(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Sunday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE Minnesota 9, Cincinnati 2 Toronto 3, St. Louis 2 Pittsburgh 4, Kansas City 3
AMERICAN LEAGUE Detroit 4, Baltimore 2 Cleveland 2, Tampa Bay 0 Chi White Sox 4, Oakland 3 NY Yankees 5, Boston 2 Seattle 7, Texas 0 Houston 6, LA Angels 4
NATIONAL LEAGUE Philadelphia 2, NY Mets 1 Washington 4, Miami 3 Chi Cubs 6, Colorado 2 San Diego 4, San Francisco 3 Arizona 11, Milwaukee 10 LA Dodgers 9, Atlanta 2
NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE Cleveland 18, Jacksonville 13 Green Bay 16, Indianapolis 10 LA Chargers 26, Carolina 3 Las Vegas 26, Baltimore 23 Minnesota 23, San Francisco 17 NY Jets 24, Tennessee 17 New Orleans 44, Dallas 19 Seattle 23, New England 20 (OT) Tampa Bay 20, Detroit 16 Washington 21, NY Giants 18 Arizona 41, LA Rams 10 Kansas City 26, Cincinnati 25 Pittsburgh 13, Denver 6 Houston 19, Chicago 13
WOMEN’S NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION Minnesota 88, New York 79 Indiana 110, Dallas 109 Atlanta 76, Washington 73 (OT) Las Vegas 84, Connecticut 71 Phoenix 93, Chicago 88 Seattle 90, Los Angeles 87
MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER Seattle 2, Sporting Kansas City 0
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Sunday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE Milwaukee 2, Cleveland 0 Kansas City 8, Cincinnati 1 Seattle 10, Pittsburgh 3 Toronto 1, Chi Cubs 0 Tampa Bay 8, Arizona 7 Atlanta 3, LA Angels 1 San Francisco 4, Oakland 2
AMERICAN LEAGUE Houston 2, Chi White Sox 0 Baltimore 4, Boston 2 Texas 6, Minnesota 5 Detroit 3, NY Yankees 2
NATIONAL LEAGUE Miami 3, NY Mets 2 Washington 6, Philadelphia 4 LA Dodgers 2, St. Louis 1 Colorado 3, San Diego 2
NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE PRESEASON Denver 27, Green Bay 2 San Francisco 16, New Orleans 10
WOMEN’S NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION Atlanta 82, Connecticut 70 Indiana 92, Seattle 75 Las Vegas 87, Los Angeles 71 Phoenix 86, Chicago 68
(PARIS) — American sprinter Noah Lyles won the gold in the 100 meters at the Paris Olympics in a photo finish, edging out Jamaican Kishane Thompson for gold and taking the title of the world’s fastest man.
Lyles finished in 9.79 seconds — officially 9.784 — edging out Thompson by just .005 seconds for the gold. Thompson, after cruising through the qualifying rounds, was the favorite in the race.
Fellow American Fred Kerley took the bronze medal in 9.81 seconds.
Lyles set a personal best time of 9.79 seconds in the win. Thompson has a personal best of 9.77 seconds, but couldn’t match that in Paris.
Historically a slow starter, Lyles again had to run down the fastest starters. He had a reaction time of 0.178, tied for worst in the field. Kerley, however, had a race-best 0.108 reaction time, the fastest in the field and a big reason he was able to race onto the podium.
It was the first time an American had won the 100 meters since 2004 when Justin Gatlin took the title in Athens. It’s also the first time since 2004 that two Americans finished on the podium. Jamaica, led by world record holder Usain Bolt, had dominated the sprints for the last two decades.
Kerley, 29, had taken silver at the Tokyo Games and was looking to move up one spot on the podium. Instead, he settled for bronze with a season’s best time.
Lyles may have been the favorite going into Paris, but he’d looked like anything but a sure thing in the heats. He finished second in his opening race and said afterward he’d misjudged the speed of the field. He finished second again in the semifinal to Jamaican Oblique Seville, who cruised to a 9.81, while Lyles had to make up for a slow start as he qualified for the final with a 9.83.
Thompson had run a 9.80 in the semifinals — the fastest time of any of the qualifiers for the final — without even showing max effort.
The defending champion from Tokyo, Italy’s Lamont Marcell Jacobs, finished fifth with a time of 9.85. The time was a season’s best for Jacobs, who was a surprise winner in 2021 and hasn’t reached those heights in the three years since Tokyo.
Lyles was the defending world champion in the 100 meters from last year. He ran a 9.83 in the final in Budapest as he won gold.
It also took a run of just 9.83 seconds to win the U.S. trials earlier this summer.
Lyles, 27, has surged into the best in the world in the 100 meters after already establishing himself as the best at the 200 meters. Lyles has said his goal was to win double gold and the 100 meters was the hardest of those two. He won both 100 and 200 at the world championships in 2023.
The 200-meter heats begin Monday with the final on Aug. 8.
Lyles is also likely to compete in the 4×100 meter relay on Aug. 9 as he tries to complete a sweep of three golds like he did in Budapest at the world championships.
(NEW YORK) — Five-time Olympic swimmer Dara Torres felt nervous about asking her doctor if she could compete three weeks after giving birth.
Her doctor asked her to wait. She could start some light exercise tomorrow, though.
Torres, now the head coach of Boston College’s swimming and diving teams, remembers running into her doctor 10 days later at the gym.
“I don’t know if the endorphins were going, because I was at a gym and I was working out and I was feeling good,” Torres told ABC News. But she asked her doctor, “I have a meet in a week and a half. Can I swim in it?”
Torres did end up swimming in that meet. Her impressive performance there paved the way for her 2008 Olympic comeback only 16 months after giving birth.
The spotlight on elite athletes like Allyson Felix returning to competition after having a baby has contributed to increased resources for parents competing in the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. However, shortfalls in research and guidance for athletes in the 12-week “postpartum” period following the birth of a child can hinder their return to competition and make it harder to achieve their peak performance.
Sparse advice for athletes post-childbirth
“There’s very little data out there about how postpartum women should progress, that’s supported by science. It’s mostly expert opinion,” said Dr. Ellen Casey, a sports medicine physician at the Hospital for Special Surgery.
This opinion is to listen to your body. “Your body’s going to tell you when you’ve pushed its limits,” said Dr. Melissa Simon, an OB-GYN at Northwestern Medicine.
“Just like if you’re trying to go from the couch to running a 5K, there’s a ramp up,” Simon said. “And for an athlete, that ramp up period obviously changes depending on the particular sport or event that they’re participating in.”
Olympian Ashley Twichell got back in the pool seven weeks after delivery. “I vividly remember my first day getting back in the water,” she told ABC News. Her time was slower than she hoped for. “My training times have never really gotten back to what they were pre-pregnancy,” but her competition times are catching up.
She remembers telling herself “this might be a little bit longer of a journey and maybe a little bit harder of a journey than I expected.”
Twichell is part of USA Swimming’s Board of Directors as the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee Athletes’ Advisory Council representative.
Torres, on the other hand, said that her joints were more flexible after giving birth, and her swim times reflected this. “My body changed, but it was for the better,” she said.
At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, Torres shaved time off the 50-meter freestyle performance at the 2000 Games in Sydney.
“I was probably in the best shape of my life after I had my daughter,” said Torres.
But the scientific jury is out on how pregnancy and childbirth affect performance. According to a review of the existing studies regarding postpartum performance in athletes, most were considered low quality.
One of the few studies to examine this question looked at the 150 best female marathoners worldwide. Of the 37 who had given birth, 70% posted their best times after giving birth.
More research is needed to understand how postpartum athletes should return to competitive sports, and “we have a long ways to go,” said Pamela Geisel. Geisel, an exercise physiologist, is the director of performance and wellness services at HSS.
Regaining core strength is key
The postpartum bounceback can be hard for athletes — and anyone for that matter — for a multitude of reasons: increased metabolic demands with breastfeeding, sleep deprivation and postpartum blues or depression.
Healing the pelvic floor and abdominal wall after delivery can be a particular problem for a lot of new moms.
Torres said “my core was so mushy,” after giving birth. This “mushiness” can be due to a condition called rectus diastasis, where the connective tissue between the abs muscles is separated or torn.
“Some statistics say that 100% of pregnant women will have some degree of separation,” in this connective tissue for the baby to grow, said Casey.
For 30% to 60% of postpartum women, the tissue doesn’t go back to how it was before pregnancy, Casey continued. However, “just because it’s common does not make it normal,” she emphasized.
Pelvic floor and core strengthening exercises can reduce pain and other complications from rectus diastasis, she said. Other experts say Kegels and squats can help strengthen the pelvic floor, while planks and crunches help the core.
“Strengthening the core was pretty key for me,” Torres agreed.
New taskforce advocates for more resources
The USPOC launched the Women’s Health Taskforce in 2022, which has focused on creating plans to support the women of Team USA. Casey is a part of this 16 person panel that has generated guidelines for postpartum return.
Advocacy for parent athletes resulted in the first ever Olympic village nursery. The nursery offers a childcare center, free diapers and wipes, and private spaces for breastfeeding.
“This is probably the most parent friendly Olympics ever,” said Simon.
However, Geisel said there is still much work to be done.
“We have a group of athletes that had to choose between becoming mothers or winning gold medals,” in the past, Geisel said. “I’m excited about the future and that women no longer will have to choose one or the other.”
Sejal Parekh, M.D., is a practicing pediatrician and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.