Every week.

Governor Andy Beshear names a Team Kentucky All-Star.

This week's All-Star is a Kentuckian who just won gold at the Paris Olympics.

Here is the governor from yesterday.

It was a great year for America and it was also a great year for Kentucky.

We had so many athletes make us proud.

But one athlete in particular I want to recognize is Olympic fencer Lee Kiefer, who grew up in Lexington.

Lee won her second consecutive gold medal in individual foil in Paris.

She also won gold in team foil, making her the first American fencer in history to win three Olympic gold medals.

It is truly amazing to Li.

You have represented Kentucky and the United States of America so well.

We are so proud of you and we're really excited.

We've got a video from you to share with everybody today.

Hi, Governor.

Thank you so much for recognizing me.

This week is an absolute honor as a Kentuckian to represent our state and our country on an international stage.

I just want to take a second to thank my coach and all my teammates of Bluegrass Men's Club, my family and just everyone else who supported me and enjoyed the Olympic Games.

Check out the hardware.

Time now to review some big sports news of the week as we go inside Kentucky sports with sportscaster extraordinaire Christy Thomas.

It's good to see you.

Good to see you.

You're too kind.

You are.

You are the woman.

I know you're ramping up.

Yes.

With sports, with football.

And I'll be in all the time.

I know you're excited about this.

Time of year.

Wonderful.

This is something about it.

In the air.

You can start to feel fall coming on just a little bit.

And that signals football season.

And I think it's like a light switch going on that all of a sudden all the things are all happening at once and it's all fun.

All of it.

It is a good time.

A lot of excitement.

You can feel.

It.

That's right.

Yeah.

Well, especially with a day like today where it's kind of a little rainy outside, it feels like, okay, we're on the cusp of fall, right?

That's a football season.

That's it.

But we've had some good sports activity going on in the last few weeks.

The Olympics and Kentucky had a great showing.

What were there?

11 former Wildcats came home with medals.

We've got some standout extraordinarily Keefer and fencing volleyball track.

I mean talk about who your favorites are and how well Kentucky did at the Olympics.

Pretty incredible, really, to think about how well-represented not only was the University of Kentucky, but the state of Kentucky in general was so well-represented in Paris.

It's kind of like a mourning period for me that, Renee, I'll be honest with you, because I was so attached to the Olympics, I was so into it really watching everything.

And now that it's over, it's like, well, now what do you do?

I now.

But no, it's absolutely incredible when you think about Avery Skinner, who was part of a 2020 national championship team at the University of Kentucky, the first ever volleyball championship that they won there.

And so for her to be represented in the Olympics and I'll tell you, Kentucky was talked about over and over again on this broadcast, and they were talking about their coaching staff, the coaching staff was there.

Craig Skinner was actually in attendance.

So over and over again, we kept hearing the commentators talk about the University of Kentucky and what they've been able to do there.

So that was a ton of fun.

But then we heard the exact same thing in track and field.

I mean, my goodness, you talk about what the track program has done at Duke is really phenomenal.

And these aren't just athletes that are going and winning Olympic medals.

They're going and setting world records.

Sydney McLaughlin Live live.

Ronnie was setting world records, so she is absolutely the best in the world at what she does.

And she ran track right here at Kentucky, won an SEC championship in the hurdles.

I mean, you know, it's really phenomenal what they've been able to do.

And then men's basketball, how fun was that?

I mean, yeah, the dream team stays.

The dream team, right?

There are three Kentucky players, former players win medals there.

I mean, really just so well represented.

And what I think is great is even you think about Louisville was represented with a 1500 meter bronze medalist was there.

You mentioned Lee Kiefer grew up here in Kentucky and always talks about her time here in Kentucky, the best ever.

In American.

Fencing, you know, for women.

So, you know, it's really incredible what is happening here and especially at the university of Kentucky in the athletic program in certain departments, there have just been such a surge of athletes that are world class that are making Kentucky home.

Well, and yesterday at the governor's press conference, he recognized Lakey for it.

And there was even a video that we've seen before.

We got to our interview with you.

You know that she's proudly showing off those medals and she should be, well.

A Dunbar graduate.

I mean, you know, this is a young lady that's had so much going going for her and then really representing our state so well.

It's it's really incredible to see.

It's a ton of fun.

Yeah, it's great.

And, you know, we are kind of in mourning now that it's over.

But the good thing is we're going to rebound because football season, as we said, is is upon us.

So tell us what you're expecting, especially from BBN.

Yeah, so this will be an interesting football season for a lot of reasons.

One is there's a new offensive coordinator at the University of Kentucky, Bush Hamden, so that really changes things.

There'll be a new quarterback Brock Vandegrift is is on his way to being the number one guy there for Kentucky so that'll certainly be different where you know some new names some new faces that Kentucky will have to get to know.

Also from a running back perspective, I mean, this will be the first time that we've not had someone named Benny Snell or Chris Rodriguez in that backfield.

So who's going to be the guy who's going to step up and be the guy?

But the big thing, too, is going to be the addition of Oklahoma and Texas into the SCC.

I mean, that's huge.

11 national titles between the two of those schools in football.

So we're not just bringing just any teams here to the SEC.

We're bringing some really, really high caliber football teams for sure.

But then they also have really excelled in other areas.

So all part of the Big 12 now joining the SCC.

So that really makes this a Super league.

Yeah.

And competitive.

Oh my gosh it just kind of goes through the roof.

This is now 16 teams and the SCC has done away with divisional partner so it would be an SEC East and an SEC west.

So those have gone away so now it's just a 16 team SCC so used to what you would do is take the SCC East winner and the SEC West winner and that's who played for the SEC championship and now it's just going to be the first two teams that finish in the league will now play for the SEC championships.

A sense.

It makes perfect sense and I think it's going to make it a lot of fun.

There have been plenty of times where teams from the East or the West, yeah, will have that number two team and think, gosh, they deserve to be there.

So this will be their opportunity to be able to do that.

But this also comes on the heels of the college football Playoff expanding from four teams to 12 teams and there really could not.

That spells a lot of good news for the SEC because that means now the SEC could definitely get more teams into that mix.

Yeah, it's like what took them so long to get to this point, right?

Everybody like a no brainer.

Oh, everybody wanted it, you know, and this just makes it a ton of fun.

And really, if you're someone like me don't want it to end, you don't want college football to end.

So this kind of keeps it going for us for a little while and then really just makes this thing a lot of fun.

Yeah, well, from football to golf.

So we got some good news this week about Valhalla getting in the Solheim in 2028.

This is the ladies right version.

Talk about the impact that could have and what it means for Louisville after some little snafus with the last thing.

Yeah right.

Which we all know about but it'll land this I mean the meaning of that for Louisville and for Kentucky.

I think it's huge.

And I think it speaks volumes to what the LPGA is after and what they what they deem as a great place to be able to go and have an event.

So I think, yeah, to your point, they've had men's events there.

They've had, you know, team events that have been there.

They've had major events, but nothing for the women.

So this is the first time that Valhalla has been able to host something like that.

And I think it's huge for the city of Louisville.

A little redemption certainly could come into play for them, you know, I think.

But, you know, this is one of those situations where you live and learn a little bit.

So I think Valhalla will live and learn from that event.

So, no, I think it's fabulous.

I think any time that you can showcase Kentucky anywhere in the state and any venue in the state, you can showcase an international event.

This is Match Play International event.

So it's going to be us versus Europe.

That always brings the competitive juices out and a ton of fun.

So, I mean, I think it's great that the state gets showcased in this way and I think they'll do a fabulous job.

And the economic impact of that.

Like you to joke in a few seconds, Big Blue Madness, October 11th, I mean, it hits just keep on coming.

Well, here's what I'm going to tell big Louis Nation that is get your get your your study got out because you're going to have to study a little bit.

Lots of new faces, lots of new names.

But that's going to make it a lot of fun.

So you're going to have to get that little study got out, make sure that you know who everybody is.

But you're going to see great shooting and excellent defense.

Mark Pope's teams are known for really having an excellent defensive scheme.

And for what we're hearing already out of practice this summer is that these boys can shoot, these young men can shoot.

So I think that that's going to be we know how baby and loves that, right?

So everybody get ready for some great defense and some excellent shooting.

Yeah, well, thank you, Krista Thomas and her signature Wildcat Blue.

And you'll never see me do anything but blue and white.

You're a gem.

We appreciate you for.