New York Liberty owner Clara Wu Tsai has a vested interest in getting the most out of female athletes. What she found when she took over the team in 2019 was a major gap in data and training compared to what's available for men.She jump-started efforts to change that by funding the Human Performance Alliance five years ago, and halfway through the 10-year project, she sees a bright future.Most of the sport science research has been on male subjects and findings applied to women, Wu Tsai said in a phone interview. More girls are playing sports and those female athletes do deserve the same scientific understanding that has been available to men.Her goals for the remainder of the 10-year project are to be able to predict injuries before they happen, individualize training and recovery, and close the data gap in women's physiology. This is the kind of work I always wanted to do, Wu Tsai said. Work that studies health has never been funded, so I saw this opportunity. You don't do it if you don't think it will help people.Womens sports participation has surged over the past five decades. According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, girls high school sports participation has grown from 294,000 in 1972 to 3.4 million today an increase of more than 1,000%. Women made up 48% of athletes at the 2024 Paris Olympics, the highest share in Olympic history. At the collegiate level, women now represent 44% of all NCAA athletes, up from 15% before Title IX took effect. With all the increased participation of women in sports, only 6% of sports science studies focus exclusively on female athletes, according to the Alliance. A tangible piece of the Alliance was the building of the Women's Health Sports and Performance Institute (WHSP) in Boston. The full research institute was opened in January.In my mind, its absolutely valuable, said doctor Kate Ackerman, who is the cofounder and president of WHSP. Women are 50% of the population, so if we want to decrease injuries in half our population, we have to be studying them appropriately and I am really excited that were building this team of people where were having a really high standard.Ackerman and the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance is well aware of the greater number of girls and women who suffer ACL injuries.Scott Delp, who is the director of the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance at Stanford has helped develop tools to assess female athletes for injury risks like ACLs.We can take videos of girls or women running and cutting and we can assess how well they control their torso, the limb alignment, Delp said. How will they absorb energy and see if theyre at risk? Provide personalized training. We can tell by the way your torso lags that you're going to get hurt, like you're an accident waiting to happen and you can train against that."Delp is one of more than 500 scientists across seven institutions involved in the Alliance.Travel, sleep and performanceOne of the Alliance's studies is tracking how travel schedules, late games and circadian disruption impacts performance and recovery in WNBA and Australia's WNBL players. Early findings have shown that teams perform worse with more travel mainly by allowing more points on defense. Eastward travel hurts home team performance likely because its harder to shift your body clock forward.This is how you can really scale the impact of this, Wu Tsai said. Ultimately you want to bring the academic sector with sports leagues and have them work in concert to get the broadest impact possible. It's one of the dreams I'd like to realize somewhere in the next few years.Wu Tsai said that the Liberty do have an exercise physiologist, who is the chief innovation officer for the team.He can coordinate research outcomes from the Alliance with training protocols, she said. There have been some of the best practices we've developed related to travel, eating, sleeping and life cycles.___AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

The Milan Cortina Winter Paralympics will officially open later Friday amid the tensions of war in the Middle East and with some countries intending to boycott the opening ceremony because of the return of the Russian flag to the global sports stage.Ukraine is leading the list of countries not attending the opening ceremony in Verona to protest the decision of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) to allow Russian athletes to compete under their own flag and with their national anthem. The Russian flag hasnt been flown at the Paralympics since the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, while the national anthem has not been heard at any Olympics or Paralympics since the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Games. The opening ceremony will take place at the Arena di Verona, marking the first time a Paralympic ceremony is held at a UNESCO World Heritage site. The ancient Arena has been retrofitted with new wheelchair ramps and accessible restrooms along with other safety upgrades.The Milan Cortina Games mark the 50th anniversary of the Winter Paralympics. More than 600 athletes will compete across 79 events in six sports. It is the biggest Winter Paralympics ever, with a record female participation, according to the IPC. Just hours before the opening ceremony, the IPC said Iran would not participate in the Paralympics because Para cross-country skier Aboulfazl Khatibi, the countrys only athlete set to compete, could not travel safely to Italy.The Games are beginning less than a week after the United States and Israel launched their military attack."To not compete at a Paralympic Winter Games because of factors outside of his control after years of training and dedication is heartbreaking for the athlete and our sympathies are with Aboulfazl at this difficult time, IPC president Andrew Parsons said.Khatibi had been announced as Irans flagbearer but he would not have actually carried the flag volunteers will be handed the task for all nations because not all flagbearers will be able to attend the ceremony for logistics and training issues.Many athletes will miss the opening ceremony as they are located in different competing clusters across Italy. The curling events began on Wednesday.China arrives looking to establish itself as the main Paralympic powerhouse. The Chinese have topped the medal count in the Summer Paralympics every time since 2004, and four years ago topped the Winter Games for the first time with a record-setting performance.___AP Winter Paralympics: https://apnews.com/hub/paralympic-games

Elon Musk has offered a characteristically enigmatic response to Lewis Hamilton's impassioned plea for African nations to wrest control of their continent from former colonial powers.The South African-born billionaire, who owns the social media platform X, replied with a single word: "Hmm."His terse reaction came after the seven-time Formula One world champion delivered a striking address ahead of this weekend's Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.Hamilton, now racing for Ferrari in his twentieth consecutive season, urged African countries to unite against what he described as ongoing European influence, specifically naming Britain, France, Spain and Portugal.The 41-year-old Briton did not mince his words when addressing reporters in Melbourne."I think it is the most beautiful part of the world, and I don't like that the rest of the world owns so much of it and takes so much from it and no one speaks about it," Hamilton declared.He went further, calling for continental solidarity: "Take it back from the French, take it back from the Spanish, take it back from the Portuguese and the British. It's so important for the future of that continent."The Ferrari driver suggested Africa possessed sufficient resources to become "the greatest and most powerful place in the world," adding that this was "probably why they are being controlled the way they are."Hmm https://t.co/rpK2F9F7gM Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 6, 2026 Hamilton's connection to Africa runs deep, with ancestral roots tracing back to Togo and Benin."I've got roots from a few different places there, like Togo and Benin. I'm really proud of that part of the world," he explained.The motorsport icon has spent recent summer breaks exploring the continent, visiting Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal and Nigeria among his travels to ten African nations.For six or seven years, he has been lobbying Formula One stakeholders to bring a grand prix to Africa, the sole inhabited continent without a race on the calendar."I don't want to leave the sport without having a grand prix there," Hamilton stated, expressing concern that time may be running short.Musk's cryptic response carries particular weight given his own African origins.The technology magnate was born into a wealthy family in Pretoria, South Africa, before emigrating to Canada in 1989.He subsequently obtained Canadian citizenship through his mother and later became an American citizen in 2002.Now recognised as the world's wealthiest individual since 2025, with Forbes estimating his fortune at approximately $852 billion as of February 2026, Musk leads Tesla, SpaceX and the social media platform where he posted his laconic reply.His South African background lends an intriguing dimension to his measured reaction to Hamilton's sweeping remarks about European influence on the continent.Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter

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Auch mit 54 Jahren ist Andrea Eskau nicht von der Paralympischen Bhne wegzudenken. In Mailand und Cortina bestreitet sie bereits ihre neunten Spiele. Um Medaillen geht es ihr dabei schon lange nicht mehr. [mehr]

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Former England pacer Steve Harmison has cast doubt on Jos Buttler's continued motivation for international cricket following a disappointing T20 World Cup 2026 campaign. Buttler struggled significantly, scoring only 87 runs and failing to register a half-century. Harmison urged Buttler to self-reflect on his desire to continue, suggesting it might be time for a new generation if his passion wanes.