U.S./World Sports category, Page 345
Althea Gibson honored with statue at site of U.S. Open
NEW YORK — Althea Gibson basked in a ticker-tape parade in New York a decade before Arthur Ashe won the 1968 U.S. Open. Gibson won 11 majors in three years from 1956-58, including the French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open singles titles. She integrated two sports — tennis and golf...
High school football helps wildfire-ravaged Paradise gain sense of normalcy
PARADISE, Calif. — It’s hard to recognize Paradise. It is heaps of melted metal. It is scorched pine trees. It is a place where things used to be, before a fire destroyed nearly 19,000 structures and killed 86 people last November. But, on Friday night, Paradise looked like home again....
Lightning strike at Tour Championship causes fan injuries
ATLANTA — Five people were injured Saturday when lightning struck a 60-foot pine at the Tour Championship, showering the area with debris, Atlanta police said. The third round of the season-ending PGA Tour event had been suspended for about 30 minutes because of storms in the area, and fans were...
Brooks Koepka leads at East Lake as stars get some separation
ATLANTA — Brooks Koepka took a one-shot lead with a two-putt birdie on the final hole Friday at the Tour Championship. Koepka, the No. 3 seed in the FedEx Cup who started the tournament at 7-under-par, had a 3-under 67 and reached 13-under in the new format where the score...
Defending champion Osaka feeling refreshed ahead of U.S. Open
NEW YORK — Everything felt better for Naomi Osaka once she returned to the U.S. Open. The knee injury that forced her to retire during her last match no longer throbs. The disappointment with her tennis that led her last month to say she wasn’t having fun playing has been...
No. 8 Florida, Miami embrace spotlight as they start season
ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida and Miami have the college football stage to themselves for 3½ hours Saturday, a new chapter in their once-heated and storied rivalry. The eighth-ranked Gators and the rebuilding Hurricanes will usher in the 2019 season inside a packed stadium in Orlando, surrounded by sideline celebrities and...
Upper St. Clair’s Josh Matheny captures 200 breaststroke gold at world championships
Josh Matheny is a world champion. The Upper St. Clair junior placed first in the men’s 200-meter breaststroke Friday at the FINA World Junior (18 and under) Swimming Championships at the Danube Arena in Budapest Hungary. Matheny, 16, swam to a time of 2 minutes, 9.40 seconds and took the...
Mississippi State names Penn State transfer Tommy Stevens as starting QB
STARKVILLE, Miss. — Mississippi State named Penn State graduate transfer Tommy Stevens its starting quarterback. Stevens had been competing with junior Keytaon Thompson for the right to start the Aug. 31 season opener against Louisiana-Lafayette at New Orleans. Mississippi State coach Joe Moorhead has plenty of familiarity with Stevens from...
All Elite Wrestling, competitor to WWE, to bring live taping to Pittsburgh
On Oct. 2, All Elite Wrestling will debut its weekly live pro wrestling show on TNT. This has been the buzz of the wrestling world since the group that formed less than a year ago has come out the gates with tremendous momentum. It will serve as weekly competition to...
Justin Thomas loses cushion, shares lead in Tour Championship
ATLANTA — Xander Schauffele was six shots behind before he ever hit a shot Thursday in the new scoring format for the Tour Championship. His goal was to keep his head down, play good golf and see where he stood to par at the end of two days. The TV...
XFL reveals names, logos for 8 teams ahead of league’s 2020 relaunch
The XFL has names for its eight teams, now it needs players. The league, which begins play in February, revealed team logos and names Wednesday. The teams are the Los Angeles Wildcats, New York Guardians, DC Defenders, Dallas Renegades, Houston Roughnecks, St. Louis BattleHawks, Seattle Dragons and Tampa Bay Vipers....
New format greets players at Tour Championship for the 1st time
ATLANTA — Justin Thomas has a two-shot lead, and the Tour Championship hasn’t even started. If that seems difficult to fathom, consider someone could win this week without having the lowest 72-hole score. And remember, such a radical change was to make the FedEx Cup finale easier to follow. The...
Serena Williams in spotlight at U.S. Open after last year’s dust-up with chair umpire
As the start of the 2019 U.S. Open approaches, the indelible image from last year’s tournament does not involve a particularly remarkable shot or a champion holding a trophy. Instead, it is — and likely will remain — Serena Williams pointing her index finger at chair umpire Carlos Ramos while...
USWNT’s Carli Lloyd impresses with 55-yard field goal at Eagles practice
Pressure? Carli Lloyd has no time for pressure. The U.S. Women’s National Team soccer great — a two-time FIFA Player of the Year and World Cup champion whose 113 goals rank seventh in women’s soccer history — put on quite a display at a joint practice between the Philadelphia Eagles...
Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence leads AP preseason All-America team
Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence headlines The Associated Press preseason All-America team, and he has two teammates from the top-ranked Tigers with him on the first team. Lawrence, the first freshman to quarterback to lead a team to a national championship in more than 30 years, was joined on the first-team...
Wisconsin WR Quintez Cephus reinstated, not eligible to play
MADISON, Wis. — Former Wisconsin receiver Quintez Cephus was cleared Monday to return to school after a jury acquitted him of sexual assault charges, though it was unclear when he will be eligible to play in a game. The school announced Chancellor Rebecca Blank’s decision in a statement that said...
Will Power wins shortened Pocono race marred by wreck, weatherVideo
LONG POND, Pa. — The black clouds that enveloped Pocono and officially brought the IndyCar race to a premature end didn’t appear until the halfway point. But they’ve really been hanging over the track since the series returned to the mountains in 2013. A fatal crash. A promising career wrecked...
Justin Thomas holds on to win BMW ChampionshipVideo
MEDINAH, Ill. — Staked to a six-shot lead, Justin Thomas spent more time Sunday worrying about what could go wrong than ending 12 months without winning. And right when it started to go wrong, Thomas delivered his biggest shots in the BMW Championship. In a span of three holes around...
Denny Hamlin wins at Bristol to spoil Matt DiBenedetto’s upset bid
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Denny Hamlin spoiled Matt DiBenedetto’s shot at his first career victory — just days after DiBenedetto learned he had been fired — with a late pass Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway. Hamlin was the first Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing driver to start from the pole...
Pittsburgh woman wins grueling bike race up highest peak in Northeastern U.S.
PINKHAM NOTCH, N.H. — A Massachusetts man and a Pittsburgh woman won the grueling bicycle race up Mount Washington, the highest peak in the northeastern United States. Erik Levinsohn, of Boston, and Stefanie Sydlik, 34, beat the competition in the men’s and women’s divisions of the 7.6-mile Mount Washington Auto...
NASCAR Cup drivers eyeing playoff spots, job security at Bristol
BRISTOL, Tenn. — There is very little wiggle room in the race to make NASCAR’s playoffs, and as free agency hits full steam drivers are trying to secure their futures as fast as possible. Among those on the bubble is Clint Bowyer, in the 16th and final qualifying spot and...
Nick Kyrgios fined more than $100,000 for vulgar conductVideo
MASON, Ohio — Nick Kyrgios was fined $113,000 by the ATP for expletive-filled outbursts in which he smashed rackets, insulted a chair umpire and refused to get ready to return serve during a second-round match at the Western & Southern Open. The tour announced the penalties Thursday, a day after...
Justin Thomas turns it around, shares lead at Medinah
MEDINAH, Ill. — On the range, Justin Thomas had no idea where the ball was going. Some five hours later, he had a share of the course record at Medinah. Ultimately, all that mattered Thursday in the BMW Championship was taking a good step toward an important goal. Thomas already...
Dale Earnhardt Jr., family ‘safe’ from fiery plane crash in TennesseeVideo
Dale Earnhardt Jr. is safe and in a hospital for evaluation after his plane crashed in east Tennessee, the NASCAR television analyst and retired driver’s sister tweeted. Earnhardt’s sister, Kelley Earnhardt Miller, tweeted that the driver’s wife, Amy, and 15-month-old daughter, Isla, also were on the plane along with two...
USA Football pilots program to spark youth interest
USA Football is piloting the game’s first long-term development program in the hopes of growing the game and catching up to other sports around the world. The sport’s governing body launched its Football Development Model on Thursday, announcing six youth leagues will team up with USA Football in the hopes...
