TENNIS
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - Players were isolating and getting tested for COVID-19 instead of playing tuneup tournaments four days before the Australian Open as concern grew over the impact on the year’s first tennis major.
All competition at six tournaments scheduled for Thursday was called off overnight and 520 people who flew to Melbourne for the Australian Open were ordered to isolate in their accommodation and get tested after a man who worked at one of the quarantine hotels until last Friday tested positive for the coronavirus.
The Australian Open is scheduled to begin Monday.
OLYMPICS
Ground rules for thousands of Olympic and Paralympic officials to ensure safe travel, daily life and competitions at the Tokyo Games during the coronavirus pandemic were published Wednesday.
Those who break the rules with “repeated or serious failures to comply” risk being removed from the Olympic and sent home.
The International Olympic Committee, International Paralympic Committee and local organizers in Japan made the guide the first of their so-called Playbooks to educate all visitors. The Olympics open on July 23 and the Paralympics a month later.
The details pointed clearly to the limits that athletes, games volunteers, media and fans - if any are allowed in the venues - will also face in similar documents to be published and updated in the months ahead.
TOKYO (AP) - Yoshiro Mori, the president of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee, said on Thursday he would not resign despite pressure on him to do so after making derogatory comments earlier in the week about women.
The controversy over the gaff-prone former Japanese prime minister is one more problem the postponed Tokyo Olympics really didn’t need as organizers and the International Olympic Committee try to pull off the postponed games in the midst of a pandemic. They are scheduled to open on July 23.
“I am not thinking to resign,” Mori said. “I have been working hard and helped devotedly for seven years. I will not be stepping down.”
MLB
SAN DIEGO (AP) - The San Diego Padres have promoted general manager A.J. Preller to president of baseball operations and extended his contract through the 2026 season.
The Padres also promoted Erik Greupner from president of business operations to CEO and extended his contract through 2026. The promotions were announced Tuesday.
Preller was hired as GM in August 2014 and he has rebuilt the Padres into a playoff team.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Alabama continues recruiting at a level that should strengthen the reigning national champion’s status as college football’s premier program.
The recruiting class that Alabama finalized Wednesday has the highest rating in the history of the 247Sports Composite team rankings, which go back to 2010. The previous top-ranked class was Florida’s 2010 group. Alabama’s class features 13 of the nation’s top 58 prospects, according to composite rankings of recruiting sites compiled by 247Sports.
Alabama was followed in order by Ohio State, Georgia, LSU and Clemson in the team rankings as of late Wednesday afternoon.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) - Florida forward Keyontae Johnson’s collapse during a game nearly two months ago was not related to a positive COVID-19 test, his family said Wednesday.
University of Florida Health physicians consulted with other local and national experts who reviewed the relevant imaging and testing related to this case, and Johnson’s family said: “The unanimous conclusion of all experts is that Keyontae’s medical emergency was not related to or a result of a previous or current Covid diagnosis.”
The family did not say what doctors believe caused Johnson to crumple to the court at Florida State on Dec. 12.
WOMEN’S HOCKEY
The National Women’s Hockey League called off the remainder of its season Wednesday on the eve of the playoffs because of additional positive test results for the coronavirus.
The NWHL cited safety concerns for what it called the suspension of play inside a quarantined bubble in Lake Placid, New York. COVID-19 instead wreaked havoc on the two-week event.
Two of the league’s six teams had already withdrawn from the tournament, with the Metropolitan Riveters citing “several” virus cases.
SOCCER
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Soccer Hall of Famer Tiffeny Milbrett is returning to the Portland Pilots, joining the staff as a volunteer assistant coach.
Milbrett played for the Pilots from 1990-94 before her illustrious career with the U.S. national team. She played on three World Cup teams, including the squad that won soccer’s most prestigious event in 1999.
She also played on a pair of Olympic teams, winning a gold medal in 1996. She was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2018.
SOFTBALL
Defending champion Cat Osterman has committed to return for the second season of Athletes Unlimited softball before she retires.
Osterman is set to compete for Team USA at the Tokyo Olympics before finishing her career with Athletes Unlimited later this year. The 37-year-old left-handed pitcher was an Olympic gold medalist in 2004 and a silver medalist in 2008. In college at Texas, she was a three-time USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year.
She retired from the sport in 2015 and returned to action in 2018 for a chance to play in the Olympics.
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