HUMANOID ROBOT BREAKS USAIN BOLTS 100M RECORD IN BEIJING GAMES

 

HUMANOID ROBOT DEMOLISHES USAIN BOLT'S RECORD

 

CHINA'S ROBOT ARMY ASSEMBLES FOR WORLD ROBOTIC GAMES 2026 | BEHIND THE SCENES

 

BEIJING 2025 | FINAL

BEIJING 2025 | SEMI-FINALS

 

COCO GAUFF VS. BELINDA BENCIC | ROUND 4 | BEIJING OPEN 2025 | WTA TOUR

 

BELINDA BENCIC VS. COCO GAUFF | 2026 BEIJING | WTA TOUR

 

HIGHLIGHTS | BEIJING 2015 | QUARTER-FINALS

 

BEIJING 2025 | DAY 2

BEIJING 2025 | DAY 1

 

JANNIK SINNER PLAYS FIRST MATCH SINCE US OPEN FINAL VS. MARLIN CILIC | BEIJING 2025

 

WORLD ATHLETICS CONTINENTAL TOUR | BEIJING HIGHLIGHTS | CONTINENTAL TOUR 2025

 

BRADLEY WIGGINS: TOUR DE FRANCE WINNER ADMITS TO COCAINE ADDICTION, WHO IS HIS EX-WIFE CATH, CHILDREN

Sir Bradley Wiggins has revealed he became addicted to cocaine in the years following his retirement from professional cycling.

In an interview with The Observer, the 45-year-old former Tour de France winner and five-time Olympic champion spoke openly about his drug use, which he says nearly killed him.

“There were times my son thought I was going to be found dead in the morning,” Wiggins said. “I was a functioning addict. People wouldn't realise – I was high most of the time for many years.”

Wiggins retired from cycling in 2016 after a storied career that saw him win Olympic golds across the Athens, Beijing, London, and Rio Games, as well as becoming the first Briton to win the Tour de France in 2012. But after his retirement, he spiralled into depression, addiction, and financial ruin.

“I realised I had a huge problem. I had to stop. I'm lucky to be here,” he said. “I already had a lot of self-hatred, but I was amplifying it. It was a form of self-harm and self-sabotage. It was not the person I wanted to be. I realised I was hurting a lot of people around me.”

An Audience with Sir Bradley Wiggins, Sunday February 16. Sir Bradley Marc Wiggins, is a British former professional road and track racing cyclist, who competed professionally between 2001 and 2016 and he is coming to Halifax to share tales of his illustrious career.

“There's no middle ground for me. I can't just have a glass of wine – if I have a glass of wine, then I'm buying drugs. My proclivity to addiction was easing the pain that I lived with.”

Wiggins, who says he has now been clean for a year, also credited disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong for helping him through recovery. Armstrong, stripped of his seven Tour de France titles for doping, has been offering to pay for Wiggins’ therapy. “He’d worried about me for a long time,” Wiggins said, adding that Armstrong also speaks regularly with his son, Ben. “He speaks to Ben a lot about me.”

Despite becoming Britain’s most decorated Olympian, being knighted in 2013, and earning a reported £13 million during his career, Wiggins’ personal life has been marked by deep trauma, family breakdown, and more recently, bankruptcy.

Who is Bradley Wiggins’ ex-wife?

In June 2024, Wiggins was declared bankrupt, and earlier this year admitted he had nowhere to live. His marriage to Cath Wiggins, his long-time partner and mother of his two children, had broken down, and a subsequent relationship also ended.

Sir Bradley Wiggins looks on before the start of Stage Four of the 2014 Tour of Britain. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images) | Getty Images

Does Bradley Wiggins have children?

The couple share two children: Ben, 19, a promising cyclist crowned junior world champion in the Madison, and Isabella, 18. Despite Wiggins’ public scandals and personal struggles, both children and his ex-wife have been by his side.

“There were some really extreme moments,” Wiggins said on The High Performance Podcast. “Probably the last one was about a year ago… I was in a very dark place in a very dark room for many days… it was a hotel, and my son actually was the one who kind of intervened and made me realise, recognise the self-destructive mode I was in.”

Cath said previously: “I've no doubt whatsoever in his integrity as an athlete, none whatsoever. Nor did the children. They never once doubted their dad.”

Wiggins has spoken openly in recent years about being sexually abused as a teenager by his coach at the Archer Road Club, Stan Knight, who is now deceased.

He was also raised largely without his father, Gary Wiggins, an alcoholic and abusive former cyclist who walked out when Bradley was just 18 months old. Though the two reconciled briefly in adulthood, Gary was later found dead under suspicious circumstances in Australia in 2008.

- Rahmah Ghazali

NAOMI OSAKA | LUCIA BRONZETTI | BEIJING 2024 | HIGHLIGHTS

 

MLB PRESENCE IN MEXICO GOES BEYOND JUST HOSTING ANOTHER REGULAR SEASON

AP Photo 

 MEXICO CITY (AP) — When the Houston Astros take on the Colorado Rockies this weekend, it will be the seventh regular-season series played in Mexico. Major League Baseball's presence in the country, however, goes far beyond that.

Mexico became one of only six countries in the world with an MLB office in 2016. For Rodrigo Fernandez, the head of the organization south of the border, the regular-season series may be the biggest event, but it's far from the only one held in the country.

Among those, the MLB office runs a program called First Pitch to promote the game among kids. Another is the MLB Cup, a nation-wide tournament for 11 and 12 year olds that recently finished its fifth championship.

“For us (the series) is the cherry on top of the cake because we have many activities through the year,” Fernandez told The Associated Press. “The MLB Cup is broadcasted by ESPN and is the biggest tournament of its kind in Mexico. Those kids are Mexico’s future.”

The MLB office in Mexico, alongside the Mexican baseball federation, held the tournament with 28 teams. The finals were played in Mexico City.

“We want to send the message to kids that we are interested in them playing baseball. Many of them will probably end up being signed by the Mexican Baseball League, but also, they are going to play for the national team in their age group,” Fernandez said.

Fernandez has been the only director of the office since its creation in 2016. Before taking over, he worked as general manager of operations for World Wrestling Entertainment for Mexico and Latin America.

Besides Mexico, Major League Baseball has offices in London, Tokyo, Beijing and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The office is inside a luxury tower adjacent to the upscale Artz Pedregal shopping mall in the southern part of the city.

Even though Fernandez's position remains the same, some of the goals from MLB in Mexico have changed. In 2016, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said he wanted to see if Mexico could be a potential site for expansion. But a year ago, Manfred said he’s “never been close to the idea of Mexico as an expansion opportunity.”

“Commissioner Manfred has a commitment and very high interest in Mexico, however there are several factors that have made us change our strategies and now solidifying the local leagues is the main step for us,” Fernandez said.

The MLB office in Mexico already works closely with the Mexican baseball federation and they are trying to forge a closer relationship with the Mexican Baseball League, led by league president Horacio de la Vega.

Since de la Vega took over in 2021, the league has seen increased attendance at stadiums, the games are broadcast on national TV and on streaming services. That has helped grow the sport’s popularity among a new generation of fans.

“I think (fan attendance) has increased, before there were a lot of old people in the park,” 63-year-old fan Carlos Hernandez said before a game between the Diablos Rojos and Tigres in Mexico City. “And now there are more fans, especially young ones.”

According to Othon Diaz, the Diablos Rojos president, nine years ago 53% of the team’s fans were 55 years or older and now 74% of them are under 45. Also, they averaged 3,000 fans per game and now it’s up to 11,000.

For some of those hard-core fans, having an MLB regular-season series is nice, but only for those who can afford it.

Fernandez said tickets for the Astros-Rockies series sold out in an hour and now the asking price on the resale market goes from $70 up to $580.

“It’s a good show, but the ticket prices are a little bit high. With the cheapest one you could come (to see the Diablos Rojos) for half of a season,” said Hernandez, who went to see the Diablos with his wife and two sons.

Mexico first hosted MLB games in August 1996, when the San Diego Padres faced the New York Mets in Monterrey. The Padres faced the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2018. And in 2019, the Cincinnati Reds played the St. Louis Cardinals, and the Houston Astros faced the Los Angeles Angels.

Mexico City was due to host a series between the Padres and the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2020, but it was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. Last year, the Padres played against the San Francisco Giants.

According to Fernandez, there are plans to bring regular-season games to Mexico every year through 2026, though not necessarily at the same venue. Meanwhile, the work continues to help spread the popularity of baseball in the country.

-CARLOS RODRÍGUEZ

TENSIONS BETWEEN CHINA AND NBA ARE 'WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE' - NETS OWNER

Joe Tsai. USA TODAY Sports 

 Joe Tsai, owner of the Brooklyn Nets basketball team, said the NBA is “in a very good place” in its relationship with China, four years after Beijing took games off air following remarks about the 2019 Hong Kong protests by a team executive.

At a sports convention in Macau on Friday, Tsai said the U.S. basketball league and China, home to 300 million NBA fans, have mended their relationship.

Beijing suspended the broadcast of NBA games in 2019 after Daryl Morey, then general manager of the Houston Rockets team, tweeted in support of anti-government protests in Hong Kong. Chinese state television only resumed broadcasting games about a year later.

ANGER OVER MESSI'S ABSENCE IN HONG KONG GAME SPREADS: ARGENTINA FRIENDLY IN MAINLAND CHINA CANCELLED

AP

 HONG KONG (AP) — An Argentina soccer friendly in China next month was canceled on Friday in more fallout from Lionel Messi failing to play in a club exhibition match in Hong Kong.

World Cup champion Argentina, captained by Messi, last month scheduled a tour of China during the international break from March 18-26. Games were lined up against Nigeria in Hangzhou and Ivory Coast in Beijing. Both opponents are coincidentally meeting in the Africa Cup of Nations final this weekend.

But Messi, on tour with his Inter Miami club, outraged fans in Hong Kong when he didn't play against a local selection last Sunday and remained on the bench. Messi said he had a groin injury. But his excuse didn't wash in Hong Kong after he played for 30 minutes on Wednesday in Tokyo against Vissel Kobe.

On Friday, the sports bureau in Hangzhou canceled the Argentina-Nigeria friendly.

“Because of the reasons known to all, we've learned from supervising authorities that the conditions are immature for the match to go forward. Now it’s been decided that the match will be canceled,” the Hangzhou Sports Bureau announced on its official social media account.

An Argentina Football Association official told the Associated Press it was aware the match was suspended and was looking for another venue to play Nigeria. The official spoke on condition of anonymity saying, “It’s a sensitive matter.”

SINNER SUBDUES MEDVEDEV TO CLAIM BEIJING CROWN

Reuters

Jannik Sinner produced a determined display to capture his third title of the year and ninth overall with a 7-6(2) 7-6(2) victory over second seed Daniil Medvedev in the final of the China Open on Wednesday.

Sinner came into the clash having lost to Medvedev in their previous six meetings, including two earlier this season in the finals of Rotterdam and Miami, but the Italian kept pace with his opponent and sealed a opening first set via a tiebreak.

Both players struck brutal blows from the baseline and raced through their service games in the next set, before the 22-year-old Sinner raised his level again in the tiebreak to complete a memorable win in Beijing.

STAUNCH LIONEL MESSI SUPPORTER ZHANG JIAO GROM.CHINA

Reuters

For thirtysomething Zhang Jiao, after realising her dream of witnessing Argentina soccer great Lionel Messi lift the World Cup every match he plays from now on is "precious".

Zhang travelled from Shanghai to Beijing this week to join scores of other giddy Messi fans as the Argentina captain came to town to play a friendly against Australia.

"For Messi fans, you really have to cherish the remaining time," said Zhang, who was still trying to get a ticket for Thursday's game.

"It is just a friendly game, so there is not much competitive value in it. So why should I come to Beijing this time? But any opportunity to come here, to see him in a game, is valuable, precious, because you know there are not that many left."

Not initially a soccer fan, Zhang was hooked at first sight in her Shanghai university dorm when she watched Messi make his World Cup debut as a teenager in 2006.

During the course of Messi's glittering career she has watched hundreds of his matches on TV, often getting up in the middle of the night to see him play for Barcelona or Paris St Germain.

Zhang has travelled to Messi's hometown in Argentina and to the last three World Cups to see him play.

She visited a monastery in Tibet ahead of the last year's tournament to pray for her biggest wish to come true, for Argentina to win in Qatar.

And she watched all seven of his matches from the stands in Qatar, culminating in Argentina's victory over France in the final.

"The feeling was then I no longer had any regrets in my life," she said.

"It was definitely the highlight of my life after so many years, because not only I realised my dream, Messi also realized the dream. So I witnessed this double dream."

Welcome Distraction 

As she sat on the touchline of an artificial pitch surrounded by dozens of other Chinese fans sporting Argentina shirts having a kickabout, Zhang reflected on the importance of her Messi fandom to her life.

It had allowed her to travel the world, meet people, make friends, share experiences she would not have otherwise had and, she felt, become a more positive person.

It had also proved a welcome distraction from the notoriously long hours demanded of Chinese employees in her jobs at a management consultancy and internet companies.

"It will make you feel that, in fact, life is actually still very good after all," she said, tears filling her eyes.

"I find Messi can give you a kind of power ... I may have had a very annoying, frustrating or bad time at work, but at least at that time you will feel that you still have something that you love."

Messi, at 35, is approaching the twilight of his career as he prepares to move to Inter Miami in the United States and Zhang hopes he will play on for as long as possible, even if she doubts he will be at the 2026 World Cup.

"One day he will retire, and I can only say that on that day, I can only slowly think back to his long years of playing football, which brought me so much happiness, so many happy moments, I will be especially grateful to him," she said.

MESSI NETS HIS FASTEST ARGENTINA GOAL IN WIN OVER AUSTRALIA IN BEIJING

Lionel Messi delighted Argentina fans in Beijing when he scored the fastest goal of his international career, netting after 79 seconds as the world champions beat Australia 2-0 in a friendly at a raucous Workers' Stadium on Thursday.

Fans immediately got their money's worth when Argentina won the ball in Australia's half in the second minute and Enzo Fernandez found Messi, who sidestepped two defenders before beating the keeper with a curling shot from outside the box.