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If seeking a benchmark for American Olympic dominance less than a week before the 2016 Games begin, you can’t find a better statistical example than the 1904 edition.  The U.S. cleaned up that year, taking home more than 230 total medals in its first turn hosting. No other country even hit 20 total medals. That’s nuts.  But a closer look reveals the 1904 Olympics to be something else entirely: Deeply…

Photo via Victor Decolongon/Getty Earlier this month, the UFC was sold for $4 billion to, of all places, WME-IMG, the talent agency best known for its co-CEO Ari Emanuel, the inspiration for Entourage’s Ari Gold. SportsBusinessJournal had a good piece recently detailing some of the behind-the-scenes negotiating over the deal in which, among other things, it reported that while three media companies were seriously interested, they ultimately felt that the…

A formal committee table surrounded by chairs is seen towards the back of the stage. Lounge chairs and a coffee table dominate the downstage area. It is in this area that most of the action takes place. Large, framed head shots of former club champions adorn the walls. A door on the left leads to the general and recreational areas of the club building, while to the right a door…

There are fastballs and there are faster balls. Then there are Aroldis Chapman fastballs, considered the Lamborghinis of modern-day pitches. They are so sleek mlb.com has a “Chapman Filter” on its website to weed out the slower pokes who can’t compete with Chapman’s speed. Consider: Of the 702,307 pitches thrown in major-league games last season, the Cubs‘ controversial new closer hogged the top 77 spots for fastest thrown. Seventy-seven. The…

Viktor Lebedev has won two gold medals at World Championships More Russian athletes have been banned from competing at next month’s Olympics by their sports’ governing bodies. Federations must rule on whether Russians can compete in Rio following the country’s doping scandal. The Union Cycliste Internationale said three cyclists were withdrawn due to previous drugs cases, with another three implicated in the doping scandal. Wrestler Viktor Lebedev, who returned a…

NASCAR’s top drivers are getting what they asked for.  During the August 28th Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway, NASCAR will bring back the low-downforce package it used at that track in June and at Kentucky Speedway last month.   NASCAR’s body’s vice president, innovation and racing development,  Gene Stefanyshyn, said Thursday this package, perhaps with some very minor tweaks, also will be used for the 2017 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. It…

RELATED: Buy Darlington tickets | ’16 throwback schemes  CONCORD, N.C. — When Valvoline officials queried NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Paul Menard about his racing heroes, the first name on the list was Al Unser Jr. So Menard couldn’t be more pleased that the Valvoline-themed throwback paint scheme he will run in this year’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 pays tribute to Unser Jr.’s lone NASCAR premier series start. Menard’s Richard Childress Racing No. 27…

If seeking a benchmark for American Olympic dominance less than a week before the 2016 Games begin, you can’t find a better statistical example than the 1904 edition.  The U.S. cleaned up that year, taking home more than 230 total medals in its first turn hosting. No other country even hit 20 total medals. That’s nuts.  But a closer look reveals the 1904 Olympics to be something else entirely: Deeply…

<!– START and end The Girl from Guanabara A look at the unsolved murder of Priscila de Goes Pereira. By David Biller and Michael Smith | July 28, 2016 Photographs by Photographer Name –> By David Biller and Michael Smith | July 28, 2016 From Rio de Janeiro is a troubled city and a reeling Olympic host, but it will always have beautiful Guanabara Bay. One of the bay’s newer…

Welcome to today’s daily fantasy post! Remember that you can find our posts on the new DFS home page, as well as the fantasy page. Bookmark those sites now! Also, please scroll to the bottom of this article to see the latest tweets from Ryan Fowler (@FOXSportsFowler), D.J. Foster (@FOXSportsFoster), Adam Meyer (@FOXSportsMeyer) and me (@jhalpin37). That way, if information surfaces for any last minute changes, you can see our thoughts…

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Russian athletes set off for Rio from Moscow on Wednesday Badminton is the latest sport to clear Russian competitors to take part in the Olympic Games as the nation’s athletes begin to travel to Brazil. Governing bodies must rule on whether Russian athletes can compete in Rio following the country’s doping scandal. So far 108 of the 387-strong Russian team have been banned from the Games, which get under way…

This week’s Badges for Baseball session in Aberdeen was a little different than others this summer, as rising country music star Matt Stillwell was at the practice Wednesday to throw around the ball and pitch and catch. The baseball fan and singer has a new single out, “Hey Dad,” and appeared with Badges for Baseball through his partnership with the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation, which sponsors the program. Stillwell played…

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Sports Direct had hinted at the time of its full-year results that it was considering a buyback while the shares were depressed. Meanwhile, the company’s arch-rival JD Sports said that full-year profits would be at the upper end of expectations, between £170m and £190m, after strong trading.  JD Sports sales have benefited from an exclusive replica kit contract with the Welsh football team, who had unexpected success at the Euros.

One issue that constantly clouds youth sports is the unrealistic expectations many adults have that younger girls and boys will star in high school sports and earn scholarships to play in college. Many parents even believe their child will go on to become a professional athlete. I hate to burst their bubble, but the facts say otherwise. The National Council of Youth Sports has reported that more…

Jaunt, one of the bigger names in virtual reality filmmaking right now, has partnered with the e-sports league ESL to film a series of short 360-degree documentaries about its biggest tournaments. The first of those documentaries is called CLG: Win Everythin’ (typo intentional) and follows the team Counter Logic Gaming during a League of Legends competition. The documentary is just over five minutes long and is available now through Jaunt’s apps…

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…

He may have stormed to a commanding Brickyard 400 victory, but the attention wasn’t on Kyle Busch Sunday. Instead the spotlight was elsewhere, including what is likely the final race for Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and the dearth of spectators who witnessed Busch’s dominating performance. Not surprisingly, these two topics are also the chief focus of this week’s NASCAR mailbag. That and lug nuts,…