title: Canaan

text: The Habiru seem to have been more a social class than an ethnic group. One analysis shows that the majority were Hurrian, although there were a number of Semites and even some Kassite and Luwian adventurers amongst their number. The reign of Amenhotep III, as a result, was not quite so tranquil for the Asiatic province, as Habiru/'Apiru contributed to greater political instability. It is believed that turbulent chiefs began to seek their opportunities, although as a rule they could not find them without the help of a neighbouring king. The boldest of the disaffected nobles was Aziru, son of Abdi-Ashirta, who endeavoured to extend his power into the plain of Damascus. Akizzi, governor of Katna (Qatna?) (near Hamath), reported this to Amenhotep III, who seems to have sought to frustrate Aziru's attempts. In the reign of the next pharaoh, Akhenaten (reigned 1352 to 1335 BC) both father and son caused infinite trouble to loyal servants of Egypt like Rib-Hadda, governor of Gubla (Gebal), by transferring their loyalty from the Egyptian crown to the Hittite Empire under Suppiluliuma I (reigned 1344–1322 BC).


title: Canaan

text: Egyptian power in Canaan thus suffered a major setback when the Hittites (or Hat.ti) advanced into Syria in the reign of Amenhotep III, and when they became even more threatening in that of his successor, displacing the Amorites and prompting a resumption of Semitic migration. Abdi-Ashirta and his son Aziru, at first afraid of the Hittites, afterwards made a treaty with their king, and joining with the Hittites, attacked and conquered the districts remaining loyal to Egypt. In vain did Rib-Hadda send touching appeals for aid to the distant Pharaoh, who was far too engaged in his religious innovations to attend to such messages.


title: Canaan

text: Similarly, Zimrida, king of Sidon (named 'Siduna'), declared, "All my cities which the king has given into my hand, have come into the hand of the Habiri." The king of Jerusalem, Abdi-Heba, reported to the Pharaoh:


title: Canaan

text: Abdi-heba's principal trouble arose from persons called Iilkili and the sons of Labaya, who are said to have entered into a treasonable league with the Habiri. Apparently this restless warrior found his death at the siege of Gina. All these princes, however, maligned each other in their letters to the Pharaoh, and protested their own innocence of traitorous intentions. Namyawaza, for instance, whom Etakkama (see above) accused of disloyalty, wrote thus to the Pharaoh,


title: Canaan

text: Around the beginning of the New Kingdom period, Egypt exerted rule over much of the Levant. Rule remained strong during the Eighteenth Dynasty, but Egypt's rule became precarious during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties. Ramses II was able to maintain control over it in the stalemated battle against the Hittites at Kadesh in 1275 BC, but soon thereafter, the Hittites successfully took over the northern Levant (Syria and Amurru). Ramses II, obsessed with his own building projects while neglecting Asiatic contacts, allowed control over the region to continue dwindling. During the reign of his successor Merneptah, the Merneptah Stele was issued which claimed to have destroyed various sites in the southern Levant, including a people known as "Israel". However, archaeological findings show no destruction at any of the sites mentioned in the Merneptah Stele and so it is considered to be an exercise in propaganda, and the campaign most likely avoided the central highlands in the southern Levant. Egypt’s withdrawal from the southern Levant was a protracted process lasting some one hundred years beginning in the late 13th century BCE and ending close to the end of the 12th century BCE. The reason for the Egypt's withdrawal was most likely a product of the political turmoil in Egypt proper rather than the invasion by the Sea Peoples as there is little evidence that the Sea Peoples caused much destruction ca. 1200 BCE. Many Egyptian garrisons or sites with an “Egyptian governor’s residence” in the southern Levant were abandoned without destruction including Dier el-Balah, Ashkelon, Tel Mor, Tell el-Far'ah (South), Tel Gerisa, Tell Jemmeh, Tel Masos, and Qubur el-Walaydah. Not all Egyptian sites in the southern Levant were abandoned without destruction. The Egyptian garrison at Aphek was destroyed, likely in an act of warfare at the end of the 13th century. The Egyptian gate complex uncovered at Jaffa was destroyed at the end of the 12th century between 1134-1115 based on C14 dates, while Beth-Shean was partially though not completely destroyed, possibly by an earthquake, in the mid-12th century.


title: Canaan

text: References to Canaanites are also found throughout the Amarna letters of Pharaoh Akhenaten BC. In these letters, some of which were sent by governors and princes of Canaan to their Egyptian overlord Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV) in the 14th century BC, are found, beside "Amar" and "Amurru" (Amorites), the two forms "Kinahhi" and "Kinahni", corresponding to "Kena" and "Kena'an" respectively, and including Syria in its widest extent, as Eduard Meyer has shown. The letters are written in the official and diplomatic East Semitic Akkadian language of Assyria and Babylonia, though "Canaanitish" words and idioms are also in evidence. The known references are:


title: Canaan

text: Text RS 20.182 from Ugarit is a copy of a letter of the king of Ugarit to Ramesses II concerning money paid by "the sons of the land of Ugarit" to the "foreman of the sons of the land of Canaan ("*kn'ny")" According to Jonathan Tubb, this suggests that the people of Ugarit, contrary to much modern opinion, considered themselves to be non-Canaanite.


title: Canaan

text: The other Ugarit reference, KTU 4.96, shows a list of traders assigned to royal estates, of which one of the estates had three Ugaritans, an Ashdadite, an Egyptian and a Canaanite.


title: Canaan

text: A Middle Assyrian letter during the reign of Shalmaneser I includes a reference to the "travel to Canaan" of an Assyrian official.


title: Canaan

text: Ann Killebrew has shown that cities such as Jerusalem were large and important walled settlements in the pre-Israelite


title: Canaan

text: Middle Bronze IIB and the Israelite Iron Age IIC period ( and BC), but that during the intervening Late Bronze (LB) and Iron Age I and IIA/B Ages sites like Jerusalem were small and relatively insignificant and unfortified towns.


title: Canaan

text: Just after the Amarna period, a new problem arose which was to trouble the Egyptian control of southern Canaan (the rest of the region now being under Assyrian control). Pharaoh Horemhab campaigned against Shasu (Egyptian = "wanderers") living in nomadic pastoralist tribes, who had moved across the Jordan River to threaten Egyptian trade through Galilee and Jezreel. Seti I ( BC) is said to have conquered these Shasu, Semitic-speaking nomads living just south and east of the Dead Sea, from the fortress of Taru (Shtir?) to ""Ka-n-'-na"". After the near collapse of the Battle of Kadesh, Rameses II had to campaign vigorously in Canaan to maintain Egyptian power. Egyptian forces penetrated into Moab and Ammon, where a permanent fortress garrison (called simply "Rameses") was established.


title: Canaan

text: Some believe the "Habiru" signified generally all the nomadic tribes known as "Hebrews", and particularly the early Israelites of the period of the "judges", who sought to appropriate the fertile region for themselves. However, the term was rarely used to describe the Shasu. Whether the term may also include other related ancient Semitic-speaking peoples such as the Moabites, Ammonites and Edomites is uncertain.


title: Canaan

text: There is little evidence that any major city or settlement in the southern Levant was destroyed around 1200 BCE. At Lachish, The Fosse Temple III was ritually terminated while a house in Area S appears to have burned in a house fire as the most severe evidence of burning was next to two ovens while no other part of the city had evidence of burning. After this though the city was rebuilt in a grander fashion than before. For Megiddo, most parts of the city did not have any signs of damage and it is only possible that the palace in Area AA might have been destroyed though this is not certain. While the monumental structures at Hazor were indeed destroyed, this destruction was in the mid-13th century BCE long before the end of the Late Bronze Age began. However, many sites were not burned to the ground around 1200 BCE including: Ashkelon, Ashdod, Tell es-Safi, Tel Batash, Tel Burna, Tel Dor, Tel Gerisa, Tell Jemmeh, Khirbet Rabud, Tel Zeror, and Tell Abu Hawam among others.


title: Canaan

text: Despite many theories which claim that trade relations broke down after 1200 BCE in the southern Levant, there is ample evidence that trade with other regions continued after the end of the Late Bronze Age in the Southern Levant. Archaeologist Jesse Millek has shown that while the common assuption is that trade in Cypriot and Mycenaean pottery ended around 1200 BCE, trade in Cypriot pottery actually largely came to an end at 1300, while for Mycenaean pottery, this trade ended at 1250 BCE, and destruction around 1200 BCE could not have affected either pattern of international trade since it ended before the end of the Late Bronze Age. He has also demonstrated that trade with Egypt continued after 1200 BCE. Archaeometallurgical studies performed by various teams have also shown that trade in tin, a non-local metal necessary to make bronze, did not stop or decrease after 1200 BCE, even though the closest source of the metal were modern Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, or perhaps even Cornwall, England. Lead from Sardinia was still being imported to the southern Levant after 1200 BCE during the early Iron Age.


title: Canaan

text: By the Early Iron Age, the southern Levant came to be dominated by the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, besides the Philistine city-states on the Mediterranean coast, and the kingdoms of Moab, Ammon, and Aram-Damascus east of the Jordan River, and Edom to the south. The northern Levant was divided into various petty kingdoms, the so-called Syro-Hittite states and the Phoenician city-states.


title: Canaan

text: The entire region (including all Phoenician/Canaanite and Aramean states, together with Israel, Philistia, and Samarra) was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire during the 10th and 9th centuries BC, and would remain so for three hundred years until the end of the 7th century BC. Emperor-kings such as Ashurnasirpal, Adad-nirari II, Sargon II, Tiglath-Pileser III, Esarhaddon, Sennacherib and Ashurbanipal came to dominate Canaanite affairs. During the Twenty-fifth Dynasty the Egyptians made a failed attempt to regain a foothold in the region, but were vanquished by the Neo-Assyrian Empire, leading to an Assyrian conquest of Egypt. Between 616 and 605 BC the Neo-Assyrian Empire collapsed due to a series of bitter civil wars, followed by an attack by an alliance of Babylonians, Medes, and Persians and the Scythians. The Neo-Babylonian Empire inherited the western part of the empire, including all the lands in Canaan and Syria, together with Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah. They successfully defeated the Egyptians and remained in the region in an attempt to regain a foothold in the Near East.


title: Canaan

text: The Neo-Babylonian Empire itself collapsed in 539 BC, and the region became a part of the Achaemenid Empire. It remained so until in 332 BC it was conquered by the Greeks under Alexander the Great, later to fall to the Roman Empire in the late 2nd century BC, and then Byzantium, until the Arab Islamic invasion and conquest of the 7th century AD.


title: Canaan

text: During the 2nd millennium BC, Ancient Egyptian texts use the term "Canaan" to refer to an Egyptian-ruled colony, whose boundaries generally corroborate the definition of Canaan found in the Hebrew Bible, bounded to the west by the Mediterranean Sea, to the north in the vicinity of Hamath in Syria, to the east by the Jordan Valley, and to the south by a line extended from the Dead Sea to around Gaza. Nevertheless, the Egyptian and Hebrew uses of the term are not identical: the Egyptian texts also identify the coastal city of Qadesh in north west Syria near Turkey as part of the "Land of Canaan", so that the Egyptian usage seems to refer to the entire Levantine coast of the Mediterranean Sea, making it a synonym of another Egyptian term for this coastland, Retjenu.


title: Canaan

text: Lebanon, in northern Canaan, bordered by the Litani river to the watershed of the Orontes River, was known by the Egyptians as upper Retjenu. In Egyptian campaign accounts, the term Djahi was used to refer to the watershed of the Jordan river. Many earlier Egyptian sources also mention numerous military campaigns conducted in "Ka-na-na", just inside Asia.


title: Canaan

text: Archaeological attestation of the name "Canaan" in Ancient Near Eastern sources relates almost exclusively to the period in which the region operated as a colony of the New Kingdom of Egypt (16th–11th centuries BC), with usage of the name almost disappearing following the Late Bronze Age collapse ( BC). The references suggest that during this period the term was familiar to the region's neighbors on all sides, although scholars have disputed to what extent such references provide a coherent description of its location and boundaries, and regarding whether the inhabitants used the term to describe themselves.


title: Canaan

text: The Greek term "Phoenicia" is first attested in the first two works of Western literature, Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey". It does not occur in the Hebrew Bible, but occurs three times in the New Testament in the Book of Acts. In the 6th century BC, Hecataeus of Miletus affirms that Phoenicia was formerly called , a name that Philo of Byblos subsequently adopted into his mythology as his eponym for the Phoenicians: "Khna who was afterwards called Phoinix". Quoting fragments attributed to Sanchuniathon, he relates that Byblos, Berytus and Tyre were among the first cities ever built, under the rule of the mythical Cronus, and credits the inhabitants with developing fishing, hunting, agriculture, shipbuilding and writing.


title: Canaan

text: Coins of the city of Beirut / Laodicea bear the legend, "Of Laodicea, a metropolis in Canaan"; these coins are dated to the reign of Antiochus IV (175–164 BC) and his successors until 123 BC.


title: Canaan

text: Saint Augustine also mentions that one of the terms the seafaring Phoenicians called their homeland was "Canaan". Augustine also records that the rustic people of Hippo in North Africa retained the Punic self-designation "Chanani". Since 'punic' in Latin also meant 'non-Roman', some scholars however argue that the language referred to as Punic in Augustine may have been Libyan.


title: Canaan

text: The Greeks also popularized the term "Palestine", named after the Philistines or the Aegean Pelasgians, for roughly the region of Canaan, excluding Phoenicia, with Herodotus' first recorded use of "Palaistinê", BC. From 110 BC, the Hasmoneans extended their authority over much of the region, creating a Judean-Samaritan-Idumaean-Ituraean-Galilean alliance. The Judean (Jewish, see Ioudaioi) control over the wider area resulted in it also becoming known as Judaea, a term that had previously only referred to the smaller region of the Judean Mountains, the allotment of the Tribe of Judah and heartland of the former Kingdom of Judah. Between 73–63 BC, the Roman Republic extended its influence into the region in the Third Mithridatic War, conquering Judea in 63 BC, and splitting the former Hasmonean Kingdom into five districts. Around 130–135 AD, as a result of the suppression of the Bar Kochba revolt, the province of Iudaea was joined with Galilee to form new province of Syria Palaestina. There is circumstantial evidence linking Hadrian with the name change, although the precise date is not certain, and the interpretation of some scholars that the name change may have been intended "to complete the dissociation with Judaea" is disputed.


title: Canaan

text: Padiiset's Statue is the last known Egyptian reference to Canaan, a small statuette labelled "Envoy of the Canaan and of Peleset, Pa-di-Eset, the son of Apy". The inscription is dated to 900–850 BC, more than 300 years after the preceding known inscription.


title: Canaan

text: During the period from BC, the dominant Neo-Assyrian and Achaemenid Empire make no mention of Canaan.


title: Canaan

text: The Canaanites were the inhabitants of ancient Canaan, a region that roughly corresponds to present-day Israel and the Palestinian Territories, western Jordan, southern and coastal Syria, Lebanon, and continued up to the southern border of Turkey. They are believed to have been one of the oldest civilizations in human history.


title: Canaan

text: The Levant was inhabited by people who referred to the land as "ca-na-na-um" as early as the mid-third millennium BCE. The Akkadian word ""kinahhu"" referred to the purple-coloured wool, dyed from the Murex molluscs of the coast—which was a key export of the region. When the ancient Greeks later traded with the Canaanites, this meaning of the word seems to have predominated, as they referred to the Canaanites as "Phoenikes" (Phoenicians), which may derive from the Greek-language word ""phoenix"" (), and also described the cloth for which the Greeks traded. The word ""phoenix"" was transcribed by the Romans to ""poenus""; the descendants of the Canaanite settlers in Carthage were likewise referred to as "Punic".


title: Canaan

text: Thus, while "Phoenician" and "Canaanite" refer to the same culture, archaeologists and historians commonly refer to the Bronze Age pre-1200 BCE Levantine peoples as Canaanites, while their Iron Age descendants, particularly those living on the coast, are referred to as Phoenicians. More recently, the term "Canaanite" has been used for the secondary Iron Age states of the Levantine interior that were not ruled by Aramean peoples, that is, that were ruled by a separate and closely-related ethnic group which included the Philistines and the Israelite kingdoms of Israel and Judah.


title: Canaan

text: Canaan included what today are Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, northwestern Jordan, and some western areas of Syria. According to archaeologist Jonathan N. Tubb, "Ammonites, Moabites, Israelites, and Phoenicians undoubtedly achieved their own cultural identities, and yet ethnically they were all Canaanites", "the same people who settled in farming villages in the region in the 8th millennium BCE."


title: Canaan

text: There is uncertainty about whether the name "Canaan" refers to a specific Semitic-speaking ethnic group wherever they live, the homeland of this ethnic group, a region under the control of this ethnic group, or perhaps any combination of the three.


title: Canaan

text: Canaanite civilization was a response to long periods of stable climate interrupted by short periods of climate change. During these periods, Canaanites profited from their intermediary position between the ancient civilizations of the Middle East—Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia (Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, Babylonia), the Hittites, and Minoan Crete—to become city states of merchant princes along the coast, with small kingdoms specializing in agricultural products in the interior. This polarity, between coastal towns and agrarian hinterland, was illustrated in Canaanite mythology by the struggle between the storm god, variously called Teshub (Hurrian) or Ba'al Hadad (Semitic Amorite/Aramean) and Ya'a, Yaw, or Yam, god of the sea and rivers. Early Canaanite civilization was characterized by small walled market towns, surrounded by peasant farmers growing a range of local horticultural products, along with commercial growing of olives, grapes for wine, and pistachios, surrounded by extensive grain cropping, predominantly wheat and barley. Harvest in early summer was a season when transhumance nomadism was practiced—shepherds staying with their flocks during the wet season and returning to graze them on the harvested stubble, closer to water supplies in the summer. Evidence of this cycle of agriculture is found in the Gezer calendar and in the biblical cycle of the year.


title: Canaan

text: Periods of rapid climate change generally saw a collapse of this mixed Mediterranean farming system; commercial production was replaced with subsistence agricultural foodstuffs; and transhumance pastoralism became a year-round nomadic pastoral activity, whilst tribal groups wandered in a circular pattern north to the Euphrates, or south to the Egyptian delta with their flocks. Occasionally, tribal chieftains would emerge, raiding enemy settlements and rewarding loyal followers from the spoils or by tariffs levied on merchants. Should the cities band together and retaliate, a neighbouring state intervene or should the chieftain suffer a reversal of fortune, allies would fall away or intertribal feuding would return. It has been suggested that the Patriarchal tales of the Bible reflect such social forms. During the periods of the collapse of Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia and the First Intermediate Period of Egypt, the Hyksos invasions and the end of the Middle Bronze Age in Assyria and Babylonia, and the Late Bronze Age collapse, trade through the Canaanite area would dwindle, as Egypt, Babylonia, and to a lesser degree Assyria, withdrew into their isolation. When the climates stabilized, trade would resume firstly along the coast in the area of the Philistine and Phoenician cities. As markets redeveloped, new trade routes that would avoid the heavy tariffs of the coast would develop from Kadesh Barnea, through Hebron, Lachish, Jerusalem, Bethel, Samaria, Shechem, Shiloh through Galilee to Jezreel, Hazor, and Megiddo. Secondary Canaanite cities would develop in this region. Further economic development would see the creation of a third trade route from Eilath, Timna, Edom (Seir), Moab, Ammon, and thence to the Aramean states of Damascus and Palmyra. Earlier states (for example the Philistines and Tyrians in the case of Judah and Samaria, for the second route, and Judah and Israel for the third route) tried generally unsuccessfully to control the interior trade.


title: Canaan

text: Eventually, the prosperity of this trade would attract more powerful regional neighbours, such as Ancient Egypt, Assyria, the Babylonians, Persians, Ancient Greeks, and Romans, who would control the Canaanites politically, levying tribute, taxes, and tariffs. Often in such periods, thorough overgrazing would result in a climatic collapse and a repeat of the cycle (e.g., PPNB, Ghassulian, Uruk, and the Bronze Age cycles already mentioned). The fall of later Canaanite civilization occurred with the incorporation of the area into the Greco-Roman world (as Iudaea province), and after Byzantine times, into the Muslim Arab and proto-Muslim Umayyad Caliphate. Western Aramaic, one of the two lingua francas of Canaanite civilization, is still spoken in a number of small Syrian villages, whilst Phoenician Canaanite disappeared as a spoken language in about 100 CE. A separate Akkadian-infused Eastern Aramaic is still spoken by the existing Assyrians of Iraq, Iran, northeast Syria, and southeast Turkey.


title: Canaan

text: Tel Kabri contains the remains of a Canaanite city from the Middle Bronze Age (2000–1550 BCE). The city, the most important of the cities in the Western Galilee during that period, had a palace at its center. Tel Kabri is the only Canaanite city that can be excavated in its entirety because after the city was abandoned, no other city was built over its remains. It is notable because the predominant extra-Canaanite cultural influence is Minoan; Minoan-style frescoes decorate the palace.


title: Canaan

text: A 2020 genetic analysis has found that the Bronze Age Canaanite population descended from earlier local Neolithic populations together with populations related to the Chalcolithic Zagros Mountains and the Bronze Age Caucasus. According to the researchers, this mixture is probably the result of a continuing migration from the Zagros and/or Caucasus to the Levant between 2500–1000 BCE. The study has also shown that the Canaanite population contributed to most present-day Jewish groups and Levantine Arabic-speaking groups. These populations are consistent with having 50% or more of their ancestry from people related to groups who lived in the Bronze Age Levant and the Chalcolithic Zagros. These present-day groups also show ancestries that cannot be modeled by the available ancient DNA data, highlighting the importance of additional major genetic effects on the region since the Bronze Age.


title: Canaan

text: Canaan and the Canaanites are mentioned some 160 times in the Hebrew Bible, mostly in the Torah and the books of Joshua and Judges. The biblical history has become increasingly problematic as the archaeological and textual evidence supports the idea that the early Israelites were in fact themselves Canaanites. While the Hebrew Bible distinguishes the Canaanites ethnically from the ancient Israelites, modern scholars Jonathan Tubb and Mark S. Smith have theorized—based on their archaeological and linguistic interpretations—that the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah represented a subset of Canaanite culture.


title: Canaan

text: In the Hebrew Bible an ancestor called Canaan first appears as one of Noah's grandsons. He appears during the narrative known as the curse of Ham, in which Canaan is cursed with perpetual slavery because his father Ham had "looked upon" the drunk and naked Noah. The expression "look upon" at times has sexual overtones in the Bible, as in Leviticus 20:11, "The man who lies with his father's wife has uncovered his father's nakedness..." As a result, interpreters have proposed a variety of possibilities as to what kind of transgression has been committed by Ham, including the possibility that maternal incest is implied.


title: Canaan

text: The passage in the Book of Genesis often called the Table of Nations presents the Canaanites as descendants of Canaan, (, ). Genesis 10:15–19 states:


title: Canaan

text: Canaanite populations are said to have inhabited the Mediterranean coastlands (), including Lebanon corresponding to Phoenicia () and the Gaza Strip corresponding to Philistia () and the Jordan Valley (, , ).


title: Canaan

text: The Philistines, while an integral part of the Canaanite milieu, do not seem to have been ethnic Canaanites, and were listed in the Table of Nations as descendants of Mizraim. The Arameans, Moabites, Ammonites, Midianites and Edomites were also considered fellow descendants of Shem or Abraham, and distinct from generic Canaanites/Amorites. Heth, representing the Hittites, is a son of Canaan. The later Hittites spoke an Indo-European language (called "Nesili"), but their predecessors the Hattians had spoken a little-known language (Hattili), of uncertain affinities.


title: Canaan

text: The Horites, formerly of Mount Seir, were implied to be Canaanite (Hivite), although unusually there is no direct confirmation of this in the narrative. The Hurrians, based in Upper Mesopotamia, spoke the Hurrian language.


title: Canaan

text: In biblical usage, the name was confined to the country west of the Jordan River. The Canaanites were described as living "by the sea, and along by the side of the Jordan" (Book of Numbers 13:29) and "around Jordan" (Book of Joshua 22:9). John N. Oswalt notes that "Canaan consists of the land west of the Jordan and is distinguished from the area east of the Jordan." Oswalt then goes on to say that in Scripture, Canaan "takes on a theological character" as "the land which is God's gift" and "the place of abundance". The Book of Numbers, 34:2, includes the phrase "the land of Canaan as defined by its borders." The borders are then delineated in Numbers 34:3–12. The term "Canaanites" in biblical Hebrew is applied especially to the inhabitants of the lower regions, along the sea coast and on the shores of the Jordan River, as opposed to the inhabitants of the mountainous regions.


title: Canaan

text: Yahweh promises the land of Canaan to Abraham in the Book of Genesis. and eventually delivers it to descendants of Abraham, the Israelites. The Hebrew Bible describes the Israelite conquest of Canaan in the "Former Prophets" (, ), viz. the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. These books give the narrative of the Israelites after the death of Moses and their entry into Canaan under the leadership of Joshua. The renaming of the Land of Canaan as the Land of Israel marks the Israelite conquest of the Promised Land.


title: Canaan

text: The Canaanites () are said to have been one of seven regional ethnic divisions or "nations" driven out by the Israelites following the Exodus. Specifically, the other nations include the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites (). One of the 613 commandments prescribes that no inhabitants of the cities of six Canaanite nations, the same as mentioned in 7:1, minus the Girgashites, were to be left alive. ().


title: Canaan

text: In 738 BC, the Neo-Assyrian empire conquered the Kingdom of Israel. In 586 BC, the Kingdom of Judah was annexed into the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The city of Jerusalem fell after a siege which lasted either eighteen or thirty months. By 586 BC, much of Judah was devastated, and the former kingdom suffered a steep decline of both economy and population.


title: Canaan

text: "Canaan" (, ) is used only twice in the New Testament: both times in Acts of the Apostles when paraphrasing Old Testament stories. Additionally, the derivative (, "Canaanite woman") is used in Matthew's version of the exorcism of the Syrophoenician woman's daughter, while the Gospel of Mark uses the term ().


title: Canaan

text: By the Second Temple period (530 BC – 70 AD), "Canaanite" in the Hebrew language had come to be not an ethnic designation, so much as a general synonym for "merchant", as it is interpreted in, for example, Book of Job 40:30, or Book of Proverbs 31:24.


title: Canaan

text: The name "Canaanites" is attested as the endonym of the people later known to the Ancient Greeks from BC as Phoenicians, and following the emigration of Canaanite-speakers to Carthage (founded in the 9th century BC), was also used as a self-designation by the Punics ("chanani") of North Africa during Late Antiquity. This mirrors usage of the names Canaanites and Phoenicians in later books of the Hebrew Bible (such as at the end of the Book of Zechariah, where it is thought to refer to a class of merchants or to non-monotheistic worshippers in Israel or neighbouring Sidon and Tyre), as well as in its single independent usage in the New Testament (where it alternates with the term "Syrophoenician" in two parallel passages).


title: Canaan

text: "Canaan" is used as a synonym of the Promised Land; for instance, it is used in this sense in the hymn "Canaan's Happy Shore", with the lines: "Oh, brothers, will you meet me, (3x)/On Canaan's happy shore," a hymn set to the tune later used in "The Battle Hymn of the Republic".


title: Canaan

text: In the 1930s and 1940s, some Revisionist Zionist intellectuals in Mandatory Palestine founded the ideology of Canaanism, which sought to create a unique Hebrew identity, rooted in ancient Canaanite culture, rather than a Jewish one.


title: United States Football League (2022)

text: The United States Football League (USFL) is a professional American football minor league that began play on April 16, 2022. The inaugural 2022 regular season was played in its entirety in Birmingham, Alabama. The postseason games were played in Canton, Ohio, at the Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium.


title: United States Football League (2022)

text: The league is currently owned by National Spring Football League Enterprises Co, LLC, a joint venture between founder Brian Woods and Fox Corporation's sports unit, Fox Sports in the United States. Although the league owns the trademarks of the old USFL, which operated for three seasons during the mid-1980s, the new USFL is not officially associated with that entity. This is the fourth attempt to launch a league using USFL naming, including prior attempts in 1945, the aforementioned attempt in 1983, and 2010. Upon the conclusion of its first season, the league became the first high-level spring football league to complete a season since the original iteration of the XFL, following the early shutdown of the AAF and COVID-19-induced hiatus of the second XFL.


title: United States Football League (2022)

text: The current USFL champions are the Birmingham Stallions, who won the league's most recent championship game against the Philadelphia Stars on July 3, 2022, 33–30.


title: United States Football League (2022)

text: On June 3, 2021, it was announced that the United States Football League would be making a return and would begin its inaugural season in April 2022. Fox was also announced as a minority owner in the league.


title: United States Football League (2022)

text: On October 12, 2021, Tad Snider, the executive director of the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center Authority, announced that the league was in serious discussions with the board of directors of the BJCC about the possibility of the USFL playing all of its games in Birmingham, Alabama. According to initial information, USFL players/staff would be housed in Birmingham during the season for an estimated economic impact of about $15 million (47,000 hotel nights), while the league would play the bubble season at Protective Stadium and Legion Field. The "bubble" setup may possibly continue in the league's second year, with as many as four teams playing in Birmingham and as many as four in their respective cities. The teams would then be expected to play in their own cities by Season 3.


title: United States Football League (2022)

text: The proposal included an eight-team 10-week season with two additional playoff rounds, from April 16 through July 3, 2022, with the broadcast proposal as follows: 25% each on Fox, NBC, FS1 and USA. Later on December 15, 2021, Fox and NBC had finalized their agreement. NBC announced that it would air nine games on NBC itself, eight on USA, and four on its streaming service Peacock.


title: United States Football League (2022)

text: On November 17, 2021, it was announced that The Spring League founder Brian Woods would serve as the league's president, as well as Daryl Johnston as EVP of football operations, Mike Pereira as head of officiating, and Edward Hartman as EVP of business operations.


title: United States Football League (2022)

text: On January 4, 2022, NBC Sports reported that a “player selection meeting” would be held on February 22 and 23 to set teams. Training camp was to begin on March 21.


title: United States Football League (2022)

text: On January 6, 2022, four of eight teams unveiled their head coaches and general managers on "The Herd with Colin Cowherd,"


title: United States Football League (2022)

text: On January 25, 2022, the city of Birmingham announced that the league headquarters would be in Birmingham, and all games of the 2022 USFL season would be played at Protective Stadium and Legion Field.


title: United States Football League (2022)

text: The first game was played on April 16, 2022 between the Birmingham Stallions and the New Jersey Generals at Protective Stadium. The game was broadcast by Fox and NBC, the first football game simulcast on over-the-air broadcast networks since the final week of the 2007 NFL regular season when a game between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants aired on CBS and NBC in addition to cable NFL Network. Tickets were released to the public at $10 per person; children aged 15 and under were admitted for free.


title: United States Football League (2022)

text: On February 16, 2022, the league announced that the 2022 Playoffs would be held in Canton, Ohio, at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium instead of Birmingham due to conflicting scheduling with the 2022 World Games. The following day, on February 17, 2022, the league revealed uniforms for each team. The day after that the league announced the draft order for the 2022 USFL Draft.


title: United States Football League (2022)

text: On June 27, 2022, Fox Sports confirmed to "Sports Business Journal" that the USFL would return for another season in 2023. There would be no expansion that year, and the league would continue to use a hub model, with "two to four" locations housing all eight teams. In October 13, the league signed an exclusive partnership agreement with HUB Football.


title: United States Football League (2022)

text: On November 15th, 2022, The USFL and the City of Memphis, Tennessee announced that the Tampa Bay Bandits organization would effectively be relocated to Memphis as the Memphis Showboats, taking on team name/identity of the from the original incarnation of the league. The team will play all of its home games at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium, which will also serve as another "hub"" site for the league to host multiple teams at in addition to Birmingham.


title: United States Football League (2022)

text: There is no legal connection between the new entity and the source of its name, the original United States Football League, which operated from 1983 to 1986 and was officially dissolved in 1990. No principals from the former USFL are involved in the current league's ownership; Brian Woods, who had previously launched the Fall Experimental Football League and The Spring League, was initially the primary owner of the new league. By October 2021, Woods had been demoted to a vice president role as Fox Sports set up a subsidiary, the National Spring Football League, to operate the league. The Spring League, and later the NSFL, acquired most of the USFL's trademarks after the last attempt to revive them, the A-11 Football League, let them go dormant after its own failed launch in 2014. The new USFL did not inherit the old USFL's unpaid liabilities, nor its television contract; it instead holds a new contract with Fox Sports, which already owns both the rights to and an equity stake in The Spring League, and with NBC Sports.


title: United States Football League (2022)

text: According to Steve Ehrhart, former USFL executive director, he still owns the league rights and the "USFL still exists", while stating that the league officials still get monthly royalty checks. He also mentioned that he refused previous attempts to "buy" the league, "including the people who founded the first version of the XFL". Ehrhart would later explain that he was only "trying to protect the league legacy".


title: United States Football League (2022)

text: On February 28, 2022, "The Real USFL, LLC," a group fronted by Larry Csonka (acting in his capacity as general manager of the original Jacksonville Bulls) and claiming to represent the interests of the owners of the former USFL franchises, filed suit to stop the current USFL from using the name or trademarks associated with the original league. In response, the league attorneys claimed "The new USFL registered its intellectual property rights in 2011".


title: United States Football League (2022)

text: On April 14 (two days before the scheduled start of the new USFL's regular season), federal judge John F. Walter of the Central District of California denied a preliminary injunction to bar the new USFL from using the original league's name and trademarks, remarking that while the plaintiffs were "likely to prevail" on their claim of trademark infringement, "any alleged harm" could be "easily compensated by monetary damages". The Real USFL, LLC withdrew its suit with prejudice on August 22, 2022.


title: United States Football League (2022)

text: On March 23, 2022, the USFL announced an initial series of rule tweaks it would implement for its games. The league's rule variations and subsequent changes include the following:


title: United States Football League (2022)

text: Games that are tied after regulation will be resolved with an overtime session that combines elements of college football's overtime system with penalty shootouts used in soccer and ice hockey.


title: United States Football League (2022)

text: Fox Sports owns the league and has reportedly committed $150 million–$200 million over three years to its operations, with plans to attract an additional $250 million from investors. For the 2022 regular season, tickets would be sold at $10 per person, with children aged 15 and under free, for the two semi-final games tickets are sold at $15 per person and children under 15 at $5 those prices are increased by $5 for the championship game.


title: United States Football League (2022)

text: The league draws revenue of less than $10 million, making it ineligible to seek P visas for players from outside the United States; Liam Dobson, a Canadian offensive lineman, was disqualified from playing in the USFL because of the league's lack of revenue.


title: United States Football League (2022)

text: On March 3, 2022, the league announced fifteen states have approved legal, regulated betting on USFL games.


title: United States Football League (2022)

text: USFL players and staff will be able to receive a college degree "tuition-free and debt-free", through a partnership with for-profit universities Strategic Education’s Capella University and Strayer University. They will be able to take classes online or in-person.


title: United States Football League (2022)

text: Player pay structure will be $45,000 for Active Roster players, $15,000 for Practice Squad Players, and $600 weekly during training camp. Players will also receive win bonuses of $850 per win and $10,000 for winning the championship. Players will be required to pay their own rent, however, while the league offers a reduced hotel price at a cost of $75 per room per day, with an option for two players to share a room.


title: United States Football League (2022)

text: On December 15, 2022 USFL player representatives (United Football Players Association and United Steelworkers) and the league parent company FOX Sports have tentatively agreed on a new three-year collective bargaining agreement starting at the 2023 season, six months after the league players voted to unionize. The proposed agreement increases minimum salaries and provides a stronger benefits package than they previously received, and slightly higher than most XFL salaries. USFL players’ minimum salaries will be $5,350 per week, up from the current $4,500 per week payout ($2,500 for inactive players) and $150 a week toward 401K contributions, while weekly performance bonuses will be cancelled. During training camp all USFL players will get $850 a week. The new deal also include a $400 per week housing stipend. The proposed CBA includes an annual opt-out option.


title: United States Football League (2022)

text: The league announced the 2022 season will be played "with a minimum of eight teams." In addition to obtaining the rights to the USFL name and logo, the new league has obtained the rights to the aforementioned former league's team names including the Los Angeles Express, Chicago Blitz, Tampa Bay Bandits, and Houston Gamblers. Additionally, the Generals rights are owned by The Spring League, another Woods entity. Since its original announcement, the USFL had purchased more trademarks including new team names like the Birmingham Stallions, Jacksonville Bulls, and Portland Breakers, and variations on the already existing trademarks.


title: United States Football League (2022)

text: Eight teams were announced on November 22, 2021. Each of the eight teams originally had a 38-man active roster and a 7-man practice squad. However, the league decided midway through the 2022 season to expand rosters to a 40-man active game day roster, along with a 10-man practice squad


title: Tony Hawk

text: Anthony Frank Hawk (born May 12, 1968), nicknamed Birdman, is an American professional skateboarder, entrepreneur, and the owner of the skateboard company Birdhouse. A pioneer of modern vertical skateboarding, Hawk completed the first documented "900" skateboarding trick in 1999. He also licensed a skateboarding video game series named after him published by Activision that same year. He retired from competing professionally in 2003 and is regarded as one of the most influential skateboarders of all time.


title: Tony Hawk

text: Hawk has been involved in various philanthropic activities throughout his career, and is the founder of the Tony Hawk Foundation (now named The Skatepark Project), which helps to build skateparks in underprivileged areas around the world.


title: Tony Hawk

text: Tony Hawk was born on May 12, 1968, in San Diego, California, to Nancy (1924-2019) and Frank Peter Rupert Hawk, and was raised in San Diego. He has two older sisters, Pat and Lenore, and an older brother, Steve.


title: Tony Hawk

text: As a child, Hawk was described as "hyperactive", and his mother stated that he was "so hard on himself and expected himself to do so many things." One time, Hawk struck out in baseball and was so distraught that he hid in a ravine and had to be "physically coaxed out" by his father. His frustration with himself was so harsh that his parents had him psychologically evaluated at school. The results were that Tony was "gifted", as he was tested with an IQ of 144, so school advisers recommended placing him in advanced classes. Hawk attended Jean Farb Middle School from 1980 to 1981, and eventually returned for the show "Homecoming with Rick Reilly", where he set up a ramp and performed a skateboarding demonstration. His parents supported his skateboarding because it served as an outlet for his excessive energy. Hawk's skills developed, and he became a professional skateboarder at age 14. He was officially the National Skateboard Association world champion for 12 consecutive years.


title: Tony Hawk

text: Hawk attended three high schools and graduated from Torrey Pines High School in 1986. He listed Steve Caballero and Christian Hosoi as his influences at the time.


title: Tony Hawk

text: With the money he made from skateboarding, he bought his first house during his senior year in high school.


title: Tony Hawk

text: On June 27, 1999, Hawk became the first skateboarder to land a "900", a trick involving the completion of two-and-a-half mid-air revolutions on a skateboard, in which he was successful on his twelfth attempt. After completing the trick, Hawk said "This is the best day of my life." Following this feat, Hawk decided to retire from professional competition that same year, but he continued to perform at the annual X Games until 2003, when he retired from professional competition for good. In 2011, Hawk was still able to land the trick and posted a video on his Twitter account stating, "I'm 43 and I did a 900 today." On June 27, 2016, at age 48, Hawk performed what he claimed would be his final 900. In a video posted on the YouTube channel RIDE Channel, Hawk said, "Spencer was there on my first one, and now he was there on my last", after successfully landing a 900.


title: Tony Hawk

text: Hawk was invited to US president Barack Obama's June 2009 Father's Day celebration and skated in the hallways of the nearby Old Executive Office Building on the White House grounds. This marked the first time ever someone skateboarded on the White House grounds with permission from officials. In 2009, Hawk was inducted into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame at its inaugural ceremony.


title: Tony Hawk

text: As of April 2020, Hawk is sponsored by Birdhouse, Vans, Independent, Bones, and Nixon. His current Pro model shoe is the Proto. Hawk was formerly sponsored by Theeve. Following an invitation from his former sponsor, Quiksilver, Hawk assembled a group of vert skateboarders to perform, in 2012, the first-ever vert demonstration to have occurred in India. While in India, the group visited Mahatma Gandhi's house, where the skateboarders were greeted by a very excited young audience and the 540-degree maneuver was executed during the skateboarding demonstration—the Indian trip was published on Hawk's RIDE YouTube channel on February 4, 2013.


title: Tony Hawk

text: In July 2021, Hawk briefly ended his competitive retirement to participate in the Vert Best Trick event at that year's X Games, finishing in fourth place out of nine competitors.


title: Tony Hawk

text: A video game series based on Hawk's skateboarding, titled "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater", debuted in 1999. Since then, the series has spawned 18 titles so far, including ten main-series titles, four spin-offs, and four repackages.


title: Tony Hawk

text: Hawk's role in the series was usurped by customizable player characters in later installments, but he has remained a prominent character. In the fifth game in the series, "Underground", he is a minor non-player character whom the player meets in Tampa, Florida, and skates against. Impressed with the player's skills, Hawk grants them entry into a skate competition. He later appears in Moscow to teach them the "360 Varial Heelflip Lien" move. Hawk and other skaters are briefly playable near the end of the game when they skate in a promotional video for the player's skate team, and in all gameplay modes except the story mode. He appeared as a kid in the "Backyard Sports" series "Backyard Skateboarding".


title: Tony Hawk

text: In 1986, Hawk was a featured skateboarder and skater-double for Josh Brolin in the movie "Thrashin'". In 1987, he made a brief appearance in the movie "" with David Spade. In 1989, he appeared as a skateboarder in "Gleaming the Cube". In 2002, he appeared in Neal H. Moritzs's and Christopher Gilcrest's film "xXx" playing the role of one of Xander Cage's stuntman friends, and later in the movie, a skateboarder at a party. In 2004, he played himself in the Australian skateboarding movie "Deck Dogz". In 2006, he made a cameo on the film "Drake & Josh Go Hollywood" as himself. Hawk also had a cameo in the movie "The New Guy", and appeared in "" with Mat Hoffman and Bam Margera, skateboarding in a fat suit and "Jackass Number Two", while skateboarding through an obstacle course. He was also in "Jackass 3D". Hawk appeared in the film following the 2006 Gumball Rally, "3000 Miles", again with Bam Margera. He also played the police officer who arrests Ryan Dunn in the movie "". Hawk also made a brief cameo appearance in "Lords of Dogtown" as an astronaut, where he is shown comically falling off the skateboard as he is a "rookie". He voiced himself in the 2006 animated movie "Tony Hawk in Boom Boom Sabotage", where he is kidnapped by circus freaks.


title: Tony Hawk

text: Hawk was featured as an extra in the "Weird Al" Yankovic video "Smells Like Nirvana". He can be seen sitting in the bleachers during the crowd sweep near Dick Van Patten. He also made a cameo appearance in the Simple Plan music video for "I'm Just a Kid", he can be seen, in a crowd, at a high school, watching kids skating.


title: Tony Hawk

text: On television, he appeared in "Action", "What I Like About You", "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody", "The Tom Green Show", "The Naked Brothers Band", "Zeke and Luther", "Viva La Bam", and "All That". Hawk was a guest on the Nickelodeon kid's show "Yo Gabba Gabba!". In 2000, he played himself in "Max Steel". He also guest voiced on "The Simpsons" episode "Barting Over", where he played himself, along with fellow San Diegans Blink-182. In the episode, Hawk lends Homer a new board from his brand where complete rookies are able to perform at the top levels. He ends up having a comical play off with him after Homer begins to show him up. Tony Hawk appeared as himself in "MXC" in a special "MXC Almost Live" episode in 2004. On the PBS Kids show "Cyberchase", he guest-starred as Slider's long-lost father Coop. In the "" episode "Game Over" he played a game programmer who was murdered. In 2008, he played on "Million Dollar Password". Hawk also played on Fox's "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?". Hawk hosted Cartoon Network's "Hall of Game" sports award show on February 25, 2011. Hawk was on "Take Two With Phineas and Ferb". Hawk appeared on the internet cooking show "Epic Meal Time" on October 28, 2011, to celebrate the show's one-year anniversary, where he can be seen in the final scene eating a deep-fried pizza cake. Hawk reappeared on another Epic Meal Time video on July 20, 2013, as a guest on the educational cooking show "Handle It". Hawk assisted Harley Morenstein (Sauce Boss) in cooking egg rolls. The video features promotion for Hawk's own YouTube channel, RIDE Channel. He also guest-starred on the ABC comedy "Last Man Standing". He played himself in an episode of "Rocket Power".


title: Tony Hawk

text: Hawk appeared in the TV series "Breaking In", "The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange", "The Cleveland Show", "Sesame Street", and "So Random!". Hawk appeared in the movie "Parental Guidance" as himself. In 2013, he and Eric Koston appeared as reporters in an episode of "The Aquabats! Super Show!", another series by "Yo Gabba Gabba!" creator and longtime friend of Hawk's, Christian Jacobs. He also appeared in Disney's Zeke and Luther as himself. In 2015, Hawk acted as a stunt double for Will Ferrell during a skateboarding scene in the film Daddy's Home. Hawk sustained an injury that required 10 stitches in his leg while filming the scene.


title: Tony Hawk

text: He competed in the 2020 third season of "The Masked Singer" as "Elephant". He was the first of Group B to be eliminated.


title: Tony Hawk

text: In 2022, Hawk did a guest voice role in "The Casagrandes" episode "Skaters Gonna Hate" where it was revealed that he had a history with Carlos Casagrande back when he operated as "Carlos X"; that same year, HBO released a documentary on him entitled "Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off".


title: Tony Hawk

text: In 2002, Hawk started a show tour featuring freestyle motocross, skateboarding, and BMX. It started in Las Vegas and went on to 31 cities around the U.S. and eventually to Six Flags amusement parks.


title: Tony Hawk

text: A series of amusement park rides known as Tony Hawk's Big Spin were built in three Six Flags parks in 2007 and 2008. The ride was originally billed as the "Tony Hawk experience" and was designed to have the look and feel of a giant red-and-black skatepark. It offered a full "extreme sports" experience, with monitors in the queue lines displaying highlights of the history of action sports and a large spinning Tony Hawk figure crowning the ride. In 2010 Six Flags cancelled its license and the rides were renamed to Pandemonium. The ride at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom was moved to Six Flags Mexico in 2012 to make way for a new ride known as . Additionally, a water park ride called Tony Hawk's Half pipe (renamed The Half pipe in 2011) was opened at Six Flags America in Bowie, Maryland.


title: Tony Hawk

text: In January 2012, Hawk launched the YouTube channel "RIDE Channel". In the welcome video, Hawk explained:


title: Tony Hawk

text: In February 2018, "New York" magazine reported that Hawk was working with Jeremy Burge to help design Emojipedia's skateboard emoji after the company's initial design was criticized by Hawk as "a skateboard you would buy at a department store in the '80s." The updated design was based on Hawk's own skateboard. Subsequent releases of the skateboard emoji from Apple and Samsung resemble Hawk's board (including 60mm wheels) despite no direct collaboration between Hawk and these companies.


title: Tony Hawk

text: In December 2011, Hawk was identified by "Transworld Skateboarding" magazine as the second most influential skateboarder of all time after Mark Gonzales for the invention of the Backside Ollie to tail.


title: Tony Hawk

text: In January 2013, professional skateboarder John Cardiel, identified by "Transworld Skateboarding" as the eleventh most influential skateboarder of all time, listed Hawk as one of his personal all-time skateboarding influences, alongside Gonzales, Christian Hosoi, and Sacramento's skateboarders. Cardiel explained, "... the insane 540s with no hands, and, just like, all his tricks; he had the ramps, all his ramps, all the ramps he had—I thought that was insane. Tony Hawk's the best."


title: Tony Hawk

text: In an interview for the online series "Free Lunch", produced by Hawk's RIDE Channel, professional skateboarder Andrew Reynolds stated:


title: Tony Hawk

text: ... and then Tony's just, like, Tony Hawk—he's like, basically, to me it says, "You can be a skater and take over everything and be, you know ... and use skateboarding to be ... a businessman, a ... role model to young people," um, he's just the best. And, he called my house when I was fifteen, and was, like, "Do you wanna do something with us?" not knowing anything about me. Yeah, Tony's the man, sure, he's the best.


title: Tony Hawk

text: ... I was just, kinda like, "it's kinda touchy, you know what I mean, like?" It's kinda weird, you know? Tony's kid, he rides for Birdhouse. But I look at it, like, I picture him on Baker, you know what I mean? So we just approached Tony, "Yeah, we wanna talk to Riley about maybe gettin' some Baker boards, or something like that." And Tony's like, "Man, he's rippin', he's nineteen years old, he can, you know, it's really up to him. You guys talk to him, you know?" So we just kinda said, "You wanna get some boards?" He's like, "I'm down, man!" And I look at it, like, there would be no Baker without Tony and Birdhouse. I know it's an ongoing process, you know? Tony quits to start Birdhouse; I quit to start Baker; my guys quit to start a new brand, you know? It's just an ongoing thing.


title: Tony Hawk

text: Hawk often posts on Twitter about encounters with people who do not recognize him or wonder if he is really Tony Hawk. Some of these tweets have gone viral, and misidentifying him became a running joke among fans.


title: Tony Hawk

text: In April 1990, Hawk married Cindy Dunbar, whom he began dating in high school. Their son, Riley Hawk, was born on December 6, 1992, and was named after one of Hawk's ancestors. Riley is also a professional skateboarder. Hawk and Dunbar divorced in 1993.


title: Tony Hawk

text: Hawk was married to Erin Lee from 1996 to 2004. They have two sons, Spencer (b. 1999) and Keegan (b. 2001). Spencer is an electronic music producer who releases music as Gupi.


title: Tony Hawk

text: Hawk was married to Lhotse Merriam from 2006 to 2011. Their wedding was held in Fiji and Rancid played for them as the wedding's band. The couple's only child, a daughter named Kadence Clover Hawk, was born in 2008.


title: Tony Hawk

text: Hawk created the Tony Hawk Foundation in 2002 in response to the lack of safe and legal skateparks in America. As of June 2018, his foundation has awarded US$5.8 million, aiding 596 skatepark projects. In 2015, the foundation received the Robert Wood Johnson Sports award, which honors recipients for their innovative and influential approaches to using sports to build a culture of health in their communities. In 2007, Hawk, Andre Agassi, Muhammad Ali, Lance Armstrong, Warrick Dunn, Jeff Gordon, Mia Hamm, Andrea Jaeger, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Mario Lemieux, Alonzo Mourning, and Cal Ripken Jr. founded the charity Athletes for Hope, an organization that aims to inspire all people to volunteer and support their communities through the actions of professional athletes. In 2020, the Tony Hawk Foundation changed its name to The Skatepark Project to better describe the organization's mission.


title: Chrissy Teigen

text: Christine Diane Teigen (born November 30, 1985) is an American model and television personality. She made her professional modeling debut in the annual "Sports Illustrated" Swimsuit Issue in 2010 and later appeared on the 50th anniversary cover alongside Nina Agdal and Lily Aldridge in 2014. She formerly appeared as a panelist on the syndicated daytime talk show "FABLife" (2015–2016). She co-hosted the musical competition series "Lip Sync Battle" (2015–2019) with LL Cool J and was a judge on the comedy competition series "Bring the Funny" (2019). Teigen has also authored three cookbooks.


title: Chrissy Teigen

text: Christine Diane Teigen was born on November 30, 1985, in Delta, Utah. Her mother, Vilailuck, is from Thailand, while her father, Ron, is an American of Norwegian descent. Her surname is usually pronounced ; despite this, she stated that she prefers the pronunciation . After she was born, she and her family relocated to Snohomish, Washington, where her parents ran a tavern.


title: Chrissy Teigen

text: When Teigen was 15, her father relocated them to Huntington Beach, California, after her mother returned to Thailand. During this time, she worked at a surf shop, where she landed a modeling campaign with clothing company Billabong through the shop's clients, and was discovered by a photographer. In her early modeling career, Teigen lived in Miami, Florida, "for four years, six months out of the year".


title: Chrissy Teigen

text: Teigen was a briefcase model on the game show "Deal or No Deal" during the pilot and first season. She appeared in the "Sports Illustrated" swimsuit issue in 2010, and was named "Rookie of the Year". Her friend and fellow model Brooklyn Decker had introduced her to the people at "Sports Illustrated" to cast her. The following year, she designed and debuted a capsule collection with swimwear designer DiNeila Brazil at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Swim in Miami as well as appeared as a featured character in the 2011 Electronic Arts video game "Need For Speed: The Run". She also filmed a Cooking Channel special titled "Cookies and Cocktails".


title: Chrissy Teigen

text: Two years later, Teigen was the host of the competition series "Model Employee" on VH1. She was also featured on another Cooking Channel special, titled "Chrissy Teigen's Hungry", detailing her wedding menu tasting with then-fiancé, John Legend. In October 2013, she appeared in Legend's music video for the song "All of Me", which also features footage from their wedding. In April 2014, Teigen played a fictionalized version of herself as a relationship counselor in an "Inside Amy Schumer" sketch. That same year, she appeared on the 50th anniversary cover of the "Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue" with Nina Agdal and Lily Aldridge. In January 2015, Teigen guest starred on the sitcom "The Mindy Project" as the girlfriend of the man who was the main character's first sexual partner. In April, she became a co-host of the musical competition series "Lip Sync Battle" alongside LL Cool J. She co-hosted the 2015 "Billboard" Music Awards with Ludacris.


title: Chrissy Teigen

text: From September 2015 until June 2016, Teigen was a food stylist and panelist on Tyra Banks's syndicated daytime talk show, "FABLife". In February 2016, she published a book titled "Cravings: Recipes for All of the Food You Want to Eat", which went on to become a "New York Times" bestseller and the second-best selling cookbook of the year. The following year, Teigen released a clothing line in collaboration with the fashion company Revolve. In September 2018, she released her second book, titled "Cravings: Hungry For More". Simultaneously, she released a line of cookware through Target. In 2019, she was included on "Time"s list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Teigen started a YouTube channel in 2019. The channel consists of family cooking content and tutorials featuring Teigen, her mother, her husband, and two children.


title: Chrissy Teigen

text: The following year, Teigen appeared as a judge for the comedy competition series "Bring the Funny". In November, she launched a cooking website, Cravings by Chrissy Teigen, which features recipes as well as restaurant and entertaining tips. "Chrissy's Court", a courtroom-style series starring Teigen, debuted in April 2020 on Quibi. Teigen also serves as executive producer for the series. The series survived the platform's demise later that year, moving to The Roku Channel in May 2021 and premiering its second season in June 2022. It was the platform's most watched unscripted premiere ever. The third season is scheduled to premiere on October 21, 2022.


title: Chrissy Teigen

text: As of May 2021, Target had stopped carrying her cookware line, which a company spokesperson said was a "mutual decision".


title: Chrissy Teigen

text: Teigen identifies herself as a feminist and intends raising her children as such. She made donations to nonprofit organization Planned Parenthood in 2015 following the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood shooting and again in 2017. She and her husband donated $25,000 to March for Our Lives, a rally against gun violence, in 2018. A supporter of immigrants' rights, Teigen delivered a speech at a Families Belong Together event in Los Angeles that same year. In May 2020, she donated $200,000 to bail and legal defense funds to aid activists arrested during protests in response to the murder of George Floyd.


title: Chrissy Teigen

text: Teigen is a vocal critic of former U.S. President Donald Trump. In June 2018, she donated $72,000 to the American Civil Liberties Union, a nonprofit organization, to commemorate Trump's 72nd birthday. Teigen and her husband endorsed Elizabeth Warren during the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries. The couple endorsed Joe Biden in the 2020 United States presidential election.


title: Chrissy Teigen

text: Teigen became engaged to singer John Legend in December 2011, after four years of dating. The couple first met while filming his 2006 music video for the song "Stereo", in which she played his love interest. They married in September 2013, celebrating their wedding on September 14 in Como, Italy. Legend's song "All of Me" was dedicated to her. They reside in Beverly Hills, California. Teigen and Legend have two children, a daughter born in April 2016 and a son born in May 2018. In 2020, the couple were expecting a third child, but Teigen later revealed that she aborted the pregnancy in September due to pregnancy complications. On August 3, 2022, she announced on Instagram that she is expecting another child.


title: Chrissy Teigen

text: In May 2021, television personality Courtney Stodden said that in 2011, during her marriage as a minor to actor Doug Hutchison, Teigen tweeted and privately messaged them urging them to kill themselves. Teigen subsequently apologized to Stodden, saying she was sad and mortified at her past self, whom she described as "an insecure, attention seeking troll." Stodden accepted her apology but deemed it an attempt to save her business partnerships. A month later, Teigen released another apology in a lengthy blog post admitting to cyberbullying. Fashion designer Michael Costello and television personality Farrah Abraham then respectively spoke out about being targets of her attacks, with Costello posting screenshots of taunting messages from Teigen. In response to Costello, Teigen stated that his screenshots had been faked and shared screenshots of praiseful messages from Costello, after which the designer said he had evidence to verify his claims.


title: Jimmy O. Yang

text: Jimmy O. Yang (; born June 11, 1987) is a Hong Kong-born American actor, stand-up comedian, and writer. As an actor, he is best known for starring as Jian-Yang in the HBO comedy series "Silicon Valley", as Dr. Chan Kaifang in the Netflix comedy series "Space Force", and as Josh Lin in the Netflix romantic comedy film "Love Hard" (2021).


title: Jimmy O. Yang

text: Yang was born in Hong Kong during British rule. His parents were both from Shanghai and later moved to Hong Kong. In 2000, when Yang was 13, his family emigrated to the United States and settled in Los Angeles, California. His aunt and grandmother were already living in the US; his parents joined them primarily to allow Yang and his brother, Roy, access to better schools. Yang enrolled at John Burroughs Middle School for eighth grade, then later attended Beverly Hills High School.


title: Jimmy O. Yang

text: Yang graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a degree in economics in 2009. The commencement speaker at his college graduation was his future "Silicon Valley" showrunner and fellow UCSD alumnus Mike Judge.


title: Jimmy O. Yang

text: Yang did his first stand-up set at 21 years old as "Lowball Jim" at the Ha Ha Comedy Club in North Hollywood, Los Angeles.


title: Jimmy O. Yang

text: After graduation, he interned at the financial consulting firm Smith Barney in Beverly Hills, California, but found it unfulfilling and turned down its return offer. Instead, he returned to San Diego to finish his graduation requirements. He stayed in the city afterward, where he sold used cars, DJed at a strip club, and seated customers at a comedy club to support himself while doing stand-up sets for free at The Comedy Palace. There he met his mentor, Sean Kelly, a stand-up comedian who ran the venue and later created the reality show "Storage Hunters".


title: Jimmy O. Yang

text: When Yang moved back to Los Angeles, he signed up with Central Casting, due to their low barrier of entry, and with various casting websites. He was spurred to consider acting when a friend told him there was money to be made in residual checks from commercials. In the interim, he did stand-up sets around Southern California and signed up for acting classes. He eventually found acting representation through the Vesta Talent Agency.


title: Jimmy O. Yang

text: Yang made his television debut on the CBS series "2 Broke Girls" in 2012, and his first late-night stand-up appearance on "The Arsenio Hall Show" in 2014. He played Tang-See in season 9 of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia", and appeared in an episode of "Criminal Minds" as Nathan Chow, a high-school student who suffered a psychotic break. He was a writer/consultant for the Harlem Globetrotters, and voiced roles in the video game "Infamous Second Son".


title: Jimmy O. Yang

text: He initially appeared on "Silicon Valley" in a guest role, making scale, then $900 per episode. He appeared in three episodes and spent the money on a Prius so he could drive for Uber to earn money between the show's first and second seasons. For season 2, he was promoted to series regular. Prior to the announcement, he had landed a series-regular role on the Yahoo! Screen original television show "Sin City Saints". He turned down the offer because it would have required him to quit "Silicon Valley," which ran from 2014 to 2019.


title: Jimmy O. Yang

text: Yang's first dramatic role was as Dun "Danny" Meng, a Chinese immigrant who is carjacked by the Tsarnaev brothers, in the 2016 action drama "Patriots Day".


title: Jimmy O. Yang

text: In 2018, he played Bernard Tai in the romantic comedy film "Crazy Rich Asians", directed by Jon M. Chu.


title: Jimmy O. Yang

text: On September 26, 2019, it was announced that Yang was cast as Dr. Chan Kaifang in the Netflix comedy series "Space Force".


title: Jimmy O. Yang

text: In 2020, he starred opposite Ryan Hansen in two films, "Like a Boss" and "Fantasy Island", released a month apart. In the first film, their characters were business partners; and in the second, they were step-siblings who were strongly fond of each other.


title: Jimmy O. Yang

text: Yang's comedy special "Good Deal" was released on Amazon Prime Video on May 8, 2020. He stars opposite Nina Dobrev in Netflix's "Love Hard", his first romantic film.


title: Jimmy O. Yang

text: Yang is also the author of "How to American: An Immigrant's Guide to Disappointing Your Parents", a book where "he shares his story of growing up as a Chinese immigrant who pursued a Hollywood career against the wishes of his parents." Mike Judge wrote the foreword.


title: Jimmy O. Yang

text: Yang's father, Richard Ouyang, later signed with the same talent agency and has appeared in several films, including playing his son's character's father in "Patriots Day".


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius (; ; born 22 November 1986) is a South African convicted murderer and former professional sprinter. Both of his feet were amputated when he was 11 months old owing to a congenital defect; he was born missing the outside of both feet and both fibulae. Pistorius ran in both nondisabled sprint events and in sprint events for below-knee amputees. He was the 10th athlete to compete at both the Paralympic Games and Olympic Games.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: After becoming a Paralympic champion, Pistorius attempted to enter nondisabled international competitions, over persistent objections by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and arguments that his artificial limbs gave an unfair advantage. Pistorius prevailed in this legal dispute. At the 2011 World Championships in Athletics, Pistorius was the first amputee to win a nondisabled world track medal. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Pistorius was the first double-leg amputee participant.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: On 14 February 2013, Pistorius shot and killed his girlfriend, paralegal and model Reeva Steenkamp, in his Pretoria home. He claimed he had mistaken Steenkamp for an intruder hiding in the bathroom. He was arrested and charged with murder. At his trial the following year, Pistorius was found not guilty of murder, but guilty of culpable homicide. He received a five-year prison sentence for culpable homicide and a concurrent three-year suspended sentence for a separate reckless endangerment conviction.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: Pistorius was temporarily released on house arrest in 2015 while the case was presented on appeal to a panel at the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa, which overturned the culpable homicide verdict and convicted him of murder. In July 2016, Judge Thokozile Masipa extended Pistorius's sentence to six years. On appeal by the state for a longer prison sentence, the Supreme Court of Appeal increased the prison term to a total of 15 years. Pistorius will be eligible for parole in 2023.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius was born to Henke and Sheila Pistorius on 22 November 1986 in Sandton, Johannesburg, in what was then Transvaal Province (now Gauteng Province) of South Africa. He grew up in a Christian home and has an elder brother, Carl, and a younger sister, Aimée. Pistorius credits his mother, who died at the age of 43 when Pistorius was 15 years old, as a major influence in his life. Pistorius is from an Afrikaner family with partial Italian ancestry from his maternal great-grandfather, who was an Italian emigrant to Kenya. Afrikaans is his mother tongue and he is also fluent in English.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: Pistorius was born with fibular hemimelia (congenital absence of the fibula) in both legs. When he was 11 months old, both of his legs were amputated halfway between his knees and ankles. He attended Constantia Kloof Primary School and Pretoria Boys High School, where he played rugby union in the school's third XV team. He played water polo and tennis at provincial level between the ages of 11 and 13. In addition, Pistorius took part in club Olympic wrestling, and trained at Jannie Brooks's garage gym in Pretoria. Brooks remarked that it took six months before he noticed that Pistorius "had no legs", but nonetheless was able to do many exercises, including "boxing, skipping, and doing press-ups".


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: After a serious rugby knee injury in June 2003, he was introduced to running in January 2004 while undergoing rehabilitation at the University of Pretoria's High Performance Centre with coach Ampie Louw, and "never looked back". His first racing blades were fitted by South African prosthetist Francois van der Watt. Because he was unable to find suitable running blades in Pretoria, Van der Watt ordered the pair to be made by a local engineer. However, as these quickly broke, Van der Watt referred Pistorius to American prosthetist and Paralympic sprinter Brian Frasure to be fitted for blades by Icelandic company Össur.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: Pistorius began studying for a bachelor of commerce (B.Com.) in business management with sports science at the University of Pretoria in 2006. In a June 2008 interview for his University's website, he joked: "I won't graduate soon. With all the training I have had to cut down on my subjects. Hopefully I'll finish by the time I'm 30!" Asked by a journalist for his "sporting motto", he said: "You're not disabled by the disabilities you have, you are able by the abilities you have."


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: Pistorius competed in T44 (single below-knee amputees) events though he is classified in T43 (double below-knee amputee). Sometimes referred to as the "Blade Runner" (after the science fiction film of the same name) and "the fastest man on no legs", Pistorius took part in the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens and came third overall in the T44 100-metre event. Despite falling in the preliminary round for the 200 metres, he qualified for the final. He went on to win the final in a world record time of 21.97 seconds, beating a pair of American runners, Marlon Shirley and Brian Frasure, both with single amputations.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: In 2005, Pistorius finished sixth in the nondisabled South African Championships over 400 metres with a world-record time of 47.34 seconds, and at the Paralympic World Cup in the same year, he won gold in the 100 metres and 200 metres, beating his previous 200-metre world record. At the 2006 IPC Athletics World Championships, Pistorius won gold in the 100-, 200- and 400-metre events, breaking the world record over 200 metres. On 17 March 2007, he set a disability sports world record for the 400 metres (46.56 seconds) at the South African Senior Athletics Championships in Durban; and at the Nedbank Championships for the Physically Disabled held in Johannesburg in April 2007. He became the world record holder of the 100- and 200-metre events with times of 10.91 and 21.58 seconds, respectively.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: Pistorius was invited by the IAAF to take part in what would have been his first international nondisabled event, the 400-metre race at the IAAF Grand Prix in Helsinki, Finland, in July 2005. He was unable to attend, however, because of school commitments. On 13 July 2007, Pistorius ran in the 400-metre race at Rome's Golden Gala and finished second in run B with a time of 46.90 seconds, behind Stefano Braciola who ran 46.72 seconds. This was a warm-up for his appearance at the 400 metres at the Norwich Union British Grand Prix at the Don Valley Stadium in Sheffield on 15 July 2007. As American Olympic champion Jeremy Wariner stumbled at the start of the race and stopped running, Pistorius took seventh place in a field of eight in wet conditions with a time of 47.65 seconds. However, he was later disqualified for running outside his lane. The race was won by American Angelo Taylor with a time of 45.25 seconds. Pistorius had ambitions of competing in other non-disabled events. In particular, he had set his sights on competing at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China, but was not selected by the South African Olympic Committee.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: Pistorius has been the subject of criticism because of claims that his artificial limbs give him an advantage over runners with natural ankles and feet. He runs with J-shaped carbon-fibre prostheses called the "Flex-Foot Cheetah" developed by biomedical engineer Van Phillips and manufactured by Össur.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: On 26 March 2007, the IAAF amended its competition rules to include a ban on the use of "any technical device that incorporates springs, wheels, or any other element that provides a user with an advantage over another athlete not using such a device". The IAAF stated that the amendment was not specifically aimed at Pistorius. To decide whether he was running with an unfair advantage, the IAAF monitored his track performances using high-definition cameras to film his race against Italian club runners in Rome on 13 July, and his 400 metres in Sheffield on 15 July 2007, at which he placed last.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: In November 2007, Pistorius was invited to take part in a series of scientific tests at the German Sports University Cologne under the guidance of Professor of Biomechanics Dr Peter Brüggemann in conjunction with Elio Locatelli, who was responsible for all technical issues in the IAAF. After two days of tests, Brüggemann reported on his findings on behalf of the IAAF. The report claimed that Pistorius's limbs used 25% less energy than runners with complete natural legs running at the same speed, and that they led to less vertical motion combined with 30% less mechanical work for lifting the body. In December, Brüggemann told "Die Welt" newspaper that Pistorius "has considerable advantages over athletes without prosthetic limbs who were tested by us. It was more than just a few percentage points. I did not expect it to be so clear." Based on these findings, on 14 January 2008, the IAAF ruled Pistorius's prostheses ineligible for use in competitions conducted under the IAAF rules, including the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Pistorius called the decision "premature and highly subjective" and pledged to continue fighting for his dream. His manager, Peet van Zylm, said his appeal would be based on advice from experts in the United States who had said that the report "did not take enough variables into consideration".


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: Pistorius subsequently appealed against the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland, and appeared before the tribunal at the end of April 2008. After a two-day hearing, on 16 May 2008, CAS upheld Pistorius's appeal and the IAAF council decision was revoked with immediate effect. The CAS panel unanimously determined that Brüggemann tested Pistorius's biomechanics only at full-speed when he was running in a straight line (unlike a real 400-metre race); that the report did not consider the disadvantages that Pistorius has at the start and acceleration phases of the race; and that overall there was no evidence that he had any net advantage over non-disabled athletes. In response to the announcement, Pistorius said: "My focus throughout this appeal has been to ensure that disabled athletes be given the chance to compete and compete fairly with non-disabled athletes. I look forward to continuing my quest to qualify for the Olympics."


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: To have a chance of representing South Africa at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing in the individual 400-metre race, Pistorius had to attain the Olympic "A" standard time of 45.55 seconds; the "B" qualifying time of 45.95 seconds, which applies if no other athlete from his country achieved the faster time, did not apply. Each national athletics federation is permitted to enter three athletes in an event if the "A" standard is met, and only one athlete if the "B" standard is met. However, he was eligible for selection as a member of the relay squad without qualifying. His best chance was to try for a time of close to 46 seconds to make the 4 × 400-metre relay team. However, he said: "If I make the team I don't want to be the reserve for the relay, I want to be in the top four. I want to bring something to the race and make the relay stronger." To give him a chance of making the South African Olympic team, selectors delayed naming the team until 17 July.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: On 2 July 2008, Pistorius competed in the 400 metres in the B race of the Notturna International in Milan but was "disappointed" when at 47.78 seconds his fourth-place finish was over the minimum Olympic qualifying time. His performance on 11 July 2008 at the Rome Golden Gala was an improvement of more than a second, though his sixth-place time of 46.62 seconds in the B race was still over the Olympic qualification time. Nonetheless, he was pleased with his performance, commenting that he felt he could improve on it.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: On 15 July 2008, IAAF general secretary Pierre Weiss commented that the world athletics body preferred that the South African Olympic Committee not select Pistorius for its 4 × 400 metres relay team "for reasons of safety", saying that Pistorius could cause "serious damage" and risk the physical safety of himself and other athletes if he ran in the main pack of the relay. Pistorius branded this as the IAAF's "last desperate attempt" to get him not to qualify, and threatened legal action if the IAAF did not confirm that it had no objections to his participation in the relay. The IAAF responded by issuing a statement saying that Pistorius was welcome to seek qualification for the Olympics and future competitions under IAAF rules: "The IAAF fully respects the recent CAS decision regarding the eligibility of Oscar Pistorius to compete in IAAF competitions, and certainly has no wish to influence the South African Olympic Committee, who has full authority to select a men's 4 × 400m relay team for the Beijing Olympics."


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: Coming third, with a personal best time of 46.25 seconds, at the Spitzen Leichtathletik meeting in Lucerne, Switzerland, on 16 July 2008, Pistorius failed to qualify for the 400 metres at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games by 0.70 seconds. Athletics South Africa later announced that he would also not be selected for the 4 × 400 metres relay team as four other runners had better times. Pistorius would not have been the debut leg amputee to participate in the Olympic Games as George Eyser had competed earlier. Pistorius's compatriot Natalie du Toit, a swimmer whose left leg was amputated above the knee after a traffic accident, was the debut amputee Olympian, at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Asked about the possibility of the IAAF offering him a wild card to take part in the Olympics, Pistorius responded: "I do not believe that I would accept. If I have to take part in the Beijing Games I should do it because I qualified." He expressed a preference for focusing on qualification for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London, stating that it was a more realistic target as "sprinters usually reach their peak between 26 and 29. I will be 25 in London and I'll also have two, three years' preparation."


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: Pistorius participated in the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing in the 100, 200 and 400 metres (T44). On 9 September, in the heats of the 100 metres, he set a Paralympic record with his time of 11.16 seconds. Later, following a slow start, he rallied to snatch gold from the United States' Jerome Singleton in the 100 metres in a time of 11.17 seconds, 0.03 seconds ahead of the silver medallist. Four days later, on 13 September, the defending Paralympic champion in the 200-metre sprint won his second gold in the event in a time of 21.67 seconds, setting another Paralympic record. He completed a hat-trick by winning gold in the 400 metres in a world-record time of 47.49 seconds on 16 September, calling it "a memory that will stay with me for the rest of my life".


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: In January 2011, a slimmer, trimmer Pistorius won three IPC Athletics World titles in New Zealand but was beaten for the first time in seven years in the 100 metres by Jerome Singleton. He subsequently won the T44 400 metres in 47.28 seconds and the 100 metres in 11.04 seconds at the BT Paralympic World Cup in May to reassert himself as the world's leading Paralympic sprinter.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: Pistorius competed across a number of non-disabled races in the summer of 2011 and posted three times under 46 seconds, but it was at the 19th Internazionale di Atletica Sports Solidarity Meeting in Lignano, Italy, on 19 July, that he set a personal best of 45.07 seconds in the 400 metres, attaining the World Championships and Olympic Games "A" standard qualification mark.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: On 8 August 2011, it was announced that he had been included in the South African team for the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, and had been selected for the 400-metre and the 4 × 400 metre relay squad. In the heats of the 400 metres, Pistorius ran in 45.39 seconds and qualified for the semi-final. However, in the semi-final, he ran 46.19 seconds and was eliminated.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: In the heats of the 4 × 400 metres relay, Pistorius ran the opening leg as South Africa advanced to the finals with a national record time of 2 minutes 59.21 seconds. However, he was not selected to run in the finals since he had the slowest split time of 46.20 seconds. This caused a controversy, as the first leg is normally Pistorius's slowest since it requires a start from blocks, and he was restricted to the first leg by Athletics South Africa "on safety grounds". He initially tweeted: "Haven't been included in final. Pretty gutted.", but later added: "Well done to the SA 4×400m team. Was really hard watching, knowing I deserved to ." Pistorius still won the silver medal because he ran in the heats, becoming the first amputee to win a non-disabled world track medal. Reflecting on his World Championship debut, Pistorius said: "I really enjoyed the whole experience. I ran my second fastest time ever in the heats and was really pleased to have reached the semi-finals. In the relay, I was unbelievably chuffed to have broken the South African record, and hopefully my name will stay on that for a long time to come."


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: On 4 July 2012, the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) announced that Pistorius had been included in the Olympic team for the 400-metre and the 4 × 400 metres relay races.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: At the 2012 Summer Olympic Games on 4 August 2012, Pistorius became the debut amputee runner to compete at an Olympic Games. In the 400-metre race, he took second place in the first heat of five runners, finishing with a time of 45.44 seconds (his best time that season) to advance to the semi-finals on 5 August. He ran in the second semi-final, where he finished eighth and last with a time of 46.54 seconds.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: In the first semi-final of the 4 × 400 metres relay race on 9 August, the second leg runner of the South African team, Ofentse Mogawane, fell and was injured before reaching the third leg runner, Pistorius. South Africa was passed into the final on appeal to the IAAF, due to interference by Vincent Kiilu, the Kenyan athlete who downed Mogawane. The South African relay team eventually finished eighth out of the field of nine in the final on 10 August. However, it established a season's best time for the team of 3 minutes 3.46 seconds, with Pistorius running the final leg in 45.9 seconds. Pistorius was chosen to carry the South African flag for the closing ceremony.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: Pistorius also carried the flag at the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Paralympics on 29 August. He entered the T44 classification men's 100 metres, 200 metres and 400 metres races, and the T42–T46 4 × 100 metres relay.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: In the 200-metre competition, Pistorius established a new T43 world record of 21.30 seconds in his heat on 1 September, but he was defeated in the final the next day by Alan Oliveira of Brazil. Pistorius took silver, and subsequently complained about the length of Oliveira's blades. He later apologised for the timing of his remarks, but not the content of his complaint. The IPC confirmed the length of Oliveira's blades were proportional to his body, with all the finalists measured before the race. The IPC also confirmed that Pistorius had raised the issue of blade length with it six weeks prior to the race. SASCOC issued a statement welcoming Pistorius's apology for his outburst, declared its full support for him and promised to assist him in discussions with the IPC about the issue of lengthened prostheses after the conclusion of the Games. The IPC expressed willingness to engage with Pistorius about the issue. Australian runner Jack Swift and American runner Jerome Singleton also expressed support for Pistorius's position.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: Pistorius won a team gold medal on 5 September, running the anchor leg as part of the South African 4 × 100 metres relay team setting a team world record time of 41.78 seconds. His Beijing Olympics 100-metre title was defended with a season's best time of


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: 11.17 seconds but was succeeded by Great Britain's Jonnie Peacock. On 8 September, the last full day of competition, Pistorius won gold in the T44 400 metres with a time of 46.68 seconds, breaking the Paralympic record.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: In 2006, Pistorius was conferred the Order of Ikhamanga in Bronze (OIB) by then President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, for outstanding achievement in sports. On 9 December 2007, Pistorius was awarded the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Helen Rollason Award, which is conferred for outstanding courage and achievement in the face of adversity. This was later revoked following his conviction for murder.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: In May 2008, Pistorius made the "Time 100" – "Time" magazine's annual list of the world's most influential people – appearing third in the "Heroes & Pioneers" section. Erik Weihenmayer, the first blind person to climb Mount Everest, wrote in an essay that Pistorius was "on the cusp of a paradigm shift in which disability becomes ability, disadvantage becomes advantage. Yet we mustn't lose sight of what makes an athlete great. It's too easy to credit Pistorius's success to technology. Through birth or circumstance, some are given certain gifts, but it's what one does with those gifts, the hours devoted to training, the desire to be the best, that is at the true heart of a champion." In 2012, he made the list again.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: In February 2012, Pistorius was awarded the Laureus World Sports Award for Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability for 2012. On 22 August 2012, he was honoured with the unveiling of a large mural depicting his achievements in the town of Gemona, Italy.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: On 9 September 2012, Pistorius was shortlisted by the IPC for the Whang Youn Dai Achievement Award as a competitor "who is fair, honest and is uncompromising in his or her values and prioritises the promotion of the Paralympic Movement above personal recognition". According to director Craig Spence, he was nominated by an unnamed external organisation from South Korea. The award went to two other athletes.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: After the 2012 Summer Paralympics, the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow announced it would confer on Pistorius, among others, an honorary doctorate. In February 2015, following his conviction for culpable homicide, the university revoked the honorary degree.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: In 2012, Pistorius had sponsorship deals worth US$2 million a year with Össur, BT, Nike, Oakley and Thierry Mugler. He also participated as a model in advertising campaigns.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: Following the murder charge, sponsors were initially hesitant to abandon him, but after a week sponsors began to withdraw their support.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: In 2008, Pistorius collaborated in the release of a music CD called "Olympic Dream". Produced in Italy, it consists of disco remixes of music pieces that Pistorius finds inspirational, and two tracks written for him, "Olympic Dream" and "Run Boy Run", for which he provided voiceovers. Part of the CD's proceeds of sale went to charity. Pistorius also actively supports the Mineseeker Foundation, a charity that works to raise awareness for landmine victims and has a support programme to provide prostheses for survivors.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: Pistorius has two visible tattoos: the dates of his mother's birth and death ("LVIII V VIII – II III VI" – 8 May 1958 – 6 March 2002) are tattooed on the inside of his right arm; the other tattoo, which is on his back, is the Bible verse which begins, "I do not run like a man running aimlessly." He lived in Silverwoods Country Estate, Pretoria. The house was sold in June 2014. Aside from running, his interests include architecture, motorbiking, playing the electric guitar and breeding race horses.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: Pistorius's autobiography, "Dream Runner", was published in Italian in 2007 with Gianni Merlo, a journalist with "La Gazzetta dello Sport". An English version titled "Blade Runner" was released in 2008. In 2010, Pistorius appeared on "L'isola dei famosi", an Italian version of "Celebrity Survivor". On 7 January 2012, he appeared as a special guest on the Italian version of "Dancing with the Stars" called "Ballando con le Stelle" at Auditorium Rai in Rome, where he danced a tango with Annalisa Longo to ABBA's "The Winner Takes It All". On 9 October 2012, Pistorius appeared on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno". He was also scheduled to appear on "Piers Morgan Tonight" and the "Larry King Now" show at later dates.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: In February 2009, Pistorius was seriously injured when he was thrown from a boat in an accident on the Vaal River near Johannesburg. He was airlifted to Milpark Hospital, where he underwent surgery to repair broken facial bones, including his nose and jaw. There were initial concerns about his fitness, but he recovered fully. However, the accident affected his training and running schedule for that year.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: Pistorius was scheduled as an amateur golfer in the 2012 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship held at St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns in Scotland. Pistorius has a 21 handicap in South Africa, but played off an 18 handicap for the Championship. In 2010, he played in the Laureus World Sports Awards Golf Challenge at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates and the Help-net Fund Celebrity Charity Golf Day.


title: Oscar Pistorius

text: In the early morning of Thursday, 14 February 2013, Pistorius shot and killed Reeva Steenkamp at his home in Pretoria. Pistorius admitted that he shot Steenkamp four times, causing her death but claimed he mistook her for a possible intruder.