AP National Sports

By JOHN WAWROW AP Hockey Writer BEIJING (AP) — The Czech Republic women’s hockey team is no longer an international afterthought due to its NCAA development pipeline. Captain Alena Mills helped blaze that trail by pursuing her hockey dreams at Brown. Many have since followed in her footsteps. The women’s team has 14 players with

By DUSAN STOJANOVIC Associated Press BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Novak Djokovic has described his detention and deportation from Australia that prevented him from defending his Australian Open title as an “unfortunate event.” He met the Serbian president on Thursday and thanked him for his support during the ordeal over his entry visa. An 11-day saga

LONDON (AP) — Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal both say they will play in the next edition of the Laver Cup. Federer has been sidelined since July because of an injured knee. Nadal is fresh off earning his men’s-record 21st Grand Slam title at the Australian Open. They say in a statement they will represent

LONDON (AP) — The pay-TV sports market in Britain could be shaken up after media companies Discovery and BT Group said they are in exclusive discussions about forming a partnership. The potential deal would see BT Sport link up with Discovery-owned Eurosport UK in what they are calling a 50/50 venture. BT Sport holds the

By STEPHEN WHYNO and JOHN WAWROW AP Hockey Writers BEIJING (AP) — Denmark qualified for the Olympics in men’s and women’s hockey for the first time in the nation’s history. Winger Emma Wilson says it has been a marathon for the program to get to this point. Longtime NHL center Frans Nielsen figures it’s the

By EDDIE PELLS AP National Writer BEIJING (AP) — It’s time to raise the curtain on the Beijing Winter Olympics. Opening ceremony for the 2022 Games is Friday night at the iconic Bird’s Nest stadium. Due to COVID restrictions, these will be some of the hardest-to-navigate Games in history. They are being held in a

By TIM REYNOLDS AP Sports Writer BEIJING (AP) — World champion women’s bobsledder Kaillie Humphries has overcome a long list of challenges this season. She was ineligible for the Beijing Olympics because she didn’t have a U.S. passport. She tested positive for COVID-19 a few weeks ago. And she was dealing with a relatively serious

By GREG BEACHAM AP Sports Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sean McVay, Andrew Whitworth, Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp all joined the Rams in a four-month span of early 2017. They’ve teamed up with Aaron Donald to form the core of this franchise’s incredibly successful half-decade. The Rams are best known around the league for

By JOHN WAWROW AP Hockey Writer BEIJING (AP) — Michaela Pejzlova scored on a breakaway with 13:33 left in the third period and the Czech Republic capped its women’s hockey Olympic debut with a 3-1 win over host China at the Beijing Games. Tereza Radova became her nation’s first woman to score in the Olympics

By TIM REYNOLDS AP Sports Writer BEIJING (AP) — Belgian skeleton racer Kim Meylemans was permitted to enter one of the Olympic villages hours after she tearfully turned to social media and detailed how upset she was about being in isolation over coronavirus concerns. Meylemans tested positive for COVID-19 upon her arrival in Beijing, which

By The Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — The controversy surrounding Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai’s accusations of sexual assault against a former top politician continues to cast a shadow over the Beijing Winter Olympic Games that officially begin on Friday. Within China, however, her case has drawn little attention amid the crushing force of official

By JACK MAGRUDER Associated Press GLENDALE, Ariz (AP) — Christopher Tanev scored the go-ahead goal and had three assists, Blake Coleman scored twice, and the Calgary Flames beat the Arizona Coyotes 4-2 for their fifth win in six games. Elias Lindholm also scored, and Jacob Markstrom had 24 saves for Calgary. The Flames had 50

By MATT CARLSON Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — Cam Talbot made 30 saves for his first shutout of the season and the Minnesota Wild beat the Chicago Blackhawks 5-0 on Wednesday night to extended their points streak to 10 games. Mats Zuccarello, Kevin Fiala and Frederick Gaudreau each had a goal and an assist for

By JOE REEDY AP Sports Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Anthony Davis scored 30 points, Carmelo Anthony added 24 and the Los Angeles Lakers rallied in the fourth quarter to defeat the Portland Trail Blazers 99-94. Davis had 19 points and seven of his 15 rebounds in the final 12 minutes as the Lakers returned

By STEVE MEGARGEE AP Sports Writer MILWAUKEE (AP) — Justin Lewis had 19 points and nine rebounds, and No. 24 Marquette never trailed in an 83-73 victory over No. 12 Villanova. Marquette won for the eighth time in nine games and completed its first regular-season sweep of Villanova since 2011-12. The Golden Eagles won 57-54

By ANDREW DAMPF AP Sports Writer BEIJING (AP) — Stefan Rogentin of Switzerland posted the fastest time of 1 minute, 44.0 seconds in the opening downhill training session of the Beijing Olympics. Adur Etzezarreta of Spain was 0.08 seconds behind in second and Christof Innerhofer of Italy was 0.26 behind in third. But times and