TIGER WOODS’ Olympic champ ex-girlfriend Lindsey Vonn has come out of retirement aged 40.

The American retired in February 2019 but has announced her competitive comeback having had successful knee surgery in April.

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Vonn admitted she was plotting a return to skiing in July.

It has now been revealed she will mark her return to competition, following a five-year absence, at the World Cup opener in Solden, Austria.

The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Organisation announced that Vonn would be actively competing again following several injuries.

She celebrated the news in an Instagram post where she showed off a video of her skiing.

Her beaming caption read: “Well, it’s off to Colorado…. I hope the @usskiteam uniform still fits…”

Away from the sport, Vonn’s fame has been boosted by posing nude and her much-publicised love life.

In 2013, Vonn became part of a sporting power coupe when she began dating golfer Woods, who she met at a charity event a year earlier.

She was often seen on the PGA Tour cheering her beau, until they broke up in 2015.

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Woods later said of split: “Well, with Lindsey, what was hard is we never had time together.

“And I can’t travel because I have the kids—my off weeks, I’m devoted to my kids—and I have to be here.”

Vonn is a three-time Olympic medallist, including gold in downhill skiing at the Winter Games in Vancouver in 2010.

She also took bronze in the Super-G in Canada.

She later claimed another downhill bronze in Pyeongchang in 2018.

In 2011, Vonn received the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year award.

After Woods, Vonn was linked with NFL coach Kenan Smith, and dated NHL star P.K. Subban.

She looked set to marry the ice hockey star, when they got engaged, bought a £5.2million Beverly Hills home together.

However, they announced their surprising split on Instagram in 2020.

Since 2021, Vonn has been dating Diego Osorio, co-founder of tequila company Lobos 1707, which received investment from LeBron James.

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NEW YORK – James Llontop has seen the hype surrounding his Saturday opponent.

In some ways, how could he not? Brazil’s Mauricio Ruffy is part of the upstart Fighting Nerds gym that quickly has taken the MMA world by storm. Not only has the team found a way to use a playful gimmick – the classic nerd-as-hidden-in-plain-sight-tough-guy trope – to appeal to fans, but its fighters have been near-flawless in 2024 in the UFC.

Ruffy (10-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) is who stands between Llontop (14-4 MMA, 0-2 UFC) and his first UFC win at UFC 309 (pay-per-view, ESPNews/Hulu/FX, ESPN+) at Madison Square Garden in New York. For Llontop, from Peru, to pull it off, it will mean a massive upset against a 10-1 betting favorite.

“I’m coming with a different mentality, different kind of energy, different kind of preparation for this fight, and he’s going to find out that we have a lot of great warriors in Peru,” Llontop said at Wednesday’s UFC 309 media day in New York.

But Ruffy is from Brazil, known for fighting warriors of its own. All 10 of his wins are knockouts, including one on DWCS to get into the UFC. Once there, he knocked out Jamie Mullarkey in May with a flying knee to get his promotional tenure started with an extra $50,000. He quickly drew comparisons to the type of skills Conor McGregor showed when he was on the rise, before he mostly bowed out of the sport.

Llontop sees it, but thinks he has the antidote after he stepped in for Charlie Campbell on short notice. Ruffy is a 10-1 betting favorite.

“I think there’s some similarities there (to McGregor), but I think this kind of fighter, what you need to do is you can’t let them fight,” Llontop said. “You need to actually pressure him from start to finish, and that’s what I’m going to do.”

Check out Llontop’s full interview in the video above.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 309.

Taylor Fritz boosted his hopes of reaching the last four of the ATP Finals with a comeback victory against Australia’s Alex de Minaur.

De Minaur needed to defeat the American fifth seed in straight sets for any chance of progressing to the semi-finals in Turin, Italy.

However, his hopes were crushed when Fritz stole the second set against the run of play.

Fritz, who went on to win 5-7 6-4 6-3, will progress to the last four of the season-ending tournament if Jannik Sinner beats Daniil Medvedev later on Thursday.

If 2020 champion Medvedev wins in straight sets, the Russian will advance as group winner ahead of Italy’s world number one Sinner, while Fritz will miss out.

“All of us are pretty beat up but if I’m in the semi-finals of the world tour finals then I’ve got energy to give,” said Fritz.

Seventh seed De Minaur, although labouring through his opening service games, was the first to break when he ended a superb rally with a clever cross-court winner for a 4-3 lead.

Fritz was quick to respond, levelling in the next game before De Minaur broke again and served out the opening set as his opponent became increasingly frustrated, complaining to the umpire about flash photography in the arena.

The US Open runner-up had to fend off two break points in the second set, while De Minaur, in comparison, looked comfortable on serve with three love holds.

That was until Fritz increased his intensity and seized his opportunity at 5-4 to end De Minaur’s season.

With his tournament essentially over, De Minaur continued to falter as Fritz surged and he wrapped up the victory with an ace after two hours and eight minutes.

“He was all over me. What I did a great job of was towards the end of the second set I started to find my serve, I started serving much better,” Fritz said.

“It just gave me a little bit of comfort to stay in the match and not be under so much pressure. It was still incredibly tough.”

Jon Jones finally defends his heavyweight title this weekend when he faces Stipe Miocic in the main event of UFC 309. It’s a fight nearly two years in the making and could possibly be the last dance for both of the future Hall of Famers.

How can each man walk away Saturday as the champion and what are the most important parts of this long-awaited matchup? Let’s dive in.

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Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

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Paths to Victory for Jon Jones at UFC 309

What is there to say about Jon Jones that hasn’t already been said? Jones is universally agreed to be one of the greatest fighter of all time and the greatest light heavyweight ever. At his peak, Jones was a tour de force of imagination and execution, capable of seemingly anything inside of the cage.

In the early stages of his career, Jones was all creativity and violence; the rare kind of talent who fought like an action hero, except the stuff he did actually worked. As time went on and he got older, Jones then morphed from a chaotic dervish of destruction into a cerebral assassin who minimized risk with a sniping jab and his patented oblique kick to slowly diminish his opposition over 25 minutes. Then, Jones took three years off to move up to heavyweight and, in his return fight up a weight class, Jones showed a ruthless efficiency in going back to his grappling roots.

So which version of Jones will show up Saturday? All of them? None? In truth, we don’t really know.

Jones is probably the most talented fighter of all time but he’s also very likely declining (his transparent refusal to fight Tom Aspinall hints that Jones himself may be aware of this fact). He’s 37 and been fighting professionally for 16 years. That’s a lot of wear and tear on the body and given how rarely he’s fought in recent years, it is very hard to feel confident in what version of Jones shows up Saturday.

Fortunately, it probably doesn’t matter. If Jones wants to stay standing, Miocic can’t take him down, and his particular brand of out-fighting is well-suited against Miocic, who doesn’t have the best footwork and struggles to close range. On the other hand, perhaps Jones decides the safest course of action is to put Miocic on the mat where Miocic has never shown to be much of a threat. Miocic can wrestle but Jones is better there and should have enough horsepower to force the issue and pursue victory that way as well.

My best guess is that Jones does a bit of both, drawing Miocic in with a striking battle before changing levels and getting takedowns. Once on top, Jones is (well, was and may still be) a terrifying force of nature with elbows and ground-and-pound, so he should have the run of play in this scenario.

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Paths to victory for Stipe Miocic at UFC 309

For all the question marks around Jones in this fight, Stipe Miocic somehow has more. The two-time heavyweight champion is 42 years old, has not fought in over three years and hasn’t won a fight in over four years. He currently has no wins over fighters who compete in the UFC. There’s a reason people are entirely writing him off on Saturday.

Then again, being written off is sort of par for the course for Miocic. Even as he rose up the ranks and began putting together the most successful résumé ever for a UFC heavyweight, the Cleveland native never really felt like a generational champion. There was always a sense that Miocic was a placeholder until the next great heavyweight showed up. Except they never did and he kept going to work, punching in, and getting wins.

Well, he’s going to have to do the same on Saturday.

Again, we don’t really know what to expect from either guy but if we go by their most recent performances, Miocic has an uphill battle ahead of him. Jones is certainly the superior grappler and the better athlete. Also—and I mean this as respectfully as possible—Jones has a much better team. It took Miocic nearly two full fights with Daniel Cormier to realize he should attack the body, despite Jones putting that very thing on tape against him! It’s a fair bet that if either man comes into Saturday with some brilliant game plan, it’s probably Jones.

So where are Miocic’s advantages? On the feet. Don’t get me wrong, Jones is probably the better kickboxer of the two (and he’s vastly superior in the clinch because Jones is one of the greatest clinch fighters ever) but Jones is very beatable in a striking match.

The biggest weakness Jones has on the feet is he’s risk averse to the point of a problem. This is a guy who barely scraped out a win over Thiago Santos—who blew out both his knees during the fight—because he would not do anything for fear of getting hit back. Young Jon Jones would have obliterated Dominick Reyes, but Jones should have lost to Reyes primarily because Reyes took chances and Jones will not. So the biggest thing for Miocic is to simply adopt the Dricus du Plessis methodology of “eff it, I’ll keep throwing, eventually it’ll hurt him.”

Along those same lines, power is the one definitive edge Miocic has over Jones. Stipe is not a Francis Ngannou-level puncher, but he’s a darn good one and though Jones has shown a very good chin, he also clearly doesn’t want to get hit. Miocic needs to make this messy early and land some shots to put that reticence into Jones and make him clam up. The more comfortable Jones is in the cage, the worse it is for his opponents, and they way to make him uncomfortable is to hit him.

Finally, it’s never been a huge weapon in his arsenal, but I hope Miocic has been working on low kicks. Jones’s stance and spindly stems make him an ideal target for chopping the legs out from under him, limiting movement, scoring points, and taking away his explosion. Stipe needs to chop that wood to have any chance in this fight.

One Big Thing

The outcome of most high level fights depends on dozens of different things, but frankly, it’s a lot to list all of those out. Instead, let’s simplify things by determining the One Big Thing that will determine Saturday’s winner.

Does heavyweight matter?

This is Jones’s second fight at heavyweight and he’s reportedly smaller for this matchup than he was for the fight with Ciryl Gane. More importantly, Jones appears to have no interest in sticking around at heavyweight and continues to suggest he wants to fight dudes his size. Maybe that’s all a game, or maybe Jones really isn’t comfortable in this weight class. After all, the people who gave Jones the most difficult time in his career were simply the largest guys he fought (save Gane).

If Stipe comes out and puts mitts on Jones and he can’t take the shots the same as he did at 205 pounds, things get very interesting very quickly.

One Small Thing

Now we know the single most important factor of Saturday’s main event, but what about something else entirely that almost certainly won’t happen but if it does could change everything.

Are the MMA gods paying attention?

The buildup for this fight has been among the most frustrating to watch in years. A couple of month ago Jones was teasing he might fight Tom Aspinall after the Stipe fight. Then it turned into “I’m probably retiring.” Then in the last couple of weeks the Jones narrative shifted to “Actually I want to fight Alex Pereira and Tom Aspinall doesn’t deserve it” and he admitted that Stipe is a good stylistic matchup for him coming off an injury.

This all culminated this week at Media Day where Jones entirely dismissed Aspinall as an opponent, said he only wants to fight fun matchups with “guys my size” despite being heavyweight champion, stated outright that beating Ciryl Gane was meaningless, and then issued an ultimatum of “either it’s Pereira or I retire.” It’s an astonishingly shameless admission that Jones is not looking for challenges, he’s looking for easy paydays. Jones is in his Floyd Mayweather era and for whatever reason the UFC is going along with it.

But the MMA gods are not so pliable.

It would truly be the funniest thing in the history of this sport if Jones went through all of this ridiculousness and then ultimately got knocked out by the 42-year-old firefighter who hasn’t fought since 2021. And he is certainly giving the MMA gods plenty of reasons to make it so.

Prediction

Perhaps you could tell from everything above, but I don’t think much of this fight. Even if you could take a time machine and pluck the perfect versions of themselves, I don’t think Miocic has much to offer Jones in a fight, and this is far from that. Jones is still somewhat near his peak while Miocic is well beyond it, and I suspect he gets rolled up in short order.

Jon Jones def. Stipe Miocic via TKO (12-6 elbows) — Round 1, 3:41

The Monaco Grand Prix’s position on the Formula 1 calendar remains intact, bar a minor date tweak, as a new deal has been signed to run until 2031.

But given the iconic race’s place in F1 has come under question in recent years, is this the right move for the series? Our writers give their input.

There’s enough room in the calendar for one weekend where the thrill isn’t the race – but it has its own charm – Alex Kalinauckas

One of the best things about Formula 1 is that it’s a broad church. The Monaco GP sums this up well.

It’s a track from a bygone era, which deserves considerable recollection and respect. It’s where the excesses of the modern iteration of the championship (such as the huge team motorhomes) must be crammed into a small space. This also applies to car size, with the lengthy modern machines even more of a challenge for the drivers to thread through the principality’s barriers. This is by far the best thing about Monaco.

Yes, it can come at the cost of a processional race in dry conditions, but everything that pre-dates a sunny Sunday on the riviera is still an essential part of excelling in grand prix racing. Qualifying speed is a massive part of the overall test for success for drivers, which in Monaco is hyper-focused by the track’s compact nature.

The thrill of Monaco qualifying is up there with the best that F1 can offer. Around all the heartbreak and eventual joy for home hero Charles Leclerc in this challenge in recent years, the 2023 event stands out most vividly in this regard. Max Verstappen‘s stunning third sector ended up being the only thing standing between a first Aston Martin F1 win ever and a 33rd for Fernando Alonso.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB19

Photo by: Erik Junius

It was a lap for the ages – at a time when on other ‘normal’ circuits the opposition couldn’t get close. Monaco’s layout negates any particular power or aerodynamic design efficiency prowess. A year on, Verstappen having to push so hard to compete with the reinvigorated Ferrari and McLaren squads led to him hitting the wall and losing his victory shot.

Monaco is famously a ‘sunny afternoon for shady people’. Yet given the alternative these days would be another identikit street track in a different city or a runoff-heavy Tilkedrome – both things that induce similar angst at the heart of this discussion – that shade is only coming from people who can’t accept that the specifics of Monaco are a price worth paying for one weekend in 24. Plus, if it’s a wet affair, it’s also an instant classic.

And then there’s the list of F1 legends to have won in Monaco. With many more to come, they deserve to be given the opportunity to shine at this intrinsic challenge of grand prix racing and put their names alongside those who previously starred on the streets of Monte Carlo.

Monaco is not what it once was – the jewel in the F1 crown – Mark Mann-Bryans

The challenge of qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix is indeed a unique one – but since when should the result of a Formula 1 race be determined over one lap on a Saturday afternoon?

The current cars, for starters, are too big and too wide to promote any tangible sense of a battle for position that is not decided by undercuts or timely safety cars.

Research conducted earlier this year found that, after the first lap, on-track overtakes at Monaco for the past decade totalled 101 – there were 99 at the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix alone.

Is a race or a circuit defined solely by the number of overtaking opportunities? Of course not, but at a time when more fresh eyes are tuning in than ever before, there has to be something more than the annual procession around world-famous casinos.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24, Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Purists love Monaco for the blurry footage of their all-time favourites putting in sublime drives against the odds, at a time when nothing summed up the grit and glamour of F1 dovetailing like a Sunday in Monte Carlo.

Even off-track things have changed. The VIP guestlist for Monaco is now firmly underneath the likes of Miami and Las Vegas on the clipboard. Getting inside the velvet rope is much more important at those American races than in the principality.

Business is still conducted on the yachts moored in the harbour, of course, but that clientele, too, is finding new homes.

Saudi Arabia, Singapore and once again, Miami (there is a reason F1’s owners pick these places…) are where contracts get signed, handshakes are made, and deals are done.

Monaco will forever have its rightful place in F1 lore, but sadly it has now become stale. Ironically, it has been overtaken.

Monaco’s history is intrinsically tied to its grand prix – Stuart Codling

The Monaco Grand Prix epitomises the principality it calls home: tiny but fiercely independent, and as indomitable as the rocks upon which it perches. In the centuries since Francesco Grimaldi sneaked into the castle disguised as a Franciscan monk, then opened the doors to an invasion force led by his cousin (an origin story depicted in the Monegasque coat of arms), foreign powers have squabbled repeatedly over this small but strategically useful spot.

Likewise, the grand prix has weathered assaults on its status.

Juan Manuel Fangio, Alfa Romeo 158, leads Bob Gerard, ERA A

Photo by: Motorsport Images

Monaco’s land border is just 3.7 miles long, although reclamation projects and modern architecture have enabled it to expand outwards into the sea as well as upwards and downwards. The rocks which once sheltered pirates now enclose a bewildering network of subterranean road and rail tunnels.

Against this tapestry of continuous transformation, both geographically and demographically – two-thirds of the population are ‘foreigners’ – the grand prix acts as a fundamental connection between Monaco’s past and present. When the race was first held in 1929, the principality’s chief source of income was casino receipts. While gambling remains an industry and a tourist draw, Monaco’s post-war reputation as a dissolute Nazi hangout required the ruling family to make a course correction in which the grand prix played a central role.

Putting Monaco on the map was the point of hosting a grand prix in the first place. The Automobile Club de Monaco craved recognition from the Association Internationale des Automobile-Clubs Reconnus (the forerunner of the FIA) but this wasn’t forthcoming: the Monte Carlo Rally, which had been held since 1911, stopped short of the border. To be accredited as a national sporting body the ACM would have to stage a race on sovereign territory.

Antony Noghes, son of the ACM’s founder, duly walked the narrow streets until he alighted on a potential route which, by and large, remains the same to this day.

“This skirted the port,” Noghes said later, “passing along the quay and the Boulevard Albert Premier, climbed the hill of Monte Carlo, then passed round the Place du Casino, took the downhill zigzag near Monte Carlo Station to get back approximately to sea level and from there, along the Boulevard Louis II and the Tir aux Pigeons tunnel, the course came back to the port quayside.

“Today the roads comprising this circuit look as though they were made for the purpose.”

Graham Hill, BRM P261

Photo by: Sutton Images

Despite the unpromisingly narrow layout, dirt-surfaced and crisscrossed by tramlines, the first events proved successful because Noghes attracted a high-quality international field. Post-war, though, Monaco was tainted by its association with the Vichy regime and by society scandal: Princess Charlotte, the heir presumptive, had divorced her husband and taken several lovers including her doctor and a notorious jewel thief, Rene Girier. Casino receipts were down 90%.

Upon acceding to the throne in 1949 – the year the Monaco Grand Prix had to be cancelled because the state coffers were running on empty – Charlotte’s son Rainier III set about rebuilding Monaco’s economy and reputation, diversifying into tourism and the attraction of foreign tax exiles. Hosting a prestigious international motor race would make Monaco a destination again.

And, barring a few financial issues in the early 1950s and the small matter of a bug going round in the early 2020s, the Monaco Grand Prix has been central to the principality’s success trajectory ever since.