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LONDON: Forget anabolic steroids in easy-to-swallow tablets, or EPO in clean syringes. Ancient Olympic dopers got their pre-Games hormone boost from chewing on raw animal testicles. The problem of some Olympic competitors taking potions, medicines and supplements to boost performance is as old as the Games themselves. Even athletes of the 19th century thought nothing of fortifying themselves with coca …

NEWCASTLE, England: Brazil easily defeated New Zealand 3-0 Wednesday despite resting some regular starters for the quarterfinals of the men’s Olympic football tournament. Already in the next round, Brazil earned the comfortable win with goals by Danilo in the 23rd minute, Leandro Damiao in the 29th and Sandro in the 52nd. The result eliminated New Zealand, which needed to win to have any chance of advancing from Group …

WEYMOUTH, England: Pavlos Kontides raced into gold-medal contention in the Laser dinghy at the Olympic regatta on Wednesday, raising hopes of securing a first podium finish at a Games by a Cypriot athlete. Kontides, 22, took a second and fourth in the day’s races and holds a one-point lead over Australia’s four-time world champion Tom Slingsby after six races. Kontides …

LONDON: As the world’s top athletes compete at the London Games, Syria is wracked by civil war, and the country’s Olympic team is steering clear of the issue. The northwestern city of Aleppo has been under military forces’ fire for 12 days, with the army using warplanes to fire on opposition fighters in one of the most important battles of …

LONDON: Handball has never been big in Britain, hardly ever entering into the public eye in a country obsessed by football, cricket and rugby. Judging by the opening weekend of games at the London Olympics, though, it may be catching on – even though the hosts seem to have little chance of even winning a game. The 6,500-seat venue at …

LONDON: For 12 years, the Hungarian men’s water polo team couldn’t lose at the Olympics, winning three straight gold medals and running up a 17-game unbeaten streak. Now, they can’t seem to win. Hungary lost to Montenegro 11-10 on Tuesday, two days after dropping its opener at the London Olympics to Serbia 14-10. So after all that success in recent …

LONDON: Tunisia may have missed out on its first medal at the London Olympics because of bad math. Weightlifter Khalil El Maoui was in second place of the men’s 56-kilogram competition after the snatch on Sunday but never showed up on the platform for the second lift, the clean and jerk. He blamed his coach afterward for submitting an entry …

BERLIN: “Even the Kazakhs are laughing at us,” screamed mass circulation Bild on its front page under an Olympics medal table showing sporting powerhouse Germany with nothing to show for its efforts. “Man (and woman), are we bad,” adds the paper, Europe’s most widely read, following a string of disappointments culminating in world record-holder swimmer Paul Biedermann’s failure to qualify …