
High jumper who was barred from Paris Olympics for doping gets two-year ban
MONACO — A Polish high jumper who was suspended for doping on the eve of the Paris Olympics has now been given a two-year ban, the Athletics Integrity Unit said Tuesday .
Norbert Kobielski tested positive for a banned stimulant, pentedrone, at a competition in Poland in May last year.
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Forbes
27 minutes ago
- Forbes
John McEnroe Calls Lack Of American Tennis Success A ‘Problem'
TOPSHOT - US Frances Tiafoe celebrates after winning his men's singles match against Germany's ... More Daniel Altmaier on day 8 of the French Open tennis tournament on Court Suzanne-Lenglen at the Roland-Garros Complex in Paris on June 1, 2025. (Photo by Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP) (Photo by ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT/AFP via Getty Images) After completing his fourth-round victory over Daniel Altmaier at Roland Garros, American Frances Tiafoe shouted to the crowd, 'Let's f--king go. Let's f--king go.' Tiafoe and Tommy Paul are the first American men into the French Open quarterfinals since Andre Agassi in 2003 – and the first American duo since Pete Sampras beat Jim Courier in the quarters in 1996 -- but the question is: How far can they go? No American man has won a major title since Andy Roddick at the U.S. Open in 2003, and no American man has won Roland Garros since Agassi in 1999. 'We got to get some American men to win some majors, and that would make it, to me, much more interesting if Tiafoe, Tommy Paul [can win]' John McEnroe said on a TNT call with reporters ahead of the tournament. 'We never had that problem with the women, but we certainly have it with the men, and I think that's been a real problem for us.' Ben Shelton has been McEnroe's top pick to win a major for the American men, but if that happens it likely will be on a hardcourt. The big-serving left-hander from Atlanta reached the semifinals of the Australian Open this year, and of the U.S. Open in 2023. Shelton lost to defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in four tough sets in the quarters at Roland Garros, and now No. 12 Paul will face No. 2 Alcaraz in the final eight. Alcaraz is 4-2 against Paul and won their only encounter on red clay in the quarters of the 2024 Paris Olympics, 6-3, 7-6(7). On Sunday, Paul defeated Australian Alexei Popyrin 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 in 1 hour, 52 minutes, a much shorter time than he needed in five-set wins against Marton Fucsovics and Karen Khachanov. "I'm enjoying it a lot," Paul said when asked about competing on clay. 'It was nice to get a straight-sets win today, give the body a little rest. I mean, as much as I love the five-setters, I definitely like the three-setters a little bit better. I am just excited for more matches.' Paul has now reached the last eight at three of the four majors, advancing to the semifinals at the Australian Open in 2023 and the quarters at Wimbledon in 2024. The 28-year-old is just the ninth American man in the Open Era and only active American to advance to Grand Slam quarter on all three surfaces. He joins Agassi, Michael Chang, Jimmy Connors, Courier, Vitas Gerulaitis, Brian Gottfried, McEnroe and Sampras. Tiafoe, meantime, beat Germany's Altmaier in straight sets and is the first American man since Agassi in 1995 to reach the quarters without dropping a set. He will face No. 8 Lorenzo Musetti on Tuesday. Tiafoe's only close calls have been a first-set tiebreaker in his third-round match against fellow American Sebastian Korda and the third-set tiebreaker against Altmaier. "I don't think anyone's really thinking that I would be in this position," Tiafoe said. "But at the same time, now that I'm here, let's win. There's nothing more fun than winning. Once I get my feet going and the match is under me, I'm dangerous." Tiafoe and Paul could potentially meet in an all-American semifinal, but clearly Musetti and Alcaraz will have something to say about that. And until an American man is able to break through and win a Slam, it will continue to be a 'problem' for McEnroe.


New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
There's much to like about PSG stars – but conflict in watching Champions League win
Football is not demarcated by black and white any more; not since colour television sent broadcast rights spiralling and the Champions League ball was stitched from a shade named 'solar slime'. There is plenty to like about Paris Saint-Germain, European champions for the first time in their history. Advertisement Their manager, Luis Enrique, is a kind man and an innovative coach, whose personal success is all the more gratifying for the tragedies suffered by his family. In Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Desire Doue and Bradley Barcola, they have a trio of wingers who play with the joy and verve of mountain springs made human. Over his career, Ousmane Dembele has been tossed on a sea of troubles, and at times sunk beneath its waters, but resurfaced to realise his sparkling potential. For more than a decade in this competition, PSG fans have been left blinking back tears of frustration many times more than tears of joy. In the microcosm, every player, staff member, and yes, possibly even executive, has their own individual story of overcoming and toil which, on Saturday night, was realised in the glare of a thousand camera flashes. Some would have you believe that this narrative extends to the macrocosm, and what PSG represent in an increasingly worldwide game. Globalisation is a good thing; it has given Georgia its Champions League hero, it has formed Paris' uniquely diverse footballing culture. For them — as PSG's president, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, congratulated his players on the podium — this was the moment that plucky Qatar, a nation of fewer than three million inhabitants, repaid its 14-year investment in a club with boundless untapped potential. Dumped out in the group stages of their home World Cup, this was the moment the country's sporting muscles were flexed, as confetti fell to crown just the second state-backed club to have won the Champions League. But not many would recognise that understanding of events. Football is aware that Qatar has tooled sport to obscure the brutality of its human rights record and to market its fossil fuel investments. But football, like other big business, is not governed by those misgivings. So there is conflict for many when watching the celebrations unfold. PSG's performance in their 5-0 win was moving in its elegance, a triumph of technical skill, industry, and bravery. Inter were dissected by an artist's sharp palette knife. But the club are still indelibly linked to the abuses of their nation-state owners — from the Qatar Airways badge on their shirts to the transfer fees for their constellation of starlets. Expect to see their image, lifting the giant silver trophy, on a Qatar Airways poster near you. This is cultural capital that money can buy. Remember that while PSG may have shifted their strategy towards young talent rather than galacticos, that talent did not come for free — they spent €240million (£202m; $272m) on new signings this season, on the back of €455m one year before. In its footballing strategy, this was a fully realised version of the much-maligned Chelsea project. Advertisement Of course, football is no Eden without its state-owned teams. The blitz of money which American hedge-fund investors are throwing towards the Premier League is not without its problems. Elsewhere, organised crime still has its tendrils in many parts of the sport across the globe, and the misty-eyed reverence for benevolent local tycoons is a notion that went extinct before the Tasmanian tiger. Clearly, the Glazer family are not good for football — but equally, they are not attempting to obscure the unexplained deaths of thousands of their migrant employees. PSG's Champions League win is a victory for every individual involved, for their own perseverance and ability. But every person, at once, carries both what we ourselves are and we as ourselves represent. As a collective, PSG's victory stands for something very different indeed.


New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Inter, the weight of expectation and what happens next
Fifty-nine games later. Fifty-nine games and nothing to show for it. Fifty-nine games and at least another three to play at the Club World Cup without considering international duty. No holiday. No getting away from it. Football, football, football. Endless football. The bodies of Inter's players must throb and ache. The miles on the clock ticking into the red. Father Time taps his watch on some of the veterans: Yann Sommer, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Francesco Acerbi and Matteo Darmian. Physiotherapy helps, injuries heal, the physical pain goes away. As for the mental anguish — the replays of regret playing in their heads… In time, they might fade and be taken off repeat. But the cost of chasing a dream is sometimes a recurring nightmare. Advertisement Some Inter players collapsed to the ground after Saturday's 5-0 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final. Others sunk to their haunches. Federico Dimarco, a lifelong Inter fan who joined the club aged six, watched from the bench without really seeing anything. Simone Inzaghi had hooked him on 54 minutes after PSG's forwards provoked his discombobulation. It was an indignity. It was charitable, too. He should never have come out for the second half. At 4-0 down, the PSG ultras, bathed in the pink fluorescence of their flares, serenaded every touch of their team with an 'Ole'. On the eve of the game, Inzaghi said he wanted his team to have the ball. They couldn't let PSG have it. But on the pitch, they couldn't take it off them. It was humbling and humiliating. When Senny Mayulu made it five and added his name to Doue's on the list of youngest players ever to score in a Champions League final, PSG made this elderly Inter side look their age in a way no one else had managed this season. A record-breaking winning margin was, on the one hand, of great credit to PSG. Their opponents had conceded only once in the league phase and spent just 16 minutes trailing in the Champions League all season, keeping clean sheets against Man City and Arsenal, and only falling behind late to Leverkusen and Barcelona — a team with similar energetic, youthful traits as PSG — in the second leg of the semi-final. As good as PSG were at the Allianz, Inter's performance was also, by their standards, an aberration. A team that produced an epic last month against Barca, served up an unexpected epic fail. Two years after defying expectations in Istanbul — pushing Manchester City hard in a final many had predicted would be the most one-sided in history — Inter, gallingly, in the end found themselves on the wrong end of the most one-sided final ever. They were unrecognisable from their usual selves, and not just because of the choice to play in yellow. Advertisement It was a bad night. The day itself started with the news of Ernesto Pellegrini, Inter's former owner in the '80s, passing away. At the ground, the ultras, famous for their grandiose pre-match choreographies, did not prepare one — as many of the leaders have been arrested or placed under investigation after the Curva Nord's infiltration by the 'Ndrangheta, the fearsome Calabrian mafia. PSG's start silenced the Inter fans anyway. It was as if they were stood on the team and the supporters' trachea. They took everyone's breath away, and when Inter's former player Achraf Hakimi gave PSG the lead, his refusal to celebrate was of little consolation. Heroics from Gigio Donnarumma, the childhood Milan fan in the PSG goal, weren't needed. Inter's only shots on target came in the 75th and 84th minutes — precious little from a team that scored 114 goals this season, putting four past Bayern and seven past Barcelona. The German word for what Inter's rivals felt was schadenfreude. In the PSG end, a flag from Napoli's ultras twirled in support of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Fabian Ruiz. It was also a reminder of what happened a week ago, when Inter relinquished their Serie A title to them on the final day of the season in Italy. The disappointment lingered in the days leading up to the Champions League final. It added even more pressure on the players to deliver. They kept trying to put a brave face on, however, reporters kept bringing up the past. Make no mistake, this Inter team has been greatly successful. They have won everything domestically under Inzaghi and secured a 20th Scudetto and a second star last year, clinching both in the derby against Milan. But it is also a team that has lost a lot: a Europa League final, two Champions League finals in three years, two Scudetti in four seasons, both of which went down to the final game, and a Super Cup in January from a 2-0 lead. Unless you support one of Inter's nemeses, it's hard not to feel a twinge of compassion and empathy for the human beings in Inter shirts who have regularly gone the distance, only to fall just short. During the trophy lift in Munich, Inter's players looked through hot tears, as someone other than them danced up and down, and enjoyed the greatest moment of their careers. Not this. Not again. Will we ever be back here again? Advertisement You have to go back to the 1960s to find the last time Inter made as many Champions League finals in one decade. Hakan Calhanoglu thought of this final as a second chance after losing one in Istanbul. Inter were grateful for it. They had more than earned it. But when is a second chance also a last chance for a team with so many players in their late twenties and thirties? Only the Inter players know how much that weighed on their minds going into this game. Perhaps it contributed to their leggy and inhibited appearance on the night. Perhaps it overwhelmed them and cancelled out whatever benefit the experience of two years ago might have had in preparing for another final. Perhaps Inter felt they had everything to lose, that time wasn't on their side — whereas PSG could attack the game knowing this team still has its best years ahead of it. Fifty-nine games and zeru tituli. This is a phrase that has been thrown back at Inter in the last 48 hours. It was coined by Jose Mourinho in his unprecedented treble-winning season with Inter in 2010, when he taunted their rivals about finishing without a trophy. After the game, Inzaghi remained proud of his players, as well he should be. While much of the commentary has been about how bad Inter were on the night, they are not a bad team. Bad teams do not repeatedly reach finals — especially if they run the gauntlet Inter ran to get to Munich. As for their record in big games? You have to play several of them in order to reach the biggest of them all. Ask yourself: were the Bayern and Barca ones not big enough? The question is: now what? Inter's owners, Oaktree, wanted Beppe Marotta to rejuvenate the squad this summer regardless of the outcome against PSG, and that process is already underway. Marseille's Luis Henrique (a fateful name) is set to complete a move to Inter this week. Advertisement The greater uncertainty regards Inzaghi, who will meet the executive team and decide whether or not he wishes to continue. Has he taken this team as far as it can go? Does he want to go out on a 5-0 defeat in a final? What will the rebuild look like? Inzaghi admitted he didn't know whether he would be in charge for the Club World Cup — and while no one wishes to rush him into a decision, time is of the essence. Milan have hired Max Allegri, who Marotta knows and respects from their time together at Juventus. Cesc Fabregas and Roberto De Zerbi are still ensconced at Como and Marseille. Fifty-nine games and the work is only just beginning. Football relentlessly moves on. But how will Inter?