Sport

While Alex Bowman filled in for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Jeff Gordon was busy serving as the grand marshal for the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series season finale. The four-time Sprint Cup Series champion and FOX NASCAR analyst awarded the 2016 Euro Series championship trophy to Belgian driver and good friend, Anothony Kumpen, after Sunday’s final race at Circuit Zolder in…

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Russian Olympic Committee chief Alexander Zhukov said Tuesday he wants to resign from the position to focus on duties as a lawmaker. Russian media quoted Zhukov as saying he would step down from the Olympic committee to focus on his position as deputy speaker in the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, the State Duma. Zhukov has served as Russia’s top Olympic official for the past six years,…

  A St. Francis High School soccer coach who wore a clown mask for a photo at the team’s final practice is fighting to get his job back. Ben Hildre, a volunteer coach for the junior varsity girl’s soccer team, received a letter from district Superintendent Troy Ferguson on Friday relieving him of his duties after a photo of Hildre wearing a clown mask on school grounds circulated on social…

Cities used to covet the Olympic Games. Hosting them meant glamour and prestige. Not anymore. Rome became the latest city to abandon a bid for the 2024 Summer Games when it withdrew on Tuesday because of worries over the cost. Budget concerns have led city after city to drop their Olympic dreams in recent years. Hamburg, Germany, previously bailed on 2024. Stockholm and Krakow, Poland, pulled the plug on bids…

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Paolo Bruno/Getty Serie B, Italy’s second-highest professional soccer league, is unveiling a new initiative to promote sportsmanship among its players: the green card.  On Friday, the AP reported that after a game’s final whistle, refs will award green cards to those players who demonstrated good sportsmanship over the course of the game. Admit a goal kick when the refs called a corner? Green card. Help your opponent off the ground?…

Cities used to covet the Olympic Games. Hosting them meant glamour and prestige. Not anymore. Rome became the latest city to abandon a bid for the 2024 Summer Games when it withdrew on Tuesday because of worries over the cost. Budget concerns have led city after city to drop their Olympic dreams in recent years. Hamburg, Germany, previously bailed on 2024. Stockholm and Krakow, Poland, pulled the plug on bids…

At No. 5 Experimental Primary School in the coal-mining city of Taiyuan, the red carpet is out. School girls in pink and white stand at the entrance, while fellow students sit in perfect rows inside, awaiting the arrival of a VIP. With the city’s education chief and other local dignitaries on the stage and TV cameras hovering in the background you might expect a foreign leader or Communist Party bigwig,…

Second-generation NASCAR driver Harrison Burton is the newest addition to KHI Management’s expanding list of high-profile athletes after signing a multi-year deal with Kevin Harvick’s marketing company. Burton, the son of former NASCAR driver Jeff Burton, is scheduled to make his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut at Martinsville Speedway on Oct. 29. He will also run a partial Truck Series schedule in 2017. “I realize how fortunate I am…

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RELATED: Recap of Jimmie’s wins | Recap all of Dale Sr.’s wins Jimmie Johnson just got the biggest endorsement in NASCAR: from Dale Earnhardt Jr. “To be honest, yes I am rooting for Jimmie to get this championship,” Junior said in “The Dale Jr. Download” posted on Dirty Mo Radio Monday afternoon, which coincidentally was Earnhardt’s 42nd birthday. “I believe he does deserve it after everything he has put into…

Mikaela Shiffrin, covered in sweat from working out, gave a big hug to Missy Franklin when they met for the first time this summer. “The moment I met Miki,” Franklin said, “I knew I had found a friend for life.” Ever since the 2014 Winter Olympics, Shiffrin had heard that she reminded people of Franklin. Both are Colorado natives with bubbly personalities who won Olympic gold medals before turning 19….

Dale Earnhardt Jr. remains sidelined for the remainder of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season as he continues to attempt battling back from a concussion. But that doesn’t mean he is forgotten. Monday was Junior’s 42nd birthday, a fact that did not go unnoticed by a NASCAR community that is hoping Earnhardt Jr. comes back strong next season in his No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Happy birthday, Dale Jr.! All…

A 2-kilometre race in the canals around the Danish parliament in August saw a record 3,600 participants this year. (Photo: Lisbeth Kirk) During the last decade, the harbour baths have also become popular with tourists. They are the most visible result of a deliberate decision in the municipality to move polluting industry out of the harbour, and to clean all waste water before it reaches the sea. The harbour baths…

Follow The Fan: Facebook | Twitter CONCORD, N.C. (AP) – It should have been catastrophic nearly any way Joey Logano looked at his situation. His wrecked race car was in the garage during the opening race of the second round of the playoffs, his crew frantically trying to get him back on track. At the moment, Logano’s only saving grace was that Kevin Harvick had his own disabled vehicle and was stuck watching Sunday’s…

The international break continues for a few more days, leaving plenty of time between now and Wednesday night’s Sounders-Dynamo match to bone up on you might have missed over this past week in the world of soccer. To reiterate my appeal from last week’s inaugural edition 0f this weekly series: Please do forward along any submissions — or anything you think I missed — either via Twitter or email (mpentz@seattletimes.com). –…

Media playback is not supported on this device Wayne Rooney: England captain to keep his role under Gareth Southgate England captain Wayne Rooney says he is in a “difficult period” after he was dropped for Tuesday’s World Cup qualifier against Slovenia. Interim manager Gareth Southgate said the decision was tactical and not a reflection of the forward’s form. Rooney, who was booed by sections of the Wembley crowd during Saturday’s…

Channing Tatum at the 73rd Annual Golden Globe Awards. Tatum will star in next fall’s “Logan Lucky,” a heist film directed by Steven Soderbergh.(Photo: Dan MacMedan, USA TODAY) CONCORD, N.C. – NASCAR hasn’t been the vehicle for a major Hollywood feature film since Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby a decade ago. That’s set to change with Logan Lucky, a heist movie starring Channing Tatum that filmed several scenes at…

Channing Tatum at the 73rd Annual Golden Globe Awards. Tatum will star in next fall’s “Logan Lucky,” a heist film directed by Steven Soderbergh.(Photo: Dan MacMedan, USA TODAY) CONCORD, N.C. – NASCAR hasn’t been the vehicle for a major Hollywood feature film since Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby a decade ago. That’s set to change with Logan Lucky, a heist movie starring Channing Tatum that filmed several scenes at…