(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Sunday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE
Baltimore 5, Washington 4
NY Mets 5, Toronto 4
Chi White Sox 3, Milwaukee 1
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Cleveland 3, Tampa Bay 2
Boston 5, NY Yankees 4
Kansas City 6, Detroit 1
LA Angels 6, Minnesota 2
Houston 3, Texas 1
Seattle 4, Oakland 3
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Philadelphia 2, Atlanta 1
Miami 9, San Diego 3
St. Louis 10, Cincinnati 6
Chi Cubs 5, Arizona 1
San Francisco 6, Pittsburgh 1
LA Dodgers 3, Colorado 2
MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER
New England 2, CF Montreal 1
New York City FC 5, Orlando City 0
Philadelphia 1, Miami 1 (Tie)
D.C. United 1, New York 0
Sporting Kansas City, 3 Seattle 1
(PHOENIX) — Arizona Cardinals defensive end Chandler Jones requested a trade from the team this offseason, according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.
Fowler says Jones has not been happy with his contract and future with the team. Jones is coming into his final year of his deal and will make $15.5 million this season.
In his first four season’s with the Cardinals, Jones had 60 sacks. Last season, the 31-year old only played in five games because of a season-ending torn bicep and had 1 sack.
Fowler reports the team does not want to trade Jones and except him to report to training camp.
(TOKYO) — Up until last year, the Olympic games had never been postponed for any other reason than a world war. Then the coronavirus pandemic swept across the world, putting the dreams of over 10,000 Olympic hopefuls on pause.
The Summer Olympics in Tokyo are now set to begin in less than two weeks, nearly 500 days after the International Olympics Committee announced the postponement of the Games on March 24, 2020.
After a year of extraordinary planning, the Tokyo Olympics will be different than any other Olympics Games before it: As the worldwide vaccination effort against COVID-19 continues, all spectators will be banned from attending the Games, the athletes will be isolated from one another, and all coaches, trainers and participants will be tested rigorously for COVID-19.
After going through what they called unprecedented training, three athletes spoke to ABC News about what it took for them to get to the Olympic stage while a global pandemic ravaged the world.
LILLY KING, USA SWIMMING
Two-time Olympic gold medalist Lilly King was a breakout star at the Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics in 2016 when she won first place in the 100-meter and 200-meter breaststroke. When she heard the postponement news, King said she was at home training in Evansville, Indiana — it was just one of many training sessions she’d had over the previous months. Yet still, she said the reality of the situation didn’t sink in until some time later.
“I heard the Olympics were postponed and I didn’t really know what to think. I’m kind of … a serial under-reactor,” King told ABC News. “[Five months later], my mom actually got my Olympic flag framed from 2016… I saw the flag and that was kind of the moment, I was like, ‘Oh, my God, we’re not going right now. This is not fun.’”
“[I had] my little meltdown that I had been waiting to have for five months… I got it out eventually and I think that was good,” she added.
In April 2020, King was forced to adapt her training routine to a world in which pools were closed due to COVID-19.
“I was sitting at home one day and my coach called me and said, ’Do you have a wetsuit?’” King said. She told him she didn’t. “He said, ‘Well, you better get one because we’re gonna swim in a pond.’ It was probably mid-April, but we started swimming in the pond in Indiana. It was freezing.”
King said she and her teammates bonded over the brutally cold days in the pond and the long drives across the state to access the few pools that had begun to reopen.
“If one of us came to practice with a bad attitude one day, it would ruin the rest of it for the other nine of us. … You had to be really conscious about what you were saying out loud, or what you were thinking, because it was very noticeable to the people we were training with since we are a small group,” said King.
King said that with her previous Olympics experience, she has looked forward to the Tokyo Games as a chance to step into a role as a leader and mentor to her teammates, many of whom are young.
“Having a long career in this sport is just having a good outlook and a good attitude about things and that’s what I tried to do,” said King. “It is the Olympics, but in the end it’s just another swim meet. Hopefully that’ll be helpful to those younger athletes and I know that would have been very helpful advice to me whenI was in their shoes.”
Hungry to compete, King said that the yearlong wait will only make competing at the Olympic Games that much sweeter.
“We still have an incredible team here and they’re ready to compete and ready to go,” said King. “Hopefully I can be that mentor that I had to those younger kids on the team and just come out and swim fast and have fun.”
MARIAH DURAN, USA SKATEBOARDING
In March 2019, professional skateboarder Mariah Duran was named one of 16 inaugural members comprising the USA Skateboarding National Team in the first Olympics Games to ever feature the sport.
Two years later, she is the leading female skateboarder in the U.S. and will compete against 26 nations in her Olympic debut.
“It was big to just be a part of [the Olympics] and work towards something and to have that extra goal set in front of me as a skater,” said Duran.
“It’s going to make the conversation for younger girls who want to pick up a board, their parents might be more down to let them do it,” she added.
After a whirlwind 2019 during which she competed in qualification rounds and traveled, Duran said she used the extra time from postponement to reconnect with her love for skating.
“[This year], I would have to say I really fell in love with skateboarding even more, and that aspect of when all this other noise is canceled, I still love skating and I would do it regardless of whether the Olympics happened or not,” Duran told ABC News. “I’ve been skating for about 14 years. So all those other years, I was just doing it because I love doing it.”
Duran, who is from Albuquerque, New Mexico, said she used the city as a training ground by finding outdoor parks, stairs, ledges and other obstacles in town.
“I just want longevity in the sport. So what can I do to create that? I was able to get two trainers [to focus my training] and we would do Zoom calls. … I would have [the weekend] just to myself and skate all day if I wanted to,” she said.
Along with practicing yoga regularly to help with her flexibility, Duran said she also used the postponement to slow down and focus on mental training, including being present in the moment.
“When you’re competing at such a high level, or you’re pushing yourself to do such an extreme [trick]… getting in tune with your mental space is so important because once you can control that. You can control the outcome if you know the position you put yourself in.”
Duran said she hopes that the game’s global spotlight on skateboarding will inspire other people, especially women, to get involved in the sport and continue to push their limits.
“Skating is so empowering and amazing that, when you step on a board, you don’t feel like a girl or a boy. At that point, you’re just a skater,” said Duran. “I really hope that people just look into the sport a little bit more and it sheds a light and it helps grow the sport.”
DAVID BROWN, USA PARALYMPIC TRACK & FIELD
Two-time Paralympian David Brown runs in the 100-meter and 200-meter sprint alongside a sighted guide in the T11 sports class, which includes all athletes who have a visual field of less than 10 degrees diameter. Brown said the past year has helped him to grow more in tune with his own body as an individual runner — one who doesn’t necessarily need help.
“What inspired me to actually start running was me starting to go blind when I was 6-years-old. … I started being able to just run fast,” Brown told ABC News. “Even though I am blind, I’m not going to let you take advantage of me. If you’re going to beat me, you’re going to have to work for it and it doesn’t matter if I can see or not.”
Since 2014, Brown has held the world record as the fastest totally blind athlete in the world.
Brown, who began competing in the Paralympics in 2012 and secured a gold medal in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro games, said that the extra time that he spent training last year gave him the chance to better understand his muscles, timing and pace.
Brown said that training by himself allowed him to focus inward and find his own step rather than sync his stride to another person’s.
“I’ve been running for some years now, but I never knew the technicality of sprinting. … Especially when it comes to running with someone else,” said Brown. “Sometimes, not knowing what to do or how to do certain things, you end up molding yourself to the runner that you’re running with.”
“I don’t know how to walk in a straight line or let alone run in a straight line, but I was able to learn,” he added.
The extra time also allowed Brown to realize his athletic potential.
“It’s odd for me to say this but for the postponement … It was a blessing overall for me because I was able to find myself as an athlete [after] being tethered to somebody all the time,” said Brown. “I was able to train as an individual, I was able to pretty much untether myself from my guide and find myself as an individual runner.”
The Paralympic games begin on Aug. 24, 2021 in Tokyo. In a year filled with novel protocols and critical improvisions, Brown said he’s ready for whatever happens.
“At the end of the day, we’re not going to leave anything on the table,” he said. “The fact of the matter is, I made it here, I made it this far, which is a huge blessing and a huge accomplishment in itself.”
Brown said his goal is to inspire future athletes to test the limits of their own abilities.
“That’s what it’s all about, giving inspiration to the future athletes,” he said. “And then showing the ones that come after us what is possible.”
(HOUSTON) — Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson will attend training camp on Sunday to avoid paying a $50,000 fine, according to a report from ESPN’s Ed Werner.
Watson would have been fined $50,000 for each day he missed training camp.
In January, Watson asked for a trade from the team and he still wants to be traded, according to Werner.
In March, the first of 23 lawsuits were filed against Watson alleging sexual assault and other inappropriate conduct. There are currently 22 active lawsuits against Watson.
(TOKYO) – The USA men’s Olympic basketball team lost to France 83-76 in the team’s opening game of the 2020 Olympics.
It is the first loss for the men’s team at the games since 2004, ending a 25 game winning streak.
France’s Evan Fournier led the game with 28 points. Jrue Holiday was the leading scorer for Team USA with 18 points.
Team USA led after the first and second quarters, but a 25 point third quarter by the French had them leading by 6, 62-56, entering the fourth.
Team USA opened the final quarter on a 13-1 run, to put them up 69-63, with Holiday, who plays for the Milwaukee Bucks, scoring 12 points.
The Americans led the way until the final minute when Fournier, who plays for the Boston Celtics, hit a three-pointer with 57 seconds left to put France up 76-74. Team USA missed its next five shots, including three three-point attempts, before free throws iced the game for France.
Team USA plays Iran and the Czech Republic in its next two games of group play. They must win both games to advance to the medal rounds.
(TOKYO) — Each day, ABC News will give you a roundup of key Olympic moments from the day’s events in Tokyo, happening 13 hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Standard Time. After a 12-month delay, the unprecedented 2020 Olympics will take place without fans or spectators and under a state of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
US men’s basketball loses 1st game since 2004
The U.S. men’s basketball team lost 83-76 in their opening game against France, the first game the team has lost since 2004. The loss hasn’t knocked Team USA out of the running, they will have two more games in the group round to qualify for the next round. Since basketball’s introduction to the Olympics in 1936, the U.S. men’s team has won a medal in every competition except the 1980 Games, which was boycotted by the United States.
US wins 1st gold medal after 1st-day drought
U.S. swimmer Chase Kalisz won the gold medal in the men’s 400m individual medley, his first gold as well as the first medal overall for Team USA at the 2020 Games. Though it was the first time in decades that the United States failed to win a medal on opening day competition, the U.S. swimming team won 6 of 12 medals in the days’ competition, including Kalisz’s gold, two silvers and three bronze.
US women’s gymnastic team finds itself in unfamiliar position: 2nd place
The often dominant U.S. women’s team saw another team leading the scoreboard after the qualifying round on Sunday. ROC, the athletes competing for Russia, finished the competition nearly a full point ahead of Team USA. Simone Biles finished first in the all-around, followed by teammate Sunisa Lee.
Coronavirus cases increase to 137 among Olympic athletes and personnel
Among the 10 new cases since yesterday, two are athletes and one of those, a Dutch rower, was staying at Olympic Village. Not included in that tally was golfer Bryson DeChambeau, who tested positive for coronavirus before leaving the United States and will no longer compete. New cases that have been reported in the Tokyo area now stand at 1,763, an increase in the rolling 7-day average of 146.5%.
Skateboarding makes debut at Olympics
Skateboarding debuted at the 2020 Games with local star Yuto Horigome of Japan winning the gold medal and Team USA’s Jagger Eaton taking home the bronze in the men’s street competition.
US softball heads to gold medal rematch against Japan
After defeating Australia 2-1 in their fourth win, the U.S. softball team heads to the gold medal game against Japan. This rematch from 2008, was the last time softball was at the Olympics and resulted in a silver medal for the team. The team was led by pitchers Monica Abbott and Cat Osterman, the only two players who were on the team for the loss in 2008.
Intense heat could cause rescheduling for outdoor events
Olympic skateboarders, who compete at the unshaded Ariake Urban Sports Park, said the heat was already intense at 9 a.m. a sentiment echoed by tennis players Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev. The International Olympic Committee said they would make backup plans if necessary.
(WASHINGTON) — First lady Jill Biden spent her final day in Japan cheering on Team USA at three Olympic events as the Games got underway in Tokyo on Saturday.
With fans unable to attend, Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron were part of a sparse crowd watching the women’s 3-on-3 basketball game between the United States and France.
The first lady was patriotically dressed for the occasion, sporting an American flag top and an official Ralph Lauren Team USA Navy blazer as she cheered on the U.S. competitors to a 17-10 victory.
In a video posted by USA Basketball after the game, Biden was seen congratulating the players on their win.
“Congratulations. We’re so proud,” Biden can be heard saying.
“Thank you for coming. It means a lot,” Stefanie Dolson, a member of the team replied. “First one’s done, so we’re good now,” she joked.
Biden also cheered on USA Swimming during a competition Saturday, appearing in the stands and receiving her own shoutout from the swimmers, who chanted “Dr. Biden!”
She was also in the stands to support the U.S. women’s soccer team as they delivered a decisive, 6-1 win over New Zealand Saturday evening.
In addition to cheering on the games, the first lady kept busy on her three-day trip leading the U.S. presidential delegation.
She hosted a virtual conversation with members of Team USA, attended the Olympic opening ceremonies and held a watch party of the U.S. vs. Mexico women’s softball game for foreign service officers and their families at the U.S. Embassy.
She also penned an open letter to Team USA, congratulating and thanking them for helping to bring the country together through the games.
“Your entire nation is cheering you on and we are grateful for what you’ve given us: the chance to come together in common awe and appreciation for your accomplishments and the shared joy of rooting for our country on the edge of our seats,” she wrote in a note published by NBC News.
“In these moments, we are more than our cities or states or backgrounds. We are more than our jobs or our political parties. We are united. We are all, first and foremost, Team USA.”
Biden’s trip to Japan came as COVID-19 cases among athletes and Olympic personnel continue to rise, increasing concerns about the games and athlete safety.
She followed “strict protocols and precautions set by the White House COVID team, the government of Japan, and the Olympics to keep the public, athletes and the delegation safe,” according to her office.
She and President Joe Biden wanted to show the “highest level of support for our Olympic Athletes and the Games,” with Biden’s attendance, the statement said.
While in Japan, the first lady dined with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and Mrs. Mariko Suga at Akasaka Palace and held a bilateral meeting with Mrs. Suga.
Even from afar, she highlighted the Team USA spirit back home in Washington, D.C., tweeting a photo of the White House illuminated in red, white and blue.
(TOKYO) — Unlike most sports at the Tokyo Olympics, the venue for surfing will be decided by when and where Team USA hopefuls such as Carissa Moore and Kolohe Andino paddle out off Japan’s Shidashita Beach.
Organizers of the first-time event have scheduled an eight-day waiting period — July 25 to Aug. 1 — to squeeze in up to four days of competition based on daily conditions — wave heights, direction, wind strength.
Kurt Korte, the international surf forecaster for the Olympic surfing event, told ABC News this week that conditions off the Pacific Coast of Japan are starting to look good with signs of a tropical cyclone forming well south of Shidashita Beach that could whip up the type of waves for great competition among the best surfers in the world.
“That storm as it moves past could set us up for some pretty good surf. So that’s kind of what we’re eying right now for the initial part of the contest,” said Korte, who lives in North Carolina and works for Surfline.com, a company that provides global wave and ocean forecast.
“It’s definitely within the realm where we could see overhead surf and good conditions as this thing moves past,” Korte said. “It’s really fortunate that this is what’s happening for the opening days.”
Korte said Surfline.com has worked with Olympic officials for the past six years to determine if surfing was even possible at the Tokyo Games. The company analyzed 35 years of weather and ocean data to suggest Shidahita as the best possible spot, and Korte left for Japan this week to study the ocean and make recommendations on which days the competition should unfold.
Team USA
The inaugural event will feature 20 men and 20 women from 17 countries.
The four-member U.S. team, described as a “Dream Team” by USA Surfing, is a heavy favorite. The Americans are led by the 27-year-old Andino of San Clemente, California, who holds seven USA Surfing Champion titles, and Moore, 28, of Honolulu, the No. 1-ranked female surfer in the world who holds four World Surfing League titles.
The team also features John John Florence, 28, of Oahu, Hawaii, a two-time World Surfing League champion. The youngest member is 19-year-old Caroline Marks of Melbourne Beach, Florida, the sixth-ranked female surfer in the world.
The American team is expected to face stiff competition from Brazil, which boasts Gabriel Madina, the world’s No. 1-ranked men’s surfer, and Italo Ferreira, the No. 2-ranked surfer in the world. The Australian team, led by seven-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore, is also expected to compete for gold.
How the competition will work
The surfers qualified for the Olympics based primarily on how well they did at previous major competitions, including the 2019 World Surfing League Championship Tour, where Florence and Moore each came out on top.
The Olympic Games will be exclusively a shortboard affair, meaning surfboards are less than 7 feet long, with pointy noses and usually three small fins on the underside.
Once the water conditions are deemed fit, according to Olympic rules, athletes will take to the ocean four at a time and compete in heats, with the first round consisting of four heats.
A five-judge panel will base scores on a scale of 1 to 10 that can include decimal points. Competitors will be judged on speed, power, snap turns and how seamlessly they flow on a wave. Judges also look for difficulty, risk and innovation of maneuvers performed, such as a barrel, or riding through the tube a curling wave makes, and aerials in which surfers ride up the face a wave and catch air at the lip.
In April, Moore wowed spectators at the Rip Curl Newcastle Cup, the second leg of the World Surf League’s Championship Tour, by nailing an aerial where she landed a reverse on the face of a wave before spinning another 180 degrees forward. The judges gave her a near-perfect score of 9.9.
In each heat, surfers will be given a 30-minute window to catch as many waves as possible but must go one at a time, with the surfer closest to the peak of a wave given preference to catch it. Participants can be docked points for violating surfing etiquette by cutting in line.
The best two scores from each surfer will decide who moves on to the next round and, eventually, the medal round, where whoever is left will compete head-to-head.
“I’m stoked, super stoked,” Andino told People magazine before heading to Japan. “I think the waves on offer in Japan will be pretty fun. It’ll be a lot of aerial maneuvers, so it should be pretty exciting to watch.”
(TOKYO) — China’s Qian Yang wins 1st gold medal for shooting
Qian Yang, 21, received the first gold model of the 2020 Games in the 10 meter air rifle event, where competitors have 75 minutes to shoot 60 rounds at a target.
U.S. women’s soccer team bounces back to dominate New Zealand
The U.S. women’s soccer team defeated New Zealand 6-1, a strong showing after losing to Sweden 2-0 in their previous game. The women’s team has one more game left in the group round.
Coronavirus cases increase to 127 among Olympic athletes and personnel
Among the new cases, which have increased by 17 since yesterday, only one infected person was staying at the Olympic Village. In the greater Tokyo area, officials have reported 1,128 new cases on July 24, a 133% increase in the 7-day rolling average. U.S. Olympic & Paralympic medical director Dr. Jonathan Finnoff said at a press conference on July 23, that an estimated 83% of the U.S. athletes competing at the games are vaccinated.
Youngest Olympian eliminated from competition
Twelve-year-old Hend Zaza of Syria was eliminated from her women’s single preliminary round table tennis match.
3-on-3 basketball debuts at 2020 Games
Three-on-three basketball made its Olympic debut today with the U.S. women’s team defeating France 17-10. This Olympic version of a street game is won by being the first to 21 points, or leading after the 10-minute game clock has expired. The United States is solely represented by the U.S. women’s team, as the men’s team failed to qualify.
Formerly retired pitcher leads U.S. softball team to 3-0 start
Cat Osterman, 38, led the U.S. softball team to their third victory, a 2-0 win over Mexico on July, 24, 2021. Osterman was on the 2008 Olympic team that received the silver medal after losing to Japan.
(TOKYO) — Novak Djokovic could be on his way to making men’s tennis history with this year’s Olympic Games.
Every year, tennis players have the opportunity to achieve a Grand Slam by winning all four majors: the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open.
But every four years — or, well, five years, in this case — they have the opportunity to achieve a “Golden Slam.” That means winning all four majors and the Olympics.
It’s only ever been achieved once, by Steffi Graf in 1988. No man has ever completed a Golden Slam.
Djokovic, at the very least, is close to it. So far this year, he has won the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon. The U.S. Open takes place at the end of summer.
A Grand Slam is rare enough. No men’s tennis player has done it in a calendar year since Rod Laver in 1969 — though Djokovic did hold all four titles simultaneously from 2015 to 2016.
After debating whether he would attend the game due to COVID-19 restrictions, the world No. 1 confirmed on July 15, “I booked my flight for Tokyo and will proudly be joining #TeamSerbia for the Olympics.”
Despite that — and despite the Serbian athlete’s general dominance over the last two years — it won’t exactly be a walk in the park as Djokovic’s competition will include Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas, Germany’s Alexander Zverev and Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, representing the Russian Olympic Committee, among others.
Djokovic has made no secret of his ambitions, recently telling Montenegro’s MINA news agency, according to USOpen.org, “I am inspired to play my best tennis and confident that I can win the gold medal after a tremendous run so far this season.”
While he acknowledged the Olympics and U.S. Open would be “demanding,” he added, “But I am full of confidence and motivated to represent Serbia in the best possible way. I am yearning for a medal in Tokyo, hopefully gold, and then I’ll go to New York aiming to complete it all.”
