‘Penis injection’ claims in Winter Olympics ski jumping investigated by Wada

During its 26-year history, the World Anti-Doping Agency has faced thousands of questions about athletes using illicit substances. Thursday, however, surely marked the first time it was asked whether ski jumpers were injecting their penises with hyaluronic acid in order to fly further.The Wada president Witold Banka’s reaction? “Ski jumping is very popular in Poland [Banka’s home country] so I promise you I’m going to look at it,” he said, with a wry smile.As crazy as it sounds, there are broader concerns surrounding this issue – which has been dubbed “Penisgate” – after they were first reported by the German newspaper Bild.Last year two of Norway’s Olympic medallists, Marius Lindvik and Johann André Forfang, were given three-month suspensions after the team was found to have secretly adjusted the seams of their suits around the crotch area at the 2025 World Ski Championships

The Patriots’ Robert Kraft posed as an NFL voice of reason – then fell back in line for Trump | Howard Bryant

During the worst of it, when Philando Castile and Alton Sterling were killed by police a decade ago and Colin Kaepernick took a knee in protest, when a widespread reaction was to tell the highly accomplished, overwhelmingly Black professional athletes they were un-American, or well-paid farmhands who needed to get back to work, or both, and some of his peers in the ownership class were releasing players as punishment for joining the protest, it was New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft who positioned himself as the voice of reason.Kraft attempted to broker peace between the ownership hawks who saw the high-paid kneelers as ungrateful mutineers and, after decades of docility, the radicalized players unwilling to collect their checks in exchange for political silence. Kraft encouraged two of his players – the twins Devin and Jason McCourty – into deeper citizenship, to engage with the legal and political systems and promote reforms. As a sign of compassion and a willingness to listen, Kraft visited the incarcerated rapper Meek Mill, and later the two partnered with another artist, Jay-Z, on various criminal justice initiatives.On 6 January 2021, when so many of the voices loudest in their opposition to player protests, the ones who said the dissenting ballplayers were treasonous for disrespecting both the American flag and law enforcement at the behest of outgoing president Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol and contributed to the deaths of one policeman and the trauma and eventual deaths of several others, it was Kraft who was apparently so disgusted that he stopped talking to Trump, publicly distancing himself from the man to whose inauguration four years earlier he had donated $1m

Lando Norris driven to defend F1 title but says he has ‘different mentality to Max’

Lando Norris has insisted he enters the new Formula One season highly motivated to retain the world championship he won for the first time last year. The McLaren driver believes his maiden triumph has only given him greater confidence in his ability.Norris won the championship after an intense competition that went to the wire. After a three-way fight with his teammate, Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, Norris sealed the title by only two points at the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi.The British driver has always been open about his approach to racing and admitted that, while he had already achieved his lifelong dream, that achievement did not blunt his determination to win another championship

Top seats for Nations Championship’s ‘Glastonbury of Rugby’ at Twickenham to cost £280

Top-end tickets for the inaugural Nations Championship final at Twickenham will cost £280 as part of a weekend billed as the “Glastonbury of Rugby”, the Guardian can reveal.The climax of the new 12-team competition, which will be held every two years and replaces traditional tours, will be held at Twickenham at the end of November with two matches on Friday, two on Saturday and two on Sunday.The six Tests pit the sixth-place finisher in the northern hemisphere pool against the sixth in the southern hemisphere pool, the fifth against the fifth and so on, culminating in the first against the first. Friday will host the 6 v 6 and 3 v 3 fixtures, Saturday the 5 v 5 and 2 v 2 matches and Sunday the 4 v 4 and 1 v 1 finals.Spectators will be “buying blind” because it is unlikely the identity of the teams contesting the finals will be known until the weekend before, with results from three July Tests and three regular fixtures in November determining the standings

The Spin | India’s dominance looms over faster and more furious T20 World Cup

In the immortal words of Brenda from Bristol, not another one. Between 17 October 2021, the start of the tournament in the United Arab Emirates, and 8 March 2026, the date of this year’s final, four T20 World Cups will have been squeezed into four years, four months and 19 days.If they come along more regularly even than British general elections – to which Brenda produced her timeless reaction in 2017 – they at least have more interesting results: the past five have had five different winners and the past three six different finalists. What’s more, though not much time has passed since the last one ended with India beating South Africa in Barbados, it seems to have been long enough for the game to shift into a fresh and exhilarating new gear.It is too soon to be drawing conclusions about the state of the game in 2026, but in 21 T20 internationals in the first month of this year 6,960 runs were scored at 9

From London to LX: the British mastermind behind the Seahawks’ standout Super Bowl defense

Midway through the 2023 NFL season, Dallas Cowboys star edge rusher Micah Parsons was frustrated. Asked about the source – a feeling of being held by opponents all the time – Parsons credited his defensive line coach Aden Durde with keeping him in check.“[Coach Durde] pulled me aside and said, ‘You gotta remember, you’re Micah fucking Parsons,” he recalled. “‘This shit is going to happen. You just gotta keep going