NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder won’t visit White House, citing ‘timing issue’

The reigning NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder will not visit the White House during their trip to the nation’s capital this weekend.A Thunder spokesperson confirmed Friday that a “timing issue” will prevent the team from making the traditional appearance. Oklahoma City face the Wizards in Washington on Saturday.“We have been in touch with the White House and we are appreciative and grateful for the communication we have had, but the timing just didn’t work out,” the Thunder said in a statement shared with the Athletic.Championship teams across the major American sports have traditionally received invitations from the president to visit the White House and celebrate their victories

Jessie Diggins seals extraordinary fourth World Cup overall title before retirement on home snow

No woman from outside Europe had ever captured the cross-country skiing World Cup overall title until Jessie Diggins in 2021. Now she’s won it four times.The Minnesota-born star clinched yet another crystal globe in the twilight of her glittering career on Friday, securing the season crown with a fifth-place finish in the 10km classic at the World Cup finals in Lake Placid, New York. Diggins made it a mathematical certainty with two races remaining in the season-ending weekend, giving her a third consecutive overall title and fourth in total.Diggins entered the finals with a 342-point lead over Sweden’s Moa Ilar

Wheatley leaves Audi and clears path to become Aston Martin team principal

Jonathan Wheatley has left his role as Audi team principal, the Formula One team have confirmed, paving the way for his anticipated switch to the same role at Aston Martin.Wheatley’s arrival would allow the current Aston Martin principal, Adrian Newey, to return his focus to the technical and design areas in which he excels after the team endured a disastrous start to the new season.Wheatley, who previously spent almost 20 years at Red Bull, had been team principal at Audi (in its former guise as Sauber last season) for just over a year. However, with Aston Martin in dire straits, the team are believed to have acted decisively to bring Wheatley aboard to take the helm.Aston Martin have opened the season without finishing a race

Carabao Cup final, WSL and more Premier League drama – follow with us

Normally the Premier League weekend starts here, but David Tindall will have the reaction to Friday night’s Bournemouth v Manchester United game as well as the buildup to the day’s action. He will be looking at the fallout from Thomas Tuchel’s England squad selection, as well as looking forward to the day’s four Premier League games. It’s a full-on day in the Championship, too, with Middlesbrough’s recent stumbles opening up third-placed Ipswich’s shot at automatic promotion – except they are at home to a fourth-placed Millwall side motivated by injustice, after losing against Blackburn in a game that turned on a red card that was subsequently annulled. Send your thoughts on anything to do with the day’s games to matchday.live@theguardian

World’s top-rated Flat horse to race in Dubai despite conflict in the Gulf

Calandagan, the world’s top-rated Flat horse in 2025, will fly to Dubai from Paris on Saturday to run in the Sheema Classic at Meydan next weekend, despite the continuing conflict in the Gulf region.The gelding’s owner, Aga Khan Studs, consulted staff already in Dubai before deciding to give the green light to Francis-Henri Graffard’s five-year-old, the winner of four Group One events last season including the Japan Cup in November.“We’ve been very happy with Calandagan,” Nemone Routh, the owner’s racing manager, said on Friday. “If we didn’t run in Dubai then we’d have been looking at races in the summer. He’s in great form and we already have a filly out there with staff

Hodgkinson shrugs off kit mishap to cruise into world indoor 800m semi-finals

No opponent has come close to knocking Keely Hodgkinson off her stride in 2026. But after breezing into the semi-finals of the world indoor championships, she revealed that her preparations had been interrupted by an airline, KLM, losing her kit for 48 hours on the flight to Poland.It led to the overwhelming favourite for 800m gold having to train in whatever she could beg or borrow – and getting a blister as a result. Not that it seemed to bother her as she cruised into Saturday’s semi-finals with a dominant victory in 2min 0.32sec