Doping

Russia stuck in stalemate with WADA — Russia seems to be stuck in stalemate that is blocking its full re-entry to international sports after a state-backed doping scandal. The World Anti-Doping Agency said Wednesday it is “not wavering” from two key demands in a road map to rehabilitate Russia, whose anti-doping body was suspended in November 2015. Russia has refused to formally accept the findings of WADA-appointed investigator Richard McLaren, who detailed the doping program and state-orchestrated cover-ups, nor allow access to potentially tainted samples stored in the Moscow laboratory central to the conspiracy. At an annual conference for global anti-doping officials, WADA stressed its wish to welcome Russia back would not be sold short. “That price is the road map, and that price is they have to accept (McLaren),” the agency’s deputy director general, Rob Koehler, said in an expert panel session that also featured Russia’s top anti-doping official. In an apparent plea to newly re-elected President Vladimir Putin, Koehler said public acceptance of McLaren’s evidence “needs to happen from the leadership, in order to start mending and having that cultural change.”

Tennis

Serena Williams exits Miami Open early — Serena Williams’ return to the Miami Open lasted just over an hour. The 23-time Grand Slam champion was eliminated 6-3, 6-2 in the first round by rising 20-year-old star Naomi Asaka early Wednesday evening. It was Williams’ earliest-ever exit at the Key Biscayne tournament. She had never lost before the round of 16. Immediately after the match, Williams — an eight-time tournament champion — bolted from the grounds without doing a mandatory press conference. Williams entered the tournament to much fanfare, as she was returning from maternity leave after having a baby girl in September.

Basketball

Nancy Lieberman to coach Big3 team — In the latest stop of her pioneering journey as a female coach in men’s basketball, Nancy Lieberman has agreed to coach in Ice Cube’s Big3 basketball league in its coming season. Lieberman, a Hall of Famer who has often pushed boundaries as a player and a coach — she was the first female head coach in the NBA’s developmental league and the second female assistant coach in the NBA — will take over the team Power, filling a vacancy created when Clyde Drexler, the team’s previous coach, was named the league’s commissioner. The league, with its collection of retired NBA players who still have a passion for the game, is a good fit for Lieberman, who was a star in the 1970s and early 1980s but kept playing long after a player would typically have walked away.

Football

Former NFL RB launches marijuana brand — The line called Real Wellness by Ricky Williams includes six products sold as salves, vape cartridges and tonics that contain “hemp-derived cannabidiol, tetrahydrocannabinol or a mix of both,” according to the company. They also contain extracts such as arnica, lavender and turmeric. Williams, who has studied herbalism and became a poster boy for marijuana use among athletes, said he thought the timing was right for his own brand because marijuana use is decriminalized in California, where he lives now. “Surprisingly enough, our research found that the main demographic coming into the (cannabis) market are women ages 35 to 60,” Williams, 40, said from his home in Venice Beach. “Cannabis coming on the scene is a reemerging of herbalism back into our culture.” For his new venture, he is collaborating with OutCo, a Southern California medical marijuana dispensary and consulting firm, to develop the products.

— From wire reports