United Nations
Tachlowini Gabriyesos, Eritrean born long distance runner smiles prior the half marathon race in Belgrade, Serbia, Sunday, April 23, 2023. Gabriyesos fled his native Eritrea and walked through the desert to reach Israel when he was just 12 years old. He is now running marathons, sending a message of hope and endurance to all refugees like himself. On Sunday, he ran a half-marathon race at the Belgrade Marathon as part of a U.N. refugee agency team at the event. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
Tachlowini Gabriyesos runs for refugees at Belgrade Marathon

By Jovana Gec Apr. 23, 2023 12:59 PM EDT

FILE - Mariya Lasitskene, of Russian Olympic Committee, reacts after winning the women's high jump final at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 7, 2021, in Tokyo. Track and field leaders signaled Thursday, March 23, 2023, that it will be nearly impossible for Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete at the Paris Olympics next year if the war in Ukraine continues.(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)
UN expert advising IOC gives views on Russians at Olympics

By Graham Dunbar Mar. 27, 2023 06:43 AM EDT

FILE - Greek actress Xanthi Georgiou, playing the role of High Priestess, lights the torch with the flame during the Olympic flame handover ceremony at Panathinean stadium in Athens, Greece, Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2021. Instead of arriving overland, the symbolic flame alighting the Paris 2024 Games will take to the seas from its birthplace in Greece, arriving aboard a three-masted tall ship in the French port of Marseille. Paris 2024 organizers announced the flame's journey Friday Feb.3, 2023 at City Hall in Marseille, a former Greek colony founded 2,600 years ago. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris, File)
Column: IOC talks tough on Russia — until Paris on horizon

By Paul Newberry Feb. 03, 2023 04:29 PM EST

FILE - In this Feb. 15, 2014 file photo Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and IOC President Thomas Bach meet in the Bolshoi Ice Dome in Sochi, Russia. The question of if and how Russia competes at the Olympics hangs over the 2024 Paris Summer Games. Just as it has now for five straight Olympics during Thomas Bach’s leadership of the IOC. The Bach-led International Olympic Committee's support this week for some Russians to compete in Paris as neutrals was publicly challenged Friday, Jan. 27, 2023 by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. (RIA-Novosti, Mikhail Klimentyev, Presidential Press Service via AP, file)
Olympic echoes of boycott era as Ukraine vs IOC intensifies

Feb. 03, 2023 03:12 PM EST

FILE - A woman passes by the Olympic rings at the City Hall in Paris, on July 25, 2022. Latvia is threatening to boycott next year’s Paris Olympics if athletes from Russia and its ally Belarus are allowed to take part after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly, File)
IOC details Russia stance for Olympics, cites human rights

By Graham Dunbar Feb. 02, 2023 03:52 PM EST

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach speaks at the opening of the executive board meeting of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), at the Olympic House, in Lausanne, Switzerland, Thursday, September 8, 2022. (Laurent Gillieron/Keystone via AP)
IOC publishes rights strategy months after Beijing Olympics

By Graham Dunbar Sep. 09, 2022 02:05 PM EDT

FILE - Somon Makhmadbekov, of Tajikistan, left, and Ahmad Alikaj, of the Refugee Olympic Team, compete during their men's 73kg elimination round of the judo match, at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, Monday, July 26, 2021. The Olympic Refugee Foundation and the refugee Olympics team are the winners of this year’s Princess of Asturias Award for sports, the Spanish foundation that organizes the prizes said Wednesday, May 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian, File)
Refugee Olympic team awarded prestigious Spanish prize

May. 25, 2022 08:21 AM EDT

FILE - From left to right, Dr. Joseph Goebbels, German Chancellor Adolf Hitler, Reichs Sports Leader Hans von Tschammer und Osten and General Field Marschall Werner von Blomberg observe the Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany in August 1936. The International Olympic Committee has always been political, from the sheikhs and royals in its membership to a seat at the United Nations to pushing for peace talks between the Koreas. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine three weeks ago exposed its irreconcilable claims of “political neutrality.” (AP Photo, File)
Russia invasion upends Olympic 'neutrality' — if it existed

By Stephen Wade Mar. 15, 2022 12:07 AM EDT

Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee, signs his name during the Olympic Truce Mural ceremony at the Olympic Village ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022, in Beijing. (Wang Zhao/Pool Photo via AP)
EXPLAINER: What in the world is the Olympic Truce?

By Mallika Sen Feb. 08, 2022 10:10 AM EST

Johannes Ludwig, of Germany, slides during the luge men's single round 3 at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Sunday, Feb. 6, 2022, in the Yanqing district of Beijing.(AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)
Olympics Live: US diplomat says human rights should be focus

Feb. 05, 2022 09:23 PM EST

FILE- Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso speaks at a signing ceremony that expands the Galapagos Maritime Reserve by 60,000 square kilometers, aboard the Sierra Negra research vessel in Puerto Ayora, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, Friday, Jan. 14, 2022. The U.S., Britain and a handful of others aren’t sending dignitaries to the Beijing Games as part of a diplomatic boycott, but the Chinese capital is still attracting an array of world leaders for the opening ceremony on Friday, Feb. 4. Lasso, who is seeking to renegotiate the country's $4.6 billion debt to China, will be in Beijing for the ceremony. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
World leaders: Who's coming, who isn't to Beijing Olympics

Feb. 03, 2022 09:43 PM EST

FILE - Protesters rally against the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games on International Human Rights Day outside the TCL Chinese Theatre in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles on Dec. 10, 2021. The location of the Winter Olympics in Beijing is certain to draw global attention to acts of genocide against the Uyghur people committed by the Chinese government. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
As Olympics open, Uyghurs set to take rights case to court

By Stephen Wade Dec. 13, 2021 11:38 PM EST

A visitor to the Shougang Park walks past the a sculpture for the Beijing Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2021. China on Monday, Dec. 6, 2021, threatened to take "firm countermeasures" if the U.S. proceeds with a diplomatic boycott of February's Beijing Winter Olympic Games. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
China dismisses UK, Canada Olympic boycott as 'farce'

Dec. 09, 2021 06:05 AM EST

Climate activists unfurl a large banner reading "Code Red" across the street outside the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum as the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit takes place in Glasgow, Scotland, Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
UN climate conference urges sports bodies to hit green goals

Nov. 03, 2021 02:49 PM EDT

In this image taken from video provided by UN Web TV, Suga Yoshihide, Prime Minister of Japan, remotely addresses the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly in a pre-recorded message, Friday Sept. 24, 2021, at UN headquarters. (UN Web TV via AP)
Japan's leader says Olympics were 'symbol of global unity'

By Jennifer Peltz Sep. 24, 2021 04:08 PM EDT

Members of the Refugee Paralympic Team listen to a message sent to them by Alphonso Davies who is a refugee playing professional football for Bayern Munich during a press conference ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, Monday, Aug. 23, 2021. (Josh Toth for OIS via AP)
Afghanistan flag to be displayed in Paralympic ceremony

Aug. 23, 2021 07:21 AM EDT

FILE - In this July 14, 2021, file photo, journalists film the National Ski Jumping Centre, one of the venues for Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, during a media tour in Zhangjiakou in northwestern China's Hebei province. The IOC says the Olympics are only about the sports; no politics allowed. But reporters from other countries who puncture the PR skin to explore other aspects of life in China — as they have in Japan during the Tokyo Olympics — could draw more than criticism. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)
Beijing Games: Sports coverage fine, other things maybe not

By Stephen Wade Aug. 02, 2021 02:24 AM EDT

FILE - In this Monday, May 24, 2021 file photo, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), speaks at the WHO headquarters, in Geneva, Switzerland. The head of the World Health Organization said Thursday, July 15 that he is asking China to be more transparent as scientists search for the origins of the coronavirus and acknowledged it was premature to rule out that the pandemic may have been linked to a laboratory leak. (Laurent Gillieron/Keystone via AP, File)
WHO leader says virus risk inevitable at Tokyo Olympics

By Graham Dunbar Jul. 20, 2021 10:37 PM EDT

FILE - In this Feb. 6, 2019, file photo, people walk past a display introducing winter sporting events for the upcoming 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics at a temple fair at Longtan Park in Beijing. Groups alleging human-rights abuses in China are calling for a full boycott of the Beijing Olympics, which is sure to ratchet up pressure on the International Olympic Committee, athletes, sponsors, and sports federations. A coalition of activists representing Uyghurs, Tibetans, residents of Hong Kong and others, issued a statement Monday, May 17, 2021 calling for the “full boycott,” eschewing lesser measures like “diplomatic boycotts" and negotiations with the IOC or China. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
AP Exclusive: Full-blown boycott pushed for Beijing Olympics

By Stephen Wade May. 17, 2021 04:29 AM EDT

FILE - In this April 10, 2008, file photo, Senior International Olympic Committee member Kevan Gosper speaks at a news conference in Beijing. Gosper, a former International Olympic Committee vice president, is suggesting the United Nations might be the place to decide the fate of the postponed Tokyo Olympic. They are to open on July 23, 2021, but face mounting opposition at home as COVID-19 cases surge in Tokyo, across Japan and across the globe. (AP Photo/Greg Baker, File)
Former IOC vice president says UN could rule on Tokyo Games

Jan. 16, 2021 09:09 PM EST