sports

Basketball legend Yao Ming made a media appearance on Monday to promote the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics in which he invited anti-communist player Enes Kanter Freedom to visit China and defended the country’s treatment of tennis champion Peng Shuai.

A coach argues that it is not “mean” to “transgender women” but fair to women to reserve women’s sports for females.

Organizing officials for the 2022 Winter Olympics said Tuesday the Games’ host city, Beijing, has no plans to lock down any sections of the capital to prevent the spread of the Chinese coronavirus during the event — scheduled to take place from February 4 through February 20 — despite increasing lockdowns in surrounding areas.

Beijing’s Traffic Management Bureau warned locals on Sunday to “maintain a safe distance” from potential traffic accidents involving 2022 Winter Olympic vehicles during the upcoming event, as interactions between participants of the Beijing-hosted Games and any outside persons is strictly prohibited by the Chinese Communist Party to prevent transmission of the Chinese coronavirus.

Timothy LeDuc, a pairs figure skater who broke a U.S. Figure Skating Championship record at the event that wrapped up Sunday in Nashville, will reportedly become the first “non-binary” person to compete in the Olympics.

A Chicago area park district told parents that unvaccinated kids would not be allowed to play on district sports teams, then reversed the policy and apologized.

Two Tibetans chained themselves to an Olympic rings display outside the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Saturday to protest the 2022 Olympic Winter Games, Reuters reported.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday dismissed reports that Australia plans to stage a “diplomatic boycott” of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing in February as “political posturing” by revealing “China hasn’t invited any Australian government official” to attend the Games and adding “no one would care whether they come or not.”

New Zealand announced Tuesday it will not send representatives at the ministerial level to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, in February because the “logistics of travel” during the coronavirus pandemic “are not conducive” to such a trip, though Wellington said its diplomats may still attend the Games.

The manager of a Beijing venue that is set to host men’s ice hockey events during the 2022 Winter Olympics told China’s state-run Global Times on Thursday Olympic coordinators have yet to determine if seats in the stadium “will be open to the public.”

A delegation of South Korea’s world taekwondo headquarters, known as Kukkiwon, presented former U.S. President Donald Trump with an honorary “ninth Dan Black belt” on Saturday at Mar-a-Lago, a Trump resort in Palm Beach, Florida, South Korea’s Dong-a Ilbo newspaper reported Monday.

Beijing’s government imposed new travel restrictions on the city on Wednesday — including canceling or limiting flights into the capital from parts of China deemed at high-risk for coronavirus — just 79 days before Beijing is set to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, Agence France-Press (AFP) reported.

The state-run China Global Television Network (CGTN) published a statement on Tuesday allegedly written by Chinese professional tennis player Peng Shuai — who recently disappeared from the public eye after accusing former Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli of sexual assault — in which Peng claims she is “not missing” but simply “resting at home.”

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced a new “framework” that included guidelines stipulating that transgender athletes should not have to lower their testosterone levels to compete in sports.

Organizers of the 2021 Shanghai Marathon — originally scheduled for November 28 — have postponed the race indefinitely.

The University of North Dakota is putting new policies in place for students attending the school, including adding “gender identity” and “gender expression” as protected from discrimination under Title IX.

Members of Afghanistan’s Taliban terror group allegedly beheaded a female member of the Kabul Municipality Volleyball Club in recent weeks according to a claim made Tuesday by a coach for the Afghan women’s national volleyball team, the New York Post reported Thursday.

A report concludes that biological male athletes who “identify” as women have an advantage over biological females even after drug treatment.

Nine members of a Cuban national baseball team defected to Mexico in recent days while in the country to compete in an international tournament, the Associated Press (AP) reported Monday.

A comprehensive UK report into transgender participation in sport determined Thursday trans men who identify as women retain distinct physiological advantages when competing in female categories, even if they suppress testosterone levels.

Dozens of players from Afghanistan’s junior national women’s soccer team successfully fled Afghanistan and arrived in neighboring Pakistan on Wednesday, with more of their fellow teammates due to arrive on Thursday, Reuters reported.

A poll found most voters in West Virginia think athletes should participate in sports according to their biological sex not “gender identity.”

One hardcore American college football fan was caught on live television scarfing an entire jar of Duke’s Mayonnaise.

State broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) asked a female Chinese shot putter who had just won an Olympic gold medal in her field when she plans to start “a woman’s life” during a post-competition interview on Sunday, the Guardian reported Friday.

A video from behind the scenes at the 2021 Summer Olympics appears to show handlers pressuring Mijaín López, a Cuban four-time gold medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling, to repeat communist slogans and praise Fidel Castro, the Cuban independent site ADN Cuba reported Wednesday.

Hua Chunying, the most senior spokesperson at the Chinese Foreign Ministry, applauded American gymnast Simone Biles on Thursday in a Twitter post, apparently for showing grace to Chinese competitor Guan Chenchen.

Israeli artistic gymnast Artem Dolgopyat made history on Sunday by winning an Olympic gold medal — Israel’s second ever — in the men’s artistic gymnastics floor exercise competition at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

At Palm Spring High School in California, Indians will remain the school’s nickname — a decision okayed by officials and the Cahuilla Tribe.

Olympic athletes competing in outdoor games have become increasingly vocal in their protests that Tokyo’s summer heat is a threat to their health, prompting tennis to reconfigure its schedule on Wednesday to the evenings to keep players out of the sun.

Hidilyn Diaz won the Philippines’ first-ever Olympic gold medal for weightlifting on Monday, earning her an additional cash prize of $600,000 from the Philippine government and private companies, along with a new home, the Manila Bulletin reported on Tuesday.

One-in-three Democrat voters favor letting transgender men enter womens’ Olympics sports, according to a poll by Axios.

Just days after Labour said it would “absolutely” oppose proof of vaccination to enter large venues like nightclubs, party leader Keir Starmer has suggested he could back vaccine passports and proof of a negative coronavirus test result for entry to sports stadiums.

Empty seats, zero atmosphere, diminished team numbers, local protests and a world distracted by coronavirus all combined to deliver just 16.7 million viewers for NBC’s four-hour long broadcast of the Tokyo Olympic Games opening ceremony on Friday. It was the smallest U.S. television audience for the event in the past 33 years.

Diane Abbott and a group of leftist protesters “took the knee” outside of Downing Street on in “solidarity” with black British footballers.

A petition challenging the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) transgender policy and calling for the exclusion of New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard from competing in Tokyo later this month is building with more than 21,000 signatures already added.

Tokyo Olympic organisers on Wednesday unveiled a raft of tough new rules for spectators at the coronavirus-delayed Games, warning alcohol, hugs, cheers, and autographs have all been banned. Polite clapping is allowed but only under strict supervision.

Arizona State University’s poll on transgender sports competition found a majority of Americans are opposed to men competing against women.

An AP-NORC poll released Friday had found a strong number of Americans who said they would return doing some activities they stopped during the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.

The Broward School Board members have said they do not support the new state law that protects female athletes from competing against males.

The Swedish Athletics Association is looking to make sports in Sweden more inclusive for young transgendered individuals by making it easier for them to choose which gender they want to compete with.