Oscar-Winning Actress Michelle Yeoh Proposed to Be Olympic Committee Member

Michelle Yeoh accepts the award for best performance by an actress in a leading role for "Everything Everywhere All at Once" at the Oscars on March 12, 2023, in Los Angeles. (AP)

16:14-8 September 2023 AD ـ 23 Safar 1445 AH

Oscar-Winning Actress Michelle Yeoh Proposed to Be Olympic Committee Member

Michelle Yeoh accepts the award for best performance by an actress in a leading role for "Everything Everywhere All at Once" at the Oscars on March 12, 2023, in Los Angeles. (AP)

Oscar-winning actress Michelle Yeoh was proposed Friday to be a member of the International Olympic Committee.

Yeoh, who won an Academy Award for best actress this year for her performance in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” was among eight potential new members who will likely be approved by their soon-to-be colleagues at a meeting next month in Mumbai, India.

The IOC currently has 99 invited members, including a selection of royalty, sports officials, former athletes and leaders from politics and industry. Their main role in the Olympic movement is confirming hosts for the Summer Games and Winter Games that were pre-selected by the IOC administration and executive board.

Also proposed for membership Friday were Olympic medalists Cecilia Tait, a former lawmaker from Peru who won silver in volleyball, and Yael Arad, an Israeli businesswomen and sports commentator who won silver in judo.

Arad was Israel’s first Olympic medalist when she finished second at the 1992 Barcelona Games.

Sports officials Balázs Fürjes of Hungary and Michael Mronz of Germany were also proposed. Both have been involved in preparing hosting bids for the Olympics.

Two recently elected presidents of governing bodies in Olympic sports are also set to become IOC members: Petra Sörling of Sweden from table tennis and Kim Jae-youl of South Korea from the International Skating Union.

Entertainment

In Their 80s, These South Korean Women Learned Reading and Rap

Park Jeom-sun, 82, leader of Suni and the Seven Princesses, adjusts her hat in a mirror during the opening ceremony of the Korean alphabet, "Hangeul Week" at Gwanghwamun square in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Asharq Al Awsat

09:09-5 October 2024 AD ـ 02 Rabi’ Al-Thani 1446 AH

Asharq Al Awsat

09:09-5 October 2024 AD ـ 02 Rabi’ Al-Thani 1446 AH

In Their 80s, These South Korean Women Learned Reading and Rap

Wearing an oversized bucket hat, silver chains and a black Miu Miu shirt, 82-year-old Park Jeom-sun gesticulates, her voice rising and falling with staccato lines about growing chili peppers, cucumbers and eggplants.
Park, nicknamed Suni, was flanked by seven longtime friends who repeated her moves and her lines. Together, they're Suni and the Seven Princesses, South Korea 's latest octogenarian sensation. With an average age of 85, they're probably the oldest rap group in the country, The Associated Press said.
Born at a time when women were often marginalized in education, Park and her friends were among a group of older adults learning how to read and write the Korean alphabet, hangeul, at a community center in their farming village in South Korea’s rural southeast.
They were having so much fun that they started dabbling with poetry. They began writing and performing rap in summer last year.
Suni and the Seven Princesses enjoy nationwide fame, appearing in commercials and going viral on social media. South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo sent them a congratulatory message last month on their first anniversary, praising their passion for learning.
At a road near their community center in Chilgok on Thursday, Park and her friends were rehearsing for a performance Friday evening in the capital, Seoul, where they were invited to open an event celebrating hangeul heritage.
“Picking chili peppers at the pepper field, picking cucumbers at the cucumber field, picking eggplants at the eggplant field, picking zucchini at the zucchini field!” the group rapped along with Park. "We’re back home now and it feels so good!”
Park said the group usually practices two or three times a week, more if they're preparing for a show.
On Friday, hundreds of people applauded and cheered, and then the group lined up for a photo with South Korean Culture Minister Yu In Chon.
Park talked about the joy of learning to read, saying she can now “go to the bank, ride the bus and go anywhere” she wants without someone helping her.
“During and after the Korean War, I couldn’t study because of the social atmosphere, but I started learning hangeul in 2016,” Park said, referring to the devastating war between North and South Korea from 1950 to 1953. “Being introduced to rap while learning hangeul has made me feel better, and I thought it would help me stay healthy and avoid dementia.”
Kang Hye-eun, Park’s 29-year-old granddaughter and a local healthcare worker who helps older adults, said she was proud to see her grandmother on television and in viral videos.
“It’s amazing that she got to know hangeul like this and has started to rap,” she said.

Oscar-Winning Actress Michelle Yeoh Proposed to Be Olympic Committee Member

Oscar-Winning Actress Michelle Yeoh Proposed to Be Olympic Committee Member

Most Viewed

In Their 80s, These South Korean Women Learned Reading and Rap

In Their 80s, These South Korean Women Learned Reading and Rap

لم تشترك بعد