SNOWBOARDING
Alex Pullin dead at 32
Australia’s double world champion snowboarder Alex Pullin drowned while spear fishing off a Gold Coast beach yesterday. Pullin, Australia’s flagbearer at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, was found by a snorkeler on an artificial reef just before 11am in waters off Palm Beach, Australian Broadcasting Corp reported. Lifeguards and paramedics attempted to resuscitate the 32-year-old on the beach after pulling him from the water, but he did not survive. “He didn’t have an oxygen mask, we understand he was free diving and spearfishing out on the reef,” Gold Coast Police District Duty Officer Chris Tritton told Australian broadcaster Channel Nine. “It appears he was diving alone. There were other divers out there, but he was not with a friend.” Brisbane-based newspaper the Courier-Mail reported that Pullin was thought to have “suffered a shallow water blackout.” Pullin, nicknamed “Chumpy,” won world championship titles in snowboard cross in 2011 and 2013. “It is an incredibly sad day,” Olympic Winter Institute of Australia chief executive officer Geoff Lipshut said. Pullin had last month retired from his sport, but had yet to announce it, Lipshut said. “Alex ‘Chumpy’ Pullin was one of our great winter sports pioneers... He attacked every day with intensity and purpose,” he added.
FOOTBALL
Eagles player in post furor
Philadelphia Eagles receiver DeSean Jackson on Tuesday apologized for a series of social media posts condemned as anti-Semitic, and slammed by his team as “offensive and appalling.” Jackson triggered an outcry after posting comments he attributed to Adolf Hitler and separate posts praising Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan on Instagram. White Jews “will extort America, their plan for world domination won’t work if the Negroes know who they were,” one excerpt read. Jackson also shared posts about Farrakhan, who has been branded anti-Semitic by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center. “I do not have hatred towards anyone. I really didn’t realize what this passage was saying... This was a mistake to post this and I truly apologize for posting it and sorry for any hurt I have caused,” Jackson wrote on Instagram. The Eagles condemned Jackson’s posts in a strongly worded statement, hinting that the team might take disciplinary action against the 33-year-old.
SOCCER
Brazilians laugh at loss
Six years after Brazil suffered their most humiliating experience on a soccer pitch, the 7-1 FIFA World Cup thrashing on home soil at the hands of Germany has become a joke, an expression and even a meme. That infamous scoreline has taken on a meaning of its own to describe any kind of defeat or a heavy blow — physical or figurative. “They gave us a one-seven” or “that was a one-seven” has entered into common parlance in the land more accustomed to stunning victories and brilliant achievements. It was July 8, 2014, when the five-time champions suffered the worst defeat in their history and the biggest-ever loss by a team that has won the World Cup. The scoreline is not the only thing from that game to have become a cultural reference in Brazil. Now, when describing something that happens repeatedly, Brazilians say “and a German goal” or “was that another German goal?”
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB