Category Archives: Sport

USA swimmer Ryan Murphy sparks war of words over doping after Olympic final

Posted on by
  • Murphy says 200m backstroke final ‘probably not clean’
  • Russian winner Rylov says: ‘Ryan didn’t accuse me of anything’

A storm broke out at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre on Friday morning when Ryan Murphy, the USA’s silver medallist in the 200m backstroke, spoke out against the sport’s doping problem and said he was “swimming in a race that’s probably not clean”. Almost any other time, this would have been an admirably honest thing to do, but the problem was Murphy had only just lost to Evgeny Rylov, representing the Russian Olympic Committee, and the comments came across as an accusation. Rylov, 24, won both the 100m and 200m backstroke this week, the 200m with an Olympic record time of 1min 53.27sec.

“I’ve got about 15 thoughts, and 13 of them would get me into a lot of trouble,” Murphy said after the race. “It is a huge mental drain to go through the year knowing that I’m swimming in a race that’s probably not clean, and that is what it is. The people that know a lot more about the situation made the decision that they did. I don’t have the bandwidth to train for the Olympics at a very high level and try to lobby the people that are making the decisions that they’re making the wrong decisions.”

Continue reading...

Tokyo 2020 Olympics: athletics blasts off, swimming and more – live!

Posted on by

Women’s 200m breaststroke final: this is all about Tatjana Schoenmaker, who starts well but is trailing USA’s Lily King at the halfway mark.

Men’s 100m butterfly semi-final 2: Dressel dominates, not in world record time but the American obliterates Milak’s semi-final winning time of 50.31 to clock in with a blistering 49.71 ahead of Noe Ponti (SUI) and Jakub Majerski (POL). Milak held the Olympic record for all of three minutes. The USA’s Tom Shields touched home in last place.

Australia’s Matthew Temple qualifies for the final sixth fastest.

Continue reading...

Tokyo 2020 Olympics: tennis, gymnastics, hockey and more – live!

Posted on by

Table tennis: The gold medal game in the women’s singles competition is an all-Chinese affair, Chen Meng against Sun Yingsha - the first and second seed. Sun won the first game though (first to seven), and leads 5-4 (first to 11) in the second. If you’re following the broadcast, the world feed commentator is a gem, bringing 10/10 enthusiasm to his task. Just as it should for a contest like this. “It’s like chess and kung fu combined... with a racket!” Love him.

Marta Martyanova, Larisa Korobeynikova, Adelina Zagidullina and Inna Deriglazova are Olympic champions, the latter holding her nerve after a late rally from the French quartet to triumph 45-34.

Continue reading...

Tokyo 2020 Olympics: men’s golf begins, heat forces tennis change – live!

Posted on by

We’ll have a rundown of Thursday’s early medal action shortly. But first, enjoy this lovely updated gallery from day five in Tokyo:

Related: Tokyo Olympics 2020: day five – in pictures

More fun from the 1900 “Olympics” in Paris – thanks to vastariner:

The 1900 competition in particular was strikingly odd, with competitors not realising it was part of the Olympic programme.

Continue reading...

Simone Biles pulls out of Olympics all-around gymnastics final to focus on mental health

Posted on by
  • Biles cited mental health concern in Tuesday’s withdrawal
  • No decision on her participation in individual finals

Simone Biles has withdrawn from the women’s all-around gymnastics final at the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday after a further medical evaluation determined that she is not yet ready to compete. The news followed her dramatic decision to stop competing in the women’s team event on Tuesday after only one rotation on the vault due to mental health issues.

However, a statement from US gymnastics left open the possibility that Biles, who could still compete in four more finals, may return for the individual events at the Games next week.

Continue reading...

Simone Biles exits women’s Olympic team gymnastics final over mental health concern

Posted on by
  • Four-time champion: ‘There’s more to life than gymnastics’
  • American pulls out after vault early in Tuesday’s competition
  • ROC team wins gold with USA second and Britain in bronze

Simone Biles was forced to withdraw from the women’s team final at the Tokyo Games on Tuesday, citing mental health concerns after a difficult opening vault.

The four-times Olympic champion said that she had been struggling mentally in recent days and after the vault, she decided that she wanted to “take a back seat” in the team final and she had full faith in her teammates to win a medal.

Continue reading...

‘We’re so proud of her’: Afghanistan’s gutsy female cyclists ready to cheer on Ali Zada

Posted on by

Watching an Afghan refugee in the Olympics is a source of inspiration to many women in a country where riding a bike is seen as a political statement and the Taliban are gaining ground

When Masomah Ali Zada makes her Olympic debut at the women’s cycling time trial this week, speeding her way around the 22km route with Mount Fuji in the background, it won’t just be her teammates in Japan cheering her on. In Kabul, where the 25-year-old joined the national squad as a teenager, a small but gutsy group of female cyclists will be glued to the television, willing her to do the best she can.

“I’m really, really proud of her and so are all of the team members, and we are really looking forward to watching her race and seeing her do great,” says Zahla Sarmat, assistant development director of the Afghan cycling federation’s women’s division. For her and her fellow riders, Ali Zada is a source of huge inspiration, even if her sporting success eventually led her to leave Afghanistan and claim asylum in France. She is competing in Tokyo as part of the Refugee Olympic Team.

Continue reading...

‘A lesson in loss, humility and absurdity’: how rhythmic gymnastics took over my childhood

Posted on by

When I was six, a chance encounter with rhythmic gymnastics – all ribbons, sequins and smiles – opened up a sublime, sometimes cruel new world. By 12, I had quit. What had it all meant?

Every four years, the same argument plays out. The Olympics reminds the public of the existence of rhythmic gymnastics and the public scoffs at this ridiculous spectacle, with its “ribbon dancing”, its sequins, its extravagant bending and pirouetting. Where artistic gymnastics – the one with the beam and the bars, the one with triple backflips and the constant risk of broken bones – is dignified and athletic, rhythmic gymnastics is frilly and absurd. How is this even a sport? Why is it part of the Olympics? These are the usual criticisms. In return, embattled admirers will point out that rhythmic gymnastics is extremely difficult, actually. There is immense skill involved in those backbends and leaps; besides, have you tried throwing and catching a ball while holding your foot above your head?

When I first caught sight of rhythmic gymnastics, I knew nothing of this. The reasons the sport is mocked – the sequins, the balletic dancing, the kilowatt-bright, beauty-pageant smiles of the gymnasts – were the reasons I found it delightful. I was six, sitting in my kitchen in Auckland, staring at the television. On screen, a gymnast at the 2000 Sydney Olympics tossed a bright red ribbon high into the air before catching it with astonishing ease. She was, to me, the height of womanly sophistication: beautiful, graceful, and covered in glitter. I dragged my mother into the room, pointed to the television and announced that this was the sort of lady I would like to become.

Continue reading...

Tokyo Olympics 2020: swimming medals at stake, Bermuda’s Duffy wins triathlon and more – live!

Posted on by

Swimming: Onto the men’s 200m freestyle final...

Swimming: We’re in for a blockbuster 200m freestyle final. Katie Ledecky saw what Ariarne Titmus accomplished in her first semi and laid down a marker, leading from the front to win in 1.55.34. Barbora Seemanová (CZE) finished second, Italy’s incredible champion Federica Pellegrini powered home at the death to snatch third, beating out Maddy Wilson (AUS) and 14-year-old Summer McIntosh (CAN).

Wilson’s time was good enough to sneak into the final in eighth spot, but all eyes will be on another Titmus v Ledecky duel in the pool.

Continue reading...

Pink offers to pay fines for Norwegian women’s beach handball team

Posted on by

European Handball Federation fined players €1,500 for wearing shorts instead of bikini bottoms

Pop star Pink has offered to pay the “sexist” fines handed out to the Norwegian women’s beach handball team after they refused to wear bikini bottoms while playing.

The European Handball Federation, the sport’s governing body, fined the team €1,500 (£1,295) last week for “improper clothing” at the European Beach Handball Championships.

Continue reading...

Tokyo Olympics 2020: Titmus beats Ledecky to gold, Peaty wins Team GB’s first gold – live!

Posted on by

An update from the hockey stadium: Team GB have secured their second win the tournament, running out 3-1 winners over underdogs Canada after a nervous start. “You have to understand when you’re playing teams that rank lower than you, they have nothing to lose. It’s a win-win for them,” said the team’s head coach Danny Kerry.

Not strictly speaking to do with the Olympics, but very much related given Paralympian Olivia Breen’s recent experience of being told what to wear, but remember the Norwegian beach handball team that was fined in a “case of improper clothing” for refusing to wear bikini bottoms during a tournament in Europe? The protest against what the team described as “very sexist” uniform rules cost them $1,500. But they might not have to fork out themselves after pop star P!nk showed her support for their cause.

I’m VERY proud of the Norwegian female beach handball team FOR PROTESTING THE VERY SEXIST RULES ABOUT THEIR “uniform”. The European handball federation SHOULD BE FINED FOR SEXISM. Good on ya, ladies. I’ll be happy to pay your fines for you. Keep it up.

Related: Time to give those in charge of female athletics short shrift | Rebecca Nicholson

Continue reading...

BBC Olympics coverage misses events after loss of TV rights

Posted on by

Viewers complain after rights-holder Discovery puts majority of events behind paywall

The BBC has faced a series of complaints about the lack of live Tokyo Olympics coverage on its channels, after viewers failed to realise the International Olympic Committee has sold the majority of UK television rights to pay-TV company Discovery.

During the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympics the BBC was able to offer dozens of free livestreams of different sports, revolutionising how British viewers watched the games and providing much-needed publicity to niche events that would not normally have enjoyed their moment in the public eye.

Continue reading...

Olympics 2020: Anna Kiesenhofer takes road race glory on day of upsets – live!

Posted on by

The gold medallist for women’s taekwondo, the American Anastasija Zolotic said she hoped her historic win would give taekwondo a boost in her home country, where it has struggled to gain traction in a par with boxing or mixed martial arts. The 18-year-old sprung a surprise to win the USA’s first gold medal for women in taekwondo since it became a full-medal Olympic sport in 2000.

“I work my butt off for it, and I hope taekwondo [becomes] as popular as it can be in the US,” Zolotic said. “Hopefully in 2024 if I make it over there and win another gold medal and just keep grinding to LA [in 2028], by then taekwondo will be all over the map. Hopefully [my win] will give it a better image than it has and bring it back up to where USA taekwondo deserves to be - one of the best sports that you can watch,” she said.

And another, from Bradly Sinden’s nearly-but-not-quite performance in that dramatic taekwondo final

Related: Britain’s Bradly Sinden edged out for gold in Olympics taekwondo final

Continue reading...

Chernobyl for Ukraine, pizza for Italy: South Korean TV apologises for Olympic images

Posted on by
  • MBC sorry for ‘inappropriate images and captions’
  • Syria and Haiti summed up by war and unrest

A South Korean broadcaster has apologised after using offensive images to depict several countries during the opening ceremony of the Olympics on Friday.

MBC displayed photos and facts about each country as athletes walked out during the parade of nations. Most of them varied from inane to odd: Great Britain’s athletes were accompanied by a photo of the Queen, and El Salvador, where the cryptocurrency is legal tender, was summed up by a bitcoin symbol.

Continue reading...

Tokyo Olympics 2020: Team GB v Japan football, and swimming begins – live!

Posted on by

Meanwhile in the men’s hockey Great Britain are running down time in the fourth period and leading South Africa 3-1.

A deflected strike on goal from Japan was their best opening of the match so far, but England hold them at bay in the women’s football. Still no score as we tick past 27 minutes at the Sapporo Dome.

Continue reading...

Lockdown reawakened my childhood love of chess. Now I can’t do anything else | Phil Wang

Posted on by

The alert I get when an opponent has made their move gives me the shot of excitement I used to get from social media notifications

Lord help me, I am in the whirlwind throes of the beautiful game. Online chess. The ancient pastime enjoyed a boom late last year. And I got caught squarely in its blast. Chess.com, the internet’s leading chess platform, saw an eruption in activity, triggered by lockdown idleness and (my own personal inciting event) Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit, which landed in October 2020, and showed the world that chess is actually really cool. As long as you ignore the actual chess and focus instead on the narcotic-fuelled psychodrama of a very beautiful woman and put the kid from Love Actually in a cowboy hat, for some reason.

But there was enough actual chess in the show to reawaken my old love for the game. I’d played a lot as a child, as you can probably tell from my face. I played in the school club and entered competitions. I collected sets, including a Simpsons one and a Lord Of The Rings one, allowing me to play the pieces from one board against those of the other. No, I didn’t go out much as a kid. But how could I when I was busy battling the dark forces of Sauron with an army of Barts?

Continue reading...

Tokyo Olympics 2020: Naomi Osaka lights cauldron at opening ceremony – live!

Posted on by

Get up to speed with all the big questions with Simon Burnton’s Olympic primer:

Related: Tokyo 2020 – all your key Olympic questions answered

Some cycling news: the men’s road race takes place at 3am BST, 11am local time on Saturday, but one man who won’t be at the start line is Simon Geschke, after the German rider tested positive for Covid-19.

Geschke, who was set to be part of a four-man German team, had been staying away from the Olympic village with a group of other cyclists, all of who have initially tested negative for Covid.

Continue reading...

‘There’s magic in misery’: ultramarathon runners cross Death Valley – in a drought

Posted on by

A hundred athletes are picked each year for the 135-mile race. This time the climate was especially brutal

In the Badwater Basin at the bottom of California’s Death Valley, the air feels like a giant hair dryer and the pavement can melt the soles of your shoes.

Yet on Monday night, 100 of the world’s top endurance runners set off on what has become known as “the world’s toughest foot race”, carving 135 miles of terrain through one of the planet’s most extreme climates at the most intense time of year.

Continue reading...

Michael Vaughan says England players may not make Ashes tour if families are barred

Posted on by
  • Former Test captain warns of potentially farcical series
  • Calls on Australian government to issue travel exemptions

Former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan has warned that the upcoming Ashes series in Australia could descend into farce if the families of England players are not allowed into the country.

With the visiting team facing a gruelling months-long schedule likely to be subject to a host of pandemic-related restrictions, Vaughan said some players may choose not to make the trip if they cannot see their loved ones for such a long time.

Continue reading...

Sha’Carri Richardson’s look is over the top – that’s why it matters

Posted on by

She’s out of the Olympics, but the US sprinting star’s ‘extra’ style makes an important statement about black womanhood

Despite not being part of Team USA after a failed drugs test, Sha’Carri Richardson made a reappearance yesterday in an advert for Beats by Dre soundtracked by a new song from Kanye West. With her trademark long nails, long lashes and fire-cracker hair, Richardson has underlined the point that, Olympian or not, she is one of 2021’s most electrifying style icons.

Continue reading...