World 2019 heptathlon champion and British record-holder eager to impress at the legendary combined events meet

Katarina Johnson-Thompson is in confident mood ahead of her first heptathlon this season as she takes on some of the best in the world at Hypo-Meeting Götzis (May 27-28).

The world 2019 heptathlon champion and British record-holder warmed up for her trip to Austria in style after winning both the 100m hurdles and being part of the successful England 4x400m team at the Loughborough International on Sunday (May 21).

The 30-year-old clocked 13.73 (-1.0) in the 100m hurdles, threw a best of 13.13m in the shot put and rounded the day off by helping the English quartet to relay victory in 3:37.03.

“It was really cool to do a mixture of events,” Johnson-Thompson told AW. “I did the hurdles, which I really just like to get out the way before I do a heptathlon. The shot put was probably one of the most consistent series [of throws] I’ve done in my life and I’m really pleased with it.

“The 4x400m leg is probably the first and last time I’ll do a relay I think! It was stressful competing for England and I normally don’t like working in a team just in case I let them down. But it worked out well.

“That’s probably the first and last time I’ll do a [4x400m] relay I think!” @JohnsonThompson on representing @EnglandAthletic at the Loughborough Invitational ???????

She prepared for @meeting_goetzis with the 100m hurdles, shot put and the 4x400m relay ?

?️ @TimAdams76 pic.twitter.com/aj1j19iN5j

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) May 22, 2023

“I’ve done a few relays in France before when I took it a bit easy but this one was a bit more high pressured. It’s great practice anyway for the 800m.”

Johnson-Thompson flies out to Götzis on Thursday (May 26) and is no stranger to the event, having won it in 2014 and 2019, the latter occurring just five months before she claimed a maiden world heptathlon title.

However, last year she scored the lowest score of her career at the event and Johnson-Thompson knows better than anyone else about the pressure that the multi-events mecca brings.

“It feels like a world championships,” she said. “There’s always been exciting energy at the event and people are always optimistic in Götzis.

“It can break your heart but it can also make your dreams come true.”

To be fully prepared for the outdoor season and in a bid to reclaim her world heptathlon title, Johnson-Thompson skipped the indoor season and instead focused on her training camps in Turkey and South Africa.

Now coached by Aston Moore, Johnson-Thompson has found an extra spring in her step and last August she became a double Commonwealth heptathlon champion, her first major accolade in four years.

The next step is to raise that level again against the world’s best but Johnson-Thompson will likely not face Nafi Thiam until the World Championships in Budapest, with the double Olympic and world heptathlon champion missing Götzis.

“It was really good as I didn’t have an indoor season and it’s been really useful having that training, just to break it up and get some sunshine,” Johnson-Thompson added. “Ultimately, you’ll never know what you’ll do until you go out there and get to the start line. I’ve had great preparation and everything has gone well so far.

“Thiam is one of the greatest athletes of any generation. It was so good to see her break the world pentathlon record at the European Indoor Championships in Istanbul. Everyone is raising the game and hopefully I can join them too.”

Fran Jones stunned a player ranked 152 places above her and fellow Briton Ryan Peniston ended an eight-match losing streak in French Open qualifying.

They need to come through two more rounds to reach the main draw of the Grand Slam, which starts on Sunday.

Compatriot Sonay Kartal lost her match, despite having led 6-2 5-1.

Having been on the brink of victory, she lost six games in a row to fall 2-6 7-5 6-4 to Viktoria Hruncakova.

World number 316 Jones has returned to form this year after an injury-hit 2022, and her victory over two-time Grand Slam semi-finalist Vandeweghe was well deserved after a dominant performance.

More Britons will seek to join her in the next round of women's qualifying, with Harriet Dart, Heather Watson, Katie Boulter, Lily Miyazaki and Katie Swan all in action on Tuesday.

Liam Broady and Jan Choinski begin their qualifying campaigns on Tuesday as they, along with Peniston, seek to join Britons Cameron Norrie, Dan Evans, Kyle Edmund and Jack Draper in the Roland Garros main draw.

NFL owners have approved flexing for "Thursday Night Football" starting this season, during Weeks 13 through 17.

The change passed by a 24-8 vote, a source told ESPN's Adam Schefter, with the New York Giants, New York Jets, Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears, Las Vegas Raiders, Detroit Lions, Cincinnati Bengals and Pittsburgh Steelers voting against it.

Only two flexes are allowed all season, and they must be done with 28 days of advance notice. Teams cannot play more than two Thursday night games in a season.

The resolution passed Thursday is only for this season, unless no Thursday night games are flexed and, in that case, it will carry over to the 2024 season.

Regulated sports betting is spreading rapidly around the nation, and the NFL is trying to stay ahead of potential problems with increased monitoring and education, while hoping stiff penalties act as a deterrent. Recent events suggest the enhanced measures are warranted.

In the wake of five players being suspended in April, the NFL is investigating a second wave of potential violations of its gambling policy, multiple sources told ESPN. The uptick in gambling-related issues comes five years after a landmark ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court.

On May 14, 2018, the Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), the federal statute that restricted regulated sports betting to primarily Nevada since 1992. The NFL was a plaintiff in the case and had fought to stop the spread of betting for more than two decades, but it pivoted after losing in the Supreme Court.

In the past five years, the NFL has embraced the new landscape, including allowing players to bet on sports other than the NFL.

Thirty-three states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have launched legal betting markets, with regulated sportsbooks in the U.S. handling more than $220 billion in wagers since 2018, according to the American Gaming Association. The NFL has three official sportsbook partners -- Caesars, DraftKings and FanDuel -- and allows sportsbooks to operate at league stadiums. Point spreads and odds that used to be off-limits are now integrated into pregame shows and media coverage, and commercials for sportsbooks are shown frequently during NFL games. With betting menus growing rapidly, there is money on the line on practically every play.

And as opportunities grow, so too does the potential for violations.

Seven NFL players, at least one assistant coach and an undisclosed number of team employees have been found to have violated the league's gambling policy in the past five years. Former Detroit Lions receiver Quintez Cephus, former Lions safety C.J. Moore and former Washington Commanders defensive end Shaka Toney were suspended in April for at least one year for allegedly betting on the NFL. The same penalty was levied against Jacksonville Jaguars receiver Calvin Ridley in 2022, when he was with the Atlanta Falcons, and former Arizona Cardinals defensive back Josh Shaw in 2019.

Also in April, Lions receivers Stanley Berryhill and Jameson Williams were suspended for six games for allegedly placing bets -- not on NFL games -- while at a team facility. And in December, New York Jets receivers coach Miles Austin was suspended by the league for, according to his legal representation, "wagering on table games and non-NFL professional sports."

The April suspensions brought into focus the different ways the NFL is catching those who violate the gambling policy, including third parties in partnership with the league using geolocation to identify bets being placed from prohibited jurisdictions, such as team facilities.

Additionally, companies, including NFL partner U.S. Integrity, are developing platforms aimed at tracking bets placed by prohibited individuals such as players and coaches. Leagues or teams would provide a list of prohibited bettors to the platforms, which would then be shared with sportsbooks. If a prohibited bettor attempts to wager, the technology flags it.

The evolving landscape raises questions about the NFL's relationship with gambling, whether players are properly informed about the league's policy and why the violations are being discovered. Here are some answers based on what we know at the moment.

What is the NFL's policy regarding sports betting, and how does it differ for players, coaches and front-office staff?

NFL personnel, which includes league-office employees, team employees, players, owners, coaches, trainers, officials, security and stadium workers, among others, are prohibited from "placing, soliciting or facilitating any bet, whether directly or through a third party," on any NFL game, practice or other league event, such as the draft or combine.

An exemption allowing players to bet on sports other than the NFL was added to the NFL's gambling policy in 2018 after the PASPA decision, but with a restriction on placing bets from league and team facilities. Before the change, players were prohibited from any sports betting. The change to the policy was part of an agreement between the league and NFLPA and put the NFL's gambling policy in line with other major professional leagues.

How does fantasy fit into this?

The NFL does not consider fantasy sports to be gambling, but it does place restrictions on the type of contests and the value of the prizes available to league personnel, including players. NFL personnel may not accept prizes from any seasonlong fantasy contests in excess of $250. They may not participate in any "daily or other similar short duration fantasy football game that offers a prize."

The 2022 NFL gambling policy states, "These prohibitions are intended to avoid any appearance of impropriety which may result from participation in fantasy football games by an individual perceived to have an unfair advantage due to the preferential access to information."

Why are these violations being discovered now?

Since the Supreme Court ruling, the NFL has embedded itself in the sports betting industry. The league beefed up its in-house technology, dedicating security personnel to the space and partnering with sportsbooks and integrity firms to create a network of sources that monitors the betting market and identifies improper bettors. The league now has more visibility of bets on the NFL, where they're placed and who made them.

Sportsbooks and state regulators use geolocation services to track where bets are placed. After the suspensions in April, the NFLPA sent an email to all agents, alerting them that some of the violations involved players placing bets while using mobile apps on their phones while at work or while traveling with their teams. "This is a violation of the NFL's gambling policy," Ned Ehrlich, the NFLPA's associate general counsel, wrote in the email obtained by ESPN.

"During the NFL's investigations," Ehrlich added, "we have learned that these apps [like FanDuel] are highly sensitive and very sophisticated at tracking, among other things, user location to be sure that people using the app are not 'prohibited gamblers' and/or that the person using the apps is in a location where they are allowed to place bets on the app."

Many state gambling regulations require sportsbooks to obtain the services of an integrity firm. These companies act as a hub to report suspicious wagering, which is then investigated and often communicated to the sports governing bodies. In Ohio, for example, regulations require integrity monitors that receive reports of suspicious wagering to "provide a report to the commission, its contracted sports gaming proprietors, all certified independent integrity monitors and appropriate sports governing bodies." In addition, sources familiar with NFL partnerships in the gambling space say companies are generally obligated to communicate suspicious activity with the league.

"We have long focused on expanding our monitoring efforts, working with a variety of tools and resources while remaining in sync with the growing regulated market," David Highhill, a vice president and general manager who oversees sports betting for the NFL, wrote in an email to ESPN. "Our monitoring efforts include internal measures, along with resources and services provided by our partners to ensure we have the most comprehensive information possible."

How does the NFL educate players, coaches and others about its gambling policy?

The NFL says it educates more than 17,000 people annually, providing training on its gambling policy to all players, coaches and staff employed by all 32 teams, as well as league personnel and stakeholders.

It's not a "one-size-fits-all" process, according to Highhill, who says the education is tailored to the different types of personnel. Most of the training, particularly for players, is held in person, along with online courses and regular reminders throughout the season.

"The education and training the players receive is different than what NFL/club staff receive, which is different than what officials get," Highhill wrote. "We are very explicit in the training to explain that if you are involved with the NFL, you can never bet on the NFL.

"There should be no misunderstanding on the policies," he added.

Why did penalties in April vary?

The penalties varied because there were different violations. Cephus, Moore and Toney received indefinite suspensions of at least one year because they were found to have bet on the NFL. They will be allowed to file for reinstatement in 2024. The precedent for the indefinite suspension of at least one year was set in 2019 with Shaw, who the league determined bet on the NFL while he was on injured reserve for the Cardinals, according to the league. Ridley also received an indefinite suspension of at least one year and was reinstated in March.

Berryhill and Williams received six-game suspensions because they bet on non-NFL events, but according to the league, they did so at a league facility or while traveling with the team.

In what ways is the NFL vulnerable to violations of its gambling policy?

Preventing a player from placing bets on the NFL is extremely difficult. There are many workarounds to avoid detection, such as having an associate place a wager for a player. It's a violation of the gambling policy, but difficult to detect. Players could also bet outside of the regulated betting market in the U.S., with an offshore sportsbook or a local bookmaker who don't have partnerships with the league and are not obligated to alert the NFL of any such activity.

Deterrence might be the biggest weapon the NFL has in combating violations to its gambling policy, but as the recent suspensions show, it's not without limitations.

Has there been evidence of any game manipulation?

The NFL says it found no evidence of game manipulation in any of the suspensions that have occurred in recent years. Highhill says the league analyzes betting information made available by regulators and sportsbook partners to look for signs of manipulation

Signs of manipulation could include unexpected or unusual odds movement or suspicious betting patterns, such as a type of prop bet attracting more wagering than normal.

"We have seen no evidence of game manipulation to date," Highhill wrote.

How does the league reconcile its gambling partnerships and its policy?

In addition to its three official sportsbook partners, the NFL has relationships with international and domestic firms that help monitor the betting market, including Genius Sports, Sportradar and U.S. Integrity. The NFL also maintains open lines of communications with state regulators.

At least two NFL stadiums -- Arizona's State Farm Stadium and Washington's FedEx Field -- will have sportsbooks on premises this season. In March, league owners voted to allow the stadium sportsbooks to remain open on game days, a change in NFL policy. The league also allows up to six sportsbook commercials during game broadcasts.

"Professional sports leagues have largely embraced sports betting as a profitable venture," Jeff Ifrah, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney who advises NFL players on the league's gambling policy, told ESPN. "This is evidenced by the many in-person sportsbooks connected to sports stadiums and the advertising deals between the sports league and sports betting apps. Despite actively encouraging its fan base to bet, the NFL has implemented a zero-tolerance policy for its players.

"There is a distinct lack of nexus between the harm the NFL is trying to prevent and the gambling policy in practice. As a result, most players who engage in sports betting are not doing anything illegal, they are simply not in compliance with a broad company policy governing player behavior."

Highhill says regardless of the NFL's commercial activity in the sports betting space, protecting the integrity of the game is the league's No. 1 priority.

"There is simply no way to have any tolerance when it comes to our players, coaches, or staff betting on NFL football," Highhill wrote. "As individuals involved with the NFL, whether player, personnel, or staff, we have different obligations [and in some cases relevant state laws] than our fans that mean we cannot bet on football. This should not be surprising or controversial."

MIAMI -- As the Boston Celtics stare down the possibility of being swept out of the Eastern Conference finals, guard Malcolm Brogdon said the team's troubles against Miami in this series are a symptom of season-long issues against consistent opponents, adding that Boston's identity has "waned all year long" and that its defense has slipped.

"I think it's teams that have a strong identity," Brogdon said during an off-day availability session Monday afternoon at the team's hotel ahead of Game 4 on Tuesday night. "I think Miami is one of the teams, one of the few teams in the league -- Miami, Denver, there are only a few of them -- that have a really strong identity, and they play by it every single night. They're super committed to it.

"And, for us, our identity has waned all year long. We've been trying to figure out who we are, because I think we're such a great, talented scoring team, but when we don't make shots, we got to rely on our defense, and our defense isn't consistent every night.

"So, playing a team that's very consistent and disciplined, we struggle."

The Celtics certainly have struggled over the past week. They have gone from the high of Jayson Tatum scoring 51 points to knock off their oldest rivals, the Philadelphia 76ers, in the East semifinals, to losing two straight games at home to Miami to begin this series with fourth-quarter implosions before being run out of the Kaseya Center on Sunday night in Game 3 under an avalanche of Heat shot-making.

After Sunday's demoralizing loss, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla admitted Boston's defense has regressed. After being ranked second in the regular season, the defense is allowing three more points per 100 possessions in the postseason and has dropped to 10th among playoff teams. Brogdon said Monday that the team hasn't been consistent defensively in 2022-23, and that issues that began to crop up against the Atlanta Hawks and 76ers over the first two rounds of the playoffs are coming back now to haunt the Celtics.

"We haven't been consistently great defensively all year long, and that was the team's identity last year," Brogdon said. "I think that's slipped away from us. We've had spurts where we've been great defensively, but not consistently.

"And, honestly, we've struggled in every series we've played. So, now we're playing a team that's playing as if they're the best team in the league, and they're just incredibly disciplined, incredibly consistent. And I think we've struggled with teams that are consistent on a possession-by-possession basis every night."

The Celtics have struggled with virtually everything in this series. Jaylen Brown is shooting 37% from the field and 2-for-20 from 3. As a team, Boston is shooting under 30% from behind the arc.

The most telling stat about the Celtics' season is that they are 36-2 when hitting at least 40% of their 3-pointers, and 29-31 when shooting below that, as they've done in all three games of this series.

That's all in the rearview mirror now for the Celtics, who face the same uphill battle their forever rivals out west, the Los Angeles Lakers, do against the Nuggets: trying to become the first team in NBA history to recover from a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven series to advance.

Of the prior 149 teams in that position that failed, only three forced a seventh game.

But Mazzulla said he and his players must focus on the immediate task: getting a win to extend this series by another game and another 48 hours.

"That's the opportunity that we have," Mazzulla said. "We have to do that. We can't get caught up in worrying about the task at hand. And if we don't take care of one game, then the other games don't matter.

"So we just have to have a narrow-minded focus on that."

Boston will have to do much better defensively than it did in Game 3. The Celtics allowed the Heat to shoot 57% overall, go 19-for-35 from 3-point range and romp all over them in what essentially was a 48-minute celebration of Miami's stunning turnaround over the past several weeks.

The Heat, who trailed the Bulls inside the final three minutes of the second play-in game here -- after losing to Atlanta in the first one, also at home -- are just one win from the NBA Finals. If Miami gets there, it will have knocked off the teams with the two best records in the league, Milwaukee and Boston.

But until the Celtics lose a fourth time, they still -- at least technically -- have life. And, Brogdon said, at some point there has to be a team to pull off the ultimate comeback. That's what Boston is hoping can carry it to a first win in this series.

"Absolutely," he said. "That's the approach you have to take.

"We still believe we're the better team. We have not played like it in these three games. But there is always a first."

ST. LOUIS -- Rick Hummel, an esteemed writer who covered the St. Louis Cardinals and Major League Baseball over five decades for the Post-Dispatch until his retirement last year, has died. He was 77.

Hummel died in his sleep at his St. Louis-area home early Saturday after a short, aggressive illness, the Post-Dispatch said Monday.

"St Louis lost a legend in Rick Hummel," Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright said on Twitter. "Always fair. Always in a good mood. Always wearing some kind of goofy hat and mismatched pants that made me smile. The respect and trust he earned from players is a rare thing in our world. ... Still taking hand written notes that are impossible to read, and never misquoting. Still looking for the best in people and writing the truth."

He was nicknamed "The Commish" for running an American Professional Baseball Association board game with colleagues, and the moniker became so widespread throughout baseball that even Commissioners Bud Selig and Rob Manfred called Hummel by the label.

"Rick Hummel was one of the best and most respected baseball writers of his or any era," Manfred said.

Selig knew Hummel dating to Selig's time as Milwaukee Brewers owner.

"Baseball will miss Rick," Selig said, "not only because he was one of the greatest baseball writers of our time, but because he was a wonderful friend, adviser, and clearly a great source of baseball knowledge to so many of us within the game for the last 50 years."

Hummel was born on Feb. 25, 1946, in Quincy, Illinois. He attended Quincy High School, Quincy College and the University of Missouri's School of Journalism, receiving a journalism degree in 1968.

He worked for the Colorado Springs Free Press/Sun while also serving in the U.S. Army and was hired in 1971 by Bob Broeg, the celebrated former Cardinals beat writer who was sports editor of the Post-Dispatch.

Hummel first started covering baseball in 1973 and was subbing for baseball writer Neal Russo on a trip to Cincinnati when he covered Tom Seaver's no-hitter on June 16, 1978. Hummel took over as Cardinals beat writer through 2002, then served two decades as the paper's national baseball writer.

"The 51-year ride, except for a couple of broken windows, has been a smooth one," Hummel wrote in a farewell column in the Post-Dispatch last November. "I got to cover countless Cardinals playoffs, including three World Series champions, 35 World Series and the past 42 All-Star games, starting and ending in Dodger Stadium. There was the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa home run chase of 1998 and 'Whiteyball' in the mid-1980s when Whitey Herzog's Cardinals played a different game than any other club in baseball.

"It is possible, perhaps probable, that I had more bylined articles in the Post-Dispatch -- certainly in the sports section -- than anyone else who ever has worked there. And, of that, I'm proud."

Since retiring, he had written several baseball stories during spring training and early this season for The Associated Press.

"I was dragged into the 21st century kicking and screaming," Hummel wrote last year. "When I broke in here, the newsroom was typewriters, pneumatic tubes and editors yelling, 'Copy!'"

Hummel was the 2006 winner of the Hall of Fame's J.G. Taylor Spink Award for meritorious contributions to baseball writing, which in 2021 was renamed the Baseball Writers' Association of America Career Excellence Award.

He was selected Missouri Sportswriter of the Year four times by the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association, was BBWAA president in 1994, was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame and the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame. The Cardinals named their media area the Bob Broeg-Rick Hummel Press Box.

He wrote "Tom Seaver's Scouting Notebook" with Tom Seaver and Bob Nightengale, "The Commish and the Cardinals: The Most Memorable Games, as Covered by Hall of Famer Rick Hummel for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch," "One Last Strike: Fifty Years in Baseball, Ten and a Half Games Back, and One Final Championship Season" with Tony La Russa and "Get Up, Baby!: My Seven Decades With the St. Louis Cardinals" with Mike Shannon.

Hummel is survived by his wife, Melissa; three children from previous marriages: son Scott Hummel and daughters Christy and Lauren; step-daughter Camilla Grone; and five grandchildren.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Oakland Athletics broadcaster Glen Kuiper was fired by NBC Sports California after using a racial slur during a telecast while describing a trip to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

Kuiper was suspended by the network earlier this month following his slur that aired during a pregame segment of an A's game against the Kansas City Royals on May 5. Kuiper talked about a trip to the museum with colleague Dallas Braden but seemingly mispronounced the word "negro," making it sound instead like a slur.

"Following an internal review, the decision has been made for NBC Sports California to end its relationship with Glen Kuiper, effective immediately," the network said in a statement Monday. "We thank Glen for his dedication to Bay Area baseball over the years."

A person familiar with the investigation said "the decision was based on a variety of factors, including information uncovered in the internal review." The person spoke on condition of anonymity and didn't divulge specific details because the network had not publicly disclosed the results of the investigation.

Kuiper apologized on the air later in that game without getting into specifics, saying he said something that "didn't come out quite the way I wanted it to." He later issued a statement through the network when he was suspended, saying: "I could not be more sorry and horrified by what I said. I hope you will accept my sincerest apologies."

Kuiper has been calling A's games in the Bay Area for the last 20 years. He is the younger brother of former major leaguer and Giants announcer Duane Kuiper.