Just watch Vikings star tight end T.J. Hockenson sprint around at training camp. He looks fantastic. Almost like he could put the pads on and make a difference right now.

Even head coach Kevin O’Connell has taken notice of Hockenson’s noticeable progression as he works his way back from a torn anterior cruciate ligament .

“Yeah,” O’Connell said with a laugh while setting up the punchline. “Every time I see him working on the side field, it becomes awfully tempting to corner (vice president of player health and performance) Tyler Williams somewhere in the building and demand answers on when we’ll be able to start implementing him.”

That’s never actually going to happen because O’Connell understands how important Hockenson is to the future of the franchise. After getting injured on Christmas Eve during a game between the Vikings and the Detroit Lions, Hockenson has been steadily trending in the right direction.

“He’s very well ahead of maybe where some of the medical folks thought he would be,” O’Connell said. “A timeline exists, and we’re going to try to stay true to that while also giving him opportunities to push to maybe shrink that timeline a little bit.”

In other words, as tempting as it might be to rush the recovery process, O’Connell doesn’t want to put any pressure on Hockenson.

“I want him focusing on what he can control,” O’Connell said. “He has done an unbelievable job so far.”

In the meantime, Hockenson will continue to work off to the side during training camp, looking more and more like himself every time he steps onto the field.

Griffin still not practicing

It shouldn’t be much longer for veteran cornerback Shaq Griffin. That said, Griffin still has not practiced since suffering a leg injury early in training camp.

“He’s definitely progressing,” O’Connell said. “I know Shaq is doing everything he can and was off to a really good start doing a lot of the things.”

There have been a number of players added to the secondary over the past week, including veteran cornerback Fabian Moreau, who has already been working with the first-team defense. It will be interesting to see if Griffin steps back into a starting role once he’s available.

“He’s dialed in and engaged in meetings and walkthroughs,” O’Connell said. “That leads me to believe he’ll be OK.”

Tonyan avoids serious injury

After being carted off the field earlier this week, veteran tight end Robert Tonyan has avoided a serious injury.

That’s good news for the Vikings given how well he has performed so far.

Though it looked grim when it happened, O’Connell confirmed that Tonyan was suffering from back spasms. He will go through the recovery process on his own with the goal of being able to return at some point later this month during the slate of exhibition games.

“He’s going to be working through a lower back thing,” O’Connell said. “We hope to get him back soon.”

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The state Attorney General’s office announced Friday that the youth soccer charity All In Minnesota in Vadnais Heights had violated several state laws and will dissolve under a settlement.

“Irresponsible financial management and conflicted transactions of the kind we saw at All In Minnesota are extremely disappointing and risk eroding public trust in the important work done by nonprofits,” said Attorney General Keith Ellison, in a statement.

All in Minnesota was founded in 2017 by the organization’s former president, Mark Bigelbach, to help soccer players on the Minnesota Eclipse youth soccer team. After a complaint was filed, the attorney general’s office began to investigate the nonprofit charity.

In the settlement, Ellison said that the charity’s board “failed to adequately supervise the business and affairs of the organization, resulting in violations of Minnesota charities laws.”

The tax-exempt charity provided help for soccer players on the Minnesota Eclipse youth soccer team from 2017 to 2022. During that time only one board meeting was held, Ellison said.

In addition, the charity “failed to appoint a treasurer, maintain adequate books and records, or create policies and procedures to protect charitable assets as required by Minnesota law,” according to Ellison’s office.

The nonprofit also entered into conflicted transactions with Bigelbach, Ellison said, and entities founded by him, including his for-profit sports facility management company.

Ellison said the group failed to register with the attorney general’s office and in 2022, it ended charitable activities without formally dissolving.

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Regan Smith delivered another sensational swim in France on Friday.

Regan Smith of United States, poses with her silver medal following the women’s 200-meter backstroke final at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, Aug. 2, 2024, in Nanterre, France. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

The Lakeville native claimed second in the 200-meter backstroke final with a time of 2 minutes, 4.26 seconds — besting her time at Olympic Trials last month by nearly a second and the time she swam at the 2023 World Championships by seven-tenths of a second.

It was another great swim in what has been an elite-level program for Smith in these Olympics. She now owns six Olympic medals for her career, three of which have come in these Games. All three of those are silver.

The 22 year old finished second in each of her three individual events. In each of the backstrokes, she was behind only Australian Kaylee McKeown, who has now swept the backstroke events in consecutive Olympics, perhaps cementing her as the greatest women’s backstroker in history.

Smith probably belongs in the top five on any such list. She has pushed McKeown every step of the way. Never was that more true than Friday, when Smith had the lead by 18 one-hundredths at the 150-meter mark. But McKeown is known for her closes, and she showed why in the final. She reeled in Smith over the first 25 meters of the final length of the pool, and she closed it out from there.

McKeown set a new Olympic record with a time of 2 minutes, 3.73 seconds — a half second clear of Smith. Smith’s time was 1.3 seconds faster than the third-place finisher, Kylie Masse of Canada.

McKeown does consistently have the edge over Smith in big-time finals, but the gaps are so small. It’s a historic era in which fans get to watch two of the best the discipline has ever seen go stroke for stroke.

And for someone like Smith, who has evolved as a competitor to focus more on her process and the enjoyment of competition than the end result, there’s joy in that.

Smith told reporters after finishing second in the 200 fly — another excellent swim in which she set a personal record in the event — that “if this had happened to me (in Tokyo) three years ago, I would have been so unbelievably gutted.”

“It would have really affected my mental health for a long time,” Smith said. “And it did. I was struggling after Tokyo for a really long time.”

But she has gained more experience in sport and life since then. She’s a more balanced individual who’s no longer defined by her athletic achievements — the list of which is robust. But Smith said she isn’t worried about her medal count or what color those medals may be.

She’s focused on being her best, fastest self in the pool. The last couple days, she has been just that.

“And to be honest with you, I don’t want to think about what it means to win gold versus silver, because I think when you get so wrapped up in that, then you’re never going to be happy,” she explained. “When you do win the gold, it’s like, ‘OK, well what’s after that?’ I just want to be proud of myself regardless. And I know that sounds like such a cliché answer, but it’s true.”

Smith swam the backstroke leg of the mixed medley relay for the United States in prelims early Friday. The U.S. cruised to the top time. Her inclusion in the prelims likely means Smith won’t be asked to swim the backstroke leg in the final (America may opt to use male swimmer Ryan Murphy and employ women for two other strokes), but Smith would also get any medal won by the U.S. in the the relay whether she swims in the final or not.

That final is set for 2:58 p.m. CDT on Saturday.

As the country’s top women’s backstroker, Smith will almost certainly swim in the final of the 4×100 women’s medley relay at 12:32 p.m. CDT on Sunday.

Smith told reporters Thursday she’s going to “keep fighting like hell” throughout the remainder of the Olympics to continue to do her best.

“If I walk away as a gold medalist in a relay or an individual event, excellent,” she said.

But whether or not that comes to fruition, “I’m going to be proud of myself no matter what, as long as I do the races I know that I’m capable of.”

Gold medalist Kaylee McKeown, centre, of Australia, stands with silver medalist Regan Smith, left, of United States, and bronze medalist Kylie Masse of Canada, for a selfie following the women’s 200-meter backstroke final at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, Aug. 2, 2024, in Nanterre, France. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

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