THOMAS BACH

Costly construction delays, a leadership vacancy linked to a volatile political climate and a lack of sponsors amid a spreading financial crisis has prompted International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach to acknowledge the “challenges” facing organizers of the 2026 Winter Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo.

The COVID-delayed Tokyo Olympics opened a year ago on July 23, 2021.

It took three days by car for high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh to escape from Ukraine.

Jim Thorpe has been reinstated as the sole winner of the 1912 Olympic pentathlon and decathlon in Stockholm.

The leader of global track and field said it would have been “inconceivable” to have allowed Russians into this week’s world championships given the country’s war against Ukraine.

Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was the country’s central figure in landing the 2020 Olympics for Tokyo.

The International Olympic Committee is expected to make a decision next week about whether to allow women to compete in Nordic combined at the 2026 Games.

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach says Russian athletes and officials who have been banned from international sporting events because of the war in Ukraine are being protected rather than punished.

The Beijing Winter Olympics closed just over two months ago and the focus now turns to awarding a host city for the 2030 Winter Games.

Russian Olympic gold medalist swimmer Evgeny Rylov has been banned from the sport for nine months for appearing at a rally in support of President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Eya Guezguez was training with her twin sister Sarra alongside their national team when their boat capsized due to strong winds.

Qatar is the next stop on the global tour of major sports events to nations led by autocratic governments who are often decried by human rights activists.

The International Olympic Committee has always been political, from the sheikhs and royals in its membership to a seat at the United Nations to pushing for peace talks between the Koreas.

Russia stepped up its legal fight against isolation in sports because of the war in Ukraine when its national Olympic body made an urgent appeal Friday to overturn a ban on its athletes competing at a European youth winter sports festival. The Court of Arbitration for Sport said it was setting a timetable for the case ahead of the Winter European Youth Olympic Festival being held in Finland from March 20-25. The International Skating Union is organizing that event in Montpellier, France.

The Russian Paralympic Committee will leave Beijing and has no immediate plans for legal action. The RPC issued a statement Friday criticizing the decision to exclude Russian athletes from the Paralympics and said the move was "absolutely politicized.” It said its lawyers had determined that the Court of Arbitration for Sport would not be able to render a decision “during the accelerated proceedings.”

The International Paralympic Committee says Russians and Belarusians at the Winter Paralympics in Beijing will compete as “neutral athletes” because of their countries’ roles in the war against Ukraine.

With Russian troops encircling the capital of Kyiv, more than 60 athletes from Ukraine and elsewhere sent an open letter to Olympic and Paralympic leaders urging them to immediately suspend the Russian and Belarussian Olympic and Paralympic Committees.

The invasion of Ukraine could further undermine Russia's status as an elite sports dynasty, which already has been weakened by deception and doping scandals but often punished only by a tepid pushback from international sports bodies.

The International Olympic Committee has urged sports bodies to cancel or move all events they plan to hold in Russia and Belarus and stop using the countries’ flags and national anthems.

The terrarium of a Winter Games that has been Beijing 2022​ came to its end Sunday.

After 16 days and 109 events, the Winter Olympics officially ended Sunday with the traditional closing ceremony. Team U.S.A. finished with 25 medals in all.

Beijing's 2022 Winter Olympics came to an end Sunday, sending the planet's most global sporting event off to the West for the foreseeable future.

The Closing Ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics on NBC and Peacock, as it happened via live updates and video.

A pile of figure-skating rubble created by Russian misbehavior.

The Olympic figure skating program at the Beijing Games probably won't be remembered for the soaring performances of American gold medalist Nathan Chen, French ice dancers Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron or the Chinese pairs team of Sui Wenjing and Han Cong.

The Olympic flame has been extinguished in Beijing, marking the end of the most locked-down games in history.

Medals are currently being withheld in events where Kamila Valieva placed, after a positive doping test for the 15-year-old skater was disclosed.

The team is requesting the Court of Arbitration for Sport rule so its skaters can receive their medals while they await the results of a wider investigation into the Kamila Valieva doping scandal

Arbitrators have rejected a last-ditch request by American figure skaters to have their silver medals awarded before the end of the Olympics.

After the 15-year-old appeared to crumble under pressure in her final performance, her coach asked, "Why did you let it go?"

A worldwide wave of sympathy has flowed to Kamila Valieva for the ordeal she endured at the Beijing Olympics.

The quadruple jumps that sent Russian world champ Anna Shcherbakova to the gold medal and teammate Alexandra Trusova to the silver could be a thing of the past by the 2026 Games.

Olympic chief Thomas Bach said on Friday it was "chilling" to witness Russian teenage skater Kamila Valieva crumble under pressure at the 2022 Winter Olympics as a doping scandal continued to swirl, criticizing the 15-year-old's entourage.

IOC president Thomas Bach insists the ‘chilling’ atmosphere and treatment that followed the 15-year-old’s error-strewn performance needs investigating

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach resisted implementing any immediate changes despite speaking of concerns for minor athletes like Valieva.

Sui Wenjing and Han Cong of China shattered their own world record for a short program at the Beijing Games on Friday night, giving them the narrowest of leads over Russian rivals Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov heading into the free skate to decide the Olympic champion.

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach has criticized Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva's entourage for their “tremendous coldness” toward the 15-year-old skater after her mistake-filled free skate at the Beijing Olympics. Bach says it was “chilling” to see on television. Valieva, who has been at the center of a controversy over a positive doping test, finished fourth overall despite placing first in the women's short program earlier in the week.

Canadian figure skater Madeline Schizas could end up a medalist at the Beijing Games, though she isn’t holding her breath for the results of the Russian doping scandal that has cast a shadow over figure skating at the Winter Olympics.

Anna Shcherbakova won a stunning gold medal in women’s figure skating at the Beijing Games while Russian teammate Kamila Valieva tumbled all the way out of the medals after a mistake-filled end to her controversial Olympics.

IOC president Thomas Bach has offered U.S. figure skaters Olympic torches as holdover gifts while they await a resolution of the Russian doping case preventing them from receiving their silver medals.

The doping scandal around Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva has been a Games-changer at the Beijing Olympics.

So athletes from countries where COVID-19 has raged can compete, China's Winter Games workforce is making a giant sacrifice.

Nobody views Beijing as a winter sports capital.

One of the most anticipated events at the Beijing Olympics is the imminent legal hearing in Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva’s doping case.

American snowboarder Chloe Kim turned in a strong opening run to easily defend her Olympic halfpipe title.

A U.N. resolution upholding the Olympic Truce has been passed 15 times.

A French journalist says his exclusive interview with Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai this week did not prove that she is OK.

Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai sat with International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach and watched American-born Chinese freeskier Eileen Gu win gold at the women’s big air event.

China returned to work Monday after a weeklong Lunar New Year holiday muted by the pandemic — and even more so for the thousands of people inside a Winter Olympics bubble.

Peng also denied to a French newspaper that she ever accused a Chinese official of sexual assault, calling it an "enormous misunderstanding."

Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai has given a controlled interview to a French newspaper about the social media posting that sparked a storm of international concern over her well-being.

The whereabouts of Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai remain a pressing question at the Beijing Olympics.

Patrice Motsepe is approaching the end of his first year as Confederation of African Football president.

The ever-present slogan that governs these Winter Olympics is meant to evoke the ideal of one world.

Thomas Bach, the head of the International Olympic Committee, says the Olympic ideals show that even in a world full of conflict, people can build bridges and live in peace.

China invited the world back — sort of — for the pandemic era’s second Olympics.

A correspondent in Beijing for Dutch national broadcaster NOS was manhandled away from his camera during a live news show shortly before the Winter Olympics opening ceremony.

The president of the International Olympic Committee has sought to play down concerns about the safety of Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai while also saying he planned to go ahead with their long-promised dinner during the Beijing Games.

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach avoided taking positions on any political controversies ahead of the beginning of the Beijing Winter Games.

The controversy surrounding Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai's accusations of sexual assault against a former top politician continues to cast a shadow over the Beijing Winter Olympic Games that officially begin on Friday.

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics are opening with the same concerns that loomed over the 2008 Beijing Olympics: China's record on human rights and its treatment of Tibetans and Uyghur Muslims in western China.

FIFA’s fading plan for biennial World Cups has been labeled a threat from soccer to all other sports by the International Olympic Committee.

An activist plans to hand out 1,000 T-shirts with the slogan “Where is Peng Shuai?"

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics open in just over a week.

USA TODAY Sports' Paul Myerberg breaks down the top quarterback performances this season.

Activists accused the International Olympic Committee of granting legitimacy to rights abuses by allowing the Winter Games to proceed in Beijing.

The protesters managed to enter the grounds and attempted to reach the Temple of Hera, where the ceremony was being held. They were thrown to the grou

The protesters managed to enter the grounds and attempted to reach the Temple of Hera, where the ceremony was being held. They were thrown to the grou

Olympic committee chief says North Korea will also forfeit potentially millions of dollars it was due from previous Games for "violating the Olympic Charter."

The opening featured acrobats, clowns and fireworks to mark the start of the long parade of athletes representing more than 160 nations.

Olympics historian: Tokyo may have gone 'near the top of best organized' Games if not for pandemic

Many facilities are brand-new, but some may look familiar: the famous "Water Cube" that hosted swimming in 2008, for instance, is becoming an "Ice Cube," to host curling.

The news of the new infections came just hours after the opening ceremony.

The Olympics are supposed to be a symbol of global togetherness, but Tokyo’s are shaping up to be the unhappiest in history.

Five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Wednesday morning.

Just days before the Games' opening ceremony, more athletes have tested positive for Covid.

The coronavirus infection rate will be discussed at upcoming talks, according to Toshiro Muto, CEO of the Tokyo Olympics' organizing committee.

The first positive coronavirus case has been confirmed inside the Olympics Village just six days before the Opening Ceremony, officials confirmed Saturday, amid growing fears about the spread of the virus during the Games.

Thomas Bach visited Hiroshima, where the US dropped the first of two Atomic bombs during World War II. Many citizens find the trip insensitive.

Many residents of Hiroshima welcome attention from abroad, which IOC President Thomas Bach will bring when he visits on Friday. The western Japanese city has been in the forefront of the world peace movement and a campaigner for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Bach and Coates are using the backdrop of the cities, hit with atomic bombs by the United States in 1945, to promote the first day of the so-called Olympic Truce, a tradition from ancient Greece that was revived by a United Nations resolution in 1993.

Out is the familiar sight of an athlete dipping their head as a dignitary drapes the medal over their neck. In: medals on a tray and officials with sanitized gloves, a COVID-19 precaution.

Athletes at the Tokyo Olympics will put their medals around their own necks to protect against spreading the coronavirus. The “very significant change” to traditional medal ceremonies in the 339 events was revealed Wednesday by International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach. “The medals will not be given around the neck,” Bach told international media on a conference call from Tokyo.

Tokyo reported its highest number of new COVID-19 cases in almost six months on Wednesday, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government said with the Tokyo Olympics opening in just over a week. The surging numbers came out on the same day that International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach paid a courtesy call in Tokyo on Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. Suga and Bach have both pledged that the Tokyo Olympics will be “safe and secure” despite the games opening with Tokyo and neighboring prefectures under a national government-imposed state of emergency.

IOC President Thomas Bach appeared in public on Tuesday for the first time since arriving in Tokyo last week with the pandemic-postponed Olympics opening in just 10 days. Bach spent his first three days in isolation at the International Olympic Committee's five-star hotel in central Tokyo, and his movements in Tokyo are limited — like almost everyone entering for the Olympics — for the first 14 days. Organizers and the IOC decided last week to ban fans from all but a handful of outlying venues, a move that came after the Japanese government instituted a state of emergency in Tokyo forced by rising coronavirus cases.

Top Olympic officials and athletes are arriving in Tokyo to spikes in COVID19 cases, a state of emergency and a ban on spectator participation.

The Olympics will be held entirely under emergency measures.

While Japanese fans may not be able to attend the Tokyo Olympics, the Games are expected to be staged as scheduled.

Surging COVID-19 cases in Tokyo have hit a two-month high that almost guarantees the Japanese government will declare a new state of emergency to start next week and continue for the duration of the Tokyo Olympics. IOC President Thomas Bach is scheduled to arrive in Tokyo on Thursday, when he will be greeted by the rising cases as he self-isolates for three days in the International Olympic Committee's five-star hotel in the capital. A new state of emergency could lead to a ban even on local fans.

The Tokyo Olympic organizing committee signaled on Monday that it will change its ticket policy this week for any local fans hoping to attend. This comes with the pandemic-delayed Olympics opening in just under three weeks.

IOC President Thomas Bach will arrive in Tokyo on July 8 and spend three days in isolation before holding meetings leading up to the opening of the postponed Tokyo Olympics on July 23, Tokyo organizers and the the International Olympic Committee said Wednesday. Bach is also expected to visit Hiroshima on July 16, at the same time as his vice president and colleague John Coates is to visit Nagasaki. Ahead of Bach's visit, COVID-19 cases are rising in Tokyo.

The athletes include Kimia Alizadeh, who was the first Iranian woman to win an Olympic medal in 2016.

If John Coates was trying to stir controversy, he succeeded. An International Olympic Committee vice president, Coates was asked a few days ago by a Japanese reporter at an online news conference if the Tokyo Olympics would go ahead, even if a state of emergency were in force in Japan. Coates replied: “Absolutely, yes.”

Last week, a group of health care workers in Tokyo called for the games to be canceled because of fears it could hurt its fight against the pandemic.

Japan is set to further expand a coronavirus state of emergency, currently in Tokyo and five other prefectures, to nine areas as the government is determined to hold the Olympics in just over two months. Japan has been struggling to slow the infections ahead of the Games. The three additions include Japan’s northern island state of Hokkaido, where the Olympic marathon will be held, as well as Hiroshima and Okayama in western Japan.

An anti-Olympics protester posed as a reporter and disrupted an IOC news conference, holding a banner or scarf that read "No Olympics in Tokyo 2020."

Officials have extended the state of emergency in several regions until the end of the month.

The International Olympic Committee says it can deliver a safe Olympics without overburdening Japan’s health-care system. Many doctors and nurses don’t agree.

About 1 million tickets are reported to have been sold to fans from outside Japan.

The Olympic rings are seen in front of Tokyo's iconic Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo Tower at Odaiba Marine Park on January 20, 2020 in Tokyo, Japan. International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach said Wednesday that a surge in coronavirus cases in Africa prompted the decision to postpone the world's biggest sporting event. Bach said the prospect of the virus spreading in Africa was a "very big worry," particularly given the myriad of challenges already faced on the continent, such as poverty and fragile healthcare systems. The outbreak constitutes a "very dramatic development which will not only affect Africa but will affect the entire world," he added. The IOC chief then called an emergency meeting of the IOC executive board on Sunday, which agreed to open discussions with Japan over postponement and scheduled a call for Tuesday.

The coronavirus pandemic has hit the biggest sporting event in the world the Summer Olympics. The International Olympic Committee postponed the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, officials announced Tuesday. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he and the head of the International Olympic Committee agreed to delay the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo for about a year. The Canadian Olympic Committee and the Canadian Paralympic Committee withdrew the from the 2020 Summer Games over the weekend. Disclosure: CNBC parent NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics.