Tommie Smith lights torch in Mexico City: ‘The changing is still happening’

By Nick ZaccardiNov 22, 2016, 8:01 AM EST

Tommie Smith returned to the city of his Olympic raised-fist podium salute, and he couldn’t help but think back to the 1968 Mexico City Games.

Smith lit a torch before Monday night’s NFL game between the Oakland Raiders and Houston Texans in the Mexican capital. It’s a Raiders tradition for a torch to be lit before every home game honoring longtime owner Al Davis, who died in 2011.

“Looking back, that distance, sometimes the brain doesn’t go back that far,” Smith said on ESPN earlier Monday. “Only time does. But it was time for change. The changing is still happening, and, hopefully, we’ll change in a progressive manner.”

Smith was visiting Mexico City for reportedly just the second time since the 1968 Olympics.

“This is like a second home for me,” Smith, a Raiders fan, said on ESPN. “Where my other life started.”

Monday’s game was played at the Estadio Azteca, which hosted not track and field but the men’s soccer final at the 1968 Olympics.

MORE: Two U.S. track and field athletes in line for medals after DQs

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The fire that burns the brightest in the Raiders organization is the will to win.

Olympic champion Tommie Smith lights the torch in Mexico. pic.twitter.com/EocNkNKEoB

— OAKLAND RAIDERS (@RAIDERS) November 22, 2016

Fred Kerley wins 100m at Rabat Diamond League in early showdown

By OlympicTalkMay 28, 2023, 3:29 PM EDT

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World champion Fred Kerley won the 100m in an early season showdown at a Diamond League meet in Rabat, Morocco, on Sunday.

Kerley clocked 9.94 seconds, beating a field that included Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala, who remains the world’s fastest man this year (9.84 from May 13) and world bronze medalist Trayvon Bromell. Omanyala was third in 10.05 on Sunday, while Bromell was fifth in 10.10.

Kerley has run three 100m races this year and broke 9.95 in all of them, a promising start as he bids to repeat as world champion in Budapest in August.

Full meet results are here.

The Diamond League season continues with a meet in Florence, Italy, on Friday, live on Peacock. The headline event is the men’s 100m including Kerley and Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs of Italy. Kerley and Jacobs were due to go head to head in Rabat, but Jacobs withdrew last Thursday due to nerve pain.

Earlier, Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway comfortably took the 1500m in 3:32.59. American Yared Nuguse surged to place second in a personal best 3:33.02 in his Diamond League debut after running the world’s second-fastest indoor mile in history in February.

Jamaican Rasheed Broadbell ran down world champion Grant Holloway in the 110m hurdles, prevailing 13.08 to 13.12 into a headwind. Holloway remains fastest in the world this year at 13.03.

Kenyan Emmanuel Korir, the Olympic and world champion, finished eighth in the 800m won by countryman Emmanuel Wanyonyi. Wanyonyi, 18, is the world’s fastest in 2023.

American Shamier Little won the 400m hurdles in 53.95, becoming second-fastest in the world this year behind countrywoman Britton Wilson. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, the Olympic and world champion and world record holder, has yet to compete this outdoor season and so far has strictly committed to flat 400m races in future meets. McLaughlin-Levrone has a bye into the world championships 400m hurdles but may run the flat 400m there instead.

In the 400m, Olympic champion Steven Gardiner of the Bahamas won in 44.70, while world bronze medalist Matthew Hudson-Smith of Great Britain pulled up about 50 meters into the race.

Also Sunday, world bronze medalist Anna Hall improved from No. 3 to No. 2 on the U.S. all-time heptathlon list with 6,988 points to win the Hypo Meeting in Götzis, Austria. Only Jackie Joyner-Kersee, the world record holder at 7,291, has scored higher among Americans.

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Fred Kerley doing Fred Kerley things! 😤#RabatDL 📺: @CNBC and @peacock pic.twitter.com/gMJFoWtVGu

— NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) May 28, 2023

2023 French Open women’s singles draw, bracket

By OlympicTalkMay 28, 2023, 2:50 PM EDT

At the French Open, Iga Swiatek of Poland eyes a third title at Roland Garros and a fourth Grand Slam singles crown overall.

Main draw play began Sunday, live on Peacock.

Swiatek, the No. 1 seed from Poland, can join Serena Williams and Justine Henin as the lone women to win three or more French Opens since 2000.

Turning 22 during the tournament, she can become the youngest woman to win three French Opens since Monica Seles in 1992 and the youngest woman to win four Slams overall since Williams in 2002.

FRENCH OPEN: Broadcast Schedule | Men’s Draw

But Swiatek is not as dominant as in 2022, when she went 16-0 in the spring clay season during an overall 37-match win streak.

She retired from her most recent match with a right thigh injury last week and said it wasn’t serious. Before that, she lost the final of another clay-court tournament to Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus.

Sabalenka, the No. 2 seed, and Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, the No. 4 seed and Wimbledon champion, are the top challengers in Paris.

No. 3 Jessica Pegula and No. 6 Coco Gauff, runner-up to Swiatek last year, are the best hopes to become the first American to win a Grand Slam singles title since Sofia Kenin at the 2020 Australian Open. The 11-major drought is the longest for U.S. women since Seles won the 1996 Australian Open.

MORE: All you need to know for 2023 French Open

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2023 French Open Women’s Singles Draw

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