Fairs and festivals
A resident wearing a face mask walks under red lanterns setup for the Lunar New Year holidays in Beijing, China, Monday, Feb. 7, 2022. As China gets back to business after a muted Chinese New Year holiday that coincided with the start of the pandemic-restricted Beijing Olympic Winter Games, the feeling inside and out of the bubble in this auspicious Year of the Tiger is that festivities for the most sacred and important holiday for the country were limited and underwhelming. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
A muted Lunar New Year, inside and outside Olympic bubble

By Sally Ho And Ken Moritsugu Feb. 07, 2022 04:53 AM EST

FILE - South Korean President Moon Jae-in, front left, shakes hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's younger sister Kim Yo Jong during the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea on Feb. 9, 2018. North Korea basked in the global limelight during the last Winter Games in South Korea, with hundreds of athletes, cheerleaders and officials pushing hard to woo their South Korean and U.S. rivals in a now-stalled bid for diplomacy. Four years later, as the 2022 Winter Olympics come to its main ally and neighbor China, North Korea isn't sending any athletes and officials because of coronavirus fears. (Kim Ju-sung/Yonhap via AP, File)
'Someone else's festival': No North Korea at ally's Olympics

By Hyung-Jin Kim And Kim Tong-Hyung Feb. 04, 2022 11:29 PM EST

People watch from behind a security fence during the final day of the surfing competition at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, July 27, 2021, at Tsurigasaki beach in Ichinomiya, Japan. The Olympic beach party that never was may be the only sore spot for surfing’s long-awaited debut that finished triumphantly this week. Some local Japanese fans and beachgoers did manage to find a way to lay eyes on the athletes and the competition site once the games began. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
COVID cancels the Olympic surfing beach party that never was

By Sally Ho Jul. 28, 2021 06:01 AM EDT

FILE - This April 11, 1896, file photo shows a doubles tennis match, Germany's Friedrich Traun and Ireland's John Pius Boland against Greek players Dionysios Kasdaglis and Demetrios Petrokokkinos, during the Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. From that modest start in Athens with 241 participants in 43 events, the Olympics have ballooned to include 11,238 athletes vying for 306 gold medals at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro. More are expected for the Tokyo Olympics that were postponed one year because of the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/File)
From Zeus to Athens, how the modern Olympics came to be

By Jimmy Golen Jul. 22, 2020 02:25 PM EDT

Arianna Sacripante trains on her terrace in Monterotondo, near Rome, Friday, April 3, 2020. Arianna, an athlete of the Italian down syndrome synchronized swimming team, continues her training with only one goal in mind: the Olympic Games, whenever they will take place. Synchronized swimming is not yet a Paralympic sport and they are aiming at a non-competitive festival in Japan which is the routine showcase before becoming part of the official list. Arianna did not sound discouraged by the Tokyo 2020 postponement due to the lockdown for the COVID-19 and she is keeping on training hard at home twice a day with both gym and choreography. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
AP PHOTOS: Down syndrome synchro team aims for Paralympics

By Paolo Santalucia And Alessandra Tarantino Apr. 12, 2020 09:03 AM EDT