Slalom heartbreak sparks McGrath’s trudge to the woods as Ryding bids farewell

As the Rocket zigged and zagged for a fifth and final time at a Winter Olympics on Monday, another skier made a very different kind of exit.Coming into the final run of the men’s slalom, the Norwegian Atle Lie McGrath knew that victory was there for the taking – until he straddled a gate. Gold was gone. A heartbroken McGrath – who had hoped to deliver victory in honour of his grandfather, who died on the day of the opening ceremony – threw his poles as far as he could and trudged across the slope into the woods.TV footage then captured him lying on his back, occasionally putting his hands over his face on the side of the course

How British skeleton left the world in its tracks with golden Winter Olympics haul | Andy Bull

According to the British Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, 3,500 people have signed up to audition for their skeleton Talent ID programme in the past three days, an extraordinary surge of interest in what has never been what you might call the most accessible sport.It is all after Matt Weston and Tabby Stoecker won Great Britain’s 10th and 11th Olympic medals in the sport, continuing a lineage that reaches back to 1928, when it was the winter sport of choice for the most reckless of a set of aristocratic adventurers. The 11th Earl of Northesk won bronze ahead of his teammate, and the pre-race favourite, Lord Brabazon of Tara. It is some legacy. After a century of competition, skeleton is the only Winter Olympic sport in which Britain lead the all-time medal table

Did the USA v World format revive the NBA’s struggling All-Star Game?

Basketball Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady flashed a look of disdain when recalling last year’s NBA All-Star Game.“The All-Star Game that we witnessed last year was not an All-Star game,” McGrady told the Guardian. “I don’t know what that was.”Prior to Sunday night’s contest, the All-Star Game had experienced years of disarray. In an attempt to make the game more competitive, the league replaced the classic East v West matchup and tinkered with multiple formats, including a playground-style selection process with team captains (Team LeBron v Team Stephen)

Ilia Malinin writes about ‘inevitable crash’ after Olympic figure skating shock

Ilia Malinin has written about “an inevitable crash” after he missed the podium at the Winter Olympics in one of the biggest shocks in the history of figure skating.The 21-year-old was the overwhelming favourite entering the men’s free skate on Friday in Milan, but he fell twice during his routine. Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov won gold and Malinin finished 15th out of 24th in the free skate and eighth overall.This article includes content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies

England beat Italy by 24 runs: T20 World Cup cricket – as it happened

Simon Burnton’s piece from Eden Gardens has landed, so I’ll get outta here.As he says, it was a proper scare for England though they’re through to the Super Eights, which is all that matters in the end.Well done Italy. Hope to see more of them in future tournaments.Next up is Harry Brook:We haven’t played our best cricket but we’ve made it through, so can be happy about that

England survive Italy scare after Manenti’s blitz threatens T20 World Cup shock

If England keep up the winning habit, perhaps in time they will get good at it. Under the lights here in Kolkata they did enough to beat Italy and secure a spot in this T20 World Cup’s Super 8s, though again without establishing themselves among the form teams of the tournament.Harry Brook had declared he would “rather not start amazing and finish amazing than start amazing and finish bad”, and in that sense alone it is proceeding entirely according to plan. The next stage is unlikely to be so forgiving.“They were better than us for quite a lot of the game,” said Will Jacks, whose 22-ball 53 was decisive