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Simone Biles, Mondo Duplantis win big at 25th Laureus World Sports Awards

Simone Biles, Mondo Duplantis win big at 25th Laureus World Sports Awards

CNN22-04-2025
Paris Olympians and Paralympians were the big winners of the 25th anniversary Laureus World Sports Awards in Madrid, including superstars Simone Biles and Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis.
The Laureus Awards, co-hosted this year by CNN Sports' Amanda Davies, honor sports' biggest athletes and those using sport for good. And this edition of the awards were bigger than ever as Laureus celebrated 25 years of athletic feats.
Biles, the most decorated gymnast of all time, received her fourth Sportswoman of the Year Award after adding three golds and a silver medal to her resume at her third Olympics this past summer. The American tied tennis legend Serena Williams as the only athletes to receive the Sportswoman of the Year award four times.
'I won this Award for the first time in 2017 and Laureus has been a part of my story since then, and I share their belief that sport has the power to change the world,' Biles said of her record night.
'That might be a little girl watching someone like me on television and deciding she can do it, too. Or it could be the incredible work Laureus Sport for Good has undertaken for the past 25 years, all over the world.'
Swedish poler-vaulter Duplantis became only the second track-and-field athlete, after four-time winner Usain Bolt, to receive the Sportsman of the Year award. The 25-year-old broke his own world record to secure his second Olympic gold medal and become the first men's pole vaulter to win back-to-back golds since Bob Richards in 1956.
'The Laureus Awards are the ultimate awards that we athletes want to win. I know because this is the fourth time I have been nominated – and that proves it's harder to win a Laureus than an Olympic gold medal!' Duplantis joked.
'I'm following in the footsteps of giants like Novak (Djokovic), Usain, Rafael Nadal and Lionel Messi. The list of past winners of this Award is like a history of sporting greatness over the past 25 years.'
Other highlights of the event in Madrid included Biles' friend and rival Rebeca Andrade winning the Comeback of the Year Award. The Brazilian considered quitting the sport after suffering her third ACL tear in four years. However, she came back and competed in her third Olympics in Paris – earning a gold, two silvers and a bronze – to become the most decorated Brazilian Olympian of all time. Her gold medal moment led to one of the most iconic photos of the Olympics, with Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles bowing down to Andrade on the podium.
'Individual sports can be isolating, but Paris showed that camaraderie can exist between competitors, and I was so proud to compete alongside last year's winner of this Award, Simone Biles,' Andrade said after the win.
'Simone and I are the only two gymnasts to win a Laureus Award and I hope our stories can inspire anyone who has experienced injuries and setbacks to keep fighting through the many obstacles placed in front of them on the long road to recovery.'
Later on, despite Real Madrid coming away winners of the Team of the Year award, it was rival Barcelona's teen phenom Lamine Yamal who received the Breakthrough of the Year Award.
At only 16 years old, the Spaniard became the youngest player and goalscorer in European Championship history. He then rang in his birthday by becoming the youngest to play in a Euros final the day after turning 17.
The Laureus Awards are not just about honoring the biggest athletes, but those who are using sport to make positive changes in society. This year's Sport for Good Award went to Kick4Life, an organization started in 2005 focused on using football to reach at-risk youth in Lesotho.
All in all, it was a massive evening to celebrate sport with the world's biggest athletes and sport gamechangers present in Madrid.
Sportsman of the Year Award: Mondo Duplantis
Sportswoman of the Year Award: Simone Biles
Team of the Year Award: Real Madrid
Breakthrough of the Year Award: Lamine Yamal
Comeback of the Year Award: Rebeca Andrade
Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability Award: Jiang Yuyan
Action Sportsperson of the Year Award: Tom Pidcock
Sport for Good Award: Kick4Life
Sporting Icon Award: Rafael Nadal
Lifetime Achievement Award: Kelly Slater
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Years after abuse reports, ex-coach at renowned US gymnastics academy is arrested by FBI
Years after abuse reports, ex-coach at renowned US gymnastics academy is arrested by FBI

Yahoo

time20 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Years after abuse reports, ex-coach at renowned US gymnastics academy is arrested by FBI

USA Gymnastics Abuse Inquiry IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The U.S. gymnastics world was only just recovering from a devastating sexual abuse scandal when a promising young coach moved from Mississippi to Iowa to take a job in 2018 at an elite academy known for training Olympic champions. Liang 'Chow' Qiao, the owner of Chow's Gymnastics and Dance Institute in West Des Moines, thought highly enough of his new hire, Sean Gardner, to put him in charge of the club's premier junior event and to coach some of its most promising girls. But four years later, Gardner was gone from Chow's with little notice. USA Gymnastics, the organization rocked by the Larry Nassar sex-abuse crisis that led to the creation of the U.S. Center for SafeSport, had been informed by the watchdog group that Gardner was suspended from all contact with gymnasts. The reason for Gardner's removal wasn't disclosed. But court records obtained exclusively by The Associated Press show the coach was accused of sexually abusing at least three young gymnasts at Chow's and secretly recording others undressing in a gym bathroom at his prior job in Mississippi. Last week, more than three years after being suspended from coaching, the FBI arrested Gardner, 38, on a federal child pornography charge. But his disciplinary case has still not been resolved by SafeSport, which handles sex-abuse cases in Olympic sports. In cases like Gardner's, the public can be in the dark for years while SafeSport investigates and sanctions coaches. SafeSport requires that allegations be reported to police to ensure abusers don't run unchecked outside of sports, but critics say the system is a slow, murky process. 'From an outward operational view, it seems that if SafeSport is involved in any way, the situation turns glow-in-the-dark toxic,' said attorney Steve Silvey, a longtime SafeSport critic who has represented people in cases involving the center. While acknowledging there can be delays as its investigations unfold, SafeSport defended its temporary suspensions in a statement as 'a unique and valuable intervention' when there are concerns of a risk to others. Nevertheless, in 2024, Gardner was able to land a job helping care for surgical patients at an Iowa hospital — two years after the abuse allegations against him were reported to SafeSport and the police. And it was not until late May that West Des Moines police executed a search warrant at his home, eventually leading to the recovery of a trove of photos and videos on his computer and cellphone of nude young girls, court records show. Authorities in Iowa sealed the court documents after the AP asked about the investigation earlier this month, before details of the federal charge were made public Friday. Gardner, Qiao and Gardner's former employer in Mississippi did not respond to AP requests for comment. 'The job that I've always wanted' Chow's Gymnastics is best known as the academy where U.S. gymnasts Shawn Johnson and Gabby Douglas trained before becoming gold medalists at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. Qiao opened the gym in 1998 after starring on the Chinese national team and moving to the United States to coach at the University of Iowa. The gym became a draw for top youth gymnasts, with some families moving to Iowa to train there. Gardner moved to Iowa in September 2018, jumping at the opportunity to coach under Qiao. 'This is the job that I've always wanted. Chow is really someone I have looked up to since I've been coaching,' Gardner told the ABC affiliate WOI-TV in 2019. 'And you can tell when you step foot in the gym, just even from coaching the girls, the culture that he's built. It's amazing. It's beautiful.' A year later, Gardner was promoted to director of Chow's Winter Classic, an annual meet that draws more than 1,000 gymnasts to Iowa. He also coached a junior Olympics team during his four-year tenure at Chow's. Several of his students earned college gymnastics scholarships, but Gardner said he had bigger goals. 'You want to leave a thumbprint on their life, so when they go off hopefully to school, to bigger and better things, that they remember Chow's as family,' he said in a 2020 interview with WOI-TV. Coach accused of sexual misconduct in Iowa and Mississippi Gardner is accused of abusing his position at Chow's and his former job at Jump'In Gymnastics in Mississippi to prey on girls under his tutelage, according to a nine-page FBI affidavit released Friday that summarizes the allegations against him. A girl reported to SafeSport in March 2022 that Gardner used 'inappropriate spotting techniques' in which he would put his hands between her legs and touch her vagina, the affidavit said. It said she alleged Gardner would ask girls if they were sexually active and call them 'idiots, sluts, and whores.' She said this behavior began after his hiring in 2018 and continued until she left the gym in 2020 and provided the names of six other potential victims. SafeSport suspended Gardner in July 2022 – four months after the girl's report – a provisional step it can take in severe cases with 'sufficient evidentiary support' as investigations proceed. A month after that, the center received a report from another girl alleging additional 'sexual contact and physical abuse,' including that Gardner similarly fondled her during workouts, the FBI affidavit said. The girl said that he once dragged her across the carpet so hard that it burned her buttocks, the affidavit said. SafeSport shared the reports with West Des Moines police, in line with its policy requiring adults who interact with youth athletes to disclose potential criminal cases to law enforcement. While SafeSport's suspension took Gardner out of gymnastics, the criminal investigation quickly hit a roadblock. Police records show a detective told SafeSport to urge the alleged victims to file criminal complaints, but only one of their mothers contacted police in 2022. That woman said her daughter did not want to pursue criminal charges, and police suspended the investigation. Victims of abuse are often reluctant to cooperate with police, said Ken Lang, a retired detective and associate professor of criminal justice at Milligan University. 'In this case you have the prestige of this facility,' he said. 'Do they want to associate their name with that, in that way, when their aspirations were to succeed in gymnastics?' Police suspended the investigation, even as Gardner was on probation for his second-offense of driving while intoxicated. A dormant case reopened, and a year later, an arrest The case stayed dormant until April 2024 when another former Chow's student came forward to the West Des Moines Police Department to report abuse allegations, according to a now-sealed affidavit signed by police detective Jeff Lyon. The AP is not identifying the student in line with its policy of not naming victims of alleged sexual abuse. The now 18-year-old told police she began taking lessons from Gardner when she was 11 or 12 in 2019, initially seeing him as a 'father figure' who tried to help her get through her parents' divorce. He told her she could tell him 'anything,' the affidavit said. When she moved in 2021, she told police, he gave her a hug and said she could text and follow him on Instagram and other social media sites, where he went by the nickname 'Coach Seanie,' because gym policy barring such contact no longer applied. According to a summary of her statement provided in Lyon's affidavit, she said Gardner fondled her during exercises, repeatedly touching her vagina; rubbed her back and butt and discussed his sex life; and made her do inappropriate stretches that exposed her privates. She told police she suspected he used his cellphone to film her in that position. Reached by the AP, the teen's mother declined comment. The mother told police she was interested in a monetary settlement with Chow's because the gym 'had been made aware of the complaints and they did nothing to stop them,' according to Lyon's affidavit. The gym didn't return AP messages seeking comment. It took 16 months after the teen's 2024 report for the FBI to arrest Gardner, who made an initial court appearance in Des Moines on Friday on a charge of producing visual depictions of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, which can carry up to 30 years in prison. A public defender assigned to represent him didn't return AP messages seeking comment. It's unclear why the case took so long to investigate and also when the FBI, which had to pay $138 million to Nassar's victims for botching that investigation, got involved in the case. Among evidence seized by investigators in late May were a cellphone, laptop and a desktop computer along with handwritten notes between Gardner and his former pupils, according to the sealed court documents. They found images of girls, approximately 6 to 14 years in age, who were nude, using the toilet or changing into leotards, those documents show. Those images appear to have come from a hidden camera in a restroom. They also uncovered 50 video files and 400 photos, including some that appeared to be child pornography, according to the FBI affidavit. One video allegedly shows Gardner entering the bathroom and turning off the camera. Investigators also found images of an adult woman secretly filmed entering and exiting a bathtub, and identified her as Gardner's ex-girlfriend. That woman as well as the gym's owner, Candi Workman, told investigators the images appeared to come from Jump'In Gymnastics' facility in Purvis, Mississippi, which has since been closed. SafeSport's power has limits SafeSport has long touted that it can deliver sanctions in cases where criminal charges are not pursued as key to its mission. However, Gardner's ability to land a job in health care illustrates the limits of that power: It can ban people from sports but that sanction is not guaranteed to reach the general public. While not commenting about Gardner's case directly, it said in a statement provided to AP that a number of issues factor into why cases can take so long to close, including the 8,000 reports it receives a year with only around 30 full-time investigators. It has revamped some procedures, it said, in an attempt to become more efficient. 'While the Center is able and often does cooperate in law enforcement investigations,' it said, 'law enforcement is not required to share information, updates, or even confirm an investigation is ongoing.' USA Gymnastics President Li Li Leung called the center's task 'really tough, difficult to navigate.' 'I would like to see more consistency with their outcomes and sanctions,' Leung said. 'I would like to see more standardization on things. I would like to see more communication, more transparency from their side.' A case that lingers, even after the SafeSport ban As the investigation proceeded, Gardner said on his Facebook page he had landed a new job in May 2024 as a surgical technologist at MercyOne West Des Moines Medical Center. It's a role that calls for positioning patients on the operating room table, and assisting with procedures and post-surgery care. Asked about Gardner's employment, hospital spokesman Todd Mizener told the AP: 'The only information I can provide is that he is no longer" at the hospital. Meanwhile, the case lingers, leaving lives in limbo more than three years after the SafeSport Center and police first learned of it. 'SafeSport is now part of a larger problem rather than a solution, if it was ever a solution,' said attorney Silvey. 'The most fundamental professional task such as coordination with local or federal law enforcement gets botched on a daily basis, hundreds of times a year now.' ___ Pells reported from Denver. AP National Writer Will Graves contributed.

At China's robot Olympics, humanoids stumble forward
At China's robot Olympics, humanoids stumble forward

Yahoo

time21 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

At China's robot Olympics, humanoids stumble forward

At Beijing's National Speed Skating Oval — the same arena where Olympians in 2022 carved across the ice — the opening ceremony looked familiar enough: lights, flags, fanfare, and athletes lined up for a global contest. But instead of figure skaters or hockey players, the stars were steel-jointed humanoid robots. They danced hip-hop, performed martial arts, strummed guitars, and even modeled outfits alongside human performers. One collapsed so hard during the introductions that staffers had to carry it off the floor like an injured player. The crowd roared anyway. When the competition itself kicked off later in the week, the pratfalls only multiplied. In the sprint races, some robots managed a few steady strides, while others face-planted straight out of the gate, crumpling into heaps of wires and limbs. A few froze entirely, forcing handlers to jog in and reset them. The stumbles, crashes, and stiff-limbed runs turned the races into slapstick theater as much as sport — and the audience loved it. The world's first 'robot Olympics,' officially called the World Humanoid Robot Games, gathered more than 500 robots from 16 countries and staged them across 26 events — track races, soccer matches, boxing bouts, and even chores such as cleaning hotel rooms. The stated goal was to test the limits of embodied AI, but the real result was a reminder of just how far those limits still stretch. Humanoid robots could run — sort of — but slowly and stiffly, and they needed frequent rescues from human handlers. The robots could box, but the matches looked more like clunky hugs than prizefights. They could play soccer, but only if you were willing to redefine 'playing' as 'falling near the ball until someone managed to kick it' — a tangled crash involving multiple 'players' resulted in metal limbs sprawled all across the field Yet for every spill, there was a glimpse of progress: a robot that got back on its feet without human help, a team that strung together passes in humanoid soccer, a cleaning bot that finished its chore in under 10 minutes. The wipeouts became part of the spectacle, an inkling of proof that embodied AI is crawling, wobbling, and sometimes running its way into viability. Companies from Tesla to Amazon are pouring billions into humanoid robot research on the promise that one day these bots will fold laundry, bring in the groceries, or keep watch while you're away. But the Beijing showcase made clear that the reality is more halting. Sprinting across a track or cleaning a hotel room isn't the same as reliably unloading a dishwasher or scrubbing a counter — it's harder to account for the chaos of pets and kids and more — and for now, most robots still need human spotters nearby. But the fact that they can do pieces of these tasks at all, however clumsily, is why investors and tech giants keep betting that today's tumbles could, eventually, translate into tomorrow's — or next year's, or next decade's — domestic help. From pratfalls to policy Beijing didn't stage the Games as comic relief. This was industrial policy with spotlights, a showcase for China's ambitions in humanoid robotics. The government has already poured tens of billions into subsidies and is planning a trillion-yuan ($137 billion) fund for AI and robotics startups to underline its ambitions. Humanoid robots, Beijing insists, aren't a novelty — they're the future of work, healthcare, and maybe even daily life. The robot Olympics weren't just about public laughs — they were about collecting edge-case training data from robots stumbling in unpredictable scenarios. Every fall becomes a labeled data point, every collision a lesson in physics. In embodied AI, mistakes are fuel. The medal count reinforced Beijing's dominance. Chinese firm Unitree Robotics dominated the track events, winning gold in the 400- and 1,500-meter races — even if the winning time for the longer race was 6:34, nearly double the (human) men's record. Another Chinese player, UniX AI, earned gold in a cleaning contest by tidying a staged hotel room in under nine minutes. That was impressive in context — it beat other competitors handily — but it still underscored the gap between a one-off competition and real-world reliability. In between those flashes of progress were endless slip-ups: robots tumbling over hurdles, colliding in soccer scrums, or freezing mid-task until technicians intervened. The U.S. isn't sitting out, but its approach is different: Silicon Valley promises, not state subsidies. Elon Musk has declared that Tesla's humanoid robot, Optimus, will be in limited production by 2025 and may one day eclipse the company's car business in importance. Demo videos have shown Optimus folding T-shirts, watering plants, and frying an egg. Critics note that many of these demos look heavily choreographed, if not remotely operated. But Musk continues to insist that Optimus will soon populate Tesla factories before eventually landing in homes. Amazon is playing the pragmatist. It has spent years testing Agility Robotics' Digit in warehouses, where the bipedal has carried bins, stacked totes, and unloaded delivery vans. In test facilities in San Francisco and at select fulfillment centers, Digit waddles around obstacle courses, carefully lifting and placing objects. The promise is clear: a humanoid robot helper that can slot into the spaces designed for humans, without expensive retrofitting. But the execution is fenced in. Digit can handle controlled tasks, but not chaos — the very thing that warehouses are full of. That hasn't stopped Amazon from talking about humanoid robots as if they're inevitable, a 'when, not if' scenario. Then, there are the startups. California-based Figure AI has raised billions from Microsoft, Nvidia, and OpenAI on the back of glossy renderings and confident timelines, pitching a general-purpose humanoid that can work in warehouses today and homes tomorrow. Other U.S.-based companies, from Boston Dynamics to 1X Technologies, offer variations on the same promise: The humanoid robot revolution is imminent. The hype gets more surreal in the home. At the robot Olympics, China showed off bots that could cook and clean. In the U.S., Weave Robotics is trying to convince early adopters to put down more than $10,000 for Isaac, a humanoid robot designed to fold laundry and pick up toys. On YouTube, Isaac looks magical. The torso telescopes up and down, the arms reach out delicately, the hands stack folded T-shirts with care. In person, it's slower — methodical in a way that feels less like magic and more like waiting for paint to dry. The company pitches Isaac as 'your eyes and ears' at home, capable of watering plants, feeding pets, and tidying the living room. But when Isaac stalls — and it does — a remote human takes over via teleoperation. Weave calls this 'hybrid autonomy.' The marketing spin is that every teleoperated recovery becomes training data, making the robot smarter. The blunt reality might be that you've just paid five figures for a machine that occasionally calls tech support to finish folding your socks. And in the real world, a real-life housekeeper is cheaper and more reliable. Self-driving déjà vu ​​If the stumble-filled games felt familiar, it's because we've seen this movie before. In 2004, DARPA staged its first driverless car 'Grand Challenge' in the Mojave Desert. Fifteen teams showed up with clunky, experimental vehicles meant to navigate a 142-mile course. None got close. The farthest went just seven miles before veering off the road and catching fire. The event was branded a flop at the time — but in hindsight, it was the start of a multibillion-dollar race. DARPA ran another challenge two years later, and this time, several vehicles finished. By the early 2010s, Google had fleets of self-driving Priuses roaming California streets, and every major automaker was funneling money into the field. Investors and policymakers hailed a driverless future as inevitable: If the cars could drive themselves in a desert, surely they'd soon be chauffeuring commuters down Main Street. But fast-forward to today, and driverless cars are still a half-step promise. They exist, but mostly in constrained pilot zones or as glorified shuttles, not as ubiquitous replacements for human drivers. Cruise and Waymo are burning billions to keep their robotaxi fleets alive. Automakers such as Ford and VW have dialed back once-grand driverless ambitions. A full self-driving car that you can buy at the dealership remains as elusive as it was two decades ago. The gap between a headline-grabbing demo and a reliable, scaled product turned out to be not years but decades — and still counting. The lesson isn't just that breakthrough demos matter; it's that timelines stretch, obstacles multiply, and hype usually gets ahead of reality. Musk's Optimus promises echo the bravado he once applied to Tesla's self-driving software — which still requires drivers to keep their hands on the wheel. Amazon, too, has pitched robotics as the next frontier, but its flagship Astro home robot has been quietly scaled back from the ambitious vision it debuted in 2021. Both companies are leaning on the same playbook: big promises, slick demos, and timelines that don't necessarily survive contact with reality. The humanoid games echo the auto industry's same awkward first act. Robots collapsing in sprints and clinging to soccer balls are today's equivalent of cars stuck in sand traps. The spectacle isn't about performance now so much as seeding an ecosystem: investors with billions to spend, engineers looking for the next career-defining problem, and governments eager to claim leadership in a field with military, economic, and social stakes. The Beijing competition could be remembered as the awkward first steps of an industry that eventually finds its footing, the way DARPA's desert wipeouts seeded today's still-maturing driverless sector. Or, humanoid robots could follow the same tortured arc: Perpetually 'just a few years away,' consuming billions while physics, liability, and public trust keep the finish line out of reach. Investors betting that robots will be scrubbing countertops and unloading dishwashers in the near future might want to revisit the road not yet traveled in autonomous cars. The messy middle The pitch for home robots leans heavily on convenience. They'll scrub your dirty pots and pans after a dinner party, mow the lawn, scoop out the litter box, walk the dog, and organize your closet. They'll be your eyes and ears. But an always-on robot is also a camera with legs, mapping your floor plan, logging your routines, and recording every object it touches. The 'eyes and ears' promise could double as a privacy nightmare. Liability is another issue. What happens when a household bot crushes a pet's tail? When a robot slips on the wet floor and smashes a coffee table? The insurance industry hasn't begun to catch up. Then, there's labor. Advocates frame humanoid robots as replacements for 'mundane' work. At the moment, the hybrid autonomy model means jobs aren't eliminated; they're moved. Someone, somewhere, is still picking up Legos — just through a joystick and a video feed. For now, at least, the disruption looks less like replacement and more like rerouting. The robot Olympics made clear that even the best robots remain fragile, slow, and expensive. Optimus may roll off a line in 2025, but Musk himself admits it will start in factories. Amazon's Digit is still kept contained in trials. Isaac can fold shirts, but not without patience — and sometimes divine intervention. But what the games did prove is that humanoid robots are crossing a threshold. They're moving from glossy, controlled demos into messy public tests. Every tumble on the Olympic track is being labeled as a training dataset. Every viral clip of a face-plant is another reminder that embodied AI is progressing, haltingly, in plain view. The stakes are enormous. If humanoid robots can deliver on even a fraction of their promises, they could reshape labor markets, supply chains, and daily life. If they can't, the industry risks becoming another overhyped money pit. For now, the robots wobble between the two. Investors keep writing checks. Governments keep staging spectacles. Consumers keep laughing. The crowd in Beijing seemed to understand the absurdity. They weren't watching the future roll gracefully into the present; they were watching machines struggle through adolescence. They clapped anyway, as if to will the robots to keep trying. Perhaps that's the most honest picture of humanoid robotics today: funny, flawed, and still far from home — but backed by too much money, and too much ambition, to stop stumbling forward. So will humanoid robots be in your home tomorrow? No. Next year? No. The next decade? That's the trillion-dollar question.

The Sports Report: Intriguing meeting after Dodgers lose to Rockies
The Sports Report: Intriguing meeting after Dodgers lose to Rockies

Los Angeles Times

time2 hours ago

  • Los Angeles Times

The Sports Report: Intriguing meeting after Dodgers lose to Rockies

From Kevin Baxter: The half-empty Dodger clubhouse was so quiet you could hear a winning streak snap Monday. But amid the silence there was one conversation that spoke volumes. After a 4-3 walk-off loss to the last-place Colorado Rockies — a loss set up by two poor plays from right fielder Teoscar Hernández — Mookie Betts met with manager Dave Roberts and Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers' president of baseball operations, in Roberts' office. Betts, the Dodgers shortstop, is a six-time Gold Glove winner in right field. Hernández is not. On Monday, Hernández threw to the wrong base in the third inning, allowing the Rockies to score their second run, and in the ninth he was unable to hold Ezequiel Tovar's bloop double. Two pitches later, Warming Bernabel bounced a single up to middle, scoring Tovar to end the game. The Betts conversation afterward was private. But the circumstances that led to it were not. Clearly the bullpen is not the Dodgers' only problem. 'He's got to get better out there. There's just no way to put it,' Roberts said of Hernández. 'It's not a lack of effort. But, you know, we've just got to kind of get better. We do.' Continue reading here Doing away with traditional leagues could be in MLB's not-too-distant future, Rob Manfred says Dodgers box score MLB scores MLB standings Gavin Lux hit an early two-run homer and the Cincinnati Reds used three leadoff triples to beat the Angels 4-1 on Monday night. TJ Friedl had a leadoff single in the first inning off Victor Mederos, making his second career start, and Lux followed with his fifth homer for a 2-0 lead. Elly De La Cruz led off the fifth with his fourth triple this season before scoring on a sacrifice fly by Austin Hays to make it 3-1. Hays tripled in the third but was stranded. Scott Barlow replaced Luis Mey with two on and two outs in the eighth and struck out Jo Adell swinging to keep it 4-1. Barlow fanned three more in the ninth for his first save this season. 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LA28, the private group responsible for organizing the Games, has contracted more than 70% of its $2.5-billion sponsorship goal, with more deals coming. Can L.A. back out of hosting the Olympics? Continue reading here From Gary Klein: Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford is back. But to what degree remains to be seen. Stafford, sidelined since the start of training camp because of a back issue, practiced Monday for the first time. That qualified as an unexpected and momentous development for the Rams as they prepare for their Sept. 7 opener against the Houston Texans at SoFi Stadium. Stafford, 37, went through individual and team drills with the first-team offense. The 17th-year pro was a full participant, but he did not speak to reporters afterward. Continue reading here From Ryan Kartje: When they chose to continue their college careers, both USC offensive lineman DJ Wingfield and UCLA wide receiver Kaedin Robinson thought the courts and NCAA had cleared the way for them to play a fifth season of football. USC had told Wingfield as much, offering him $210,000 in NIL to join the Trojans' offensive line. UCLA, meanwhile, offered Robinson $450,000 to be one of the Bruins' top wideouts. But after first seeing their waivers rejected in the spring, then suing the NCAA this summer, a U.S. District Court judge has now shut the door on either Wingfield or Robinson suiting up this fall. Continue reading here 1909 — The first race is held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Twelve-thousand spectators watch Austrian engineer Louis Schwitzer win a five-mile race with an average speed of 57.4 miles per hour. The track's surface of crushed rock and tar breaks up in a number of places and causes the deaths of two drivers, two mechanics and two spectators. 1934 — Helen Hull Jacobs wins the women's title in the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association championships. 1981 — Renaldo Nehemiah sets the world record in the 110 hurdles with a time of 12.93 seconds in a meet at Zurich, Switzerland. 1984 — Lee Trevino beats Gary Player and Lanny Wadkins by four strokes to take the PGA championship at Shoal Creek, Alabama. 1993 — Sergei Bubka wins his fourth consecutive pole vault title at the World Track and Field championships at Stuttgart, Germany. 1995 — Mike Tyson starts his comeback, knocking out Peter McNeeley in 89 seconds at Las Vegas. McNeeley's manager Vinnie Vecchione jumps into the ring to stop the fight after his boxer is knocked down twice in the first round. 2001 — Michael Schumacher gets his fourth Formula One championship and matches Alain Prost's series record of 51 victories by winning the Hungarian Grand Prix. 2004 — American swimmer Michael Phelps wraps up the 200/400m individual medley double at the Athens Olympics when he wins the 200m (1:57.14 OR) ahead of teammate Ryan Lochte. 2016 — Usain Bolt scores another sweep, winning three gold medals in his third consecutive Olympics. At the Rio de Janeiro Games, Bolt turns a close 4x100 relay race against Japan and the United States into a typical, Bolt-like runaway, helping Jamaica cross the line in 37.27 seconds. Allyson Felix wins an unprecedented fifth gold medal in women's track and field, running the second leg of the 4x100-meter relay team. 2018 — Novak Đoković beats Roger Federer 6-4, 6-4 in the final of the Cincinnati Masters to become the first player to win all 9 Masters 1,000 tennis tournaments since the series started in 1990. 2018 — Jockey Drayden Van Dyke wins a record-tying seven races at Del Mar, including the $200,000 Del Mar Mile. He ties Hall of Famer Victor Espinoza for most wins in a single day in the seaside track's history. Van Dyke's only loss in eight mounts comes when he finishes second in the sixth race. 1909 — The Philadelphia Phillies were rained out for the 10th consecutive day, a major league record. 1913 — The Chicago Cubs tagged Grover Alexander for nine straight hits and six runs for a 10-4 triumph over the Philadelphia Phillies. 1921 — Detroit's Ty Cobb got his 3,000th career hit at age 34, the youngest player to reach that plateau. The milestone hit was a single off Elmer Myers of the Boston Red Sox. 1934 — Moose Solters of the Boston Red Sox hit for the cycle in an 8-6 loss to the Detroit Tigers at Fenway Park. 1951 — Eddie Gaedel, a 65-pound midget who was 3-foot-7, made his first and only plate appearance as a pinch-hitter for Frank Saucier of the St. Louis Browns. Gaedel wearing No. 1/8 was walked on four pitches by Detroit Tigers pitcher Bob Cain and then was taken out for pinch-runner Jim Delsing. The gimmick by Browns owner Bill Veeck was completely legal, but later outlawed. 1957 — New York Giants owner Horace Stoneham announced that the team's board of directors had voted 8-1 in favor of moving to San Francisco. The Giants would start the 1958 season in Seals Stadium. 1965 — Jim Maloney of the Cincinnati Reds no-hit the Cubs 1-0, in 10 innings in the first game of a doubleheader at Chicago. Leo Cardenas homered in the 10th for the Reds. 1969 — Ken Holtzman of the Cubs blanked the Atlanta Braves with a 3-0 no-hitter at Wrigley Field. Ron Santo's three-run homer in the first inning provided the Cubs' offense. 1990 — Bobby Thigpen recorded his 40th save as the Chicago White Sox beat the Texas Rangers 4-2. Thigpen became the eighth — and fastest — to accomplish this feat. 1992 — Bret Boone made history when he became part of the first three-generation family to play in major league baseball. Boone is the grandson of Ray Boone, who played from 1948-60, and son of Bob Boone, from 1972-90. Bret, 23, completed the triangle when he started at second base for the Seattle Mariners against Baltimore. 2007 — Johan Santana finished with a franchise-record 17 strikeouts in eight innings to help Minnesota edge Texas 1-0. 2009 — Florida reached 10 hits for the 15th straight game in a 6-3 loss at Houston, matching the longest streak since the St. Louis Browns had one that long in 1937. The Marlins were held to four hits the next game. 2011 — LaGrange, Ky., starter Griffin McLarty struck out 12 and hit a homer in a 1-0 victory over the hometown favorites from Clinton County in the Little League World Series at South Williamsport, Pa. The game drew 41,848 fans, breaking the record of 40,000 set in the 1989 and 1990 championship games. 2016 — Jose Altuve homered and had five RBIs, and the Houston Astros beat the Baltimore Orioles 15-8 despite allowing four home runs in the first inning. The Orioles became the first team in the modern era (since 1900) to open a game with four home runs before making an out. Adam Jones hit Collin McHugh's first pitch into the seats in left field and Hyun Soo Kim singled before Manny Machado, Chris Davis and Mark Trumbo homered in succession. Compiled by the Associated Press That concludes today's newsletter. 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