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    Al Trautwig, a Mainstay in the TV Booth at Madison Square Garden, Dies at 68

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    The Long Island native covered 16 Olympics, and had cameos in the movie “Cool Runnings” and the TV show “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”Al Trautwig, who brought sports fans along with him to New York’s Canyon of Heroes, champagne-doused locker rooms and the medal podium at the Olympics over a broadcast career that spanned more than three decades, died at his home on Long Island on Sunday. He was 68.His death was confirmed on Monday by his son, Alex Trautwig, who said that the cause was complications from cancer.In the largest U.S. media market, one where no detail is too minute for newspaper back pages and sports talk radio, Mr. Trautwig was a familiar face on New York Rangers and Knicks broadcasts for a generation on MSG Networks. He also covered Yankees games before the team created its own cable network in 2002.Al Trautwig, right, after the Yankees won the 2000 World Series.Steve Crandall/Getty ImagesThe son of Long Island had a wider audience: he covered 16 Olympics, most recently for NBC and focusing on gymnastics. His work earned him four national Emmys and more than 30 New York Emmys, his son said. He was also named New York Sportscaster of the Year in 2000.Mr. Trautwig’s death was announced earlier on Monday by Alan Hahn, an ESPN Radio host and a studio analyst for MSG Networks, who described him in a social media post as a mentor and teacher.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Doubts raised over US travel system during 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympics

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      The United States is unprepared for the burdens placed on its air travel system when the country hosts the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, according to a report released on Wednesday.The US Travel Association, a non-profit that represents the travel industry, commissioned a report written by former government officials and industry experts. The report raises concerns about visas, creaking infrastructure and poor security technology.The report says that the World Cup, Olympics and Paralympics, 2025 Ryder Cup and celebrations for the US’s 250th birthday could draw in an estimated 40 million visitors to the country.“We’re not ready to host the upcoming mega decade of events that will draw millions of domestic and international travelers. This poses risks to our national security and hampers economic growth,” the report says.While the Trump administration has made significant cuts across the government, the US Travel Association said there needs to be investment in visa processing and airport security.“The president has been outspoken about making this the gold standard of World Cups, the best Olympics that has ever been held,” Geoff Freeman, the US Travel Association’s CEO, told ESPN. “To do those things, to achieve those goals, you’ve got to make some of these investments.”Freeman said he had met with White House officials in the last week. He highlighted visa wait times as a particular problem area, with approval times for some countries that may reach the World Cup – such as Colombia – currently running at nearly two years.“People want to come, but they’re not coming,” Freeman said. “It gets down to these visa wait times. It gets down to the customs inefficiencies. It gets down to a perception in instances that people aren’t welcome. We’re very concerned.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe US will co-host the World Cup with Mexico and Canada, although most of the game will take place in the US. Concerns have also been raised about extreme temperatures players could face during the tournament. More

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      What kind of host will Donald Trump be for the World Cup and Olympics?

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      Very soon after the outcome of the US presidential election was clear, Fifa’s president issued an old photograph of himself shaking hands with a beaming, football-clasping, Donald Trump.“Congratulations Mr President! We will have a great Fifa World Cup and a great Fifa Club World Cup in the United States of America!” Gianni Infantino wrote on social media. It was the latest example of Infantino’s oleaginous flattery of Trump, whom in 2018 Infantino called “part of the Fifa team”. And vice versa, it seems.In January 2020, during Trump’s first impeachment trial, Infantino introduced him at a dinner for CEOs in Davos and said Trump had the same “fibre” as world-class footballers. “He is a competitor,” Infantino said. “He says actually what many think, but more importantly, he does, then, what he says.” Trump called Infantino “my great friend”.The US will be the centre of the sporting world during Trump’s second term as hosts of the 2025 Club World Cup, the 2026 men’s World Cup and the 2028 Olympic Games. The expanded 48-team tournament in 2026 is a joint effort with Mexico and Canada but most matches will take place in the US. “Football Unites The World!” Infantino added in his victory message to Trump.The next American president’s power to set tone and policy may be problematic, though, given his status as a confrontational figurehead who uses sports as a tool for sowing division and scoring points against rivals, and as a politician whose nativist conservative beliefs run contrary to the progressive internationalist values espoused by many leagues and governing bodies.The competitions are money-making operations for Fifa and the International Olympic Committee and public relations opportunities for the hosts. “Every time countries host the Olympics and the World Cup they’re trying to get their message out to the world, trying to use it as an opportunity to show off. That’s kind of what hosting these mega-events are about,” says Adrien Bouchet, director of The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport. “His idea of what the United States is these days – it’ll be interesting to see what it entails.”Trump is a leader with authoritarian instincts who swept to power with a dark and violent vision of “a nation that is dying”, calling the US “like a garbage can for the rest of the world to dump the people that they don’t want”. His political platform could spark tension between the culturally open and cosmopolitan cities that will stage events and a national government stoking insularity and intolerance.If his anti-democracy aspirations are realised, the American showpieces are at risk of becoming the latest in a lengthening line of mega-events in illiberal countries. Since 2008, the Olympics have been held in Russia and twice in China; there have also been World Cups in Russia and Qatar, with tournaments in Morocco and Saudi Arabia on the horizon.The 2026 World Cup is the first “to incorporate human rights in its bidding process, which requires the US government to adhere to the highest human rights standards,” says Andrea Florence, director of the Sport & Rights Alliance, a coalition of advocacy groups. “Trump’s previous disregard to international human rights obligations could have far-reaching consequences, not only jeopardising protections in the US but potentially setting a troubling precedent for future global sporting events.“Trump’s track record of exploiting workers and weaponising trans women and girls in sport, potential plans for mass deportation of immigrants and turning military forces against citizens, and general racist, misogynistic and transphobic rhetoric are areas of particular concern – all of which can and will exacerbate human rights violations at mega sporting events.”Like Trump, Infantino spends much of his time in Florida: Fifa’s legal and ethics divisions are newly based in Miami. Fifa promises it is “committed to respecting all internationally recognised human rights and shall strive to promote the protection of these rights.”But rights groups have already sounded the alarm over Fifa’s handling of Saudi Arabia’s uncontested bid. “Fifa’s failure to implement its own human rights policies in relation to Saudi Arabia’s bid to host the 2034 World Cup make it all the more important that national, state and local officials in the US, Canada and Mexico move forward to implement the 2026 human rights framework,” said Minky Worden, director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch.With stadiums already built, the 2026 World Cup presents less risk to construction workers than Qatar 2022, Saudi Arabia or the 2030 edition that will largely be held in Morocco, Portugal and Spain. But Trump’s agenda contradicts some of the pledges outlined in Fifa’s 2026 Human Rights Framework, which says the organisation aims to make the World Cup “one of the most diverse and inclusive celebrations of all time”.The framework highlights a commitment to support potentially at-risk groups, including women, ethnic minorities, disabled people, immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers, migrant workers, LGBTQ+ people and journalists. These are all sections of society that Trump has attacked, whether through rhetoric, policy, or both.Many American sports bodies, including all the major leagues and the US Soccer Federation, have incorporated Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives into their corporate cultures and hiring practices in an attempt to boost support for, and representation of, minority groups.View image in fullscreenThese types of initiatives are certain to be targets for the Trump administration, and perhaps the conservative-dominated US supreme court. This year a right-wing legal group founded by Stephen Miller, an architect of Trump’s anti-immigration policies, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the NFL arguing that its Rooney Rule, which obliges teams to interview minority candidates for senior posts, is illegal.The Olympics and World Cup were awarded to the US during Trump’s first term and he clearly feels a sense of ownership: as the Paris Games closed, Trump credited himself with securing the Olympics. Though Trump is a friend of Fifa, relations are considerably cooler between the president-elect and the IOC, which has not commented on his victory.After some Christians criticised segments of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony as blasphemous, Trump labelled the show “a disgrace” and promised to prevent any sacrilegious content appearing in 2028.Friction between Democrat-run cities and Republican state and national leaders is a feature of American politics and it is not hard to imagine a war of words breaking out between LA 2028 organisers and the White House given the $900m in federal infrastructure funds committed ahead of the Games and since California is a liberal state Trump has routinely assailed as a hellscape. In 2020, Karen Bass, now the mayor of Los Angeles, called Trump a racist who “essentially [gives] license to racists”.Environmental goals are now routine for sporting events – LA wants to be “no car” – but it is hard to imagine a Republican administration will push organisers to keep their promises given that Trump has called climate change “a hoax” and intends to scupper clean energy projects.Trump is also expected to roll back federal protections for gay and transgender people. He targeted two female boxing Olympic gold medallists in his election campaign, claiming they are men as a justification for his plan to revoke anti-discrimination measures issued by the Biden administration. “We will of course keep men out of women’s sports,” he said – a stance that seems sure to put him at loggerheads with the IOC and other governing bodies who set gender eligibility criteria.Hurling sports deeper into the culture wars also brings risks for sponsors. In September the IOC lost one of its key supporters, Toyota, with the automaker’s chairman complaining that the Games are “increasingly political”.But Trump has sought to blur the lines between sport and politics, looking for confrontations with the NFL, NBA and the US women’s soccer team over national anthem protests against civil rights abuses. Using sports as a patriotic purity test, he has termed players with opposing political stances as un-American and said the US team were eliminated from the 2023 Women’s World Cup because players were too woke and “openly hostile to America”.He can again be expected to strain the structural tensions in American professional leagues, exploiting and widening schisms between owners, players and fans. A Guardian analysis found that nearly 95% of total political contributions to federal elections since 2020 from owners of major-league North American sports teams went to Republican causes. But many players are Democrats. Basketball’s biggest star, LeBron James, endorsed Kamala Harris, while the NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, donated to the Harris campaign.“He uses sports to divide people because so many people pay attention to sports,” Bouchet says. “There’s always going to be social tensions as it relates to politics. Unfortunately I think the next four years are probably going to be a rocky road.”Trump has cultivated friendships with sports personalities and spent election night in the company of the NHL legend Wayne Gretzky, Dana White, CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and the 2024 US Open golf champion Bryson DeChambeau. As well as using sports to burnish his celebrity status and seek political advantage, the president-elect has a direct financial stake through his golf courses, three of which hosted tournaments last year on the Saudi-financed LIV Golf tour, with another stop in 2024.Rory McIlroy expressed optimism this month that Trump can act as a peace broker between LIV and the PGA Tour. “Trump has a great relationship with Saudi Arabia. He’s got a great relationship with golf. He’s a lover of golf. So, maybe. Who knows?” McIlroy said. If Trump were to pressure Ukraine into a ceasefire in the war with Russia, Vladimir Putin may see an opening, perhaps with Trump’s help, to push for Russia’s reintegration into Fifa, Uefa and Olympic competitions.He may be less conciliatory towards Iran, who are likely to qualify for 2026: the country was allegedly behind a plot to kill him. Stadiums should be packed in a diverse nation of more than 335 million people. But Trump has vowed to reinstate and expand his first-term “Muslim travel ban”, which affected countries including Iran and Nigeria.Citizens of only 42 countries are allowed visa-free entry to the US and in some places it may already be too late for foreign fans to apply for a tourist visa to attend the finals. Last week the wait for an appointment in Bogota was 710 days; in Istanbul it was 692 days. Given Trump’s intention to devote resources to mass deportations and curtailing legal immigration, reducing Biden-era backlogs for visitors is unlikely to be a priority.Even if restrictions are temporarily eased for the tournaments, upheaval at the border, combined with an abrasive and isolationist foreign policy and economic stresses from Trump’s proposed trade tariffs, may strain relations with allies, dissuade visitors and tarnish the US’s image abroad; hardly conducive to a festive atmosphere for international sports’ biggest parties. More

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      in Elections

      Former Olympic Snowboarder Wanted by F.B.I. on Murder and Drug Charges

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      Ryan Wedding, 43, was indicted with 15 others on charges of trafficking drugs into Canada and the U.S., the authorities said. He is believed to be living in Mexico.A Canadian snowboarder who competed at the 2002 Winter Olympics is wanted by the F.B.I. on charges of conspiring to ship hundreds of kilograms of cocaine into Canada and the United States and on suspicion of orchestrating multiple murders, the U.S. attorney’s office for the Central District of California announced in a statement on Thursday.The snowboarder, Ryan James Wedding, 43, born in Thunder Bay, Ontario, was indicted along with 15 others on charges of running a transnational drug trafficking operation that shipped bulk quantities of cocaine from California to Canada from about January to April 2024, the U.S. attorney’s office said in its statement. Mr. Wedding, a fugitive who was believed to be living in Mexico, was charged with eight felonies including one count of conspiracy to export cocaine and three counts of murder in connection with a drug crime.“An Olympic athlete-turned-drug lord is now charged with leading a transnational organized crime group that engaged in cocaine trafficking and murder, including of innocent civilians,” Martin Estrada, the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said.Last year, Mr. Wedding and another defendant, Andrew Clark, 34, directed the “murders of two members of a family in Ontario, Canada,” in retaliation “for a stolen drug shipment,” the U.S. attorney’s office said. Mr. Clark was arrested earlier this month, the statement said. The duo also “ordered the murder of another victim” over a drug debt in May, according to the statement.Mr. Wedding, who had aliases including El Jefe, Giant and Public Enemy, was the leader of the criminal network, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said. The Canadian police said methamphetamines had also been trafficked by the network. Mr. Wedding “is wanted by the United States and Canada on separate charges,” the Canadian police said.There is no lawyer listed as a representative for Mr. Wedding. In 2010, Mr. Wedding was sentenced by a U.S. judge to four years in prison for conspiracy to distribute cocaine, according to court records.In 2006, Ryan Wedding was named in a search warrant in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, in an investigation concerning large quantities of marijuana, but he was never charged, according to his athlete profile on Olympics.com.The F.B.I. is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for any information leading to Mr. Wedding’s arrest.A majority of the 16 people named in the indictment were captured by the authorities in the United States and Canada as part of an operation led by the F.B.I. called Operation Giant Slalom, the Canadian police said. Slalom is an Olympic event in which competitors are timed as they ski or snowboard down a slope while weaving through a flagged obstacle course.Mr. Wedding placed 24th in the parallel giant slalom snowboarding event in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.Sheelagh McNeill More

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      in Elections

      Paris Throws a Final Olympics Bash

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      Tens of thousands cheered, clapped, danced and sang to celebrate French athletes and to relive, one last time, the Games that uplifted a nation.Paris threw its last Olympics party on Saturday, a buoyant, nostalgia-tinged celebration of the 2024 Games that drew tens of thousands of cheering spectators to the streets of the French capital for a parade of athletes and an outdoor concert around the Arc de Triomphe.The festivities started with smoky blue, white and red fireworks, echoing the start of the opening ceremony on the Seine. Flag-waving crowds then roared and sang France’s national anthem as more than 300 French Olympic and Paralympic contestants paraded up the Champs-Élysées on a giant white runway.“Thank you all,” Teddy Riner, the French judo legend, told ecstatic spectators as they sounded air horns and chanted athletes’ names. “It was incredible!”Medal-winning athletes were later decorated with state honors, some of them by retired French sports legends, and a handful were honored by President Emmanuel Macron himself. France won 64 medals, putting it in the top five of the Olympics medals count. And it earned 75 medals at the Paralympics.Athletes paraded up the Champs-Élysées on a giant white runway.Gonzalo Fuentes/ReutersAfter night fell, the Olympic cauldron floated into the air one last time and a highlight reel of the Games was projected onto the Arc de Triomphe. Performers from the opening and closing ceremonies also returned for an encore on a ring-shaped stage around the famous monument (including Philippe Katerine, a.k.a blue Smurf guy). French fencers, rugby players and others led the concertgoers through giant karaoke sessions.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Jordan Chiles Lost a Bronze. She’s Not the First American Affected by a Medal Change.

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      A court invalidated the gymnast’s win. Here are other notable cases of Americans who lost (or gained) a medal after an event.Taking away an Olympian’s medal is unusual — but not uncommon. On Sunday, the American gymnast Jordan Chiles became the latest athlete to lose one.At the Paris Olympics, Ms. Chiles had won bronze in the individual floor exercise. She originally finished in fifth place with a score that was less than one-tenth of a point from third place, but after her coach appealed, she won the bronze. That appeal, however, came four seconds too late, a court ruled, reinstating Ms. Chiles’s original score. The bronze will now go to Ana Barbosu of Romania, according to the International Olympic Committee. The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee intends to appeal the ruling.Ana Barbosu of Romania will get the bronze medal that was taken away from Ms. Chiles.Daniel Berehulak/The New York TimesSeveral other athletes in Olympic history have had to return a medal — most commonly after a failed drug test or the use of a banned substance. Here are some other notable cases of U.S. Olympians giving up their medals — or winning new ones after another athlete was disqualified.Jim Thorpe, 1912 Stockholm GamesThe American track and field star Jim Thorpe won two gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon in Stockholm, setting a world record in the latter event, with 8,412 points, that stood until 1948.But Mr. Thorpe was also talented in several other sports, including baseball, basketball and football.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Sifan Hassan Wins Olympic Marathon, Testing Limits of Endurance

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      The Dutch Olympian added a victory in the longest race of the Games to her bronze medals in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters. “What was I thinking?” she said afterward.Sifan Hassan couldn’t stop laughing at herself.“What have I done? What is wrong with me?” she said of the inner monologue that had echoed in her head through the 26.2 punishing miles of the Olympic women’s marathon on Sunday.Hassan had already logged three Olympic races, and two bronze medals from them. She ran the first heat in the 5,000 meters on Aug. 2, the final of the 5,000 on Monday and the 10,000 final on Friday night. Then, only 37 hours later, she propelled herself across the starting line in the marathon, the most demanding race of them all, and ended up crossing the finish line first.An Ethiopian-born runner who competes for the Netherlands, Hassan, 31, had described her Olympic schedule — which initially was supposed to also include the 1,500 — as one driven by curiosity. She wanted to know if she could do all three events, requiring close to 40 miles of Olympic racing. The goal, she emphasized, was not necessarily to win medals in each race: Instead, it was simply to complete all three.No athlete had taken medals in all three events at the same Olympic Games since 1952, when Emil Zatopek won three golds for what was then Czechoslovakia. In the age of specialization in elite running, though, Hassan’s decision to even try all three races was unusually bold. To claim a medal in all three was, seemingly, unthinkable. Until she did it.As the words spilled out of her after the marathon, Hassan was still wrestling with the intense physical challenge she had set for herself, of whether testing her physical limits had really been the wisest idea after all.“Every single moment I regretted that I ran the five and 10,000,” she said.During the race, she said, she kept thinking of her competitors in the marathon’s lead group — Tigst Assefa of Ethiopia, Hellen Obiri of Kenya, Sharon Lokedi of Kenya and Amane Beriso Shankule of Ethiopia among them — and their fresh, rested legs. “When are they going to break me?” she wondered.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      U.S. Men’s Basketball Was Tested. Stephen Curry Had the Answer.

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      Scott Cacciola and Stephen Curry had French defenders draped all over him like shrink wrap, but it hardly mattered. Fans across the world had seen this show before; only the stage was different. Playing in his first Olympics, Curry made the most of the moment, sinking a series of late 3-pointers — each more preposterous than the last — to lead the United States to a 98-87 win over France in the men’s basketball gold medal game.James Hill for The New York TimesJames Hill for The New York TimesCurry, the longtime face of the Golden State Warriors, scored 24 points as the United States won its fifth straight gold medal. He had plenty of help from fellow N.B.A. stars like Devin Booker and Kevin Durant, who scored 15 points apiece, and LeBron James, who added 14 points and collected his third gold medal — this time with flecks of gray in his beard.James Hill for The New York TimesJames Hill for The New York TimesJames Hill for The New York TimesThe United States has now won gold in men’s basketball at eight of the last nine Olympics, a stretch of dominance that dates to 1992 with the formation of the so-called Dream Team at the Barcelona Games.James Hill for The New York TimesJames Hill for The New York TimesSince then, the sport’s global growth has meant that the talent gap has closed. Yes, the Americans won all six of their games in Paris. But they were threatened in the semifinals by Serbia, a team headlined by Nikola Jokic, the three-time N.B.A. most valuable player, trailing by as many as 17 points before escaping with a victory.James Hill for The New York TimesThat left the United States with a chance for gold against France, which was led by Victor Wembanyama, 20, one of the N.B.A.’s emerging stars. At 7-foot-4, Wembanyama caused problems for a host of American defenders. He scored a game-high 26 points, but it was not quite enough — not against Curry, who made 8 of 13 3-pointers, and not against a U.S. team that was pushed but was not about to be broken.James Hill for The New York TimesJames Hill for The New York Times More

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      The B-Boys and B-Girls of Breaking Put a New Spin on the Olympics

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      Talya MinsbergChang W. Lee and Breaking announced itself as an Olympic sport in Paris, making a memorable debut powered by a backbeat. Time will tell if the sport — really more of an art form — will become an Olympic staple, but it didn’t lack for exposure at these Games.Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesGabriela Bhaskar for The New York TimesThe competition came to a conclusion on Saturday with the men’s event in which Phil Kim of Canada, above, known as Wizard, took the gold medal. Danis Civil of France, known as Dany Dann, won silver and the American Victor Montalvo, known as B-Boy Victor, took the bronze.Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesChang W. Lee/The New York TimesThe first Olympic medal in breaking was awarded on Saturday night to Ami Yuasa of Japan, known as B-Girl Ami. Dominika Banevic of Lithuania, known as B-Girl Nicka, earned the silver, and Liu Qingyi of China, known as B-Girl 671, took the bronze. That diverse podium shows just how far breaking, born in the Bronx in the 1970s, has spread globally.Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesWhile not everyone received positive reviews, the breakers were met with generous cheers and earnest curiosity at La Concorde in Paris. The hosts of the event, standing at the center of a stage built to look like a record, repeated a refrain every few minutes. “You are witnessing history,” they said.Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York TimesGabriela Bhaskar for The New York TimesGabriela Bhaskar for The New York TimesGabriela Bhaskar for The New York TimesIt’s hard to say how breaking’s success at these Games will be evaluated. The event will not return to the Games in Los Angeles in 2028, but it could reappear in future Olympics. By then, a new generation will have to put its own spin on the sport. Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York Times More