Sharapova will miss Olympics
Maria Sharapova will miss the Beijing Olympics because of a right shoulder injury.
The three-time Grand Slam singles champion said on her Web site Thursday that an MRI exam and other medical tests showed she has two small tears in tendons in her shoulder.
Others who won’t play in Beijing for various reasons include past Grand Slam singles champions Andy Roddick, Amelie Mauresmo and Mary Pierce.
Russians suspended for doping
After a 1 1/2 -year investigation, the IAAF provisionally suspended seven female Russian athletes, accusing them of tampering with their urine samples. The list includes Yelena Soboleva, a world record-holder and world champion middle-distance runner who was favored to win the 800 and 1,500 meters at the Olympics.
The seven athletes, many of them potential Olympic medalists, come from several disciplines, from middle-distance running to the hammer and discuss throw.
•The new head of USA Track & Field wants the 1,600 relay world record set by the United States a decade ago erased as a national mark because it is tainted by doping.
The record of 2 minutes, 54.20 seconds was set at Uniondale, N.Y., on July 22, 1998, by the team of Jerome Young, Antonio Pettigrew, Tyree Washington and Michael Johnson.
In May, Pettigrew admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs dating to 1997.
James leads U.S. over Turkey
LeBron James scored 20 points and was a defensive force in his exhibition debut, helping the United States Olympic team overcome some early sloppy play to beat Turkey 114-82 in its first game in China.
James and Bryant both finished with five steals, leading a defensive effort that had 16 of them.
“We love defense as a team because we have a lot of guys who can get at it defensively, cause some havoc and make a lot of plays,” guard Dwyane Wade said.
James was 8 of 9 from the field and finished with six rebounds, five steals and four assists in 23 minutes, sitting out the fourth quarter.
Turkey didn’t qualify for the Olympics but has an automatic berth into the 2010 world championships as the host country.
Senators call for Olympic truce
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators called for an Olympic truce in Darfur during the Beijing Olympics.
The senators introduced a resolution that urges China to pressure trading partner Sudan to end the violence that has claimed an estimated 300,000 lives and displaced 2.7 million others.
The resolution was welcomed by Team Darfur, a group of athletes urging Sudan and China to observe the truce, a tradition that dates to the ancient Olympics.
Germans appeal FIFA ruling
The German soccer club Werder Bremen will appeal to the highest court in international sports, looking to overturn a FIFA decision obligating teams to release players 23 and younger for the Olympics.
Bremen, the German team Schalke and FC Barcelona are trying to reverse the ruling set by soccer’s governing body Wednesday.
Barcelona would lose Lionel Messi to Argentina for the Beijing Games, while Bremen’s Diego and Schalke’s Rafinha would play for Brazil.
Bremen appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and the club said it was told by the court that a ruling could come by Tuesday at the latest. The Olympic soccer tournament begins Thursday.
•The Court of Arbitration for Sport will hear an attempt to stop Australia’s Angie Darby from competing in the modern pentathlon at the Beijing Olympics next week.
The Greek pentathlon federation will present its case to CAS on Wednesday – two days before the opening ceremony – to have Darby replaced by Donna Vakalis of Greece.
The federation claims Darby is not eligible to compete because she failed to meet the full requirements of the five-event discipline when she qualified for Beijing by winning the Oceania championship in Tokyo last year.
The fourth of the five disciplines – show jumping – wasn’t contested because of an outbreak of equine influenza in Japan.