Biles, U.S. win another world gymnastics title
Led by Simone Biles, the United States women won a record seventh consecutive team title at the gymnastics world championships Wednesday in Antwerp, Belgium.
The American team of Biles, Shilese Jones, Skye Blakely and Leanne Wong combined for 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.
“Each and every time you are crowned world champion, it feels a little bit different,” Biles said. “I’m still surprised that I’m still going,”
Hockey
Former Penguins coach Kevin Constantine was suspended indefinitely by the Western Hockey League. Constantine, coach of the Penguins from 1997-2000, was coach of the Wenatchee Wild. The major junior league said an independent investigation determined Constantine violated WHL regulations and policies by making what it called “derogatory comments of a discriminatory nature.” The WHL said Constantine will not be eligible to apply for reinstatement until 2025 at the earliest.
Golf
The LPGA Tour’s Lexi Thompson will play in the PGA Tour’s Shriners Children’s Open next week in Las Vegas. 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.
Auto racing
NASCARadded Atlanta MotorSpeedway and the road courseat Watkins Glen International to the playoffs as part of the 2024 Cup Series schedule. Theseason will again open withthe exhibition Busch LightClash at the Coliseum in LosAngeles on Feb. 4, followed bythe Daytona 500 on Feb. 18.
Pro basketball
The WNBA agreed to grant the Golden State Warriors an expansion franchise in 2025. While the deal hasn’t been finalized, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert is expected to be in the San Francisco area Thursday to announce the new franchise.
Colleges
Kentucky men’s basketball coach John Calipari will receive the John R. Wooden Award Legends of Coaching honor from the Los Angeles Athletic Club in April.
Cycling
After previously planning
to retire, ace sprinter Mark Cavendish will race in 2024 and take another shot at the outright record for most career stage wins at the Tour de France. Cavendish equaled cycling great Eddy Merckx’s record of 34 stage wins during the 2021 Tour.
Tennis
Jannik Sinner won his third title of the year by beating third-ranked Daniil Mevedev, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (2), at the China Open in Beijing. Sinner, 22, had not beaten Medvedev in their six previous meetings. Sinner now has won nine titles
in his brief career.
• Second-ranked Iga Swiatek dropped only two games and advanced to the quarterfinals of the China Open by beating Magda Linette, 6-1, 6-1. Swiatek will play in her 14th quarterfinal of 2023. Earlier, Jelena Ostapenko defeated fourth-seeded Jessica Pegula, 6-4, 6-2.
Swimming
Plans for the first “open category” races to accommodate transgender competitors at a World Cup this weekend in Berlin were scrapped because of a lack of entries.