After taking two years away from gymnastics, Olympic gold- and silver-medalist Laurie Hernandez says she’s now preparing for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
“It was time I needed, mentally and physically, away from gymnastics to figure out who I was outside of gymnastics. But I loved it so much I ended up coming back,” Hernandez told Cheddar.
In her years off, she won season 23 of Dancing with the Stars, and published two books.
“Training for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics is something I very much still have my eyes set on. And it’s something that I’m really looking forward to. And then hopefully — and willingly — acting.”
While competing in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Hernandez attracted a loyal fan base, both as an individual and as part of the American women’s gymnastics team, nicknamed the ‘Final Five.’
In Brazil, the U.S. won gold for the team gymnastics event. Hernandez also won silver on the balance beam.
“Mentally, now I have this expectation and this set bar,” she says.
Hernandez is currently promoting a campaign with the eye care company Alcon.
On December 25, 2021, NASA got into the holiday spirit by launching the James Webb Space Telescope, the largest and most powerful space science observatory in history.
It is intended to succeed the Hubble Space Telescope as NASA's flagship mission in astrophysics and is able to view objects too old and distant for Hubble. Gregory Robinson, director of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope program, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss the mission. "I think a lot of what we don't know today is what I'm expecting to find and certainly really understand what took place more than 13.5 billion years ago and see the formation of some of the first galaxies in our universe," said Robinson.
Every few years, the Olympics roll around to prove that, yes, the world’s best athletes can jump farther, swim faster, and generally crush records that would’ve been impossible just a few decades ago. Take ski jumping - the world record has increased by well over 200 meters in fewer than 100 years. Responsible for this is a lot of intentional engineering of equipment and hills, but perhaps the biggest change is thanks to one act of human daring. Watch to find out how!
YouTube creator platform Spotter recently announced $200 million in Series D financing at a valuation of $1.7 billion, led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Spotter allows YouTubers to license the rights to their video catalogs in exchange for large sums of cash paid upfront. The company's clients include some of YouTube's most popular personalities, with a combined total of more than 1.2 billion subscribers. Aaron Debevoise, founder and CEO of Spotter, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
What if we added the equivalent of over 1300 football fields to the tip of Manhattan? This was the proposal of a recent op-ed in The New York Times - increasing the size of the borough by about 12% in order to mitigate two of its most pressing problems. There’s evidence from all over the world that doing this can be a useful technique for crowded ocean-side cities. But the process to do so - reclaiming land from the ocean - is rife with potential downsides. So is this a proportional response to gigantic problems? Or a zany harebrained scheme that’ll do more harm than good?
Marti Bledsoe Post, executive director of On Our Sleeves, joins Cheddar News to discuss the latest study finding the impact children's mental health can have on working parents.
Jamie Hemmings and Jilea Hemmings, owners and founders of Nourish + Bloom Market, join Cheddar News to talk about the inspiration behind creating their cashierless grocery store.
Bartholomew Jones and Renata Henderson, co-owners of Cxffeeblack, join Cheddar News to discuss how they are merging Black culture with coffee in Memphis.
Dr. Daniel Bober, psychiatrist and certified addiction medicine physician, joins Cheddar News to offer tips on how parents and guardians can talk to their children about what's happening in Ukraine.