Jesse Smith to lead U.S. water polo team in his record-tying 5th Olympics
Jesse Smith is heading to his record-tying fifth Olympics after he was selected Friday for the U.S. men’s water polo team for the Tokyo Games.
Smith, 38, leads a 13-man team that includes five players from the country’s disappointing 10th-place finish in Rio. Smith matches Tony Azevedo for most Olympic teams for a U.S. water polo athlete.
The 6-foot-4 Smith, who played in college at Pepperdine, won silver at the 2008 Beijing Games, the last time the U.S. won a medal in the tournament.
The U.S. is coming off a surprising second-place finish in the World League Super Final. It beat Italy 10-8 in the semifinals before losing 9-8 to Montenegro on Thursday.
Ben Hallock, Alex Bowen, Luca Cupido and Alex Obert also are back from 2016. Hallock, a 6-foot-6 center from Stanford, was 18 when he competed in Rio, and he is expected to take on a bigger role in Tokyo.
Hallock played club ball for Pro Recco in Italy this year, becoming the first American man to win the Champions League.
Hannes Daube, Johnny Hooper and Marko Vavic are among the eight Olympic newcomers.
Daube, 21, is considered one of the best young players in the world. He played for Olympiacos in Greece this season, alongside fellow U.S. attacker Max Irving.
Hooper, 24, brings some offensive punch after he scored 245 goals for Cal, ranking second on the school’s career list behind three-time Olympian Chris Humbert.
Vavic also made his first Olympic team. Vavic’s father, Jovan, is awaiting trial after pleading not guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges after he was arrested as part of a college admissions bribery scandal.
Marko Vavic, 22, scored 108 times over his first two seasons at USC, but the 6-foot-5 attacker is known more for his defensive ability.
• Olympic champion Brianna McNeal lost her appeal against a fiveyear ban for breaking anti-doping rules that prevents the American defending her 100-meter hurdles title at the Tokyo Olympics.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport said its judges dismissed McNeal’s challenge to the ban imposed by track and field authorities for “tampering or attempted tampering with any part of doping control.”
McNeal revealed the context of the case in an interview with the New York Times published ahead of the court in Switzerland announcing its ruling.
The 29-year-old runner said the case was related to missing a doping control in January 2020 while recovering from surgery to terminate a pregnancy.
In a later exchange with the AIU to verify the details, McNeal said she had changed the date on medical documents after mistaking when the surgery took place.
SOCCER
Spain, Italy reach semifinals in European Championships
Mikel Oyarzabal converted the decisive spot kick to give Spain a place in the European Championship semifinals after a 3-1 penalty shootout victory over Switzerland in St. Petersburg, Fla.
• Nicolò Barella and Lorenzo Insigne scored a goal each to give Italy a 2-1 win over Belgium in Munich and a spot in the Duropean Championship semifinals.
• Defending Copa America champion Brazil advanced to the semifinals with a 1-0 win over Chile after substitute Lucas Paquetá scored the only goal of the match in Rio de Janeiro.
Peru advanced to the semifinal after beating Paraguay on penalties 4-3 after a 3-3 score in regular time.
Rosenqvist, VeeKay return from injuries to IndyCars
Felix Rosenqvist and Rinus VeeKay returned to their cars at MidOhio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, after both IndyCar drivers were sidelined by injuries.
Rosenqvist missed two races after a crash last month in Detroit. The Swede said he went through IndyCar’s concussion protocol after not being cleared by the league to race June 20 at Road America.
Rosenqvist was hospitalized overnight following a June 12 crash at Detroit. He missed the doubleheader race the next day, which was won by Arrow McLaren SP teammate Pato O’Ward in Rosenqvist’s honor.
VeeKay, meanwhile, missed only one race following June 15 surgery on a broken collarbone resulting from a fall from his bicycle during a training ride.
Olympic favorites capture France mountain bike races
Swiss champion Mathias Flueckiger and world champion Pauline Ferrand-Prevot cemented their status among favorites to win the mountain bike gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics by winning the short-track World Cup race in Les Gets, France.
Flueckiger bided his time behind early leader Ondrej Cink during the 20-minute race, which awards World Cup points but also sets the starting position for the Olympic-distance race Sunday. Flueckiger then went to the front on the penultimate lap and held off the field to take first place.
Ferrand-Prevot, who has made it clear her sole ambition this season is the Olympics, spent most of the race stalking reigning Olympic champion Jenny Rissveds. FerrandPrevot finally wrestled the lead away late and cruised away from secondplace rider Sina Frei of Switzerland.
• Ruth Winder slipped into the leader’s pink jersey after her TrekSegafredo team won the opening team trial of the Giro d’Italia Donne in Cuneo, the most important stage race for female cyclists and a key effort ahead of the Olympic road race.
Winder, who has medal ambitions with the U.S. team in the Tokyo Games, was joined by Dutch rider Ellen van Dijk, Elisa Longo Borghini of Italy and Lizzie Deignan of Britain in powering her American squad to first place.
MISCELLANY
Pioneering agent Reich dies of pancreatic cancer at 82
Thomas M. Reich, a pioneering baseball agent with an ebullient, oversized personality who helped players gain multimillion dollar salaries in the early years of free agency, died Friday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 82.
Reich had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December 2019.
Reich went to the University of Pittsburgh and Duquesne’s law school, then became a lawyer in Pittsburgh. He started as an agent in 1970 representing pitcher Dock Ellis, who had a $13,000 salary at a time players still were fighting to gain free agency.
Early clients included Dave Parker, John Candelaria and Manny Sanguillen of the Pirates. Among his first stars was Joe Morgan, who became a Hall of Famer and remained a lifelong friend.
“The racism factor back then was awful for the players,” Reich told the Sports Business Journal in 2004. “There were a lot of incidents in Pittsburgh and other places that were not melodramatic. They were real. The Hispanic players were starting to become a factor back then. Of course, now the infusion of numbers and talent is extraordinary. But there were a lot of issues back then. I was a fiery guy.”
In February 1982, he negotiated the first contract with a $2 million average salary, George Foster’s $10.2 million, five-year deal with the New York Mets. Among his other clients were Jack Clark, Sammy Sosa, Mo Vaughn and John Wetteland.
• Former Georgia and Miami football coach Mark Richt was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
Richt, who guided the Bulldogs for 15 seasons and closed out his coaching career at alma mater Miami, made the announcement on Twitter.
Richt, 61, said he intends to continue in his role as an analyst on the ACC Network.