World Sports

Gender politics and science have never gotten along very well. The patriarchal system was—and in some cultures still is—based on the premise that women are more mercurial, less deliberative and physically less sturdy than men. Those are perfectly easy beliefs to hold—at least until you subject them to the least bit of intellectual scrutiny or real-world testing, at which point they fall apart completely. In the 1970s, the script flipped,…

Screenshot via YouTube Last April, the New York Times’s Richard Sandomir wrote a soft-focus puff piece on Jason Whitlock and his then-role as head of ESPN’s The Undefeated. A month later ESPN president John Skipper told Sandomir exclusively that Bill Simmons wasn’t returning to ESPN, news Simmons himself found out from Twitter. A month later ESPN fired Whitlock. These things are all related. Today’s Times has another profile from Sandomir,…

Baseball has only about 27 possible base-out states (combinations of base-runners and outs) that it needs to deal with. Football, in contrast, has billions of possible combinations of down, distance, yardline, score, time, etc.) Baseball is an orderly serial sequence of pitcher-batter matchups, and defense is only marginally involved. Football is parallel, involving 22 players simultaneously colliding in apparent chaos.

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Michel Platini played 72 times for France, scoring 41 goals, and was regarded as one of the best players in the world at the time Uefa president Michel Platini will resign from European football’s governing body after failing to have a six-year ban from football overturned. A Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) panel reduced the ban to four years on Monday. Following the judgement, the 60-year-old said he would…

It is no overstatement to say that sport’s integrity is being questioned as it has never been before. It is not just doping issues that confront us – but governance failures and match-fixing claims at the highest level. We face challenges on a number of fronts, but with doping adversely affecting the athletes themselves, it without doubt remains the greatest threat to modern-day sport. In combatting doping, we can be…

The stadium deal recently added the vocal public support of casino billionaire Steve Wynn, who helped craft the idea with Adelson more than three yeas ago. Wynn fell short of admitting he’s willing to invest in the deal, but enthused to entertainment columnist Norm Clarke, “Well, Sheldon and I are both very strong supporters of it, and how it plays out is something we’ve got to see… the one thing…

It is no overstatement to say that sport’s integrity is being questioned as it has never been before. It is not just doping issues that confront us – but governance failures and match-fixing claims at the highest level. We face challenges on a number of fronts, but with doping adversely affecting the athletes themselves, it without doubt remains the greatest threat to modern-day sport. In combatting doping, we can be…

It is no overstatement to say that sport’s integrity is being questioned as it has never been before. It is not just doping issues that confront us – but governance failures and match-fixing claims at the highest level. We face challenges on a number of fronts, but with doping adversely affecting the athletes themselves, it without doubt remains the greatest threat to modern-day sport. In combatting doping, we can be…

For decades, most sports movies were little more than variations of the same story: An athlete or team that’s never gotten a shot captures both victory and the respect of the masses, usually with the help of a wise old coach tormented by personal demons and past failures. Think Seabiscuit, Hoosiers, Major League, The Mighty Ducks, A League of Their Own, 42, Remember the Titans, Rocky, Slap Shot, and countless…

Cage fighters are risking their lives by taking extreme weight-loss measures before fights, according to academics. Mixed martial arts (MMA) is one of the fastest-growing and most controversial sports in the world. A UK-based study has found some competitors are dehydrating themselves to dangerous levels. The International Mixed Martial Arts Federation said work is being done to educate fighters on how to manage their weight safely. The sport, which combines…

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Cage fighters are risking their lives by taking extreme weight-loss measures before fights, according to academics. Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is one of the fastest-growing and most controversial sports in the world. A UK-based study has found some competitors are dehydrating themselves to dangerous levels. The International Mixed Martial Arts Federation said work is being done to educate fighters on how to manage their weight safely. The sport, which combines…

Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez knocked out Britain’s Amir Khan in the sixth round in Las Vegas to retain his WBC middleweight title. Until the brutal ending, Khan had used his superior speed and movement to frustrate the champion and appeared to be well ahead on points. However, when Khan lost concentration for a split second the champion knocked him cold with a huge right hand. Afterwards, Alvarez said he wanted a…

The Forest Lake school district will cut most junior-high level sports in 2016-17, a decision that has rankled some parents and students who believe school athletics fill a vital role and didn’t feel included in the district’s decision-making process. “Basically, there was no announcement, there was no parent discussion, it was just all the sudden everything was cut,” said Liz Tarlizzo, whose seventh-grade triplets play several sports at Century Junior…

Andy Murray has won 35 career singles titles, including the Madrid Open in 2015 Defending champion Andy Murray will face world number one Novak Djokovic in the Madrid Open final on Sunday. British number one Murray beat nine-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal 7-5 6-4 in the first semi-final. Djokovic then racked up a seventh victory in a row over Japan’s Kei Nishikori, going through 6-3 7-6 (7-4). Murray is…

Media playback is not supported on this device Leicester 3-1 Everton: Foxes lift the Premier League trophy At the King Power Stadium Leicester City celebrated their coronation as Premier League champions and the first title in their 132-year history with victory over Everton on a day of elation at the King Power Stadium. This was the Foxes’ official homecoming after they won the Premier League on Monday when Tottenham failed…

Stanford University freshman Greta Meyer is a talented and thoughtful lacrosse player with a voice that had to be heard. The former Germantown Friends School standout made that known last July when she wrote to ESPN to express her dismay that the boys’ Senior Under Armour All-America high school lacrosse game was televised live on the same day the…