News Desk

ennis serves up a few news stories this week following the French Open and with Wimbledon next on the Grand Slam tour from June 27-July 10. Plus we have a few football items off the field of play, and gymnastics is back in the news today as well as ice skating. Read the full stories by following the links below. Iga Swiatek becomes next tennis superstar https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/jun/0...

The French Open Tennis Championships reach a climax as Chris & Nancy discuss along with other top stories: ‘Disappointing and Surprising’ – Iga Swiatek Shares Her Disbelief as Amelie Mauresmo Calls Women’s Matches Less Appealing https://www.essentiallysports.com/wta-tennis-news-disappointing-and-surprising-iga-swiatek-shares-her-disbelief-as-amelie-mauresmo-calls-womens-matches-less-appealing/...

With the football league season wrapping up in Europe the French team Lyon was crowned in the Champions League Final; Chelsea Women won the double, now they have new owners; Euro 2022 is expected to shatter attendance records this summer; female referees will officiate at the men's World Cup for first time, and Tottenham’s Chioma Ubogagu receives doping ban over acne medication. In tennis at the F...

Today’s headlines across the sports pages and beyond is the landmark news that following years of dispute and disharmony women have finally achieved parity in US soccer and will at last play on a level playing field with the men. The two Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA), which run through 2028, achieve equal pay through identical economic terms. These economic terms include identical compens...

Britain’s Jamie Chadwick continues her winning ways from last season after a double header in the season opener of the W Series in Miami. And there’s news of an all female Le Mans 24 hours race. Olympic team gold medalist Laura Collett is crowned Badminton Horse Trials winner as the five-star event returns from aa two-year absence. Canadian show jumping veteran Beth Underhill Wins La Baule €500,00...

Chris and Nancy are back from their travels to bring their pick of top stories in women’s sport this week and they begin with Obstacle Course Racing (OCR) discipline selected for testing as possible riding replacement in modern pentathlon. Black Ferns Sevens renew riveting rivalry with Australia on HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series. Brittney Griner now considered 'wrongfully detained' in Russia, U.S....

Nancy is back this week and has a selection of top news stories from around the world including an update on Women’s Rugby Six Nations; can the powerful England Roses defeat France? In darts, England's 18 year old Beau Greaves becomes the youngest ever darts champion, male or female, women’s boxing makes history as Katie Taylor fights Amanda Serrano in what looks to be a sell-out at Madison Square...

This week Chris is joined by her friend Marci Kornegay to discuss the main headlines in women’s sport before they share their next big adventure. Starting on April 19th the two intrepid cyclists will embark on the 400+ miles of the Potomac Heritage Trail from the Chesapeake Bay, MD via Washington DC and Cumberland Gap to Pittsburgh, PA. This is not only going to be a personal challenge for Chris a...

The Miami Open is mid way through its quarter finals with Naomi Osaka and Iga Swiatek emerging as possible finals just as Iga is set to be come the World No 1 following the retirement of Ash Barty and at the Australian’s request to be removed from the rankings. Meanwhile former world No. 1 women's tennis player Victoria Azarenka drops out of Miami Open dropped out of the tournament in the second s...

The big breaking news this week is that three-time grand slam champion and WTA World No 1 Ash Barty surprised the sports world with the announcement of her retirement at the age of 25 with $23.8 earnings. Ash won the Australian Open this year and looked hot favorite to continue that form but there’s nothing like retiring while you’re at the top of your game so good luck Ash… there are many more dr...

Ukrainian Paralympian Oksana Masters completed her quest for medals at the 2022 Beijing Paralympic Games finishing with seven to add to her total tally and record of fifteen. Oksana’s story from being a victim of Chernobyl to Paralympic Champion is heartwarming but nonetheless a difficult time for her to compete and win medals. We also continue the story of WNBA star Brittney Griner who is being d...

With the war in Ukraine affecting athletes in training we hear of a Ukranian Canoeist and her desperate journey to rescue her daughter from the war zone. One of Ukraine’s star athletes is Oksana Masters who is currently taking part in the Beijing Paralympics having won gold medal already but shares how this is bitter sweet because she feels guilty in light of what’s happening. Also caught in the c...

The invasion of Ukraine by Russia is dominating the sports news this week with the IOC making statements to boycott Russian involvement in sport and International Federations imposing sanctions. The Beijing Paralympic Winter Games begins March 4 through 13th with 78 events taking place across six sports. There will be Primetime coverage in the US on NBC. We also have an equal prize money story fro...

On this week’s show the U.S. Soccer and Women’s Players Agree to Settle Equal Pay Lawsuit. Under the terms of the agreement, the athletes will receive $24 million and a pledge from the federation to equalize pay for the men’s and women’s national teams. Chris and Nancy share their takeaways from the Beijing Winter Olympic GamesTakeaways from the Beijing Winter Olympic Games including the athletes...

On this week’s show we review the top stories from the Beijing Olympic Games beginning with skiing. Lara Gut Behrami added Super G Olympic Champion to her Giant Slalom Bronze Medal in Beijing and the World Champion titles she won in Super G and Giant Slalom in Cortina last year. Austria’s Mirjam Puchner divided the Swiss charge by beating Michelle Gisen into the silver medal position. Switzerland...

On this week’s episode, Chris & Nancy take a look at the first week of competition from the Beijing Olympic Games. Skating got underway and the skateboarding with some firsts for women. The Giant Slalom saw some major spills and thrills with the flying Swede Sara Hector underlining her tremendous form this season when she became the Olympic Champion in that discipline. Ester Ledecka made histo...

The Australian Open crowned a new champion last weekend with home-country heroine Ash Barty successfully defeating Danielle Collins 6-3, 7-6. Australia beat Ireland to win the Spain Sevens Rugby with the US just out of the medals. We have World Cup skiing news from last weekend’s Downhill and Super-G which were won by Switzerland’s Corrine Suter and Austria’s Connie Heuter. With the Winter Olympic...

This week’s news includes a round up of World Cup skiing, top stories in international football, tennis from the Australian Open, plus netball, motor racing and the Beijing Olympic Games. We begin though with rugby since the USA Women's Sevens won gold in Malaga. Our own Leo's Den podcasters Naya Tapper Oly and Ilona Maher celebrate standout performances: Naya becomes the top try scorer in US rugb...

We begin this week with World Cup Bobsled and Monobob. American Elana Meyers Taylor secured both titles last weekend in St. Moritz and not surprisingly has secured her fourth Olympic ticket. Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami won the Downhill in Zauchensee, Austria last weekend and then Italy’s Italian Federica Brignone won the Super-G. Mikaela Shiffrin (USA), Petra Vlhova (SLO) and Sofia Goggia (ITA)...

We kick off this week with the Olympic Games just three weeks away and selection trials happening around the world. American Elana Meyers Taylor stamps her place in Monobob, which will be making its debut in Beijing. She currently leads in women’s monobob points after winning this past weekend’s World Cup race in Winterberg, Germany. Her teammate, Kaillie Humphries, narrowly missed the medals fini...

Chris & Nancy kick off the first show of the year with a new look and name for the weekly news podcast that we like to call the News Desk since that’s what we are all about heading into Season 4. And we begin with a round up of the winter sports that have been headlining: World Cup two-women bobsled heralded the holidays with a win for the American duo of Elana Meyers Taylor and Lake Kwaza. In...

As 2021 comes to a close we look back at what has been an extraordinary year for women in sport. We have each chosen a handful of remarkable performances from a variety of sports, which will always be stand-out achievements, personal bests for the athletes and go down in the history of their sport. There are so many adjectives to describe what women have accomplished this year as the standards con...

Former World No 1 tennis player Amelie Mauresmo has become the first female director of the French Open at Roland Garros, only the second to be in charge of a Grand Slam tournament. Lara Gut-Behrami wins St Moritz Super G first run and suffers heavy fall on second run. Federica Brignoni beats compatriot Elena Curtoni and Mikaela Shiffrin to win the second GS and become the most successful Italian...

The Italian bullet that is Sofia Goggia stole the show at Lake Louise this past weekend with a hat-trick in the Super Gs and Downhill with American Breezy Johnson being her main threat in two races and Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami in the second Super G. The White Circus is now in St Moritz for two Super G races on Dec 11/12. Also last weekend, Kaillie Humphries won first Bobsled World Cup race a...

Vermont resident Peggy Shinn reports on her local sporting event, the Killington Skiing World Cup where favorite Mikaela Shiffrin won the Slalom ahead of her fiercest opponent Slovakian Petra Vlhova. And another American, Elana Meyers Taylor, claimed her second consecutive win in the monobob in Igles, Austria. The USWNT held Australia to a 1-1 draw in the second of their two friendly games after w...