Two-time Olympic gold medalist Martine Grael will become the first woman to helm an F50 foiling catamaran in SailGP when a new Brazilian team debuts in the fifth season of tech billionaire Larry Ellison’s global league.

Grael was introduced Monday during a news conference in Rio de Janeiro, which will host a regatta May 3-4 on Guanabara Bay against the backdrop of Sugarloaf Mountain.

“I’m going to be representing every girl out there. There are a few girls that could be in this position. So, I’m very honored to be the first one,” Grael said in a video interview with The Associated Press.

“And honestly, I think it’s going to be a great challenge, not just for me as a girl, but as a sports person, to come in a circuit that is already established and trying to perform when there’s teams there that are already skilled,” she added. “I think it’s going to take every little bit.”

SailGP, which was launched in 2019 by Ellison and five-time America’s Cup winner Russell Coutts of New Zealand, includes most of the world’s top sailors, including America’s Cup champions and Olympic medalists.

College football

Mountain West and WSU, Oregon State can’t reach deal >> The Sept. 1 deadline for the Mountain West and Washington State and Oregon State to renew their football scheduling arrangement passed without an agreement, and the conference said Monday it is anticipating making schedules for next season without the Pac-12 schools.

The announcement does not necessarily close the door to the two sides agreeing to another arrangement as the 12-team Mountain West typically does not release its conference football schedule until December or January.

“For the 2025 season, the Mountain West and its member institutions are moving forward with their conference and nonconference schedules,” the league said in a statement.

Oregon State and Washington State are operating as a two-team league this season and intend to do so in 2025 as well after 10 Pac-12 schools scattered to other power conferences this year.

North Carolina turns to Harrell at QB >> North Carolina is moving forward with Conner Harrell as its starting quarterback after Max Johnson suffered a season-ending injury in the opening win at Minnesota.

Johnson had beaten out Harrell to be the Game 1 starter but suffered a leg injury in the third quarter against the Gophers and had to be carted off and taken to a hospital. He had surgery for a broken right leg in Minneapolis and Brown said Johnson was having another procedure Monday.

Brown said Johnson will remain for a week or two in Minnesota, where UNC has left an assistant trainer behind to stay with Johnson until he’s able to return to Chapel Hill.

MLB

Tatis Jr. is back with the Padres >> Star right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. was activated by the San Diego Padres after being sidelined for more than two months with a stress reaction in his right thighbone.

Tatis was set to bat second in the opener of a three-game series against the Detroit Tigers. The Padres entered the day in a virtual tie with Arizona for the NL’s top wild card.

Tatis last played on June 21. He was put on the injured list on June 24, retroactive to June 22.

He spent last week working out at the team’s spring training complex in Arizona.

Paralympics

Woodhall is sixth in 100m >> Hunter Woodhall hoped to match his wife by winning an Olympic medal but he finished sixth in the 100 meters.

Woodhall is married to long jumper Tara Davis-Woodhall, who gold at the Olympics last month.

Hunter is a double amputee running in the T62 category. He clocked 10.96 seconds. Costa Rican Sherman Isidro set a Paralympic record winning in 10.65.

Hunter was born with a birth defect that left him without fibulas in either leg and led to amputation below the knees.