Category Archives: Olympic Games

BBC Olympics coverage misses events after loss of TV rights

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Viewers complain after rights-holder Discovery puts majority of events behind paywall

The BBC has faced a series of complaints about the lack of live Tokyo Olympics coverage on its channels, after viewers failed to realise the International Olympic Committee has sold the majority of UK television rights to pay-TV company Discovery.

During the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympics the BBC was able to offer dozens of free livestreams of different sports, revolutionising how British viewers watched the games and providing much-needed publicity to niche events that would not normally have enjoyed their moment in the public eye.

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Olympics 2020: Anna Kiesenhofer takes road race glory on day of upsets – live!

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The gold medallist for women’s taekwondo, the American Anastasija Zolotic said she hoped her historic win would give taekwondo a boost in her home country, where it has struggled to gain traction in a par with boxing or mixed martial arts. The 18-year-old sprung a surprise to win the USA’s first gold medal for women in taekwondo since it became a full-medal Olympic sport in 2000.

“I work my butt off for it, and I hope taekwondo [becomes] as popular as it can be in the US,” Zolotic said. “Hopefully in 2024 if I make it over there and win another gold medal and just keep grinding to LA [in 2028], by then taekwondo will be all over the map. Hopefully [my win] will give it a better image than it has and bring it back up to where USA taekwondo deserves to be - one of the best sports that you can watch,” she said.

And another, from Bradly Sinden’s nearly-but-not-quite performance in that dramatic taekwondo final

Related: Britain’s Bradly Sinden edged out for gold in Olympics taekwondo final

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Chernobyl for Ukraine, pizza for Italy: South Korean TV apologises for Olympic images

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  • MBC sorry for ‘inappropriate images and captions’
  • Syria and Haiti summed up by war and unrest

A South Korean broadcaster has apologised after using offensive images to depict several countries during the opening ceremony of the Olympics on Friday.

MBC displayed photos and facts about each country as athletes walked out during the parade of nations. Most of them varied from inane to odd: Great Britain’s athletes were accompanied by a photo of the Queen, and El Salvador, where the cryptocurrency is legal tender, was summed up by a bitcoin symbol.

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Tokyo Olympics 2020: Team GB v Japan football, and swimming begins – live!

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Meanwhile in the men’s hockey Great Britain are running down time in the fourth period and leading South Africa 3-1.

A deflected strike on goal from Japan was their best opening of the match so far, but England hold them at bay in the women’s football. Still no score as we tick past 27 minutes at the Sapporo Dome.

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Tokyo Olympics 2020: Naomi Osaka lights cauldron at opening ceremony – live!

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Get up to speed with all the big questions with Simon Burnton’s Olympic primer:

Related: Tokyo 2020 – all your key Olympic questions answered

Some cycling news: the men’s road race takes place at 3am BST, 11am local time on Saturday, but one man who won’t be at the start line is Simon Geschke, after the German rider tested positive for Covid-19.

Geschke, who was set to be part of a four-man German team, had been staying away from the Olympic village with a group of other cyclists, all of who have initially tested negative for Covid.

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By holding the Tokyo Olympics, Japan’s government is gambling with people’s lives | Kosuke Takahashi

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As Covid cases rise, vaccination lags and costs soar, most Japanese people are extremely cynical about the Games

The Olympic Games begins in Tokyo on Friday, just as Covid-19 blights the city for the fourth time – and a year after the Games were originally scheduled to begin.

Despite the latest alarming spike in coronavirus infections and hospitalisations across the city’s metropolitan area, Japan’s prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, has reiterated his resolve to go ahead with the Games, declaring at a session of the International Olympic Committee held on 20 July that “the Games can be held successfully, with the efforts and wisdom of the people”.

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Sha’Carri Richardson’s look is over the top – that’s why it matters

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She’s out of the Olympics, but the US sprinting star’s ‘extra’ style makes an important statement about black womanhood

Despite not being part of Team USA after a failed drugs test, Sha’Carri Richardson made a reappearance yesterday in an advert for Beats by Dre soundtracked by a new song from Kanye West. With her trademark long nails, long lashes and fire-cracker hair, Richardson has underlined the point that, Olympian or not, she is one of 2021’s most electrifying style icons.

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Tokyo 2020 U-turn allows social media teams to show athletes taking the knee

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  • IOC and Tokyo 2020 organisers overturn opening-day ban
  • @Olympics tweet picture of GB’s Lucy Bronze taking knee

The International Olympic Committee and Tokyo 2020 organisers have performed a U-turn over their stance to stop their social media teams from posting pictures of athletes taking the knee at these Olympic Games.

The decision comes after the Guardian revealed they had issued a diktat against showing such images just hours before Team GB’s women’s first football match against Chile on Wednesday.

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Tokyo 2020 social media teams banned from showing athletes taking the knee

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  • IOC and Tokyo 2020 organisers gave instructions on Tuesday
  • Reference made to images from Team GB v Chile football match

The International Olympic Committee and Tokyo 2020 organisers have banned their social media teams from posting pictures of athletes taking the knee at these Olympic Games, the Guardian can reveal.

An insider said the message was delivered from on high on Tuesday evening Tokyo time, with a specific reference to Team GB’s women’s first football match against Chile, just hours before it kicked off in Sapporo on Wednesday.

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Olympic Games highlights: your day-by-day guide to the best bits in Tokyo

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From the spectacular opening ceremony to the final gold in the marathon, via the pool, the beach and the stadium, your indispensable guide to the Games

The opening ceremony in the Olympic Stadium will be spectacular but has been shrouded in secrecy so far. Because of Covid restrictions fewer athletes than usual will be joining the parade of nations. As usual Greek athletes will lead the march behind the flags with the Americans and French last before the entry of the host Japanese team. Like the final event of the Games it will be a marathon and a lump in the throat is inevitable.

That opening ceremony does not leave a lot of time for events on the first real day of competition although Britain’s rowers are quickly into action on the Sea Forest Waterway. The women’s quadruple sculls, Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne, Hannah Scott, Charlotte Hodgkins-Byrne and Lucy Glover are a strong combination and Team GB expect another healthy haul of medals.

The other events on the first Friday are the individual ranking rounds for men and women in archery at Yumenoshima Park. The six-strong British team includes Naomi Folkard who is competing in her fifth Games with the 18-year-old James Woodgate competing in his first Olympics. India will be hoping to build on their recent impressive World Cup displays.

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Confident Brisbane eagerly awaits its time to shine as host of the 2032 Olympics

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The Queensland capital wants the world to know how far it has come, with the IOC set to confirm winning Olympic Games bid on Wednesday

The last time Brisbane bid to host the Olympic Games, many locals still referred to the place as “a big country town”.

The Queensland capital’s opponents to host the 1992 games argued the city was too small and unknown. There are few similar doubts this time around, as Brisbane is set to be anointed host of the 2032 Olympics.

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Olympics to begin but softball opener is unlikely to distract a fearful nation | Justin McCurry

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With Covid cases mounting and local resistance escalating ever higher, the hope is that the actual action beginning on Wednesday will dampen down the criticism

The Olympic softball teams of Japan and Australia will have to produce something close to a classic this week if they are to divert attention from an increasingly chaotic build-up to the Tokyo Games.

In normal times memories of the scandals that blighted preparations for the Games – from allegations of vote-buying during the bidding stage to high-profile resignations over sexism – would shrink into the background as soon as the first pitch is delivered at the Azuma baseball stadium in Fukushima on Wednesday in the opening action from the Olympics.

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South Africa footballers test positive for Covid-19 in Tokyo Olympic Village

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  • South Africa men’s squad in quarantine after three positives
  • Games president claims a ‘plan in place’ for village outbreak

Two South African footballers have become the first athletes in the Olympic Village to test positive for Covid-19, raising fears that the virus may force a growing number of competitors out of the Tokyo Games when they begin on Friday.

Related: Tokyo 2020: guide to the venues for the delayed Olympic Games

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Tom Daley: ‘I took up crochet during the pandemic’

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The diver, 27, talks about fear on the diving board, marrying an older man, becoming a father and maintaining his six-pack

I’ve always been an adrenaline seeker. I love rollercoasters, waterslides – diving is an extension of that. I grew up by the sea in Plymouth. From an early age my parents encouraged my brothers and me to swim in case we got into trouble in the water. Diving gives me that mix of being in the water, but at the same time the adrenaline rush of jumping off something really high.

I went through a stage of not being able to take off on the diving board. When I was younger and my arms and legs were growing at different rates, I used to get scared to go out there. I would stand on the end of the board and literally not be able to move my body. It’s called Loss Move Syndrome, where you suddenly freeze mentally and physically, forget how do to things. Even today, there are times when I get scared standing on the 10m board, but you need that little bit of fear, that adrenaline rush, to make you focus, to stop you making mistakes.

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Tokyo Olympics: Covid case found at athletes’ village, raising infection fears

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Organisers in Japan confirm that a visitor from abroad who is involved in organising the Games has tested positive

A person has tested positive for Covid-19 at the Tokyo Olympics athletes’ village, organisers said, adding to concerns about infections at the Games which begin next week.

Related: Thomas Bach promises ‘safe and secure’ Olympics as Tokyo Covid cases soar

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Teenage skateboard superstar Sky Brown: ‘I begged my parents to let me go with Team GB’

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When she lands in Tokyo, Sky Brown will become one of the UK’s first Olympic skateboarders – and, at 13, the team’s youngest ever member. Will her next trick be a gold medal?

The sun is setting on another hazy summer evening in Oceanside, California, a city 35 miles north of San Diego, and a tiny figure is flying through the sky. She bends her knees, clutches the end of her skateboard and comes gliding down an enormous ramp, her sun-bleached surfer hair bouncing in the wind.

“That was sick!” Sky Brown shouts, as she makes an immaculate landing. The skateboarder is ranked third in the world and on 4 August will take to her board to represent Team GB at the postponed Tokyo Olympics. When she competes in the women’s park event, she won’t just be one of the UK’s first ever Olympic skateboarders, she will also be Team GB’s youngest ever summer Olympian. Aged 13 years and 23 days, she will surpass Margery Hinton, who was 13 years and 44 days when she swam at Amsterdam in 1928.

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Thomas Bach promises ‘safe and secure’ Olympics as Tokyo Covid cases soar

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Thomas Bach, the International Olympic Committee president, has said a “safe and secure” Tokyo Olympics will be a show of global solidarity during the pandemic – on the same day as infections in the host city reached their highest level for almost six months.

The discovery of a coronavirus cluster at a hotel where dozens of Brazilian team members are staying has increased concerns about infections spreading over the summer.

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Fukushima to ban Olympic spectators as Covid cases rise

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U-turn deals blow to Japan’s hopes of using Games to showcase recovery from 2011 tsunami

The Fukushima prefecture of Japan will bar spectators from the Olympic events it hosts this summer owing to rising Covid-19 infections, its governor said on Saturday, reversing a position announced two days earlier by organisers.

The decision deals another blow to Japan’s hopes of using the Olympics to showcase its recovery from a devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit the northern coast in 2011, destroying a nuclear power station in Fukushima in the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.

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EU votes for diplomats to boycott China Winter Olympics over rights abuses

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Non-binding resolution also calls for governments to impose further sanctions on China as tensions rise

The European parliament has overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling on diplomatic officials to boycott the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics in response to continuing human rights abuses by the Chinese government.

In escalating tensions between the EU and China, the non-binding resolution also called for governments to impose further sanctions, provide emergency visas to Hong Kong journalists and further support Hongkongers to move to Europe.

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