U.S. sports world shocked by dying girlfriend hoax

As the American sports world was shaken by the news that an inspiring, playing-through-heartache story of a college football star was actually as a bizarre lie about a fake dead girlfriend, Manti Te‘o and the University of Notre Dame faced questions Thursday about whether he really was duped, as he claimed, or whether he and the university were complicit in a hoax to mislead the public, perhaps to improve his chances of winning an award for the sport’s best player.An Associated Press review of n

More SportsJan. 18, 2013

S. Korea rises to 34th place in FIFA rankings

South Korea rose one notch to 34th place in the FIFA rankings for January, the world's football governing body said Thursday.The rankings, published on FIFA's Web site, showed South Korea with a total of 687 points this month, up one point from December.The increase was calculated from an adjustment in the weighted average of the country's points in the past four years.South Korea was the second-highest ranking Asian nation after Japan, which ranked 21st.(Yonhap News) 

SoccerJan. 17, 2013

Spain heads unchanged top 10 in FIFA rankings

ZURICH (AP) -- World and European champion Spain leads an unchanged top 10 teams in FIFA's latest world rankings.Ecuador at No. 12 and Haiti at No. 38 both climbed one place to highest-ever positions as 46 international matches in the past month counted toward the standings.Spain leads from Germany, Argentina, Italy and Colombia. Europe completes the top 10 with England, Portugal, Netherlands, Russia and Croatia.World Cup host Brazil remains at No. 18.Ivory Coast is the highest-ranked African te

SoccerJan. 17, 2013

Armstrong says watch interview, decide for yourself

Lance Armstrong said Wednesday that viewers can judge for themselves how candid he was in his interview with Oprah Winfrey.“I left it all on the table with her and when it airs the people can decide,” he said in a text message to the Associated Press.Armstrong responded to a report in the New York Daily News, citing an unidentified source, that he was not contrite when he acknowledged during Monday’s taping with Winfrey that he used performance-enhancing drugs.He’s also held conversations with U

More SportsJan. 17, 2013

Soccer body lifts lifetime match-fixing bans on players

South Korea’s governing body of soccer announced Thursday it will lift lifetime bans on players involved in a 2011 match-fixing scandal.At a board meeting, the Korea Football Association decided to reduce the penalties on 11 K League Classic players who were either acquitted in court for their alleged roles in match fixing or reported themselves to officials.Dozens of active and former players were indicted or convicted in the first match-fixing scandal to rock the nation’s first-division footba

SoccerJan. 17, 2013

Addition of 10th team to bring changes

The addition of a new 10th club to the country’s top baseball league in 2015 is expected to bring major changes in the league structure and scheduling, officials said Thursday.According to league officials, the current team representatives would prefer to run a single, 10-team league, rather than have two divisions or conferences with five teams each.In the divided setting, each division will end up with an odd number of clubs, which will lead to scheduling conflicts for intra-division matches.T

BaseballJan. 17, 2013

Suzuki fired up for 1st full season with Yankees

TOKYO (AP) ― Ichiro Suzuki is looking forward to starting the baseball season the way he ended last season: as a member of the New York Yankees.The Yankees and Suzuki finalized a $13 million, two-year contract in December that kept the 10-time All-Star in the Bronx after he was obtained in a trade with Seattle last July.“Signing with the Yankees has given me a new sense of determination,” the 39-year-old outfielder said. “This is a unique team, a team that can have a player like Alex Rodriguez a

BaseballJan. 16, 2013

LPGA adds three more events

One month before its season begins, the LPGA Tour announced a 28-tournament schedule Tuesday that includes five majors, three additional tournaments and prize money closing in on $50 million.LPGA Tour commissioner Mike Whan delivered a balanced schedule that circles the globe. It starts next month in Australia. More than half the tournaments are in North America. The Asian swing late in the year includes a new tournament in China. And the season ends in November with the LPGA Titleholders and $7

GolfJan. 16, 2013

Sharapova, Radwanska advance

MELBOURNE (AP) ― Maria Sharapova advanced to the third round of the Australian Open without losing a game, and No. 4 Agnieszka Radwanksa extended the best winning streak of the year to 11 matches on Wednesday.But Sam Stosur wilted again under the pressure of expectations at home, the 2011 U.S. Open champion twice failing to serve out the match before losing 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 to China’s Zheng Jie in a second-round upset.No. 2-ranked Sharapova, the runner-up here last year, had a 6-0, 6-0 win over Mis

More SportsJan. 16, 2013

Korean athletics official open to giving citizenship to foreign marathoners

South Korea’s top athletics official said Wednesday he is open to awarding foreign-born marathon runners South Korean citizenship to help make the sport more competitive here.Oh Dong-jin, the chairman of the Korea Association of Athletic Federations, said naturalizing foreign nationals could help turn things around for South Korean marathon.“I’ve had extensive discussions with experts in the field on how to revive marathon,” Oh said. “To help improve our national record, giving South Korean citi

More SportsJan. 16, 2013

Korean WC hero recalls racist slurs

South Korea’s retired 2002 World Cup hero Ahn Jung-hwan says he was cold-shouldered and subjected to racist slurs from Marco Materazzi during his troubled time with Serie A side AC Perugia.In an interview on a South Korean television talk show, Ahn, 36, alleged that Perugia’s then-skipper Materazzi had been particularly intimidating.“He barged into the locker room one day and barked at me in front of everyone, saying that I reeked of garlic,” Ahn said.“I didn’t understand what he was saying but

SoccerJan. 16, 2013

Doping officials want Armstrong under oath

A televised confession by Lance Armstrong isn’t enough.Anti-doping officials want the disgraced cyclist to admit his guilt under oath before considering whether to lift a lifetime ban clouding his future as a competitive athlete. That was seconded by at least one former teammate whom Armstrong pushed aside on his way to the top of the Tour de France podium.“Lance knows everything that happened,” Frankie Andreu told the Associated Press on Tuesday. “He’s the one who knows who did what because he

More SportsJan. 16, 2013