title: Francis Fukuyama

text: In a "New York Times" article from February 2006, Fukuyama, in considering the ongoing Iraq War, stated: "What American foreign policy needs is not a return to a narrow and cynical realism, but rather the formulation of a 'realistic Wilsonianism' that better matches means to ends." In regard to neoconservatism, he went on to say: "What is needed now are new ideas, neither neoconservative nor realist, for how America is to relate to the rest of the world – ideas that retain the neoconservative belief in the universality of human rights, but without its illusions about the efficacy of American power and hegemony to bring these ends about."


title: Francis Fukuyama

text: Fukuyama began to distance himself from the neoconservative agenda of the Bush administration, citing its excessive militarism and embrace of unilateral armed intervention, particularly in the Middle East. By mid-2004, Fukuyama had voiced his growing opposition to the Iraq War and called for Donald Rumsfeld's resignation as Secretary of Defense.


title: Francis Fukuyama

text: At an annual dinner of the American Enterprise Institute in February 2004, Dick Cheney and Charles Krauthammer declared the beginning of a unipolar era under American hegemony. "All of these people around me were cheering wildly," Fukuyama remembers. He believes that the Iraq War was being blundered. "All of my friends had taken leave of reality." He has not spoken to Paul Wolfowitz (previously a good friend) since.


title: Francis Fukuyama

text: Fukuyama declared he would not be voting for Bush, and that the Bush administration had made three mistakes:


title: Francis Fukuyama

text: Fukuyama believes the US has a right to promote its own values in the world, but more along the lines of what he calls "realistic Wilsonianism", with military intervention only as a last resort and only in addition to other measures. A latent military force is more likely to have an effect than actual deployment. The US spends 43% of global military spending, but Iraq shows there are limits to its effectiveness.


title: Francis Fukuyama

text: The US should instead stimulate political and economic development and gain a better understanding of what happens in other countries. The best instruments are setting a good example and providing education and, in many cases, money. The secret of development, be it political or economic, is that it never comes from outsiders, but always from people in the country itself. One thing the US proved to have excelled in during the aftermath of World War II was the formation of international institutions. A return to support for these structures would combine American power with international legitimacy, but such measures require a lot of patience. This is the central thesis of his 2006 work "America at the Crossroads".


title: Francis Fukuyama

text: In a 2006 essay in "The New York Times Magazine" strongly critical of the invasion, he identified neoconservatism with Leninism. He wrote that neoconservatives "believed that history can be pushed along with the right application of power and will. Leninism was a tragedy in its Bolshevik version, and it has returned as farce when practiced by the United States. Neoconservatism, as both a political symbol and a body of thought, has evolved into something I can no longer support."


title: Francis Fukuyama

text: Fukuyama announced the end of the neoconservative moment and argued for the demilitarization of the War on Terrorism:


title: Francis Fukuyama

text: In a 2018 interview with "New Statesman", when asked about his views on the resurgence of socialist politics in the United States and the United Kingdom, he responded:


title: Francis Fukuyama

text: In a review for "The Washington Post", Fukuyama discussed Ezra Klein's 2020 book "Why We're Polarized" regarding US politics, and outlined Klein's central conclusion about the importance of race and white identity to Donald Trump voters and Republicans.


title: Francis Fukuyama

text: In 2020, Fukuyama became the chair of the editorial board for "American Purpose," a magazine established in 2020 to promote three central ideas. Firstly, it wants to promote liberal democracy in the United States. Secondly, it seeks to understand and opine on the challenges to liberal democracy in other countries. Thirdly, it wants to "offer criticism and commentary on history and biography, high art and pop culture, science and technology."


title: Francis Fukuyama

text: Fukuyama has also perceived Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election as the result of the Western system's ability to correct mistakes.


title: Francis Fukuyama

text: Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Fukuyama made several prognoses in the magazine "American Purpose":


title: Francis Fukuyama

text: Fukuyama has also put emphasis on the importance of national identity for a sound defense of liberal values—and thus the need to reconcile the nation-state with liberal universalism, even if they seem at odds at first—in a "Foreign Affairs" article:


title: Francis Fukuyama

text: Liberalism, with its universalist pretensions, may sit uneasily alongside seemingly parochial nationalism, but the two can be reconciled. The goals of liberalism are entirely compatible with a world divided into nation-states. . . . Liberal rights are meaningless if they cannot be enforced by a state . . . The territorial jurisdiction of a state necessarily corresponds to the area occupied by the group of individuals who signed on to the social contract. People living outside that jurisdiction must have their rights respected, but not necessarily enforced, by that state. . . . The need for international cooperation in addressing issues such as global warming and pandemics has never been more evident. But it remains the case that one particular form of power, the ability to enforce rules through the threat or the actual use of force, remains under the control of nation-states. . . . Ultimate power, in other words, continues to be the province of nation-states, which means that the control of power at this level remains critical. . . . There is thus no necessary contradiction between liberal universalism and the need for nation-states. Although the normative value of human rights may be universal, enforcement power is not; it is a scarce resource that is necessarily applied in a territorially delimited way.


title: Francis Fukuyama

text: Fukuyama is a part-time photographer. He also has an interest in early American furniture, which he reproduces by hand. Another hobby of Fukuyama's is sound recording and reproduction. He explained, "These days I seem to spend as much time thinking about gear as I do analyzing politics for my day job." Since the mid-1990s, Fukuyama has been building his own personal computers.


title: Francis Fukuyama

text: Fukuyama is married to Laura Holmgren, whom he met when she was a University of California in Los Angeles graduate student after he started working for the RAND Corporation. He dedicated his book "Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity" to her. They live in California, with their three children, Julia, David, and John.


title: Vic Mignogna

text: Victor Joseph Mignogna (); born August 27, 1962) is an American voice actor and musician known for his voice-over work in the English dubs of Japanese anime shows, such as Edward Elric from the "Fullmetal Alchemist" series, which earned him the American Anime Award for Best Actor in 2007. Other animation roles include Broly from the "Dragon Ball" films, Tamaki Suoh in "Ouran High School Host Club", Fai D. Flowright in "", Dark in "D.N.Angel", Kurz Weber in the "Full Metal Panic!" series, Zero and Ichiru Kiryu in the "Vampire Knight" series, Christopher Aonuma in "Digimon Fusion", Nagato and Obito Uchiha in "Naruto Shippuden", Ikkaku Madarame in "Bleach", Rohan Kishibe in "", Qrow Branwen in "RWBY", and Matt Ishida in "Digimon Adventure tri." In video games, he has voiced E-123 Omega in the "Sonic the Hedgehog" series and Junpei Iori from "Persona 3". In live-action work, he has participated in several "Star Trek" fan productions, including "Star Trek Continues", where he plays Captain James T. Kirk. Mignogna has an official fanclub called Risembool Rangers. He has been the center of multiple sexual harassment allegations.


title: Vic Mignogna

text: Mignogna was born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, to Barb Myers. He graduated from Liberty University with a degree in television and film production, and taught English and speech at Trinity Christian Academy in Jacksonville, Florida. Mignogna helped produce and arrange some of the songs on DC Talk's eponymous first album. He was a summer seasonal officer with the Ocean City Police Department. In 1990, Mignogna moved to Houston, Texas, where he was a film and video production instructor at The Art Institute of Houston. In 1993, he was a contestant on American television talent show "Star Search", on which he sang "Worth Waiting For".


title: Vic Mignogna

text: While working in video production with John Gremillion in Houston, Mignogna got involved in voice acting at ADV Films. He made his debut as Vega in the video game-based anime series "Street Fighter II V". Mignogna started attending anime conventions, where he contacted Funimation and landed the voice role of Broly in the "Dragon Ball Z" movies, as well as "".


title: Vic Mignogna

text: In 2007, the American Anime Awards presented Mignogna with an award for Best Actor for his work on "Fullmetal Alchemist". He often gains attention for his role in "Alchemist", and he at one point attended between 15 and 25 conventions per year. One of Mignogna's career goals was "to record at all of the major places where dubbing is done". He said he was "the first ADV voice actor to record at Funimation in Dallas and then I was the first to go to New York". He has also recorded in Los Angeles; he tried out for "Bleach" and received the part of Ikkaku Madarame. In non-anime productions, he voiced Qrow Branwen in Rooster Teeth's web series "RWBY".


title: Vic Mignogna

text: In addition to voice acting, Mignogna has been involved in production for music, sound, and video. He has produced hundreds of jingles for commercials, and he was a worship leader with Houston's First Baptist Church. Mignogna has sung the U.S. national anthem at several Houston Astros baseball games. As a musician, he has released several albums, some of which feature English cover versions of anime songs from shows including Funimation dub of "One Piece" and the "Dragon Ball" series. He also handled some of the ADR direction for the English dub of "Claymore", in which he voices Rigaldo.


title: Vic Mignogna

text: Mignogna has been involved with several fan productions, including "Fullmetal Fantasy" and "". In the latter series, he co-directed the episode "Enemy: Starfleet" and played the Andorian Captain. He directed "KITUMBA" and played Malkthon the Klingon, and was slated to direct the episode "Mindsifter". In 2012, Mignogna worked with the Starship Farragut production group. He directed and starred as Captain James T. Kirk in their web series "Star Trek Continues". Mignogna has received good reviews for writing, directing, executive-producing, and starring in "Star Trek Continues", especially for his portrayal of the character of Kirk, respectfully using William Shatner's unique mannerisms and cadence.


title: Vic Mignogna

text: Following the English release of "", which prominently features Mignogna's vocal work, allegations of sexual harassment against him began to surface on Twitter, with some allegations dating back to 1989. Multiple accounts alleged that he kissed, groped, and made lewd comments to fans without their consent, some of whom were underage. Voice actresses Monica Rial and Jamie Marchi tweeted their support for those speaking out, and alleged that he had also sexually harassed them.


title: Vic Mignogna

text: On January 22, 2019, Tammi Denbow, executive director of employee relations at Sony Pictures, opened an investigation based on reports made by Rial, two female fans, and a former Funimation employee, which concluded a week later with termination of his contract. On February 5, Rooster Teeth severed their business relationship with him, and Funimation recast his role of the Executive in "The Morose Mononokean". Multiple anime conventions also removed him from their guest list. In response to the controversy, Mignogna categorically denied any accusations of sexual harassment.


title: Vic Mignogna

text: Mignogna issued a statement of regret during his panel at Bak-Anime 2019 and again via Twitter on February 13, 2019. Fans donated over $262,000 to a crowdfunding account opened by lawyer Nick Rekieta, who assisted Mignogna in acquiring Ty Beard as his attorney. On February 20, Mignogna confirmed on Twitter that he was pursuing legal action, and later filed a million-dollar lawsuit against Funimation, Rial, Marchi, and Ron Toye for defamation and tortious interference in the Tarrant County District Court. Funimation filed a response on June 12, 2019, denying Mignogna's allegations.


title: Vic Mignogna

text: On June 26, Mignogna was deposed. On July 1, 2019, Funimation filed an anti-SLAPP motion for Mignogna to dismiss his lawsuit. Rial, Marchi, and Toye then filed anti-SLAPP motions on July 19, with ten affidavits, including ones from Kara Edwards and Michele Specht, as well as several allegations that he had also made unwanted advances towards Mari Iijima. On July 30, another affidavit was submitted by the two fans from Funimation's investigation.


title: Vic Mignogna

text: On September 6, 2019, a judge dismissed seven of the twelve claims, ruling in the defendants' favor. Mignogna was required to pay all of Marchi's legal fees. On October 4, 2019, the District Court announced the remaining claims had been dismissed. Mignogna filed an appeal on October 24, with a hearing set for November 21. The judge later ruled that Mignogna was required to pay for the defendants' attorney fees. On August 18, 2022, the Texas Second Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of Mignogna's lawsuit and ruled that the District Court judge erred with regards to the lawyer's fees awarded to Rial and Toye, revising the initial amount up from $100,000 to $282,953.80 to account for additional costs. Mignogna's appeal was denied in September 2022.


title: Bean

text: A bean is the seed of several plants in the family Fabaceae, which are used as vegetables for human or animal food. They can be cooked in many different ways, including boiling, frying, and baking, and are used in many traditional dishes throughout the world.


title: Bean

text: The word "bean" and its Germanic cognates (e.g. German "Bohne") have existed in common use in West Germanic languages since before the 12th century, referring to broad beans, chickpeas, and other pod-borne seeds. This was long before the New World genus "Phaseolus" was known in Europe. After Columbian-era contact between Europe and the Americas, use of the word was extended to pod-borne seeds of "Phaseolus", such as the common bean and the runner bean, and the related genus "Vigna". The term has long been applied generally to many other seeds of similar form, such as Old World soybeans, peas, other vetches, and lupins, and even to those with slighter resemblances, such as coffee beans, vanilla beans, castor beans, and cocoa beans. Thus the term "bean" in general usage can refer to a host of different species.


title: Bean

text: Seeds called "beans" are often included among the crops called "pulses" (legumes), although the words are not always interchangeable (usage varies by plant variety and by region). Both terms, "beans" and "pulses", are usually reserved for grain crops and thus exclude those legumes that have tiny seeds and are used exclusively for non-grain purposes (forage, hay, and silage), such as clover and alfalfa. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization defines "BEANS, DRY" (item code 176) as applicable only to species of "Phaseolus". This is one of various examples of how narrower word senses enforced in trade regulations or botany often coexist in natural language with broader senses in culinary use and general use; other common examples are the narrow sense of the word "nut" and the broader sense of the word "nut", and the fact that tomatoes are fruit, botanically speaking, but are often treated as vegetables in culinary and general usage. Relatedly, another detail of usage is that several species of plants that are sometimes called beans, including "Vigna angularis" (azuki bean), "mungo" (black gram), "radiata" (green gram), and "aconitifolia" (moth bean), were once classified as "Phaseolus" but later reclassified—but the taxonomic revision does not entirely stop the use of well-established senses in general usage.


title: Bean

text: Unlike the closely related pea, beans are a summer crop that needs warm temperatures to grow. Legumes are capable of nitrogen fixation and hence need less fertiliser than most plants. Maturity is typically 55–60 days from planting to harvest. As the bean pods mature, they turn yellow and dry up, and the beans inside change from green to their mature colour. As a vine, bean plants need external support, which may take the form of special "bean cages" or poles. Native Americans customarily grew them along with corn and squash (the so-called Three Sisters), with the tall cornstalks acting as support for the beans.


title: Bean

text: In more recent times, the so-called "bush bean" has been developed which does not require support and has all its pods develop simultaneously (as opposed to pole beans which develop gradually). This makes the bush bean more practical for commercial production.


title: Bean

text: Beans are one of the longest-cultivated plants in history. Broad beans, also called fava beans, are in their wild state the size of a small fingernail, and were first gathered in Afghanistan and the Himalayan foothills. An early cultivated form were grown in Thailand from the early seventh millennium BCE, predating ceramics. Beans were deposited with the dead in ancient Egypt. Not until the second millennium BCE did cultivated, large-seeded broad beans appear in the Aegean region, Iberia, and transalpine Europe. In the "Iliad" (8th century BCE), there is a passing mention of beans and chickpeas cast on the threshing floor.


title: Bean

text: The oldest-known domesticated beans in the Americas were found in Guitarrero Cave, an archaeological site in Peru, and dated to around the second millennium BCE. However, genetic analyses of the common bean "Phaseolus" show that it originated in Mesoamerica, and subsequently spread southward, along with maize and squash, traditional companion crops.


title: Bean

text: Most of the kinds of beans commonly eaten today are part of the genus "Phaseolus", which originated in the Americas. The first European to encounter them was Christopher Columbus, while exploring what may have been the Bahamas, and saw them growing in fields. Five kinds of "Phaseolus" beans were domesticated by pre-Columbian peoples: common beans ("P. vulgaris") grown from Chile to the northern part of what is now the United States; and lima and sieva beans ("P. lunatus"); as well as the less widely distributed teparies ("P. acutifolius"), scarlet runner beans ("P. coccineus"), and polyanthus beans ("P. polyanthus").


title: Bean

text: One well-documented use of beans by pre-Columbian people as far north as the Atlantic seaboard is the "Three Sisters" method of companion plant cultivation: Many tribes would grow beans together with maize (corn), and squash. The corn would not be planted in rows as is done by European agriculture, but in a checkerboard/hex fashion across a field, in separate patches of one to six stalks each.


title: Bean

text: Beans would be planted around the base of the developing stalks, and would vine their way up as the stalks grew. All American beans at that time were vine plants; "bush beans" were cultivated more recently. The cornstalks would work as a trellis for the bean plants, and the beans would provide much-needed nitrogen for the corn. Squash would be planted in the spaces between the patches of corn in the field. They would be provided slight shelter from the sun by the corn, would shade the soil and reduce evaporation, and would deter many animals from attacking the corn and beans because their coarse, hairy vines and broad, stiff leaves are difficult or uncomfortable for animals such as deer and raccoons to walk through, crows to land on, and are a deterrent to other animals as well.


title: Bean

text: Dry beans come from both Old World varieties of broad beans (fava beans) and New World varieties (kidney, black, cranberry, pinto, navy/haricot).


title: Bean

text: Currently, the world gene banks hold about 40,000 bean varieties, although only a fraction are mass-produced for regular consumption.


title: Bean

text: Most of the foods we call "beans", "legumes", "lentils" and "pulses" belong to the same family, Fabaceae ("leguminous" plants), but are from different genera and species, native to different homelands and distributed worldwide depending on their adaptability. Many varieties are eaten both fresh (the whole pod, and the immature beans may or may not inside) or shelled (immature seeds, mature and fresh seeds, or mature and dried seeds). Numerous legumes look similar, and have become naturalized in locations across the world, which often lead to similar names for different species.


title: Bean

text: Beans are high in protein, complex carbohydrates, folate, and iron. Beans also have significant amounts of fiber and soluble fiber, with one cup of cooked beans providing between 9 and 13 grams of fiber. Soluble fiber can help lower blood cholesterol.


title: Bean

text: The Canadian government recommends that adults have up to two (female), and three (male) servings. 3/4 cup of cooked beans provide one serving.


title: Bean

text: Many types of bean like kidney bean contain significant amounts of antinutrients that inhibit some enzyme processes in the body. Phytic acid and phytates, present in grains, nuts, seeds and beans, interfere with bone growth and interrupt vitamin D metabolism. Pioneering work on the effect of phytic acid was done by Edward Mellanby from 1939.


title: Bean

text: Some kinds of raw beans contain a harmful, tasteless toxin: the lectin phytohaemagglutinin, which must be removed by cooking. Red kidney beans are particularly toxic, but other types also pose risks of food poisoning. Many types of beans contain lectins, and kidney beans have the highest concentrations – especially red kidney beans. As few as 4 or 5 raw beans can cause severe stomachache, vomiting and diarrhoea. A recommended method is to boil the beans for at least ten minutes; under-cooked beans may be more toxic than raw beans.


title: Bean

text: Cooking beans, without bringing them to a boil, in a slow cooker at a temperature well below boiling may not destroy toxins. A case of poisoning by butter beans used to make falafel was reported; the beans were used instead of traditional broad beans or chickpeas, soaked and ground without boiling, made into patties, and shallow fried.


title: Bean

text: Bean poisoning is not well known in the medical community, and many cases may be misdiagnosed or never reported; figures appear not to be available. In the case of the UK National Poisons Information Service, available only to health professionals, the dangers of beans other than red beans were not flagged .


title: Bean

text: Fermentation is used in some parts of Africa to improve the nutritional value of beans by removing toxins. Inexpensive fermentation improves the nutritional impact of flour from dry beans and improves digestibility, according to research co-authored by Emire Shimelis, from the Food Engineering Program at Addis Ababa University. Beans are a major source of dietary protein in Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.


title: Bean

text: It is common to make beansprouts by letting some types of bean, often mung beans, germinate in moist and warm conditions; beansprouts may be used as ingredients in cooked dishes, or eaten raw or lightly cooked. There have been many outbreaks of disease from bacterial contamination, often by "salmonella", "listeria", and "Escherichia coli", of beansprouts not thoroughly cooked, some causing significant mortality.


title: Bean

text: Many edible beans, including broad beans, navy beans, kidney beans and soybeans, contain oligosaccharides (particularly raffinose and stachyose), a type of sugar molecule also found in cabbage. An anti-oligosaccharide enzyme is necessary to properly digest these sugar molecules. As a normal human digestive tract does not contain any anti-oligosaccharide enzymes, consumed oligosaccharides are typically digested by bacteria in the large intestine. This digestion process produces gases, such as methane as a byproduct, which are then released as flatulence.


title: Bean

text: Main crops of "Pulses, Total (dry)" are "Beans, dry [176]" 26.83 million tons, "Peas, dry [187]" 14.36 million tons, "Chick peas [191]" 12.09 million tons, "Cow peas [195]" 6.99 million tons, "Lentils [201]" 6.32 million tons, "Pigeon peas [197]" 4.49 million tons, "Broad beans, horse beans [181]" 4.46 million tons. In general, the consumption of pulses per capita has been decreasing since 1961. Exceptions are lentils and cowpeas.


title: Bean

text: The world leader in production of dry beans ("Phaseolus" spp), is India, followed by Myanmar (Burma) and Brazil. In Africa, the most important producer is Tanzania.


title: Bean

text: No symbol = official figure, P = official figure, F = FAO estimate, * = unofficial/semi-official/mirror data, C = calculated figure A = aggregate (may include official, semi-official or estimates)


title: Bharatanatyam

text: Bharatanatyam () is a major form of Indian classical dance that originated in Tamil Nadu. It is one of the eight widely recognized Indian classical dance forms, and expresses South Indian religious themes and spiritual ideas, particularly of Shaivism and in general of Hinduism.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: A description of Bharatanatyam from the 2nd century CE can be found in the ancient Tamil epic "Silappatikaram", while temple sculptures of the 6th to 9th century CE suggest it was a highly refined performance art by the mid-1st millennium CE. Bharatanatyam is the oldest classical dance tradition in India. Bharatanatyam is the state dance form of Tamil Nadu.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: Bharatanatyam contains different types of "baanis". "Baani", or 'tradition', is a Tamil term used to describe the dance technique and style specific to a guru or school. These are named according to the village of the guru (with the exception of some "baanis". Bharatanatyam style is noted for its fixed upper torso, bent legs and knees flexed (Arai mandi) combined with spectacular footwork, and a sophisticated vocabulary of sign language based on gestures of hands, eyes, and face muscles. The dance is accompanied by music and a singer, and typically the dancer's guru is present as the Nattuvanar, director, and conductor of the performance and art. The performance repertoire of Bharatanatyam, like other classical dances, includes "nrita" (pure dance), "nritya" (solo expressive dance) and "natya" (group dramatic dance).


title: Bharatanatyam

text: Bharatanatyam remained exclusive to Hindu temples through the 19th century. It was banned by the colonial British government in 1910, but the Indian community protested against the ban and expanded its performance outside temples in the 20th century. Modern stage productions of Bharatanatyam has been spread out and popular throughout India that has been done in different ways and have incorporated technical performances, pure dance based on non-religious ideas and fusion themes. Tanjavur brothers gave the actual form of the recent day repertoire of Bharatanatyam by formalizing bharatanatyam into a melodious art form.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: In 1932, E Krishna Iyer and Rukmini Devi Arundale put forward a proposal to rename "Sadir aattam", also known as "Parathaiyar Aattam or Thevarattam" (), as "Bharatanatyam", to give the dance form a measure of respect, at a meeting of the Madras Music Academy. They also were instrumental in modifying mainly the Pandanallur style of dance. The word "Bharatam" is also seen as a backronym, with "bha" standing for "bhavam" (feelings, emotions), "ra" for "ragam" (melody, framework for musical notes), and "tam" for "talam" (rhythm). The term ""Natyam" is" a Sanskrit word for "dance". The compound word "Bharatanatyam" is seen to connote a dance that harmoniously expresses "bhavam", "ragam" and "talam".


title: Bharatanatyam

text: The theoretical foundations of Bharatanatyam are found in "Natya Shastra", the ancient Hindu text of performance arts.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: "Natya Shastra" is attributed to the ancient scholar Bharata Muni, and its first complete compilation is dated to between 200 BCE and 200 CE, but estimates vary between 500 BCE and 500 CE. The most studied version of the "Natya Shastra" text consists of about 6000 verses structured into 36 chapters. The text, states Natalia Lidova, describes the theory of "Tāṇḍava" dance (Shiva), the theory of "rasa", of "bhāva", expression, gestures, acting techniques, basic steps, standing postures—all of which are part of Indian classical dances. Dance and performance arts, states this ancient text, are a form of expression of spiritual ideas, virtues and the essence of scriptures.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: More direct historical references to Bharatanatyam is found in the Tamil epics "Silappatikaram" (c. 2nd century CE) and "Manimegalai" (c. 6th century). The ancient text "Silappatikaram", includes a story of a dancing girl named Madhavi; it describes the dance training regimen called "Arangatrau Kathai" of Madhavi in verses 113 through 159. The carvings in Kanchipuram's Shiva temple that have been dated to 6th to 9th century CE suggest Bharatanatyam was a well developed performance art by about the mid 1st millennium CE.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: A famous example of illustrative sculpture is in the southern gateway of the Chidambaram temple (≈12th century) dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, where 108 poses of the Bharatanatyam, that are also described as karanas in the "Natya Shastra", are carved in stone.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: Many of the ancient Shiva sculptures in Hindu temples are the same as the Bharatanatyam dance poses. For example, the Cave 1 of Badami cave temples, dated to 7th-century, portrays the "Tandava"-dancing Shiva as Nataraja. The image, tall, has 18 arms in a form that expresses the dance positions arranged in a geometric pattern. The arms of Shiva express "mudras" (symbolic hand gestures), that are found in Bharatanatyam.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: Some colonial Indologists and modern authors have argued that Bharatanatyam is a descendant of an ancient "Devadasi" (literally, servant girls of Deva temples) culture, suggesting a historical origin back to between 300 BCE and 300 CE. Modern scholars has questioned this theory for lack of any direct textual or archeological evidence. Historic sculpture and texts do describe and project dancing girls, as well as temple quarters dedicated to women, but they do not state them to be courtesans and prostitutes as alleged by early colonial Indologists. According to Davesh Soneji, a critical examination of evidence suggests that courtesan dancing is a phenomenon of the modern era, beginning in the late 16th or the 17th century of the Nayaka period of Tamil Nadu. According to James Lochtefeld, Bharatanatyam remained exclusive to Hindu temples through the 19th century, only in the 20th century appearing on stage outside the temples. Further, the Maratha rulers of Tanjore patronized and contributed towards Bharatanatyam.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: With the arrival of the East India Company in the 18th century, and British colonial rule in the 19th, many classical Indian dance forms were ridiculed and discouraged, and these performance arts declined. Christian missionaries and British officials presented "nautch girls" of north India (Kathak) and "devadasis" of south India (Bharatanatyam) as evidence of "harlots, debased erotic culture, slavery to idols and priests" tradition, and Christian missionaries demanded that this must be stopped, launching the "anti-dance movement" in 1892. The anti-dance camp accused the dance form as a front for prostitution, while revivalists questioned the constructed colonial histories.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: In 1910, the Madras Presidency of the British Empire altogether banned temple dancing, and with it the Bharatanatyam tradition within Hindu temples.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: The 1910 ban triggered powerful protests against the stereotyping and dehumanization of temple dancers. The Tamil people were concerned that a historic and rich dance tradition was being victimized under the excuse of social reform. The classical art revivalists such as E. Krishna Iyer, a lawyer and someone who had learnt the Bharatanatyam dance, questioned the cultural discrimination and the assumed connection, asking why prostitution needs years of learning and training for performance arts such as the Bharatanatyam, and how killing performance arts could end any evils in a society. Iyer was arrested and sentenced to prison on charges of nationalism, who while serving out his prison term persuaded his fellow political prisoners to support Bharatanatyam.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: While the British colonial government enforced laws to suppress Bharatanatyam and all Hindu temple dances, some from the West such as the American dancer Esther Sherman moved to India in 1930, learnt Indian classical dances, changed her name to Ragini Devi, and joined the movement to save and revive Bharatanatyam and other ancient dance arts.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: The Indian independence movement in early 20th century, already in progress, became a period of cultural ferment and initiated an effort by its people to reclaim their culture and rediscover history. In this period of cultural and political turmoil, instead of Bharatanatyam becoming extinct, it expanded out of Hindu temples and was revived as a mainstream dance by Bharatanatyam artists such as Rukmini Devi Arundale, Balasaraswati and Yamini Krishnamurti They championed and performed the Pandanallur (Kalakshetra) and Thanjavur styles of Bharatanatyam, respectively.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: In late 20th century, Tamil Hindu migrants reintroduced the Bharatanatyam traditions of temple dancing in British Tamil temples.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: Bharatanatyam is traditionally a team performance art that consists of a solo dancer, accompanied by musicians and one or more singers. The theory behind the musical notes, vocal performance and the dance movement trace back to the ancient "Natya Shastra", and many Sanskrit and Tamil texts such as the "Abhinaya Darpana".


title: Bharatanatyam

text: The solo artist ("ekaharya") in Bharatanatyam is dressed in a colorful sari, adorned with jewelry who presents a dance synchronized with Indian classical music. Their hand and facial gestures are coded sign language that recite a legend, spiritual ideas or a religious prayer derived from Hindu Vedic scriptures, the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, the Puranas and historic drama texts. The dancer deploys turns or specific body movements to mark punctuations in the story or the entry of a different character in the play or legend being acted out through dance ("Abhinaya"). The footwork, body language, postures, musical notes, the tones of the vocalist, aesthetics and costumes integrate to express and communicate the underlying text.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: In modern adaptations, Bharata Natyam dance troupes may involve many dancers who play specific characters in a story, creatively choreographed to ease the interpretation and expand the experience by the audience.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: The repertoire of Bharatanatyam, like all major classical Indian dance forms, follows the three categories of performance in the "Natya Shastra". These are "Nritta" (Nirutham), "Nritya" (Niruthiyam) and "Natya" (Natyam).


title: Bharatanatyam

text: A Bharatanatyam Arangetram is a solo debut performance that signifies the completion of initial formal training of a young dancer in Indian Classical Dance. The term "Arangetram" translates to "ascending the stage". This performance is typically done ten to twelve years after a dancer begins learning Bharatanatyam, but more importantly, it is done when the guru believes the student is ready for a solo performance. This solo debut is synonymous to a "coming-of-age" celebration but in terms of Indian Classical Dance. The Arangetram is a culmination of multiple years of hard work by the student and the guru, and it is an opportunity for the dancer to showcase his or her dedication and skills developed over the years. Throughout this debut, the dancer performs a series of dances that are learned over a course of time. The dancer must build up his or her concentration and stamina to perform solo dances for approximately three hours. Each dance performed symbolizes various aspects of Hindu religion that are valued in Indian culture and Indian classical dance.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: The traditional Bharatanatyam Arangetram performance follows a seven to eight-part order of presentation. This set is called "margam".


title: Bharatanatyam

text: The Arangetram performance typically begins with a dance called the "Pushpanjali", which literally translates to "offering of flowers". In this dance, the performer offers flowers and salutations to the Hindu deities, the guru, and the audience as a mark of respect. The beginning of the dance symbolizes supplication, from which the dancer then commences the rest of the performance.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: The presentation can also begin with a rhythmic invocation ("vandana") called the "Alarippu". It is a pure dance, which combines a thank you and benediction for blessings from the gods and goddesses, the guru and the gathered performance team. It also serves as a preliminary warm up dance, without melody, to enable the dancer to loosen their body, journey away from distractions and towards single-minded focus.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: The next stage of the performance adds melody to the movement of "Alarippu", and this is called "Jatiswaram". The dance remains a prelim technical performance ("nritta"), pure in form and without any expressed words. The drums set the beat, of any Carnatic music "raga" (melody). They perform a sequence ("Korvai") to the rhythm of the beat, presenting to the audience the unity of music, rhythm and movements.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: The performance sequence then adds "Shabdam" (expressed words). This is the first item of margam where expressions are introduced. The solo dancer, the vocalist(s) and the musical team, in this stage of the production, present short compositions, with words and meaning, in a spectrum of moods. This performance praises God (such as Krishna, Shiva, Rama and Murugan) and their qualities.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: The performance thereafter evolves into the "Varnam" stage. This marks the arrival into the sanctum sanctorum core of the performance. It is the longest section and the "nritya". A traditional Varnam may be as long as 30–45 minutes or sometimes an hour. Varnam offer huge scope for improvisation and an experienced dancer can stretch the Varnam to a desirable length. The artist presents the play or the main composition, reveling in all their movements, silently communicating the text through codified gestures and footwork, harmoniously with the music, rhythmically punctuated. The dancer performs complicated moves, such as expressing a verse at two speeds. Their hands and body tell a story, whether of love and longing, or of a battle between the good and the evil, as the musicians envelop them with musical notes and tones that set the appropriate mood.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: The "Padam" is next. This is the stage of reverence, of simplicity, of "abhinaya" (expression) of the solemn spiritual message or devotional religious prayer (bhakti). The music is lighter, the chant intimate, the dance emotional. The choreography attempts to express "rasa" (emotional taste) and a mood, while the recital may include items such as a keertanam (expressing devotion), a "javali" (expressing divine love) or something else.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: The performance sequence ends with a "Tillana", the climax. It closes out the "nritya" portion, the movements exit the temple of expressive dance, returning to the "nritta" style, where a series of pure movement and music are rhythmically performed. Therewith the performance ends.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: The seventh and final item in the sequence can be either a "Shlokam" or a "Mangalam". The dancer calls for blessings on the people all around.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: The overall sequence of Bharatanatyam, states Balasaraswati, thus moves from "mere meter; then melody and meter; continuing with music, meaning and meter; its expansion in the centerpiece of the varnam; thereafter, music and meaning without meter; (...) a non-metrical song at the end. We see a most wonderful completeness and symmetry in this art".


title: Bharatanatyam

text: The costume of a female Bharatanatyam dancer resembles a Tamil Hindu bridal dress. It typically consists of a sari in bright colors with golden or silver "zari" embroidery on the borders. The costume can be stitched from the "sari", with individual pieces for a bottom (either a skirt or "salwar"-shaped pants), a pleated piece which falls in front and opens like a hand fan when the dancer flexes her knees or performs footwork, a hip piece that covers the seat of the pant / skirt, and a torso piece that looks like an "aanchal" (i.e. the draped part of a regular sari). Some dancers also opt for an unstitched "sari" that is draped in a special way, with the single piece of cloth starting around the legs like a "dhoti", then upwards along the front torso, over the left shoulder, and then down the back with its end held at the waist by a jewelled belt. The costume of a male Bharatanatyam dancer is usually either a "sari" or a white cotton cloth draped around the legs and bottom half of the body like a "dhoti". During performances, the upper body of the male dancer remains bare. Male dancers typically do not wear stitched costumes.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: Both female and male dancers wear elaborate jewellery on their ears, nose, neck, and wrists. Female dancers wear additional jewellery on their head that emphasises their hairline and parting. They also wear a smaller piece of jewellery on each side of their parting. These represent the sun and the moon.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: Long hair on both male and female dancers are either secured by a bun or a braid. Female dancers with short hair often use braid extensions or bun hair pieces to simulate long hair. Female dancers also wear imitation flowers made of either cloth or paper around their braids or buns. These are known as ("veni" or "gajra").


title: Bharatanatyam

text: Both male and female dancers use wear makeup, including foundation, blush, lipstick, and thick eyeliner or kohl, which help the audience see and understand their facial expressions.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: All dancers wear leather anklets on each feet, which are called "salangai" or "ghungroos". These are made of small bells attached to a broad leather strap with belts that secure them at the back of the ankle. The bells are arranged in uniform rows and can be heard when the dancer moves their feet. The "salangai" helps emphasise the rhythm of the music as well as the dancer's footwork.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: Lastly, all dancers outline their hands and feet with red "kumkum" powder or alta, a tradition that helps the audience easily see their hand and foot gestures.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: For classes, training, practice, or rehearsals, dancers traditionally wear a special dance sari. These saris are always cotton and have a shorter breadth than normal saris, falling at the knees rather than the ankles. These are paired with cotton pyjamas and blouses. The sari is worn with pleats at the front and tied tightly around the torso and hips. However, in recent times, dancers also opt for salwar kameez or athletic wear (like T-shirts and leggings) when not performing.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: The accompanying music to Bharatanatyam is in the Carnatic style of South India, as is the recitation and chanting. The vocalist is called the "nattuvanar", typically also the conductor of the entire performance, who may be the guru of the dancer and may also be playing cymbals or one of the musical instruments. The recited verses and text in Bharatanatyam are in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Sanskrit.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: The instruments used include the mridangam (double-sided drum), nadaswaram (long type of oboe made from a black wood), nattuvangam (cymbals), the flute, violin and veena.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: Bharatanatyam, like all classical dances of India, is steeped in symbolism, both in its "abhinaya" (acting) and its goals. The roots of "abhinaya" appear in the "Natyashastra" text, which defines drama in verse 6.10 as something that aesthetically arouses joy in the spectator, through the medium of actor's art of communication, that helps connect and transport the individual into a sensual inner state of being. A performance art, asserts "Natyashastra", connects the artists and the audience through "abhinaya" (literally, "carrying to the spectators"), that is applying body-speech-mind and scene, wherein the actors communicate to the audience, through song and music. Drama in this ancient Sanskrit text, thus is an art that engages every aspect of life to glorify and give a state of joyful consciousness.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: The communication through symbols is in the form of expressive gestures and pantomime set to music. The gestures and facial expressions convey the "ras" (sentiment, emotional taste) and "bhava" (mood) of the underlying story. In the Hindu texts on dance, the dancer successfully expresses the spiritual ideas by paying attention to four aspects of a performance: "Angika" (gestures and body language), "Vachika" (song, recitation, music and rhythm), "Aharya" (stage setting, costume, make up, jewelry), and "Sattvika" (artist's mental disposition and emotional connection with the story and audience, wherein the artist's inner and outer state resonates). "Abhinaya" draws out the "bhava" (mood, psychological states).


title: Bharatanatyam

text: The gestures used in Bharatanatyam are called "Hasta" (or "mudras"). These symbols are of three types: "asamyuta hastas" (single hand gestures), "samyuta hastas" (two hand gestures) and "nrtta hastas" (dance hand gestures). Like words in a glossary, these gestures are presented in the "nritta" as a list or embellishment to a prelim performance. In "nritya" stage of Bharatanatyam, these symbols set in a certain sequence become sentences with meaning, with emotions expressed through facial expressions and other aspects of "abhinaya". The basic standing position is called as Araimandi.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: Bharatanatyam contains at least 20 asanas found in modern yoga, including Dhanurasana (the bow, a back-arch); Chakrasana (the wheel, a standing back-arch); Vrikshasana (the tree, a standing pose); and Natarajasana, the pose of dancing Shiva. 108 karanas of classical temple dance are represented in temple statuary; they depict the devadasi temple dancers who made use of yoga asanas in their dancing. Bharatanatyam is also considered a form of Bhakti Yoga. However, Natarajasana is not found in any medieval hatha yoga text; it was among the many asanas introduced into modern yoga by Krishnamacharya in the early 20th century.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: Bharatanatyam rapidly expanded after India gained independence from British rule in 1947. It is now the most popular classical Indian dance style in India, enjoys a high degree of support in expatriate Indian communities, and is considered to be synonymous with Indian dance by many foreigners unaware of the diversity of dances and performance arts in Indian culture. In the second half of the 20th century, Bharatanatyam has been to Indian dance tradition what ballet has been in the West.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: When the British government tried to attempt to ban Bharatanatyam traditions, it went on and revived by moving outside the Hindu temple and religious ideas. However, post-independence, with rising interest in its history, the ancient traditions, the invocation rituals and the spiritual expressive part of the dance has returned. Many innovations and developments in modern Bharatanatyam, states Anne-Marie Geston, are of a quasi-religious type. Major cities in India now have numerous schools that offer lessons in "Bharatanatyam", and these cities host hundreds of shows every year.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: Outside India, Bharatanatyam is a sought after and studied dance, states Meduri, in academic institutes in the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia, Gulf States, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, New Zealand, Bangladesh and Singapore. For expat Indian and Tamil communities in many countries, it is a source and means for social life and community bonding. Contemporary Bharatanatyam choreographies include both male and female dancers.


title: Bharatanatyam

text: In 2020, an estimated 10,000 dancers got together in Chennai, India, to break the world record for the largest Bharatanatyam performance. The previous record of 7,190 dancers was set in Chidambaram in 2019.


title: Verona

text: Verona ( , ; or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city municipality in the region and the second largest in northeastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona covers an area of and has a population of 714,310 inhabitants. It is one of the main tourist destinations in northern Italy because of its artistic heritage and several annual fairs and shows as well as the opera season in the Arena, an ancient Roman amphitheater.


title: Verona

text: Between the 13th and 14th century the city was ruled by the della Scala Family. Under the rule of the family, in particular of Cangrande I della Scala, the city experienced great prosperity, becoming rich and powerful and being surrounded by new walls. The Della Scala era is survived in numerous monuments around Verona.


title: Verona

text: Two of William Shakespeare's plays are set in Verona: "Romeo and Juliet" (which also features Romeo's visit to Mantua) and "The Two Gentlemen of Verona". It is unknown if Shakespeare ever visited Verona or Italy, but his plays have lured many visitors to Verona and surrounding cities. Verona was also the birthplace of Isotta Nogarola, who is said to be the first major female humanist and one of the most important humanists of the Renaissance. In November 2000 the city was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO because of its urban structure and architecture.


title: Verona

text: The precise details of Verona's early history remain a mystery along with the origin of the name. One theory is it was a city of the Euganei, who were obliged to give it up to the Cenomani (550 BC). With the conquest of the Valley of the Po, the Veronese territory became Roman (about 300 BC). Verona became a Roman "colonia" in 89 BC. It was classified as a "municipium" in 49 BC, when its citizens were ascribed to the Roman tribe "Poblilia" or "Publicia".


title: Verona

text: The city became important because it was at the intersection of several roads. Stilicho defeated Alaric and his Visigoths here in 402. But, after Verona was conquered by the Ostrogoths in 489, the Gothic domination of Italy began. Theoderic the Great was said to have built a palace there. It remained under the power of the Goths throughout the Gothic War (535–552), except for a single day in 541, when the Byzantine officer Artabazes made an entrance. The defections of the Byzantine generals over the booty made it possible for the Goths to regain possession of the city. In 552 Valerian vainly endeavored to enter the city, but it was only when the Goths were fully overthrown that they surrendered it.


title: Verona

text: In 569, it was taken by Alboin, King of the Lombards, in whose kingdom it was, in a sense, the second most important city. There, Alboin was killed by his wife in 572. The dukes of Treviso often resided there. Adalgisus, son of Desiderius, in 774 made his last desperate resistance in Verona to Charlemagne, who had destroyed the Lombard kingdom. Verona became the ordinary residence of the kings of Italy, the government of the city becoming hereditary in the family of Count Milo, progenitor of the counts of San Bonifacio. From 880 to 951 the two Berengarii resided there.


title: Verona

text: Under Holy Roman and Austrian rule, Verona was alternately known in German as , or . Otto I ceded to Verona the marquisate dependent on the Duchy of Bavaria, however, the increasing wealth of the burgher families eclipsed the power of the counts, and in 1135 Verona was organised as a free commune. In 1164 Verona joined with Vicenza, Padua and Treviso to create the Veronese League, which was integrated with the Lombard League in 1167 to battle against Frederick I Barbarossa. Victory was achieved at the Battle of Legnano in 1176, and the Treaty of Venice signed in 1177 followed by the Peace of Constance in 1183.


title: Verona

text: When Ezzelino III da Romano was elected "podestà" in 1226, he converted the office into a permanent lordship. In 1257 he caused the slaughter of 11,000 Paduans on the plain of Verona (Campi di Verona). Upon his death, the Great Council elected Mastino I della Scala as podestà, and he converted the "signoria" into a family possession, though leaving the burghers a share in the government. Failing to be re-elected podestà in 1262, he affected a coup d'état, and was acclaimed Capitano del Popolo, with the command of the communal troops. Long internal discord took place before he succeeded in establishing this new office, to which was attached the function of confirming the podestà. In 1277, Mastino della Scala was killed by the faction of the nobles.


title: Verona

text: The reign of his son Alberto as capitano (1277–1302) was a time of incessant war against the counts of San Bonifacio, who were aided by the House of Este. Of his sons, Bartolomeo, Alboino and Cangrande I, only the last shared the government (1308); he was great as warrior, prince, and patron of the arts; he protected Dante, Petrarch, and Giotto. By war or treaty, he brought under his control the cities of Padua (1328), Treviso (1308) and Vicenza. At this time before the Black death the city was home to more than 40,000 people.


title: Verona

text: Cangrande was succeeded by Mastino II (1329–1351) and Alberto, sons of Alboino. Mastino continued his uncle's policy, conquering Brescia in 1332 and carrying his power beyond the Po. He purchased Parma (1335) and Lucca (1339). After the King of France, he was the richest prince of his time. But a powerful league was formed against him in 1337 – Florence, Venice, the Visconti, the Este, and the Gonzaga. After a three years war, the Scaliger dominions were reduced to Verona and Vicenza (Mastino's daughter Regina-Beatrice della Scala married to Barnabò Visconti). Mastino's son Cangrande II (1351–1359) was a cruel, dissolute, and suspicious tyrant; not trusting his own subjects, he surrounded himself with Brandenburg mercenaries. He was killed by his brother Cansignorio (1359–1375), who beautified the city with palaces, provided it with aqueducts and bridges, and founded the state treasury. He also killed his other brother, Paolo Alboino. Fratricide seems to have become a family custom, for Antonio (1375–1387), Cansignorio's natural brother, slew his brother Bartolomeo, thereby arousing the indignation of the people, who deserted him when Gian Galeazzo Visconti of Milan made war on him. Having exhausted all his resources, he fled from Verona at midnight (19 October 1387), thus putting an end to the Scaliger domination, which, however, survived in its monuments.


title: Verona

text: The year 1387 is also the year of the Battle of Castagnaro, between Giovanni Ordelaffi, for Verona, and John Hawkwood, for Padua, who was the winner.


title: Verona

text: Antonio's son Canfrancesco attempted in vain to recover Verona (1390). Guglielmo (1404), natural son of Cangrande II, was more fortunate; with the support of the people and the Carraresi, he drove out the Milanese, but he died ten days after. After a period of Cararrese rule, Verona submitted to Venice (1405). The last representatives of the Scaligeri lived at the imperial court and repeatedly attempted to recover Verona by the aid of popular risings.


title: Verona

text: From 1508 to 1517, the city was in the power of the Emperor Maximilian I. There were numerous outbreaks of the plague, and in 1629–1633, Italy was struck by its worst outbreak in modern times. Around 33,000 people died in Verona (over 60% of the population at the time) in 1630–1631.


title: Verona

text: In 1776, a method of bellringing was developed called Veronese bellringing art. Verona was occupied by Napoleon in 1797, but on Easter Monday the populace rose and drove out the French. It was then that Napoleon made an end of the Venetian Republic. Verona became Austrian territory when Napoleon signed the Treaty of Campo Formio in October 1797. The Austrians took control of the city on 18 January 1798. It was taken from Austria by the Treaty of Pressburg in 1805 and became part of Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy, but was returned to Austria following Napoleon's defeat in 1814, when it became part of the Austrian-held Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia.


title: Verona

text: The Congress of Verona, which met on 20 October 1822, was part of the , opening with the Congress of Vienna in 1814–1815, that marked the continuing enforcement of the "Concert of Europe".


title: Verona

text: In 1866, following the Third Italian War of Independence, Verona, along with the rest of Venetia, became part of a united Italy.


title: Verona

text: The advent of fascism added another dark chapter to the annals of Verona. Throughout Italy, the Jewish population was hit by the Manifesto of Race, a series of anti-Semitic laws passed in 1938, and after the invasion by Nazi Germany in 1943, deportations to Nazi concentration camps. An Austrian Fort (now a church, the Santuario della Madonna di Lourdes), was used to incarcerate and torture Allied troops, Jews and anti-fascists, especially after 1943, when Verona became part of the Italian Social Republic.


title: Verona

text: As in Austrian times, Verona became of great strategic importance to the regime. Galeazzo Ciano, Benito Mussolini's son-in-law, was accused of plotting against the republic; in a show trial staged in January 1944 by the Nazi and fascist hierarchy at Castelvecchio (the Verona trial), Ciano was executed on the banks of the Adige with many other officers on what is today Via Colombo. This marked another turning point in the escalation of violence that would only end with the final liberation by allied troops and partisans on 26 April 1945.


title: Verona

text: After World War II, as Italy joined the NATO alliance, Verona once again acquired its strategic importance, due to its geographical closeness to the Iron Curtain. The city became the seat of SETAF (South European Allied Terrestrial Forces) and had during the whole duration of the Cold War period a strong military presence, especially American, which has since decreased.


title: Verona

text: Verona has a humid subtropical climate characteristic of Northern Italy's inland plains, with hot summers and cold, humid winters, even though Lake Garda has a partial influence on the city. The relative humidity is high throughout the year, especially in winter when it causes fog, mainly from dusk until late morning, although the phenomenon has become less and less frequent in recent years.


title: Verona

text: In 2009, 265,368 people were residing in Verona, located in the province of Verona, Veneto, of whom 47.6% were male and 52.4% were female. Minors (children aged 0–17) totaled 16.05% of the population compared to pensioners who number 22.36%. This compares with the Italian average of 18.06% (minors) and 19.94% (pensioners). The average age of Verona residents is 43 compared to the Italian average of 42. In the five years between 2002 and 2007, the population of Verona grew by 3.05%, while Italy as a whole grew by 3.85%. The current birth rate of Verona is 9.24 births per 1,000 inhabitants compared to the Italian average of 9.45 births.


title: Verona

text: , 87% of the population was Italian. The largest immigrant group comes from other European nations (the largest coming from Romania): 3.60%, South Asia: 2.03%, and sub-saharan Africa 1.50%. The city is predominantly Roman Catholic, but due to immigration now has some Orthodox Christian, and Muslim followers.


title: Verona

text: Since the local government political reorganization in 1993, Verona has been governed by the City Council of Verona, which is based in "Palazzo Barbieri". Voters elect directly 33 councilors and the Mayor of Verona every five years.


title: Verona

text: Verona is also the capital of its own province. The Provincial Council is seated in "Palazzo del Governo". The current Mayor of Verona is Damiano Tommasi, elected on 26 June 2022.


title: Verona

text: Verona has traditionally been a right-wing traditionalist Catholic city, reflecting its former status as one of the major cities of Italian Social Republic, and the right-wing politics of the Veneto region. In October 2018, Verona became the first city in Italy to declare itself pro-life, and hosted the American Christian right lobby group World Congress of Families' conference in 2019. Despite this, since the mayors became directly elected in 1994, the city has elected two left-wing mayors - Paolo Zanotto in 2002 and current mayor Damiano Tommasi in 2022, largely due to incumbent mayor Federico Sboarina's refusal to include center-right parties in his right-wing coalition.


title: Verona

text: Because of the value and importance of its many historical buildings, Verona has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Verona preserved many ancient Roman monuments (including the magnificent Arena) in the early Middle Ages, but many of its early medieval edifices were destroyed or heavily damaged by the earthquake of 3 January 1117, which led to a massive Romanesque rebuilding. The Carolingian period "Versus de Verona" contains an important description of Verona in the early medieval era.


title: Verona

text: The Roman military settlement in what is now the center of the city was to expand through the cardines and decumani that intersect at right angles. This structure has been kept to the present day and is clearly visible from the air. Further development has not reshaped the original map. Though the Roman city with its basalt-paved roads is mostly hidden from view it stands virtually intact about 6 m below the surface. Most palazzi and houses have cellars built on Roman structures that are rarely accessible to visitors.


title: Verona

text: Piazza delle Erbe, near the Roman forum was rebuilt by Cangrande I and Cansignorio della Scala I, lords of Verona, using material (such as marble blocks and statues) from Roman spas and villas.


title: Verona

text: Verona is famous for its Roman amphitheater, the Arena, found in the city's largest piazza, the Piazza Bra. Completed around 30 AD, it is the third-largest in Italy after Rome's Colosseum and the arena at Capua. It measures 139 meters long and 110 meters wide, and could seat some 25,000 spectators in its 44 tiers of marble seats. The "ludi" (shows and gladiator games) performed within its walls were so famous that they attracted spectators from far beyond the city. The current two-story façade is actually the internal support for the tiers; only a fragment of the original outer perimeter wall in white and pink limestone from Valpolicella, with three stories remains. The interior is very impressive and is virtually intact, and has remained in use even today for public events, fairs, theatre, and open-aired opera during warm summer nights.


title: Verona

text: There is also a variety of other Roman monuments to be found in the town, such as the Roman theatre of Verona. This theatre was built in the 1st century BC, but through the ages had fallen in disuse and had been built upon to provide housing. In the 18th century Andrea Monga, a wealthy Veronese, bought all the houses that in time had been built over the theatre, demolished them, and saved the monument. Not far from it is the Ponte di Pietra ("Stone Wall Bridge"), another Roman landmark that has survived to this day.


title: Verona

text: The "Arco dei Gavi" (Gavi Arch) was built in the 1st century AD and is famous for having the name of the builder (architect Lucius Vitruvius Cordone) engraved on it, a rare case in the architecture of the epoque. It originally straddled the main Roman road into the city, now the Corso Cavour. It was demolished by French troops in 1805 and rebuilt in 1932.


title: Verona

text: Nearby is the "Porta Borsari", an archway at the end of Corso Porta Borsari. This is the façade of a 3rd-century gate in the original Roman city walls. The inscription is dated 245 AD and gives the city name as "Colonia Verona Augusta". Corso Porta Borsari, the road passing through the gate is the original Via Sacra of the Roman city. Today, it is lined with several Renaissance palazzi and the ancient Church of Santi Apostoli, a few meters from Piazza delle Erbe.


title: Verona

text: "Porta Leoni" is the 1st century BC ruin of what was once part of the Roman city gate. A substantial portion is still standing as part of the wall of a medieval building. The street itself is an open archaeological site, and the remains of the original Roman street and gateway foundations can be seen a few feet below the present street level. As can be seen from there, the gate contains a small court guarded by towers. Here, carriages and travelers were inspected before entering or leaving the city.


title: Verona

text: "Santo Stefano" church is dedicated to the first Christian martyr, was erected in the Paleochristian era, and houses the burials of the first bishops of Verona. Throughout the centuries Saint Stephen underwent complex architectural transformations. Particularly striking is the rare two-story ambulatory, probably built to give pilgrims visual access to the abundant collection of important relics for which the church was famous. Also to be visited is the cruciform crypt with its forest of columns, arches, and cross vaults. Saint Stephen was the first Christian martyr and, according to the Acts of the Apostles, was stoned just outside Jerusalem, in a place still remembered today, near the so-called "Porta Leoni".


title: Verona

text: With a span length of , the segmental arch bridge Ponte Scaligero featured, at the time of its completion in 1356, the world's largest bridge arch.


title: Verona

text: Verona was the birthplace of Catullus, and the town that Julius Caesar chose for relaxing stays. It has had an association with many important people and events that have been significant in the history of Europe, such as Theoderic the Great, king of Ostrogoths, Alboin and Rosamund, the Lombard Dukes, Charlemagne and Pippin of Italy, Berengar I, and Dante. Conclaves were held here, as were important congresses. Verona featured in the travel diaries of Goethe, Stendhal, Paul Valéry and Michel de Montaigne. The British writer Tim Parks has been living near Verona since the 1980s and the city is central to many of his books, notably A Season with Verona and Italian Neighbors.


title: Verona

text: The city has two professional football teams nowadays. Historically, the city's major team has been Hellas Verona. They won the Italian Serie A championship in 1984–85 and played in the European Cup the following year. Chievo Verona represented Chievo, a suburb of Verona, and were created in 1929. However, they ceased to exist in 2021 due to outstanding tax payments. As of the 2021–22 season, Hellas plays in the first division of Italian football, Serie A, while Virtus Verona, the other club in the city, plays in the Serie C. The teams of Hellas and Chievo contested the Derby della Scala and shared the 38,402-seater Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi (now only home to Hellas due to the fold of Chievo), which was used as a venue at the 1990 FIFA World Cup.


title: Verona

text: Verona is home to the volleyball team Marmi Lanza Verona (now in Serie A1), the rugby team Franklin and Marshall Cus Verona Rugby (now in Serie A1), and the basketball team Scaligera Basket (now in Legadue).


title: Verona

text: The city has twice hosted the UCI Road World Championships, in 1999 (with Treviso as co-host) and in 2004. The city also regularly hosts stages of the Giro d'Italia annual cycling race. Verona also hosted the baseball world cup in 2009, and the Volleyball World Cup in September–October 2010.


title: Verona

text: Public transit has been operated by the provincial public transport company, "Azienda Trasporti Verona" (ATV), since 2007. From 1884 to 1951, the city was served by the . Trolleybuses replaced the trams which were themselves replaced by buses in 1975. A new trolleybus network is currently under review by ATV and is expected to open in 2022.


title: Verona

text: An incline lift, the Verona funicular, opened in 2017 and provides access from the Ponte Pietra to the Roman theatre museum and San Pietro Castle.


title: Verona

text: Verona lies at a major route crossing where the north-south rail line from the Brenner Pass to Rome intersects with the east-west line between Milan and Venice, giving the city rail access to most of Europe. In addition to regional and local services, the city is served by direct international trains to Zurich, Innsbruck, and Munich and by overnight sleeper services to Paris and Dijon (Thello), Munich, and Vienna (ÖBB).


title: Verona

text: Verona's main station is Verona Porta Nuova railway station, to the south of the city center. It is considered to be the ninth busiest railway station in Italy, handling approximately 68,000 passengers per day, or 25 million passengers per year.


title: Verona

text: There is a lesser station to the east of the city at Porta Vescovo, which used to be the main station in Verona, but now only receives trains between Venice and Porta Nuova.


title: Verona

text: Verona Airport is located southwest of Verona. It handles around 3 million passengers per year. It is linked to Porta Nuova railway station by a frequent bus service.


title: Verona

text: There are direct flights between Verona and Rome Fiumicino, Munich, Berlin, Moscow, Naples, Frankfurt, Catania, London Gatwick, Dublin, Palermo, Cork, Manchester, Liverpool and Cagliari among others.


title: Verona

text: Two of William Shakespeare's plays, "Romeo and Juliet" and "The Two Gentlemen of Verona", are set in the city of Verona. No evidence suggests that Shakespeare had ever been to the city.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: Lindsey Caroline Vonn ( ; born October 18, 1984) is an American former World Cup alpine ski racer on the US Ski Team. She won four World Cup overall championships — second only amongst female skiers to Annemarie Moser-Pröll — with three consecutive titles in 2008, 2009, and 2010, plus another in 2012. Vonn won the gold medal in downhill at the 2010 Winter Olympics, the first one for an American woman. She also won a record eight World Cup season titles in the downhill discipline (2008–2013, 2015, 2016), five titles in super-G (2009–2012, 2015), and three consecutive titles in the combined (2010–2012). In 2016, she won her 20th World Cup crystal globe title, the overall record for men or women, surpassing Ingemar Stenmark of Sweden, who won 19 globes from 1975 to 1984. She has the second highest super ranking of all skiers, men or women.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: Vonn is one of six women to have won World Cup races in all five disciplines of alpine skiing — downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom, and super combined — and won 82 World Cup races in her career through February 3, 2018. Her total of 82 World Cup victories is a women's record, surpassing Annemarie Moser-Pröll of Austria, who had held the record since the 1970s. Only Ingemar Stenmark of Sweden, with 86 World Cup victories, has more. With her Olympic gold and bronze medals, two World Championship gold medals in 2009 (plus three silver medals in 2007 and 2011), and four overall World Cup titles, Vonn is one of the most successful American ski racers, and is considered one of the greatest of all skiers.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: In 2010, Vonn received the Laureus Sportswoman of the Year award, and was the United States Olympic Committee's sportswoman of the year.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: Injuries caused Vonn to miss parts of several seasons, including almost all of the 2014 season and most of the 2013 season. While recovering from injury, she worked as a correspondent for NBC News, covering the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. In 2019, she announced her retirement, citing her injuries.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: Born Lindsey Caroline Kildow in St. Paul, Minnesota, she is the daughter of Linda Anne (née Krohn) and Alan Lee Kildow. She grew up in the Twin Cities metropolitan area in Burnsville, Minnesota. Her father is of Irish ancestry and her mother is of German and Norwegian ancestry. Vonn was on skis at age two before moving into Erich Sailer's renowned development program at Burnsville's Buck Hill, which also produced slalom racer Kristina Koznick. Her father, who had won a national junior title before a knee injury at 18, "pushed" her very hard, according to Sailer.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: When Vonn was 9 years old, she met Olympic gold medalist ski racer Picabo Street, whom she considers her hero and role model. Their meeting made such an impression on Street that she remembered the meeting and later served as Vonn's mentor in skiing. Vonn commuted to Colorado to train for several years before her family moved to Vail, Colorado in the late 1990s.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: Vonn attended University of Missouri High School, an online program through the university's Center for Distance and Independent Study. She speaks German fluently. Despite not attending a traditional 4-year university, Vonn has gone on to participate in the four-day Harvard Business School's “The Business of Entertainment, Media, and Sports” program.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: Lindsey Kildow was taught to ski by her grandfather, Don Kildow, in Milton, Wisconsin. She began skiing as a child in Burnsville, Minnesota, at Buck Hill Ski and Snowboard, and through family vacations that included 16-hour drives from Minnesota to Vail. In an interview with "The New York Times," Vonn stated "I would be in the back under a sleeping bag, and she'd (her mother) be driving and singing along to some Eric Clapton tape." By the time Lindsey was 7, she had skied in Minnesota, Colorado, and Oregon year-round. When skiing in Colorado, she had lessons at Ski Club Vail (SCV), an alpine racing program (subsequently expanded and renamed Ski & Snowboard Club Vail) that taught, and still teaches skiers from ages 6 and up. During her first year at SCV, Lindsey skied under "Gravity Corps" Ski Coach Colby S. Scudder, her only female coach, in Ski Club Vail's Gravity Corps "pre-age-class" program. The program was directed by Tom Krebs who told the Gravity Corps coaches to not train the skiers inside gates, but instead to develop their all-mountain skiing skills and to develop their comfort in the fall line (the most direct route down a ski slope), while ensuring the kids were exposed to as much terrain as possible "versatility and exposure to diverse challenging terrain" was the directive. At that time, the Gravity Corps pre-age-class skiing program consisted of multiple groups of 8–10 skiers; it was the only SCV venue open at the club to younger skiers who were not yet old enough to participate in official "age-class" United States Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) or International Ski Federation (FIS) sanctioned events.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: Lindsey and other members of her gravity Corps group, placed first, second and third, in Gravity Corps unofficial races in which all gravity corps skiers participated in one collective unofficial gathering. The race was set and run by Krebs, and directed as the only time gravity corps skiers should "be in a race course". At the end of that first Vail season, Lindsey's mother asked if the coach thought Lindsey was a slow skier; the answer was an emphatic "NO," Lindsey was most definitely NOT a slow skier. It was mentioned that if anyone ever said that Lindsey was slow, it was likely because that person was not recognizing that Lindsey was in a perpetual growth spurt and, that the person saying that Lindsey was slow was not considering that changes in Lindsey's height affected her center of gravity, etc., and skiing confidence, and thus that person who described Lindsey as skiing slowly was not acknowledging the differences between a growing young male skier vs. a young female skier (who by the age of 11, stood at a much taller height than her peers) - which, in the SCV Gravity Corps Coach's opinion resulted in the devastatingly inaccurate "slow" comment. The words used by Colby S.Scudder were more colorful, and much less diplomatic. Based on Lindsey's newly confirmed speed, Lindsey and her mother asked about enrolling Lindsey into the older "Age-Class" program, which they said, had previously denied their enrollment request.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: The coach supported the idea of skiing with "age-class" skiers. The next season, with the final approval of Director Chip Woods, Lindsey was enrolled into the "age class program," under SCV Alpine "technical skiing Coaches Reid Phillips, Chip Woods, Todd A. Rash and Gus Pernetz,etc., who collectively perfected Lindsey's early technical skills and began her SCV "in gate" training.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: In the late 1990s, Lindsey and her siblings and mother stopped commuting from Minnesota to Colorado and instead moved to Colorado to ski exclusively at Ski Club Vail. During her first SCV year in Vail, Lindsey and one of her sisters skied together in the same "gravity corps" SCV group. It was during that first season Lindsey and her family were contemplating if the entire family should move from Minnesota to Colorado. "Vail was wonderful to me," Lindsey said, "but I missed all the traditional things of childhood – sleepovers, school dances, making friends in a conventional way. Halfway through the second season, Lindsey's siblings also moved to Vail. "Now all my brothers and sisters had left their friends for me. That was stressful on them. I felt so guilty."


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: However, the move paid off because in 1999 Lindsey Kildow and Will McDonald became the first American athletes to win the "Cadets" slalom events in Italy's Trofeo Topolino di Sci Alpino. In 1986, Lindsey's hero, Picabo Street, participated, but did not medal, in the same Topolino event. In 1995 at age 10, Kildow met Street in person at a promotional event. A few years later, "Street was stunned watching a 15-year-old Lindsey ski for the first time in 1999. She marveled at Lindsey's knack for following the fall line. 'The faster she went, the bigger the smile she got on her face,' Street said. 'You can't teach somebody to love the fall line like that little girl loved the fall line.'"


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: After climbing through the ranks of the U.S. Ski Team, she made her World Cup debut at age 16 on November 18, 2000, in Park City, Utah.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: In her Olympic debut at the 2002 Winter Olympics at age 17, Kildow raced in both slalom and combined in Salt Lake City, with her best result coming with sixth in combined. On March 4, 2003, she earned a silver medal in downhill in the Junior World Championship at Puy Saint-Vincent, France.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: Kildow credits a change in her attitude toward training to a bike ride with fellow ski racer Julia Mancuso and Mancuso's father Ciro when Kildow visited them at their home in Lake Tahoe, California. With little biking experience, she quickly found herself miles behind Julia and Ciro. Alone and embarrassed, she realized she needed drastic revision of her training regimen and her attitude toward training if she was going to be successful.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: On March 24, 2004, Kildow was the downhill silver medalist at the U.S. Alpine Championships at Mt. Alyeska Resort, Girdwood, Alaska. Earlier that year 2004, Kildow climbed onto the World Cup podium for the first time with a third-place finish in downhill in January 2004 at Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. Her maiden victory in that specialty came at Lake Louise, Alberta, in December 2004. She captured five more World Cup podiums over the next two months.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: In 2005, she competed in four races at her first World Championships held in Bormio, Italy, pulling in fourth-place finishes in both the downhill and the combined. She was ninth in super-G, but failed to finish the giant slalom. She cited the unexpected appearance of her father, with whom she has a strained relationship, for rattling her before the event.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: At her second Winter Olympics in 2006, Kildow clocked the second-best time in the first practice run yet crashed in the second training run for the downhill race on February 13, 2006, in San Sicario, Italy; she was evacuated by helicopter to Turin and was hospitalized overnight. Despite a bruised hip and strong pains, she returned on the slope 2 days later to compete and finished eighth. The gritty performance earned her the U.S. Olympic Spirit Award, as voted by American fans, fellow Team USA athletes, former U.S. Olympians, and members of the media for best representing the Olympic Spirit.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: Kildow earned her first "big race" medals with silver in both downhill and super-G at the 2007 World Championships in Åre, Sweden. A training crash before the slalom caused her a low-level ACL sprain to her right knee, ending her season 4 weeks early. Nevertheless, she finished third for the season in the women's 2007 World Cup disciplines of downhill and super-G.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: In 2008, Lindsey Vonn won the overall World Cup title. She became the second American woman to do so, following Tamara McKinney in 1983. American Bode Miller won the men's title to complete the first U.S. sweep of the men's and women's overall titles in 25 years (McKinney and Phil Mahre in 1983). She also won the World Cup season title in the downhill and the U.S. Alpine Championships combined title (downhill & slalom), marking her best ski season to date. Vonn set a new American record for the most World Cup downhill victories with ten, winning at Crans-Montana, Switzerland, on March 8.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: In 2009, Vonn repeated as overall World Cup champion, repeated as downhill champion and also won the season championship in super-G by winning the final race of the season. During the season, she broke Tamara McKinney's American record of 18 World Cup victories when she won the super-G at Tarvisio in February. Her nine World Cup wins also set an American single-season record, surpassing Phil Mahre's total of eight in 1982. At the 2009 World Championships in Val-d'Isère, France, Vonn won her first world championship and became the first American woman to win the world super-G title. In the super combined event, she won the downhill portion and had appeared to have finished second in the event with a strong slalom performance, but was disqualified for splitting a gate. Three days later she won the gold in the downhill. During early 2009, she appeared in Alka-Seltzer television commercials in the United States as support for the United States Ski Team. During the summer of 2009, Vonn switched her equipment sponsor and supplier to Head skis, after previously racing her entire career on Rossignol skis. In October 2009, Vonn was awarded the Skieur d'Or Award by members of the International Association of Ski Journalists for her performances during the previous season.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: In December 2009, Vonn sustained a bruised arm after a crash during the opening run of the World Cup giant slalom. She continued racing as there was no fracture that would prevent her return and run at the Olympic Games in Vancouver. Despite skiing with her arm in a brace due to the injury, Vonn won three straight races (two downhills and a super-G) in Haus im Ennstal, Austria, from January 8–10, 2010. The wins raised her to second among American skiers on the all-time career list for World Cup wins with 28, passing Phil Mahre and trailing only Bode Miller. On January 14, 2010, Lindsey Vonn was named Colorado Athlete of the Year for 2009. With her victory in a super-G just prior to the 2010 Winter Olympics, she clinched her second straight super-G discipline title with two races still to go. Vonn ended up also winning the overall title, as well as the discipline titles in downhill, super-G and combined, and by winning the last super-G of the season, she boosted her overall World Cup victory total to 33, surpassing Bode Miller for the most World Cup victories by an American. The third consecutive overall World Cup title also equals Phil Mahre's American record and makes Vonn the third woman to achieve it, behind Petra Kronberger with 3 straight and Annemarie Moser-Pröll with 5 straight. Vonn was also named by the Associated Press as 2010 Female Athlete of the Year.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: At the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010, Vonn planned to compete in all five women's alpine events. On February 10, she revealed she had severely bruised her shin in training the previous week. Vonn said the pain from her injury was "excruciating" and she would have a difficult time competing at the Winter Olympics. Due to unseasonably warm weather and resultant poor snow conditions, many of the Alpine skiing events were moved back, giving Vonn additional time to heal. On February 17, in her first event, Vonn won the gold medal in the downhill at Whistler Blackcomb, beating longtime U.S. rival Julia Mancuso by 0.56 seconds and becoming the first American woman to win Olympic gold in downhill.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: In her second event, the super combined, Vonn finished first in the downhill portion of the race. In the slalom portion, however, she crashed when she failed to get her ski around a right-hand gate. Vonn said her shin wasn't the problem. Gold and silver were won by Maria Riesch and Julia Mancuso respectively.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: In her third event, the super-G, Vonn finished third behind Andrea Fischbacher and Tina Maze, 0.74 seconds behind Fischbacher's winning time. Afterwards, Vonn said she didn't ski the last part of the course as aggressively as she could have and lost the race as a result.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: In her fourth event, the giant slalom, fog affected visibility. Vonn crashed in her first run, resulting in a broken fourth finger and Vonn's disqualification from the event. In her fifth event, the slalom, Vonn lost control and straddled a gate, disqualifying her from the event.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: After 3 consecutive overall World Cups, Vonn faced more serious competition from Maria Riesch of Germany in 2011. Riesch had a strong start to the season by winning 2 downhills in Lake Louise, where Vonn had won 7 races. Vonn placed on the podium in every speed race but failed to finish in several slaloms. Riesch had 5 podiums in the first 6 slaloms and was significantly ahead in the overall ranking by the end of January.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: At the 2011 World Championships in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, Vonn suffered from a concussion she acquired during training a week earlier. She started in 2 events and achieved a seventh place in super-G and a silver medal in downhill.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: Back to World Cup and healthy again, Vonn finished ahead of Riesch in several races (including a giant slalom she finished third, best career result in GS until then), she took overall lead for first time that season after downhill event of the World Cup finals in Lenzerheide. The super-G was cancelled due to poor weather conditions, and after the slalom Riesch regained the overall lead by 3 points. The giant slalom was also cancelled due to weather and Riesch was the 2011 overall champion.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: Vonn won her fourth Overall World Cup Title in 2012. The season opened in October in Sölden, Austria, where Vonn had won her first giant slalom. This made Vonn the 6th woman to have won all events at least once.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: On December 2–4, 2011, she won all three races in Lake Louise (two downhills, one super-G) for her second career 'hat trick', and with her eleventh win at Lake Louise she surpassed Renate Götschl's record for most career wins at a single resort (ten in Cortina d'Ampezzo). On December 7, 2011, Vonn notched her first World Cup victory on U.S. snow, at Beaver Creek, Colorado. Due to a lack of snow in France, its super-G was rescheduled in advance for a Wednesday on the Birds of Prey course. Her limited success on U.S. snow is primarily due to a lack of speed events; only three have been run in the U.S. during her career. It was the first home win by an American woman in 17 years, since Hilary Lindh of Alaska won the downhill in nearby Vail in 1994.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: With further victories in January 2012, she overtook Renate Götschl to become the third most successful female World Cup racer in terms of victories.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: On February 4, 2012, Vonn achieved her fiftieth World Cup victory on the Kandahar downhill course at Garmisch, Germany. The win also gave her 25 career downhill victories, surpassing Götschl for second most career DH wins. With a podium finish in Russia on February 18, 2012, Vonn clinched the season title in downhill, her fifth consecutive in that discipline.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: Vonn's expressed disappointment that she missed the FIS Alpine Record for 2,000 points in a season by 20 points. In her final race of the season at Schladming, Austria, she was not able to improve on her first giant slalom run after losing her pole at the starting gate. Her 24th finish at Schladming led to her loss of a potential 20-plus points for her season record. "It was possible to get those 20 points, I was in a good position ... If you work so hard to reach your goal but you lose your pole in the very last run, that's hard to take. It will give me even more motivation for next season", commented Vonn after the race.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: Vonn got off to a slow start in the 2013 season, slowed by illness with marginal results in giant slalom and skipping a pair of slalom races in November 2012. She came back quickly once the speed events started, again sweeping all three races in Lake Louise from November 30 to December 2 (two downhills, one super-G) for her third career 'hat trick', and increasing her record for most career wins at a single resort to 14. The three wins increased her career total to 56, moving her past Vreni Schneider into second place all-time among women behind Annemarie Moser-Pröll with 62.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: After some disappointing results, Vonn announced her decision on December 17 to take a break from the World Cup circuit to fully recover from her earlier illness. She returned and finished in 6th place on January 6 in her first downhill race since her break. Two weeks later she won the downhill in Cortina d'Ampezzo and week later won the giant slalom in Maribor, Slovenia.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: At the first marathon of the 2013 World Championships in Schladming, Austria, Vonn crashed in the super-G and was airlifted to a nearby hospital. She tore her anterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament in her right knee, with a tibial plateau fracture. Vonn said she would be ready for the 2014 Winter Olympics despite her injury.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: Before her season-ending crash on February 5 in Schladming, Vonn led in the World Cup downhill standings with 340 points. Several were within reach of taking the title during her absence from the tour. Overall champion Tina Maze, who trailed Vonn by more than a hundred points, took a 4th-place finish in Méribel and a win in Garmisch to close the gap to a single point with one race remaining at the World Cup finals in Lenzerheide. Weather conditions were in Vonn's favor, as officials canceled the race after numerous delays due to a thick fog on the lower section. As a result, she won her sixth downhill season title despite not competing in a downhill since mid-January.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: Vonn traveled to Austria for the first race of the 2014 Alpine Skiing World Cup, but ultimately decided not to compete during the first weekend. She announced plans to return to competition in late November.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: On November 20, 2013, Vonn re-injured her right knee straining it and partially tearing her right ACL after a crash during training. She returned to competition on December 6, finishing 40th the first of two downhill races in Lake Louise, Canada, then 11th in the second downhill on December 7, followed by a 5th place in the super-G on December 8. In December, she said of her preparation for the 2014 Winter Olympics that "I'm going to play it safe and race minimal races, so I can get the confidence and the timing and the feeling of racing again. I'm really going to be safe and smart as I can."


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: On January 7, 2014, Vonn announced that she would not compete in the Sochi 2014 Winter Games because she had re-injured her right knee on December 21, 2013, while skiing in France. "I am devastated to announce that I will not be able to compete in Sochi. I did everything I possibly could to somehow get strong enough to overcome having no ACL but the reality has sunk in that my knee is just too unstable to compete at this level. I'm having surgery soon so that I can be ready for the World Championships at home in Vail next February. On a positive note, this means there will be an additional spot so that one of my teammates can go for gold. Thank you all so much for all of the love and support. I will be cheering for all of the Olympians and especially team USA!" ESPN posted a reference to her announcement, a few hours after Lindsey wrote the aforementioned on her Facebook page.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: Vonn made her comeback to the top of the podium on December 6, 2014, at the Women's World Cup downhill race at Lake Louise, Alberta, winning the event in only her second race back. In January 2015, she tied and then overtook Austrian Annemarie Moser-Proell for the most World Cup wins ever.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: At the 2015 World Championships in Vail / Beaver Creek, Colorado, Vonn won a bronze medal in the first of ladies' events, the super-G. She placed 5th in the downhill race and 14th in the giant slalom race.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: On March 18, 2015, Vonn won the last World Cup downhill race at Meribel, France and claimed the World Cup downhill title for the seventh time. Vonn tied with Moser-Proell for the women's record of seven globes in one discipline. The next day, Vonn notched her eight victory of the season by winning the last super-G race. With this win, Vonn took the super-G season title for a fifth time, tying a record shared by German Katja Seizinger, Austrian Hermann Maier and Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal. She joined Ingemar Stenmark from Sweden as the only skiers to reach 19 season titles across all disciplines and the overall. Vonn also made a World Cup podium for the 113th time, tying Moser-Proell's women's record.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: Vonn started the season by winning the three races contested by women in Lake Louise (2 Downhill, 1 Super-G) for her third career victory. This brought her to 70 career World Cup wins, increasing her lead over the previous women's world record holder for most World Cup podiums by a woman (Austrian Annemarie Moser-Proell, 62 career victories) and with her 25th Super-G win, she passed Austrian Hermann Maier for most Super-G wins for either gender. In January, Vonn tied the record of Annemarie Moser-Pröll for all-time downhill victories at 36 with a win at Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Austria. Because poor snow conditions resulted in a shorter course, the race was uniquely held over two combined runs, similar to slalom and giant slalom races. Two weeks later in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Vonn broke Moser-Pröll's record with her 37th downhill victory.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: On November 11, 2016, Vonn announced on her Facebook page that she had severely fractured the humerus bone of her right arm in a training crash. She had undergone surgery to repair the bone. Vonn returned to the World Cup on January 15, 2017, in the downhill race at Altenmarkt; she finished 13th. On January 20, in her second race back from injury, she won the downhill event in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, capturing her 77th win.


title: Lindsey Vonn

text: On December 7, 2017, Vonn stated in an interview she will not be representing the President Donald Trump in the 2018 Winter Olympics and will not attend the White House reception if she wins a gold medal. Vonn made it clear in her statement that she feels that all Olympians represent the United States people, and not the leaders. She was quoted in the CNN article saying, "Well I hope to represent the people of the United States, not the President."