Category Archives: Sport

Revealed: how bookies clamp down on successful gamblers and exploit the rest

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Stake factoring is a way of grading customers according to their success and is widespread in the betting industry

On any given Saturday, Rory would spend several hours glued to a screen flickering with hundreds of football and horse racing bets placed by customers of the Irish bookmaker Paddy Power.

One of multiple insiders from firms including Paddy Power Betfair, Ladbrokes and William Hill who spoke on condition of anonymity, Rory was part of an obscure corner of the gambling industry that exists to maximise profits by clamping down on successful punters.

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How citizenship row clouded Eileen Gu’s Olympics

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Success of Chinese American skier should have been a positive story but geopolitics got in the way

Until recently, the US-born freestyle skier Eileen Gu – or Gu Ailing as she is known in China – was one of the rising numbers of Chinese Americans straddling the two countries. They are comfortable operating between the two cultures and systems, taking pride in their heritage as well as their upbringing.

Gu, now 18, was born in San Francisco to an American father and a Chinese mother. She’s a big fan of Chinese dumplings and, every summer, she flew back to Beijing to attend cram school for mathematics. “When I’m in China, I’m Chinese and when I go to America, I’m American,” she once said.

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Beijing 2022 organisers claim stories of Xinjiang human rights abuses are ‘lies’

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  • Winter Olympics plunged into further controversy
  • Spokesperson Yan Jiarong also insists Taiwan is part of China

The Winter Olympics have been plunged into further controversy after Beijing 2022 spokesperson Yan Jiarong dismissed human rights violations among the Uyghur Muslim population as “lies” and insisted Taiwan was part of China.

Yan, a former member of the Chinese delegation to the UN general assembly, referred to “so-called forced labour” in Xinjiang in response to one question, before saying China was against the “politicising of sports”.

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Paris Saint-Germain v Real Madrid: Champions League last 16 – live!

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3 min: Real pass it around the back awhile. It’s a period of sterile possession that encourages plenty of pantomime whistling from the home crowd.

1 min: The first roar of the evening as Mbappe turns gracefully into space and immediately sprays a pass wide right to Di Maria. The move fizzles out but what an early statement of intent by Mbappe.

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Novak Djokovic’s propensity for self-sabotage has become a defining trait | Tumaini Carayol

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The Serb is willing to pay price of being unvaccinated but is it worth missing the chance to be seen as the greatest ever?

Over the past 11 years of men’s tennis, during which Novak Djokovic rose to dominance and improbably positioned himself as one of the greatest to play the game, the only time his success has been in doubt came after the summer of 2017 when he suffered through many months with an elbow injury.

The injury became a point of contention between himself and his then-coach, Andre Agassi, who later said he had swiftly advocated for surgery. But Djokovic addressed the injury by resting for nearly six months, believing his body was built to heal itself naturally. It was not. After returning the next year to pain and early losses, Djokovic finally underwent surgery in February 2018. As he digested his guilt about agreeing to the surgery, he cried for days.

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Valieva team claim positive test may be due to grandfather’s heart medication

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  • Legal team claim contaminated glass of water could be to blame
  • Russian skater ‘emotionally fatigued’ ahead of individual event

Kamila Valieva’s legal team has claimed that her positive drugs test may have come from a contaminated glass of water that contained traces of her grandfather’s heart medication.

Speaking after the daily media briefing in Beijing, International Olympic Committee member Denis Oswald confirmed the 15-year-old Russian’s explanation for her positive test for the banned angina drug trimetazidine was “contamination which happened with a product her grandfather was taking”.

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Kamila Valieva: Cas clearance for skater sparks anger at Winter Olympics

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  • Cas clears 15-year-old to compete in individual event
  • Russian had tested positive for a banned angina drug

The Beijing Winter Games descended into acrimony and farce on Monday after the 15-year-old Russian skater Kamila Valieva was cleared to compete again despite a positive doping test hanging over her head.

In a highly anticipated ruling, the court of arbitration for sport said there were “exceptional circumstances” surrounding Valieva’s case, and that banning her while it was ongoing “would cause her irreparable harm”.

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Winter Olympics day nine: short track speed skating, biathlon and more – live!

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Ice hockey: Slovakia up 3-1 now over Latvia, with three goalscorers.

And of course, make sure to check out our picture gallery from day eight. Some great shots as usual.

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‘No sport has had such success in so short a time’: padel takes off in Italy

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When Covid stopped contact sports, Italians took to padel, a sport popular in Spain, similar to tennis with a dash of squash

At one of Italy’s darkest moments in the pandemic, the government introduced a list of draconian rules to halt the outbreak of Covid, including which sports Italians would be allowed to practise.

Among the activities the authorities considered safe were a few Italians barely knew. One was padel, a fast-paced racket sport popular in Spain, similar to tennis but with a dash of squash thrown in. For Italians, it was love at first smash.

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Hanbok at Beijing Winter Olympics opening sparks South Korean anger

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Appearance of traditional dress denounced as further attempt by China to appropriate Korean culture

China and South Korea have become embroiled in a cultural appropriation row after a woman appeared at the opening ceremony of the Beijing winter Olympics wearing traditional Korean dress.

The Chinese embassy in Seoul defended the decision to include a participant wearing hanbok, describing her as a representative of the country’s dozens of ethnic groups.

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Rebekah Vardy said she would ‘love’ to leak stories about Coleen Rooney to media

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Vardy is suing Rooney for libel over allegation that Vardy leaked stories from Rooney’s private Instagram account

Rebekah Vardy said she would “love” to leak stories about Coleen Rooney to the media, according to messages disclosed at the high court.

The court filings suggest Vardy and her former agent Caroline Watt had an ongoing relationship with reporters at the Sun newspaper and discussed at length how to leak stories to the tabloid.

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Skateboarder and social media star Josh Neuman, 22, dies in Iceland plane crash

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Bodies of Neuman, pilot of Cessna 172 and two other passengers discovered in lake using remote submarine and sonar

The 22-year-old skateboarder and rising social media star Josh Neuman was killed in a plane crash in Iceland along with the pilot and two other men, authorities have confirmed.

Neuman created the most popular skateboarding videos of all time, and his YouTube channel had approximately 1.2 million followers.

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Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 day three: curling semi-finals, speed skating and more – live!

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Here’s a line from the US figure skating team. For context, Zhou is the only skater to have beaten the juggernaut that is Nathan Chen in the last four years.

“As part of yesterday’s regular COVID-19 screening, Vincent Zhou tested positive. Under the guidance of the USOPC medical staff, Zhou is undergoing additional testing to confirm his status. If the results are negative, Zhou will be able to compete in the men’s short program, which begins Tuesday. At this time, we ask you respect his privacy as we await the results.”

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A new start after 60: ‘I’m one of the world’s worst athletes – but I learned to skate in my 70s’

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Richard Epstein, a 78-year-old scientist with stage four prostate cancer, says that skating helps him to embrace uncertainty

The first time Richard Epstein went to his local ice-skating rink in Santa Fe, New Mexico, he was handed a free pair of skates. They had been left behind by a discontented customer. “I do things out of my comfort zone, and good things happen,” he observes.

This wisdom was borne out last December, when Epstein, now 78, skated in his first exhibition. His wife filmed his routine, which he performed with his coach, Teri Moellenberg, then his eldest daughter posted it on Twitter, along with a note that Epstein has stage four prostate cancer. Nearly 3 million people viewed it. Epstein is somewhat baffled by the response, describing himself as “just an old guy going around in circles”.

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‘I have no more tears’: Beijing’s Winter Olympics hit by athlete complaints

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  • Swedish team suggest schedule needs altering due to cold
  • Isolation issues continue; Germany bemoan lack of hot food

On the eve of the Winter Olympics, China promised the world a “streamlined, safe and most splendid” Games. But just two days into the event organisers are facing a litany of complaints from athletes and countries on multiple fronts.

The Swedes have suggested that the conditions in the mountains are perilously cold. A Polish skater says she was living in fear in a Beijing isolation ward and has “cried until I have no more tears”. The Finns have claimed an ice hockey player is being kept in Covid quarantine for no reason. And the Germans? They are frustrated that there is no hot food at the downhill skiing.

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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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