CHICAGO — Stefanie Dolson is the first known Chicago professional athlete known to have contracted COVID-19, and the second from the WNBA.
The Chicago Sky center announced the news in a video that aired Friday night during ESPN's broadcast of the WNBA draft. She said her entire family tested positive, but that only her mother became seriously ill. She says her mother was admitted to the hospital but is back home and healthy again.
Los Angeles Sparks guard Sydney Wiese is the only other WNBA player to test positive for the virus.
In other developments related to the coronavirus pandemic:
West Ham chief executive Karren Brady says she believes the timescale for an English Premier League return is no clearer than when the coronavirus lockdown started almost a month ago. Brady feels that complex questions still need to be answered over player training, the presence of police at matches, virus testing, hygiene and medical protocols. The EPL stated after talks with the 20 clubs on Friday that its objective remains to complete the season but added that all dates are tentative while the impact of COVID-19 develops.
The mayor of Madrid says soccer matches and other sports events in Spain will take place in empty venues at least until the end of the summer. He says the coronavirus pandemic likely “won’t be under control” in time for events with big crowds to resume normally. The Spanish league is not expecting to resume at least until the end of May. It is working on several scenarios, including playing without fans through the fall.
Major League Soccer is putting on a five-week video game tournament starting Sunday that will be televised nationally. Each of the MLS teams involved picked a player to participate. The tournament will benefit Feeding America and Food Banks Canada.
Top-ranked men’s tennis player Novak Djokovic (JOH’-koh-vihch) says he spoke with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal about working with the ATP to set up a fund to help lower-ranked tennis players financially affected by the pandemic. Djokovic described what he called a long conversation with Federer and Nadal about “how we can contribute and how we can help lower-ranked guys who obviously are struggling the most.” Djokovic talked about trying to amass somewhere around $3 million to $4.5 million to distribute, perhaps to players ranked from around 200th or 250th to around 700th.
Serena Williams’ coach says he is starting an independent tennis league to have professionals play matches without spectators starting in May at his academy in Nice, France. Patrick Mouratoglou says the plan is to live-stream 10 matches per weekend for five weekends in May and June. The ATP and WTA professional tours have been on hold since March and are suspended at least until mid-July.
The San Diego Junior Golf Association has canceled the 53rd annual IMG Academy Junior World Championships set for July 4-10. The event annually attracts more than 1,250 golfers from more than 50 countries to Torrey Pines and other San Diego golf courses. Many PGA and LPGA players faced their initial international competition at the Junior Worlds.
Socially distanced crews in New York and California are keeping horse racing on television in the U.S. during the coronavirus pandemic. Horse racing is one of the few sports ongoing, albeit in a limited capacity at a handful of empty tracks. But its TV presence has expanded because of the dearth of other options. The New York Racing Association helps produce “America’s Day at the Races” on Fox Sports, TVG has partnered with NBC Sports for a dozen hours of coverage each week and the hope is that the fledgling industry can stay afloat and gain more exposure.
Youth sports leagues are bracing for even bigger financial losses with no end in sight for the shutdown of activity because of the outbreak. Communities with sprawling, empty fields and arenas are losing millions of dollars with lucrative tournaments canceled or postponed. Team sports participation dipped after the 2008 recession, so officials wonder what youth sports will look like when kids begin to return to fields and courts.
An online petition addressed to Tokyo Olympic organizers and the city government has drawn tens of thousands of signatures for permission to occupy the massive Athletes Village going up alongside Tokyo Bay. The village was to be home to 11,000 Olympic athletes and 4,400 Paralympic athletes. It is largely complete and empty with the Olympic opening postponed by the virus outbreak until July 23, 2021.
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