Sports

Skiers on ski jumps slopes, ahead of the French Alps 2030 Winter Olympic Games, at the Courchevel Olympic ski jump site, on January 30, 2026. ALEX MARTIN / AFP The embattled organising team for the 2030 Winter Olympics in the French Alps needs to speed up work and pull together, the senior Olympic official overseeing the preparations said on Tuesday, February 3. Pierre-Olivier Beckers, the head of the International Olympic Committee's coordination commission for the 2030 Games, said at an IOC Session ahead of the Milan-Cortina Winter Games that preparations were "behind schedule." Beckers, a Belgian aristocrat, conceded that the French team had a shorter preparation time than in other Winter Olympics, having only begun work i...

Olympic gold medalist at the Beijing Games in 2022 and five-time world ice dance champion as part of a duo, Gabriella Papadakis reached the pinnacle of her sport at age 26. The French skater, who bid farewell to competition in 2024, looks back on her athletic career and her journey as a woman in a book, Pour ne pas disparaître ("So as Not to Disappear"). In it, she paints an unflattering portrait of her former partner, Guillaume Cizeron, who was crowned European champion on January 17 with his new partner, Laurence Fournier Beaudry. Before the book's release, Cizeron condemned it, saying it "contains false information, attributing to me, among other things, statements I never made and that I consider serious." I wouldn't be here if… … If my mother hadn't been ...

Snow cannons are used to prepare ski slopes and ski jumping hills in Livigno, Italy, December 26, 2025. MATTIA OZBOT/GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP Excess has found its way into a corner of paradise. In Livigno, the Santa Maria Nascente church has towered for centuries over traditional chalets, former farms, restaurants and small shops. Its architectural harmony preserves the authenticity of this large village, which is perched on the border of Italy and Switzerland and nicknamed "Little Tibet" for its harsh winters at 1,800 meters above sea level. With the Milan Cortina Olympic Games – running from February 6 to 22 – that harmony has been disrupted. A steel structure 55 meters high and 180 meters long, where athletes will defy gravity, has been erected at the entran...

A worker in front of the Paris 2024 Olympic Village construction site, which straddles the towns and cities of Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine, L'Ile-Saint-Denis and Saint-Denis. February 27, 2024. IAN LANGSDON/AFP A complex web of companies, front men, undeclared and undocumented workers and a main contractor claiming to have seen nothing all allegedly converged in the construction of an Olympic Village, where athletes from around the world gathered for one of the biggest international sporting events in summer 2024. While the Paris Olympic Games are now just a memory, a trial concerning such dealings opened at the courthouse in Bobigny, near the French capital, on Monday, February 2. It is scheduled to run until February 20. During the proceedings, 21 individuals an...

As its name suggests, the FIFA World Cup is meant to be a universal event, a major popular celebration – at least in theory. The 2026 edition, scheduled from June 11 to July 19 in Mexico, Canada and above all the United States – where 78 of the 104 matches will be played – seems to be taking a very different path. Donald Trump's domestic and foreign policies have complicated preparations for the tournament and have generated widespread anxiety about how it will be held. Within this context, the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, has been notably silent and has withstood the MAGA leader's decisions without protest –as if he were a powerless bystander to the preparations for an event he is supposedly overseeing. The FIFA chief has repeatedly promoted this as the ...

US' Lindsey Vonn reacts after crashing as she competes in the women's downhill race part of the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup 2025-2026, in Crans Montana, Switzerland, on January 30, 2026. FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP US skier Lindsey Vonn insisted her dream of competing at next week's Winter Olympics was not over despite a crash during the Crans-Montana downhill event on Friday, January 30. "I crashed today in the downhill race in Switzerland and injured my left knee," the 41-year-old American ski racer said on social media. "My Olympic dream is not over." Vonn, the 2010 Olympic downhill champion and one of the most recognisable faces in world sport, lost control on a turn and skidded out into the safety netting during Friday's race, the final downhill ...

France's prop Uini Atonio takes part in a training session at the Louis II Stadium (Stade Louis II) in the Principality of Monaco, on July 4, 2023. VALERY HACHE / AFP France prop Uini Atonio has had to retire from all rugby with immediate effect after being hospitalized on Tuesday, January 28 after "a heart attack," his club La Rochelle announced in a statement. The 35-year-old New Zealand-born star had been a pivotal figure for France, under coach Fabien Galthié, winning two Six Nations titles, including the Grand Slam in 2022. He was still part of Galthié's plans, having been named in his initial squad last week for France's upcoming defense of their Six Nations crown. "Atonio was admitted to La Rochelle hospital yesterday ...

French NBA player Victor Wembanyama said Tuesday, January 27, that he was "horrified" by the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti shot dead in Minneapolis by ICE officers during anti-immigration operations launched by Donald Trump. "Every day I wake up and see the news, and I'm horrified," responded the San Antonio Spurs center when asked during his team's training session. He called it "crazy that some people might make it seem like, or make it sound like it’s acceptable," as some in the US government defended the agents involved. The French star was nevertheless cautious: "I'm conscious also that saying everything that's on my mind would have a cost that's too great for me right now." "I know I'm a foreigner. I live in this count...

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Wednesday, January 28, urged the US government to provide reassurances to World Cup visitors, days after images of federal immigration agents killing a second person in Minneapolis sent shockwaves around the world. The United States is co-hosting this summer's football showcase with Canada and Mexico. Most of the games are being staged in the United States, with concerns growing among overseas visitors that they could be caught up in President Donald Trump's often brutal immigration crackdown. "We need to show a better face to the world, that we are going to welcome people, that they're not going to have immigration problems," Bass said. Bass told reporters she was "sure" that sports fans visiting Los Angeles for the ...