Olympics

5:57 AM ET Associated Press TOKYO — Japan is set to further expand a coronavirus state of emergency, currently in Tokyo and five other prefectures, to nine areas as the government is determined to hold the Olympics in just over two months. Japan has been struggling to slow the infections ahead of the Games. The

5:21 AM ET Aramide Oladipo When Dina Asher-Smith takes her place on the starting blocks at the delayed Olympic Games this summer, she is determined to be in peak condition both physically and mentally. The British sprinter has had an extra year to prepare for one of the biggest occasions of her career and she

7:18 PM ET Associated Press INDIANAPOLIS — Simone Biles is back to competing. The reigning Olympic gymnastics champion will return to competition for the first time in more than 18 months at the U.S. Classic next week in Indianapolis. The 24-year-old Biles — a heavy favorite to defend her Olympic title in Tokyo this summer

3:45 PM ET Associated Press DENVER — A boycott of next year’s Beijing Olympics will not solve any geopolitical issues with China and will only serve to place athletes training for the games under a “cloud of uncertainty,” the head of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee wrote to Congress on Thursday. CEO Sarah Hirshland

3:34 PM ET Associated Press CALGARY, Alberta — Troy Ryan has been named head coach of Canada’s women’s hockey team for the 2022 Beijing Olympics. “It is an honor and privilege to be entrusted with this leadership opportunity,” Ryan said Thursday in a statement. Ryan has Olympic experience. He was an assistant for Laura Schuler

6:07 AM ET Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Dutch cyclist Tom Dumoulin is returning to racing next month, six months after taking a break from the sport to consider his future. The 30-year-old former time-trial world champion will begin his comeback at the Tour de Suisse on June 6, the Jumbo-Visma team said Thursday.

5:57 AM ET Associated Press SYDNEY — Two years after his controversial podium move at the world swimming championships, Australian Mack Horton still can’t seem to shake off questions about the guy he intended to snub. Horton refused to stand on the podium next to Sun Yang at Gwangju, South Korea in 2019 after the

2:31 PM ET Associated Press GENEVA — The IOC on Wednesday downplayed concerns over Japanese public opinion calling for the Tokyo Olympics to be canceled, before its virtual news conference was interrupted by an activist protesting the Games. The news conference followed a monthly meeting of the International Olympic Committee’s executive board held amid a

1:36 PM ET Britain’s Lizzie Deignan won the 2020 edition of La Course, a one-day women’s race before the Tour de France. Photo by Stuart Franklin / various sources / AFP The women’s Tour de France is set to be revived next year after a 33-year absence as race director Christian Prudhomme said it will be

11:36 AM ET As a five year old, G Sathiyan used to tag along with his mother and older sister to a large room inside the DG Vaishnav College premises, filled with sounds of balls smacking particle boards. It was then that a gentleman with kind eyes and halting speech handed the young boy a

9:32 AM ET Associated Press CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Olympic champion Caster Semenya was sentenced to 50 hours of community service for speeding while driving in South Africa, prosecutors said Wednesday. The runner was arrested last Thursday and released on $35 bail, the National Prosecuting Authority said in a statement to The Associated Press.

4:49 PM ET Associated Press ROME — Rafael Nadal joined the growing number of tennis players expressing doubts about competing in the Tokyo Olympics. Third-ranked Nadal, in Rome for the Italian Open, said Tuesday that his status for the Tokyo Games is uncertain. “I don’t know yet. Honestly, I can’t give you a clear answer

6:22 AM ET Associated Press DAKAR, Senegal — Disgraced former world athletics head Lamine Diack returned home to Senegal late Monday after a local soccer club paid a bond of just over $600,000 to allow him to leave France. Diack, the president of world athletics from 1999-2015, was convicted in Paris in September on multiple

7:33 AM ET Associated Press TOKYO — The Tokyo Olympic torch relay is being pulled off the streets in Hiroshima prefecture as COVID-19 cases are on the rise in Japan barely 10 weeks before the opening ceremony. Hiroshima Governor Hidehiko Yuzaki said that a ceremony next week without the relay is likely to still take

11:01 PM ET Australian basketball star Liz Cambage has backtracked on threats to boycott the Tokyo Olympics in a racially based protest. The Opals’ star centre has confirmed she’ll play at the Tokyo Games after last week accusing Australia’s Olympic fraternity of “white-washing” after a photo shoot lacking racial diversity. Cambage, born to a Nigerian

9:17 PM ET Associated Press United States Olympian Rachel Garcia was one of the 12 players chosen in the first Athletes Unlimited softball draft on Monday night. Garcia, a right-handed pitcher for UCLA, is a two-time USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year. She led the Bruins to the national title in 2019. Three Arizona

10:46 AM ET Associated Press ROME — Japanese tennis player Kei Nishikori has doubts about whether the IOC and local organizers are doing enough to plan for a worst-case scenario of “hundreds” or “thousands” of coronavirus cases at the Tokyo Olympics. Or whether it’s even still feasible to hold the games when a state of

6:41 AM ET Associated Press TOKYO — IOC President Thomas Bach has canceled a trip to Japan because of surging cases of COVID-19 in the country, the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee said Monday in a statement. Bach was to visit Hiroshima next Monday and meet the torch relay and then probably travel to Tokyo. Organizing