Latest news with #OUDaily
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Family offers $50,000 reward for information as University of Oklahoma student vanishes in Taiwan
The family of a University of Oklahoma student who went missing while on vacation in Taiwan has offered a $50,000 reward after officials reportedly called off their search. Diego Dorantes Sanchez, 23, vanished from Da Bai Sha beach on Green Island at about 12.15 p.m. local time on Friday, according to his family. The anthropology student from Hidalgo, Mexico, was snorkelling with three friends off the small volcanic island, branded 'snorkelers' paradise' for its vibrant coral reefs, which is situated about 20 miles east of the main island. Sanchez's friends, along with several snorkelers and scuba divers who were present near the group, began their search at about 1 p.m. after realizing the student had disappeared, the family told OU Daily, the University of Oklahoma's student newspaper. The Taiwanese Coast Guard was alerted, but adverse weather conditions delayed search efforts, the family said. Sanchez's family told the student newspaper that the agency conducted its search limited to Green Island. However, experts assisting in the search, who have analyzed possible drift paths, believe Sanchez could be near Yonaguni and Ishigaki, two small Japanese islands in Okinawa Prefecture, approximately 150 miles northeast of Green Island. Friends and family called for cross-national cooperation between Taiwanese and Japanese officials and local communities to begin coordinated search and rescue efforts. 'We urge everyone with access to these areas to please search and report anything that may help,' the family said. While friend Natalia Fabry told KOCO News: 'If you can please go to your shores and look for anyone who may be waiting for rescue. If you have a boat or you're a sailor or fisherman, if you're a diver, if you have a helicopter, anything, anyone, please help us.' However, officials concluded their search for Sanchez on Monday, according to an update posted by friend Luis Castro on a GoFundMe page set up to support the search efforts for the missing student. Sanchez's family, who are now in Taiwan, is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to his location, according to the fundraising page. '+72 hours have passed since Diego was reported missing,' read an update posted Monday. 'Therefore, Taiwanese government has stopped the thorough search. Diego's family has decided to offer a $50,000 reward (group of people, organization, government, anyone) to intensify the search. His family has reached Taiwan.' The Independent has contacted the Taiwanese Coast Guard for more information.
Fox News
07-04-2025
- Sport
- Fox News
Oklahoma softball coach defends players who attended Riley Gaines event
Oklahoma Sooners softball coach Patty Gasso defended her players after some attended an event hosted by women's sports advocate Riley Gaines last week. Gaines has championed fairness in women's sports since Lia Thomas tied with her at the NCAA Championships in 2022. Thomas also became the first transgender athlete to win an NCAA women's swimming championship. Since then, current and former female athletes have come together to keep biological males out of women's sports. Sooners pitchers Audrey Lowry and Sam Landry were in attendance for Gaines' speech at the Turning Point USA event, according to OU Daily. The women were far from the only Sooners athletes at the event. Gasso told the OU Daily that she did not hear Gaines' praise of her and her team and would not comment. "But the fact that our team is there, it's their right whether they want to go or not," she said. "I support them and whatever they choose." Peyton McQuillan, a Sooners track athlete, defended Gaines' message in an interview with the student newspaper. "She just wants to make sure everyone has a fair opportunity, and it's clear that she cares," she said. "It's very easy to relate to it." Haley Bergstrom, a rower for Oklahoma, backed keeping biological males out of girls' and women's sports. She pointed to the biological differences between men and women. "Biologically, men just have an advantage over women, no matter what," she said. "So we would just like to keep that simple, but there is no problem against trans people in general." Gaines did receive pro-trans protests at the school. "I'm really disturbed by the sort of panic that I've seen developing over the last couple of years — the suggestion that trans people are dangerous, that they're harming society, that letting trans people participate in everyday life is somehow a risky thing that should be avoided," librarian Cynthia Teague told The Oklahoman. "In particular with sports, there are so few trans athletes at any kind of elite level, and participating in sports is something that I think trans teens, especially, ought to be able to do." The NCAA altered its policy to keep biological males out of women's sports. However, women's sports advocates have said the organization has left loopholes in its policy to keep that door open. Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
