Sports

Amanal Petros stood in Birmingham's Victoria Square, the German flag draped over his shoulders and the gold medal resting on his chest. Eleven months after narrowly missing out on a World Championship title in Tokyo, the 31-year-old had just won his first major marathon. After roughly 25 of the 42 kilometers, Petros picked up the pace on an incline, breaking up the lead pack. No one could keep up with him. He was able to savor the victory during the final two kilometers. He crossed the finish line in 2:09:11 — a record time for the men's marathon at the European Athletics Championships. "My goal was to wrap things up early," Petros said afterwards. "That worked out perfectly." The fact that Italian runner Pietro Riva finished just seven seconds behind him hardly reflected the commanding...

Germany international Jamal Musiala has collapsed during a match for the second time in four days. He was helped off the pitch looking dazed just six minutes after coming on as a subsititute in Bayern Munich's 4-2 friendly win at Heidenheim on Tuesday. Musiala collapsed in similar fashion in a match against RB Leipzig a few days earlier. After the Heidenheim game, Musiala explained in an Instagram post that the blackouts were caused by a "neurological dysfunction" known as "absence seizures." "I've been diagnosed with temporary, brief, but easily treatable absence seizures, which are due to a neurological dysfunction," he wrote in the post, which drew support from many in the football world, including Bayern keeper Manuel Neuer and former Germany and Bayern forward Thomas Müller. "The...

Former Wimbledon runner-up Nick Kyrgios has been provisionally suspended from tennis after failing a doping test, the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) announced on Wednesday. The 31-year-old Australian gave a sample at an ATP tournament in Mallorca in June that tested positive for benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine, the ITIA said. Cocaine is classified as a stimulant and substance of abuse on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Prohibited List and is banned in competition. A WADA lab confirmed the presence of the banned stimulant in Kyrgios' sample on July 17, and a provisional suspension has been in place since August 4, the ITIA said. "While suspended Kyrgios is not allowed to play in, coach at, or attend any events organised or sanctioned by World Tennis, WTA, ATP,...

"I'm really not sure if I'll carry on doing it for much longer."  Those words earlier this month, from a man who famously says very little, sparked a global conversation about whether Lionel Messi's storied career was about to end. The Argentinian posted a tribute to his father, who recently died, on Instagram. "You were by my side from the beginning; there was so little left until the end. Why couldn't you hold on just a little longer so we could finish it together?" he wrote. Messi turned 39 during a World Cup in which he belied his advanced years to drag Argentina to the final despite rarely breaking into a sprint. During the 2026 tournament, Messi scored eight goals in eight games to further cement his reputation as the best footballer of all time. "He is the greatest footballer I'...

There is probably no other sport in the world that has experienced a boom like Hyrox in recent years. What started as an idea in 2017 has, within just a few years, evolved into one of the fastest-growing fitness movements in the world. The format was developed by experienced event organizer Christian Toetzke, communications expert Michael Trautmann, and Moritz Fürste, a former member of the German national field hockey team that won gold at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics. Their basic idea was very simple: to create a competition that combines the atmosphere of a running event with the intensity of functional strength training, as many people know from time in the gym. Hyrox consists of eight functional stations interspersed by eight one-kilometer runs. "People love to either challeng...

Ukrainian Sports Minister Matviy Bidnyi says he is "outraged" at the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) decision to lift restrictions on Russian athletes and he has called on IOC President Kirsty Coventry to visit Ukraine. "Together with all Ukrainians and the entire clean sports community worldwide, I am profoundly outraged. This decision is deeply unfair to every athlete who plays by the rules, and it is a total disrespect to the memory of hundreds of Ukrainian athletes killed by Russia," Bidnyi wrote in response to a DW query. Bidnyi added that Coventry should come to Ukraine in order to "see the reality with her own eyes." "I want her to stand on our train platforms and see our defenders saying goodbye to their children before leaving for the frontline. I want her to visit our ...

Almost a week after the United States became the final co-host to exit World Cup 2026, the fallout from the suspension of striker Folarin Balogun's red card ban continues. Organizers FIFAtook the near-unprecedented decision to suspend the forward's ban after an intervention from US President Donald Trump and despite FIFA having statutes forbidding political interference. "FIFA's judicial bodies are independent," said FIFA President Gianni Infantino when defending the process. "They operate autonomously … Their independence is essential to the credibility and integrity of football, and this must always be respected." This particular decision was taken by FIFA's 18-strong disciplinary committee, or at least this was the impression given by FIFA's communications. But a report from UK news...