Marketa Vondrousova withdraws from the Olympics. She won a silver medal in tennis in Tokyo

PARIS (AP) — Tokyo Olympics tennis silver medalist Marketa Vondrousova withdrew from the Paris Games on Monday because of a hand injury.

The 25-year-old from the Czech Republic won Wimbledon last year despite being unseeded and was the runner-up at the French Open — played at Roland Garros, the same site being used for tennis matches at these Summer Games — in 2019.

She is coming off a first-round exit at Wimbledon this month, the first woman since 1994 to lose her opening match a year after winning the title at the All England Club.

Vondrousova posted on social media about pulling out of the Olympics, saying that her focus now is on being ready for the U.S. Open, which starts in late August.

Hallock looking for elusive Olympic medal with US men’s water polo team

WALNUT, Calif. (AP) — Ben Hallock won in high school in Southern California. He won in college at Stanford. He won as a professional at Pro Recco, one of the top water polo clubs in the world.

Hallock has won everywhere he has played except for the Olympics. And the 6-foot-6 center desperately wants to check that box this summer.

“I'd throw every single medal away that I have now for a medal in Paris,” Hallock said. “Without a doubt.”

Paris has just about arrived for Hallock and a U.S. men's team looking for the program's first medal since it won silver in 2008. The U.S. faces Italy on the first day of men's group play on Sunday.

Jajaira Gonzalez left boxing after missing out on the Rio Olympics. She fought her way back to Paris

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Jajaira Gonzalez was scrolling through social media at her job in a Virginia kickboxing gym about three years ago when she spotted some of her former USA Boxing teammates traveling the world, competing for medals and generally living their best lives.

The Instagram post hit Gonzalez like a stiff jab, snapping her out of a quarter-life slumber.

“They were in the water in Spain, and I was suddenly like, ‘I should be there,’” she said. “What am I doing here? Like, I’m fat. I haven’t worked out. I haven’t been to the gym in a long time. I was like: ‘I need to change my life. I need to get back to my life.’ I wasn’t born to just be doing this regular job. I’m supposed to travel the world doing what I love.”

Gonzalez was once the most promising amateur female boxer in the U.S. — a teenage prodigy with power, endless stamina and ample skill from years of sparring with her older brothers while training under their demanding father, Jose. Three of her brothers — Joet, Jousce and Jonjairo — have since fought professionally.

Canada downs Puerto Rico 103-93 in Olympic men’s basketball tune-up game

ORLEANS, France - Canada's national men's basketball team wrapped up pre-Olympic play with a 103-93 exhibition win over Puerto Rico on Sunday.

Dillon Brooks paced the Canadian attack with 21 points, while Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Trey Lyles each chipped in with 15 off the bench.

Brooks, a defensive specialist for the Houston Rockers, had a very efficient offensive performance, shooting 8-of-12 from the field, including 3-of-4 from three-point range, in just over 22 minutes of play.

RJ Barrett added 14 points and seven rebounds, while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 14 and added six assists.

Canadian athletes have mixed feelings over Russians competing in Paris

A complex issue evokes complex feelings among Canada's Olympic and Paralympic athletes bound for Paris.

The International Olympic and Paralympic committees allowing some Russian and Belarusian athletes entry into the 2024 Summer Games is a thorny topic.

The curtain had barely come down on the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing when Russia invaded Ukraine with Belarusian support.

The IOC will allow several athletes holding Russian and Belarusian passports who can prove they don't support the invasion to compete as an "Individual Neutral Athlete" or AIN in the Olympic Games. In the Paralympic Games, they will compete as a Neutral Paralympic Athlete (NPA).

Brittney Griner honored to be wearing a USA Basketball jersey again after time in Russian prison

PHOENIX (AP) — There were times Brittney Griner thought she would never wear a USA Basketball jersey again. The two-time Olympic gold medalist was sitting in a Russian prison in 2022, sentenced to nine years in jail for drug possession and smuggling. Playing for her country again was a far-fetched idea at that point. Ten months later she was free after a high-profile prisoner exchange. Now, 19 months later, she’s suiting up for the U.S. in the Paris Games — her first trip to play overseas since returning from Russia. Brittney Griner (15), of Team USA, shoots over Angel Reese […]

Canada’s athletes began their Olympic journeys from humble beginnings

Parents, siblings and love of sport, although not necessarily their own Olympic sport at first, is a common origin story of how Canada's athletes got started in their chosen sport.

A capsule look at some beginnings:

Tammara Thibeault, Shawinigan, Que., boxing

"I got into boxing when I was nine. My dad was a CFL player, a wide receiver with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. During his off-season, he'd go to the boxing club to stay in shape. He dragged his three kids along at the time and I fell in love with the sport."

Competing and parenting: Some athletes are doing double duty at the Olympics

From training and competing to preparing bottles for feedings and changing diapers, some of the Olympians at the Paris Games will be balancing their roles of athletes and parents.

There is the British rower who raised more than $4,000 through GoFundMe to go to Paris “as a full-time mom.” The American marathon runner who trained with his daughters’ support by the track. The New Zealand rowers who sang children's songs to motivate each other after rough nights waking up to take care of their babies.

There will be some help from organizers this time for athletes in Paris juggling the demands of elite sports with the tasks of parenthood.

The International Olympic Committee and Paris organizers set up what they call the first Olympic Village nursery to allow athletes to be closer to their children and have quality time with them during the Games.

LeBron James selected as Team USA male flagbearer for Paris Olympics opening ceremony

LeBron James wasn’t totally sure what the opening ceremony was all about when he was picked for his first Olympics in 2004.

This time, he’ll be one of the stars of the show.

James has been picked by his fellow U.S. Olympians to serve as the male flagbearer for the Americans in Friday night’s opening ceremony for the Paris Games. He becomes the third basketball player — and the first men’s player — to carry the U.S. flag at the start of an Olympics, joining Dawn Staley for the Athens Games in 2004 and Sue Bird for the Tokyo Games that happened in 2021.

“It’s an incredible honor to represent the United States on this global stage, especially in a moment that can bring the whole world together,” James said. “For a kid from Akron, this responsibility means everything to not only myself, but to my family, all the kids in my hometown, my teammates, fellow Olympians and so many people across the country with big aspirations. Sports have the power to bring us all together, and I’m proud to be a part of this important moment.”

Athletes are as excited as regular visitors to be tourists in Paris during the Olympic Games

PARIS (AP) — Paris is a popular destination for vacations, of course. The food and drink. The art and history. The landmarks. And so on.

The city itself will be one of the protagonists of the 2024 Olympic Games — which is why the Eiffel Tower and Seine River are featured just as prominently as gymnast Simone Biles or swimmer Katie Ledecky in NBC’s ads promoting its TV coverage — and the athletes heading to France, not to mention their friends and family, have been drawing up lengthy to-do lists of the various tastes they want to try and the sights they want to see.

“I’m excited to just explore and just take in everything Paris has to offer, because me and my friends, we look at things and we get inspired,” said breaker Jeffrey Louis, aka b-boy Jeffro. “We’re looking at the structure of buildings and we’re like, ‘Oh, that’s tight! We could do this; we could do that with this.’ We look at fashion and we’re like, ‘OK, what can we pull from and what can we add to our crew?’ So there’s a lot of things that we want to try and just explore.”

Some are eager to ride to the top of Gustave Eiffel's creation from the 1880s, maybe even dine at its restaurant. The Louvre Museum, with its Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and so much more, is high on many lists. Alas, so is Notre Dame Cathedral, but its restoration after a 2019 fire will not be completed until well after the Summer Games, which open on Friday.

Olympic marketing deal hopes to meet young fans where they are – on Roblox

The Olympic world's ever-expanding quest to draw in young fans is meeting them where they are — on Roblox.

The U.S. Olympic team and NBC are collaborating with the kid- and teen-friendly gaming platform to produce a new “Obby” — that's Roblox for obstacle course — and other features that include ways to interact with U.S. athletes while also checking out highlights from the Paris Games and making visits to a virtual Team USA House called “The Vibe House.”

This new Roblox feature debuting Monday includes animated versions of 20 U.S. Olympians, including a surfer, a skateboarder and two break dancers — all of whom represent sports that have been added recently to the Olympic program in hopes of driving young fans to the games.

“My sister-in-law said my nieces are going to be more excited about me being in Roblox than me being in the Olympics,” said one of the breakers, 35-year-old Sunny Choi.

Cecile and Laurent Landi helped Simone Biles reach new heights. The Olympics serve as a homecoming

SPRING, Texas (AP) — Cecile Canqueteau-Landi fit “in the box,” as she put it. She was skinny. She was blonde. She was pretty good at gymnastics.

And so at 9 years old, she was whisked away to become part of the French national team program, a path that ultimately led her to the 1996 Olympics.

There was reward in that journey. Yet looking back nearly three decades later, Landi wonders how many promising young athletes had their careers and their lives altered — and not for the better — because they didn’t fit someone's preconceived notion of what a gymnast needed to look like by the time they reached their 10th birthday.

When Landi transitioned into coaching in the early 2000s, she vowed not to make the same mistake.

A Lebanese photojournalist, wounded in Israeli strike, carries Olympic torch to honor journalists

VINCENNES, France (AP) — A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli strike on south Lebanon carried Sunday the Olympic torch in Paris to honor journalists wounded and killed in the field.

The torch relay, which started in May, is part of celebrations in which about 10,000 people from various walks of life were chosen to carry the flame across France before the Games opening ceremony on July 26.

Christina Assi, of Agence France-Presse, was among six journalists struck by Israeli shelling on Oct. 13 2023 while reporting on fire exchange along the border between Israeli troops and members of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group. The attack killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah. Assi was severely wounded and had part of her right leg amputated.

AFP videographer Dylan Collins, also wounded in the Israeli attack, pushed Assi's wheelchair as she carried the torch across the suburb of Vincennes Sunday. Their colleagues from the press agency and hundreds of spectators cheered them on.

US women’s Olympic basketball knows it has work to do after loss to WNBA team

PHOENIX (AP) — There is no panic in the U.S. women's Olympic team. The Americans have been in this spot before.

The U.S. lost to the WNBA All-Star team on Saturday night 117-109 and are headed on a flight to London to continue their prep for the Paris Olympics. Breanna Stewart said it felt like deja vu and she wasn't wrong.

The 2021 Olympic team also lost to the WNBA All-Star team in a tune-up to the Tokyo Games. They went on to cruise to a seventh consecutive gold medal.

Just like in the 2021 exhibition game, the Americans had no answer for Arike Ogunbowale.