Jun 15, 2021 3 min read

WVU to have full capacity for football

West Virginia will remove coronavirus-related restrictions on fan attendance at home football games, athletic director Shane Lyons announced Tuesday.

The Mountaineers will offer 100% fan capacity, including pregame tailgating, at Milan Puskar Stadium this fall, Lyons said in a news release. West Virginia has six home games, beginning Sept. 11 against Long Island.

WVU limited game attendance last season to the families of players and coaches along with essential game-day personnel.

All other school athletic venues also will operate at full capacity starting with the first home events in August.

In the NFL

The Minnesota Vikings have stretched their offseason renovation of the defense into the summer, making one more big splash by bringing back defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson.

Richardson signed a one-year, $3.6 million contract Tuesday with the team he played for in 2018, giving the Vikings a proven interior pass rusher at a position that became a particular vulnerability in 2020 amid an uncharacteristic collapse by a once-dominant unit.

The 30-year-old Richardson joins newcomers Michael Pierce and Dalvin Tomlinson in the middle of the line, with the Vikings determined to boost their defense after a lackluster season that prompted coach Mike Zimmer to call the group the “worst he’s ever had” in his career.

In the NHL

Cancer survivor Oskar Lindblom of the Philadelphia Flyers was named Monday as the winner of the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy for perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.

Lindblom returned to play in the NHL after undergoing treatment for a rare form of bone cancer. Lindblom was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma in December 2019 and played two games for Philadelphia during the bubble playoffs in September 2020.

The 24-year-old Swede regained his regular spot in the Flyers’ lineup this season and played 50 of 56 games. He recorded 14 points averaging just over 13 minutes of ice time.

In swimming

Lilly King always seems to back up her big talk.

King is headed back to the Olympics after a victory in the 100-meter breaststroke at the U.S. swimming trials Tuesday night, ensuring she will have another big platform in Tokyo to rip into drug cheats and muse on pretty much anything else that pops into her mind.

“It’s kind of what I expected,” King said.

The entire night went largely as expected. Defending Olympic champion Ryan Murphy and former world record-holder Regan Smith claimed the 100 backstroke events.

National team newcomer Kieran Smith added a second race to his Tokyo program with a victory in the 200 freestyle, two days after his triumph in the 400 free.

Katie Ledecky cruised through her busiest day of the trials as the top qualifier in a pair of events.