Category Archives: Olympic Games

YouTube stardom to the Olympics? Singer Cody Simpson’s unlikely bid to compete at Games

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  • Australian to go up against likes of Kyle Chalmers at nationals
  • Simpson two seconds off Olympic trials pace in 100m butterfly

Teenybopper poster boy Cody Simpson will be among Australia’s top swimmers at next month’s national championships as he hones his 100m butterfly before June’s Olympic trials.

The junior swimmer turned international singer has taken another key step in his quest to make it in the pool by entering the Australian titles on the Gold Coast, where he will attempt to shave whole seconds from his personal best in his unlikely bid to qualify for the Tokyo Games.

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Olympic surfing hopeful Katherine Diaz killed by lightning while training

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  • Twenty-two year-old killed near home in El Salvador
  • Diaz was preparing for ISA World Surf Games

El Salvador’s top surfer, who had been preparing fo the sport’s Olympic debut this summer, has been struck and killed by lightning during a training session.

“A great athlete who has represented our country has left us,” the Salvadoran Surf Federation said in a post paying tribute to Katherine Diaz on social media. “See you soon, great warrior. El Salvador is in mourning.”

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Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics organisers confirm overseas fan ban

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Overseas spectators will not be permitted to attend this summer’s rearranged Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo. An announcement was made after a meeting of the International Olympic Committee, International Paralympic Committee, Tokyo metropolitan government, the Tokyo 2020 organising committee and the government of Japan on Saturday.

The decision, which was not unexpected, is due to continuing uncertainty amid the Covid-19 pandemic, with international travel restricted and variant coronavirus strains emerging. Japan is unlikely to be open to foreign tourists by the summer and it was felt some clarification over this matter should be given now.

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Tokyo 2020: Japan’s Olympics minister in line to lead committee

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Officials hope selection of Seiko Hashimoto will draw line under row over predecessor’s sexist remarks

Japan’s Olympics minister, Seiko Hashimoto, is in line to lead the Tokyo 2020 organising committee, just over five months before the delayed Games are due to open, according to media reports.

The committee, which is already battling public opposition to the Olympics because of the Covid-19 pandemic, was forced to search for a new president after its previous head, Yoshiro Mori, resigned last week after making derogatory remarks about women.

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Libs Dems warn China over ‘international bullying’ after sanctions threat

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Chinese newspaper said countries that boycott 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics over treatment of Uighurs would face retaliation

The Liberal Democrats have warned China against “international bullying” after a call by UK MPs for countries to boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics was met by a warning of potential sanctions.

Last week, Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, joined with the Labour MP and former Foreign Office minister Chris Bryant in demanding that the government and the British Olympic Association act over the mass repression of the Muslim Uighur population in the Chinese region of Xinjiang, which campaigners say constitutes genocide.

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Tokyo 2020 Olympics president expected to resign over sexist comments

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Yoshiro Mori had insisted for days he would not quit but Japanese media say he will step down amid a growing tide of anger over his remarks

The president of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics organising committee, Yoshiro Mori, is expected to resign after derogatory comments he made about women caused an international uproar less than six months before the Games are due to open.

Mori, who has led the organising committee since 2014, will step down after insisting for days that he would not resign, the Fuji News Network reported on Thursday.

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IOC condemns remarks about women by Tokyo chief as volunteers quit

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Head of organising committee in Japan, Yoshiro Mori, under pressure to step down as anger grows

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has condemned derogatory remarks about women by the head of the Tokyo 2020 Games organising committee, Yoshiro Mori, as “absolutely inappropriate”.

The unusually strong intervention came after Mori complained last week that meetings tended to drag on because “competitive” women in attendance “talked too much”.

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MPs urge British Olympians to boycott 2022 Beijing Winter Games

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Lib Dem leader Ed Davey and Labour MP Chris Bryant urge officials and athletes to protest against oppression of Uighur communities

Senior political figures have called for British athletes to boycott next year’s Winter Olympics in Beijing in response to widespread human rights abuses in China.

Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, and Labour MP Chris Bryant, a member of the foreign affairs select committee and a former junior foreign minister, said the government and the British Olympic Association should act.

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Tokyo 2020 chief pressed to resign after saying women talked too much at meetings

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Yoshiro Mori said he would not stand down after saying female participants meant meetings tended to ‘drag on’

Yoshiro Mori, the head of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics organising committee, has apologised for making sexist remarks about “talkative” women in sports organisations, but said he would not resign.

Mori, a former Japanese prime minister with a history of demeaning remarks, told a meeting of the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) this week that meetings attended by too many women tended to “drag on” because they talked too much.

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Tokyo Olympics: definitely going ahead unless cancelled again?

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Billed as a celebration of humankind’s victory over coronavirus, Games could fall foul of pandemic for a second time

The Olympic rings have been spruced up and are once again overlooking Tokyo Bay. Countdown clocks have been reset, telling passersby there are just 171 days to go until the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games begin.

They are supposed to build excitement in the host city and among sports fans around the world. But Japan’s Olympic dream is quickly turning sour in the face of the worst global health crisis for a century.

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Japan dismisses ‘categorically untrue’ stories that Tokyo Olympics are doomed

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  • Sources at IOC adamant Games will go ahead in July
  • Country has surge in Covid cases centred on capital

The Japanese government has vehemently denied a story that it has privately concluded that this summer’s Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo are doomed, calling them “categorically untrue”.

Sources at the International Olympic Committee have also told the Guardian that they are still planning for a “full Games” in July, despite the spiralling number of Covid-19 cases in Japan and across the globe. They also dismissed a Times report that said that government officials had resigned themselves to cancelling the Olympics and were instead hoping a wave of sympathy would help Tokyo secure the 2032 Games.

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Olympic athletes and officials ponder vaccine dilemma as Tokyo Games loom | Kieran Pender

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With the Covid-19 pandemic still raging, Olympians wonder whether they will – and should – be vaccinated in time for the Games

Steve Solomon, a 400-metre sprinter and co-captain of the Australian athletics team, has plenty to think about. The postponed 2020 Olympics are now just six months away and, barring a Covid-19 outbreak in Australia, Solomon will compete in the national championships in April before beginning final preparations for Tokyo. But there is one thing that the sprinter insists is not front of mind for him and his teammates: the coronavirus vaccine. “Everyone is just focused on making sure we are physically and mentally ready for the Games,” he said.

Solomon’s thoughts may be elsewhere, but plenty within the Olympic movement in Australia and overseas are pre-occupied with how the world’s biggest sporting event can take place safely in the midst of a pandemic. The Games are scheduled to begin on 23 July; the International Olympic Committee and the Japanese government insist it will go ahead, despite a recent spike in cases in Tokyo. If the Olympics are to proceed, the vaccine offers a potential solution.

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Tokyo Olympic Games unlikely to go ahead, says London 2012’s Sir Keith Mills

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  • ‘I would be making plans for a cancellation’
  • Sebastian Coe remains confident Games will take place

Sir Keith Mills, the deputy chairman of the London Organising Committee for the 2012 Olympic Games, is unconvinced that the delayed Tokyo Olympics will take place.

Tokyo organisers and the International Olympic Committee are adamant the Games will start in July despite a fresh wave of infections sweeping the globe.

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Greek president praises Sofia Bekatorou for reporting alleged sexual assault

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  • Olympic sailing gold medallist alleges assault occurred in 1998
  • Katerina Sakellaropoulou praises athlete’s ‘brave revelation’

Greece’s president, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, has praised the Olympic sailing champion Sofia Bekatorou for dissolving a potential “conspiracy of silence” by reporting a historic allegation of sexual assault by a sports official.

Bekatorou, who won a gold medal at the Athens Games in 2004, told the Greek edition of Marie Claire last month that she suffered the assault in 1998, when she was 21. Sakellaropoulou met Bekatorou on Monday and said her courage offered hope to other women in her situation.

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Tokyo’s Covid outbreak adds to doubts over hosting Olympic Games

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Emergency measures expanded to cover more than half of Japan’s population

A dramatic rise in coronavirus cases in Tokyo has reignited speculation about the Olympic Games, which are due to open in the city in just over six months’ time.

Japan widened its coronavirus state of emergency to cover more than half the country’s population on Wednesday, as surging infections sparked warnings of intense pressure on hospitals.

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Festivals, holidays, Euro 2020… will summer’s big events still go ahead?

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Burgeoning hopes for a normal sporting and cultural calendar are now in question again as infections increase

As Covid-19 cases rise across the world, hopes that life could get back to some semblance of normality by summer are fading. What chance do we have of going to a festival, flying off for a holiday or attending a major sporting event?

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Olympics official says he is not certain Tokyo Games will go ahead

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IOC’s Dick Pound voices concern after host city declared state of emergency due to third wave of coronavirus

Dick Pound, a senior member of the International Olympic Committee, has said he “can’t be certain” that the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games will go ahead this summer, as a coronavirus state of emergency was declared in the host city.

Asked about the prospects that the Games will open on 23 July, the Canadian told the BBC: “I can’t be certain because the ongoing elephant in the room would be the surges in the virus.”

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IOC seeks Covid vaccines for athletes in second wave so Olympics can go ahead

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  • IOC: athletes do not want to ‘jump queue’ but must get jabs
  • Confidence remains delayed 2020 Games will go ahead in July

The International Olympic Committee is working on ways to get athletes the coronavirus jab in the second or third wave so that the Tokyo Games can go ahead safely in July, the Guardian has been told.

While insisting that we “do not want to queue jump”, IOC sources are hoping athletes from around the globe will be high up on the vaccination list, once key workers and the vulnerable are given the jab.

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Fresh fears for Tokyo Olympics as host city sees surge in Covid-19 infections

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  • Tokyo reported 1,300 new coronavirus infections on Thursday
  • Health experts concerned over stretched medical infrastructure

When Japanese and International Olympic Committee officials finally accepted defeat in March and postponed the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, there was general agreement that a one-year wait would give the world ample time to overcome the coronavirus pandemic.

The delayed Olympics, the then prime minister Shinzo Abe said, would be an opportunity to pay tribute to the human spirit in overcoming the world’s biggest public health crisis for a century.

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World Athletics accused over ‘abusive sex testing’ of athletes from global south

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Human Rights Watch says testing regulations are demeaning and target women based on racial stereotypes

World Athletics, the sport’s global governing body, targets women from countries in the global south for “abusive sex testing” based on arbitrary definitions of femininity and racial stereotypes, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

A report by the rights group, published on Friday, claims female runners are being pushed out of competitive events, which some rely on for their livelihoods. Athletes struggle with emotional trauma and feel discriminated against and humiliated by the testing, said HRW.

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