RIVER QUALITY
Seine training canceled
The Olympics’ triathlon swimming training session scheduled for yesterday was canceled after recent heavy rain in Paris affected pollution levels in the Seine, organizers said in a statement. A lot is riding on Olympic triathletes being cleared to swim in Paris’ central waterway when the competition starts tomorrow, with France investing 1.4 billion euros (US$1.52 billion) in new wastewater infrastructure to cut sewage levels and make the river swimmable for residents as a key legacy of the Games. “We have had some rainfall, but everything that has been put in place has worked, it prevents overflows from occurring, so I think we will reach a satisfying quality of the water very soon, but it will depend on the weather forecast as well,” Pierre Rabadan, the city’s deputy mayor for sports, told a news conference yesterday. Organizers said that, given the forecast for sunshine and higher temperatures over the next 48 hours, they were “confident” water quality would improve again before the triathlon events begin tomorrow with the men’s race.
ACCOMMODATION
Bath leak warps bed
Much has been made about the robustness of the Olympic Village’s cardboard beds, but one did not prove up to the test for top Japanese gymnast Shinnosuke Oka. Oka, who on Saturday produced a solid performance on the first day of the Paris Games in the men’s qualification, said a “water leak” from the bath had caused damage to the cardboard frame of his bed, forcing him to seek a swap. “The cardboard sort of collapsed because of a water leak, from, er, bathwater,” the 20-year-old first-time Olympian said, with an embarrassed smile. Oka said he noticed himself sinking gradually on the bed as he slept, and then realized that the frame was warped. “It kind of messed up my back. Not enough to affect my performance or anything, but I thought: ‘I probably don’t want to sleep this way for the rest of the time.’” The cardboard bed frame was introduced at the Tokyo 2020 Games for sustainability reasons — a central theme for Paris 2024 organizers.
SOCCER
Canada lose points for drone
Canada’s Olympic women’s soccer team have been deducted six points and their coach Beverly Priestman suspended for a year after a staff member used a drone to spy on a rival team at the Paris Games, FIFA said on Saturday. Canada’s soccer association was “responsible for failing to respect the applicable FIFA regulations in connection with ... the prohibition on flying drones over any training sites,” FIFA said. It also handed down a fine of 200,000 Swiss francs (US$226,110). The ruling is a hammer blow to Canada’s hopes of defending the Olympic title they won at the Tokyo Games three years ago. It leaves them on minus-three points in Group A before they played hosts France in Saint-Etienne yesterday. The match started after press time last night. Canada Soccer chief executive Kevin Blue had tried to convince FIFA not to punish the team, saying the players had not seen any footage produced by the drone. “There was a lot of emotion, frustration and humiliation because as a player, it doesn’t reflect our values and what we want to represent as competitors at the Olympics,” defender Vanessa Gilles said.
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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