Infectious diseases
Belgian Olympians get priority vaccines ahead of Tokyo Games

Apr. 19, 2021 11:22 AM EDT
BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgian Olympians traveling to Japan for the Tokyo Games were promised priority treatment for COVID-19 vaccines on Monday. ...

FILE - In this March 19, 2021, file photo, people take pictures of the Olympic rings installed by the Japan Olympic Museum in Tokyo. The vaccine rollout in Japan has been very slow with less than 1% vaccinated. This of course is spilling over to concerns about the postponed Tokyo Olympics that open in just over three months.(AP Photo/Hiro Komae, File)
Will Japanese Olympians be vaccinated ahead of the public?

By Stephen Wade Apr. 19, 2021 05:11 AM EDT

Dani Stevens competes in the women's discus at the Australian Track and Field Championships in Sydney, Sunday, April 18, 2021. Former world champion Stevens has been selected to the Australian team for her fourth Olympics less than a year after fearing she'd miss the Tokyo Games because of a career-threatening neck injury. (Dean Lewins/AAP Image via AP)
No masks, no worries — for now; Aussies preparing for Tokyo

By John Pye Apr. 18, 2021 06:36 AM EDT

Seiko Hashimoto, the head of the Tokyo Olympics speaks during a press conference in Tokyo, Friday, April 16, 2021. Tokyo Olympic organizers are again being forced to assure the world that the postponed games will open in just over three months despite surging COVID-19 cases in Japan.(Kyodo News via AP)
Column: The Tokyo Olympics will go on, but in name only

By Paul Newberry Apr. 16, 2021 04:41 PM EDT

USA's Nathan Chen performs during the men's free skating program of the ISU World Team Trophy figure skating competition in Osaka, western Japan, Friday, April 16, 2021. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
Chen tops Hanyu to win men's free skate at World Team Trophy

Apr. 16, 2021 10:22 AM EDT

FILE - In this Thursday, Aug. 29, 2019 file photo, IAAF President British Lord Sebastian Coe at the award ceremony during the Weltklasse IAAF Diamond League international athletics meeting in the stadium Letzigrund in Zurich, Switzerland. The Diamond League will hold its season opener in Britain for the first time with Gateshead replacing Rabat as the 2021 campaign’s first host city, it was announced Friday, April 16, 2021. Diamond League chairman Sebastian Coe says it’s an “incredibly important year” with track-and-field athletes preparing for this summer’s Tokyo Olympics as well as next year’s World Athletics Championships in Oregon. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP, file)
Gateshead replaces Rabat for Diamond League season opener

Apr. 16, 2021 07:26 AM EDT

FILE - In this April 14, 2021, file photo, Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games mascot Miraitowa poses with a display of Olympic Symbol after an unveiling ceremony of the symbol on Mt. Takao in Hachioji, west of Tokyo to mark 100 days before the start of the Olympic Games. Japan is set to raise the coronavirus alert level in Tokyo’s three neighboring prefectures and a forth area in central Japan to allow tougher measures as a more contagious coronavirus variant spreads and doubts are growing whether the Olympics can go ahead. (Kim Kyung-Hoon/Pool Photo via AP)
Head of Tokyo Olympics again says games will not be canceled

By Stephen Wade Apr. 16, 2021 02:55 AM EDT

ITF moves rankings cutoff for Olympic tennis to June 14

Apr. 15, 2021 11:39 AM EDT
LONDON (AP) — The WTA and ATP rankings of June 14 will be used to determine which tennis players earn direct entry into the Tokyo Olympics for singles and...

FILE - In this March 29, 2021, file photo, Japanese Vaccine Minister Taro Kono wearing a face mask with Japanese and EU flags on it speaks during an interview in Tokyo. Kono said on Thursday, April 15, 2021, even if the Olympics go on, there may be no fans of any kind in the venues. He said it's probably Olympics will have to held in empty venues, particularly as cases surge across the country. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara, File)
Officials say Olympic cancellation, no fans still an option

By Mari Yamaguchi And Yuri Kageyama Apr. 15, 2021 02:13 AM EDT

Retired two-time Olympic medalist Andrew Weibrecht poses for a selfie while backcountry skiing on the Nye Mountain Trail on Jan. 31, 2021, just outside Lake Placid, N.Y., in an effort to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. (Andrew Weibrecht via AP
Super-G ace Andrew Weibrecht back on skis for Make-A-Wish

Apr. 15, 2021 02:12 AM EDT

Huston, Zeuner head US national skateboarding team

Apr. 14, 2021 07:19 PM EDT
VISTA, Calif. (AP) — Nyjah Huston and teenager Brighton Zeuner head the 2021 USA Skateboarding National Team announced Wednesday. A total...

Team USA Tokyo Olympic closing ceremony uniforms are displayed during the unveiling at the Ralph Lauren SoHo Store on April 13, 2021, in New York. Ralph Lauren is an official outfitter of the 2021 U.S. Olympic Team. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Ralph Lauren unveils crisp white Team USA Olympic uniforms

By Leanne Italie Apr. 14, 2021 09:44 AM EDT

FILE - In this March 3, 2020, file photo, the New National Stadium, a venue for the opening and closing ceremonies at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, is seen from Shibuya Sky observation deck in Tokyo. Organizers and the International Olympic Committee are pushing on despite COVID-19 risks, myriad scandals, and overwhelming public opposition in Japan to holding the games. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
100 Days: Tokyo Olympics marked by footnotes and asterisks

By Stephen Wade Apr. 13, 2021 09:35 PM EDT

WNBA to play 32-game schedule, has month break for Olympics

By Doug Feinberg Apr. 13, 2021 02:31 PM EDT
NEW YORK (AP) — The WNBA will play a 32-game schedule that includes mini two-game series in the same city to reduce travel amid the coronavirus pandemic, the...

Olympic baseball qualifying in West Palm Beach, St. Lucie

By The Associated Press Apr. 13, 2021 12:23 PM EDT
The United States' delayed second chance at qualifying for the Olympic baseball tournament has been moved to the spring training home of the Houston Astros and...

An Olympic torch relay runner, center, hands over the flame of the torch to the next runner during the first day of the Osaka round at a former Expo site in Suita, north of Osaka, western Japan, Tuesday, April 13, 2021. The Tokyo 2020 Olympic kick-off event which was rescheduled due to the coronavirus outbreak was yet rearranged to hold at the former Expo park, instead of public streets, to close off the audience from the even, following the mayor's decision as Osaka has had sharp increases in daily cases since early March. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
Olympic torch runs through empty park in Osaka as cases rise

By Stephen Wade Apr. 13, 2021 02:25 AM EDT

Hideki Matsuyama, of Japan, holds the trophy after winning the Masters golf tournament on Sunday, April 11, 2021, in Augusta, Ga. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Prime minister leads celebrations of Matsuyama's Masters win

By Yuri Kageyama And Koji Ueda Apr. 12, 2021 12:39 AM EDT

FILE - In this March 24, 2020, file photo, a man is seen through the Olympic rings installed near the National Stadium in Tokyo. Athletes at the Tokyo Olympics who come down with minor symptoms of COVID-19 could be isolated in a hotel lined up by local organizers of the games. Japan’s Kyodo news agency cited unnamed officials with “knowledge of the plan.” The Japanese news agency on Sunday, April 11, 2021, said organizers are working to secure 300 rooms in a hotel near the Athletes Village. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
Report: Hotel will house Olympic athletes with COVID-19

Apr. 11, 2021 05:06 AM EDT

Brazilian, US surfers win opening WSL event in Australia

Apr. 10, 2021 02:49 AM EDT
NEWCASTLE, Australia (AP) — Defending World Surf League champion Italo Ferreira won an all-Brazilian men’s final Saturday over Gabriel Medina at the Newcastle...

FILE - John Roethlisberger, of Falcon Heights, Minn., hugs his dad Fred after his final event in the men's 2000 U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials in Boston, in this Saturday, Aug. 19, 2000, file photo. Roethlisberger was chosen for the U.S. Olympic team. The cutback in NCAA athletic programs due to the COVID-19 pandemic is being felt acutely in men's gymnastics. For decades Division I programs have produced an overwhelming majority of the US Olympic team. The number of Division I programs, however, is shrinking. The University of Minnesota and the University of Iowa will stop offering it as a scholarship sport at the end of the month. That will drop the number of Division I schools to 11. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)
Olympic Gold: Men's gymnastics struggling to survive

By Will Graves Apr. 09, 2021 12:04 PM EDT