SWIMMING
Sun Yang’s ban expires
Disgraced three-time Olympic champion Sun Yang hopes to return to competitive swimming “as soon as possible” after his more than four-year ban for doping ended yesterday. The Chinese freestyler was originally suspended for eight years by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in 2020 for smashing vials of blood during a 2018 test, the circumstances of which he still disputes. The ban was reduced on appeal to four years and three months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2021. “I hope that I’ll be able to pick a competition and return to the starting block as soon as possible,” the 32-year-old said in an interview published by state-run news site The Paper. Sun’s return comes with China’s swimmers under intense scrutiny since it emerged that WADA allowed 23 of them to compete at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, despite testing positive for a banned substance.
SOCCER
Ronaldo breaks record
Cristiano Ronaldo on Monday broke the record for the most goals in a Saudi Pro League season when he struck for the 34th and 35th time in Al Nassr’s final game of the campaign. “I don’t follow the records, the records follow me,” the 39-year-old Portuguese forward wrote on X afterward. The former Real Madrid and Manchester United star struck in first-half stoppage-time and again in the 69th minute with a header as Al Nassr defeated Al-Ittihad 4-2 at home.
BASKETBALL
NBA legend Bill Walton dies
Bill Walton, the former NBA Most Valuable Player, two-time champion and popular television commentator, died on Monday after a lengthy battle with cancer. After a stellar college career, Walton won his first NBA championship with the Portland Trail Blazers in 1977 and was named the league’s MVP the following year. He did a spell with the Los Clippers, in San Diego and Los Angeles, then moved to the Boston Celtics where he won a second title in 1986. After his playing career ended, Walton became a popular commentator for college and NBA basketball broadcasts. “Bill Walton was truly one of a kind. As a Hall of Fame player, he redefined the center position. His unique all-around skills made him a dominant force at UCLA and led to an NBA regular-season and Finals MVP, two NBA championships and a spot on the NBA’s 50th and 75th Anniversary Teams,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said.
CRICKET
Aussie joins Italy for brother
Former Australia Test opener Joe Burns has switched allegiance to Italy to help the Europeans qualify for the 2026 T20 World Cup as a tribute to his late brother. Burns, who played 23 Tests from 2014 to 2020, has been mourning his brother’s death in February. Burns wrote about his grief in a social media post with a picture of a blue Italy shirt with the No. 85 his brother wore at his amateur cricket club in Queensland. “While a part of my soul feels like it will always be missing, I know this shirt will carry on his spirit and give me strength,” Burns said. “I often reflect on the bravery and commitment it must have taken my grandparents when they left Italy to start a new life in Australia. They found a way to make it work through adversity and this has always given me solace through life’s lessons.”
The qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is to be held at the Taipei Dome between Feb. 21 and 25, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced today. Taiwan’s group also includes Spain, Nicaragua and South Africa, with two of the four teams advancing onto the 2026 WBC. Taiwan, currently ranked second in the world in the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings, are favorites to come out of the group, the MLB said in an article announcing the matchups. Last year, Taiwan finished in a five-way tie in their group with two wins and two losses, but finished last on tiebreakers after giving
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
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