President calls star’s detention ‘unacceptable’ as Tony Blinken reiterates commitment to bringing Griner home from Russia
The nine-and-a half-year sentence handed down by a Russian court to WBNA player and US Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner after she was found guilty of drug possession was greeted in America with outrage and condemnation.
Joe Biden released a statement following Griner’s sentencing, calling her detention “unacceptable”.
Continue reading...Michael Gunning calls for event to push for change after a ‘petrifying’ visit to his home country, Jamaica
The former Team GB swimmer Michael Gunning has called on the Commonwealth Games to do more to help improve LGBTQ+ rights in member countries as he talked of his “petrifying” experience visiting his home country, Jamaica, for the first time since he came out as gay.
Gunning, who retired from swimming earlier this year to help promote equality in sport, said the event could do more on the global stage to push the issue.
Continue reading...Australia’s former featherweight world champion Johnny Famechon has died in Melbourne at the age of 77.
The boxer’s most memorable victory was his world title win against the Cuban Jose Legra at London’s Albert Hall in 1969.
Continue reading...After stunning run ends with defeat at Wembley, German team receives praise for inspiring nation and winning new fans
Germany reacted with disappointment after being beaten by England in a nail-biting and historic final at Wembley.
“A hundred and twenty minutes of pure passion and pure struggle weren’t enough today,” tweeted the official account of the German team, after their 2-1 defeat. “Respect and congratulations to the Lionesses.”
Continue reading...Emma McKeon has written her name into the history books as the most successful athlete in Commonwealth Games history after winning her 11th gold medal in the women’s 50m freestyle, as the Australian women’s 4x200m freestyle relay team set Birmingham alight with a world record.
Australia cemented their position atop of the medal table on day three, with a further nine golds across rugby sevens, gymnastics, swimming and track cycling to take the country’s total haul to 22 gold – double that of host nation England in second place.
Continue reading...Some see youth football tournament as former president’s latest attempt to remain in running for 2025 elections
Politics and football have long mixed in South America, but not perhaps to this extent. On Sunday the Copa Evo, an international youth football tournament arranged by and named after Bolivia’s former president Evo Morales, kicked off in the country’s coca-growing tropics.
The buildup was dominated by political scraps, with the opposition questioning the involvement of the national football federation in a tournament that bears Morales’s name.
Continue reading...Famous fans get behind England for a gripping contest against Germany that is expected to set records
An all-female RAF flypast will grace the skies above Wembley on Sunday in celebration of a women’s football team that this weekend received good-luck messages from the prime minister, the leader of the opposition and the royal family before the Women’s Euro 2022 final against Germany.
“Your passion for the game, your tenacity in tricky spots and above all your astounding talent on the pitch have already created a summer of fantastic memories for millions of us,” Boris Johnson wrote in a letter to the England team.
Continue reading...Retired Australian grand slam winner posts a picture from her wedding day online with the caption ‘husband & wife’
Retired tennis superstar Ash Barty has married her longtime partner Garry Kissick.
The 26-year-old exchanged vows in a private ceremony in Queensland earlier this month.
Continue reading...Star playmaker Nathan Cleary will go into Penrith’s finals campaign cold after receiving a five-game suspension for his spear tackle on Parramatta’s Dylan Brown.
Cleary was sent off for the first time in his career in Friday’s 34-10 loss to the Eels and won’t play again during the regular season. He was handed a grade-three dangerous throw charge by the NRL’s match review committee on Saturday morning.
Continue reading...Liz Cambage’s basketball career is in limbo after the polarising Australian star agreed a “contract divorce” with her WNBA team Los Angeles Sparks as they fight to secure a playoff spot.
“It is with support that we share Liz Cambage’s decision to terminate her contract with the organisation,” Sparks managing partner Eric Holoman said in a statement.
Continue reading...Sea Eagles face the prospect of being without several players for the Roosters clash, but the strip has sold out online
The NRL has given its backing to Manly over its decision to wear a pride jersey this week as the club prepares to lose up to seven players due to a reported boycott over the inclusivity initiative.
Manly announced on Sunday they would sport a rainbow jersey in Thursday night’s clash with the Sydney Roosters but according to reports on Monday, several players opted against wearing the one-off design.
Continue reading...After 119 years, Portsmouth’s Saturday evening Sports Mail has printed its last issue. A dedicated reader bids this singular British institution a fond farewell
It’s been the slowest of deaths, but yesterday the “Saturday final” edition of a singular British institution will be just that. While in the last 20 years beloved pink ’uns and green ’uns (and the occasional blue ’un and buff ’un) have disappeared from towns and cities across the country, Portsmouth’s Saturday evening Sports Mail, 119 years old, held out as the last remaining dedicated matchday newspaper. It was first closed down in 2012 but quickly resurrected at the impassioned demand of fans of Pompey, the island city’s club. This time, the obituary is to be believed.
With it goes a century of a particular collective memory: that Saturday evening ritual of heading up to the local newsagent at 5.30 or 5.45 to await the mundane miracle of a stack of fat papers slung from the back of a van reporting from all across the city what had ended only an hour before, ink still smudgeable on banner headlines.
Continue reading...Fears over financing, security and staffing threaten to take the shine off a showcase event and a national triumph for Emmanuel Macron’s presidency
Two years almost to the day before the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, organisers are reportedly “in a cold sweat” over security, financial, venue and staffing concerns that could take the shine off Emmanuel Macron’s promised “national triumph”.
The reformist French president, who holds a meeting with key ministers on Monday for a progress report, has personally invested in the success of the Games, having energetically backed the city’s successful bid to host them for the first time in a century as an opportunity to showcase the best of modern France.
Continue reading...Wiegman has transformed the fortunes of the women’s football team and got them to the Euro semi-finals – with no fear of making tough calls along the way
For any of the 7.6 million BBC One viewers who tuned in to watch England’s dramatic extra-time defeat of Spain in the quarter-finals of the Euros on Wednesday night, the sight of an animated blond Dutch woman on the touchline will not have gone unnoticed.
Sarina Wiegman, England’s manager, is fast becoming a talking point. Less for her antics – although watching her being lifted aloft in a bear-hug from centre-back Millie Bright after the full-time whistle was a treat – and more for the 11-month transformation of the Lionesses from disjointed and confidence-drained to contenders on the biggest of stages.
Continue reading...A model of consistency and self-belief, Peter Bol looks every chance to win Australia’s first-ever 800 metre world championships medal in Eugene. But by his own admission, Bol was lucky to get through to the title race after finishing third and outside the automatic qualifying spots in the opening semi-final.
But having dodged a bullet and advanced as the second non-automatic qualifier by just 0.09 seconds, Bol has again made history, becoming the first Australian man or woman to ever reach a world championships 800m final.
Continue reading...Javelin superstar Kelsey-Lee Barber has joined the great Cathy Freeman as the only Australians to successfully defend a world athletics title.
Barber further embellished her reputation as a supreme big-event competitor at Hayward Field on Friday evening with a huge third-round throw of 66.91 metres.
Continue reading...Full-back Jock Campbell has earned his first call-up while lock Rory Arnold returned to the Wallabies fold for their two-Test Rugby Championship tour of Argentina. Coach Dave Rennie will reveal a 36-player squad on Thursday ahead of their first Test against the Michael Cheika-coached Pumas in Mendoza on 7 August (AEDT), with the second in nearby San Juan a week later.
The Australians are looking to rebound after losing the three-Test series against England, going down 21-17 in the decider last Saturday in Sydney.
Continue reading...The French midfielder and a male passenger were stopped by Italian police in Milan after he was mistaken for someone else
AC Milan footballer Tiémoué Bakayoko has spoken out against Italian police who held him at gunpoint after mistaking him for someone else.
The French midfielder and a male passenger were stopped as they drove in the Porta Garibaldi area of Milan on 3 July as police searched for suspects involved in an alleged shootout the night before.
Continue reading...College football star Anthony Richardson has announced he is dropping his ‘AR-15’ nickname after the recent wave of mass shootings in the US.
The Florida quarterback was given the nickname as a reference to an assault rifle which has been used in a number of recent shootings. The 21-year-old made the announcement he was dropping the name in a statement on his website.
Continue reading...Daria Kasatkina, Russia’s highest-ranked female tennis player, has come out as gay in a video interview posted online on Monday.
The current world No 12 told Russian blogger Vitya Kravchenko that she is in a relationship with a woman and found “living in the closet” impossible. Kasatkina, who is not currently based in Russia, also posted pictures on Instagram with her girlfriend, the figure skater Natalia Zabiiako.
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