Champions League draw creates drama

Real Madrid against Paris Saint-Germain. Cristiano Ronaldo against Neymar. Historic achievement against burning ambition.

Two-time defending Champions League winner Madrid was drawn Monday to play the tournament’s standout team in the round of 16, made possible because the 12-time champion finished second in its group. PSG won its group.

PSG bought Neymar from Barcelona for a record $262 million in the offseason with a specific aim of winning a first European title. Madrid won six European Cups before PSG was even formed in 1970.

Barcelona, which leads the Spanish league unbeaten despite the loss of Neymar, was drawn to face Chelsea in a meeting of recent champions. Other matches are: Liverpool against Porto, Basel versus Manchester City; Sevilla versus Manchester United; Juventus versus Tottenham; Bayern Munich versus Besiktas; and Shakhtar Donetsk versus Roma.

The first legs will be played from Feb. 13 through Feb. 21, with the return matches from March 6 through March 14. The final will be played at the Olympic Stadium in Kiev, Ukraine, on May 26.

Russian athletes are overwhelmingly in favor of competing at the upcoming PyeongChang Games despite a ban on the national team, the country’s Olympic committee said.

Sofia Velikaya said the Russian Olympic Committee’s athletes’ commission, which she chairs, has heard from “all the athletes in all sports” on the Olympic program, with a majority in favor of competing.

Velikaya said no athletes have told the ROC they would rather boycott.

“At the current moment, everyone’s training and everyone’s hoping to take part in the Olympics,” Velikaya said.

The International Olympic Committee last week barred the Russian team from PyeongChang because of doping offenses at the 2014 Sochi Games, but is allowing Russians to compete under a neutral flag as “Olympic Athletes from Russia.”

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the government won’t stand in their way.

ROC spokesman Konstantin Vybornov said teams from biathlon and snowboard had recorded videos affirming their desire to compete, and the men’s hockey team has written “a collective letter.”

Some Russian hardliners believe it is shameful for athletes to compete at the Olympics without their national flag. Velikaya defended the athletes, saying everyone watching will know who is from Russia.

“The choice of competing at the Olympics is strictly individual,” Velikaya said. “I call on Russian society to treat athletes’ decisions with understanding and respect.”

Obituary: Kevin “K-Rob” Robinson, a former professional BMX rider who set a world record for the longest power-assisted bicycle backflip, has died. He was 45.

His wife, Robin Adams Robinson, told the Providence Journal that her husband suffered an apparent stroke Saturday.