Category: Athletics

Athletics News

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Women’s 100m final moved up to LA28 opening day in Olympics rejig

  • Sha’Carri Richardson hails athletics ‘having its moment’

  • ‘Innovative schedule also honours tradition,’ says Coe

The women’s 100m final will headline the first day of competition at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics as part of organisers’ plans to “open with a bang”.

The surprise decision, which will lead to all three rounds of the 100m taking place on the same day, was welcomed by the US sprint star Sha’Carri Richardson, who said it showed that “track and field is having its moment”.

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Victor Conte, architect of infamous sport steroids scandal, dies aged 75

  • Balco boss revealed Marion Jones used growth hormones

  • Conte served four months in prison over involvement

Victor Conte, the architect of a scheme to provide undetectable performance-enhancing drugs to professional athletes including the baseball stars Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi and the Olympic track champion Marion Jones decades ago, has died. He was 75.

The federal government’s investigation into a company Conte founded, the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (Balco), yielded the convictions of Jones, the elite sprint cyclist Tammy Thomas and the former NFL defensive lineman Dana Stubblefield, along with coaches, distributors, a trainer, a chemist and a lawyer.

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Pro-doping Enhanced Games to debut in Las Vegas with Trump Jr backing

  • Games scheduled for 21–24 May 2026 in Las Vegas
  • Athletes allowed to use PEDs under medical oversight
  • Investors include Donald Trump Jr and Peter Thiel

A controversial new Olympics-style sporting event where athletes will be permitted – and even encouraged – to use performance-enhancing drugs is set to debut in Las Vegas next May, organizers announced on Wednesday.

The inaugural Enhanced Games will take place 21–24 May 2026 at Resorts World on the Las Vegas Strip. Over four days, competitors will race, lift and swim with full access to drugs and therapies banned in virtually every other elite athletic setting.

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LA 2028 Olympics adds swimming sprints and mixed-gender gymnastics

  • LA28 will feature 28 more medal events than Paris 2024
  • Swimming to add 50m back, 50m breast and 50m fly
  • Mixed-gender events added in artistic gymnastics, golf

Sprint-distance swimming races and mixed-gender events in artistic gymnastics and golf are among the additions to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games, after the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) approval of a record 351 medal events on Wednesday.

The LA28 schedule includes the Olympic debuts of the 50m backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly for both men and women, and a mixed 4x100m relay on the track.

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