Red, White & Trending: Sept. 2-8

What are Team USA athletes — Olympians, Paralympians, hopefuls and more — up to when they're not competing? They're training. They're practicing. They're traveling to competitions and meets and games and tournaments. They're relaxing. They're getting engaged and married. They're taking hard-earned vacations. They're coping with the raw emotions that come from losing and winning. And they're sharing. Through the reach of social media, we're able to follow along on their often extraordinary journeys. We'll catch you up each week on what's "Red, White & Trending."

Opening Ceremony

First, we interrupt this program for a few important announcements …

By now, of course, the Paralympics are well underway and Team USA is already back to winning medals in Rio, but to replay the run-up to the Games is to see some of the most powerful moments of these athletes' lives through their own eyes.

Many were rooting from home, too.

Paralympic Precursor

Like the Olympians before them, Team USA's Paralympians have been generously sharing in chronicling their travels via social media. The village brims with photo ops, and discus athlete Natalie Bieule didn’t miss the opportunity to capture a memory with world-record holder April Holmes and Lacey Henderson.

Holmes had checked in from an elevated position earlier in the week:

And it looks pretty good at night, too.

Prior to arriving in Rio, Henderson hinted that she’d be making the most of her experience:

And what’s not to like about “processing,” an very official procedural word standing in for what might be considered by many to be one of the most rewarding days conceivable.

From nearly the moment athletes arrived in Rio, timelines picked up with the spirit of the red, white and blue …

Happy Ending, Only The Beginning

Months ago, we learned that a gold medal had been stolen from the car of Olympic champion kayaker Joe Jacobi. After an extensive search, the medal was found in a most unexpected way: by a young girl out for a walk with her dad. The medal is a little worse for the wear now, but the two subjects in what is unfolding as a pair separated by almost 40 years have been brought together. Jacobi and 7-year-old Chloe Smith have since shared a few paddles together on the Chattahoochee River outside Atlanta.

Far East Westbrook

Russell Westbrook, a basketball gold medalist with Team USA in London, has been a man on the move over the past week or so — with the Long Beach-born UCLA alum making his way back from the Far East, by way of the East Coast.

Open Season

You know who’s having fun these days? Jenny Simpson. Though she earned bronze in the women’s 1,500-meter in Rio, she wasn’t done yet. She skipped across the pond to the Paris Diamond League event, then returned for one last race on the calendar: the 5th Avenue Mile in New York City. The result in what she referred to as her final mile of 2016: “Finished with a win, PR, and with the best competition & fans in the world!” So forgive her if she’s going on to enjoy herself a little in the Big Apple after winning her fifth 5th Avenue Mile.

Not on vacation at the US Open, however, were women’s tennis legends Venus and Serena Williams, who bowed out of the tournament in the semifinals on Thursday night in Queens.

Summer Of Fun

The members of the Final Five, now almost a month removed from a dominating gymnastics performance in Rio, continues to enjoy their post-Games return to the States. Even Aly Raisman, who this week committed to pursuing a run at Tokyo in 2020, sneaked in quite a bit of fun.

Simone Biles, meanwhile, had an appointment for Fashion Week with gold-medal-winning swimmer Conor Dwyer, roughly 20 inches taller than the four-time Olympic gymnastics champion.

Acrobatic twists on the first pitch theme rolled on, too:

Laurie Hernandez, who left Rio at the age of 16 with two medals, also offered a sneak peak at what’s to come on "Dancing with the Stars."

National Nightmare Is Over

At long last, college football season has returned, much to the delight of so many proud Team USA alums.

Baby Corner

Matt Besler now has a solid entry for Best Team USA Birth Story. Besler, on the road with the men’s soccer team, didn’t quite have an easy way back home from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, so he decided to stay and play in Team USA’s game on Friday evening only hours after learning that his wife gave birth to their first child. And what a game it was. Besler scored in a 6-0 win before returning to the United States.

Rule: When you score a goal on the same day your wife gives birth, you get to celebrate however you like. Besler went with rocking the baby to sleep.

Since, he’s made it back, and he’ll play the part of a fan.

Besler is joined in parenthood this week by Olympic medalist fencer Tim Morehouse.

That Time When …

… you were driving home and saw a billboard welcoming you back from the Olympic Games:

Cold Fusion

Even in North America, there are signs of fall:

But, for Team USA’s winter athletes, training on snow requires a bit more travel. To Portillo, Chile, for example:

A few miles south, as the crow flies, Paralympic skier Tyler Walker:

Or Argentina …

The 14-hour flight to New Zealand seems worthwhile because, this …

We Are The World … Cup

Soon, believe it or not, the world’s best ice hockey players will be vying for the World Cup of Hockey, a two-week treat of international hockey before the NHL season begins in October. Prior to taking on Canada in a pre-event game on Friday, Team USA gathered for its official team photo in Columbus, Ohio.