World Sports

Challenger Muhammad Ali watches as defending world champion George Foreman goes down to the canvas in the eighth round of their WBA/WBC championship match in Kinshasa, Zaire, on Oct. 30, 1974. Foreman is counted out by the referee and Ali regains the world heavyweight crown by KO in the bout dubbed “Rumble in the Jungle.” (AP) When President Obama said during his Oval Office address Sunday that “Muslim-Americans are our friends…

In a televised prime-time speech given yesterday (Dec. 6), US president Barack Obama told the American public that “Muslim-Americans are our friends, neighbors, and sports heroes.” He didn’t specify any of the latter, but Muslim-American athletes have been prominent in the US for decades. Here are a few of the most well-known: Muhammad Ali. Originally from Kentucky, the boxer Muhammad Ali converted to Islam after winning the world heavyweight championship…

As many, many people immediately pointed out, Trump appeared to have forgotten that the man who at least at one point was the world’s most famous athlete, Muhammad Ali—who was chosen to essentially represent the entire United States by lighting the Olympic flame the last time the Summer Olympics were held here, in Atlanta in 1996—is Muslim. As are basketball legends Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Hakeem Olajuwon and many other past…

Image copyright Clive Rose Image caption Leaving school is a “cliff-edge” for sport participation, says the report Young people are being squeezed out of sport because a third live in poverty and the cost of taking part is too high, according to a study. Schools could help by opening facilities to community groups out of hours, it says. The National Association of Head Teachers said tight budgets saw many schools…

Tyson Fury has defended the controversial comments he made about Jessica Ennis-Hill in which he said that she “looks good in a dress” by saying: “I wasn’t asked about her achievements. I do think she looks fit in a dress.” Related: David Haye: ‘Tyson Fury’s got to stop saying that crap. Come on – just shut up’ | Donald McRae Fury, who defeated Wladimir Klitschko to win the WBA, IBF…

No damsel in distress would need a knight in shining armor if she could swing a sword like Reghan Ward. Or like Kate Sierra. The two women are among the champion fencers at the Cutting Edge Fencing Center in North Richland Hills. Each month about 85 people from 8-year-olds to 60-somethings venture to the facility, which opened in January 2014 at 5328 Rufe Snow Drive. About half are women. Cutting…

No damsel in distress would need a knight in shining armor if she could swing a sword like Reghan Ward. Or like Kate Sierra. The two women are among the champion fencers at the Cutting Edge Fencing Center in North Richland Hills. Each month about 85 people from 8-year-olds to 60-somethings venture to the facility, which opened in January 2014 at 5328 Rufe Snow Drive. About half are women. Cutting…

Eight contenders are on the shortlist for the award The BBC Cymru Wales Sports Personality 2015 will be announced at an awards ceremony on Monday, and you can view the ceremony live online. BBC Wales’ coverage will be available on the BBC Sport website and BBC iPlayer (UK only) from 20:00 GMT. The award will be presented following a public vote, which has now closed. Gareth Bale, Dan Biggar, Aled…

Ireland’s biggest telecoms group Eir (formerly Eircom) confirmed on Monday that it is to expand its TV offering with the acquisition of international sports pay television broadcaster Setanta Sports for an undisclosed sum. The move will pit the company against rival cable TV and broadband provider Virgin Media. The acquisition will allow Eir to “significantly expand” its TV offering and “further enhance the range of propositions on offer to customers”….

No damsel in distress would need a knight in shining armor if she could swing a sword like Reghan Ward. Or like Kate Sierra. The two women are among the champion fencers at the Cutting Edge Fencing Center in North Richland Hills. Each month about 85 people from 8-year-olds to 60-somethings venture to the facility, which opened in January 2014 at 5328 Rufe Snow Drive. About half are women. Cutting…

VIC MARKS Like cricket? Possess a coffee table? Then why not place Stephen Chalke’s Summer’s Crown upon it. This is the story of the County Championship and it is the heaviest book of the year, yet it is written with a wonderfully light touch and is beautifully illustrated. A less weighty publication, Gilbert, The Last Years of WG Grace, comes from the pen – or laptop – of Charlie Connelly….

Your favorite sports team is massively overvalued right now. It’s not that you ought to be losing sleep over Jerry Jones’ or Mark Cuban’s finances—they were rich before and will be rich after. But the popping and cracking noises emanating from the key support beam in our Temple of Athletics—the TV sports business—foreshadow wild disruptions ahead for the world of sports. Like the barking dogs that sense an earth tremor…

THE STORY SO FAR It was inevitable that a 30-man field would become strung out playing over three rounds and so it has proved with just four players within five shots of the lead heading into Sunday’s final round at the Gary Player Country Club near Sun City in South Africa. Australian Marc Leishman, who lost to Zach Johnson in a playoff for the Open at…

It happens more than two-and-a-half-million times a year; that’s how often children are rushed to emergency rooms with sports injuries. Yes, youth football is getting more attention, but are all sports getting safer? Taj Taylor wants to go pro, but a concussion almost sidelined his dream. “It was just a really scary feeling, definitely very scary,” he said. No ambulance was there. “I was out for at least 10 minutes…

Academic writing, not always unfairly, gets a bad rap. But the best combines the passion of the true enthusiast, a forensic eye for evidence and an ability to tell a compelling story. Those qualities are epitomised by Tony Collins’s The Oval World: A Global History of Rugby (Bloomsbury). Collins recounts the global sweep of the sport’s history, including both codes (union and league) and the North American variants, using original…

The contest comes just ahead of the film “Concussion,” a biographical sports medicine drama about pathologist Bennet Omalu. Omalu. who is played by actor Will Smith, is credited for trying to spread awareness of degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in football players, in spite of the NFL’s trying to block his research and deny the existence of the disease. Miller, who hasn’t seen the film,…

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The contest comes just ahead of the film “Concussion,” a biographical sports medicine drama about pathologist Bennet Omalu. Omalu. who is played by actor Will Smith, is credited for trying to spread awareness of degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in football players, in spite of the NFL’s trying to block his research and deny the existence of the disease. Miller, who hasn’t seen the film,…

Zack Greinke will stay in the NL West. But surprise – with the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Diamondbacks unexpectedly won the Greinke sweepstakes, beating out the rival Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants for the free-agent ace Friday night. He agreed to a $206.5 million, six-year deal, sources told The Associated Press. The major league ERA leader and runner-up for the NL Cy Young Award boosted the Dodgers to their…