Category Archives: Sport

How rock climbing gave me a new perspective on the world – and myself

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Spending time high above the ground allowed me a unique view of the land and my relationship with it

Climbing, I once thought, was a very manly activity. A pursuit for macho adventurers on a mission to conquer – conquer the mountain, conquer their fear, conquer themselves. That may be the story for some climbers, but as I found my way into this activity, I came to see that something quite different happens on the rock.

Like wild swimming, rock climbing immerses you within the landscape. On the rock, I am fully present. Eyes pay close attention, scanning the details of the rock, trying to read the passage up the cliff. Ears are alert, tuned in to the sounds of the stone, my partner and the environment. Hands roam across the surface, feeling for features while the whole body works to stay within balance, coordinating itself around the various forms of the cliff. Unlike walking, where I could happily trundle absent-mindedly through the landscape, in climbing, attentive observation is essential.

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UN’s Guterres says he expects China to let rights chief pay ‘credible’ visit to Xinjiang

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Secretary general says he expects Xi Jinping to allow ‘credible’ visit to troubled region during meeting on Winter Olympics sidelines

UN secretary general Antonio Guterres told leaders in Beijing he expects them to allow UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet to make a “credible” visit to China including a stop in the Xinjiang region, his spokesman said on Saturday.

Guterres met with Chinese president Xi Jinping and foreign minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the Winter Olympics, according to a readout of their talks.

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‘I didn’t even know this was humanly possible’: the woman who can descend into the sea on one breath

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Scientists once thought humans could swim to a maximum depth of 30m on a single breath. Amber Bourke has gone deeper than 70m and physiology alone can’t explain why

Ten years ago, Australian Amber Bourke was in her early 20s and backpacking through Egypt when she discovered something astonishing about herself. In a little village on the Sinai peninsula she came across a place that taught “free diving” – underwater diving without any breathing apparatus – and decided to give it a try.

“I held my breath for four minutes and I dove to 18 metres,” says Bourke, who is the current women’s Australian pool and depth freediving champion. “And both of those things, I didn’t realise was possible.”

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Paula Radcliffe: ‘I could probably still beat my kids in a race’

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The athlete, 48, on childhood asthma, dogs, Portaloos and the last mile of a marathon

I had asthma as a kid and still do. I started blacking out a little at the end of training runs. Then, at 14, I was diagnosed with exercise-induced asthma by a brilliant doctor who told me, “This isn’t going to stop you doing any of your sport, you’re just going to have to learn to control it.” I have inhalers in pretty much every bag.

What makes me sad? Losing people I care about – I lost my dad in 2020. And hearing stories about kids who weren’t as lucky as my daughter, who beat cancer last year. I burst into tears when the doctor gave us the initial diagnosis, but she’s been so brave. The chemotherapy made her hair fall out, which was obviously difficult for a teenage girl. But she’s bounced back so quickly.

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Winter Olympics day one: curling, ice hockey, freestyle skiing and more – live!

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Aussie Jakara Anthony Goes Top

The Victorian unleashes a scintillating run to go top in qualifying for the Women’s Moguls. She even pipped the peerless Frenchwoman Perrine Laffont, a former gold medallist. Commentary, rather curiously, is being provided by former cricketer Dirk Nannes.

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Trial of protesters against Beijing Olympics postponed in Greece

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Lawyers say delay in case against three defendants including a Briton is to avoid embarrassing China

The trial in Greece of activists who protested against Beijing holding the Winter Olympics has been postponed amid accusations that proceedings were delayed to avoid embarrassing China on the eve of the Games.

The highly anticipated hearing had been due to take place on Thursday in the town of Pyrgos, with human rights lawyers travelling from the UK and Athens to attend. The activists, who included a Briton, an American and a Tibetan-Canadian, were arrested when they briefly disrupted the Olympic flame lighting ceremony in October.

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Suspect arrested after violence outside LA’s SoFi Stadium left man in coma

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  • Altercation took place in parking lot after Rams-49ers game
  • Daniel Luna, 40, in medically induced coma in hospital

Police have arrested the suspect in a violent altercation that badly injured a San Francisco 49ers fan after last weekend’s NFC championship game between the 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams at LA’s SoFi stadium.

Inglewood police lieutenant Nicole Loudermilk confirmed that the suspect was taken into custody Thursday night, but released no further details.

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Winter Olympics 2022: 10 things to look out for in Beijing

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Jamaica return to the bobsleigh after 24 years, Haiti and Saudi Arabia make debuts, while GB aim for curling glory

Jamaica will enter a four-man bobsleigh team in the Olympics for the first time in 24 years after nicking the final qualifying spot, offering a feelgood reboot for the island nation whose debut at the 1988 Calgary Games inspired the Disney film Cool Runnings. Just making it to Beijing might seem like accomplishment enough for Shanwayne Stephens, the team’s 31-year-old pilot and Royal Air Force lance corporal who emigrated to Great Britain with his family in 2002: certainly after improvised training methods at the height of the pandemic that included pushing his girlfriend’s Mini Cooper around the streets of Peterborough. But having touched down in China after undergoing their final preparations at the University of Bath, his goal is plain. “It’s got to be medalling,” Stephens says. “It’s everybody’s dream, it’s what we’re here to do. So why not aim high?” BAG

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Olympic skeleton racer freed from Beijing isolation facility after tearful video plea for help

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  • Kim Meylemans wrongly taken to a second Covid facility
  • IOC steps in and Belgian now feels ‘safe’ in Olympic village

The Belgian skeleton racer Kim Meylemans has been freed from an isolation facility in Beijing following a plea for help in a tearful video posted on Instagram.

Meylemans confirmed that she now felt “safe” at the Olympic village after the Belgian Olympic Committee and the IOC stepped in when they learned she had wrongly been taken by ambulance to a second government facility and was told she would have to isolate for 14 more days due to Covid-19 concerns.

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A surfing god rides The Cradle of Storms – Chris Burkard’s best photograph

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‘This is Josh Mulcoy, the godfather of cold-water surfing, catching a wave in Alaska. The place is so windy and wild, it’s known as The Cradle of Storms’

The Aleutian Islands are fabled in surfing. Part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, they’re a raw chain of islands connecting Alaska to Russia. The area is known as The Cradle of Storms because it’s so windy and wild.

Most of the islands are made up of tundra and there are big active volcanoes. This island, Umnak, is home to a very small Aleut community. I went there in 2013. The planning alone took two years. You need to be completely self-sustained. You need to charter a small plane and have enough food and supplies for your entire stay, with the means to charge all your equipment.

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Organisers downplay fears as 11 at Winter Olympics in hospital with Covid

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  • ‘None of those hospitalised are seriously ill in any way’
  • Team GB’s 109 athletes, coaches and team officials virus free

Eleven people at the Winter Olympics are in hospital with Covid, Beijing 2022 officials have revealed, although none are in a life-threatening condition.

Organisers have also downplayed concerns that the virus is spreading within the ‘closed-looped’ system in Beijing, which completely separates Olympic personnel from the general public, despite a further nine athletes and 23 team officials testing positive in the last 24 hours.

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Spectre of 1936 and 1980 haunts Beijing 2022 as fear and repression breed silence

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China has been repressing minorities and targeting dissenters but anyone who chooses to speak out faces the threat of reprisal from a hostile regime

Zumretay Arkin is remembering the day she thought she might change the International Olympic Committee’s mind. It was October 2020, and human rights groups, representing Uyghur Muslims, Tibetans, and the democracy movement in Hong Kong, were granted a meeting with senior IOC figures to discuss their concerns about the Winter Olympics in Beijing.

“I explained how millions of Uyghurs are being arbitrarily detained in concentration camps,” she says. “The IOC was told survivors’ stories of rapes and torture, forced sterilisation and repression. And about families who have not heard from relatives for years.

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Beijing seals off several communities over two cases of Covid-19

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As the Winter Olympics nears, the Chinese capital has locked down some neighbourhoods and is setting up 19 testing points

Beijing officials have sealed off several residential communities north of the city centre after two cases of Covid-19 were found as the Chinese capital prepares to host the Winter Olympics opening ceremony on Friday.

Another 34 cases were confirmed among athletes and others who have come for the Games, the organising committee said. In all, 211 people have tested positive among more than 8,000 who had arrived by the end of Saturday. They include a Swedish cross-country skier and a snowboarder from Slovenia.

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Rafael Nadal hails greatest comeback to win ‘unexpected’ 21st grand slam title

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  • Sixth seed plays down becoming most successful male player
  • Daniil Medvedev criticises spectators after defeat

Rafael Nadal described his Australian Open triumph as his greatest comeback after he recovered from two sets down against Daniil Medvedev to win a record-breaking 21st grand slam title.

Nadal defeated Medvedev, the second seed, 2-6, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 in five hours and 24 minutes, the second longest grand slam final. It is the first time in Nadal’s career he has come back from two sets down in a slam final and the Spaniard has now won at least two singles titles at all four grand slam tournaments.

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My support for sports projects in Israel is not ‘sportswashing’ | Letter

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Sylvan Adams, co-owner of the Israel Start-Up Nation pro cycling team, says his sports initiatives look to build bonds of coexistence and understanding

Jonathan Liew’s decision to attack my support for sports projects in Israel as “sportswashing” is perhaps the most ringing endorsement of why such bridge-building efforts are needed (Sportswashing is associated with certain countries – why not Israel?, 24 January).

When our liberal and open country holds its massive annual Gay Pride parade – the largest (if not the only one) in the Middle East, Israel is accused of “pinkwashing”. When Israel leads in environmental issues and breakthroughs in climate change technologies, Israel is accused of “greenwashing”. When our generous and supremely capable NGOs like IsraAid or Save a Child’s Heart provide support to communities in need around the world, we are accused of “aidwashing”.

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Sport, politics and Covid collide at the Beijing Winter Olympics

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The Games will open on Friday in a country that hopes sport will be the talking point. But political twists or a resurgent virus could leave the event skating on thin ice

Hosting the Winter Olympics during a pandemic was always going to test the Chinese government, by putting its ever-growing ability to exercise political control and virus containment on a collision course with its enthusiasm for international prestige and status.

The 2022 Winter Games, which open on Friday, are being held at a time of particularly intense western criticism of China over human rights abuses, from the mass persecution of Uyghurs in far western Xinjiang – labelled a genocide by the United States – and other groups including Tibetans, to the crushing of Hong Kong’s freedoms.

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Not so fast: Despite reports, Tom Brady hasn’t made up mind on NFL retirement

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  • Tweet from Brady’s company announcing retirement removed
  • Brady, 44, has won record seven NFL titles with Pats and Bucs

Despite reports that he is retiring, Tom Brady has told the Tampa Bay Buccaneers he hasn’t made up his mind, two people familiar with the details told the Associated Press.

ESPN first reported Brady’s retirement on Saturday, citing unidentified sources. Brady’s health and wellness company posted a tweet indicating he’s retiring, and reaction came from around the world congratulating Brady on his career. But the tweet was later deleted, and Brady’s agent, Don Yee, said the 44-year-old quarterback would be the only person to accurately express his future.

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Ash Barty beats Collins to end 44-year wait for home Australian Open winner

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  • No 1 seed beats Collins 6-3, 7-6 (2) at Melbourne Park
  • Barty’s home victory seals her third grand slam title

When Ash Barty took her first steps on to Rod Laver Arena for her first Australian Open final, there was already no doubt about the completeness of her game, the integrity with which she carries herself and the historic career she is building before our eyes. But it still remained to be seen how she would handle and digest a moment like nothing before it.

She did so with the composure of a champion who could go on to win so much more. Before a crowd that lived every moment with her, Barty calmly navigated the fire of Danielle Collins, recovering from a 5-1 second-set deficit to win 6-3, 7-6 (2) and clinch the Australian Open for the first time. She is the first Australian to win an Australian Open singles title since Chris O’Neil in 1978. She did not drop a set. With three grand-slam titles to her name, Barty has joined Serena Williams as the only active women’s players to hold grand slam titles on all three surfaces.

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Beijing Winter Olympics reports jump in daily Covid cases

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Number of infections rises by 19 as Games organisers warn of more cases in coming days

China has reported a jump in Covid cases among athletes and team officials at the Beijing Winter Olympics.

The number of daily Covid infections rose to 19 on Friday from two a day earlier, and Games organisers said more cases could be expected in the coming days.

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