A year before Paris Olympics, Ukraine torn over boycott threat
Kyiv, UkraineReuters Kyiv could drop a threatened boycott of next year’s Paris Olympics if athletes from Russia and Belarus, allies in the war in Ukraine, compete under a neutral flag rather than their national colours, Ukraine’s sports minister told Reuters. Vadym Huttsait said there had been no decision to soften Ukraine’s stance but indicated Kyiv […]
War has killed 262 Ukrainian athletes, sports minister says
Reuters Russia’s war against Ukraine has claimed the lives of 262 Ukrainian athletes and destroyed 363 sports facilities, the country’s sports minister, Vadym Huttsait, said on Saturday. Meeting the visiting president of the International Federation of Gymnastics, Morinari Watanabe, Huttsait said no athletes from Russia should be allowed at the Olympics or other sports competitions. […]
Olympics row deepens as 35 countries demand ban for Russia and Belarus
Vilnius, LithuaniaReuters A group of 35 countries, including the United States, Germany and Australia, will demand that Russian and Belarusian athletes are banned from the 2024 Olympics, the Lithuanian sports minister said on Friday, deepening the uncertainty over the Paris Games. The move cranks up the pressure on an International Olympic Committee that is desperate […]
Poland expects broad coalition to call for Olympics ban on Russian, Belarusian athletes
Vilnius, LithuaniaReuters Poland believes it will be possible to build a coalition of some 40 countries, including the US, Britain and Canada, by 10th February supporting the call to block Russian and Belarusian athletes from the 2024 Olympics, a Polish minister said on Thursday. The Baltic nations and Poland earlier Thursday called on international sports […]
War takes heavy toll on Ukrainian sport
Kyiv, UkraineReuters Young soccer players in the city of Kharkiv are grieving over the death of their coach, killed by a Russian shell last week in an incident that highlights the heavy toll the war is inflicting on all areas of Ukrainian society, including sport. “It hurt so much, it is as if I had lost […]
US lawmakers ask IOC for assurances uniforms not made through forced labour
Reuters The United States’ Congressional-Executive Commission on China released a letter to the International Olympic Committee on Wednesday voicing concern over forced labour in the production of uniforms ahead of the Beijing Games. The CECC is concerned that Anta Sports and Hengyuanxiang Group, with which the IOC has contracts to produce uniforms, use cotton from […]
Olympics – Protests in Athens as Beijing prepares for Games flame
Athens, GreeceReuters Greek police detained two human rights activists after they unfurled banners at the Athens Acropolis on Sunday opposing the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics as China’s Games organisers prepare to receive the Olympic flame. The activists staged a brief protest at the Acropolis in the Greek capital early in the morning, holding up a […]
Beijing Olympics open in four months; human rights talk absent
AP When the International Olympic Committee awarded Beijing the 2008 Summer Olympics, it promised the Games could improve human rights and civil liberties in China. There is no such lofty talk this time with Beijing’s 2022 Winter Olympics – the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Games – opening in just four months on […]
Superstar Osaka lights flame as Japan’s COVID-hit Olympic Games open
Tokyo, JapanReuters Japan’s global superstar Naomi Osaka on Friday lit the Olympic cauldron to mark the start of Tokyo 2020, in an opening ceremony shorn of glitz and overshadowed by a pandemic but defined by hope, tradition and gestures of diversity. Postponed by a year due to the coronavirus, the Games are being held without […]
WHO head Tedros backs Tokyo Games amid pandemic
Tokyo, JapanReuters The Tokyo Olympics should go ahead to demonstrate to the world what can be achieved with the right plan and measures amid the COVID-19 pandemic, World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday. Speaking to the International Olympic Committee members at their session in the Japanese capital, Tedros said the world […]