Michael Phelps’ eight gold medals at Beijing Olympics air on NBCSN on Monday

By OlympicTalkApr 20, 2020, 11:06 AM EDT

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Michael Phelps‘ eight-gold-medal performance headlines the first of two nights of Return to Beijing Olympic programming on NBCSN on Monday night.

Phelps’ iconic races air at 8:30 p.m. ET as part of eight hours of 2008 Olympic coverage on NBCSN’s Olympic Games Week.

They are preceded by the men’s beach volleyball final (7 p.m.) and followed by the women’s beach volleyball final (10 p.m.), men’s indoor volleyball final (11 p.m.).

LIVE STREAM: NBCSN Olympic Games Week — Monday, 7 p.m.-3 a.m. ET

Phelps began his Beijing Olympics by winning the 400m individual medley in a world record 4:03.84. It’s Phelps’ only individual world record that still stands and the longest-standings world record in any Olympic men’s or women’s event.

From there, Phelps broke world records in six of his next seven events. But there were close calls, starting with his next final. In the 4x100m freestyle relay, the U.S. trailed France by .59 of a second going into Jason Lezak‘s anchor leg against the 100m free world-record holder, Frenchman Alain Bernard.

Lezak trailed by .82 going into the last 50 meters. Then, with a magic surge, he caught and passed Bernard, touching .08 ahead with the fastest relay leg in history by a whopping .57.

Phelps had one more major challenge — the 100m butterfly. Serbian Milorad Cavic broke the Olympic record in the heats and was again faster than Phelps in the semifinals, where Phelps was coming off the 200m individual medley final.

In the final, Phelps was seventh at the turn. He still trailed Cavic going into the final stroke. Cavic took a long stroke, gliding into the wall. Phelps took an extra half-stroke, smashing the wall. He won by .01. The following morning, Phelps finished off the eight-for-eight effort in the medley relay, breaking Mark Spitz‘s record for golds at a single Games.

In NBCSN’s other Return to Beijing programs Monday, the U.S. swept the beach volleyball finals.

Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers became the third different U.S. men’s pair to take Olympic gold. Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings repeated as Olympic champions, extending their international win streak to 69 matches.

The U.S. men’s indoor volleyball team endured tragedy — the death of coach Hugh McCutcheon‘s father-in-law in a random attack in Beijing — en route to triumph. McCutcheon missed the first three matches. The U.S. won them all, plus five more, including a comeback final over Brazil.

MORE: Full Olympic Games Week TV, live stream schedule

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NBCSN Olympic Games Week — Monday, April 20

Time (ET)	Program	Events	Live Stream
7 p.m.	Return to Beijing	Men’s Beach Volleyball Final	STREAM LINK
8:30 p.m.	Return to Beijing	Michael Phelps	STREAM LINK
10 p.m.	Return to Beijing	Women’s Beach Volleyball Final	STREAM LINK
11 p.m.	Return to Beijing	Men’s Indoor Volleyball Final	STREAM LINK
1 a.m.	Return to Beijing	Michael Phelps	STREAM LINK
2:30 a.m.	Return to Beijing	Beijing Olympic Stories	STREAM LINK

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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