Category Archives: Sport

Shane Warne, preternatural genius who played with a carefree spirit | Andy Bull

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His career statistics are extraordinary but he will be best remembered for playing the game with joy and panache

The first thing I did was watch that clip. Shut your eyes and you can probably picture it. Shane Warne’s first ball in the Ashes, his choppy peroxide blond hair ruffling in the wind, the zinc cream smeared across his lips and the tip of his nose, his top button undone, his collar turned up, a flash of the gold chain bouncing around his neck. Seven steps, then he sweeps his arm over, sends the ball flying. It dips, hits the pitch, zips, spins the width of Mike Gatting, clips the off-stump. Bowled him! Warne roars, Gatting baffled, stares back down the pitch trying to figure out what’s just happened, umpire Dickie Bird tries to hide the ghost of a smile that’s crept across his face.

It was some introduction. And it turned into some story, too.

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The world’s game, a global scandal: the struggle to be heard in football’s sexual abuse crisis

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At all levels and in every corner of football, allegations of harassment and worse are being uncovered. But Fifa and the game’s authorities are ill-equipped to tackle them

“Sometimes, I have regrets. There have been very tough moments when I felt abandoned. I still feel abandoned. I received threats, I was intimidated and my whole life was compromised.”

After everything she has been through, Roseline (not her real name) is just thankful to be alive. At the start of October 2020, the young Haitian referee says she was threatened by the man she accused of sexually abusing her. It was two days after she had given evidence against Rosnick Grant, a former international referee who was vice-president of the Haitian Football Federation and president of its referees’ commission, to members of Fifa’s “ad hoc panel” investigating claims of sexual abuse. “They assured me it was confidential but there was a leak somehow,” Roseline says. “I received death threats.”

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Shane Warne, Australian cricket legend, dies aged 52

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Shane Warne, the greatest leg-spinner in the history of cricket and an Australian icon who transcended the sport, has died of a suspected heart attack at the age of 52.

The news was confirmed by Warne’s management company on Friday and released initially to Fox Sports, the network for whom he commentated after a playing career that returned 708 Test wickets from 145 caps between 1992 and 2007.

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‘Life on hard mode’: the first out trans woman competing in the Iditarod

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Iñupiaq musher Apayauq Reitan is poised to make history – but circumstances were very different when she faced Rosebud Summit three years ago

The snow was blowing sideways as the blizzard engulfed Rosebud Summit. Alone with her dog team more than 3,500ft up in Alaska’s forbidding White Mountains, then 21-year-old musher Apayauq Reitan struggled to find the trail during the 2019 Yukon Quest.

“The only way for me to tell where it was was by walking in front of the team and sinking into the snow up to my hips,” said Reitan.

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Novak Djokovic set for French Open with vaccination restrictions to be eased

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  • French government to suspend vaccination pass from 14 March
  • Path clears for Serb to defend title at Roland Garros in May

Novak Djokovic’s efforts to compete at the next grand slam on the tennis calendar will be far less complicated than his failed Australian Open bid after the French government announced it would suspend its vaccination pass this month.

The decision to end current restrictions on 14 March means the Serb will likely be able to defend his French Open title at Roland Garros, beginning on 22 May.

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Roman Abramovich’s funds for war victims will not only go to Ukrainians

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  • Chelsea owner has pledged to help ‘all victims of the war’
  • Sources leave open possibility of assistance for Russians

Roman Abramovich’s plan to use the sale of Chelsea to donate funds to victims of the war in Ukraine is not solely intended for Ukrainians, raising the prospect of money going to Russian soldiers or to their families.

Abramovich confirmed on Wednesday that he wants to sell Chelsea and the Russian oligarch said that all net proceeds – understood to be the money from any sale minus legal fees – would be used “for the benefit of all victims of the war in Ukraine”. The phrasing left open the possibility of the money not being entirely reserved for Ukrainians hurt, bereaved or otherwise affected by the Russian invasion of their country.

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I’ve been lucky: my sport has given me the opportunities all disabled people deserve | Abbas Karimi

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As the Winter Paralympics open, a swimmer born with no arms calls for a global commitment to the millions with disabilities

In most cases, the birth of a child is a celebration. It is an opportunity to rejoice in the excitement of what that child will be or could become – that child is a gift. But when I was born, my family cried. They cried with sorrow and they cried with fear. Because those, like me, born with a disability, are not perceived as a gift or as special, they are considered different. In many parts of the world, different is not considered a good thing: it can even be perilous.

I was born in Afghanistan with no arms. As a child, while my family supported me, the world around me did not. I was seven when this realisation hit me – my life was going to be different. I was bullied at school and made to feel inferior. It was only when I discovered swimming that I finally felt accepted. The water made me feel safe, and it was swimming that made me feel alive; it also made me realise that even with my disability, I had a gift. That’s when I set out on a journey that would break down barriers and show others that people with disabilities can be active and can fulfil their potential.

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Russian and Belarusian athletes banned from Winter Paralympics after U-turn

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Paralympic Committee reverses its original decision after threats of boycott over Ukraine conflict

A revolt among competing nations has forced the International Paralympic Committee to reverse its original decision and ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from this week’s Winter Games.

On Wednesday the IPC had said that Russian and Belarusian athletes would be allowed to take part in competition in Beijing, under a neutral banner and with no place on the medal table. Less than 24 hours after the announcement, however, the president of the IPC, Andrew Parsons, announced a u-turn following protests and a threat of a boycott from national participating committees (NPCs).

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Roman Abramovich confirms Chelsea are for sale and writes off £1.5bn loans

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  • Billionaires Wyss and Boehly part of interested consortium
  • Abramovich says net proceeds will go to Ukraine war victims

Roman Abramovich has confirmed he has put Chelsea up for sale and has written off the £1.5bn of loans he has made to the club. The billionaires Hansjörg Wyss and Todd Boehly are part of a consortium trying to buy the Premier League team.

Sources have said at least one other group is preparing to make an offer this week. There is a sense that a bidding war would help Abramovich maintain some form of leverage and the first move came when Wyss, a Swiss businessman, revealed that he had been invited to join a consortium aiming to own Chelsea.

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Russia’s NHL hero Alex Ovechkin has a rare chance to hit Putin where it hurts

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The Washington Capitals star is popular among Russians who may not usually question their leader. And he has debated the need for war

In 2017, Alexander Ovechkin, inarguably the best Russian hockey player alive or dead and the country’s most famous male athlete, started something called PutinTeam.

“I have never hidden my attitude towards our president, always supporting him,” the Muscovite and captain of the NHL’s Washington Capitals wrote, three years after Russia annexed Crimea. “I am confident that there are many of us, supporting Vladimir Putin. So let’s unite and show everyone a united and strong Russia!”

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Russia suspended from all Fifa and Uefa competitions until further notice

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  • Russia had been due to face Poland in World Cup play-off
  • Women’s side set to miss out on place at Euro 2022

Fifa and Uefa have acted in unison to suspend Russian teams from international football competition.

The most powerful bodies in football acted after days of growing protest. Russia has now been removed from qualification for this winter’s World Cup, and its remaining club side will no longer compete in the Europa League.

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Ukrainian football player emotional on pitch after support from fans – video

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When Ukrainian football player Roman Yaremchuk came on to the pitch for Portuguese Primeira Liga club SL Benefica, he was met with thunderous applause from the crowd who held signs in support of the player's homeland. 

Russia invaded Ukraine late last week and has been carrying out military offensives across the country

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Birmingham to host six-month arts festival for Commonwealth Games

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More than 200 events to take place as city invests £12m in programme hoped to aid post-pandemic recovery

Birmingham will benefit from “the great gift of the mega-event”, said the creative officer of the Commonwealth Games at the launch of a concurrent six-month-long cultural festival.

Birmingham 2022 festival will include more than 200 events from March to September across the West Midlands and will involve more than 100,000 participants, making it one of the largest cultural programmes to ever surround the games.

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Concussion in sport: CTE found in more than half of sportspeople who donated brains

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Groundbreaking findings by Australian Sports Brain Bank reveal prevalence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, including in younger players

Groundbreaking research into the long-term ramifications of concussion in sport has found chronic traumatic encephalopathy in the brains of more than half of a cohort of donors, including three under the age of 35.

The Australian Sports Brain Bank on Monday reported its preliminary findings after examining the 21 brains posthumously donated by sportspeople since the centre’s inception in 2018.

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Abramovich hands ‘stewardship and care of Chelsea’ to charitable foundation

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  • Russian bought Premier League club in 2003
  • Abramovich remains owner but relinquishes running of club

Roman Abramovich has passed the stewardship of Chelsea to the trustees of the club’s charitable foundation. The Russian, who bought the club in 2003, remains the owner but has relinquished the running of Chelsea after a call in parliament for him to be sanctioned amid the invasion of Ukraine.

Abramovich, provided he is not sanctioned, can continue to fund the club but the focus on him has provoked this move on the eve of Chelsea’s Carabao Cup final against Liverpool. Abramovich has vehemently disputed reports suggesting his alleged closeness to Vladimir Putin and Russia or that he has done anything to merit sanctions being imposed against him.

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Russian F1 GP cancelled and may switch to Turkey after Ukraine invasion

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  • F1 cites ‘impossibility’ of holding race under circumstances
  • Haas team remove Russian flag-based livery of title sponsor

Formula One has cancelled the Russian Grand Prix after the state’s invasion of Ukraine. The sport did not issue any condemnation of Russia but cited the “impossibility” of holding the race under the current circumstances.

The meeting was set to take place on 25 September and as things stand F1 has made no suggestion of which country might replace the meeting. Turkey has been mooted as a potential replacement having been used twice in the last two years, stepping in for races cancelled due to the Covid pandemic but F1 is understood to not be considering the Istanbul Park Circuit as an option this time.

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The Kamila Valieva case shows yet again that the IOC is betraying teen athletes

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This rotten organisation stood by while the 15-year-old skater and her Olympic dreams were publicly crushed

A fish rots from the head. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is the head of the Olympic movement, and it is rotten to the core. Long ago, this vile organisation abandoned its stated principles of “excellence, friendship and respect” to embrace greed, corruption and abuse.

For many, the enduring image of Bejing 2022 will not be one of Olympic glory, but the tragic and bizarre spectacle attending the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) and 15-year-old figure skater Kamila Valieva. Once again, the Russians got caught cheating: Valieva tested positive for a banned medication. Still the IOC allowed her to compete, and then stood by while this child and her Olympic dreams were publicly crushed. After her performance collapsed, her despicable coach humiliated her, badgering her about on-ice failures as Valieva left the rink.

Sarah Klein is a civil attorney and advocate for survivors of sexual abuse

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Emma Raducanu stalker given five-year restraining order

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Amrit Magar, who repeatedly turned up at tennis star’s home, must also do 200 hours of community service

A man who stalked and harassed the British tennis star Emma Raducanu has been given a five-year restraining order and sentenced to community service.

Amrit Magar, 35, who said he had walked 23 miles to the US Open champion’s home in London and then took her father’s shoe – thinking it belonged to Raducanu – as a souvenir, was found guilty of stalking at Bromley magistrates court last month.

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Trump golf courses could host events for controversial Saudi-funded league – report

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Trump Organization has held discussions with Saudi-backed body, Washington Post reports

US golf courses owned by Donald Trump could host events in a hugely controversial new league funded by Saudi Arabia, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.

Citing three anonymous sources, the newspaper said courses in Bedminster, New Jersey, and Doral, Florida, could host events after discussions between the Trump Organization and LIV Golf Investments, a body funded by the Saudis.

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‘They torched our clubhouse’… but Sicilian rugby team won’t let mafia win

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Librino’s amateur players have to guard their new pitch and facilities every night – but it’s worth it to keep children out of the clutches of Cosa Nostra

Gloria Mertoli’s shift is over when the first light of dawn shines on the goalposts of a rugby pitch in the Librino district of Catania, a stronghold of the Cosa Nostra, the feared Sicilian mafia. Since mobsters torched the clubhouse and team bus, she and other players on the women’s rugby team, Briganti Librino RUFC, have taken turns to stay after evening practice and guard the area overnight.

Since the club started working to take children – easy targets for mafia recruitment – off the streets of Librino, the clans have tried to put it out of business. “Librino is a complex neighbourhood,” Piero Mancuso, one of the founders of the Briganti, told the Observer. “We knew it wouldn’t be easy to work here. These criminal attacks risked destroying everything we had achieved in recent years. But if I look at what we have done so far, I can say that these attacks have made us stronger.”

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