OLYMPICS
Olson hopes to compete
US bobsled pilot Justin Olsen hopes to compete at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea despite having had a successful appendectomy on the eve of the Games. US bobsled officials yesterday said that Olsen, who is from San Antonio, Texas, went to a hospital in the coastal city of Gangneung on Monday and is trying to recover so he can compete in events starting Feb. 18. USA Bobsled and Skeleton chief executive officer Darrin Steele said officials are “heartbroken for Justin, but he’s shown us over the years that he’s capable of overcoming adversity.” Officials said they are discussing options if Olsen cannot race.
OLYMPICS
Russians appeal to CAS
Six-time Olympic gold medalist Viktor Ahn and three former NHL players are among 32 Russian athletes who yesterday filed appeals seeking spots at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea. The 32 athletes all failed to pass the mandatory International Olympic Committee (IOC) vetting — imposed as a result of Russian doping at the 2014 Sochi Olympics in Russia — and were not invited to the games. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said it would likely hear the case in Pyeongchang today. If the Russian athletes force the IOC to invite them, it would mean the medal contenders in some sports change dramatically only days before the games open on Friday. CAS added that as well as short-track speed skating great Ahn, the 32 include world cross-country skiing champion Sergei Ustyugov and world biathlon champion Anton Shipulin. Also on the list are former NHL players Sergei Plotnikov, Anton Belov and Valeri Nichushkin.
SOCCER
Matuidi to miss Spurs tie
Juventus midfielder Blaise Matuidi has sustained a thigh injury, the Serie A champions said, making him doubtful for their Champions League tie against Tottenham Hotspur next week. The hard-tackling Frenchman, who has impressed since joining the Turin side from Paris Saint-Germain in August last year, was taken off during the first half of Sunday’s 7-0 demolition of US Sassuolo. “Blaise Matuidi underwent tests which revealed a mild-medium tear to the flexor muscles in his left thigh,” Juventus said in a statement. “Further tests will be necessary to better ascertain the extent of his injury.” Juventus are to host Tottenham on Tuesday next week.
BASEBALL
Little League to use optic ball
A US federal prosecutor in Michigan on Monday said that he had reached an agreement with Little League Baseball that would allow a player with a vision-related disability to use an optic yellow baseball, settling an Americans with Disabilities Act complaint. “Children should not miss out on sports and other community activities just because they have a disability,” Matthew Schneider, the interim US attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, said in a statement announcing the deal. A Little League Baseball spokesman declined to comment, saying he would need to consult with senior management officials first. According to Schneider, the agreement calls for Little League Baseball to allow the player, who was not identified, to ask for optic yellow baseballs while at bat or in the field.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier