Paris
French Olympic swimmer Yannick Agnel was indicted on Jan. 15 on allegations of rape and sexual assault of a minor.
Agnel was originally arrested in 2021 for alleged offenses in 2016 involving the daughter of his former coach. The victim was 13 at the time, and the incidents were said to have taken place in various locations between December 2015 and August 2016.
The swimmer admitted to having relations with the victim but has denied that any actions occurred without consent, previously stating that the relationship was loving. He also reportedly met with them again in 2024.
Although Agnel appealed the charges in 2025, the court ruled that the case would proceed to trial, citing that Agnel was an adult at the time of the alleged actions.
Under a law passed in France in 2021, any sexual act involving a child under the age of 15 is legally defined as rape, regardless of claims of consent. If found guilty, Agnel can face up to 20 years in jail.
Sydney
Ahead of the National Basketball League’s annual Pride Round, former NBL star AJ Ogilvy came out as gay in an interview with Adelaide 36ers player Isaac Humphries. Humphries came out in November 2022, the first Australian male professional basketball player to do so.
Ogilvy, a Sydney native, started his professional career in Europe, bouncing between teams before returning to his hometown in 2013 to play for the Sydney Kings.
“I’ve been married for nearly 18 months now. I met my husband when I was playing in Sydney, so I was with him for all my time in Wollongong and part of the time in Sydney,” Ogilvy said to Humphries.
Ogilvy described how he felt that he had to present as straight to be a basketball player, and how the separation between his private life and his professional life weighed on him throughout his career.
Ogilvy and Humphries both attribute the NBL’s Pride Round, which started during the 2022-23 season, to feeling more comfortable about their identities within male professional sports.
“That visibility and acceptance are really important, and it continues to move our great league forward,” Humphries said.
Tulsa
Emerson Axsom won the 40th annual Chili Bowl Nationals for the first time among a record-breaking 387 drivers. Taking place from Jan. 12 to 17, this year’s race also drew a record-breaking crowd to its finale at the SageNet Center.
As the largest midget car racing event in the world, the event features one day of practice on Sunday, the day before the competition starts, five days of qualifying from Monday to Friday and a final race on Saturday consisting of the 24 fastest drivers.
The Chili Bowl consists of 55 laps on a roughly quarter-mile dirt track and often attracts some NASCAR racers. Kyle Larson, the defending NASCAR Cup Series Champion, also won the Chili Bowl in 2020, 2021 and 2025. Christopher Bell, who won the event from 2017 to 2019, Jesse Love and several other NASCAR racers raced in the Chili Bowl as well.
However, at the end of the week, it was the 21-year-old from Franklin, Indiana, who took the win. Axsom’s title wasn’t secured until the very last laps of the race, where he had to battle Kevin Thomas in the final few turns.
“I won’t believe this until next year, or until I see my name on that trophy with everyone else that’s won this race,” Axsom said.
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