Sports

The start of this carriage dispute even nixed a US Open viewing session on a screen at New York’s Hudson Yards. While DirecTV, DirecTV Stream, and U-verse customers miss the services they pay for and Venu Sports remains on hiatus, both sides point fingers over the blackout.

Disney / ESPN:

...we will not enter into an agreement that undervalues our portfolio of television channels and programs.

DirecTV:

Disney is again taking an anti-consumer approach, demanding that customers from DirecTV and other TV distributors be forced to pay for channels they don’t watch...

Netflix is about to look back at the history of WWE co-founder Vince McMahon with a six-episode series premiering September 25th. Just after Netflix signed a 10-year $5 billion dollar deal with WWE in January, McMahon was accused of sex trafficking and abuse and resigned as executive chairman of its parent company, TKO.

The series covers McMahon’s transformation of WWE from a small, regional business into a global entertainment powerhouse, and the explosive sexual misconduct allegations that led to his eventual resignation.

The good ol’ days: two fun, funny anchors telling you about the day in sports.

The future, according to ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro:

By the time the flagship ESPN streaming service launches, he said, AI tools will be able to deliver a personalized version of SportsCenter to individual viewers based on their preferences.

It’s year two for NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube, and it appears there’s not a ton of new stuff, but the combination of Yahoo Fantasy integration and a build-your-own-multiview feature is right up my alley. Sunday Ticket is expensive, but might be worth it.

Oh, and PSA: do not under any circumstances subscribe through the App Store. That price is highway robbery.

If you’re still trying to get that Olympic feeling back, sprint athlete Nick Mayhugh has a reminder that the Paralympic Games are right around the corner and will be at least as exciting on social media as the Olympics were.

The Opening Ceremony takes place on August 28th, so you have until then to try to figure out unique sports, like murderball, aka wheelchair rugby, and exactly how classification works.

Yesterday, we got a cetacean entry in the annals of photobombing. Congratulations to everyone involved, and also to me, since I have watched this clip like 10 times.

A team from Belgium pulled out of a Monday event and Switzerland changed its lineup for a mixed relay race because athletes got sick.

Risky levels of E. coli in the river have forced officials to postpone at least one triathlon event. But the teams haven’t confirmed whether their athletes’ illness is because of swimming in the Seine.

This Its Nice That writeup dives into the animations made by design agency Kreatives to explain how adaptations, rules, equipment, and classifications differ between Paralympic sports and their traditional counterparts.

Kreatives co-founder Franzi Sessler says “We wanted to move away from the typical explainer video style and tell the story from the athlete’s perspective.” You can check them out on the official Paralympic social accounts.

I’ve been following LuckyMong for a while now because of their incredible (and incredibly fast) illustrations of NBA players. Now, like much of the world, the artist has turned their attention to the Olympics in Paris with very fun images of just how tall Victor Wembanyama is, and South Korean pistol shooter Kim Ye-ji looking like a Metal Gear Solid character.

Moments after winning gold in the women’s team gymnastics final, Simone Biles and Sunisa Lee were thinking ahead... about what TikTok video they should make.

“I wanna do the one that says, ‘Imagine what you would do if you didn’t win,’” Lee says, referencing a viral sound bite from a Kanye West award show speech. They made the TikTok, obviously.

This viral photo of Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina’s mid-air celebration from the 2024 Paris Olympics was suspected by some to be AI or Photoshop.

But it’s just an excellently timed pic by photographer Jérôme Brouillet, and The Guardian has some background on how he anticipated the moment and nabbed it.

The Financial Times takes a look at the latest generation of shoes with carbon-fiber plates that have helped deliver an uptick in record-smashing long-distance performances ever since the Nike Vaporfly was released in 2017. Other brands are now catching up with their own shoe tech:

Nike and Adidas are not the only brands with super shoes. Asics, New Balance, On, Puma, Saucony and Under Armour have all developed competitive models with carbon fibre and springlike foam cushioning.

The piece includes CT scans and independent analysis of the latest Nike and Adidas models worn by many of the top Olympians in Paris.

Canadian officials now say that in addition to the drone practice spying incident earlier this week, "additional information has come to our attention regarding previous drone use against opponents, predating the Paris 2024 Olympic Games."

Canada Soccer CEO & General Secretary Kevin Blue:

In light of these new revelations, Canada Soccer has made the decision to suspend Women’s National Soccer Team Head Coach, Bev Priestman for the remainder of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, and until the completion of our recently announced independent external review.

According to a release by French prosecutors, Joseph Lombardi, the “unaccredited analyst” with Canada’s Olympic women’s soccer team, accepted a suspended eight month imprisonment sentence after admitting to spying on New Zealand’s team to learn its tactics.

The sport’s governing body has opened proceedings against Canada Soccer, while New Zealand has asked that no points be awarded to Canada if it wins today.

No, this isn’t another cardboard bed situation — the reasons for blocking the app make sense and mirror similar actions that Grindr took during the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022, after it was used to out a number of athletes during the previous Rio Games.

“For the first time, U.S. subscribers can stream MLB Network 24/7 including select out-of-market games,” writes MLB. It’s $5.99 a month — or $6.99 to bundle live audio for every MLB team.

For football, NFL Plus costs $6.99 a month. Basketball is $14.99 a season for NBA League Pass, though the 2025-2026 season will now come to Amazon Prime Video as well.

Really.

NZOC:

On July 22, a drone was flown over the New Zealand women’s football team training session in St Etienne.

Team support members immediately reported the incident to police, leading to the drone operator, who has been identified as a support staff member of the wider Canadian Women’s football team, to be detained.

Canada -- the defending champ -- plays New Zealand Friday. TSN notes Honduras accused Canada's men's team of drone spying in 2021, while France's prime minister said security is intercepting six drones per day.

Samsung gave 17,000 of its Galaxy Z Flip 6 phones to athletes and others around the Olympic and Paralympic games, and here’s one more unboxing.

The phone itself isn’t more impressive than anyone else’s, but British rower Imogen Grant chose a tough upgrade path — the phone she’s replacing was another freebie from Samsung that she picked up at the Tokyo Olympics.