Biles, US tally up 7th straight team title at gymnastics worlds
Led by Simone Biles, the U.S. women won a record seventh consecutive team title at the gymnastics world championships on Wednesday night.
The American team of Biles, Shilese Jones, Skye Blakely and Leanne Wong combined for a total of 167.729 points to edge Brazil and France.
The U.S. team won by a margin of 2.199 points as the final proved to be a closer contest than anticipated after the Americans put up a dominant performance in qualifying.
The U.S. women have won gold in the team event at every world championship that included a team competition since 2011. Their victory in Antwerp broke a tie with the Chinese men for the longest streak of consecutive team titles and made Biles the most decorated female gymnast in history.
Biles now has 26 world championship medals, 20 of them gold, to go with her seven Olympic medals, including the 2016 Olympic title. Her 33 combined medals at the sport’s two biggest events are one more than what Larisa Latynina of the Soviet Union achieved.
NFL
WR KUPP RETURNS TO PRACTICE »
Los Angeles Rams receiver Cooper Kupp is returning to practice this week after missing the first four games of the season with a hamstring injury.
The Super Bowl 56 MVP entered the 21-day window for activation from injured reserve Wednesday along with rookie linebacker Ochaun Mathis, who also hasn’t played this season. The Rams (2-2) host Philadelphia on Sunday.
The 30-year-old Kupp strained his hamstring
early in training camp and aggravated it in late August. He began this season on the injured list after also missing the final eight games of last season with an ankle injury.
FAVRE WILL TESTIFY UNDER OATH IN MISSISSIPPI WELFARE SCANDAL CIVIL CASE »
Retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre will answer questions under oath about the misspending of federal welfare money in Mississippi, where public money intended to help some of the nation’s poorest people was used to fund pet projects he and other well-connected people supported.
Golf
LEXI THOMPSON TO COMPETE AGAINST MEN AT THE PGA TOUR’S UPCOMING STOP IN LAS VEGAS » LGPA Tour trailblazer Lexi Thompson will compete against men at the PGA Tour’s upcoming event in Las Vegas.
The Shriners Children’s Open announced that
Thompson received an unrestricted exemption into its tournament that begins Oct. 12 at TPC Summerlin. She will compete with 131 men for a $8.4 million purse.
Thompson will become the seventh woman to compete in a PGA Tour event and the first since Brittany Lincicome did so at the 2018 Barbasol Championship.
Colleges
NCAA APPROVES SMALLER TRANSFER PORTAL WINDOWS »
The NCAA Division I Council approved a smaller window during which football and basketball players can enter their names into the transfer portal and still be eligible to play at a new school the following season.
The decision shaves the timeframe from 60 days to 45. The council also voted to eliminate caps on how many players Division I football teams can sign in a year,
though overall scholarship limits will remain in place.
Soccer
NEWCASTLE BEATS PSG AND BARCELONA ALSO WINS IN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE »
Newcastle capped a stellar day for Saudi Arabia’s soccer project with a 4-1 win over Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League that left Kylian Mbappé a picture of despair.
Hours before kickoff at Newcastle, which was struggling when bought by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund just two years ago, the kingdom became the strong favorite to host the 2034 World Cup in a fast-track bidding contest opened by FIFA.
Barcelona also earned a second straight win, 1-0 at Porto where the Spanish team’s starlet Lamine Yamal became the youngest player to start a European Cup game in the 68year history of the competition at 16 years, 83 days.