July 2021

It was “gut-wrenching”, Alise Willoughby said. And knee-scraping, as the gaping hole in her clothes attested. The two-time BMX racing world champion and silver medallist at Rio 2016 knew she had the talent to win gold here, provided her fortunes held on steep-banked bends and bone-rattling bumps that undulate like a sine curve from hell […]

Given its unique demands on technique, endurance, and speed, many consider the 400m hurdles one of the most challenging track and field events. After exploding out of the starting blocks, athletes must sprint 400m while propelling themselves up and over 10 hurdles positioned evenly around the track. At 21 years old, Sydney McLaughlin is already

When the question came, shortly after Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce had eased through her 100m heat in a time so jaw-droppingly fast it would have won silver at the 2016 Rio Olympics, the Jamaican world champion did not flinch. Do you think you can go 10.5sec in the 100m final? “Sure, definitely,” she replied. “It’s definitely a

A storm broke out at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre on Friday morning when Ryan Murphy, the USA’s silver medallist in the 200m backstroke, spoke out against the sport’s doping problem and said he was “swimming in a race that’s probably not clean”. Almost any other time, this would have been an admirably honest thing to

This week, Simone Biles unexpectedly withdrew from the team and individual all-around gymnastics events at the Tokyo Olympics. The 24-year-old told reporters she wanted to focus on her mental health after experiencing the “twisties” – a condition in which a gymnast loses his or her spatial awareness during a move – in practice. It is

Novak Djokovic’s pursuit of the golden slam has come to an end as he suffered a startling collapse against Alexander Zverev before eventually losing 1-6, 6-3, 6-1 in the semi-final of the Tokyo Games. Zverev, the fourth seed, will face Karen Khachanov in the gold-medal match after the Russian Olympic Committee athlete defeated Pablo Carreño

Two unlikely new British cycling heroes emerged on Friday as Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte claimed the country’s first two Olympic medals in BMX. Shriever, who once worked as a teaching assistant to fund her riding, produced a huge shock as she dethroned Colombia’s BMX queen Mariana Pajón to win gold in a thrilling race around one

The teenage substitute Mary Fowler and Chelsea striker Sam Kerr were the heroes as Australia earned a place in the Olympic semi-finals with a 4-3 defeat of Team GB in extra time. “We are devastated right now,” said Team GB’s manager, Hege Riise “It’s hard to lose a game like this. We were well prepared.

8.14am EDT 08:14 Okay, I’m off for a cup of tea and some M&Ms, and hope all of you out there in the world are recovering in similar fashion. It’s been a pleasure. See you next time. 8.11am EDT 08:11 Suzi Wrack was there in the flesh, and herewith her match report of that crazy,

We will ROC you! Let’s face it, the retro cold- war touches dripping away at the back of Tokyo 2020 were always likely to run hot at some point. In the end it took a particularly ticklish men’s backstroke 200m to turn the tap. The presence of 335 Russian Olympic Committee athletes at these Games