War and unrest
FILE - Canada's Alex Bilodeau celebrates after winning the gold medal in the men's moguls final at the 2014 Winter Olympics, on Feb. 10, 2014, in Krasnaya Polyana, Russia. A group of 42 retired Canadian Olympians, including Bilodeau, urged the Canadian Olympic Committee Wednesday, March 8, 2023, to reject the idea of allowing Russians to participate in next year's Paris Games. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)
Canadian Olympians push for opposition to Russians in Paris

By Eddie Pells Mar. 08, 2023 09:10 PM EST

Ukrainian sisters Maryna, left, and Vladyslava Aleksiiva speak during a practice session, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023. The path to the 2024 Paris Olympics for Ukrainian athletes is clouded by war, anger and pain. Russian bombardments have wrecked training venues. Air raids disrupt training sessions. Athletes have lost family members and friends. Or they worry that they will. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
War, anger cloud Ukrainian athletes' path to Paris Olympics

By John Leicester Mar. 02, 2023 02:33 AM EST

FILE - Ukraine supporters unfurl a "Stop War" banner on the stands during the UEFA Nations League soccer match between Ukraine and Armenia, in Lodz, Poland, on June 11, 2022. One year after the invasion of Ukraine began, Russia's reintegration into the world of sports threatens to create the biggest rift in the Olympic movement since the Cold War. (AP Photo/Michal Dyjuk)
Russia's sports exile persists 1 year after invading Ukraine

By The Associated Press Feb. 22, 2023 09:25 AM EST

IOC (International Olympic Committee) president Thomas Bach walks in the finish area of the alpine ski, men's World Championship downhill, in Courchevel, France, Sunday, Feb. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)
Nations: No clarity on neutrality, no Olympics for Russia

By Eddie Pells Feb. 20, 2023 08:00 AM EST

Vadym Gutzeit, Ukraine's Youth and Sport Minister and President of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine, talks during an interview with The Associated Press in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023. Gutzeit has pushed for a total ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes from the 2024 Paris Games in an interview with The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Ukrainian Olympic head on Russian rival: 'He is my enemy'

By John Leicester And Hanna Arhirova Feb. 15, 2023 05:13 AM EST

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, left, and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak sign a declaration of unity at a military facility in Lulworth, Dorset, England, Wednesday Feb. 8, 2023. (Andrew Matthews/Pool via AP)
Zelenskyy tells summit 'no place' for Russia at Olympics

Feb. 09, 2023 07:55 PM EST

Ukraine's Ivan Kovbasnyuk speeds down the course during the super G portion of an alpine ski, men's World Championship combined race, in Courchevel, France, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)
Ukrainian skier pushes to keep Russians out of the Olympics

By Andrew Dampf Feb. 07, 2023 02:13 PM EST

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- Gene Sykes claps after City Council voted 12-0 to endorse documents at the heart of its plan to stage the Summer Olympics for the third time since 1932, in Los Angeles on Aug. 11, 2017. The new leader of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee has reiterated the federation’s support for exploring a way for Russian athletes to compete at the Paris Olympics as neutrals. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
USOPC: Russian pathway possible, but sanctions must remain

By Eddie Pells Feb. 01, 2023 08:59 PM EST

FILE - Former heavyweight boxing world champion Wladimir Klitschko leaves after a meeting with German Economy and Climate Minister Robert Habeck in Berlin, March 31, 2022. Olympic gold medalist Wladimir Klitschko has joined Ukraine’s fight against IOC plans to let some Russians compete at the 2024 Paris Summer Games, it was announced Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023. The former heavyweight world champion has suggested in a video message sports leaders will be accomplices to the war if athletes from Russia and its military ally Belarus can compete at the next Olympics. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, file)
Boxer Klitschko joins fight against Olympic path for Russia

By Graham Dunbar Jan. 31, 2023 11:05 AM 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)
Russia issue looms for Paris Olympics, Zelenskyy rebukes IOC

By Graham Dunbar Jan. 28, 2023 09:36 AM EST

FILE - United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee Board Chairperson and President Susanne Lyons speaks during a press conference at the 2022 Winter Olympics on Feb. 4, 2022, in Beijing. Lyons conceded Monday, Dec. 12, 2022, that it would be “impossible” to monitor which athletes have supported the war in Ukraine if a plan is devised to allow some Russians to compete as neutrals in international competitions, and potentially the Olympics. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
USOPC sees 'impossible' hurdle to Russian return to Olympics

By Eddie Pells Dec. 12, 2022 12:36 PM EST

Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures during a ceremony to sign the treaties for four regions of Ukraine to join Russia, at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. The signing of the treaties making the four regions part of Russia follows the completion of the Kremlin-orchestrated "referendums." (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
IOC's Bach eyes return to sports for anti-war Russians

By Graham Dunbar Sep. 30, 2022 11:31 AM EDT

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach addresses a ceremony on the 50th anniversary of the deadly attack on the Israeli Olympic team at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich by a Palestinian militant group, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022. The head of the International Olympic Committee has apologized for the organization's longtime failure to commemorate 11 Israeli athletes killed by Palestinian militants at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Bach said the Palestinian attack in Munich was one of "the darkest days in Olympic history" and an assault on the Olympic Games and its values. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
IOC chief sorry for not honoring 1972 Olympic attack victims

Sep. 21, 2022 01:15 PM EDT

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, left, and Israeli President Isaac Herzog, right, attend a wreath laying ceremony to commemorate the victims of the attack by Palestinian militants on the 1972 Munich Olympics in Fuerstenfeldbruck near Munich, Germany, Monday, Sept. 5, 2002. The German and Israeli presidents are to join relatives of the 11 Israeli athletes killed in the attack by Palestinian militants on the commemoration event. (Sven Hoppe/dpa via AP)
German president apologizes for 1972 Olympic attack failures

By Geir Moulson Sep. 05, 2022 10:38 AM EDT

FILE - Ankie Spitzer holds a framed photo her husband Andre had made for the Munich Olympics before his death, as she poses in her home in Ramat Hasharon, Israel, on July 28, 2022. Andre was a fencing coach with the Israeli Olympic team who was killed in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich by a Palestinian group. In a decision announced Thursday, Aug. 11, the families of 11 Israeli athletes killed by Palestinian attackers at the Olympics will not attend a 50-year anniversary ceremony organized by German authorities, saying they deserve more compensation and a fuller reckoning of the tragedy. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)
Column: 50 years later, the pain from Munich lingers

By Paul Newberry Sep. 02, 2022 06:06 PM EDT

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, right, and Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, shake hands after a press conference after their talks in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Aug.16, 2022. (Wolfgang Kumm/dpa via AP)
Palestinian President Abbas skirts apology for Munich attack

By Frank Jordans Aug. 16, 2022 09:43 PM EDT

Artem Pryma of Ukraine, right, tags teammate Dmytro Pidruchnyi during the biathlon 4x6-kilometer mixed relay at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Saturday, Feb. 5, 2022, in Zhangjiakou, China. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
Ukrainian athletes join military after Russian invasion

By James Ellingworth Mar. 02, 2022 06:47 AM EST

China's He Binghan competes during the men's halfpipe qualification at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022, in Zhangjiakou, China. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Beijing Olympics get political with Taiwan, Uyghur questions

By Stephen Wade And Graham Dunbar Feb. 17, 2022 02:18 AM EST