Tokyo Olympics hit by scandal over sexist comment

TOKYO » Tokyo Olympics creative director Hiroshi Sasaki is resigning after making demeaning comments about a well-known female celebrity.

It is yet another setback for the postponed games and another involving comments about women. The Olympics are to open in just over four months, dogged by the pandemic, record costs, and numerous scandals.

In February, the president of the organizing committee Yoshiro Mori was forced to resign after making sexist comments, saying women talk too much in meetings.

Two years ago, the head of the Japanese Olympic Committee Tsunekazu Takeda was also forced to step down in a bribery scandal connected to votebuying involving International Olympic Committee members.

Sasaki was in charge of the opening and closing ceremonies for the Olympics, which are to begin on July 23. Last year he told planning staff members that well-known entertainer Naomi Watanabe could perform in the ceremony as an “Olympig.”

Watanabe is a heavy-set woman and very famous in Japan, and “Olympig” was a play on the word “Olympic.”

Sasaki released a statement early on Thursday saying he was stepping down. He said he had also called Seiko Hashimoto, the president of the organizing committee, and tendered his resignation.

Reynolds, Odunze receive U.S. call-ups

CHICAGO » Defender Bryan Reynolds received his first call-up to the U.S. national team after the 19-year-old made his debut for Roma last weekend.

“He made a big step,” U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter said Wednesday. “He’s a player that we really think has big potential, obviously making his debut at such a young age in Serie A for a big club like Roma is monumental, and it will be great to see him up close.”

Because Josh Sargent is likely to play 90 minutes against Jamaica and the Germany-based group must leave, U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter decided not to select 20-year-old forward Matthew Hoppe, who has scored five goals for Schalke this season, for a possible debut.

Dick Hoyt, who pushed son in Boston Marathons, dies

BOSTON » Dick Hoyt, who inspired thousands of runners, fathers and disabled athletes by pushing his son, Rick, in a wheelchair in dozens of Boston Marathons and hundreds of other races, has died, a member of the family said Wednesday.

He was 80.

“He had an ongoing heart condition that he had been struggling with for years and it just got the better of him,” Russ Hoyt said.

Russ and his other brother, Rob, broke the news to Rick.

“He’s sad, as we all are, but he’s OK,” Russ said. “You could see it in him, it was like someone hit him.”

Dick Hoyt first pushed his son, who is quadriplegic and has cerebral palsy, in the Boston Marathon in 1980. Dick and Rick, in a specialized wheelchair, completed 32 Boston Marathons together, until Dick, citing health issues, retired in 2014. He had planned on retiring after the 2013 race, but the father and son never finished because of that year’s finish line bombing, so they came back one more time.

Fla. bill seeks to block trans athletes from girls teams

TALLAHASSEE, FLA. » Transgender women and girls couldn’t play on girls and women’s school sports teams under a bill passed by a Florida House committee on Wednesday.

The bill, called the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, would require that anyone participating in girls and women’s sports at the K-12 and college level be biologically eligible to do so. If challenged, they would have to get confirmation from a health care provider that they are female. That could include a doctor examining their genitals.

Republicans in Congress and more than 20 state legislatures are pushing for similar bans, though supporters, including Tuck, largely haven’t been able to cite examples of transgender students’ participation causing problems.

Goggia, Feuz win downhill titles

Sofia Goggia and Beat Feuz clinched the downhill World Cup season titles on Wednesday without needing to put on their skis after the final races in the discipline were canceled because of heavy snow.

Goggia, who has not raced since breaking a bone in her right knee seven weeks ago, won the downhill crystal globe for a second time. It was the fourth straight title for Feuz.

The races in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, were canceled because of “continuing snowfall and the present weather situation,” organizers said.