Jessica Ennis-Hill to decide on Worlds after London meet

By Nick ZaccardiJul 14, 2015, 11:32 AM EDT

Olympic heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis-Hill doesn’t want to compete at the World Track and Field Championships in August if she won’t “medal or perform to my best.”

“Nothing is guaranteed in sport, but I don’t want to travel all that way and not medal or perform to my best,” Ennis-Hill said, according to the BBC. “If I’m not quite ready the best thing would be to have a break and get ready for winter training.”

Ennis-Hill has said she wouldn’t decide if she will compete at Worlds in Beijing (Aug. 22-30, broadcast info here) until after next weekend’s Diamond League meet at London’s Olympic Stadium. She’s slated for the 100m hurdles on July 24 and the 200m and the long jump on July 25.

“In my mind I know what shape I need to be in to compete and contend for a medal at the Worlds, and I have a target for this weekend,” Ennis-Hill said, according to the BBC. “I hope to have the performances I am looking for in London and can go and compete for a medal in Beijing. Or, I hope that I know on Saturday night that I am not going to be in a position to compete and I don’t push on to the Worlds when I’m not quite ready.”

Ennis-Hill, 29, has barely competed since the 2012 Olympics. She got married in May 2013, missed the 2013 World Championships with an Achilles injury, announced her first pregnancy in January 2014 and gave birth to son Reggie on July 17.

Ennis-Hill finished fourth in her first heptathlon since the 2012 Olympics from May 30-31 in Gotzis, Austria, against a field that did not include 2014 world leader and countrywoman Katarina Johnson-Thompson.

Her point total in Gotzis, 6,520, would have placed third at the 2013 World Championships and seventh at the 2012 Olympics. Ennis-Hill tallied a national record 6,955 points at the London Games.

“To be back competing at this level is a daunting test as it’s only my fourth competition of the year,” Ennis-Hill said of the Diamond League meet next weekend. “I need to find out if I will be ready for Beijing and then ultimately Rio [2016 Olympics].”

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2023 French Open men’s singles draw

By OlympicTalkJun 7, 2023, 5:18 PM EDT

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The French Open men’s singles draw is missing injured 14-time champion Rafael Nadal for the first time since 2004, leaving the Coupe des Mousquetaires ripe for the taking.

The tournament airs live on NBC Sports, Peacock and Tennis Channel through championship points in Paris.

Novak Djokovic is not only bidding for a third crown at Roland Garros, but also to lift a 23rd Grand Slam singles trophy to break his tie with Nadal for the most in men’s history.

FRENCH OPEN: Broadcast Schedule | Women’s Draw

But the No. 1 seed is Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, who won last year’s U.S. Open to become, at 19, the youngest man to win a major since Nadal’s first French Open title in 2005.

Now Alcaraz looks to become the second-youngest man to win at Roland Garros since 1989, after Nadal of course.

Alcaraz missed the Australian Open in January due to a right leg injury, but since went 30-3 with four titles. Notably, he has not faced Djokovic this year. They meet in Friday’s semifinals.

Russian Daniil Medvedev, the No. 2 seed, was upset in the first round by 172nd-ranked Brazilian qualifier Thiago Seyboth Wild. It marked the first time a men’s top-two seed lost in the first round of any major since 2003 Wimbledon (Ivo Karlovic d. Lleyton Hewitt).

All of the American men lost before the fourth round. The last U.S. man to make the French Open quarterfinals was Andre Agassi in 2003.

MORE: All you need to know for 2023 French Open

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2023 French Open Men’s Singles Draw

IOC board recommends withdrawing International Boxing Association’s recognition

Associated PressJun 7, 2023, 2:30 PM EDT

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The IOC finally ran out of patience with the International Boxing Federation on Wednesday and set a date to terminate its Olympic status this month.

While boxing will still be on the program at the 2024 Paris Games, the International Olympic Committee said its executive board has asked the full membership to withdraw its recognition of the IBA at a special meeting on June 22.

IOC members rarely vote against recommendations from their 15-member board and the IBA’s ouster is likely a formality.

The IOC had already suspended the IBA’s recognition in 2019 over long-standing financial, sports integrity and governance issues. The Olympic body oversaw the boxing competitions itself at the Tokyo Olympics held in 2021 and will do so again for Paris.

An IOC statement said the boxing body “has failed to fulfil the conditions set by the IOC … for lifting the suspension of the IBA’s recognition.”

The IBA criticized what it called a “truly abhorrent and purely political” decision by the IOC and warned of “retaliatory measures.”

“Now, we are left with no chance but to demand a fair assessment from a competent court,” the boxing body’s Russian president Umar Kremlev said in a statement.

The IOC-IBA standoff has also put boxing’s place at the 2028 Los Angeles Games at risk, though that should now be resolved.

The IOC previously stressed it has no problem with the sport or its athletes — just the IBA and its current president Kremlev, plus financial dependence on Russian state energy firm Gazprom.

In a 24-page report on IBA issues published Wednesday, the IOC concluded “the accumulation of all of these points, and the constant lack of drastic evolution throughout the many years, creates a situation of no-return.”

Olympic boxing’s reputation has been in question for decades. Tensions heightened after boxing officials worldwide ousted long-time IOC member C.K. Wu as their president in 2017 when the organization was known by its French acronym AIBA.

“From a disreputable organization named AIBA governed by someone from the IOC’s upper echelon, we committed to and executed a change in the toxic and corrupt culture that was allowed to fester under the IOC for far too long,” Kremlev said Wednesday in a statement.

National federations then defied IOC warnings in 2018 by electing as their president Gafur Rakhimov, a businessman from Uzbekistan with alleged ties to organized crime and heroin trafficking.

Kremlev’s election to replace Rakhimov in 2020 followed another round of IOC warnings that went unheeded.

Amid the IBA turmoil, a rival organization called World Boxing has attracted initial support from officials in the United States, Switzerland and Britain.

The IBA can still continue to organize its own events and held the men’s world championships last month in the Uzbek capital Tashkent.

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2023 French Open Men’s Singles Draw

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