Wednesday’s Sports in Brief – STLtoday.com

OLYMPICS

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Eleven weightlifters, including three Russian medalists, have tested positive for banned drugs in the latest retests of samples from the 2012 London Olympics, the International Weightlifting Federation said.

The IWF said in a statement that all 11 athletes, six of whom were medalists, had been provisionally suspended until their cases are closed.

Four of the 11 are Russians, who all tested positive for dehydrochlormethyltestosterone, an anabolic steroid.

The positive Russian tests came from Alexandr Ivanov, silver medalist in the men’s 94-kilogram division; Nataliya Zabolotnaya, silver in the women’s 75-kilogram division; Svetlana Tzarukaeva, silver in the women’s 63-kilogram division; and Andrey Demanov, who placed fourth in the men’s 94-kilogram division. Ivanov also tested positive for tamoxifen, a hormone modulator.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin hit out at “discrimination” against the country’s banned track and field athletes at a Kremlin send-off ceremony for its depleted Olympic team.

Fencers, triathletes and table tennis players became the latest team of Russians to be cleared to compete in the Olympics by the governing bodies of their sports ahead of the Moscow ceremony, but the IAAF rejected a bid by the bulk of the track and field team to be reinstated.

More than 100 Russians from the 387-strong Olympic team have been banned so far from going to Rio de Janeiro.

Putin said the athletes banned from the Olympics were victims of a campaign to present Russian sports in a bad light. He spoke with two-time Olympic pole-vaulting champion Yelena Isinbayeva, the most high-profile of the 67 track and field athletes banned from the games, standing beside him.

PRO BASKETBALL

NEW YORK (AP) — The National Basketball Players Association’s player representatives have voted unanimously to fund health insurance for all retired NBA players with at least three years of service.

“The game has never before been more popular, and all the players in our league today recognize that we’re only in this position because of the hard work and dedication of the men who came before us,” Los Angeles Clippers star Chris Paul, the union president, said in a statement. “It’s important that we take care of our entire extended NBA family, and I’m proud of my fellow players for taking this unprecedented step to ensure the health and well-being of our predecessors.”

The June 26 vote in New York established a health insurance program through UnitedHealthcare. Under the current proposal, for example, retired players with between three and six years of NBA service time, but who are not yet eligible for Medicare, would be offered a plan that includes medical, hospital and prescription drug coverage with modest out-of-pocket costs for deductibles and co-pays.

PRO FOOTBALL

NEW YORK (AP) — A person familiar with the negotiations says the New York Jets have re-signed Ryan Fitzpatrick to a one-year deal worth $12 million, ending months of speculation and uncertainty surrounding the team’s quarterback spot.

Fitzpatrick set the franchise record with a career-high 31 touchdown passes last season while helping lead the Jets on a playoff push in Todd Bowles’ first season as coach.

The person who spoke on condition of anonymity because the team had not announced the signing.

The well-traveled 33-year-old veteran appeared to be a certainty to re-sign in the weeks leading to the start of free agency, but Fitzpatrick and the Jets became locked in a contract stalemate over financial terms.

UNDATED — Tom Coughlin will be joining the NFL’s football operations staff, a person with knowledge of the agreement tells The Associated Press.

The two-time Super Bowl-winning coach will work closely with Troy Vincent and with the NFL’s game-related committees in an advisory role.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the NFL has not yet announced the hiring.

Coughlin won 170 games in his 20 years as an NFL head coach, including the 2007 and 2011 league championships when the Giants beat the Patriots in Super Bowls. He also was the original coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars and got them into the playoffs in 1996, their second season. He left the Giants after they went 6-10 in 2015, their fourth straight season out of the playoffs.

Considered an offensive mastermind, Coughlin sought several coaching jobs last offseason, but didn’t take any.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan State’s athletic department is establishing a scholarship fund to honor Mike Sadler, the former Spartans punter who died in a car accident Saturday in Wisconsin.

Sadler and Nebraska punter Sam Foltz died in a crash after attending a kicking camp in Wisconsin.

The Mike Sadler Legacy Football Scholarship Fund will enable a Michigan State football player to receive a scholarship each year in his honor.

Sadler was a four-year starter and four-time academic All-American at Michigan State. He finished his college career after the 2014 season.

Michigan State is holding an event to celebrate Sadler’s life Sunday at Spartan Stadium. It is open to the public.

PRO HOCKEY

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman’s reluctance to link hits to the head in hockey with a degenerative brain disease found in several deceased former players has reached Congress.

League attorneys filed Bettman’s letter to Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal with U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson, who’s presiding over the concussion lawsuit against the NHL. Bettman’s 24-page response to Blumenthal was dated Friday. He said research on the link between concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy “remains nascent.”

The Connecticut Democrat wrote June 23 to Bettman about the league’s stance on CTE.

He cited in his letter the discovery of CTE in the brains of six former players after their deaths in recent years. Blumenthal is the ranking member of the Senate subcommittee on consumer protection, product safety, insurance and data security.

BASEBALL

MIAMI (AP) — MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred says more rule changes are needed to improve the pace of play, and one proposal under consideration is a limitation on relief pitching changes in an inning or a game.

The majors shaved several minutes off the average game time last season, but games have been slightly longer in 2016.

Manfred has said he’s in favor of a limitation on relief pitchers but didn’t lobby for it Wednesday.