competition

What in the name of common sense is a 16-year-old who lives in Venice dreaming about competing in the Olympic Games as a snowboarder instead of a skateboarder or surfer?

“I really liked skateboarding but needed something more exhilarating flying into the air,” said Tristam Henkels, who’s been spending this month training in Switzerland and Austria as a member of the U.S. snowboard rookie team for halfpipe.

He used to spend nine hours a day skateboarding at a park in Santa Monica. He watched snowboarder Chloe Kim compete at the Mammoth Mountain World Cup shortly before her gold-medal performance at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang.

Then his mother, Judy, decided to become his chauffeur when he was 10, taking him to Big Bear to practice snowboarding. She’s still traveling with Tristam, who’s enrolled in an online school but prefers snowboarding over everything else. He previously attended Canyon Elementary School in Santa Monica.

He’s so obsessed with being the best that three broken arms suffered from falls, along with a compression back fracture, hardly deters him to think twice about flying through the air trying to perform tricks. He did admit that hitting ice feels like hitting concrete, so he has learned to be careful and hasn’t had any major injuries in the last three years.

“If you fall and get back up, you’re going to be stronger the next time,” he said of his philosophy during a phone conversation from Switzerland.

There will be lots of competition for a 2030 Olympic team berth in France. Henkels is working his way up in a sport filled with talented athletes who have to maneuver their bodies like a gymnast in pursuit of a perfect score of 100 from the judges.

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Carlo Holse scored three goals in the first 21 minutes and had the second hat trick in club history to help St. Louis City beat the Galaxy 6-2 on Sunday night to extend their unbeaten streak across all competitions to 20 games and tie the MLS record.

St. Louis, which is 13-0-5 in its past 18 regular-season games, tied the mark set when the New York Red Bulls went unbeaten in an MLS-record 20 consecutive games across all competitions in 2016.

Rafael Navarro converted from the penalty spot in the 45th minute, scored again in the 53rd and added two assists for St. Louis (14-6-8). Lukas MacNaughton scored on a diving header in the seventh minute of first-half stoppage time and Roman Burki had five saves.

Holse opened the scoring in the second minute, added a goal in the seventh and skipped a shot inside the right post from the center of the area to make it 3-0 in the 21st minute to record the second-fastest hat trick in MLS history. Hany Mukhtar scored three goals for Nashville in the first 16 minutes of 5-1 win over Chicago on July 17, 2021.

The Galaxy’s Kyogo Furuhashi went off because of an apparent hamstring injury and was replaced in the 10th minute by João Klauss, whose goal in the 71st minute capped the scoring. Klauss, a 29-year-old midfielder in his first season with the Galaxy, had St. Louis City’s first hat trick in a 3-3 tie with the Galaxy on June 14, 2025.

Robert Taylor scored in the 31st minute for the Galaxy (9-11-9).

St. Louis beat the Galaxy 3-1 on July 22 at Dignity Health Sports Park.

The credit firm, which provides financing to middle-market companies, said the funding would support the next phase of LIV Golf, under which players would become equity owners of both the league and its teams.

The financing remains subject to bankruptcy court approval and customary conditions.

“This investment is an important step forward for LIV Golf,” said LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil in a statement.

“We’re delivering on our major milestones, and while there is still work ahead, today marks meaningful progress toward a player-owned, team-focused, truly global league that complements the wider game and creates new opportunities for players, fans, partners, and the next generation of golfers.”

Since LIV’s controversial launch in 2021, more than $5bn (£3.7bn) has been spent by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), with major winners including Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau lured by lucrative contracts and vast prize money.

However, the future of the concept – and its star players – has been shrouded in uncertainty, with the 2026 season having ended early.

Documents in the petition outline money owed to LIV Golf’s creditors with the 30 largest unsecured claims.

Two-time major winner Rahm tops that list with an unsecured claim of $7.5m (£5.5m).

DeChambeau ($5.7m – £4.2m), Dustin Johnson ($5.5m – £4.1m), Cameron Smith ($4.8m – £3.5m) and Tyrrell Hatton ($3.4m – £2.5m) are also among the top 30 creditors, as well as Brooks Koepka, who left to rejoin the PGA Tour in January but has an unsecured claim of $1.7m (£1.25m).

The total amount owed to the 14 current and former LIV players in the top 30 creditors is just over $45m (£33m).

A source familiar with the figures told BBC Sport the creditors list outlines the “amount owed and not paid for Q3” of 2026, not the full amounts.

Chapter 11 protection postpones a US company’s obligations to its creditors, giving it time to reorganise its debts or sell parts of the business.

PIF is providing a bankruptcy loan of $49.6m (£36.6m) – called ‘debtor in possession’ (DIP) financing – to help fund the process.