OLYMPICS
Dumped medals unclaimed
Olympic medals dumped in a pile of rubbish outside a house in Melbourne, Australia, remain unclaimed five months after they were handed in to police, Australian media reported. A bronze medal from the 1952 Helsinki Games and a participation medal from the 1948 London Olympics were handed in to police in June after they were found in trash outside a house in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs. Police had been unable to link them to any burglaries and no one had come forward to claim them. “Whether they were handed down from one generation to another, or they belong to another athlete from another country, we don’t know,” Senior Constable Damien Bowman told the Australian Associated Press. “I wouldn’t limit it to Australian athletes at this stage. We’d just like to get them back to the owner safe and sound.”
FOOTBALL
Lions fire GM, president
Detroit Lions owner and chairman of the board Martha Firestone Ford fired general manager (GM) Martin Mayhew and team president Tom Lewand on Thursday. “We are very disappointed with the results of the season so far and believe a change was necessary,” Ford said. “I have informed coach [Jim] Caldwell of our decisions, although no changes have been made to our coaching staff.” Ford said Sheldon White would be the acting general manager. White, who is in his 19th season with the franchise, was vice president of pro personnel. Allison Maki, the team’s chief financial officer, will be the team’s interim chief operating officer. Detroit have a 41-63 record and two playoff appearances since Mayhew was hired six years ago.
FOOTBALL
Smith convicted of murder
Former Oakland Raiders star Anthony Smith is set to spend the rest of his life in jail after being convicted of murdering three men on Thursday. The former NFL defensive end, a first-round draft pick in 1990, was found guilty of shooting two brothers to death in 1999 and stabbing a third man to death in 2001. All three men had been tortured before their deaths, according to earlier testimony. A Los Angeles County Court jury was unable to reach a verdict on a fourth killing Smith had been accused of carrying out in 2008. Smith faces life in prison without the possibility of parole when he is sentenced on Dec. 21. Prosecutors had already stated they would not seek the death penalty in the case. A lawyer for Smith said the former Raiders player would appeal against the convictions.
BASEBALL
Mariners trade six players
The Seattle Mariners continued their revamp by completing a six-player trade with the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday. The Mariners sent infielder-outfielder Brad Miller, first baseman Logan Morrison and pitcher Danny Farquhar to Tampa Bay in exchange for pitchers Nathan Karns and C.J. Riefenhauser and minor league outfielder Boog Powell. Miller and Morrison were core players for Seattle last season, but the team is moving in a new direction under general manager Jerry Dipoto, hired in September to replace Jack Zduriencik. Last month, the Mariners fired manager Lloyd McClendon, who went 76-86 in his second season with the team, and replaced him with Scott Servais. With the trade, Seattle have added a new weapon to their starting rotation in Karns, as well as a reliever and young prospect.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later