AP Sports

American Cole Hocker pulls Olympic shocker in men’s 1,500, leaving Kerr and Ingebrigtsen behind

SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — American Cole Hocker pulled the upset of the Olympics on Tuesday night, outracing both favorites Jakob Ingebrigsten and Josh Kerr to the finish line in the 1,500 meters. Hocker won the race in an Olympic record 3 minutes 27.65 seconds, pulling from fifth to first over the final 300 meters to beat his personal best by more than 3 seconds. He beat Kerr by .14 seconds, while Ingebrigsten, who set the pace through the first 1200 meters, ended up in fourth behind American Yared Nuguse.

Russian disinformation slams Paris and amplifies Khelif debate to undermine the Olympics

WASHINGTON (AP) — Groups linked to Russia’s government are using online disinformation to spread false information about the 2024 Olympics and portraying Paris as a crime-ridden cesspool. In one example, a fake music video taunts Paris with AI-generated images of rats, litter and sewage. Russian disinformation also has sought to exploit unsubstantiated claims about Algerian boxer Imane Khelif. A firm that analyzes online misinformation says Russia is one of the most advanced users of generative AI models for malign purposes. Experts who study foreign influence say any global event like the Olympics is likely to be targeted for disinformation as bad actors look to exploit public interest.

Many American athletes and their families resorted to GoFundMe to make it to Paris Olympics

PARIS (AP) — There is the table tennis player who didn’t get enough financial support back home. The discus thrower who couldn’t make rent. The badminton player who needed help to continue her journey to Paris. Several dozen athletes have used crowdfunding to help pay for their costs to prepare for the 2024 Olympics and compete in France, with GoFundMe saying more than $2 million was raised in the run-up to the event. Many of their family members did the same to try to watch their loved ones in France.

Boxer Imane Khelif fights to get closer to Olympic gold amid outcry over gender misconceptions

PARIS (AP) — Imane Khelif’s fight for a gold medal amid scrutiny over misconceptions about her gender continues when she takes the ring in the Olympic boxing semifinals. Khelif, of Algeria, takes on Janjaem Suwannapheng of Thailand in the fifth fight on the Paris Olympics boxing card at Roland Garros, Paris’ famed tennis complex. The winner advances to the women’s 66-kilogram finals. Khelif comfortably won her first two fights in Paris, but the ending of her first bout propelled her into a worldwide divide over gender identity and safety regulations in sports. Her first opponent, Angela Carini of Italy, tearfully quit after just 46 seconds.

Harvard graduate Gabby Thomas sprints to 200-meter gold medal for the United States by a big margin

SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — Gabby Thomas has sped to the win in the women’s 200 meters at the 2024 Olympics. She finished in 21.83 seconds Tuesday night to add a gold to the bronze she took home in the event from Tokyo three years ago. The 27-year-old Harvard graduate, who has a Masters in public health, took the lead for good at the curve and was never challenged in the final stretch. She grabbed her head with both hands after winning. Thomas beat 100-meter champion Julien Alfred by 0.25 seconds. Brittany Brown of the U.S. got the bronze.

NCAA moving closer to financially rewarding women’s basketball teams that reach March Madness

Women’s college basketball teams are moving closer to getting financially rewarded for success in the NCAA Tournament. The Division I Board of Directors is looking at a a proposal to give performance units to teams that make the tournament. Units represent revenue from the NCAA’s lucrative media rights deal. They have long been a part of the men’s tournament. Under the new media rights deal with ESPN, women’s basketball is valued at $65 million per tournament — roughly 10 times more than in the contract that ends this year.

Charles Barkley says he will not retire and remain with TNT Sports even if they don’t have the NBA

Charles Barkley intends to remain with TNT Sports through the remainder of his contract. The Hall of Fame player announced that he will not retire next season, reversing the announcement he made in June during the NBA Finals. Barkley said at the time that the upcoming season would be his last on television, no matter what eventually happened with the NBA’s media deal negotiations. He signed a 10-year contract extension with TNT Sports in 2022. The parent company of TNT Sports has sued the NBA in New York state court after the league did not accept the company’s matching offer for one of the packages in its upcoming 11-year media rights deal, which will begin with the 2025-26 season.

Israeli athletes receive threats in Paris as tensions simmer over Gaza

PARIS (AP) — Israel’s Olympic team said athletes have received threats as they compete in Paris. It comes amid larger tensions over Palestinian deaths during the war in Gaza. Yael Arad, president of the Israeli National Olympic Committee, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the team had received “centralized” threats meant to generate “psychological terror” in athletes. Last week, Paris prosecutors opened an investigation into emailed death threats to Israeli athletes. The national cybercrime agency is looking into the leak of some Israeli athletes’ personal data online, which has since been taken down. Prosecutors also launched an inquiry into inciting racial hated after Israeli athletes received ’’discriminatory gestures” during an Israel-Paraguay match.

The final image of Simone Biles at the Olympics was a symbol of joy — and where the sport is going

PARIS (AP) — Gymnasts Simone Biles, Jordan Chiles and Rebeca Andrade ended the 2024 Olympics with a moment symbolic of where they hope the sport is headed. Biles and Chiles bowed down to Andrade after the Brazilian won the floor exercise final. Biles says it was the right thing to do after a meet that felt as much like a celebration of the sport as it did a competition. Biles won four medals at her third Olympics while leading the U.S. women on a “Redemption Tour.” Biles and the rest of the “Golden Girls” are in no hurry to make decisions about their long-term future.

Pitbull Stadium is the new home of FIU football. The artist has bought the naming rights

Welcome to Pitbull Stadium, the home of your FIU Panthers. Florida International announced what could end up as a 10-year agreement on Tuesday with international recording artist, Grammy winner and entrepreneur Armando Christian Pérez — the Miami native better known as Pitbull — to put his name on their on-campus stadium. Pérez will pay $1.2 million annually for the next five years, the university said, for the naming rights. He will have an option in August 2029 to extend the deal for another five years and continue the rebranding.