U.S./World Sports category, Page 83
Washington QB Michael Penix Jr. highlights AP midseason All-America team loaded with experience
Washington sixth-year quarterback Michael Penix Jr. highlights The Associated Press midseason All-America team, one of 19 players honored who have been in school at least five years. Penix is among the many players in college football who have extended their careers by taking advantage of the NCAA’s decision to give...
Lionel Messi earns $20.4 million under contract with Major League Soccer’s Inter Miami
NEW YORK — Lionel Messi’s annualized compensation from his Major League Soccer contract with Inter Miami is just over $20.4 million, the MLS Players Association said Wednesday. Messi earns more than the entire payroll of all but three other MLS teams and twice as much as every player combined on...
Newcomers BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, UCF floundering early in Big 12Video
The new kids in the Big 12 couldn’t bring past success with them. Cincinnati went to the College Football Playoff in 2021. BYU won 10 games twice in the past three years. Houston is two years removed from a 12-win season. UCF had at least nine victories in five of...
Big Ten players discovering challenges of playing for interim coaches
MADISON, Wis. — Michigan State linebacker Jordan Hall talks about rolling with the punches to maintain focus amid adversity, but he never could have expected the haymaker his team absorbed last month. It was the same type of blow that players at Northwestern, Nebraska and Wisconsin have encountered over the...
Column: There’s a place for women to play golf with men, not against them
Lexi Thompson missed the cut by three shots on the PGA Tour in Las Vegas, and expectations are only going to get bigger the next time she plays. Not against the men, but on the LPGA Tour. While she played remarkably well in the Shriners Children’s Open — especially her...
Defending champion LSU is No. 1 in women’s preseason AP Top 25 for 1st time
Defending champion LSU is ranked No. 1 in the women’s preseason AP Top 25 college basketball poll for the first time in school history. LSU, which won its first NCAA title last April behind star player Angel Reese and Co., received 35 first-place votes from a 36-member national media panel...
NASCAR reverses Ryan Blaney disqualification. Template used in inspection was flawedVideo
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — NASCAR on Monday rescinded Ryan Blaney’s disqualification at Las Vegas Motor Speedway when series officials found a problem with the template used during post-race inspection. The reversal restored Blaney’s sixth-place finish from Sunday’s race, which had been stripped hours after the checkered flag for an alleged illegal...
Kansas is No. 1 in the preseason men’s AP Top 25; Duke, Purdue next as 5 teams get 1st-place votes
Bill Self likes to remind his team that the faces may change at Kansas, but the expectations within his program never do. Expectations outside the program? Turns out they are as high as possible this year. The Jayhawks were the clear No. 1 pick in the AP Top 25 preseason...
Tom Kim wins in Las Vegas for the 2nd time in the same PGA Tour seasonVideo
LAS VEGAS — Tom Kim now has something in common with Byron Nelson as the only players to have won the same PGA Tour event twice in the same season. Kim successfully defended his title Sunday in the Shriners Children’s Open when he closed with a 5-under 66 to emerge...
Kyle Larson earns spot in NASCAR’s championship race with win at Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS — Kyle Larson edged Christopher Bell at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway finish line to become the first driver locked into NASCAR’s championship race. The 2021 Cup champion earned the first of four spots in the Nov. 5 title-deciding finale with his win in Sunday’s opening race of...
AP Top 25: Washington into top 5 for first time in 6 years; Air Force ranked for 1st time since 2019
Washington moved up to No. 5 on Sunday in The Associated Press college football poll, the Huskies’ best ranking in six years, after a thrilling victory against Oregon and unbeaten Air Force was ranked for the first time since 2019. The top four teams in the country were unchanged after...
Byron opens NASCAR’s next round of playoffs as championship favoriteVideo
LAS VEGAS — William Byron returns to Las Vegas Motor Speedway as the betting favorite to win the Cup title as the round of eight of NASCAR’s playoffs opens. He is in great shape with a series-high six victories this season, and his first win of the year came at...
Stanford rallies from 29-point deficit, beats Colorado 46-43 in 2nd overtime
BOULDER, Colo. — Deion Sanders had an uneasy feeling, even up 29-0 at halftime. Maybe not the worst collapse in Colorado history about to unfold uneasy, but uneasy anyway. Stanford coach Troy Taylor didn’t really change a thing, just watched as the Cardinal steadily staged the largest comeback in school...
Lexi Thompson falls short in her bid to make PGA Tour cut in Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS — Lexi Thompson delivered star-power moments built for a stage like Las Vegas, and when she poured in a pair of long birdie putts Friday, she was on the cusp of history. Thompson was 4 under with seven holes to play. In her sights was a chance to...
Russian athletes won’t be barred from Paris Olympics despite country’s suspension
MUMBAI, India — Russian athletes can be directly invited to next year’s Paris Games despite the suspension of their country’s Olympic committee, the IOC said Friday. International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach commented on the issue a day after the Russian Olympic Committee was suspended for violating the territorial integrity...
Billie Jean King still globetrotting in support of investment, equity in women’s sports
NEW YORK — Billie Jean King is still globetrotting in support of more investment and equity in women’s sports. She attended the Women’s World Cup in Australia, kicked off the player draft for the new women’s professional hockey league in Toronto and is opening an office in London for a...
Next on the Tee: PGA’s first female president, Suzy Whaley discusses Golf Nation
It’s Girls Night Out II this week on “Next on the Tee,” featuring four guests — former PGA of America President, now President of Golf Nation Suzy Whaley; Mark Calcavecchia’s wife, part-time caddie Brenda Calcavecchia, Junior Golf Leader of the Year Megan Younkman, and adaptive golf instructor Gianna Rojas. Whaley...
Kansas escapes postseason ban, major penalties as panel downgrades basketball violations
LAWRENCE, Kan. — The Kansas men’s basketball program was put on probation and ordered to take down its 2018 Final Four banner but escaped a postseason ban Wednesday, when an independent panel created by the NCAA to handle complex cases downgraded five Level I violations lodged against the Jayhawks. The...
Purdue favored to win Big Ten again, but can anyone end league’s NCAA Tournament trouble?Video
MINNEAPOLIS — The Big Ten got an unexpected boost in the offseason when Zach Edey decided to return to Purdue for a fourth year. But the question remains whether Edey’s towering presence will make a difference next March. Or will Purdue’s well-publicized struggles in the NCAA Tournament — emblematic of...
Lexi Thompson ready for the bright lights of Vegas and big stage of PGA TourVideo
In the midst of one of her roughest years, Lexi Thompson faces her biggest challenge. Thompson was coming off her first top-10 finish of the year two weeks ago when she said her management company told her the Shriners Children’s Open had offered her a sponsor exemption to play on...
Olympic gold medalist Mary Lou Retton ‘fighting for her life’ with rare form of pneumonia
Gold medal-winning gymnast Mary Lou Retton is in the ICU, where she’s fighting for her life, her daughter McKenna Kelley said on Tuesday. On a fundraising page asking for prayers and donations, Kelley revealed that the 55-year-old tumbler has been in the hospital for over a week with a “very...
Column: Steve Stricker is having a record year with seniors. Now he’s contemplating the PGA TourVideo
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The voice still cracks, and Steve Stricker fights to hold back the tears, a sure sign winning isn’t getting old. If anything, it’s making the 56-year-old Stricker feel young. That’s why his remarkable, record-setting year on the PGA Tour Champions has Stricker thinking about playing more on...
Former Chelsea and Real Madrid star Eden Hazard retires from soccer
BRUSSELS — Eden Hazard is putting an end to a 16-year injury-hit career marked by great success at club level and unfulfilled promise with the Belgium national team’s “Golden Generation.” The 32-year-old Hazard announced his retirement from all soccer on Tuesday after more than 700 matches and two Premier League...
Less than a year after Ronaldo career seemed in crisis, Portugal on the brink of reaching Euro 2024
MANCHESTER, England — Cristiano Ronaldo is on the brink of leading Portugal to another major soccer tournament less than a year after his international career appeared to be over. It wasn’t clear what the future held for the five-time Champions League winner when he walked away from Manchester United last...
Column: AJ Allmendinger overcomes demons to play playoff spoiler in NASCAR win at CharlotteVideo
CONCORD, N.C. — AJ Allmendinger finds the pressure of racing at NASCAR’s top levels so intense that he once took a two-year mental health break. “I struggle to believe in myself every day. It’s an ugly place sometimes,” Allmendinger said. “I always say I have the best life possible, and...
