Action Sports
MINNEAPOLIS – ESPN’s X Games will be held in Minneapolis in 2017 and 2018, with many of the events being held in the Minnesota Vikings’ glittering new stadium.
Competitions include skateboarding, BMX and motocross. A flat track for motocross will have to be built elsewhere in Minneapolis, and the games are working with the city to identify a location, Reed said.
Basketball
LAS VEGAS – The U.S. Olympic basketball teams will host more than 350 family members of military who have died during their upcoming exhibition tours.
USA Basketball announced a partnership with the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) on Wednesday, two days before its men’s team begins its pre-Olympic schedule with a game in Las Vegas against Argentina.
MLB
DENVER – Chris Archer struck out 11 over six innings for his first win since June 6, Tim Beckham had a career-high five hits and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Colorado Rockies 11-3 on Wednesday.
Evan Longoria kept up his hot hitting with two doubles as the Rays took two of three to capture their first road series since June 6-8 at Arizona. Longoria turned in a big series with two doubles, two triples, a homer and five RBIs.
Archer (5-13) allowed two runs and four hits to halt a slide in which he had lost six of seven starts.
Jorge De La Rosa (6-7) lasted only four innings and gave up nine runs, seven of them earned. He usually fares well at Coors Field – with a better home ERA (4.27) than on the road (4.38) since joining Colorado.
Skiing
LAUSANNE, Switzerland – Norwegian cross-country skier Martin Johnsrud Sundby lost his 2015 overall World Cup and Tour de Ski titles over a doping infringement.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport said Wednesday it has suspended Johnsrud Sundby for two months as it upheld an appeal by WADA against the FIS Doping Panel, which had initially cleared the 2014 Olympic bronze medalist of wrongdoing.
According to the International Ski Federation, Dario Cologna of Switzerland takes over the 2014-15 overall championship title, and Petter Northug of Norway has been awarded the 2015 Tour de Ski title. Johnsrud Sundby still holds the overall titles for 2013-14 and 2015-16.
Soccer
LONDON – Russia’s hosting of the World Cup is becoming increasingly problematic for FIFA’s leaders after the International Olympic Committee withdrew support for sporting events being staged in the doping-tainted nation.
The IOC’s move followed this week’s second damning World Anti-Doping Agency report, which accused Russia of state-sponsored doping.
The scandal landed at FIFA’s door after Russian soccer was for the first time implicated in the alleged doping cover-up by a country that has been entrusted with soccer’s most prestigious event in 2018.
Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko, whose department is accused of orchestrating the deception, is also head of the country’s soccer federation and is a member of FIFA’s ruling council.
Associated Press
