Learn about Beacon, USA Gymnastics’ first official therapy dog, who provides emotional support to athletes like Suni Lee and Simone Biles.
The National Dog Show
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According to NBC News, Beacon, a four-year-old Golden Retriever, is USA Gymnastics’ “first official therapy dog,” and even wears an official staff credential that reads “Goodest Boy” to prove it. Beacon attended the 2024 United States Olympic gymnastics team trials, which ran from June 27 to June 30 in Minneapolis, as the team’s therapy dog.
On June 29, Suni Lee—who along with Simone Biles, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera, represented the U.S. at the 2024 Paris Olympics—posted an Instagram carousel of photos from the start of the trials, including one of herself and Beacon. “Thank God for Beacon,” she captioned the roundup. “In Beacon, we trust,” commented retired gymnast Laurie Hernandez on Lee’s post.
In an interview with ESPN, Beacon’s handler, Tracey Callahan Molnar, said he acts as an emotional sponge for the athletes, helping to “celebrate the good stuff and give support for the challenges.”
“He picks up on the stress and will pull to that person immediately. They absorb the stress of the people they’re relieving it off of,” she explained. “So even though Beacon might be lying still for two hours, he’s wiped out afterwards.”
Unfortunately, travel technicalities prevented Beacon from joining the team in Paris, but Snoop Dogg cheering from the stands made the stress a little less ruff.
(We salute Beacon in the name of the National Dog Show Therapy Dog Ambassador Team, which encompasses 22 dogs and handlers from six states stretching from Oregon to Florida, to Pennsylvania. The team delivered 4,347 volunteer hours in 2023, providing comfort to men, women and children in healthcare facilities across the country.)
The National Dog Show weekend hosted by the Kennel Club of Philadelphia is set for November 16 & 17 this year at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania.
For information, visit: www.nds.nationaldogshow.com.
American Kennel Club (AKC)
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