National Sports

By Wayne Sterling, CNN Less than two months ahead of the regular season tip-off, the NBA says it’s requiring referees and other personnel who work with players during the 2021-22 season to be fully vaccinated. “All referees must be fully vaccinated unless they have a religious or medical exemption. The referees have also agreed to

By Ben Church, CNN Cristiano Ronaldo is set to re-sign for Manchester United subject to personal terms, visa and a medical assessment, the club announced on Friday. The Premier League giant said an agreement had been reached with Juventus for the 36-year-old, who scored 118 goals in 292 games during his first spell at Old

By Aleks Klosok, Ben Church and Matias Grez Manchester City defender Benjamin Mendy has been remanded in custody after appearing in court on Friday, charged with four counts of rape and one count of sexual assault. Chester Magistrates Court verbally confirmed the news to CNN and said Mendy will remain in custody until the next

By Ben Church, CNN Cristiano Ronaldo is set to leave Juventus this season, manager Massimiliano Allegri said in a news conference on Friday. The Portuguese forward joined the Italian club on a four-year deal for a reported $117 million transfer fee in 2018 but has less than one year left on his current contract. “Yesterday,

By Sana Noor Haq, CNN Bringing a child into the world should be the happiest day of any parent’s life. But Abbas Karimi said that when his mother gave birth to him in Afghanistan, his parents were riddled with anxiety. Karimi was born without arms, diagnosed with congenital limb deficiency. “They cried so much […]

By Matias Grez, CNN Manchester City defender Benjamin Mendy has been charged by the Cheshire Constabulary with four counts of rape and one count of sexual assault. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) says the alleged events took place in Cheshire, northwest England, between October 2020 and August 2021 and relate to three complainants over the

By Wayne Sterling, CNN Twenty-three-time grand slam singles champion Serena Williams and her sister, seven-time major singles champion Venus Williams, will miss the final tennis major of the year, the US Open, the two announced on social media on Wednesday. Serena Williams announced she would not be playing because of a hamstring injury, writing on

By Amanda Davies and Sana Noor Haq, CNN Beatrice de Lavalette was 17 years old when she was at Brussels’ Zaventem Airport, heading back to the US for spring break. The next thing she remembers is darkness, and the feeling of being lifted off the ground. By chance De Lavalette had been standing next to

By Scottie Andrew, CNN The US Open will offer athletes mental health support during this year’s tournament, in addition to typical health services, US Open officials said in a statement Tuesday. Mental health care providers will join sports medicine experts from the Mount Sinai Health System at this year’s US Open in New York, scheduled

By Amir Vera and David Close, CNN A six-year corruption investigation into bribery schemes in multiple world football organizations ended Tuesday. The US Department of Justice awarded $201 million to FIFA, international football’s governing body; CONCACAF, the confederation overseeing football in North and Central America along with the Caribbean countries; CONMEBOL, the governing confederation in

By Ben Westcott, CNN Australian cyclist Paige Greco won the first gold of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics on Wednesday with the Games, delayed by a year due to the pandemic, finally underway as new coronavirus cases surge in Japan’s capital. Greco crossed the line first in the women’s C1-3 3,000 meters individual pursuit at the

By Ben Morse, CNN Sixteen days after the closing ceremony of the Olympics, Japan is hosting its next global sporting event as the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games get underway. Like the Olympics, the Paralympics are taking place a year after originally planned because of the delay caused by the coronavirus pandemic. According to the International

By Scottie Andrew, CNN At least 30 athletes competing in the Tokyo Paralympics identify as LGBTQ — a new high for LGBTQ representation at the Paralympic Games, by one count. That’s more than double the amount of athletes who publicly identified as LGBTQ in the 2016 Rio Paralympics, according to the SB Nation blog Outsports,

By Sana Noor Haq and Rachel Trent, CNN If you’re watching the Paralympic Games, you may notice an unfamiliar abbreviation, RPC. It stands for the Russian Paralympic Committee, and it’s a way of allowing Russian athletes to compete in the Paralympics while their country is banned from the Games because of one of the biggest

By Ben Church, CNN The flag of Afghanistan will be used as a symbol of “solidarity and peace” as the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games kicks off on Tuesday night in Japan. The 16th Summer Paralympics — delayed by a year due to the pandemic — will take place amid Japan’s worst outbreak of Covid-19, with

By David Williams, CNN Becca Meyers won three gold medals and a silver at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, but the swimmer, who’s deaf and blind, said being there without someone to help navigate took its toll. The two-time Paralympian announced on Tuesday that she would not be attending the Tokyo Games next