Blog

To save articles or get newsletters, alerts or recommendations – all free. Don’t have an account yet?Create an account » Subscribed through iTunes and need an NYTimes.com account?Learn more » Need to connect your Home Delivery subscription to NYTimes.com?Link your subscription »

The United States’ women’s gymnastics team has nothing to fear at the upcoming Rio Olympics. Barring some forces beyond their control, like China locking probable all-around champion Simone Biles in a restroom for the entire competition, they will win gold. On Sunday, July 10, the US selected the five women who will win gold in Rio. Biles, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas, Madison Kocian, and Laurie Hernandez have made the…

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said driving on newly reconfigured and repaved Kentucky Speedway was “not fun.” Tony Stewart said “none of us want it to be like it was here.” and suggested that the Goodyear tires used in last Saturday night’s Quaker State 400 were so hard they could be frozen and used as giant hockey pucks in the NHL. But other NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers, particularly winner Brad Keselowski…

Cole Pearn, the crew chief for Martin Truex Jr., spoke with NASCAR officials about the costly penalty the driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing team incurred during Saturday night’s Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway. The bottom line? Pearn and Truex may have been upset with the penalty for illegally passing the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet of Kevin Harvick on pit road. But NASCAR absolutely stands by…

Every year, MLB’s All-Star game brings together the best players from each league to form two superteams. For one game, we get to see Jose Fernandez as a reliever against lineups in which Mike Trout and Miguel Cabrera hit back to back. But unlike the NBA’s fantasy rosters made real, we never get to glimpse how dominant such a talent-laden squad would be against normal MLB competition. So with a…

Note: Don’t whiff on this special FanDuel offer. Win your first contest or get your money back (up to $10) to keep playing Try FanDuel now! If you’re a baseball fan, you’ve probably spent the better part of the last week arguing about All-Star selections. Who deserved it? Who didn’t? Who was snubbed? Who’s to blame? It’s endless fun. So why not do the same for Fantasy Baseball? The criteria…

1:43 PM ET Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email print comment TROON, Scotland — Jordan Spieth dealt golf’s return to the Olympics yet another blow Monday, telling International Golf Federation officials just before a news conference that he would not be playing next month in Brazil. Spieth joins Jason Day, Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy in deciding to skip the Games, mostly due to concerns about the Zika virus that is prevalent…

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said driving on newly reconfigured and repaved Kentucky Speedway was “not fun.” Tony Stewart said “none of us want it to be like it was here.” and suggested that the Goodyear tires used in last Saturday night’s Quaker State 400 were so hard they could be frozen and used as giant hockey pucks in the NHL. But other NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers, particularly winner Brad Keselowski…

Note: Don’t whiff on this special FanDuel offer. Win your first contest or get your money back (up to $10) to keep playing Try FanDuel now! If you’re a baseball fan, you’ve probably spent the better part of the last week arguing about All-Star selections. Who deserved it? Who didn’t? Who was snubbed? Who’s to blame? It’s endless fun. So why not do the same for Fantasy Baseball? The criteria…

“There ought not never have been no time called too early.” Troy Maxson, former Negro Leagues baseball star turned trash collector in August Wilson’s Fences. For some of baseball’s greatest players, a time called too early happened before 1947, the year Jackie Robinson integrated Major League Baseball. On Tuesday, when the MLB plays its All-Star Game at San Diego’s Petco Park, I’ll be thinking about those Negro League greats and…

NextVR teams up with Major League Baseball to show the T-Mobile Home Run Derby in virtual reality for the first time.

The $4-billion sale of the UFC to Hollywood talent agency WME-IMG was made official Monday. “We’ve been fortunate over the years to represent UFC and a number of its remarkable athletes,” WME-IMG co-CEOs Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell said in a prepared statement. “It’s been exciting to watch the organization’s incredible growth over the last decade under the leadership of the Fertitta brothers, Dana White and their dedicated team. We’re…

Complicating matters further was the fact that Caruthers, like all teenagers, was struggling to accept and love his body, and feared exposing it in public. “My body has never felt ordinary to me, as I have always been thin and fragile,” he said. “Being born with a bone deformity in my chest called pectus excavatum only contributed to this. Due to this condition and my skinny frame I was petrified…

Shalane Flanagan and Amy Cragg are Olympic distance runners headed to Rio this summer, and, as such, they’re ridiculously inspiring. Flanagan has made the Olympic squad four times; Cragg beat Flanagan in a harrowing trials marathon in February. They’re also endorsing Hotshot, a drink that purports to prevent muscle cramps before, during, and after workouts. “Since I started taking Hotshot, I haven’t had any cramping,” says Flanagan. Like many supplements that claim…

To save articles or get newsletters, alerts or recommendations – all free. Don’t have an account yet?Create an account » Subscribed through iTunes and need an NYTimes.com account?Learn more » Need to connect your Home Delivery subscription to NYTimes.com?Link your subscription »

To save articles or get newsletters, alerts or recommendations – all free. Don’t have an account yet?Create an account » Subscribed through iTunes and need an NYTimes.com account?Learn more » Need to connect your Home Delivery subscription to NYTimes.com?Link your subscription »

Hulk had quite the welcome to China. Shortly after his plane landed at Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport, hundreds of chanting fans mobbed the Brazilian soccer star as he pushed his way through the crowd on June 29. Hulk, who recently inked a record-breaking deal with Shanghai SIPG, is just the most recent soccer star to sign up. Long a soccer backwater, China has gone on a buying spree unprecedented in the…

To save articles or get newsletters, alerts or recommendations – all free. Don’t have an account yet?Create an account » Subscribed through iTunes and need an NYTimes.com account?Learn more » Need to connect your Home Delivery subscription to NYTimes.com?Link your subscription »

SAN DIEGO — The small flag stitched to right-hander Dovydas Neverauskas’ jersey Sunday was layered yellow, green and red. He was at Petco Park as the Pirates’ only prospect in the All-Star Futures Game. On his chest, above his heart, were the colors of his home country, Lithuania. Neverauskas, 23, ​tossed a scoreless eighth ​for the World team, which beat the United States, 11-3. He…

He made Peter Gammons tweet “omg.” Perhaps that’s the best way to describe the Internet reaction Cardinals pitching prospect Alex Reyes caused with his Sunday night start in the Futures Game at San Diego’s Petco Park. The flame-throwing 21-year-old righty started and totaled four strikeouts in 1 2/3 innings before other Team World arms got their turn. He surrendered two hits — a triple to Astros prospect Alex…