Kessel leaves Fleet in return to Princeton as head coach of women’s hockey team

Princeton made it official on Monday in announcing Courtney Kessel’s hiring as coach of the women’s hockey team, a week after the two sides were finalizing the agreement.

Kessel spent the past two years coaching the PWHL Boston Fleet and returns to Princeton where she spent four seasons, from 2019-23, as an assistant under Cara Gardner Morey. She now succeeds Gardner Morey, who left the Tigers in May upon being hired as general manager of the PWHL’s expansion team in Vancouver.

The 35-year-old Kessel had a 27-19-8 record in Boston, including a Walter Cup Finals appearance in 2024, which the team lost to Minnesota in a decisive Game 5.

“It is bittersweet to move on from the Boston Fleet and the amazing people building that organization and the PWHL as a whole,” Kessel said. “This opportunity was the only one that could draw me away from where I was.”

From Toronto, Kessel played at New Hampshire, where she was a 2010 finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award, given to the MVP of women’s college hockey. She also represented Canada at three world championships, including a gold-medal win in 2012.

She also has Hockey Canada coaching experience, serving as a senior team assistant in 2024 and head coach of the 2023 gold-medal winning Under-18 team.

F1 rookie Kimi Antonelli passes his final exams to graduate from high school

BOLOGNA, Italy >> Formula 1 rookie Kimi Antonelli passed his final exams to graduate from high school back home in Italy just like he’s been passing other cars on tracks around the world: without trouble.

The 18-year-old Mercedes driver made the announcement in an Instagram story Monday, saying “promosso” — “passed” — with a photo of himself wearing a laurel wreath.

After claiming his first podium result with a third-place finish at the Canadian Grand Prix, Antonelli returned home to Casalecchio di Reno, near Bologna, to take his exams.

“I was fairly stressed, because I didn’t have much time to study. But I did my best,” Antonelli told reporters after taking the first portion of exams last week.

He said English is his favorite subject “because that’s the one that comes easiest for me.”

Antonelli added that he wanted to complete the exams, which included both written and oral sections, before the upcoming Austrian GP “so I can focus full time on racing.”

New IOC president Kirsty Coventry inaugurated to start 8-year leadership

LAUSANNE, Switzerland >> The first female and first African president of the IOC, Kirsty Coventry, was inaugurated in the role Monday on the organization’s 131st birthday with praise that the Olympic movement was “in the best of hands.”

Coventry, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in swimming for Zimbabwe, finally and formally takes office Tuesday aged just 41 after decisively winning a seven-candidate election in March to succeed Thomas Bach.

Coventry cited her family including her two young daughters as “my rocks, my inspiration” to lead the International Olympic Committee through the next eight years including the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.

“You are my constant reminders of why we do what we do every single day,” Coventry said, addressing six-year-old Ella seated near the front of the ceremony

“You are a constant reminder of why this movement is relevant, why it needs to change, why we need to embrace the new ways,” the new president said. “And you will be a constant reminder for many years to come on the decisions that we all take together.”

— The Associated Press