With no Russians, few stars and the sport engulfed in a doping crisis the world indoor athletics championships begin this week with officials holding their breath and eager to put the spotlight back on the track.
Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova, the highest-paid woman in sports, said on Monday that she failed a drug test at the Australian Open due to a substance she has been taking for 10 years for health issues.
Former world number one Maria Sharapova has been invited to play at the Madrid Open in May, which takes place less than two weeks after her 15-month doping ban expires, tournament organisers said on Wednesday.
Olympic swimming gold medallist Park Tae-hwan has been left "shocked" by a positive doping test, which his agency has attributed to an injection given to the South Korean swim star during chiropractic treatment ahead of last year's Asian Games.
Germany, preparing in Italy for the World Cup starting next month, were taken by surprise when six doping testers showed up unannounced on Wednesday. 'Six NADA (National Anti-Doping Agency) testers arrived today for an unexpected doping control,' German soccer federation spokesman Harald Stenger told reporters.
American sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson, expected to be one of the biggest draws at the Tokyo Olympics, will miss the 100 metres at the Games after accepting a one-month ban for testing positive for cannabis during her US trials victory in June.
Narsingh Yadav's chances of making it to the Olympics will be known on Thursday. The National Anti-Doping Agency's disciplinary panel adjourned its hearing on the dope scandal surrounding the wrestler on Wednesday evening, even as he failed a second dope test and lodged a police complaint against two fellow-grapplers.
The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) said that the CBI has started its probe into the doping scandal of dope-tainted wrestler Narsingh Yadav after the PMO referred his case to the investigation agency.
Breakdancing, considered one of the pillars of hip-hop culture, will also make its Asian Games bow in 2022, two years before it features in the Olympics for the first time in Paris.
Novak Djokovic was seriously rattled early on by inspired American teenager Nishesh Basavareddy but rallied for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 victory on Monday.
Shuttler PV Sindhu raised serious hopes of breaking India's long-awaited medal quest in the Rio Olympics by storming into the semifinals of the women's singles event with a stunning straight games win over London Games silver medallist Wang Yihan of China.
Jemima Sumgong, who last year became the first Kenyan woman to win Olympic gold in the marathon, has tested positive for the banned blood-booster EPO in an out-of-competition test carried out by the IAAF, the sport's governing body said on Thursday.
Maharashtra quarter-miler Aishwarya Mishra is giving a torrid time to authorities as she has "disappeared" after winning a gold in the Federation Cup National Championships, last month.
Coaching crisis, heartbreaks and Olympic setbacks mark a disastrous year for Indian boxing
Athletics' governing body came under renewed fire on Tuesday following disclosures that top officials were aware of a potentially serious doping problem among Russian athletes as far back as 2009.
Leading sports powerbrokers gathered at the International Olympic Committee's headquarters on Tuesday morning to discuss further crackdowns on drug cheats before the Rio Games.
Testers were also routinely obstructed from gaining access to athletes who used military cities as the location for their whereabouts knowing doping control officers would need special permission to gain access. The WADA update also revealed several examples of widespread efforts to avoid testing, including one detailed instance where an athlete tried to use a container inserted inside her body that presumably contained clean urine.
Swiss food giant Nestle will end its partnership with the International Association of Athletics Federations because of scandal surrounding the sport.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
While the American says he is bringing the matter to a close, in truth this may just be the beginning.
The International Olympic Committee's Ethics Commission recommended the provisional suspension of Lamine Diack as an honorary member of the IOC on Monday.
Double Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva's return to competition was frustrated by a leg injury on Saturday when she had to drop out of the Russian Grand Prix in her home city of Volgograd. Isinbayeva, Olympic champion in 2004 and 2008, had been due to return to competition for the first time since the birth of her daughter in June 2014. "I really hate to disappoint people but today when I was warming up I felt a sharp pain while making a jump and I understood that if I continued to jump I could tear a muscle," Isinbayeva, 33, told the All Sport news agency. "It's an old injury in my Achilles tendon in my lead-off leg," she added.
Some of the main points of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Independent Commission's (IC) report into allegations of widespread doping in Russian athletics. The commission was set up after Germany's ARD television said in a documentary programme aired on December 3 last year that it had found evidence of systematic doping and cover-ups.
Dejected by the four-year ban imposed on Narsingh Yadav by CAS, the Indian Olympic Association has said that the embattled wrestler has been 'defeated by compatriots' rather than opponents.
Sebastian Coe chairs a meeting of world athletics on Friday to discuss suspending Russia over allegations of state sponsored doping of its athletes, a crisis that has put his leadership under the spotlight barely three months into the job.
A much-awaited report on Lance Armstrong's lifetime ban should be sent to cycling's world governing body no later than October 15, a spokesman for the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) said on Wednesday.
The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) will send Lance Armstrong's file to the cycling world governing body this week to get the American rider's life ban ratified, its chief Travis Tygart told French daily L'Equipe on Monday.
CAS said that the Olympic Athletes from Russia mixed doubles curling team, who won bronze at the Games, had been disqualified from the competition.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) records leaked by hackers raised a lot of questions with healthy athletes seemingly taking banned substances, TASS news agency reported.
The US Anti-Doping Agency has accused him of serious doping violations after a federal investigation into the BALCO laboratory in California.
Judo's governing body said that athletes were not obliged to take unscheduled drug tests when training in France in June and that those who refused, including Kosovo's gold medallist Majlinda Kelmendi, subsequently tested negative the next week.
Former Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Narsingh Pancham Yadav was elected chairman of the Wrestling Federation of India's Athletes' Commission in Varanasi on Wednesday, completing a process that was mandated by the sport's world governing body.
The world 100 metres record holder has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against a possible life ban for doping.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Tuesday
The former world 100 metres record holder was banned for doping offences related to the BALCO laboratory in California.
'The situation with Sharapova could be resolved after April 21 when we meet with the head of the international federation. After that all should be become clear. It is too early to talk about Sharapova competing at the Olympic Games'
Individual Russian track and field athletes assessed as clean will be able to compete for their country in Brazil, the Olympic Games' top official said on Tuesday, diluting a blanket ban the sport's global federation had called for.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances