Situsfreechiptanpadeposit

For Nigerians, 1996 lives in cultural memory as the year its soccer team, the Super Eagles, became global icons during the Summer Olympics. And, 25 years later, it’s clear that team had an impact that stretched far beyond the nation’s borders. Nigeria’s Dream Team was responsible for cementing the country’s place as a soccer nation worthy of considerable regard to opponents beyond the continent. Moreover, the nation’s path to gold involved defeating the best soccer team in the world at the time, Brazil—a feat players and fans recall as not just a victory for Nigerians, but one for Africans as a whole.

So, though Nigeria isn’t playing soccer in Tokyo, the Olympics are still meaningful to the nation’s fans. That August day in 1996 when…

Before this week, many people knew Katie Ledecky as one of the most dominant names in swimming for the last decade. So they might have been surprised by the success of Australia’s 20-year-old Ariarne Titmus during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, who has now bested Ledecky twice to snatch gold medals.

In Tokyo, Titmus’ rivalry with Ledecky has been one of the most captivating parts of the Tokyo swimming program. The rivalry between the two star swimmers dates back to the 2019 world championship, when Titmus became the first woman to beat Ledecky at the international level. They’ll have one more chance to race in Tokyo, this time in the 800-m freestyle on July 31. She isn’t the favorite this time, however. Ledecky is undefeated in the 800 m, holding the fastest 24 t…

This profile is published as part of our TIME100 Next list, recognizing 100 emerging leaders from across the world who are shaping the future.

A few days before the start of the 2024 NBA Finals in June, Brad Stevens, the coach turned executive of the Boston Celtics, joined one of his star players, Jaylen Brown, for breakfast at the team’s practice facility. The Celtics had quickly disposed of the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals—a series sweep in which Brown was named MVP—so the team enjoyed a near week and a half gap before the start of the championship round against the Dallas Mavericks.

It was a quiet moment during pre-finals downtime. But Brown suddenly looked Stevens dead in the eye.  

“Big f-cking two weeks,” Brown tol…

“When you think of swimming, you think Australia and USA,” Caeleb Dressel told reporters in Tokyo. “The two powerhouses of swimming.”

And in the final day of competition at the Tokyo Aquatics Center, that proved true as every race was won by swimmers from the two countries. While the night for Team USA ended on a high note, with gold and a world record in the men’s 4×100-m medley relay, its total swimming medal tally of 30 at the Tokyo pool fell just short of its 33 from Rio, when Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky alone contributed 11 medals to the haul.

Tokyo represents a transition year for Team USA swimming, as well as a crucible, as the first Olympics in modern history occurring in the middle of a pandemic. New leaders like Dressel emere…

Among the track-and-field events on the Olympic program, the heptathlon hasn’t generated much, if any, buzz in the United States in recent years. The legendary Jackie Joyner-Kersee was the last American to win gold in the multidisciplinary sport, in which women compete in 100-m hurdles, high jump, shot put, the 200 m, long jump, javelin, and the 800 m—in that order—over a two-day period; she won consecutive Olympic titles in 1988 and 1992 and took silver at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. That’s a 32-year heptathlon-victory drought.

Anna Hall, the 23-year-old recently crowned heptathlon champ at the U.S. Olympic trials, takes her event’s lack of sizzle to heart. “A lot of people don’t know what heptathlon is when I tell them what I do,” she says. “So I definitely t…

Fourteen-year-old Philadelphia Union midfielder Cavan Sullivan became the youngest player in Major League Soccer history on Wednesday night—and probably the youngest to play in any of the biggest professional sports leagues in the world.

Sullivan was 14 years, 293 days old when he entered Philadelphia’s home game as a substitute in the 85th minute against the New England Revolution. That makes him about two weeks younger than Freddy Adu when he made his MLS debut in 2004 for DC United.

Sullivan made his debut moments after his brother, 20-year-old Quinn, scored a goal to put Philadelphia up 5-1.

Cavan Sullivan, who replaced forward Tai Baribo, got a handful of touches in the final minutes of the Union’s blowout win. He even recorded his first shot on goal, blasti…

Megan Rapinoe scored her way to soccer stardom in the 2019 Women’s World Cup. Now she’s writing a book about social justice.

The project, which does not yet have a title, was acquired by Penguin Press and is expected to be published in the fall of 2020.

It will include anecdotes about Rapinoe’s life and will go beyond sports. “I hope this book will inspire people to find what they can do, and in turn inspire other people around them to do the same,” Rapinoe, 34, told the New York Times in an email.

As well as being the star of the U.S. Women’s National Team, Rapinoe is a social activist, speaking often about the politics of division and equal pay and LGBTQ rights. She made headlines and attracted the ire of President Donald …

In the 80 years since the March Madness tournament started, it’s been a beloved and much-anticipated tradition for college basketball fans to fiercely rally for their favorite teams and celebrities are no exception.

For some, like actress Ashley Judd, being a super fan comes with longtime school spirit for her alma mater, the University of Kentucky, whose Wildcats are also a favorite for rapper Drake, who counts Coach John Calipari as a close friend and mentor. Others, like Bill Murray, don’t necessarily have an academic connection to a team, but an emotional one; Murray’s son, Luke, was an assistant coach for Xavier’s basketball program, which meant that the funnyman was a popular presence at Xavier games; for the 2019 NCAA Tournament, it appears that Murr…

Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales, shared an encouraging message to Andy Murray after his Wimbledon career came to an anticlimactic end.

“An incredible Wimbledon career comes to an end,” Middleton said, via a post shared on Instagram stories on Saturday. “You should be very proud @andymurray. On behalf of all of us, thank you!”

The Instagram story was set against a plain white backdrop, and signed with the letter “C,” the first initial of her full name. Middleton also shared the message on the official X (formerly Twitter) account belonging to The Prince and Princess of Wales.

Middleton, 42, has not yet attended a match at Wimbledon 2024, but she is a known fan of the tournament and was a royal fixture there for many years, previously attending every year …

After the U.S. women’s soccer team lost to Sweden in the quarterfinals of the 2016 Rio Olympics—the earliest Olympic exit the team had ever suffered—goalkeeper Hope Solo infamously called her opponents a “bunch of cowards,” knocking their staid style of play. The comment set off a bit of an international controversy; Solo was later suspended and never appeared in a national team game again.

That wasn’t the team’s finest moment. And no fan of the incredibly popular and influential—if slightly divisive—U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT) wants to see another Olympic quarterfinal exit. But it would be fair for any observer of the team’s performance so far at the Tokyo Summer Olympics to look back somewhat fondly Solo&#8…

Antonio Brown was released from the New England Patriots on Friday afternoon, just a little more than a week after the wide receiver was accused of raping his former trainer in a civil lawsuit.

“The New England Patriots are releasing Antonio Brown,” the Patriots said in a statement shared on Twitter Friday. “We appreciate the hard work of many people over the past 11 days, but we feel that it is best to move in a different direction at this time.”

Brown tweeted “Thanks for the opportunity” soon after the news was announced.

Britney Taylor, a gymnast who previously worked as Brown’s trainer, said in the lawsuit filed Sept. 10 in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Florida that Brown sexually assaulted her multipl…

Naomi Osaka circled her neck while hopping up and down on Monday morning in Tokyo, moments before the start her second round Olympic match against Switzerland’s Viktorija Golubic. She was loosening up, and sure seemed plenty loose while unleashing those 105 miles per-hours serves soon after.

Osaka, who plays for Japan and received the high honor of lighting the Olympic cauldron at the Opening Ceremonies Friday night, cruised to a 6-3, 6-2 over Golubic, a 2021 Wimbledon quarterfinalist, on Monday to move into the third round.

She still has plenty of work to do before an Olympic gold medal hangs around her neck. But, it’s hard to imagine her high-profile break from tennis that began at the French Open in May working out any better. On the court, her game looks as …

Ever since Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey unwittingly sparked an international incident with his tweet in support of protestors in Hong Kong — which compelled China to pull NBA sponsorships and cancel broadcasts of last week’s exhibition games in the country between the Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Lakers — fans and commentators have been awaiting a response from LeBron James. The NBA superstar hasn’t been shy about wading in political waters. He’s been a fierce critic of President Trump, a vocal supporter of payments for college athletes, and has spoken out on police violence and other issues. He also stars in an ESPN TV show called “More Than An Athlete.”

While James was in China last week, the NBA cancelled media availabil…

Lamine Yamal, a Spanish professional soccer player, is making headlines around the world for his spectacular performance as part of Spain’s EURO 2024 team.

On Wednesday night, he scored a viral equalizer goal against France that allowed Spain to advance to the finals. At 16 years old, Yamal is the youngest person to ever score a goal in the UEFA European Football Championship. Yamal’s 17th birthday falls on Saturday, July 13—just one day before Spain is set to face England in the EURO 2024 final held in Germany.

At a post-game press conference after the semi-finals, Yamal discussed his record-breaking feat. According to the Associated Press, he told reporters: “I don’t know if it’s the best goal of the tournament, but it’s the most special for me because it is…

An Alaska swimming official’s disqualification of a high school student athlete for wearing an allegedly revealing swimsuit has added fuel to the controversy over the policing of female athletes’ bodies. During a meet in Anchorage last Friday, the female official disqualified a 17-year-old Dimond High School student who had just won a 100-meter freestyle race on the grounds that the seat of her swimsuit was exposing too much of her behind.

A swimming coach who is a friend of the girl’s family tells TIME she believes that the girl stands out only because she is “fuller-figured.” Other people familiar with the girl tell TIME it is unlikely that she wore her suit in a manner that contravened attire rules intentionally; the swimmer’s mother told loc…

Belgium has forfeited from the mixed relay triathlon after one of its team athletes fell ill, the country’s Olympic team confirmed in a Sunday press release. 

Claire Michel, who participated in the women’s triathlon and swam in the Seine River on Wednesday, has withdrawn from the meet because of her illness. Belgian newspaper De Standaard claimed that Michel was infected with E.coli. TIME is out to Team Belgium for comment. 

The water quality of the Seine has been subject to intense scrutiny after French officials announced it would be used for a number of Olympic events, despite a swimming ban that’s been in place because of water pollution since 1923. Organizers invested some $1.5 billion to help clean up the iconic river, prompting French Presiden…

When Simone Biles strode into Ariake Gymnastics Center for the women’s gymnastics team competition on July 27, the expression on her face said it all. Normally all smiles and easy-going, Biles appeared sternly serious and maybe even troubled.

That expression only deepened after she landed her vault in the first round. Intending to do a two and a half twisting vault, Biles lost her bearings in midair and only managed one and a half twists. The low difficulty and execution scores only sealed the deal. “That score unfortunately would go up like that for the team, and I felt I robbed them of a couple of tenths when they could have been higher in the rankings,” she said. “It was definitely not my best work.”

Biles then talked to the team trainer and …

It was one of the most anticipated races in the pool, billed as the “race of the century”—the women’s 400-m freestyle, featuring American Katie Ledecky, who already owns 10 Olympic medals, racing against Australian Ariarne Titmus and Canadian Summer McIntosh.

It’s Ledecky’s least dominant event; she last won gold at the 2022 world championships and lost to Titmus in 2021 at the Tokyo Olympics. But although it’s been a while since Ledecky set and broke her own world record in the event twice from 2014 to 2016, you can never count her out. In recent years, Titmus and the teen McIntosh have traded world-record times—Titmus set a new record in 2022 at the Australian championships at 3:56.40, which McIntosh bested a year later at 3:56.08. Titmus, the defending Olympic champio…

The Opening Ceremony provided the first taste of what an Olympics without fans is like—devoid of the normal buzz of excitement and roar of the appreciative crowd, it was more solemn than celebratory. But it’s one thing to miss the noise for Opening Ceremony, quite another when it’s gone from the competitive events.

Not every sport will be as affected by the loss of spectators at the Tokyo Games. Athletes competing in events like archery, which requires concentration and quiet, for example, might actually appreciate the respite. But team-based sports and events like swimming races might seem, well, a little flaccid without fans.

Ask athletes if the lack of fans will affect them, and they have their standard answer—they train to compete under any and al…

WICHITA, Kan. — A rebuilt statue of Jackie Robinson in bronze will be welcomed home Monday by Little League players and former Major League Baseball All-Stars, just over six months after the original was destroyed by thieves.

The original sculpture of the baseball icon resting a bat on his shoulder was cut off at its ankles in January, leaving only Robinson’s cleats behind at McAdams Park in Wichita, Kansas.

An identical statue will return to the park, where about 600 children play in the urban youth baseball league called League 42, which was founded in 2013 and named after Robinson’s uniform number with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Playing for the Dodgers, Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s racial barrier in 1947.

The community is expected to be joined…

The nerve center of most Summer Games is an “Olympic Park,” typically a collection of a half-dozen or so sports facilities clustered in one place. Sounds great, right? Here’s the dirty little secret: most Olympic parks are actually in a rather sterile part of a world-class city. Let’s all gather in a giant, overheated parking lot in the dead of summer!

In Rio, for example, the Barra Olympic Park—which hosted basketball, gymnastics, swimming, gymnastics, basketball, wrestling, diving, and a few other events—was located an hour from Copacabana Beach, past a road dotted by condos and car dealerships. London’s park, in the city’s eastern region, had its charms. But it was still adjacent to a giant shopping mall.

Read More: Day One of the Paris…