U.S./World Sports category, Page 130
Olympic flame to take seaborne journey to 2024 Paris Games
MARSEILLE, France — The Olympic flame is going for a sail. Instead of arriving overland, the symbolic flame alighting the 2024 Paris Games will take to the seas from its birthplace in Greece, arriving aboard a three-mast tall ship in the French port of Marseille. Paris organizers announced the flame’s...
Olympic bans and boycotts go back a century
Ukraine and the three Baltic countries, all former Soviet republics, moved a step closer Friday to boycott next year’s Paris Olympics because of the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes. The International Olympic Committee plans to allow Russians and Belarusians to compete as “neutral athletes” despite their invasion of Ukraine,...
California weighs making flag football a school sport for girls
California officials are considering a plan to make flag football a girls high school sport amid soaring popularity of the game and a push to get more female athletes on the field. The federated council of the California Interscholastic Federation — the statewide body that governs high school athletics —...
Baltic leaders warn Olympic boycott possible if Russians compete
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — The prime ministers of the three Baltic countries urged the International Olympic Committee to ban Russian athletes from next year’s Paris Games because of the war in Ukraine, saying Friday a boycott was a possibility. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said athletes from her country could be...
Busy college football recruiting period called ‘total chaos’Video
The first Wednesday of February used to be the biggest day on the calendar for college football recruiting. Now it is an afterthought. The December signing period, which is now when nearly all major prospects finalize their plans, is still relatively new but is causing enough headaches for busy coaches...
Joel Embiid, Ja Morant, Jaylen Brown lead NBA All-Star reservesVideo
Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid, Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Portland’s Damian Lillard must have known they were going to the All-Star Game. Players averaging more than 30 points typically don’t have to worry about not hearing their name called. Other players — like Miami’s Bam Adebayo, Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton and Utah’s...
Lebioda leads on a day of ever-changing conditions at PebbleVideo
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Changes in weather and fortunes can happen without notice in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which seems to suit Hank Lebioda just fine these days. Playing his sixth different course in his last six rounds on the PGA Tour, Lebioda ran off six birdies in an...
Memorable LeBron James moments as he closes in on NBA record
As LeBron James closes in on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and is about to become the NBA’s career scoring leader the journey has included several memorable moments. And there have been many. Many. Through 20 seasons and four NBA championships, the list of James’ unforgettable nights is immeasurably long. But here are...
Signing day ends recruiting sagas for QB Jaden Rashada, CB Cormani McClain
The opening of college football’s traditional signing period for high school prospects brought an apparent end to two of the cycle’s most notable recruitments. Blue-chip quarterback Jaden Rashada, who signed with Florida in December and then asked to be released from the commitment when a name, imagine and likeness deal...
Griner return, free agency could spark charter flight change
Brittney Griner’s return to the WNBA this summer after being traded in a dramatic prisoner swap in December with Russia has collided with free agency, creating potential travel complications for the league out of safety concerns for her. If Griner, who is a free agent but has said she’ll return...
Pat Riley: Kareem never had potential, ‘only greatness’
Pat Riley remembers just about every detail surrounding the events of Dec. 29, 1961. It was a cold night in Schenectady, New York. A little snowy, the roads a little icy. And when the bus carrying the opposing team from New York City arrived, all of Riley’s Linton High teammates...
Spectator dies after melee at middle school basketball game
ALBURGH, Vt. — A brawl broke out among spectators at a middle school basketball game in northern Vermont, and a 60-year-old man who participated in the fight died, police said. State troopers were called to the Alburgh Community Education Center just before 7 p.m. Tuesday after a report of a...
Column: The only rivalry in golf is about tours, not playersVideo
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Jon Rahm began his year by winning two in a row on the PGA Tour. Rory McIlroy began his year with birdies on the last two holes to win in Dubai. This would seem to have the look of golf’s latest rivalry in the making, except...
Boxer Klitschko joins fight against Olympic path for RussiaVideo
GENEVA — Olympic gold medalist Wladimir Klitschko has joined Ukraine’s fight against IOC plans to let some Russians compete at the 2024 Paris Summer Games. The former heavyweight champion suggested in a video message published Monday that sports leaders will be accomplices to the war if athletes from Russia and...
Taurasi to take part in USA Basketball training camp
Diana Taurasi’s USA Basketball career isn’t done just yet. The five-time Olympic gold medalist will take part in a national team training camp in Minnesota next month. Taurasi told The Associated Press last summer that she would consider playing with USA Basketball if she was healthy enough. She injured her...
World champ freeskier Kyle Smaine dies in avalanche in Japan
TOKYO — World champion halfpipe skier Kyle Smaine died after getting buried in an avalanche in the mountains of central Japan during the weekend. The U.S. Freeski team posted on social media about the 31-year-old American’s death. Smaine, who lived in Lake Tahoe, Calif., recently posted that he was taking...
South Carolina tops women’s AP Top 25; Ohio State tumbles
It was a rough week for Ohio State, which lost all three of its games and tumbled down the AP Top 25 as a result. The previously unbeaten Buckeyes fell from second to 10th in The Associated Press women’s basketball poll released Monday after losing to Iowa and Indiana, two...
Purdue a unanimous No. 1 in AP Top 25; Vols up to No. 2
Purdue became this season’s first unanimous No. 1 team in the AP Top 25 men’s college basketball poll Monday after wins over Michigan and Michigan State last week as chaos ensued behind the Boilermakers among other ranked teams. More than half of Top 25 teams lost, including second-ranked Alabama, which...
Max Homa comes from 5 back to win Farmers Open by 2 strokes
SAN DIEGO — Max Homa did what his beloved Los Angeles Dodgers couldn’t do in October — win in San Diego. The L.A.-area native came from five shots off the lead to win the Farmers Insurance Open by two strokes over Keegan Bradley on Saturday at Torrey Pines, where Jon...
Former UGA quarterback Stetson Bennett arrested in Dallas in public intoxication case
Stetson Bennett, the quarterback of the University of Georgia’s back-to-back national championship teams, was arrested on charges of public intoxication in Dallas, Texas, on Sunday morning, according to police. Police in Old East Dallas were called to the 1600 block of Tribeca Way about 6 a.m. after getting reports of...
Novak Djokovic beats Stefanos Tsitsipas to win 10th Australian Open, 22nd Slam
MELBOURNE, Australia — Novak Djokovic climbed into the Rod Laver Arena stands to celebrate his 10th Australian Open championship and record-tying 22nd Grand Slam title Sunday and, after jumping and pumping his fists with his team, he collapsed onto his back, crying. When he returned to the playing surface, Djokovic...
Aryna Sabalenka wins 1st Grand Slam title at Australian Open
MELBOURNE, Australia — One point away from her first Grand Slam title, Aryna Sabalenka faulted. And then she faulted again. She grimaced. She yelled and turned her back to the court. She wiggled her shoulders and exhaled. Clearly, this business of winning the Australian Open was not bound to happen...
Rahm 2 back of Ryder at Torrey in bid for 3rd straight winVideo
SAN DIEGO — Jon Rahm made an impressive charge up the leaderboard on his favorite course with a 6-under-par 66 on Friday, which is now moving day at Torrey Pines, to pull within two shots of leader Sam Ryder after the third round of the Farmers Insurance Open. Rahm, ranked...
Novak Djokovic tops Tommy Paul, faces Stefanos Tsitsipas in Australian Open final
MELBOURNE, Australia — Of all of his considerable talents, Novak Djokovic’s ability to cast aside whatever appears to stand in his way might be the most valuable. So forget about the potential distraction of his father’s decision to stay away from Rod Laver Arena for Djokovic’s semifinal against unseeded American...
College basketball broadcaster Billy Packer dies at 82
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Billy Packer, an Emmy award-winning college basketball broadcaster who covered 34 Final Fours for NBC and CBS, died Thursday. He was 82. Packer’s son, Mark, told The Associated Press that his father had been hospitalized in Charlotte for the past three weeks and had several medical issues,...
