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Why did PUMA rebrand itself as PVMA ?

In a bold move that underscores its commitment to sports innovation, PUMA India has rebranded its signage to “PVMA” in honour of its latest collaboration with badminton superstar and two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu. This unprecedented activation heralds PUMA’s official entry into badminton and positions India as a pioneer within the global PUMA ecosystem for […]

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Why did PUMA rebrand itself as PVMA ?

In a bold move that underscores its commitment to sports innovation, PUMA India has rebranded its signage to “PVMA” in honour of its latest collaboration with badminton superstar and two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu. This unprecedented activation heralds PUMA’s official entry into badminton and positions India as a pioneer within the global PUMA ecosystem for the racquet sport.

Ahead of announcing the partnership, PUMA India initiated a unique campaign by temporarily altering its iconic signage at select stores across the country. For nearly a week, “PUMA” transformed into “PVMA,” symbolising the brand’s dedication to Sindhu and the sport she has elevated on the global stage. This bold gesture sparked widespread excitement online, amplifying anticipation for the partnership.

This multi-year collaboration signifies more than just a new chapter for PUMA; it represents the launch of a specialised badminton range featuring high-performance footwear, apparel, and accessories. Sindhu now joins PUMA’s elite roster of athletes, which includes cricket stars Harmanpreet Kaur and Mohammed Shami, Olympian Sarabjot Singh, Paralympian Avani Lekhara, and boxing icon MC Mary Kom. Lifestyle influencers like Kareena Kapoor Khan and Ibrahim Ali Khan Pataudi, along with global legends Usain Bolt and Neymar Jr., round out this impressive line-up.

The collaboration will make its official debut at the India Open 2025, setting the stage for a new era in Indian badminton and redefining the sport’s profile in the country.

Badminton’s popularity in India is at an all-time high, with 57 million fans, as per the 2024 Google-Deloitte Think Sports report. Notably, 27.8 million of these fans belong to Gen Z, indicating the sport’s strong resonance with younger audiences. It has also emerged as the second-most played sport in urban India, following cricket, with a 65% rise in active participation over the past four years.

Sindhu’s partnership with PUMA aims to further this momentum, particularly among young athletes. By leveraging her star power and PUMA’s innovative approach, the collaboration seeks to inspire a new generation of players and elevate badminton’s standing in the Indian sports landscape.

Sindhu’s extraordinary achievements have been instrumental in badminton’s rise as a competitive sport in India. As the first Indian to win five badminton world championship medals, she has also claimed victories at the Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, and other prestigious tournaments. Recognised with honours such as the Khel Ratna, Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, and Arjuna Award, Sindhu has solidified her position as a global icon.

Beyond her accolades, Sindhu was recently listed in the 2024 Forbes World’s Highest-Paid Female Athletes and is the most-followed badminton player on Instagram, boasting an impressive 4 million followers. Her influence extends beyond the court, making her a perfect fit for PUMA’s vision.

Expressing her excitement, Sindhu said, “I’m thrilled to join the PUMA family, a brand that shares my belief in the power of sport to inspire. This partnership is not just about being part of something bigger—it’s an opportunity to connect with those who embrace challenges and push boundaries. Through this collaboration, I hope to inspire others, especially women, to take risks, believe in themselves, and strive for greatness both on and off the court.”

German brand PUMA’s strategic partnership with PV Sindhu signals a transformative moment for Indian badminton. By leveraging Sindhu’s legacy and PUMA’s global influence, the collaboration aims to redefine the sport’s trajectory and inspire the next generation of athletes. The temporary rebranding to “PVMA” is more than just a marketing strategy; it’s a bold declaration of PUMA’s dedication to innovation, inclusivity, and the power of sport to unite and inspire.

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Joey Chestnut versus Usain Bolt? Debate over who would win challenge goes viral

In a race between Joey Chestnut and Usain Bolt, who could eat a hot dog then run a 100-meter dash faster? Professional athletes and hot dog-eating contest fans alike are divided as the new hypothetical scenario goes viral on social media. In a TikTok video posted by the official account for the PGA Tour, professional […]

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Joey Chestnut versus Usain Bolt? Debate over who would win challenge goes viral

In a race between Joey Chestnut and Usain Bolt, who could eat a hot dog then run a 100-meter dash faster?

Professional athletes and hot dog-eating contest fans alike are divided as the new hypothetical scenario goes viral on social media.

In a TikTok video posted by the official account for the PGA Tour, professional golfers were asked whether the nationally recognized competitive eater would beat the eight-time Olympic gold medalist sprinter in the proposed race.

Without hesitation, Max Homa responded to the hypothetical, “Oh, Joey Chestnut, I think.”

Later in the clip, he explained that he believes Chestnut could likely run 100 meters in less than 20 seconds, adding, “I’m hard pressed that I could eat a hot dog in 20 seconds. Yeah, I’m going Joey Chestnut.”

At first, Jordan Spieth locked in Bolt before asking how quickly Chestnut can eat a hot dog. (In this year’s Fourth of July hot dog eating contest, Chestnut was once again crowned winner, consuming 70.5 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes.)

After questioning some of the logistics of the race — like whether the hot dog would be consumed at the starting line, which could lead to a head start for Chestnut, Spieth decided on the sprinter.

“I’m going with who can run faster because I think a hot dog can get wolfed down pretty quick,” he said, before posing an alternative. “Now, if you said, ‘10 hot dogs and then run,’ when does it even out?”

“Joey Chestnut would smoke him at 10 (hot dogs before running),” Spieth added. “I think even two might be close.”

Saheeth Theegala reasoned that “even if Joey runs a 15-second 100-meter,” the golfer still felt Chestnut would win.

“I think Usain, even if he eats (the hot dog) as fast as he could and swallows it, I don’t see him eating it in under 8, 10 seconds,” he said, adding his final consensus is that Bolt finishing an entire hot dog will take longer than Chestnut’s ability to run 100 meters.

Amid much internal debate and in-depth analysis, the pro golfers landed fairly divided over who would win the competition — ever so slightly favoring Chestnut. And the comment section under the TikTok video equally entertained the proposition.

“Joey is taking this without a doubt,” one user wrote.

“Do you people have any idea the amount of calories that Usain Bolt has to eat to maintain his performance level? He could put down a single hot (dog) pretty … quick I imagine,” another argued.

While some found it wild to compare the Olympic medalist widely regarded as “the fastest man in history” to the 17-time champion of Nathan’s July Fourth competitive eating contest, some still theorized Chestnut would take home the gold this time around.

Other comments simply marveled at the “phenomenal question” itself, with one user writing, “that’s the greatest hypothetical ever.”

“Whoever came up with this question deserves a raise,” another wrote.

One commented, “You dont understand how much money I would pay to see the answer to this.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

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Maine and a GOP lawmaker who ID'd a transgender athlete online agree lawsuit is now moot

PORTLAND, Maine — Attorneys for the state of Maine and a conservative lawmaker who identified a transgender teen student athlete online now agree that the lawmaker’s appeal over her loss of voting rights for her post is now moot. Republican state Rep. Laurel Libby identified the athlete in a February social media post that went […]

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Maine and a GOP lawmaker who ID'd a transgender athlete online agree lawsuit is now moot

PORTLAND, Maine — Attorneys for the state of Maine and a conservative lawmaker who identified a transgender teen student athlete online now agree that the lawmaker’s appeal over her loss of voting rights for her post is now moot.

Republican state Rep. Laurel Libby identified the athlete in a February social media post that went viral and called into question the student’s gender identity, bringing attention to the issue of transgender teens participating in sports. Maine’s Democratic-controlled House of Representatives censured Libby for violating the House code of ethics and blocked her from speaking and voting on the floor.

Libby sued, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in May that the Maine legislature must allow her to vote. Lawmakers voted in June to halt the restrictions.

Maine Assistant Attorney General Kimberly Patwardhan said in court papers filed late last month that there are ”no longer any restrictions on Rep. Libby’s ability to vote or debate” and ”this appeal is now moot.” Libby said in a statement Monday that she will ”not contest the AG’s mootness argument” and added that she never provided the apology House Democrats asked of her.

”I believe this case sends a clear message: elected officials do not surrender their constitutional rights at the Capitol steps — and neither do the people who sent them there,” Libby said.

The appeal still needs to be formally dismissed by a court, but it is essentially dropped ”given that both parties are in agreement about the mootness issue,” said Danna Hayes, a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office.

Libby’s post was about a high school athlete who won a girls’ track competition. She said the student had previously competed in boys’ track. Her post included a photo of the student and first-name identification in quotation marks.

The post preceded a public disagreement between President Donald Trump and Democratic Gov. Janet Mills over the subject of transgender athletes. Trump signed an executive order designed to ban transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports earlier this year. At a meeting of governors at the White House in February, Trump characterized Maine as out of compliance with order.

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Kawhi Leonard's Latest Offseason Appearance Goes Viral

While some NBA fans want to see their star players only in the gym offseason, the reality is that’s not the case with professional athletes. Even when they put in their work, whether they make it public or not, they need to rest. Sometimes, that resting can take form in many different ways. NBA stars […]

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Kawhi Leonard's Latest Offseason Appearance Goes Viral

While some NBA fans want to see their star players only in the gym offseason, the reality is that’s not the case with professional athletes. Even when they put in their work, whether they make it public or not, they need to rest. Sometimes, that resting can take form in many different ways.

NBA stars like Jimmy Butler have been spending plenty of time around other active sports, such as F1 and the Club World Cup. For Los Angeles Clippers star and NBA Champion Kawhi Leonard, he decided to wind down on Saturday by taking some time to go back to where he became a collegiate star.

Posted by the official MLB page on X, Leonard was seen in a suite at the San Diego Padres vs Texas Rangers game at Petco Park in San Diego Saturday night. Leonard, a former San Diego State Aztec, starred at the college for two seasons before becoming the 15th overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft.

The Padres went on to lose to the Rangers 7-4, with Kyle Higashioka leading the way for the Rangers with three hits and five RBIs. Even though Leonard is a Padres fan, he likely won’t be losing sleep over the team’s loss.

Leonard is coming off his 13th season in the NBA, where in 37 games he averaged 21.5 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 3.1 assists while shooting just under 50% from the field. The Clippers essentially brought back their entire rotation for next year, aside from adding Brook Lopez. With the team in the rumor mill for Bradley Beal and Chris Paul, they might not be done just yet.

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Wimbledon attracts young fans and goes viral with 'Tennis

Aryna Sabalenka, the world No 1, and Coco Gauff, the second seed, clapped and grinned as they performed the routine on Centre Court. The stands were empty and they were dancing to the lyrics of Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now) for a TikTok video. It is one of more than 150 that Wimbledon […]

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Wimbledon attracts young fans and goes viral with 'Tennis

Aryna Sabalenka, the world No 1, and Coco Gauff, the second seed, clapped and grinned as they performed the routine on Centre Court. The stands were empty and they were dancing to the lyrics of Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now) for a TikTok video.

It is one of more than 150 that Wimbledon has shared on its TikTok account in an effort to engage young people in tennis.

The account has more than doubled its views and engagements this year compared with the previous tournament, achieving 200 million views on Wednesday, a milestone reached on the second Wednesday last year.

Wimbledon has also posted more than 250 times on Instagram, not including stories, growing the account by 300,000 followers to 6.5 million in the first week.

Will Giles, digital content editor for the All England Club, said he aimed for the social media accounts “to act basically as the front door to Wimbledon”. He added: “This role involves tailoring the traditions and prestige of Wimbledon to the slightly less polished expectations of some of those platforms, so there’s always finding that balance.

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“Demographic-wise, I think it’s no secret that Wimbledon is an event that’s trying to attract younger audiences. I want to find a way to engage people who might not be on tennis pages.”

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As well as clips of impressive shots and rallies, the club posts funny player interactions and nostalgic moments. The most popular video on Wimbledon’s TikTok page, viewed nearly 45 million times, is a clip of a fan in 1996 shouting “Steffi, will you marry me?” to which Graf replied: “How much money do you have?”

Leading up to the tournament, the club posted several Q & A videos, asking players light-hearted questions that were unrelated to tennis as they walked to the practice courts. In the more relaxed setting, the clips captured the players’ personalities: Carlos Alcaraz’s favourite films are the Rocky series, Gauff supports the Miami Heat basketball team, Jannik Sinner wants Charles Leclerc to win the British Grand Prix and Jack Draper thinks toothpaste goes before water on the toothbrush.

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Fergus Gavin, 19, from Northamptonshire, who visited Wimbledon this week, said he followed multiple tennis accounts. “I actually think Wimbledon’s social media content this year has been really good,” he said. “It’s been different, it’s been engaging. When you have the players walking past asking these not-everyday questions, it makes the players seem a little bit more real.”

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Farzeen Ghorashy, president at Overtime, a media group that works with the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), said young people want to get to know the players.“The storylines exist even when the players are not hitting the ball back and forth,” he said.

“And if you don’t have a show on Netflix or whatever, what is your opportunity to continue to tell those stories? I think social media is a really powerful way to continue that conversation when the balls aren’t bouncing.”

Ghorashy added that younger competitors used their accounts to build their brand, naming Frances Tiafoe, Ben Shelton and Gael Monfils as players with a good online presence.

He said: “I think that the more digitally native athletes that kind of matriculate up into the top rankings, they will naturally bring more young people to watch the sport because they will likely have young sports fans who are following them on social media who might not be watching ATP matches or WTA [Women’s Tennis Association] matches.”

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Ghorashy said young people watch sport on social media to see highlight reels of a match or player interviews, rather than on television. He added that it would be a while until tennis was streamed live on social media like some sports because of broadcasting rights.

Screenshot of a woman at Wimbledon answering a question about her favorite sport besides tennis.

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As well as player-focused content, visitors promote the Wimbledon experience every time they post. The club has enhanced photo opportunities in the grounds and has even provided giant trophies as background props.

Giles said the most popular spot for a picture has always been in front of the Fred Perry statue. He added: “The more people that can amplify the experience, the better.”

One young woman from the US, who preferred not to be named, was taking selfies to post on social media. “I think that’s the whole experience for our generation,” she said. “I’m dating one of the players and all of the other girlfriends, we just come and dress cute, it’s fun. Before the tournament starts, we go to the stands before there are too many people. They make good backgrounds.”

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Alphonso Davies' reaction to Jamal Musiala's horrendous injury at Club World Cup goes viral

Bayern Munich star Alphonso Davies has gone viral after teammate Jamal Musiala suffered a horror injury at the Club World Cup. On Saturday evening, Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain booked a spot in the semi finals of the Club World Cup with an impressive 2-0 win over Bayern Munich at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, […]

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Alphonso Davies' reaction to Jamal Musiala's horrendous injury at Club World Cup goes viral

Bayern Munich star Alphonso Davies has gone viral after teammate Jamal Musiala suffered a horror injury at the Club World Cup.

On Saturday evening, Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain booked a spot in the semi finals of the Club World Cup with an impressive 2-0 win over Bayern Munich at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia.

After a goalless first half, French youngster Desire Doue opened up the scoresheet in the 71st minute, before Ballon d’Or favourite Ousmane Dembele doubled PSG’s lead in the closing moments of the match.

However, the biggest moment of the match came late in the first half, as Bayern star Musiala suffered a horrific injury to his lower leg, forcing the game to be halted as the 22-year-old was taken off by a stretcher.

The moment shocked everyone watching, including Musiala’s teammate Davies who hosted a live watchalong for the game on popular streaming platform Twitch.

Warning: The below video contains images that viewers may find distressing.

After sustaining a season-ending injury to his anterior cruciate ligament at the end of March, Davies was forced to stay at home as his teammates travelled to the US for the Club World Cup.

But just because he isn’t physically at the tournament doesn’t mean he hasn’t been supporting his team, as he has their matches on his popular livestream.

As live-streaming his reactions to the match is massively popular among fans, it means that his instant reaction to Musiala’s freak injury was instantly captured, and he was clearly very upset.

Once it became clear that Musiala was seriously injured, Davies immediately took his headphones off and fell to his knees, screaming: “No! Oh my God no, please no.”

As he held back tears, it was clear that the Canadian was deeply impacted by the moment, as he continued to beg that the injury wasn’t as bad as it appeared on television.

Davies wasn’t the only player that was visibly upset by the injury, as several of the PSG and Bayern Munich players involved in the game also appeared to be holding back tears, including Gianluigi Donnarumma, who accidentally caused the injury.

As it stands, it is unclear exactly how severe Musiala’s injury is, but it is expected that he will be sidelined for much of Bayern’s pre season training.

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Ben Shelton's girlfriend Trinity Rodman mocks her viral Wimbledon love stare

Everyone on social media had the same joke. I hope someone looks at me the way Trinity Rodman looks at her boyfriend Ben Shelton. As the upstart young American looks to make a deep run at the 2025 Wimbledon Championships (playing right now with a chance to get to the fourth round at tennis’ most […]

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Ben Shelton's girlfriend Trinity Rodman mocks her viral Wimbledon love stare

Everyone on social media had the same joke. I hope someone looks at me the way Trinity Rodman looks at her boyfriend Ben Shelton.

As the upstart young American looks to make a deep run at the 2025 Wimbledon Championships (playing right now with a chance to get to the fourth round at tennis’ most prestigious major for the second year in a row), the 22 year old has already won off the court by having such a fantastic world-class girlfriend and star athlete at his side.

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Trinity Rodman

Jul 4, 2025: Lisa Shelton and Trinity Rodman in attendance for the Ben Shelton of the United States and Rinky Hijikata of Australia at Wimbledon / Susan Mullane-Imagn Images

If you were living under a rock, here’s the clip that has 5.5 millions views as of this posting of Rodman going gaga for her man, which Shelton eventually finished in 69 seconds (yes, there were lots of jokes about that as well), when the second-round match was controversially suspended for darkness.

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The USWNT and NWSL Washington Spirit forward, 23, made fun of herself with an Instagram post with the two of them staring at each other at Wimbledon in a more casual setting.

“Watching you with googly eyes😍🤪❤️,” Rodman wrote.

Shelton replied in the captions, “Why am I cheesin so big.”

Shelton is cheesin’ so big because hopefully he’s just as smitten, which very much seems to be the case if you follow either of them on social media.

And that smiler will get even bigger if the Gainesville, Florida native and naturally, Florida Gator alum, can take care of business for his first Wimbledon quarterfinals with two more victories.

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