Race and ethnicity
Chinese attendants dressed in winter costumes rehearse the award ceremony of the men's 500-meters race during a test event for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing, Wednesday, April 7, 2021. The organizers of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics has started 10 days of testing for several sport events in five different indoor venues from April 1-10, becoming the first city to hold both the Winter and Summer Olympics. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
China warns Washington not to boycott Winter Olympics

Apr. 07, 2021 06:04 AM EDT

FILE - In this Feb. 3, 2021, file photo, exile Tibetans use the Olympic Rings as a prop as they hold a street protest against the holding of 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing in Dharmsala, India. Some kind of boycott is almost sure to affect next year’s Beijing Winter Olympics. It’s driven by the widely reported internment of several million Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in China, which has been termed a genocide by numerous governments and human rights groups. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia, File)
EXPLAINER: What drives possible boycott of Beijing Olympics

By Stephen Wade Mar. 15, 2021 02:33 AM EDT

FILE - In this Aug. 5, 2016, file photo, then U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, left, talks with International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach in Maracana Stadium before the opening ceremony for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Ban is being asked to rule on an ethics complaint filed against the International Olympic Committee by a human-rights group representing Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in China. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, Pool)
Ban Ki-moon asked to act on complaint against Beijing Games

By Stephen Wade Mar. 04, 2021 09:43 PM EST

The Olympic rings are visible atop the Olympic Tower in Beijing, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021. A small core of international lawyers and activists are prodding leading Olympic sponsors to acknowledge China's widely reported human-rights abuses against Muslim Uyghurs, Tibetans and other minorities. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Rights groups target sponsors like Airbnb for Beijing Games

By Stephen Wade Feb. 25, 2021 10:48 PM EST

UCLA Bruins gymnast Nia Dennis competes in the floor exercise against BYU during a gymnastics meet in Pauley Pavilion on the campus of UCLA in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2021. (Keith Birmingham/The Orange County Register via AP)
Viral and vital, college gymnasts finding their voice

By Will Graves Feb. 12, 2021 06:47 PM EST

FILE - In this Aug. 13, 2020, file photo, visitors to Chongli, one of the venues for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, pass by the Olympics logo in Chongli in northern China's Hebei Province. A coalition of 180 rights group on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2020 called for a boycott of next year’s Beijing Winter Olympics tied to reported human rights abuses against ethnic minorities in China. The games are to open in one year, on Feb. 4, 2022, and are set to go forward despite the pandemic. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)
Rights groups call for boycott of Beijing 2022 Winter Games

By Stephen Wade Feb. 02, 2021 10:31 PM EST

FILE - In this Dec. 3, 2018, file photo, people line up at the Artux City Vocational Skills Education Training Service Center at the Kunshan Industrial Park in Artux in western China's Xinjiang region. Groups representing ethnic minorities in China are again accusing the International Olympic Committee of ignoring widespread human rights abuses as the country prepares to hold the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Rights groups representing Tibetans, Uighurs, and others have sent an open letter to IOC President Thomas Bach and IOC member Juan Antonio Samaranch, who oversees preparations for the Beijing Games.(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)
IOC accused of ignoring human rights for 2022 Beijing Games

By Stephen Wade Dec. 16, 2020 09:59 PM EST

FILE - In this Feb. 19, 2014, file photo, a gold medalist stands behind the podium after the flower ceremony at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park, at the 2014 Winter Olympics, in Krasnaya Polyana, Russia. The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee heeded calls from American athletes, announcing Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020, that it won’t sanction them for raising their fists or kneeling on the medals stand at next year’s Tokyo Games and beyond. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)
Listening to athletes, USOPC won't punish Olympic protests

By Eddie Pells Dec. 10, 2020 10:47 AM EST

FILE - In this Sept. 12, 2020, file photo, Naomi Osaka, of Japan, holds up the championship trophy after defeating Victoria Azarenka, of Belarus, in the women's singles final of the US Open tennis championships, in New York. Osaka's victory in the U.S. Open helped raised the issue of racial injustice in the United States. Before each of her matches, she wore a mask with the names of seven Black Americans who died as victims of violence. The daughter of a Japanese mother and Haitian father, she has become a leader of the Black Lives Matter movement. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Japan celebrates Osaka; Sponsors cautious about activism

By Yuri Kageyama And Stephen Wade Sep. 14, 2020 03:54 AM EDT

Visitors to Chongli, one of the venues for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, past by billboards promoting the event in Chongli in northern China's Hebei Province on Monday, Aug. 17, 2020. China’s repression in Tibet, the status of the exiled Dalai Lama, and its treatment of ethnic minorities spurred violent protests ahead of Beijing’s 2008 Olympics. It could happen again. China is host to the 2022 Winter Olympics with rumblings of a boycott and calls to remove the games from Beijing because of widespread human rights violations. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
Human rights groups ask IOC to move Olympics from China

By Stephen Wade Sep. 09, 2020 02:40 AM EDT

AP Sportlight

By The Associated Press Aug. 17, 2020 10:26 AM EDT
Aug. 18 1923 — Helen Mills, 17, ends Molla Bjurstedt Mallory’s domination of the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association championships and starts her...

FILE - In this Sept. 25, 2000, file photo, Australia's Cathy Freeman celebrates winning the women's 400 meter race at the Summer Olympics at Olympic Stadium in Sydney. Freeman ignited the Olympic flame to open the Sydney 2000 Games and returned 10 nights later to win a gold medal in the 400 meters that had been a long time in waiting for country. She was the first Aboriginal person from Australia to win an individual Olympic gold. And she celebrated in a bare-foot victory lap with an Australian flag and the red, black and yellow Australian Aboriginal flag together in her hand. (AP Photo/Thomas Kienzle, File)
Freeman's legacy endures long after Sydney's flame went out

By John Pye Aug. 14, 2020 06:15 PM EDT

A symbol installed for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 on a barge is moved away from its usual spot by tugboats off the Odaiba Marine Park in Tokyo Thursday, Aug. 6, 2020. The five Olympic rings floating on a barge in Tokyo Bay were removed for what is being called “maintenance,” and officials says they will return to greet next year's Games. The Tokyo Olympics have been postponed for a year because of the coronavirus pandemic and are to open on July 23, 2021. The Paralympics follow on Aug. 24. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
Australian survey: younger Olympians more willing to protest

By John Pye Aug. 14, 2020 01:11 AM EDT

AP-Sportlight-Week Ahead

By The Associated Press Aug. 13, 2020 11:32 AM EDT
Aug. 16 1920 — Cleveland shortstop Ray Chapman is hit in the head with a pitch by New York’s Carl Mays. Chapman suffers a fractured skull...

FIK]LE - In this Oct. 12, 1968, file photo, Mexican hurdler Enriqueta Basilio, the first woman to make the final run of the torch and to light the Olympic flame, carries the Olympic torch up the 90 steps to the Olympic flame cauldron in the Olympic Stadium during opening ceremonies for the Olympic Games in Mexico City. (AP Photo/File)
1968 Mexico City Games marked by protest, falling records

By Jimmy Golen Aug. 06, 2020 09:57 AM EDT

FILE - In this March 30, 2020, file photo, a man jogs past the Olympic rings in Tokyo. In a message delivered to IOC members, Friday, July 17, 2020, online, Tokyo organizing committee President Yoshiro Mori and CEO Toshiro Muto announced the competition schedule for next year's delayed Tokyo Olympics will remain almost identical to the one that would have been used this year. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
P&G extends Olympic sponsorship, focusing on equality drive

By Rob Harris Jul. 22, 2020 08:48 AM EDT

FILE - In this June 3, 2020, photo, the Olympic rings float in the water at sunset in the Odaiba section in Tokyo. Masa Takaya, the spokesman for the Tokyo Olympics, said Thursday, July 9, 2020, he’s confident the postponed games can be held in 2021 despite a recent poll in Japan in which 77% of respondents said they did not believe the games could be held next year. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)
Track group calls for change of Olympic protest rule

By Eddie Pells Jul. 17, 2020 05:31 AM EDT

FILE - In this Oct. 17, 2018, file photo, 1968 Olympic athlete John Carlos raises his fist as he speaks about his experience as Olympians who participated in Mexico City in 1968 during the 50th Anniversary of the Defining Moment in Sports Social Activism Historic Town Hall at San Jose State University in San Jose, Calif. Olympic protestor John Carlos co-authored a letter with an influential American athletes' group calling on the IOC to abolish the rule that bans protests at the Olympics and replace it with a policy written in collaboration with athletes. Carlos and Tommie Smith raised their fists on the medals stand at the 1968 Olympics to protest racial inequality in the United States. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar, File)
Carlos, US athletes take stand to end Olympic protest rule

By Eddie Pells Jun. 27, 2020 12:51 PM EDT

FILE - In this Feb. 18, 2020, file photo, United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee CEO Sarah Hirshland listens as President Donald Trump speaks during a briefing with the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Los Angeles 2028 organizers in Beverly Hills, Calif. The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee is signaling willingness to challenge longstanding IOC rules restricting protests at the Olympics, while also facing backlash from some of its own athletes for moves viewed by some as not being driven by sufficient athlete input. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
US Olympic leaders eye change on protests amid wary athletes

By Eddie Pells Jun. 13, 2020 10:20 AM EDT

Protesters take a knee during a demonstration calling for justice for the death of George Floyd and all victims of police brutality, in Montreal, Sunday, June 7, 2020. Floyd died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on May 25. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press via AP)
Commonwealth Games open to athletes taking a knee

Jun. 12, 2020 11:12 AM EDT