If you grew up on the X-Games, ‘Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater’ or maybe even picked up a board yourself, Andy Macdonald is a name that conjures up some nostalgia.

Well, be prepared to feel old: The very same and now 51-year-old skateboarder qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics and competed in the men’s park preliminaries Wednesday.

Fellow skateboarding legend, vert doubles partner and friend Tony Hawk was in attendance, and approved of Macdonald’s run. He clapped his hands and pumped his fist in approval at its conclusion.

In 2022, Macdonald announced his intention to skate for Great Britain’s national skateboarding team, as his father was born in England. He would go on to join the team as its elder statesman, leading to his Olympic run.

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Macdonald finished out his run with a 77.66 for 18th place in the heat. He wouldn’t make the final, but he would make plenty of skateboarding fans smile.

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LE BOURGET, France — Aleksandra Miroslaw, a Polish sport climber with her hair pulled in a ponytail on Wednesday, blazed up the speed climbing wall and did more than win a gold medal.

She officially introduced the astonishing speed of sport to the Olympics, with the shiny medal validation for her skill.

Yes, sport climbing made its debut at the Tokyo Games in 2021, but you probably didn’t hear too much about the stunning speed because of a strange competitive format.

Imagine Usain Bolt, the greatest sprinter in Olympic history, having been required to do more than run the 100 meters to medal. But instead, to have required him win an event that combined times from the 100, the 1,500 and, maybe, the steeplechase.

Sound silly?

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That’s essentially what was required for the climbers at the Tokyo Games in 2021, when the sport made its Olympic debut.

Sport climbing has three competitive disciplines: ‘speed,’ the sport climbing equivalent of the 100-meter dash, along with ‘boulder’ and ‘lead,’ which more closely approximate traditional rock climbing. In Tokyo, the climbers competed in all three disciplines, with a combined score determining the medalists.

Miroslaw broke the world record for women’s speed climbing in Tokyo, but there was no signature moment. (The women’s gold medal went to Slovenia’s Janja Garnbret for her victory in the speed/boulder/lead combined event.)

Here at the Paris Games, Miroslaw, smashed the world record twice, and there was a signature moment:

In the finals Wednesday, she clambered up the wall in 6.10 seconds – .08 ahead of China’s Deng Lijuan. She clenched her fists in victory as she descended on her rope and then bathed in cheers when she was awarded gold during the medal ceremony.

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These days, sport climbing is moving almost as fast as Miroslaw does. Initially, the international federation did not even expect to get into the Olympics until 2028, said Fabrizio Rossini, communications director at International Federation of Sport Climbing.

For that, credit goes to the International Olympic Committee for recognizing the type of sport that is drawing robust and raucous crowds to Le Bourget Sport Climbing Venue since competition began Monday.

The crowd appears to understand and appreciate the different disciplines. Boulder and lead remained combined. Whether they should be separated for more medals in time for the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 is a conversation for another day.

The decision to break out speed as its own event came down to, in part, money, according to Rossini.

The more medals, the more athletes, the greater the costs, he said.

Without checking the balance sheet, the scene Wednesday validated the investment during the head-to-head contests.

American Emma Hunt reached the quarterfinals finals, but she slipped halfway up the wall, and there’s no room for error in elite speed climbing. There might be an emerging powerhouse in Poland, with Miroslaw winning the gold and Poland’s Aleksandra Kalucka winning bronze. (Kalucka has a twin sister who’s almost as good but each country can send no more than two men and two women per discipline.)

The speed show is not over yet.

It will continue Thursday wth the men’s quarterfinals, semifinals and finals. Sam Watson, an 18-year-old American, already broke the world record Tuesday in qualifications with a time of 4.75 seconds.

And Miroslaw, well, she could as well have been talking about speed climbing at the Olympics on Tuesday when she was asked how fast she can go.

‘The sky’s the limit,’ she said.

Utah Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen signed a five-year, $238 million contract extension, ESPN.com reports.

The 27-year-old Markkanen averaged 23.2 points and 8.2 rebounds last season and was an All-Star in 2023.

The contract provides $220 million in new money and he will make $36 million this season, up from the $18 million on his original contract.

The deal also stipulates that Markkanen can’t be traded for six months, meaning he can’t be moved until the offseason, and the deal has no options. Next season’s trade deadline is Feb. 6.

Markkanen was part of the Donovan Mitchell blockbuster trade in 2022 with the Cleveland Cavaliers after his only season with the team.

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Though the Minnesota Timberwolves drafted Markkanen in 2017, he was traded to Chicago as part of the Jimmy Butler deal. He spent four seasons in Chicago before he was dealt to Cleveland.

In seven NBA seasons, Markkanen has averaged 18.1 points and 7.3 rebounds per game, winning the NBA Most Improved Player award in 2023.

SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France – The more celebrated Nelly Korda becomes as a golfer, the more noticeable it is when she seeks to experience life as something else.

It’s all amplified for her. The tournaments in which she doesn’t play. The interviews she doesn’t give. This idea that it’s her responsibility, more than any peer, to expand the LPGA Tour’s popularity.

She may be a reluctant sports star at times, but she’s the biggest one going in the women’s game. And it’s not that the world’s No. 1 player is burned out on golf, she explained after Wednesday’s opening round at the Paris Olympics. It’s that she doesn’t want to become burned out.

“As important as it is to sometimes grind it out,” Korda said, “it’s also important to just put your clubs away and just be a regular human being. … It feels nice when you’re in a groove, but when you play under pressure and you’re in the final group and you feel the emotions that you do, it takes a toll on you mentally.”

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The 26-year-old Korda is back representing the United States at the Olympics, an event where she’s the reigning gold medalist. She shot an even-par 72 in the first round, leaving her well behind leader Celine Boutier of France, who delighted a large home crowd with a 7 under 65 to jump to a three-shot lead on the field.

Lilia Vu of the U.S. is tied for third at 2 under. Korda and fellow American Rose Zhang (also at even par) are tied for 13th, while Boutier’s round was the story of the first round at Le Golf National.

“Really fun for me,” said Vu, who played in Boutier’s threesome. “They’re cheering for me, too. So I’m trying to keep up with Celine.”

Korda, too, will be trying to keep up and extend her country’s dominance in Olympic golf. Counting her victory at the Tokyo Games, Americans have won the last three gold medals in golf, including Xander Schauffele in 2021 and Scottie Scheffler this past weekend.

This week’s tournament, however, oddly finds Korda at a low point in a year full of remarkable highs.

When she won the Mizuho Americas Open in May, it was her sixth tournament title in seven starts. She won five in a row at one point, becoming only the third LPGA player in history to achieve that.

But then Korda missed the cut at the U.S. Women’s Open. Then she missed two more cuts. In the six weeks since, she played in only the Evian Championship, finishing tied for 26th.

“Golf is a funny game,” Korda told reporters this week. “Sometimes you feel on top of the world, and in a matter of a couple seconds, you just feel like you’re on the bottom of the sea. So it definitely makes you appreciate the good golf that you play.”

Wednesday’s first round at the Olympics wasn’t her best. But it wasn’t terrible. If anything, perhaps a step in the right direction. Korda opened 3 over on the first eight holes. After a birdie on the ninth hole, she drove into the deep rough on No. 10 and chunked her second shot well short of the green. “In like the really thick stuff,” she said later. “I could barely see my ball.”

Nonetheless, Korda was able to convert a difficult up-and-down for par, sinking a 15-foot putt that was her longest of the day. It seemed a turning point. Korda played the back nine in 2 under and “got into that groove,” an encouraging development heading into Thursday’s second round.

Because we know what Korda can do in that groove.

She has the pedigree, too. She’s part of a sporting family. Her father, Petr Korda, was a pro tennis star for the Czech Republic, winning the 1998 Australian Open. Her mother, Regina Kordova, played pro tennis, as does her brother Sebastian. Her older sister Jessica has played on the LPGA Tour.

Entering this week, Korda has played in 12 LPGA events this year. Compare that to men’s No. 1 Scheffler, whose gold medal came in his 17th tournament in 2024.

It’s a choice for her well-being, she said.

“For me,” Korda said, “it was like I finally realized that everything that I did at the start of the year, I kind of enjoyed it a little bit more with my family and realized how big of an accomplishment that is. That life and golf and everything is such a roller coaster, it’s good to just step away and appreciate the whole journey.”

She’s appreciating it this week in France, enjoying an “amazing experience’ and a tournament with crowded galleries.

“The atmosphere was insane,” Korda said. “I can’t even imagine what it is like in Celine’s group. I’ve heard a couple of the roars. … I saw the crowds for the men, and to see similar crowds for women is just kind of, for me, mind-blowing.”

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The board voted Tuesday to advance the proposal, which now must go before the NCAA Board of Governors and the full Division I membership. The Board of Governors is scheduled to meet Thursday, and the membership vote would occur at January’s NCAA convention.

“I’ll be shocked if this thing has any issues at all” gaining approval, Baker said during a video-conference.

“I think that everyone sees this as a great opportunity to capitalize on” a new, eight-year, $920 million TV deal with ESPN that includes rights to the women’s basketball tournament “and prioritize (the proposed new distribution) as much as possible,” said Central Arkansas President Houston Davis, who chairs the Board of Directors committee that developed the proposal and is a member of the Board of Governors.

Baker said the concept “was pretty high up on my list” of priorities when he became the NCAA’s president in March 2023 and “reflects the growth of the game and especially makes it possible now for schools that participate in the tournament, and do well, to benefit from that financially and be able to reinvest in their programs.

“I think this is all critically important to us and to the sport generally and to women’s sports, since this is in some respects a premier women’s collegiate athletic event every year. And I think it’s only going to get more so going forward, which is going to be great.”

Baker and Davis provided other details about the proposal, under which schools would begin earning credit for performance in the 2025 tournament and payments would begin in 2026. According to a statement Tuesday from the NCAA, the pool of money to be distributed would be $15 million in 2026, $20 million in 2027 and $25 million in 2028. After that, the pool would increase at about 2.9% annually, which the NCAA said is ‘the same rate as all other Division I’ shared-revenue pools.

The money would be allocated in the same way that a similar performance-based pool from the men’s basketball tournament has been distributed for years: There would be 132 units allocated each year. Each participating conference would get one unit, plus an additional unit for each win by one of its teams through to the Final Four.

The unit values would vary annually, with conferences then taking their total payout from the NCAA and sharing it among their schools.

As for $25 million becoming the target in third year and the basis for later increases, Davis said: “We were very proud of the fact that, at 25 (million), that was going to carve out a greater percentage of available resources than we do for men’s basketball and those distributions. I think that the 25 (million) became the number of what was a possible and reasonable stretch goal for us … to make a meaningful impact.”

According to figures from NCAA audited financial statements and Division I revenue distribution plans, the annual amount of the men’s basketball tournament performance pool is equal to a little over 20% of the money from the NCAA gets each year from CBS and now-Warner Bros. Discovery for a package that includes broadcast rights to the Division I men’s basketball tournament and broad marketing rights connected to other NCAA championships. In 2024, that total was $873 million and the performance pool was set to be $171 million.

In 2025, CBS and Warner Bros. Discovery are scheduled to pay $995 million.

The NCAA attributes $65 million of the new ESPN deal’s average annual value of $115 million to the women’s basketball tournament.

North Carolina women’s basketball coach Courtney Banghart, who also is president of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association, told USA TODAY Sports that the creation of the tournament-performance fund would be ‘a significant gender-equity victory — a big win … that will add real dollars to athletics department budgets.’

As for the amount of money in the fund, she said: ‘You want your value allocated, 1 to 1. But it’s hard to substantiate 1-to-1 value in this moment. … I’m confident (the amount) will go up as we continue to prove our value.’

The NCAA’s wide-ranging contract with CBS and Warner Bros. Discovery is scheduled to run through 2032, and Baker said that the association’s desire to “create a separate value for the women’s basketball tournament” was a reason the association negotiated to have the new deal with ESPN also end in 2032.

She quite didn’t make her way to the podium, but either way, French track and field athlete Alice Finot was the one giving out hardware.

After she set a European record but just missed out on a medal Tuesday in the 3000-meter steeplechase, Finot went over to her partner, Bruno Martínez Bargiela, and got down on one knee to propose. But, instead of a ring, she unhooked an Olympic pin that she wore during the race and offered it to him as they embraced to the cheering of the crowd at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis.

Finot, 33, finished in fourth place with a time of 8:58.67, which was 5.91 seconds behind gold medalist Yavi Winfred from Bahrain, whose time of 8:52.76 set an Olympic record. Finot missed out on a bronze medal by 3.53 seconds.

‘I told myself that if I ran under nine minutes, knowing that nine is my lucky number and that we’ve been together for nine years, then I would propose,’ Finot said in the mixed zone after the race, according to the Daily Mail. ‘I don’t like doing things like everyone else. Since he hadn’t done it yet, I told myself that maybe it was up to me to do it. 

‘So, I gave a pin that I ran with to my boyfriend. On it, it says: ‘Love is in Paris.’ He’s the one who always gives me strength and if I managed to get under nine minutes, that meant a lot.’

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Finot confirmed that Martínez Bargiela said yes.

MLS-leading Inter Miami is nearing full strength again, but the club’s legendary captain remains sidelined.

Lionel Messi’s right ankle ligament injury is progressing positively, but he won’t play in Inter Miami’s match against Toronto in the Leagues Cup Round of 32 on Thursday.

“[Leo is] getting better, getting better every day,” Inter Miami coach Tara Martino said Wednesday. “He’s still in the gym, but looks better and better. It’s within the deadlines we’ve been thinking about.”

Although a timeframe for Messi’s return has not been disclosed publicly by Inter Miami, it appears Messi is on track. But he will miss his fifth straight match since getting hurt in the Copa America final July 14.

Inter Miami has welcomed back two players from the Paris Olympics: USA soccer midfielder Benjamin Cremaschi and Paraguayan standout Diego Gomez. Martino said both will be available for the Toronto match.

Martino also said Luis Suarez, who did not play in the Tigres match with a Round-of-32 spot already clinched, will also return to action against Toronto.

Inter Miami has won seven of nine matches without Messi since he joined Argentina for Copa America in early June. The club, which leads all MLS teams with 53 points in the standings during the regular season, won Leagues Cup last year.

How to watch Inter Miami vs. Toronto FC live stream?

The Inter Miami match against Toronto FC will be available via MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.

Is Messi playing?

No, Messi remains out of action due to his right ankle ligament injury sustained during the Copa America final on July 14.

Which team would Inter Miami face in Round of 16?

The winner of the Inter Miami-Toronto match will face the winner of Friday’s match between Columbus Crew and Sporting Kansas City.

Inter Miami loses home-field in Leagues Cup

With Inter Miami’s 2-1 loss to Tigres UANL in Houston last Saturday, the club lost the chance to own home-field advantage on their side of the bracket for the tournament. Still, both clubs advanced to the Round of 32 after beating Puebla in group play.

Leagues Cup 2024 Round of 32 Schedule

Leagues Cup games on Wednesday, August 7

∎LAFC vs Austin FC, 10:30 p.m. ET

∎Vancouver Whitecaps vs Pumas UNAM, 10:30 p.m. ET

Leagues Cup games on Thursday, August 8

∎Inter Miami CF vs Toronto FC, 7:30 p.m. ET

∎Tigres vs Club Pachuca, 9 p.m. ET

∎Seattle Sounders vs LA Galaxy, 10:30 p.m. ET

∎San Jose Earthquakes vs. Club Necaxa, 11 p.m. ET

Leagues Cup games on Friday, August 9

∎FC Cincinnati vs Santos Laguna, 7:30 p.m. ET

∎Columbus Crew vs Sporting Kansas City, 7:30 p.m. ET

∎Orlando City SC vs Cruz Azul, 7:30 p.m. ET

∎Philadelphia Union vs CF Montreal, 7:30 p.m. ET

∎New England Revolution vs New York City FC, 7:30 p.m. ET

∎D.C. United vs. Mazatlán, 7:30 p.m. ET

∎Toluca vs Houston Dynamo, 8:30 p.m. ET

∎St. Louis City vs Portland Timbers, 8:30 p.m. ET

∎FC Juarez vs Colorado Rapids, 9:30 p.m. ET 

∎Club America vs Atlas, 10 p.m. ET

Leagues Cup Dates to Remember

∎Aug. 12-13: Round of 16

∎Aug. 16-17: Quarterfinals

∎Aug. 21: Semifinals

∎Aug. 25: Final, third-place match

PARIS – Dallas Oberholzer came to Paris knowing he would finish last in the men’s park skateboarding competition. He’s 49 years old, for goodness sakes, competing in a sport ruled by Gen Z. He’s also from South Africa, a country where skateboarding has no infrastructure or funding. He’s spent decades traveling the world, funding this journey himself, often barely scraping by in search of the next good vibe.

Before the sport went corporate, before the Olympics, before Tony Hawk and Shaun White, that’s what skateboarding was really all about.

But being here hasn’t been all bad. Even as he approaches his 50th birthday he’s still growing, still learning. He even went to visit an osteopath in the Olympic Village the other day because, well, the knees don’t feel so good these days coming off the board.

“It was incredible,” he said. “As skaters, we used to get hurt and then go under the bridge and smoke weed. That’s how we used to recover. It’s become a science, and it’s only due to this format of skateboarding that I’ve been able to carry on and actually improve my performance. It’s crazy. I mean, how do you get your personal best at 49?”

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Oberholzer’s top score of 33.83 in qualifying won’t stand out in the history books, but his fist-pumping reaction when he got off the skateboard – and the standing ovation he received from the crowd – looked like he just won the gold medal.

Part of that was rooted in who was there watching: His mother.

It had been, Oberholzer said, 28 years since she watched him skate. It was just one of those typical things: Parents, especially when he was growing up, didn’t exactly envision their kids skateboarding as a job. And even then, it wasn’t much of one. Oberholzer traveled around the world, mentored young skaters, helped raise some money to build parks.

Even as a kid, she wanted him to play tennis. To him, it seemed like it would be more fun to be the tennis ball flying through the air.

“I started skating just because it was the best thing I could imagine,” he said. “It was the best feeling in my body, it was the best way to express myself and just blow up energy and put it into something that’s instant reward. You’re not waiting for your points or whatever place in the moment. Everything’s electrifying.”

Now, it’s a competition sport. It’s an Olympic sport. Skaters have entourages with coaches and physios. These days, It’s all about the scoreboard.

“God help us,” he said. “It’s becoming a bit too serious, and the youngsters might be doing it for ulterior reasons and pushed into it at a young age.”

But being in the Olympics keeps Oberholzer relevant in the sport. In his ideal world, somebody would see him on television and call him up and say they want to build a skate park and high-performance center in South Africa so that it could be accessible to more people and elevate the sport in his country the way it has grown in Brazil. In his country, skateboarding is more of a luxury than an activity that anyone can just go down and do at their local park.

“I’m not going to hang this thing up soon,” he said. “I hope there’s more Africans that can pick up skateboarding, but these kind of facilities are hard to come by. That’s why I need to travel to stay relevant in this terrain.”

Will Oberholzer make it to the next Olympics in Los Angeles? It’s a possibility. He thinks he can stay healthy and fit enough to compete. It’s a bit of a strange dynamic to be nearly 50 years old and hanging out with teenagers, but there’s something about this sport that connects generations.

“I don’t feel detached from them,” he said. “I’m surrounded by youth, and I’ve surrounded myself with youth development programs for so many years, not knowing really maybe why. But maybe it kept me young.”

And one thing never changed for Oberholzer: He still wants to impress his mother. Getting her to Paris was a big deal. Her advice was to do one big trick. He landed it early in the run, but by the end his legs gave out. He fell off the skateboard. He still had a lot to celebrate.

“She accepted that I’m a skateboarder and an Olympian at the same time,” Oberholzer said. “That’s my greatest accomplishment.”

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PARIS – Some skateboarding experts thought the Americans had a chance to sweep the podium in the men’s park skateboarding event, but only two of the three Team USA members advanced to the finals that will be held later Wednesday.

Tate Carew, a 19-year old from San Diego, came into the Paris Games ranked No. 1 in the world in park and didn’t have to sweat too much as his best score of 90.42 was enough for fourth in qualifying, comfortably within the top-eight needed to make the finals.

Tom Schaar, a 24-year old from Malibu, Calif., who made his X Games debut when he was just 12, posted the second-highest qualifying score at 92.05. This is his first Olympics.

The big upset was Gavin Bottger, ranked No. 3 in the world, failing to reach the finals. Bottger, 17, only finished one error-free run in his three attempts. His score of 86.95 looked like it might be enough to hold up for the eighth spot, but he got passed by skaters in the third head and dropped below the qualifying line to 10th place.

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The Americans will have to deal with No.2-ranked Keegan Palmer from Australia, who posted the top qualifying score, and three strong Brazilian skaters if they want to make the podium.

Alex Sorgente, who was born in Florida but has dual citizenship through his father, is competing for Italy and also made the finals.

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