olympics Page 20 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

On the anniversary of sports shutting down due to COVID-19, what have we learned about sports, the virus, and ourselves?
It’s been a year since NBA player Rudy Gobert smeared his hands on reporters’ microphones at a press conference and then tested positive for the coronavirus. A year of lockdowns and masking and handwashing and flouting mask-wearing protocols....

Tokyo Olympics to be held without foreign fans
Most Japanese citizens don’t want the large international event to begin with. But now, according to the Kyodo News, the Japanese government will not allow foreign spectators to attend this summer’s Olympics and Paralympic Games. The decision to bar overseas fans, according to the report, stems from...

50 years ago a boxing match stopped the world, now the sport could barely stop traffic — could baseball be next?
Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of “The Fight Of The Century,” the first of three Joe Frazier-Muhammad Ali fights. Even though it took place a decade before I was born, anyone can glean the importance of it by listening to just about anyone who was alive at the time talk about it or even read a f...

Let’s take a moment to appreciate American women in sports of the 21st century
I will say it loudly and frequently – celebrate women in sports. They belong in sports. They belong wherever the hell they want to belong. Gender has zero bearing on knowledge about a topic. It has always been a battle for equality, and it should not have to be. And it’s not just athletes. Before an...

50 years ago today, Ali and Frazier stepped into the ring and delivered a divided nation its greatest sporting spectacle
Professional boxing had come a long way in the half-century that preceded March 8, 1971, the night Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali stepped into the Madison Square Garden ring for what remains history’s greatest heavyweight championship fight....

Deadspin Wayback Machine: A look back at some of sports’ great relics
One of the great things about sports is the comfort that they provide. While the world is always changing, sometimes at a pace that’s hard to process, sports are largely static. If you watch a football game from 50 years ago, there certainly are differences in strategy and the size and speed of the ...

Bucs host world’s largest girls flag football tournament during a pandemic
I’m all for girls’ flag football tournaments, but hosting the “world’s largest” anything in a global pandemic may, I dunno, not be a great idea?...

Canada wants 2022 Winter Olympics out of China, says country is committing ‘genocide’
The 2022 Winter Olympics are less than a year away and one country is starting to call for the games to relocate over egregious human rights abuses. ...

In more optimistic stadium news, England races to host Euro 2020 fans (in 2021)
While the NFL begins to lick its chops about having full capacities for the 2021 season, and MLB try to find every break and crack they can to start getting fans in from Opening Day, across the pond they’re planning for big returns too....

Laughingstock of Japan Yoshiro Mori won’t resign from Olympic committee gig
It’s been a rough week for Yoshiro Mori. After spouting sexist comments and igniting a media firestorm in Japan, the president of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee said he will not resign....

Tokyo Olympic organizers raise giant middle finger to Japanese citizens
Last month, a Kyodo News poll found that 80 percent of Japanese citizens favor canceling or postponing this year’s Olympic games. Today, Tokyo Olympic organizers vowed to hold the games in the summer....

The Tokyo 2020/2021 Olympics are off ... or not ... maybe
It would be very….I guess we call it “this age” as 2021 hasn’t really separated itself from 2020 yet, for leagues like the NBA, NHL, various soccer leagues, and UEFA as a whole to avoid the Olympics like the plague, and then watch them canceled....

Russia’s name, flag, and anthem banned for the next two Olympics, athletes to compete as ‘neutral’ . . . again.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled Thursday that Russia cannot use its name, flag, or anthem in the next two Olympics or in any world championship for two years....

Rafer Johnson, Olympic legend, actor, and tackler of RFK’s assassin, dead at 86
Rafer Johnson, one of the best athletes of his time, died Wednesday. He was 86....

Blake Leeper appeals Olympics ban, citing 'systemic racism'
Blake Leeper, a superstar runner born with no legs, has filed an appeal to the Swiss Supreme Court to overturn a ruling by the Court of Appeal for Sports that barred him from competing in the Tokyo Olympics....

Blake Leeper is breaking Oscar Pistorius' records, but Olympic gatekeepers don't want him to compete
Blake Leeper was born with no legs, and he’s one of the fastest humans on earth....

Lindsey Vonn schusses (get it?) bigots, talks depression, love, Covid & how she almost drove for Formula One
Lindsey Vonn opened up on In Depth with Graham Bensinger this week on a wide array of topics, including depression, having a pandemic wipe out your wedding, and dealing with hate for being in an interracial relationship....

Olympic Gold Medalist Jordyn Wieber Tells Deadspin Why She Won't Attend USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame Induction
As Jordyn Wieber walked off the mat after her floor routine at the 2012 Olympics, she was giddy, and a big smile danced across her face as she walked down the performance steps....

New NHL CBA Guarantees Top Players Will Get Theirs
For the first time since the ’80s, the NHL and NHLPA were able to agree to a new collective bargaining agreement without shutting down the league. This time, the surrounding world shut down the league. But for hockey, going from a self-inflicted wound to just a normally-inflicted wound is something ...

Another Day, Another Horrible Mess For USA Gymnastics
USA Gymnastics may be finally listening to its athletes. ...