Olympics

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

4:44 PM ET Brady HendersonESPN DK Metcalf did not run fast enough in the 100 meters Sunday to advance to the finals of the USA Track and Field Golden Games and Distance Open. But the Seattle Seahawks wide receiver fared better than some expected for an NFL player competing against professional sprinters. Metcalf’s time of

9:58 AM ET Associated Press ROME — Naomi Osaka is conflicted over whether the Tokyo Olympics should be held amid the coronavirus pandemic. The second-ranked tennis player, who represents Japan, was asked about the games at the Italian Open on Sunday. “Of course I would say I want the Olympics to happen, because I’m an

2:35 AM ET The president of the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) on Saturday conceded a more diverse group of athletes should have been used in an advertisement for a local underwear brand after harsh criticism from two-time Olympian Liz Cambage. However, President John Coates defended the body’s broader record on race representation, as the AOC

7:54 PM ET Associated Press PERTH, Australia — Two-time world surfing champion John John Florence has a knee injury that he hopes won’t prevent him from representing the United States at the Tokyo Olympics. The 28-year-old Florence said Saturday he was withdrawing from the remainder of the World Surf League event at Margaret River and

6:10 AM ET Associated Press TOKYO — The president of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee said Friday that a visit to Japan this month by IOC President Thomas Bach seemed unlikely with a state of emergency order being extended by the government to Tokyo and other areas until May 31. Canceling the trip could be

5:50 AM ET UK Sport has identified almost 100 events it plans to host in the next decade including the 2030 men’s World Cup and 2025 women’s Rugby World Cup. A total of 97 events across 44 different sports have been earmarked by funding body UK sport with the 2031 Ryder Cup, the World Athletics

4:15 AM ET Indian rowers Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh qualified for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics in men’s lightweight double sculls event after finishing second in the final race of the Asia/Oceania Continental Qualifying Regatta in Tokyo on Friday. Another Indian, Jakar Khan finished fourth in the men’s singles sculls final which offers five