidance, while balancing the ability for other members of the women’s track team to compete in NCAA events. Given the pending litigation, we will not comment any further.”

The NCAA, who’s chosen not to comment on the suit, changed their participation policy for transgender athletes so that in women’s sports competitions only athletes assigned female at birth can participate. 

This change occurred a day after Donald Trump signed an executive order intended to ban transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports. 

Parts initially joined the Swarthmore track team in the fall of 2020. She took off the following four winter and spring seasons before joining the team again in 2023 to compete in the indoor and outdoor track seasons and in cross country. 

The lawsuit stated that once the NCAA issued the ban, Parts was told by Epps-Chiazor and Gomez that she could compete with the men’s team or as an unattached athlete. Additionally, she would only be able to receive medical treatment if she competed on the men’s team, the complaint added.  

Carroll and his staff were told they were not allowed to coach Parts and she could not travel with the team. She also was not allowed to receive per diem, food, and had to pay her way into meets. She also was not able to wear a Swarthmore uniform.

dolphins

Miami Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa Suffers Concussion Days After Suspected Head Injury

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The Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa suffered a head injury on Thursday during a game against the Cincinnati Bengals and was carried off the field on a stretcher. He had suffered another injury less than a week ago in a game against the Buffalo Bills.

In the second quarter of the Bengals game, Tagovailoa was tackled by Bengals defensive lineman Josh Tupou. When he hit the ground, he made a gesture with his hands called the “fencing response,” which is often a sign of a brain injury. He then laid there, barely moving on the field, for nearly 10 minutes until trainers put him on a stretcher and carried him off the field.

A few minutes after the injury, broadcasters announced he had suffered head and neck injuries and was being taken to a hospital to be treated. Later, The Dolphins confirmed that Tagovailoa had suffered a concussion but had movement in all his extremities. After he was released from the hospital, he flew back with the team to Florida on Thursday night.

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Head Coach Mike McDaniel said it was a “scary moment” after the game.

“He was evaluated for a concussion and is in concussion protocol. That was an emotional moment. That is not part of the deal anyone signs up for even though you know it’s a possibility in football.”

Just a few days prior, Tagovailoa had suffered another blow to his head during a game against the Bills. His helmet slammed against the turf after he got hit by linebacker Matt Milano in the second quarter. He “immediately grabbed the sides of his helmet, staggered to his feet and after taking a few steps, fell to his knees.” He was examined for a concussion, cleared and returned to the field in the third quarter.

The Dolphins later said he had suffered a back injury, not a head injury. Tagovailoa agreed that he had passed the concussion evaluations before he returned to the game.

McDaniel defended playing Tagovailoa in the game against the Bengals less than a week after the injury, saying Tagovailoa had been evaluated by an independent doctor who said he was fit to play.

“For me, as long as I’m coaching here, I’m not going to fudge that whole situation—if there’s any sort of inclination that someone has a concussion, they go into the concussion protocol. We don’t mess with that. I never have and as long as I’m the head coach, it will never be an issue that you guys have to worry about.”

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Dr. Sanjay Gupta told CNN that the incident from the game was likely much more severe than it was being portrayed.

“When you look at the video from last night, it obviously looks like a pretty significant injury. Tua’s on the ground for a long time. This movement that he’s doing with his hands … that is a significant sign, something that people really need to pay attention to…It can be a sign of basically disrupting some of the pathways, even temporarily, between the brain and the spinal cord. If that sounds serious, it is serious.”

Dr. Gupta said Tagovailoa appeared unstable after his first injury in the game with the Bills and should not have been cleared to play under the NFL concussion protocol.

Offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth spoke about his past experiences with a head injury and the pressures to keep playing after being injured.

“I can literally remember playing the Philadelphia Eagles on a Thursday night football game years ago myself—getting concussed, wobbling around, a referee actually removed me from the game. I go back in the game because you want to play. I was able to get myself through the test, explain that I’m fine, knowing that I had been dinged pretty good. I had a teammate that was like, ‘Man, this guy just is not right and I don’t feel right letting him keep playing.’ He actually pulled me out of the game and told the coaches that I need to be removed. And I’m so thankful for that. … This situation just brings back those memories. For us guys that have been on that field, it’s tough, man. We’ve gotta keep these guys uninvolved in it. They shouldn’t feel obligated to do something more than what they need to. It’s just an ugly scene to see.”

Several people believe that Tagovailoa may have suffered two concussions in five days, which is extremely dangerous. The National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) said their “investigation into the potential protocol violation is ongoing,” and they were hoping for Tagovailoa’s “full and speedy recovery.” NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith vowed he would hold all responsible parties accountable.

“We insisted on these rules to avoid exactly this scenario. We will pursue every legal option, including making referrals against the doctors to licensing agencies and the team that is obligated to keep our players safe.”

Olympics

Organizing Committee Chief For Tokyo Olympics Claims Games Could Still Be Cancelled

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The chief of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee, Toshiro Muto, claimed that a last-minute cancellation was not off the table for the Olympic Games this year, despite the fact that the opening ceremony is scheduled to take place this Friday.

A combination of athletes testing positive for Covid-19 and major Olympic sponsors pulling out of the opening ceremony is what has so many experts worried.

“We can’t predict what will happen with the number of coronavirus cases. So we will continue discussions if there is a spike in cases,” Muto explained.

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“We have agreed that based on the coronavirus situation, we will convene five-party talks again. At this point, the coronavirus cases may rise or fall, so we will think about what we should do when the situation arises.”

Covid-19 cases are currently on the rise in Tokyo. The Games are set to happen with no spectators, and Japan decided this month that participants will be competing in empty venues to minimize health risks.

So far there have been 67 cases of Covid-19 in Japan among the individuals accredited for the Games since the beginning of July, when a majority of the athletes started arriving. Japan’s vaccination program overall has been delayed, and the city of Tokyo is currently experiencing a surge of new cases with 1,387 being reported on Tuesday.

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Seiko Hashimoto, who sits alongside Muto as organizing committee President, said that “safety measures introduced to reassure the Japanese public had not necessarily done so, I’m aware that popular support for the Games had dropped.”

“I really want to apologize from my heart for the accumulation of frustrations and concerns that the public has been feeling towards the Olympics.”

Kenji Shibuya, former director of the Institute for Population Health at King’s College London, said that the Olympics bubble system was “already kind of broken. My biggest concern is, of course, there will be a cluster of infections in the (athletes’) village or some of the accommodation and interaction with local people,” he added.

“Members of the public are concerned because they feel that the current situation appears to show that the playbooks that were meant to guarantee security are not providing a sense of safety.”

55% of the Japanese population claimed that they were opposed to the Games and wanted them to be cancelled, according to a poll performed by a local media outlet.

The Rules Athletes Will Need To Follow To Participate In The 2021 Olympic Games 

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The Olympics are officially going to happen this year on July 23rd in Tokyo, Japan. After the Games were postponed last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many individuals behind-the-scenes have been working hard this past year to make sure these Games happen as safely and efficiently as possible, which means all the athletes will need to abide by a strict set of rules to keep themselves and others safe. 

11,500 athletes are expected to travel to Japan from hundreds of countries this July. Additionally, about 79,000 journalists, officials, and staff will be in attendance. 

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The individuals working behind the scenes have created an official list of rules that all parties involved must follow to avoid being potentially barred from competing or having their credentials completely stripped. 

The International Olympic Committee announced last month that Pfizer would be donating Covid-19 vaccines to all athletes and country delegates before they travel to Japan. While taking the vaccine isn’t a requirement for attending and participating in the Games, it’s highly encouraged for obvious safety reasons. 

All competitors from outside Japan must be tested for Covid-19 twice, on two separate days within 96 hours of their flight to Japan, they will then be tested again upon arrival. Athletes will be expected to download an app that will monitor their location and be used for contact tracing purposes as well. 

Athletes will also be required to quarantine for three days after they arrive. They will be allowed to participate in Game related activities during quarantine as long as they continue to test negative; they will be tested daily. 

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Athletes will also be required to do daily reporting of their temperature and any potential symptoms that appear within the app. Temperatures will be checked upon entry to every Olympic venue. 

If an athlete does test positive for the virus, they will immediately go into isolation and their apps will be used to contact and trace any other individual they may have been in contact with. 

Social distancing protocols will also be enforced as all athletes will be competing at least six-and-a-half feet apart from each other. All physical interactions are discouraged as a means of preventing potential spreading of the virus. 

Athletes will be able to eat within the Olympic village or at specially-permitted venues and locations; they won’t be able to explore Japan during their downtime. 

Unless athletes are eating, drinking, sleeping, training, or competing, they will also be expected to wear a mask the whole time they’re at the Games. These rules will ideally keep all athletes, journalists, and behind the scenes workers safe and healthy throughout the entirety of the summer Games.

Sports Team

Olympic Athletes Promised Legal Support If They Protest After IOC Reinforces Ban 

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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) recently confirmed their long-standing ban on “demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda” on the field of play, medal podiums, or official ceremonies. A global union and activist group based in Germany responded by promising legal support to any athlete who makes a political or social justice statement at the Tokyo Olympics this summer. 

Simply raising a fist or taking a knee on the field could lead to immediate punishment from the IOC. The Olympic bodys legal team, however, still hasn’t clarified what kind of punishment an athlete would experience should they defy this rule.

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“The IOC also said that slogans such as ‘Black Lives Matter’ will not be allowed on athlete apparel at Olympic venues, though it approved using the words ‘peace,’ ‘respect,’ ‘solidarity,’ ‘inclusion’ and ‘equality’ on T-shirts. The IOC’s athletes’ commission cited support to uphold Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter from more than two-thirds of about 3,500 replies from consulting athlete groups,” according to reports from ESPN. 

“This is precisely the outcome we expected, the Olympic movement doesn’t understand its own history better than the athletes. Any athlete sanctioned at the Tokyo Olympics will have the full backing of World Players.”

“Should German athletes decide to peacefully stand up for fundamental values such as fighting racism during the Olympic Games, they can rely on the legal support of Athleten Deutschland,” Johannes Herber, the chief executive of the independent group representing German athletes, said in a statement.

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In a statement, another athlete group, Global Athlete, encouraged athletes to “not allow outdated ‘sports rules’ to supersede your basic human rights. These types of surveys only empower the majority when it is the minority that want and need to be heard.” 

The IOC claimed cases would each be judged based on merits, and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, on Thursday, released a statement saying it “plans to update our recently released policy over protests in response to the IOC’s decision have not changed. We’re disappointed to see no meaningful or impactful change to Rule 50.Until the IOC changes its approach of feeding the myth of the neutrality of sport or protecting the status quo, the voices of marginalized athletes will continue to be silenced.”

Actors who break Rule 50 will be sanctioned by one to three bodies: the IOC, their sports governing body, and their national Olympic Committee. 

It’s still unclear what the punishment would look like for athletes who choose to protest. After Tommie Smith and John Carlos were recently inducted into the Olympic Hall Of Fame after being banned from the games for protesting on the podium during the 1968 Games, IOC officials claimed they would never ban an athlete to the same extent again.

Athlete Drinking Power Drink

Electrolyte Supplements Don’t Actually Prevent Dehydration, Study Suggests

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According to a new study, the electrolytes that we all thought were keeping athletes hydrated and healthy during extensive periods of exercise shouldn’t actually be relied upon exclusively for that purpose. In general, beverages like Gatorade are meant to be ingested during high-endurance workouts, sports games, training etc. and its expected to help athletes keep their negative sodium levels low, and hydration levels high as a means of preventing serious illness brought on by overall strain to the body. 

A recent study published in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine focused on a group of 266 professional marathon runners who were participating in RacingThePlanet, which is known as an extreme sporting event that requires participants to run 155 miles over the course of a week. The route for the marathon is known to go through rough terrain and various deserts. Researchers from Stanford University, who performed the study, were focusing on something known as hypernatremia; which is basically a fancy term for when the sodium levels in your body are too high, or low, resulting in dehydration. 

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The researchers were focusing specifically on exercise-associated hyponatremia, or EAH, which is caused by a massive increase or decrease in sodium levels in the bloodstream as a result of physical activity. While a decrease in sodium levels may seem like it would have the opposite effect of dehydration, there are certain sodium compounds that are necessary for keeping our hydration levels balanced and body systems functioning to the best of their ability. 

EAH is a big problem amongst athletes, as it doesn’t just cause traditional dehydration symptoms like dizziness, headache or exhaustion. EAH can lead to an altered mental state, seizures, fluid to build in the lungs, and in some cases, death. The research found that things like hot weather can obviously increase the chances of an EAH associated illness from occurring, but it also concluded that the use of sodium and electrolyte supplements, like Gatorade, does little to prevent any EAH symptoms, contrary to what we’ve all thought. 

“In the past, athletes were told to make sure they’re taking electrolyte supplements. It was generally thought that that would prevent things like muscle cramping, electrolyte imbalances and dizziness. But there is currently no evidence to show this is true. Most electrolyte strategies end up with a drink that has a lower sodium concentration than what is found in the body. This is why drinking too much electrolyte solutions can result in EAH,” said Dr. Grant Lipman, the lead author of the study.

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The study itself included 61 women and 205 men, and researchers monitored each individual as they ran the RacingThePlanet course. The races took place over the course of two years at alternating times, most of the athletes competed in weather hotter than 93 degrees Fahrenheit. 

The process was quite simple, yet specific: data was collected from the athletes at the beginning and the end of a 50-mile portion of the race. Beforehand, each athlete was weighed and had to report what type of electrolyte supplement they were taking and what their overall drinking/hydration strategy was. The researchers needed to know how often they would be taking their supplements and drinking.

Once they finished the 50 miles, before they could hydrate or rest, researchers weighed them again and asked how closely they followed their hydration regime that was discussed beforehand, the team also took blood samples from everyone to get some more cellular data regarding the sodium levels in each athlete’s blood. 

The results showed that 41 of the 266 participants had notable sodium imbalances in their blood, 30 were considered to be dehydrated, and 11 had EAH. The conclusion based on these results worked to prove that while electrolyte supplements may promote themselves as hydrating, there really is no direct link to show that they prevent any sort of illness.

“Electrolyte supplements are promoted as preventing nausea and cramping caused by low salt levels, but this is a false paradigm. They’ve never been shown to prevent illness or even improve performance, and if diluted with too much water, can be dangerous. The takeaway is to listen to your body, no matter what sport you are participating in, and particularly pay attention in the heat,” Lipman concluded.

Olympics

Russia Has Been Banned From The Olympics Following Anti-Doping Scandal

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Russia has officially been banned from all major international sporting competitions for the next four years over non-compliance violations made apparent by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). This ban means that Russia is no longer allowed to compete in major sporting events coming up such as the World Cup, and more notably the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. 

The ban’s initial case review was in response to Russian Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov exposing Russia’s Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) for dozens of falsified drug reports/cover-ups. Rodchenkov was the former head of Moscow’s anti-doping laboratory before he took on the “whistle-blower” title, exposing the lab for using a systematic doping program with false reports which benefited over 1,000 athletes between 2011 and 2015, according to CNN.

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Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov holds a press conference in Moscow

“Finally, Russia’s many doping and obstruction sins will now get some of the punishment they richly deserve. For far too long, Russia has weaponized doping fraud and state-sponsored criminal activity as a tool of foreign policy. When doping conspiracies become a crime under the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act, cheaters will be in U.S. prisons and clean athletes will be better protected,” said Rodchenkov via his lawyer Jim Walden, in a statement sent to CNN.

The Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act has been adopted in the U.S. in 2018 after the initial whistle-blower comments were made. The act itself criminalizes international doping fraud conspiracies, such as the one that has now ignited a full on Russian ban from international sporting events. The announcement of the ban gives RUSADA 21 days to either accept the ban or take the matter to court, more specifically the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The CAS is an institution “independent of any sports organization which facilitate the settlement of sports-related disputes through mediation by means of procedural rules adapted to the specific needs of the sports world.” In simpler terms, it’s sports court.

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President of the Russian Olympic Committee

Russia is expected to announce its decision regarding the ban as soon as possible, but it’s expected that they will take the matter to court out of fairness to all of Russia’s athletes who legitimately are clean and didn’t need to cheat the system to get ahead. The ban itself, however, wouldn’t actually ban any legit clean athletes; it would just mean that they have to compete as neutral and not under the Russian flag. 

The harsh punishment is being dealt by the WADA due to massive inconsistencies in data that the WADA received in January 2019. The data itself didn’t line up with reports from a Moscow lab, where Rodchenkov worked, and showed how RUSADA wasn’t abiding by the official anti-doping policies of the WADA. 

“Russia was afforded every opportunity to get its house in order and rejoin the global anti-doping community for the good of its athletes and of the integrity of sport, but it chose instead to continue in its stance of deception and denial. As a result, the WADA ExCo has responded in the strongest possible terms, while protecting the rights of Russian athletes that can prove that they were not involved and did not benefit from these fraudulent acts,” said WADA President Sir Craig Reedie in a statement.

Man in Prison

Longest Prison Sentence In College Admissions Scandal Has Just Been Made

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Toby MacFarlane, a 56 year old former California insurance executive from Del Mar, is the most recent to be sentenced in the now infamous college admissions scandal that has been rocking the media as of late. MacFarlane received the longest sentence made thus far and will be serving six months in prison for paying upwards of $450,000 to get both of his children into the University of Southern California as fake athletic recruits, the same specific crime committed by actress Lori Loughlin, according to FOX. 

MacFarlane specifically paid $200,000 to William Singer, the man who acted as the middleman for twelve of the parents involved in the scandal, to pay USC athletic directors off in order to get his daughter admitted to the school as a soccer recruit back in 2014. Additionally MacFarlane paid $250,000 three years later to get his son into USC as a fake basketball recruit (FOX). The money paid allowed MacFarlane’s children to be accepted into the university as “All American” athletes. Singer pocketed most of the bribe, but around $50,000 was taken from both sets of payment and paid to USC athletics official Donna Heinel. Heinel is the same individual who helped Loughlin’s kids also get admitted to the school as Crew recruits. She has pleaded not-guilty to her federal charges and is awaiting trial. 

According to CNN, MacFarlane will also have to pay a fine of $150,000, perform 200 hours of community service upon release, and will most likely be put on probation a year after his release. His son attended the university for a few months but didn’t end up graduating from it, due to the scandal breaking, and his daughter graduated from the university in 2018, both kids never once stepped foot on an athletic field. 

To get away with it, CNN reports that MacFarlane claimed the payments on his taxes as business expenses, as he was working as a senior executive of the World Financial Group’s Title Insurance Company at the time, so he was able to get tax deductions on the bribes. So far he has paid back the IRS $80,000 of the money he pocketed since being arrested. Also since his arrest MacFarlane lost his job and professional license working in insurance.

“I was entering the most serious personal crisis of [my] life when Singer entered [my] life. My marriage was falling apart, and I was being treated for anxiety, depression and insomnia. I knew it was wrong, but at the time I was feeling completely overwrought and all I could think of was not having to worry about my kids getting into college. Foolishly and selfishly, I took what seemed like an easy way out,” MacFarlane wrote in a letter to the court. 

Prosecutors were anything but sympathetic to this letter, as MacFarlane used the scam not once but twice, and with three years in between each other. Personal turmoil is often never a viable excuse in the court of law, as every human being is going through hardships, but that doesn’t mean everyone else turns to criminal behavior to cope, especially when the individual is one of high financial power and status. 

“Many people experience similar hardships without turning to criminal conduct. By repeating the scheme for his son, MacFarlane demonstrated that it was not just a “transitory lapse in judgment,” Prosecutors wrote in court documents.

More than 50 individuals total have been charged due to their involvement with this scandal. So far, 19 have pleaded guilty to their charges and 15 have contested.