SPORTS / A.C.E. Page 10 n THE ASIAN REPORTER April 4, 2022 Portland Rose Festival dragons awaken to begin the 2022 festival Saturday, March 26 marked the return of Portland Rose Festival activities with an eye-dotting ceremony of the dragon boats used for races during the Portland Rose Festival. 2021 Rose Festival Queen Lili Rosebrook and members of the community joined representatives from the Portland Rose Festival Foundation, Portland-Kaohsiung Sister City Association, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Seattle (TECO), and Royal Rosarians for the traditional “Awakening of the Dragons.” The “Awakening of the Dragons” introduced the ornate dragon boats and their teams to the Willamette River and started the preseason practice schedule leading up to the races, which are scheduled during the weekend of June 11 and 12, 2022. Following a blessing ceremony, attendees watched dignitaries paint red dots on the eyes of the eight dragon boat figureheads to officially “wake” them up. Attendees were also treated to a water cannon salute by the Portland Fireboat. ROSE FESTIVAL RETURNS. Portland Rose Festival dragon boats are seen at the RiverPlace Marina dock in downtown Portland prior to the “Awakening of the Dragons.” The eye-dotting ceremony of the dragon boats introduced the ornate dragon boats and their teams to the Willamette River and started the preseason practice schedule leading up to the races, which are scheduled during the weekend of June 11 and 12, 2022. (AR Photo) After being on pause for two years Coronation, and more. Festival due to the coronavirus pandemic, the organizers invite everyone to join Portland Rose Festival is returning in them to carry on traditions, honor 2022 with big outdoor events such as diversity, and celebrate unity and the Grand Floral Parade, Starlight community spirit. Parade, Junior Parade, Dragon Boat To learn more about the 2022 Races, CityFair, Fleet Week, the Rose festival, call (503) 227-2681 or visit Festival Court and Queen’s . Japanese outfielder Seiya Suzuki finalizes five-year deal with the Chicago Cubs MESA, Ariz. (AP) — Japanese outfielder Seiya Suzuki has joined the new-look Chicago Cubs, finalizing an $85-million, five-year deal. Suzuki gets a $5 million signing bonus and salaries of $7 million this season, $17 million in 2023, $20 million in 2024, and $18 million each in 2025 and 2026. He also receives a full no-trade provision. Chicago will pay an additional $14,625,000 as a posting fee to Suzuki’s club, the Hiroshima Toyo Carp of Japan’s Central League. The 27-year-old Suzuki was a five-time All-Star and Gold Glove winner in nine seasons with the Carp. He batted .317 with 38 homers and 88 RBIs in 132 games last season and had nearly as many walks (87) as strikeouts (88). Suzuki plays right field, a position five-time Gold Glove winner Jason Heyward has manned for the Cubs since signing a $184-million, eight-year contract before the 2016 World Series championship season. The Cubs finished fourth in the NL Central at 71-91 in 2021, missing the playoffs for the second time in three years. It was their worst record since the 2013 team went 66-96. Under 2017 changes to the posting system, the posting fee for Suzuki will be 20% of the first $25 million of the contract, including earned bonuses and options. The percentage drops to 17.5% of the next $25 million and 15% of any amount over $50 million. There would be a supplemental fee of 15% of any earned bonuses, salary escalators, and exercised options. 5 3 4 2 8 6 2 7 9 2 1 9 9 7 6 5 7 6 7 9 3 8 5 8 7 9 MEDIUM Difficulty level: Medium “Beacon of goodness”: NCAA women’s gymnastics is booming Continued from page 9 # 55 #53428 Instructions: Fill in the grid so that the digits 1 through 9 appear one time each in every row, col- umn, and 3x3 box. Solution to last issue’s puzzle Puzzle #59714 (Easy) All solutions available at . 8 6 4 2 5 3 7 9 1 2 7 9 6 1 4 3 5 8 5 1 3 9 8 7 4 2 6 1 5 6 3 2 9 8 4 7 7 4 2 1 6 8 5 3 9 3 9 8 7 4 5 6 1 2 9 8 1 4 3 6 2 7 5 SUZUKI SIGNING. Seiya Suzuki of the Chicago Cubs tosses a ball to fans (top photo) and bats (bottom photo) during a spring training baseball game against the Colorado Rockies on March 25, 2022 in Mesa, Arizona. (AP Photos/Matt York) 6 3 7 5 9 2 1 8 4 4 2 5 8 7 1 9 6 3 a select few. The decision by athletes like Lee and Carey — who won gold on floor in Tokyo — to join non-traditional powers helps. So does aggressive on-campus marketing. On random Thursday nights, 2011 world champion and 2012 Olympic gold medallist and current Arkansas head coach Jordyn Wieber walks along sorority row and invites young women to meets. She gets far more yesses than she used to. “One of my major goals was to build the student fan base, at UCLA we had a huge student section,” Wieber said. “I looked at the marketing, how could we make these meets fun for someone who is 60 years old, a mom and dad, a young gymnast, and a college student?” While men’s gymnastics at the NCAA level is struggling to survive — there are currently only a dozen Division I programs — women are heading in the opposite direction. Long Island University came on board in 2020. Clemson is aiming for 2024. Fisk University will become the first historically Black college to field a women’s gymnastics team when the program launches next season. It’s a far cry from Fisk coach Corrinne Tarver’s career at Georgia in the late 1980s. The first Black woman to win an NCAA all-around championship believes she could count the number of women of color in the upper reaches of her sport on one hand, maybe two. “Honestly when I first went into college gymnastics, I don’t know if there was enough of us to fill an HBCU team,” she said. “There was not a lot.” There is now. Lee, who is Hmong American, is the third straight American woman of color to win an Olympic title after Gabby Douglas in 2012 and Simone Biles in 2016. Black women account for nearly 10% of the scholarship athletes at the NCAA Division I level, an increase from 7% in 2012. Fisk offers young gymnasts a chance to be on the ground floor of a sport growing in nearly every tangible way. The proof is in the stands, in the ratings, and in the lives of the women who have wrested back control of their sport and in some ways, their lives. “(They) are literally changing the sport from the inside out,” said two-time Olympic medallist Kathy Johnson Clarke, now a commentator for ESPN. “Now it’s the way it should be, with the athletes at the center of it guiding our conversations and leading us to where we all need to be.”