hi, everyone. you're watching sport today from the bbc sport centre. coming up: strong words from the most decorated olympian of all time, doping cheats are ruining sport. the 2022 commonwealth games in durban is in doubt. and the aussie open title wasn't enough. serena williams has itchy feet. i tell you what, you will love this surprise appearance that shock to some park players. wherever you are around the world, welcome to sport today and michael phelps, the most decorated olympian of all time has told the us congress he never felt any competition outside of the united states was clea n. outside of the united states was clean. the swimmer testified in front of officials from wada and the international olympic committee. he called for an urgent overhaul of global anti—doping procedures and said athletes need to believe in fair play. throughout my career i thought that

some athletes were cheating and in some athletes were cheating and in some cases those suspicions were confirmed, given all the testing i am so many confirmed, given all the testing i am so many others i've been through, i have a hard time understanding this. in addition to the tests and competitions, i had to notify usada as to where i was everyday so they could conduct random testing during... outside of competition. this whole process takes a toll. but it's absolutely worth it to keep the sport clean and fair. i can't describe how frustrating it is to see other athletes breakthrough performance barriers and unrealistic timeframes knowing what i had to do to go through that. i have seen this affect my teammates as well. even the suspicion of doping is this illusion inc for clean athletes. you need to believe in the system that safeguards clean sport and fair play. michael phelps. liverpool's mayor says his city is ready to step in and save the 2022 commonwealth games

after the south african government threatened to pull out because of financial pressures. in december officials said they were fully committed to hosting the games, durban was awarded it in 2013 after being the only city to bid but now south africa has been unable to come to an agreement with the commonwealth games association for paying for the tournament. they were first held in 1930 and they are held every four years and a host the countries that were former british countries. if the commonwealth comes to us and says we can post with what we have negotiated, great, but if we can't then we can't —— can host. it's not then we can't —— can host. it's not the result that from the perspective of south africa as a country that we can't host in terms of

infrastructure and all those things, it would simply be based on financial consideration in terms of what the commonwealth expected to achieve financially out of this and what we are able to afford. this penalty awarded to real madrid during their 3—2 win over villareal has released but intense debate in spain this week. the barcelona defender gerard pique hinted the european champions benefit from referee decisions and the villareal president also complained after the match, saying he didn't like the officiating crew left the stadium carrying real madrid bags with small gifts like keychains, pins and pens. zinedine zidane was asked whether his side applied pressure on referees. translation: do you really think i'm going to answer that? no, no, translation: do you really think i'm going to answerthat? no, no, i won't get into that. i respect everyone. everybody can have an opinion and express it. all i'm

going to say is i don't agree. what i care about are my players, who are a display of respect and professionalism. they are so good and yes, those allegations, they bother me, that's it. manchester city manager pep guardiola has effectively admitted he no longer has a first choice goalkeeper. fans have been vocal about the decision to loan outjoe hart while claudio bravo struggled to keep clean sheets. bravo and cavaleiro will continue to compete for the gloves until the end of the season. we're going to decide about next season we're going to decide about next season at the end of the season. now i have tried a lot with the goals and we are not going to decide the goalkeeper and the strikers and the central defenders, fullbacks, we are going to decide at the end of the season. it's possible at least that it could be claudio and willie until

next season? the german match between borussia dortmund and their opponents was called off on tuesday night because of heavy snow. they had already put out top—flight opposition twice on their way to the last eight, werder bremen and leverkusen and they were looking to do another giantkilling at the stadium, less than 100 kilometres from dortmund. the weather intervened and no new date has been announced. it was only last week that rory mcilroy was the target of social media abuse after admitting he played a round of golf with donald trump. in contrast lexi thompson, ranked five in the world, seemed happy to speak about her experience with the man in the white house. that's my home course at west palm beach so i'm always out there and the last few weekends he's been there every weekend, so i got to see him andi there every weekend, so i got to see him and i played with him the

saturday before i left for thailand. i've played with him probably ten to 15 times and he's a huge supporter of golf, especially women's golf in general, he's been a huge supporter of my family. yeah, he's not a bad player, he's got a blot on his mind right now so it's tough to judge how his game is at the moment but he's a lwa ys his game is at the moment but he's always entertaining to play with, a lot of secret service members out there of course. former england batsman james former england batsmanjames taylor has spoken to the bbc about the anxiety he faces dealing with a heart condition that forced him to retire. last year he had a deliberate fitted that shocks him if his heart starts and on one occasion, it has —— defibrillator. it has and it kicked in ones with real force, a lot of voltage going through my body. it shocked me a few yards across the room, probably because i'm small. i reckon a big bloke wouldn't have gone half as far. that's scary, that's probably

why i've got the anxiety i have now and i'm a little bit more scared of exerting myself all pushing myself in some way because i know the feeling when it does go off and when things aren't quite right it's a scary feeling and it hurts. but it does itsjob, scary feeling and it hurts. but it does its job, that's scary feeling and it hurts. but it does itsjob, that's the most important thing and it's in there and if something does go wrong it is there to save my life. andy murray brushed off the rust with a straight sets win in the opening round of the dubai championships. the world number one was playing singles for the first time since the shock love to meet —— shock loss to misha zverev in the fourth round of the aussie open. he had shingles after australia but he looked back to nearfall had shingles after australia but he looked back to near fall health had shingles after australia but he looked back to nearfall health in his contest with the world number 51. in the second round he will play garcia lopez, who won their last meeting in indian wells. that was backin meeting in indian wells. that was back in 2012. sta n stan wawrinka, the defending

champion, is out. the world number three was beaten in straight sets by his opponent, not in the world top 50. the bosnian recovered from losing the first three games to outplay the three—time grand slam champion. i think after coming back after one month out, to recoverfrom i think after coming back after one month out, to recover from the injury, in practice it started to be 0k injury, in practice it started to be ok last few days but today i was missing a little bit of something. how about this? imagine playing a regular tennis match on a club caught somewhere only to find out you're being watched by arguably the sport's greatest player. take a look at this as the world number one serena williams challenges to strangers to an impromptu match during an evening work, walk, asking ifi during an evening work, walk, asking if i can play the winner. i'm having a stroll and i'm thinking about asking these guys if i can

have a hit just about asking these guys if i can have a hitjust to see their reaction. i think they're in the middle of playing points, i'm going to ask if i can have the winner. 0h my goodness, is that serena? yeah. wow. oh my god. i was going to say i'm not going to warm up. these are not official shoes! the moral of the story is, you never know when i'm going to be coming to a tennis court near you! are we going to do it again? i would love that to happen to me but then again i wouldn't because i would get thrashed! our top story this hour, the most decorated olympian of all time, michael phelps, has told the us congress he never felt any competition outside the us was clean and he's called for an urgent overhaul of global

anti—doping procedures. that's it for sport today. i'm nick marshall—mccormack. goodbye. hello. there was bright enough start to the day across eastern parts of the british isles on tuesday, but it didn't last, did it, because we were driving belts of weather down from the western side of scotland ever further towards the south and east. low pressure very much the dominant feature, and there's obviously something waiting in the wings, just to the west of us. and that doesn't arrive just in time for the temperatures dribbling away again, it'll be a chilly start for wednesday. some wintry showers across the north of scotland, watch out for some ice here as well. but if you can avoid the showers, there's plenty of sunshine to be had across the north of britain, things changing quite markedly, though, as we get on into the afternoon, across the southern parts of both england and wales, where it is turning increasingly wet, and eventually, really very windy indeed. so some detail to the middle part of the afternoon. there is that combinations of sunny spells and showers.

quite a noticeable wind, but this time, unlike tuesday, coming from the west rather than the north. so it might feel a tad milder, but not much. temperatures five, six, or seven degrees. plenty of sunshine there, with a mixture of showers across the north of england, clouding up eventually across the southern and western parts of northern ireland. the midlands hanging on to some sunshine. i'm afraid that's not going to be the case across southern england and wales, where that band of cloud that i showed you eventually rocks up, producing some heavy rain. but it is the strength of the wind that may cause some real concerns. some of those gusts at least to gale—force, i would have thought, across the exposed parts of both southern england and wales. and as we push that belt of rain further north and it moves into higher ground, well, you know, the intensity of the snow might cause a problem across the highest ground and across the high—level routes. so that combination could cause some disruption to your travel plans overnight wednesday. come thursday, less in the way of rain to speak of, initially, with the old weather front driving its way a little

further to the north. a little bit of sunshine around until late in the day. some uncertainty about this feature, but we suspect that something will run in on that noticeable wind into the western side of wales. some rain, and some hill snow, yet again. but a half decent day on thursday. oh that that were the case on friday. it probably won't be in the south again, as this area of low pressure will throw its weather fronts ever further towards the north. again, the pace of advance open to some conjecture at the moment. but we think that will be the major player of the weekend, sitting very close by to the british isles through saturday, and, indeed, on into sunday. and it will be perhaps the northern part of scotland and the northern parts of ireland at times that will see the best of the weather. but the general theme of the weekend is a bit of cloud around and a few spells of rain. take care. welcome to this bbc news special. reporting from washington, i'm katty kay. in just a few minutes, president trump will deliver first speech to a joint session of congress,

and the wider american public, about what he hopes to accomplish during his term in office. the white house says it will be an optimistic speech. but given its donald trump, we can also expect the unexpected. with me now and throughout the evening is the republican strategist ron christie and time contributor as well.