In Style: Naomi Osaka is "more sure of herself than ever before" upon the eve of her tennis return.

The ATP Tour announces its 2023 ATP Award winners, including stars Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Janik Sinner, and more.

Canadian tennis star Bianca Andreescu may pass on the Australian Open next month, but certainly has Paris 2024 on her mind.

How flexible are you compared to tennis champion Novak Djokovic?

Short track speed skater Lin Xiaojun (Lim Hyo-jun) feels the heat on Chinese social media.

SFGate offers some reason for San Francisco Giants baseball fans to be excited about Tokyo 2020 Olympian Jung-hoo Lee's arrival next season.

Meanwhile, Beijing 2008 bronze medalist John Gall is named the new president of USA Baseball: "I am humbled and privileged".

Who will be FIFA's 'best' male and female soccer players of 2023? We'll find out January 15...

Laia Aleixandri and Lucia Garcia write for The Players' Tribune on *not* playing for Team Spain at the recent FIFA World Cup and how that came to be.

"It is something magical, though, with the Olympics." Champion soccer player Julie Foudy talks Paris 2024 vs the next World Cup with CNN.

Four-time Alpine skiing Olympian Aksel Lund Svindal talks of the Games' ability to inspire in the latest Olympic Review.

Team Ukraine's recent mixed relay biathlon junior success has caused sights set on Milano Cortina 2026. (in Ukrainian)

"Clunky"? Count The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw as not a fan of The Boys in the Boat film on Team USA's Berlin 1936 rowing champions.

Champion New Zealand golfer Lydia Ko looked for some fellow champion's advice after closing out a disappointing 2023 season.

Tokyo 2020 qualification disappointment has U.S. triathlete Taylor Knibb wary as 2024 approaches.

"Madness" is how skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych describes the IOC's decision to allow Russians and Belarusians at Paris 2024. (in Ukrainian)

Double world champion gymnast Rhys McClenaghan is 2023's RTE Sports Sportsperson of the Year.

Weightlifter Maude Charron, skateboarder Fay de Fazio Ebert, gymnast Felix Dolci, and archer Eric Peters are just some of Team Canada's aspiring Olympians put through the media paces ahead of Paris 2024.

Gymnast Lukas Dauser has a 'soaring level of confidence' after a big 2023 both on and off the mat.

Could we see Team Kenya's 'Ice Lion's ice hockey squad at a Winter Olympics in the (near) future?

World track cycling champion Wong Kam-po looks to... North Korea?...for Hong Kong sporting success.

​Cycling star Tom Pidcock aims to 'prove himself' at the 2024 Tour de France ahead of the Paris Olympics.

Olympians dominate USA TODAY's looks at 'sports' biggest cheats': road cyclist Lance Armstrong, sprinters, Marion Jones and Ben Johnson, modern pentathlete Boris Onischenko, marathoner Frederick Lorz, and figure skater Tonya Harding.

World Athletics: Long-distance runner Faith Kipyegon sure removed any doubts of her career resume with a world-record 2023 season.

​​Jamaican junior triple jumper Jaydon Hibbert makes Bowerman Award history.

For sprint hurdler Kostas Douvalidis, watching Paraskevi Patoulidou's Barcelona 1992 triumph was a "stimulus" for his start in the sport. (in Greek)

Not being on the BBC's shortlist of 'SportsPersonality of the Year' just provides more Paris 2024 motivation for world champion runner Josh Kerr.

Winning the 2023 European Cross Country title has put 'Paris (2024) pressure and glory' onto Team France runner Yann Schrub.

(But he and heptathlete Katerina Johnson-Thompson win 2023 accolades from the British Athletics Writers Association...)

Mackenzie Little has big plans for 2024: both throwing the javelin at Paris 2024 and completing her first-year as a full doctor.

Will Team USA basketball star Draymond Green's on-court dramas finally push his Golden State Warriors to a breaking point this season?

Australian star swimmer Libby Trickett has thoughts on over-parenting and declining participation in Australian youth sports system.

Irish swimmer Daniel Wiffen's recent world record performance put his mother in a "state of shock".

SwimSwam: What should Team USA women's swimming fans be watching for in the lead-up to Paris?

A Men's Health look back: Team Italy veteran Ivan Zaytsev looks to "leave the volleyball world in better conditions" once he (finally) retires. (in Italian)

Skateboarding's Street 2023 World Championships ended today after a week of competition in Tokyo, Japan. This marked the first time that a World Skateboarding Tour event has landed in Japan - and the first skateboarding event for the new Ariake Colosseum. This was also the 13th edition of the championships.

This is actually the second world championships to be held in the 2023 calendar year, as the delayed 2022 edition was held in February, in Sharjah, UAE. Team France's Aurelien Giraud and Team Brazil's Rayssa Leal were the men's and women's champions, respectively, from that edition - note, Giraud did not compete in Tokyo to defend, but Leal did...

In the end, though, Team Japan nearly swept all the medals in its home championships, winning five of six podium finishes, including both men's and women's titles. Sora Shirai took the men's street championship, with Yumeka Oda denying Leal a successful defense for the gold in the women's category. Aside from Leal, Momiji Nishiya was the only other returning medalist from the official 2022 edition across both podiums, with her repeat bronze finish.

Congratulations to the 2023 medalists! And to everyone who earned valuable Olympic qualification points at the competition. Complete results can be found online at worldskate.org.

​2023 World Street Skateboarding Championships Medalists

Men's Street:
     Sora Shirai (JPN)
     Kairi Netsuke (JPN)
     Yuto Horigome (JPN)

Women's Street:
     Yumeka Oda (JPN)
     Rayssa Leal (BRA)
     Momiji Nishiya (JPN)

The 26th IHF Women's World Championship ended today after more than two weeks of competition across Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, concluding 2023's run of world championships in Olympic sports. Norway and Denmark previously co-hosted in 1999, after Norway had lone rights in 1993, and before Denmark's own edition in 2015. Sweden had never hosted before 2023.

Team Norway entered the 2023 edition as the defending champion from 2021. The other 31 national teams competing included co-hosts Denmark and Sweden, Angola, Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Cameroon, Chile, China, Congo, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Montenegro, Netherlands, Paraguay, Poland, Romania, Senegal, Serbia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, and Ukraine.

​Proving Scandinavian expertise in the sport, the three co-hosts came close to sweeping the 2023 podium...Team France's semifinal victory over Team Sweden denying that opportunity. The Swedes would also fall, 27-28, to Team Denmark in the bronze medal match. The final between Teams France and Norway was the fifth championship meeting between the two.

And it was another classic between women's handball heavyweights; he French entered the championship as a double world champion and the defending Olympic champion from Tokyo 2020, with the Norwegians quadruple world champions and two-time Olympic gold medalists. Team France would prevail, 31-28.

The two finalists would dominate the tournament's all-star team, too, with four of seven nominations. Norwegian Henny Reistad was named Championship MVP.

Congratulations to all of the podium finishers and award winners! Complete results can be found online at ihf.info.

2023 World Women's Handball Championships Medalists

We Dare To Dream (2023)
A Quick Film Review

Do you need an inspiring movie this holiday season? The aptly-named We Dare to Dream has been thankfully made available on streaming service Peacock, offering a just-intimate-enough look at the premise of the International Olympic Committee's Refugee Team through select featured athletes.

Responding to the increasing global refugee crisis, the IOC created the Refugee Team program to debut at Rio 2016 as a pathway to support elite athletes whose careers may have otherwise been thwarted by their stateless status.

From a team of 10 at those Rio Games, the program expanded to 29 at Tokyo 2020, with an even larger pool of candidates aiming for Paris 2024. Both the IOC's commitment to the program, and the need for it, are apparent.

We Dare to Dream takes a look at four of those Tokyo 2020 Olympians - weightlifter Cyrille Tchachet II, runner Anjelina Nadai Lohalith, canoeist Saied Fazloula, and taekwondo star Kimia Alizadeh. Each has their own unique, dramatic path to how they found themselves as a refugee, with their elite experience - Tchachet a Commonwealth Games competitor, Fazloula an Asian Games medalist, and Alizadeh a Rio 2016 medalist - underscoring the quality of athletes' abilities found on the team and the potential tragedy for their Olympic dreams to not have an outlet were it not for the Refugee Team pathway. Getting to know each backstory is the heart of We Dare to Dream, and powers one's attention as they navigate qualification, the Covid-19-enhanced circumstances of the Tokyo Games, and, ultimately, Olympic competition.

For added perspective, we also get to briefly know another taekwondo athlete, Wael Fawaz Al-Farraj, whose dashed hopes for Tokyo 2020 selection exemplify the greater number of refugee athletes not on the final team - but who persevere. "Hope is constant, and dreams must continue", offers Fawaz Al-Farraj as attention eventually turns to Paris 2024.

Directing the documentary is Waad Al-Kateab, whose own experiences as a refugee herself likely enhanced the sensitive and empathetic touch the film has with its athletes. As she knows well, "we all deserve to live, dream, and fight in a new way".

We Dare to Dream provides a welcome look at Olympic athlete stories too-often neglected amidst the common nationalistic fervor that can accompany the Games - individuals who personify the drive to compete and succeed at their chosen sport, and even despite the luxury and privilege of national system support. Is that not Olympic spirit?

Kelly Sildaru enjoys a winter wonderland.

Happy Birthday, Johanna Ordonez!

Julian Weber has a laugh.

Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe takes a hike.

Hello, Will Claye!