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Athletes Cannot Wear “Black Lives Matter” Apparel Or Protest At Olympics

HipHopWired Featured Video Source: NCAA Photos / Getty In the United States, major sporting leagues are slowly embracing athletes and their right to engage in peaceful protests such as kneeling or making a statement with their clothing. In contrast, the Olympics has banned protests and shirts containing the words “Black Lives Matter” after polling international athletes who are reportedly in favor of the ruling. Back in April, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) doubled down on their commitment to keep protests and political messaging banned from the upcoming Games according to a report from ESPN around two weeks ago. According to a survey of the athletes, it was discovered that many of the athletes agreed with the ban and would eliminate a number of protests that include fist-raisin...

Tokyo Olympics: Minister confident Nigeria will return to track and field podium

Youth and Sports Development Minister Sunday Dare is confident Nigeria’s 13 year wait for a track and field medal at the Olympics will end this year at the Tokyo Games. Nigeria last won a track and field medal at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 when the women’s 4x100m relay team and Blessing Okagbare (long jump) won silver medals and the Sports Minister is confident track and field will start delivering the medals like it did in 1996 in Atlanta. Track and Field has accounted for 13 of the 25 medals Team Nigeria have won at the Games. The sport has also delivered two of the three gold medals won with a first ever individual gold by Chioma Ajunwa in the women’s long jump. ”The performances of our athletes so far this year have given us renewed hopes that Nigerian track and field athletes can be...

Japan releases softball squad for Tokyo Olympic Games

Japanese softball team head coach Reika Utsugi has urged her players to capture Olympic gold on home soil after naming a 15-strong squad for Tokyo 2020. The team features Yukiko Ueno, captain Yamada Eri and Yukiyo Mine who helped Japan clinch softball gold at Beijing 2008 – the last time the sport featured at the Games. Pitchers Yamato Fujita and Miu Goto, who was named Most Valuable Player in last season’s Japan Women’s Softball League, as well as star outfielder Saki Yamazaki are other notable names. Haruka Agatsuma, Nayu Kiyohara, Mana Atsumi, Yuka Ichiguchi, Hitomi Kawabata, Minori Naito, Yu Yamamoto, Nodoka Harada and Sayaka Mori have also been chosen. “Of course, skills and physical competence are the necessary elements,” said Utsugi. “But in selecting the 15 members, we also took th...

NSF: 8,000 athletes, others to undergo coronavirus protocols – minister

Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, says the 20th National Sports Festival in Edo will go ahead as planned from April 2 to April 14 under strict COVID-19 protocols. Dare also said that the reduced 8,000 athletes and officials for the Games would go through all the necessary COVID-19 protocols. The minister’s Special Adviser (Media), John Joshua-Akanji, quoted him as giving the assurance on Friday in Benin after a facility tour of the venue and meeting with Gov. Godwin Obaseki of Edo. Dare said the camp for the festival would open on April 2 while the official opening of the Games would be done by President Muhammadu Buhari on April 6. He said that said that the ministry was working with relevant health stakeholders to ensure that the COVID-19 safety protocols were observ...

Minister: National Sports Festival will go ahead in April

The 20th National Sports Festival billed for Edo State will go ahead as planned from April 2 to April 14, Minister of Sports Development and Youth, Sunday Dare, said. Dare also said the 8,000 athletes and officials participating in the Games would go through all the necessary COVID-19 protocols. Dare spoke in Benin after a facility tour of the venue and meeting with Gov. Godwin Obaseki of Edo. Dare said the camp for the festival would open on April 2 while the official opening of the Games would be done by President Muhammadu Buhari on April 6. He said that said that the ministry was working with relevant health stakeholders to ensure that the COVID-19 safety protocols were observed. “We are working closely with the PTF, NCDC and others to ensure that the necessary support we need in terms...

AC Milan ready to pay €30 million for Real Madrid’s Brahim Diaz

AC Milan are willing to pay as much as €30 million (£26m/$36m) to land Real Madrid forward Brahim Diaz, with the 21-year-old having made a positive impact during his loan spell with the Serie A side. Goal can reveal that Milan bosses are keen to make the loan move permanent and, although they do not have a purchase option, they are keen to discuss a transfer with Madrid. While Brahim has always wanted to succeed at the Bernabeu, Madrid will now weigh up whether to keep him beyond the end of the 2020-21 campaign or sell for what would be a significant amount amid the coronavirus crisis. Following his loan switch to Milan in September 2020, Brahim immediately took to life in Italy and has become an important member of Stefano Pioli’s first-team squad. He has made 25 appearances in all compet...

Tokyo 2021: Japan, medical experts disagree over safe Olympics

Japanese infectious disease specialist Atsuo Hamada wants to see the Olympics happen in Tokyo this summer, but admits if they were being held anywhere else, he’d probably support a cancellation. “Even without the coronavirus pandemic, the Olympics as a mass gathering fosters all sorts of infectious diseases,” Hamada, a professor at Tokyo Medical University, told AFP. With less than six months until the pandemic-postponed Games, organisers say they’re confident the event will be safe. But some medical experts aren’t so sure, and think cancellation is safer. “I do understand the athletes’ sentiments,” said Michael Head, a senior research fellow in global health at Britain’s University of Southampton. “But I think from… the global public health point of view, there’s nothing about the Olympic...

Japan detects new coronavirus variant

Japan on Sunday reported that four people who had arrived in Tokyo from Brazil were found to be infected with a new variant of the coronavirus. The four passengers, who landed at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on January 2 from the state of Amazonas, Brazil, tested positive after spending time in the airport in quarantine, Japan’s Health Ministry announced. Takaji Wakita, head of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, said the variant was different from those already spreading in Britain and South Africa, Kyodo News reported. The institute reported that there was no evidence at present that the new strain was more contagious. Of the four, a man in his 40s had been hospitalized after his breathing difficulties worsened, a woman in her 30s complained of a sore throat and headaches, and a mal...

Billie Eilish Designs Sleek 2028 Olympics Logo

Assuming America is still intact after the global pandemic and Election Day, the 2028 Summer Olympics are set to take place in Los Angeles. The Olympics Committee has already chosen an official logo, but also enlisted a number of LA-based celebrities to design their own alternate versions. One of those chosen to participate was Billie Eilish, a fitting choice considering she just performed at the Democratic National Convention, has an aesthetic that resonates with the youth, and actually is optimistic about “my future”. For these alternate designs, celebrities were allowed to play around with just the “A” in the LA portion of the logo. Taking inspiration from her own font and merchandise (see example below), Eilish turned the “A” into a slime green GIF. The letter appears and disappears so...

NFF to interview coaches for vacant Super Falcons job

File Photo The President of Nigeria Football Federation Amaju Pinnick has disclosed that the Federation is working tirelessly to recruit qualified coaches for the country’s senior women national, the Super Falcons. The record African Women championship winners are still without a coach since former boss, Thomas Dennerby, walked out of the team a few weeks after leading the team to knock out phase of the 2019 women’s world cup in France. Christopher Danjuma was later appointed as caretaker boss after the departure of swede, but the failure of the team to qualify for the next summer’s Olympics in Tokyo automatically ruled him out of the job. Pinnick said the search for the right coach for the team has begun and the announcement will be made at the right time. “We are working to see how we ca...

Naomi Osaka overtakes Serena Williams as world’s highest-paid female athlete

Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka has become the world’s highest-paid female athlete, making US$37.4 million (S$50 million) in the past 12 months for an earnings record, Forbes magazine reported on Friday. The 22-year-old Asian star, a two-time Grand Slam champion, edged US rival Serena Williams by US$1.4 million in prize money and endorsement income over the past year. Both shattered the old single-year earnings mark of US$29.7 million set in 2015 by Russia’s Maria Sharapova, who retired in February with five Grand Slam titles, including a career Slam. “To those outside the tennis world, Osaka is a relatively fresh face with a great back story,” University of Southern California sports business professor David Carter told Forbes. “Combine that with being youthful and bicultural – two attri...

Nigeria’s Paralympic gold medalist gets four-year doping ban

Nigeria’s para powerlifter and Paralympic gold medalist, Esther Oyema, has been sanctioned by the International Paralympic Committee for violating anti-doping rules. The IPC announced a ban of four years for the athlete in a statement it issued to the press. It said that Oyema “Returned an adverse analytical finding for a prohibited substance in a urine sample provided on January 28, 2019 after competing at the Lagos International Para Powerlifting Competition in Nigeria last year”. “Consequently, the 38-year-old para powerlifter, who won gold at London 2012 Olympics in the women’s 48kg category, will be disqualified from all IPC’s competitions from May 3, 2019 to May 2, 2023.” The athletic body also stripped her of the gold medal which she won in the women’s 55kg competition in Lagos. “As...