Carli Lloyd is headed to her fourth Olympics. She is named among the 18 players named to the team by coach Vlatko Andonovski,
Carli Lloyd is headed to her fourth Olympics after all.
The 38-year-old Lloyd had vowed after the 2019 World Cup that she would push to make the Olympic team for before stepping away from the sport. But then the Tokyo Games were pushed back a year because of the pandemic, and Lloyd needed surgery on her knee.
That meant making the 18-player roster was by no means a slam dunk for Lloyd, who scored three goals in the opening 16 minutes of the 2015 World Cup final in Canada.
But coach Vlatko Andonovski believes Lloyd can still be a valuable contributor and included her on the roster he announced Wednesday. Tobin Heath joins Lloyd in heading to her fourth Olympics.
At the 2008 Beijing Games, Lloyd scored in overtime for a 1-0 victory against Brazil in the final. Four years later, she scored both goals in the goldmedal match against Japan at Wembley Stadium, becoming the only player to score winning goals in consecutive Olympic finals.
Lloyd, who will turn 39 before the Tokyo Games, is the oldest national team Olympian, besting Christie Rampone, who was 37 when she played at the 2012 London Games.
NASCAR
GORDON TO LEAVE FOX SPORTS BOOTH FOR DAILY ROLE AT HENDRICK >> Jeff Gordon will leave the Fox Sports booth to take a daily role at Hendrick Motorsports as vice chairman and the second-ranking team official to majority owner
Rick Hendrick.
Wednesday’s announcement positions the fourtime champion and Hall of Famer to one day succeed the 71-year-old Hendrick at the top of NASCAR’s winningest organization.
Gordon will formally begin the executive management role at the start of 2022.
Gordon joined Hendrick Motorsports for the final Cup race of the 1992 season and launched one of the greatest careers in NASCAR history. He won 93 races — third on the alltime list — and four Cup titles before retiring in 2015.
NBA
AYTON SOARS FOR LAST SECOND ALLEY-OOP, SUNS BEAT CLIPPERS >> Deandre Ayton jammed an alley-oop pass from Jae Crowder with 0.7 seconds left, giving the Phoenix Suns a thrilling 104-103 win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday
night in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals.
The Suns were down one with 0.9 seconds left when Crowder lofted a high pass on an out-of-bounds play on the baseline. A soaring Ayton came down the lane and stuffed it through the net over L.A.’s Ivica Zubac as the crowd roared in disbelief at Phoenix Suns Arena.
The referees spent about a minute reviewing the play before ruling the basket was good. The Clippers couldn’t get a shot off in the final 0.7 seconds.
NHL STAMKOS, VASILEVSKIY PACE LIGHTNING’S 8-0 ROUT OF ISLANDERS >>
Steven Stamkos had two goals and an assist and Andrei Vasilevskiy notched his fourth career playoff shutout, helping the Tampa Bay Lightning rout the New York Islanders 8-0 in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup semifinal
series on Monday night.
The defending NHL champions improved to 13-0 in games following a postseason loss since launching their 2020 title run and will take a 3-2 series lead over the Islanders into Game 6 of their bestof-seven matchup Wednesday night in Uniondale, New York.
Soccer
BIZARRE OWN-GOAL HELPS SPAIN ADVANCE TO LAST 16 AT EURO 2020 >> A bizarre blunder by the goalkeeper helped Spain find its scoring touch at the European Championship.
And it also helped them advance to the round of 16.
An embarrassing owngoal by goalkeeper Martin Dúbravka in the first half put Spain on its way to a 5-0 victory Wednesday, coming only minutes after the hosts had missed another penalty kick and wasted more scoring chances.