Wada has defended its process as aggrieved athletes claim the anti-doping system only works if everyone is subject to same rules Australian swimmer Shayna Jack has always denied consuming ligandrol, a banned performance enhancing drug. But, when Jack was subject to an out-of-competition anti-doping test at Tobruk Pool in Cairns in 2019, she returned an adverse analytical finding. As is protocol, Jack was issued a provisional suspension, the suspension was made public and the swimmer was ultimately handed a four-year ban from the sport. On appeal, Jack insisted that she had not knowingly taken ..read more

Australia held to goalless draw by Qatar in final qualifying game Men’s team will not join Matildas at Paris Games this year Australia’s Olympic football hopes will rest solely with the Matildas after the men’s team failed to qualify. The Olyroos were held to a goalless draw by hosts Qatar in their final group match in the Asian Under-23 Cup, which serves as the Olympic qualifying tournament, leaving them with two points and no goals from their three matches. Australia pressed for much of the match and created a series of chances, but as in their previous matches, were unable to make those c ..read more

As the uniforms for the Olympics and Paralympics are revealed to the world, we cast an eye over the threads that different countries will be wearing at Paris 2024 ..read more

Faced with competition from rival sporting events, the future of the Games hung in the balance. A century on, new hurdles are looming Paris 1924 was the sixth and last Olympics presided over by Baron de Coubertin, the modern movement’s founder. He had good reason to be pleased with his work. The French government had enthusiastically backed the enterprise, providing a budget of 20m francs and a new stadium. The Olympic rituals – the parade of nations, the rings, the oath, gold, silver and bronze medals – had been established. Above all, the Games remained the preserve of amateur athletic gentl ..read more

Lewis surges to shock 200-metre triumph at Diamond League Teen star defeats world champion in lead-up to 2024 Olympics Australia’s fastest woman Torrie Lewis has made another stunning sprint breakthrough in the run-up to the Olympics by beating the world 100 metres champ and powering to a stunning 200m triumph at the season’s opening Diamond League meeting in China. On a night in Xiamen when Armand Duplantis was setting another world pole vault record of 6.24 metres, Australia’s own soaring star led the undercard with her brilliant half-lap victory over two American stars ..read more

B-Girl Raygun knows breaking’s ‘rawness’ will be lost in Paris, but the Australian community is ready for the sport to be legitimised It had never happened before, and it may never happen again. At the final of the Breaking Oceania Championships at the Sydney town hall in October, the best B-Boy and B-Girl were to be selected as Australia’s representatives for breaking’s Olympic debut in Paris. Just weeks before, Los Angeles 2028 Games officials chose to jettison the sport from its program. It meant this tournament presented a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for two Australian breakers to go to ..read more

The anti-abortion crowd who believe embryos are ‘extrauterine children’ has been weirdly silent about the strike If you, or someone you love, has ever had fertility issues, you will know just how heavy an emotional toll they can take. IVF, in particular, is not easy. You have to inject yourself with hormones. Then you undergo anaesthesia and have an operation to retrieve the eggs. Then the embryos are made. Finally, you implant the embryos. It’s a long, expensive and involved process that can take a physical and emotional toll. At the end, you hope it’ll all be worth it. At the end, you hope t ..read more

The stadiums have been built and 8m tickets sold. Can the notoriously pessimistic French public’s enthusiasm for the Games catch up? In a live television interview under the steel and glass roof of Paris’s Grand Palais – the centrepiece of this summer’s Olympic Games – Emmanuel Macron set out his ambitions for the country’s athletes in much the same way he might outline a political manifesto. They had one goal: to take enough medals to be among the Games’ top five Olympic and top eight Paralympic nations. He was putting pressure on them, he said last week – previously described as “healthy pre ..read more

AI to be used to help judges and to identify sporting talent One video presented showed AI capturing diver in real time It was an unlikely setting for a revolution. But at Lee Valley VeloPark, where Team GB’s cyclists dominated at London 2012, the International Olympic Committee on Friday set the wheels in motion for how artificial intelligence could transform the sporting landscape. “AI will be a revolution for our society,” the IOC president, Thomas Bach, said. “And it will be a revolution for sport. It will be a fascinating new lap in the Olympic race – and in Olympic history ..read more

Australia’s fastest woman, who broke the 100m national record earlier this year, may not even race the event at the Paris Olympics She may be Australia’s fastest woman ever over 100m, but the blue-ribband event is not a priority for Torrie Lewis as she seeks to qualify for the Paris Olympics later this year. It may seem counterintuitive, but to the 19-year-old it makes perfect sense. Given the choice, Lewis, whose profile has sky-rocketed since breaking the national 100m women’s record in January, would run the 200m instead, an event she has always considered herself to be more suited to ..read more