2021 NBA Champion Milwaukee Bucks visit the WH

With kitefoil part of the Olympic programme in Paris in 2024, French champion Anaïs-Mai Desjardins is training with one 'dream' in mind": to compete in the Games.

A month after his knockout victory over American Stipe Miocic in Las Vegas, Cameroonian Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou makes a triumphant return to the capital Douala.

The four-time Grand Slam champion has pulled out of the tennis tournament citing mental health issues. Organizers had threatened to disqualify her for not attending press conferences.

A Turkish shoemaker has been making specially-designed shoes for star athletes with giant feet at his shoe shop in the Beyoglu district of Istanbul on Friday. Oncel Kalkan, who has been working in Istanbul for 41 years, designs dress shoes for athletes from all over the world, mostly NBA stars with big feet who struggle to find the right size.

Martial Arts, World Number 2 in the Welterweight Category Kamaru Usman paid a courtsey visit to the ExecutIve Governor of Lagos state Babajide Sanwo-olu.

Bullied and abused by his peers because he has cerebral palsy, 10-year-old Makoko resident, Ferdinand Jesuwame, has found an ingenious way to get back at his detractors with his uncanny prowess across the 64 squares of a chessboard. And it’s all thanks to a non-profit organization, Chess in Slums Africa, run by national chess master, Tunde Onakoya.

Watch till the very end to see how arguably the best pound-for-pound mixed martial artist in the world and UFC welterweight champion, Kamaru 'The Nigerian Nightmare' Usman, translated the above sentence into English in this GuardianTV exclusive, in which he discusses life in and out of the octagon, his relationship with his parents and siblings, his daughter, and much more.⁣

Skipping from one foot to the other in the tropical heat of Lagos, teenage boxer Tijani Abdulazeez dreams of greatness as he trains in the open air on a patch of dusty ground. Known to family, friends and fans as TJ, the 15-year-old's trophies already adorn the living room of his modest home in Alagbado, a low income neighbourhood on the megacity's outskirts.

Here are a few reasons to pick up a copy of The Guardian on Thursday. Find these stories and much more when you grab a copy of The Guardian on Thursday.⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣

Bucks fans were seen in front of the official team shop outside the home stadium of the Milwaukee Bucks Fiserv Forum on Wednesday in downtown Milwaukee after their side won the NBA title the previous night. The Milwaukee Bucks won their first NBA championship in 50 years with some fans having waited their whole lives to see the team.

Japan's Yuto Horigome says he will hang his gold medal on his Pokemon stuffed toy after he unveiled a wonder-trick to become the very first skateboarding Olympic champion, adding the victory in his hometown of Tokyo was 'very meaningful'.

American swimmer Chase Kalisz, who won gold in the 400m individual medley at the Tokyo Olympics, says it "hasn't really hit" him that he's an Olympic champion, and that it will "take some time to really process what happened".