Susan Wojcicki, the previous boss of YouTube and one among Google’s earliest workers, has died aged 56.

Google’s chief government Sundar Pichai introduced that Ms Wojcicki had handed away after two years of dwelling with lung most cancers.

Mr Pichai, who can also be the boss of Google’s dad or mum firm Alphabet, mentioned on X/Twitter he was “unbelievably saddened” and Ms Wojcicki was “as core to the historical past of Google as anybody”.

As soon as described because the “most vital Googler you have by no means heard of”, Ms Wojcicki was current on the firm’s beginnings when, in 1998, she rented out her Menlo Park storage to the search engine agency’s founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Web page.

She was later persuaded to go away her job at chip large Intel to hitch Google, changing into the agency’s sixteenth worker.

Ms Wojcicki would go on to steer YouTube, the net video sharing firm owned by Google, for 9 years till 2023 when she stepped all the way down to focus “on my household, well being and private initiatives I am obsessed with”.

Ms Wojcicki was one among comparatively few ladies to carry a senior function within the expertise business.

She needed to encourage extra women to enter the sector, telling the BBC’s Newshour in 2013 that the long run was going to be “more and more digitally influenced”.

“However then I see there are only a few ladies within the business,” she mentioned. “General the tech business has, on common, in all probability about 20% ladies and I additionally take a look at the pipeline of ladies popping out of technical levels and it is vitally small.”

Whereas Ms Wojcicki rose to change into the boss of YouTube, her tenure was not with out controversy. The platform confronted criticism over its dealing with of on-line disinformation, together with through the Covid pandemic.

In 2022, plenty of fact-checking organisations wrote to her accusing YouTube of being “one of many main conduits of on-line disinformation and misinformation worldwide”.

Ms Wojcicki stepped down a yr later to give attention to her private life and well being.

Saying her demise “with profound disappointment”, her husband Dennis Troper mentioned: “My beloved spouse of 26 years and mom to our 5 kids left us in the present day after two years of dwelling with non-small-cell lung most cancers.”

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Susan Wojcicki, one in all Google’s earliest staff and the previous chief government of its video web site YouTube, has died aged 56.

Within the male-dominated tech business, Wojcicki grew to become one in all Silicon Valley’s most influential girls, serving to to create Google’s all-conquering promoting enterprise.

Her husband Dennis Troper introduced her demise on Fb. “It’s with profound unhappiness that I share the information of Susan Wojcicki passing,” he mentioned. “My beloved spouse of 26 years and mom to our 5 kids left us at the moment after two years of dwelling with non-small cell lung most cancers.”

He referred to as her “an excellent thoughts, a loving mom, and an expensive buddy to many”.

Sundar Pichai, chief government of Google mother or father Alphabet, mentioned in a submit on X that he was “unbelievably saddened”.

“She is as core to the historical past of Google as anybody, and it’s exhausting to think about the world with out her,” he mentioned. “She was an unbelievable individual, chief and buddy who had an amazing affect on the world.”

In a notice to Google staffers, Pichai mentioned Wojcicki “used her place to construct a greater office for everybody”, together with being the primary girl at Google to take maternity go away. “Her advocacy round parental go away set a brand new commonplace for companies in all places,” he wrote.

Tim Cook dinner, Apple chief government, mentioned in a submit on X that he was “saddened” to listen to of Wojcicki’s demise. “She was one in all Silicon Valley’s visionaries and she or he will probably be missed by so many,” he mentioned.

Throughout Google’s earliest days, its founders Larry Web page and Sergey Brin constructed the search engine whereas working in Wojcicki’s storage at her residence in Menlo Park. In 1999, she grew to become its sixteenth worker. Throughout her tenure overseeing its promoting enterprise, Google’s advert revenues grew from zero to greater than $50bn in 2013.

After being concerned in Google’s $1.65bn acquisition of YouTube in 2006, she grew to become the video website’s chief government in 2014. By the point she stepped down in February final 12 months, YouTube had grown to greater than 2.5bn month-to-month energetic customers and almost $30bn in annual advert revenues.

“Susan was a trailblazer within the business, an exemplary mom, and a cherished buddy,” mentioned Marc Benioff, chief government of Salesforce.com, the place she was a board member.

Throughout greater than 20 years at Google, Wojcicki wore “many hats”, as she put it when she left — together with serving to to create Google Picture Search and its AdSense promoting community earlier than turning into its senior vice-president of promoting and commerce.

At YouTube, she nurtured the event of the “creator economic system”, whereas additionally warding off controversies over its content material moderation and video-recommendation algorithm.

In an inner memo asserting her departure final 12 months, she wrote: “25 years in the past I made the choice to affix a few Stanford graduate college students who have been constructing a brand new search engine . . . I noticed the potential of what they have been constructing, which was extremely thrilling, and though the corporate had just a few customers and no income, I made a decision to affix the crew. It will be probably the greatest choices of my life.”

Particulars of her well being weren’t extensively identified. Simply final month, she joined the board of administrators at Planet Labs, a satellite tv for pc imaging and knowledge firm.

Earlier than Google, Wojcicki labored at chipmaker Intel and as a administration advisor. Her mom Esther Wojcicki is a journalist and her father Stanley Wojcicki, a famend Stanford physics professor, died final 12 months.

She has two sisters: Anne Wojcicki, the co-founder and chief government of biotech firm 23andMe, who was married to Brin till 2015, and Janet Wojcicki, a professor of paediatrics on the College of California, San Francisco.

Tragedy hit the household earlier this 12 months when Wojcicki’s 19-year-old son Marco Troper died. He was a scholar on the College of California, Berkeley.

Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid is a gold medalist. Because the beginning middle for Workforce USA, he helped the People earn a 98-87 win over France on Saturday afternoon for the staff’s fifth straight gold medal. Embiid solely had 4 factors, three rebounds, and two assists, however the massive fella performed a task.

Embiid was in a position to make defensive stops on French famous person Victor Wembanyama with the gold medal on the road and made positive he was there to make massive stops on the defensive finish. One has to offer credit score to Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis for the defensive performs he made–four blocks–but Embiid deserves a ton of credit score for his work on that finish of the ground towards each Wemby and Rudy Gobert.

Afterward, NBA Twitter gave its finest reactions to the chief of the Sixers profitable his first gold medal and getting the job completed for Workforce USA:

This text initially appeared on Sixers Wire: NBA Twitter reacts to Joel Embiid profitable gold medal for Workforce USA

Farewell to fashionable pentathlon on this type. The ultimate day of the occasion in Versailles supplied a glimpse of the difficulties related to randomly pairing horses with people.

Staff GB’s Kerenza Bryson was getting ready for her showjumping spherical as France’s Marie Oteiza was thrown from her horse. The animal had appeared stressed from the outset. There was no lasting harm – apart to Oteiza’s medal hopes – however Bryson took observe.

“I’m going to the barrier and like to look at the rider earlier than me undergo the entire spherical,” Bryson stated. “I visualise that I’m on that horse as a psychology train.

“She fell off on the first fence. It might have thrown folks however I took a deep breath. I used to be involved the horse may need seen it as a result of horses undoubtedly discover issues like that, it does have an effect on their confidence. You might have by no means met that horse earlier than, you solely have 20 minutes to get to comprehend it. You need to create a partnership and a bond with that horse.”

Not. Horses might be faraway from fashionable pentathlon completely by the point the Los Angeles Olympics comes round in 2028. Impediment course operating takes the place of showjumping. “It’s a huge disgrace as a result of using is generally my sturdy level,” Bryson stated. “I come from a pony membership and using background.”

The change, accelerated after a German coach struck a horse within the Tokyo Olympics, usually appears to have angered rivals. The idea of a contemporary fashionable pentathlon is to not many individuals’s liking.

Bryson minimize a dejected determine after her ninth-placed end right here however can see an even bigger image. She’s going to start work as a junior physician in Bathtub later this 12 months and can also be a military reservist.

“I’m actually dissatisfied with my efficiency. I got here right here to try to win a medal. With pentathlon and pulling 5 issues collectively in the identical day, there may be at all times a component of luck. I’m additionally attempting to be actually optimistic and bear in mind I’m an Olympian. I’ve different issues happening and typically it’s important to bear in mind there may be extra to life than sport and medals.

“I’m going to have a vacation, decompress, then have a take into consideration the subsequent cycle. Not getting a medal right here has made me hungry for an additional Olympic Video games.”

Michelle Gulyas took gold for Hungary with a world report factors haul of 1,461. France’s Élodie Clouvel received silver, with bronze going to Seong Seung-min of South Korea.

Staff GB’s reigning Olympic champion, Kate French, had withdrawn resulting from sickness earlier than the beginning of the ultimate. French’s substitute, Annika Zillekens of Germany, took a name from her coach shortly after 9am on Sunday. She had been collaborating in an 8km run across the Olympic village earlier than studying she can be handed a late closing berth. There was no scope for a heat‑up by the point the reached Versailles. Maybe unsurprisingly, Zillekens completed fifteenth.

The trendy pentathlon occasions ended at Paris 2024 with victory for Hungary’s Michelle Gulyas on the Château de Versailles. Gulyas delivered a record-breaking efficiency, amassing 1,461 factors to set a brand new world document.

France’s Elodie Clouvel gained her second Olympic silver within the occasion (having completed second at Rio 2016) and have become the primary French athlete to win two Olympic medals within the sport.

Bronze went to Seong Seungmin of the Republic of Korea, the primary girl from her nation to win an Olympic medal within the sport.

Gulyas, 24, was an image of focus throughout the 5 disciplines, particularly within the closing laser run, the place the stakes had been highest. Competing in entrance of round 15,000 followers, she maintained her composure and executed her technique with precision.

“It was robust,” Gulyas admitted, reflecting on the race, “however I knew what I needed to do, and I stayed centered on my capturing.”

“You all the time need assistance to win this stuff, and you must all the time ask for assist even if you’re very sturdy and difficult as a result of that is what I’ve felt in the course of the years, and nonetheless, I’m right here with an Olympic medal,” she added.

For France’s Clouvel, the silver medal was a bittersweet near-miss. Getting into the laser run with a 13-second benefit, Clouvel was poised to take the gold in entrance of her residence crowd. Nonetheless, a collection of misses on the capturing stations noticed her benefit dwindle, leaving her to accept silver with 1,452 factors — 9 factors shy of Gulyas.

Clouvel remained gracious, acknowledging her Hungarian rival’s distinctive efficiency: “Ending in second place, successful silver, it’s my place at the moment. Congratulations to Michelle for the wonderful capturing.”

Seong secured the bronze, marking her Olympic debut with a podium end. The younger pentathlete was thrilled together with her efficiency and is happy for the longer term.

“It feels nice to have this bronze medal,” she mentioned, “however I nonetheless wish to get the gold, so I’m wanting ahead to the subsequent Video games.”

The three medallists shared a heart-warming second of friendship on the rostrum.

A phenomenal second to finish the fashionable pentathlon at Paris 2024, the Palace of Versailles including a layer of grandeur to what was already a spectacular occasion.

Georgia Bell, an occasional runner throughout lockdown who made it to the Olympic closing of the ladies’s 1500m, set a brand new British file to take bronze as a rush of success together with silvers in inventive swimming and taekwondo took Britain’s rivalry with France within the medal desk into the final day.

On the age of 30, this was Bell’s first Olympic look however in a lightning fast race within the Stade de France that noticed Kenya’s Religion Kipyegon set a brand new Video games file, the British runner stayed with the main pack within the first 800m earlier than discovering the power to kick on within the closing leg.

Her time of three.52.61 was the quickest that any British lady has run the 1500m, a feat all of the extra exceptional given Bell solely renewed her relationship with the game to maintain match through the Covid pandemic.

Kipyegon improved on her earlier Olympic file time, set in Tokyo, with 3:51:29. Silver went to Australia’s Jessica Hull.

Bell mentioned: “I don’t know if I’ve ever been this glad. That was a fully loopy race. I awoke this morning actually calm and in an excellent temper and thought I’m not the quickest particular person in that race but when I used to be courageous and obtained caught in then I could make one thing occur. So yeah, over the moon and I’m an Olympic medallist.”

Bell, who has a full-time job working with synthetic intelligence, had fallen out of affection with athletics in 2017. She had stopping working altogether by the final Olympics in Tokyo, however returned to it after a superb park run in March 2022.

“I’m so glad I got here again to this sport,” she mentioned. “Primarily, I’m proud of what working has given me. Clearly it’s wonderful to be on the Olympics however once I took up working once more, the aim wasn’t to make the Olympics, that will have been completely bonkers.

“On the time, it was coming again to one thing that I actually liked. I adore it being a part of my life, I sit up for that a part of the day and I’ve made associates by it.”

Bell’s medal-winning run was adopted within the Stade de France by bronze medals for Group GB’s women and men’s 400m relay groups. The US gained gold in each, with silver for Botswana and the Netherlands, respectively.

It took a European file time of two.55.83 for the British males to say their medal.

Alex Haydock-Wilson, 25, from Lewisham, who had already gained a bronze within the combined 400m relay, mentioned: “Two Olympic medals is greater than I may have hoped for.” Kate Shortman and Izzy Thorpe gained silver within the inventive swimming duet – the primary medal for Nice Britain within the sport. China’s Wang Liuyi and Wang Qianyi took gold and the Netherlands’ Bregje de Brouwer and Noortje de Brouwer got here in third. Group GB’s Caden Cunningham, 21, from Huddersfield needed to accept silver after being crushed by Iran’s Arian Salimi within the closing of the lads’s +80kg class of taekwondo.

There was a bronze within the aquatics centre for Britain’s Noah Williams within the males’s 10m platform diving. He had beforehand taken silver with Tom Daley within the synchronised dive.

Williams joins Daley, 30, and Jack Laugher, 29, in an unique membership of British divers who’ve gained two medals at a Video games.

The 24-year-old solely certified for Saturday’s closing in twelfth place and he dropped factors after over-rotating on his fourth dive, however two closing efforts put him on the rostrum alongside Cao Yuan, whose gold confirmed a clear sweep of the diving titles for China. Japan’s Rikuto Tamai took silver.

Of comparisons with Daley and Laugher, Williams mentioned: “I simply obtained fortunate. These two are a complete different degree. They’re the best of GB diving.”

Britain’s Emile Cairess in the meantime got here fourth in solely his third ever marathon, on a course mentioned to be probably the most brutal in Olympic historical past.

In sweltering warmth on the highway from Versailles to Paris, Cairess clocked a time of 2hr 7min 29sec, ending simply 29 seconds outdoors a podium place.

It had checked out one stage that Cairess, the European file holder within the 10-mile highway race, may snatch a marathon medal. He had been in second place at about 18 miles, however dropped again to sixth earlier than kicking on to overtake two rivals to take fourth.

Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola took gold in an Olympic file time of 2hr 6min 26sec, after making his transfer at 18 miles on a hill with a 13.5% incline. He completed 21 seconds away from Belgium’s Bashir Abdi, with Kenya’s Benson Kipruto taking bronze.

Cairess, from Bradford, mentioned: “The course was powerful; it was actually onerous. London is fairly flat, in order that was approach more durable.”

It remained unclear, with a day of occasions to go, which nations will take the main positions behind China and the US within the medal desk, with Australia, Japan, France after which Britain, in sixth, on an identical tally.

It was a robust day for France whose males’s volleyball workforce efficiently defended their Olympic title towards Poland whereas Althéa Laurin gained the ladies’s +67kg taekwondo gold, permitting the host nation to increase its lead over Group GB within the desk. There was additionally a primary medal within the athletics for the host nation when Cyréna Samba-Mayela took silver in a photo-finish within the ladies’s 100m hurdles behind Masai Russell of the US.

UK Sport had forecast that Group GB would win between 50 and 70 medals in Paris. It’s trying seemingly that they’ll come near their Tokyo haul of 64 medals. France and Britain, who’ve been vying for fifth place, will each have alternatives so as to add to their complete in the present day.

Three years in the past, Georgia Bell watched the Tokyo Olympics like the remainder of us: from the sofa. She was 27, retired as a critical athlete, and the residing embodiment of Marlon Brando’s character Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront. Coulda been a contender? Bell was all the time on the verge till accidents intervened.

However as she watched Crew GB’s Alex Bell and Katie Snowden, athletes she had competed in opposition to as juniors, one thing started to stir. A couple of months later Bell went from that sofa to a 5km parkrun in Bushy Park. Slowly she started to run extra. Race extra. And now, extremely, she is an Olympic 1500m bronze medallist.

“After I acquired again into operating the purpose wasn’t to attempt to make the Olympics,” she mentioned afterwards. “That will have been completely bonkers. It was simply going again to one thing that I actually liked.”

And now look. This was a medal achieved the laborious method, as Bell clung on for pricey life on a brutal first lap that was run in sub four-minute mile tempo. However having connected herself like a limpet to a pack of eight main athletes, she discovered herself transferring via the sphere because the bell rang.

Coming across the remaining bend, it nonetheless appeared as if the 30-year-old had an excessive amount of to do. However one way or the other Bell discovered a second and a 3rd wind to pip the Ethiopian Diribe Welteji to bronze. Her time? A staggering 3min 52.61sec – a brand new British document and a 10-second enchancment to her private better of 4:03 firstly of the 12 months.

“After I noticed them coming via, 59.6, I used to be like: ‘Oh,’” mentioned Bell. “I knew it was going to be painful. I simply thought: ‘I do know I can end robust.’ So I zoned out after that first lap and tried to sit down within the practice and never ­overthink it.”

Crew GB won’t ever admit it, however some medals are merely extra inspirational than others. And watching an athlete who had stop operating on the monitor between 2017 and 2022 be resuscitated by a love of parkrun was an actual This Lady Can second.

Kenya’s Religion Kipyegon took gold in 3:51:29, with Australia’s Jessica Hull incomes silver in 3:52.56. The opposite British runner within the remaining, Laura Muir, ran a extremely commendable race to ­end fifth in 3:53.37.

To make it even sweeter for Bell, she was truly born in Paris. “On the beginning line, I used to be telling myself that I used to be born for this within the sense that I used to be born in Paris 30 years in the past. I simply felt like I’ve nothing to lose, I had no stress on me. So I believed: ‘Simply go for it, and see what occurs.’”

Some might be shocked at this end result. However Bell all the time had expertise. As an adolescent, she was among the many finest 800m runners within the nation, with a private better of 2min 3sec. Nevertheless, after repeatedly getting injured whereas on the College of California, Berkeley, she determined to stop the game.

“I had plenty of stress fractures,” she mentioned. “I used to be in California for 2 years and I’d say in all probability a few 12 months of that I used to be in a boot. I used to be simply by no means monitor match. All the time had an excellent cross-country season or did cross-country after which was all the time injured each indoor and out of doors.”

However throughout lockdown, Bell began doing lengthy cycle rides and occasional runs with out issues. By November 2022 she was assured sufficient to get again in contact together with her outdated coaches, Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows, who guided Keely Hodgkinson to the 800m Olympic gold medal this previous week. Would they be fascinated by taking her again?

They had been. And beneath their teaching, which entails supplementing 30 miles of operating every week with 100 miles of biking, she has soared.

Such was Bell’s enchancment that in March she ran for Nice Britain for the primary time, ending fourth on the world indoor championships in Glasgow. Even so, few anticipated her to win a medal in Paris. The bookies, who will not be recognized for giving cash away, gave her only a 20% probability beforehand.

However on a stunning remaining evening on the Stade de France, the place Emmanuel Wanyonyi took 800m gold and Jakob Ingebrigtsen powered away to win the 5,000m, Bell confounded expectations once more.

But it was a close-run factor, as she discovered herself in fourth with 100m to go. “I used to be pondering: ‘I can pull this out,’” she mentioned. “I completed fourth on the world indoors and I do know what it’s like. I simply wanted to seek out one thing further. And I discovered it.”

What makes Bell’s accomplishment much more spectacular is that till Could she mixed coaching twice a day together with her full-time job in cybersecurity earlier than taking a sabbatical to organize for Paris. Now, although, she had a dilemma.

“Work had been like: ‘For those who go to the Olympics and get a medal, we nonetheless need you again,’” she confessed. “And after they mentioned that on 1 Could, when the laptop computer acquired slammed shut, I believed: ‘There’s no method I’ll win a medal.’

With a smile, she added: “I’ll in all probability have a chat with them now issues have modified barely.” If Bell negotiates as laborious as she runs, it will likely be an attention-grabbing dialog.

A Leicester maze has been designed to honour Group GB heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson.

Wistow Maze is themed across the Olympics this 12 months, and its maize maze has been designed within the form of a javelin thrower.

Javelin is likely one of the seven occasions within the heptathlon, the game which Johnson-Thompson has competed in in any respect 4 Olympic video games since London 2012.

The maze comprises 12 quiz boards, hidden in three miles of pathways, that take a look at guests’ data of Olympic host nations and their most well-known landmarks.

“This 12 months, the Wistow Maze actually has the profitable mixture of enjoyable and studying, in addition to being a celebration of one of many UK’s greatest sporting competitions”, stated Diana Brooks, proprietor of Wistow Maze.

On the finish of the season, the maze is harvested for cattle fodder after which redesigned the next 12 months utilizing GPS satellite tv for pc expertise.

It would stay open every day till 1 September, then solely on weekends till 15 September.

Johnson-Thompson, from Liverpool, ended her look forward to an Olympic heptathlon medal after taking silver in a dramatic concluding 800m in Paris on Friday.

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