Sport

CHICAGO — A federal judge in Chicago ruled Friday that the world champion U.S. women’s soccer team does not have the right to strike to seek improved conditions and wages before the Summer Olympics, concluding the team remains bound by a no-strike clause in earlier agreements. The case pits the team’s union, the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team Players Association, against the Chicago-based governing body, the U.S. Soccer Federation. The…

Soccer’s authorities have announced plans to test in-game video replays in an attempt to end blown calls. The sport’s international governing body FIFA and The International Football Association Board (IFAB), which oversees soccer’s rules, revealed the plans Thursday. Starting next year, experiments with so-called video assistant referees (VARs) will run in a number of competitions, including Major League Soccer and Germany’s Bundesliga. Subject to initial tests, the technology…

This week, a public pool in Brooklyn became the diving-off point for a new clash over religious law and religious coercion in New York City. For decades, the Metropolitan Recreation Center in Williamsburg has offered gender-separated swimming hours in an accommodation to the heavily Hasidic Jewish community that it serves. After an anonymous complaint was lodged about its summer schedule, which includes two primetime hours of women-only swimming on Sunday…

Enlarge Image Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure is bringing a Major League Soccer team to Miami. Troy Tomas/Sprint Billionaire Marcelo Claure is a mega soccer fan. The Sprint CEO’s love of the game, known internationally as football, extends to his personal investments. He owns a powerhouse team in Bolivia, his homeland, and has partnered with soccer legend David Beckham to bring a Major League Soccer team back to Miami. “I love…

By Tom McGowan and Lauren Said-Moorhouse, Shasta Darlington, Ivan Watson, Vasco Cotovio, CNN Updated 7:10 AM ET, Fri June 3, 2016 MUST WATCH (CNN) MUST WATCH They have got a lot of problems to deal with in these final 60-odd days. Ed Hula, Olympics expert MUST WATCH MUST WATCH MUST WATCH MUST WATCH MUST WATCH

The year started off with a flourish as Denny Hamlin narrowly edged Toyota teammate Martin Truex Jr. to win the closest finish in Daytona 500 history, a margin of victory measured by a scant 0.010 seconds. Twelve races later NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series is set to begin its second half in a similar tone, with the Toyotas holding the top positions and those not in the Joe Gibbs Racing camp…

A paper published in April calculated the probable number of Zika cases during the Olympics, using dengue transmission during the 2008 outbreak as a model. It found that, on the low end, there would be 1.8 cases per one million tourists, and on the high end, 3.2 cases per 100,000 tourists. So the concern is not necessarily that tourists will fall ill while they’re at the games. (Though everyone seems…

Late in 2014, Nike’s soccer footwear team met with Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior, better known as Neymar Jr. At the meeting the Brazilian soccer star, who plays professionally for FC Barcelona, mentioned that he loves Michael Jordan. And of course he does. Neymar Jr. is 24 years old—what child of the 1990s didn’t worship Jordan? But today, Neymar has something unprecedented to show for his fandom: the NJR x…

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The TV ratings for the Stanley Cup playoffs have not been good. Monday’s Game 1 of the Final got a 2.8, well off the 4.2 of the opener a year ago, crushed by Game 7 of Warriors-Thunder. The final numbers for Game 2 likely won’t be much better with the game banished from NBC to NBCSN thanks to not the Warriors, but the extreme jungle gym competition that is American…

Turkey’s Adem Kilicci and Russia’s Yekaterina Gnidenko A Turkish boxer and a Russian cyclist have been provisionally suspended after doping samples from the London 2012 Olympics returned positive retests. Boxer Adem Kilicci and track cyclist Yekaterina Gnidenko both tested positive for steroids, their sports’ governing bodies said on Thursday. Olympics chiefs announced last week that 23 competitors at the London Games had failed retrospective doping tests. Retests focused on athletes…

RELATED: All points penalties for 2016   Three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams have been issued P3 penalties coming out of the Charlotte race weekend, which resulted in their respective crew chiefs being suspended for at least one race, according to the NASCAR penalty report released Wednesday evening. Additionally, a P2 penalty was handed down to Tony Stewart .   The Roush Fenway Racing No. 16 (Greg Biffle), Stewart-Haas Racing No. 41 (Kurt Busch) and JTG Daugherty Racing No….

Since five members of the U.S. women’s soccer team filed a complaint earlier this year alleging pay discrimination, the U.S. Soccer Federation has disputed their claims in media interviews and statements.  On Tuesday, the governing body issued its most comprehensive rebuke in a 20-page letter filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency responsible for investigating the players’ allegations.  The letter insists that those claims are “false,” and…

8:15 PM ET Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email print comment NASCAR suspended three crew chiefs Wednesday for violations at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Greg Biffle crew chief Brian Pattie was suspended for two races for illegal body measurements, and one-race suspensions were given to Kurt Busch crew chief Tony Gibson and AJ Allmendinger crew chief Randall Burnett after their cars didn’t have five secure lug nuts on each wheel following Sunday’s Coca-Cola…

9:51 PM ET Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email print comment In theory, the idea of professional boxers competing in the Olympics sounds fun and interesting. Who wouldn’t want to watch national dream teams of fighters going for gold in Rio de Janeiro this summer? For years it has always been just fantasy. But on Wednesday, AIBA, the organization that overseas amateur boxing, voted overwhelmingly to allow professionals to compete in the…

Frampton has relinquished his IBF super-bantamweight title Former world champion Carl Frampton and a number of other high-profile fighters have hit out at the decision to allow professionals to box at the Olympics. International boxing federations voted in the rule change just weeks before the Rio Games start on 5 August. Northern Irishman Frampton says amateur and pro boxing are “two different sports”, claiming: “It’s like a badminton player playing…

Unless you’re part of Martin Truex Jr.’s immediate family, a member of his fan club or an employee of Furniture Row Racing, you likely weren’t enthralled by Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. NASCAR’s longest race had a mere nine lead changes with Truex leading 392 of a possible 400 laps. And even outside of Truex turning the event into a runaway, there was an absence of…

x Embed x Share Officials said joint federal and state forces helped rescue Pulido just before midnight on Sunday.Video provided by Newsy Newslook Mexico’s Alan Pulido consoles teammate Javier Hernandez (14) after the Netherlands defeated Mexico 2-1 during the World Cup round of 16.(Photo: Eduardo Verdugo, AP) CIUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico – Caught in a real-life win-or-lose challenge, soccer forward Alan Pulido overpowered a kidnapper, freed himself and then called police for…

This is Strength in Numbers, a column exploring the science of sports and athleticism. I welcome your feedback, suggestions and news tips. Email me, leave suggestions in the comments section or tweet to me @CragCrest. Pole vaulter Yelena Isinbaeva wants an opportunity to compete at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro this summer. Problem is, she’s Russian. More Science & Health Isinbaeva is the world record holder in her…