Author: Sean Ingle

Posted on

IOC lifts suspension and paves way for Russia to compete at LA 2028 Olympics

  • Suspension had been imposed after invasion of Ukraine

  • Decision on Russian anthem and flag still unclear

The International Olympic Committee has lifted the suspension on Russia that was imposed after the invasion of Ukraine, paving the way for the Russian team to compete at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.

Only a handful of Russians were able to compete at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics and this year’s Milano Cortina Winter Games as authorised neutral athletes, after an IOC vetting panel checked whether they had offered any public support for the war in Ukraine.

Continue reading...
Posted on

IOC scraps 130 years of tradition by paying athletes $10,000 at Olympics

  • IOC sets up £106m fund for all athletes at Games

  • Milano-Cortina competitors will be first to be paid

The International Olympic Committee has broken with 130 years of tradition by deciding to pay athletes to compete at the Olympic Games.

Starting with the recent Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, all competitors will be entitled to a $10,000 (£7,600) grant from the IOC regardless of whether they are NBA stars or on the poverty line.

Continue reading...
Posted on

Olympic chief ‘confident’ LA Games will not repeat World Cup referee fiasco

  • Kirsty Coventry: IOC will have taskforce for any issues

  • Referee Omar Artan refused entry by US officials

The International Olympic Committee insists it is “confident” that the LA Games in 2028 will not face the same immigration issues that have marred the buildup to the World Cup – including Africa’s top referee, Omar Artan, from Somalia being refused entry by US officials.

Despite Fifa’s close relationship with the Trump administration, it was also unable to stop Iran being moved from a training camp in Arizona to Mexico and some of its officials being denied entry visas.

Continue reading...
Posted on

‘He was like a zombie’: Tom Pidcock on racing Pogacar, his Grand Tour hopes and leaving Ineos

The British rider and unvarnished free spirit is in a good place heading into the Tour de France next month

When Tom Pidcock talks about how it feels to chase down the greatest cyclist of his generation, his language is so vivid you can almost taste the salt-baked sweat on Tadej Pogacar’s jersey.

But as we discuss the pair’s epic duel at the Milan–San Remo classic in March, and what it was like when a bloodied Pogacar went nuclear on the final climb, Pidcock can’t help but smile.

Continue reading...
Posted on

April rules sporting world with its long list of chaos, thrills and classic moments | Sean Ingle

The Grand National, Masters, Paris-Roubaix and Champions League put it ahead of even July’s mighty trifecta

The thought struck me on the last rattler back from the Grand National, as Avanti’s wifi faltered somewhere outside Crewe and the Masters stream on my phone froze yet again. I was watching the world’s best golf tournament, on a train journey back from the world’s greatest steeplechase, having seen the best football match of the season – Real Madrid against Bayern Munich – earlier in the week. Is there a better month in the sporting calendar than April?

Augusta always delivers. Club football hits peak levels of drama and jeopardy. Then there is Aintree, Paris-Roubaix, the start of the County Championship cricket season and the World Snooker Championship. To round it off, the life-affirming sight of the great and the ordinary doing remarkable things at the London Marathon. “April is the cruellest month,” writes TS Eliot in The Waste Land. But he was not a sporting man and was living in very different times.

Continue reading...
Posted on

‘Disgraceful’: anger as World Aquatics allows Russia to compete under flag again

  • Restrictions have been in place since 2022 invasion

  • Ukrainian athlete says move will spread propaganda

Swimming has agreed to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete without restrictions under their own flag and anthem for the first time since 2022, prompting joy in Russia and outrage in Ukraine.

The decision by World Aquatics, which also oversees diving and water polo, adds further momentum to Russia’s bid to be allowed back for the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028 following judo’s decision to do the same last year.

Continue reading...
Posted on

Mary Rand, first British woman to win Olympic athletics gold, dies aged 86

  • Rand won gold, silver and bronze medals at Tokyo 1964

  • Mary Peters pays tribute to ‘most gifted athlete ever’

Mary Rand, the British track and field athlete who blazed a trail for women by winning three Olympic medals at the Tokyo Games in 1964, has died at the age of 86.

Rand was one of the giants of her sport: the epitome of speed, power and grace. Her long jump victory in Tokyo made her Britain’s first female Olympic gold medallist in athletics, and she followed it up with a silver in the pentathlon and a bronze in the 4x100m relay.

Continue reading...
Posted on

Lily James, Andy Murray and a million Britons: padel’s rise nears milestone

  • UK participation levels more than doubled in 2025

  • 860,000 Britons played padel at least once last year

It was once seen as a quirky upstart or continental fad. But padel now has nearly a million players across the UK after participation levels more than doubled in 2025.

According to LTA figures seen by the Guardian, 860,000 Britons played padel at least once last year – up from 400,000 in 2024 and 129,000 in 2023 – as the racket sport’s dizzying rise continued.

Continue reading...
Posted on

Olympics chief admits she has not spoken to US president Trump about LA 2028 Games

  • Kirsty Coventry steers clear of global politics in buildup

  • Organisers will meet with vice-president JD Vance

The International Olympic Committee has yet to establish formal communications with the US president Donald Trump on preparations for the Los Angeles Games in 2028, the IOC president, Kirsty Coventry, has confirmed.

Trump has been speaking in Davos in Switzerland after a turbulent start to 2026 during which he has suggested he will invade Greenland, threatened a trade war with Europe and ousted the Venezuela president Nicolás Maduro.

Continue reading...
Posted on

Not like the old days? In truth, there has never been a better time to watch sport | Sean Ingle

For all the golden moments, rewatching coverage from 40 years ago was a lesson in how much things have improved

Forty years ago this month, the Pet Shop Boys track West End Girls topped the charts. Manchester United, Liverpool, Everton and Chelsea were locked in a four-way battle for the title. And Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared on Wogan. Terry: “This new film you’ve made, Commando: it’s very violent isn’t it?” Arnie: “Actually, it’s low-key. I only kill around 100 people.”

How do I know this? Because Facebook’s algorithm serves it to me daily. Terrifyingly, it understands me better than I understand myself. A half-forgotten goal, race or innings? That is my sugar-salt-fat magic. An old Top 40 chart or TV listing? My double‑strength nicotine patch.

Continue reading...
Posted on

Watching James Bond play my great uncle Brendan in Giant was surreal and spooky | Sean Ingle

Biopic charting Naseem Hamed’s rise has reopened old wounds but is also a reminder of what was and what might have been

The first time I watched Prince Naseem Hamed train, my jaw couldn’t have dropped any faster if he had hit me with one of his lassoing uppercuts. I had followed all his fights on TV, of course. But to see him in the flesh in September 1994, a year before he became world champion, was an altogether more visceral and mesmeric experience.

Hamed’s punches sounded like firecrackers welcoming in the new year as they smashed into the pads. He was almost impossible to hit. And, most staggering of all, despite standing 5ft 4in tall and weighing only nine stone, he would bully far bigger men in sparring – including fighters such as John Keeton, who went on to become the British cruiserweight champion – until my great uncle, Brendan Ingle, called time.

Continue reading...
Posted on

Kyrgios defeats Sabalenka but Battle of the Sexes veers too close to circus

Nick Kyrgios won 6-3, 6-3 against Aryna Sabalenka in an intriguing Dubai contest with celebrity interruptions

Nick Kyrgios won tennis’s latest Battle of the Sexes against Aryna Sabalenka in a dispiriting contest in Dubai that veered uneasily between exhibition, gimmick and outright circus.

The Australian, who has won only one competitive singles match since the end of 2022 and has slipped to 671 in the world rankings, was sweating heavily and breathing hard as early as the fifth game of the match. Yet to no one’s great surprise, the extreme power of his serve, combined with the spin and velocity of his groundstrokes, proved too much for the women’s No 1 player.

Continue reading...
Posted on

‘A great night for golf’: McIlroy hails Spoty success after individual and team awards

  • McIlroy: ‘Hopefully golf can build upon this’

  • ‘To get public’s recognition is really cool,’ says Fleetwood

Moments before Rory McIlroy was named BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year, and the cream of British sport rose to applaud him, a nervy thought raced through his mind. “I was, like, not an F1 driver again … ” he said.

This time, though, there was no late twist. Lando Norris was unable to emulate Lewis Hamilton, who had pipped McIlroy when the Northern Irishman was a warm favourite in 2014. And with Europe’s Ryder Cup winners also being named team of the year, a delighted McIlroy was able to reflect on a blockbuster night for him and his sport.

Continue reading...
Posted on

Rory McIlroy named Sports Personality of the Year to end golf’s drought

  • Masters champion is first golfer in 36 years to claim award

  • Kildunne finishes second in vote and Norris third

  • Ryder Cup side win team award and Wiegman coach prize

A full-throated “Rory roar” reverberated around MediaCity in Salford as Rory McIlroy became the first golfer in 36 years to win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award – and tie a bow on a year for the ages.

It was a fitting reward for the 36-year-old, who completed a career grand slam at the Masters in April and then led Europe to a thrilling Ryder Cup victory in New York, in the teeth of unrelenting hostility from American fans. For good measure, he also won the European Order of Merit too.

Continue reading...