Olympics

8:16 AM ET Britain will send its strongest ever swimming team to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after an initial squad of 28 was announced on Tuesday, officials said. Reigning Olympic 100m breaststroke champion and world record holder Adam Peaty was pre-selected in January alongside double Olympic relay silver medallist Duncan Scott, and first-time Olympians James

4:42 AM ET Australian athletes destined for the Tokyo Olympic Games will be prioritised for vaccination. National cabinet on Tuesday agreed about 2050 athletes and support staff would be vaccinated under priority group 1b, which includes health care workers, Indigenous Australians aged over 55 and elderly people over 70. Minister for Senior Australians and Aged

1:25 AM ET Associated Press SYDNEY — John Konrads, who set 26 individual freestyle swimming world records and won an Olympic gold medal in 1960, has died, the Sport Australia Hall of Fame announced Monday. He was 78. Konrads was born in Latvia in 1942 and moved to Australia with his parents, his two sisters

9:54 PM ET Associated Press TOKYO — Tokyo Olympic organizers and the IOC are to unveil new plans this week to explain how 15,400 Olympic and Paralympic athletes can compete in Japan when the games open in three months in the midst of a pandemic. The rollout of the second edition of the so-called “Playbooks”

6:46 PM ET Kelly CohenESPN John Hinkle Jr., a former NCAA bowling champ at Western Illinois, has bowled a few perfect games in his life. But the most recent 300 score he bowled is without a doubt the most meaningful. The 39-year-old Peoria (Illinois) Public Schools counselor went viral this week after he posted on

2:42 PM ET United States women’s hockey national team captain Kendall Coyne-Schofield is tired of saying it “and even more exhausted from feeling it” but “women’s hockey, once again, deserves better.” Players across the world were stunned on Wednesday when the IIHF and Hockey Canada announced that the Womens’ World Championships in Nova Scotia was

10:38 AM ET Simone Biles is leaving Nike to join Athleta, which will help sponsor a post-Olympics tour that she’s organizing herself, rather than one that’s usually run by USA Gymnastics. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Biles said that she hopes the partnership will allow her to participate in “honest conversations” with

7:30 AM ET UK Athletics is planning to take legal action after this year’s Anniversary Games were moved out of London, a decision that the governing body’s chief executive said tarnishes the legacy of the 2012 London Olympics. West Ham United’s London Stadium was due to host the Diamond League meeting on July 13, but

6:27 AM ET Associated Press TOKYO — Japan declared a third state of emergency for Tokyo and three western prefectures on Friday amid skepticism it will be enough to curb a rapid coronavirus resurgence ahead of the Olympics in July. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced the emergency for Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo from April

6:00 AM ET Britain’s Olympic track cycling gold medallist Callum Skinner said the International Olympic Committee (IOC) would not be able to stop athletes protesting during this year’s Tokyo Games. IOC Rule 50 forbids any kind of “demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda” in venues and any other Olympic area. On Wednesday, the Games

1:55 PM ET Richard Freeman, the former chief doctor for Team Sky and British Cycling, has lodged an appeal to clear his name after being permanently struck off the medical register last month, his legal team said on Thursday. Freeman, who worked for Team Sky and British Cycling during a golden period of success between

12:38 PM ET Associated Press Dave Wallace will be Mike Scioscia’s pitching coach for Team USA as it tries to qualify for the Olympic baseball tournament. Scioscia’s staff will also include Jerry Weinstein (bench coach), Ernie Young (hitting and first base coach), Darren Fenster (third base coach) and Roly de Armas (bullpen coach), USA Baseball

10:52 AM ET Associated Press GENEVA — Athletes who make political or social justice protests at the Tokyo Olympics were promised legal support Thursday by a global union and an activist group in Germany. The pledges came one day after the International Olympic Committee confirmed its long-standing ban on “demonstration or political, religious or racial

6:23 AM ET Associated Press LAUSANNE, Switzerland — A competitive virtual sports event was launched Thursday by the International Olympic Committee. The Olympic Virtual Series will include five sports — baseball, cycling, auto racing, rowing and sailing — and runs from May 13 to June 23. The Tokyo Olympics open on July 23. Gaming brands

2:54 AM ET Associated Press TOKYO — Tokyo Olympics organizers said Thursday that a policeman tested positive for COVID-19 a day after his assignment last week at the Olympic torch relay. It is the first positive test connected to the relay since it began March 25 from northeastern Fukushima prefecture. Organizers say the 30-year-old policeman

4:24 PM ET Associated Press LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Athlete protests and political messages will remain banned at the Olympics, the IOC said Wednesday, after a survey found that a majority of competitors were in favor of keeping the ban in place. That means raising a fist on the podium — like American sprinters Tommie Smith

1:01 PM ET The 2021 IIHF Women’s World Championships in Nova Scotia have been canceled, a source told ESPN on Wednesday. The tournament was scheduled to take place from May 6-16, featuring strict COVID-19 protocols. Team USA, which had won five straight worlds and eight of its past nine tournaments, was at its pre-tournament camp

12:05 AM ET With the Tokyo Olympics now just over three months away and in a battle against the enormous second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, India’s lone individual Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra believes the existing testing methodology and quarantine protocols in the Games Playbook might need a science-driven rethink. “The virus is playing