Sports

The head of USA Swimming urged the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee to push for a 12-month postponement of the Tokyo Games, signaling the first fissure between powerful American factions attempting to maneuver the US team through the coronavirus crisis. CEO Tim Hinchey sent a letter Friday to his counterpart …

Andy Carroll has had no shortage of criticism over the years – some of it deserved – but George Ramshaw refuses to hear a bad word about the Newcastle United striker. A fortnight before football’s coronavirus-induced shutdown, Newcastle’s assistant kit man returned to work at the club’s training ground with …

“The future belongs to crowds,” Don DeLillo wrote in Mao II, a quote that makes DeLillo sound po-faced and serious, when he also wrote things like “Bloomberg weighed three hundred pounds … I revered his weight. It was an affirmation of humanity’s reckless potential”, and “you people are a bunch …

The England and Wales Cricket Board has written off the first seven weeks of the season with no professional cricket to be staged before 28 May. Announcing the decision on Friday evening, the ECB said it was now working through three possible schedules for starts in June, July or August …

Being under lockdown teaches you many things, and there is one that my teammates and I are particularly united on: until football has been taken away, you don’t realise just how much you love the game and how big a factor it is in your life. But we also know …

No one needs telling that rugby is a long way down the list of current global priorities. A lot of people are stuck in coronavirus limbo – or worse – and in Exeter it is no different. “It all seems rather petty talking about the Premiership when we’re in the …

Formula One is to run a series of virtual grands prix to fill in gaps left by races that have been cancelled or postponed due to coronavirus. The non-championship, esport events will feature current F1 drivers and other guest competitors and will take place on the days the real races …

Friday is Fernando Torres’s birthday but forget about Chelsea’s Twitter feed celebrating that goal against Barcelona (cue Gary Neville’s “oooooooooooooooohhhhh!” co-commentary) and meet Sheldon Edwards, proprietor of HD Cutz, a “professional barber” and star of this week’s episode of Out of the Blue. The YouTube show may be the current …

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE Day six. With our three emergency ideas long since used up and the world’s favourite football email’s “lodger”, Freeloader Mate Who Claimed It’ll Only Be For A Few Days Nine Years Ago Fiver, reclining on the sofa in his tracky-bees, unironically working his way through that five-year …

The Scripps National Spelling Bee won’t be held as scheduled this year because of the coronavirus. Scripps announced the decision Friday morning, citing recommendations against large gatherings by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the ongoing state of emergency in Maryland. The bee was scheduled to start on …