TOKYO 2020

In the midst of rising coronavirus anxieties, Japan opts for a moment of national sports pride.

When European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen was at a loss for words to capture the true spirit of Europe's young, she introduced a special guest of honor at her State of the Union address.

The two-person team arrived in Tokyo a week late, after the crisis in Afghanistan threatened to bar them from leaving their home country.

The Paralympics got underway in Tokyo this past week, and much like the Olympics that were held last month, it didn’t take long for athletes to produce special moments that inspired the world.

The Paralympics have started in Tokyo, and it’s easy to spot sports that are both in Paralympics and Olympics, such as basketball, volleyball, weightlifting, soccer, equestrian and cycling, to name just a few, and with various adaptions.

This is one silver medal that turned out to be arguably more valuable than all the gold medals combined at the recent Tokyo Olympics.

All fans will be barred from the Paralympics because of the coronavirus pandemic just as they were from the recently-completed Tokyo Olympics.

Jamaican Olympic hurdler Hansle Parchment took the wrong bus and likely would have missed his semifinal if not for a volunteer who paid his taxi fare. He went back to repay her after winning gold.

Here’s a breakdown of what certain countries pay athletes when they win a medal in the Summer Olympics, according to Forbes.

With the flame extinguished in Tokyo this past weekend, the torch for the Summer Olympics -- seeing as the Winter Games in Beijing are just six months away -- has been passed to Paris, the host of the 2024 Summer Games.

The Tokyo 2020 Summer Games drew Sunday to an end, an Olympics that began as a bet countering controversy and considerable fear — could they come off — and closed with the bet won. The Games happened. And for 16 days, just as it should be, the athletes of the world commanded center stage.

Athletes to watch at the 2024 Paris Olympics

Someone cue up the Olympic theme song stat!

The United States hasn’t hosted any Olympic Games since 2002, when Salt Lake City welcomed the world to the Winter Olympics, but man, there have certainly been some cities that have tried.

Ferhat Arican, who took Turkey's first ever medal in gymnastics with a bronze at Tokyo 2020, says his sport is a bit like clearing landmines. And he should know.

The Olympic Games in Tokyo also have brought together athletes of a wide arrange of ages – teens and pre-teens, middle aged veterans in their late 30s and 40s and at least one genuine senior citizen.

On several street corners around the Tokyo Olympic media press center and at several venues, you find people shooting pictures. Not of the athletes or journalists, but of the buses they ride in.

Spain maintains a perfect water polo record in an emphatic 12-8 victory against Team USA.

First came news that one athlete had tested positive; three more quickly followed. Now the whole team is being moved to a separate hotel.

The competition has produced inspiring moments that have gotten the world’s attention and embodied the Olympic spirit.

Well, that was as fast as Caeleb Dressel swimming the 50-meter freestyle.

Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina is filled with a mixed sense of wonder and trepidation when she watches the gravity-defying and often treacherous routines of Simone Biles as the American set out to break her Olympic gold-medal record.

It will nearly impossible for Pita Taufatofua to outlast his original claim to fame as “the shirtless flag bearer,” which made him a legend on social media.

Watch some of the wet and wild wipeouts from surfing's debut at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

World-class athletes from all over the globe are in Tokyo to win medals, but they’re also there to give us behind-the-scenes peeks at the Olympics, in viral TikTok videos.

It was the portion of the Opening Ceremony that many were talking about, and no, it wasn’t the lighting of the torch.

The United States has won a medal in this race in every games it has competed in since 1912, claiming bronze in Tokyo.

Italy's Vito Dell'Aquila and Thailand's Panipak Wongpattanakit wom the first taekwondo gold medals at Tokyo 2020 on Sunday in the men's -58kg and the women's -49kg events, respectively.

Svetlana Gomboeva collapsed as she checked her final scores and required assistance from staff and teammates.

Tennis star Naomi Osaka has lit the cauldron at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Games, ending the flame’s long journey from Greece to these delayed Olympics.

The 1964 Tokyo Olympics showcased Japan’s resiliency and reemergence.

The United States women's soccer team lost for the first time in nearly 50 matches and it's come at a bad time. What do they need to keep their medal hopes in tact?

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

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga says the world needs to see that Japan can stage a safe Olympics.

Toyota won’t be airing any Olympic-themed advertisements on Japanese television during the Tokyo Games despite being one of the IOC’s top corporate sponsors.

Toyota won’t be airing any Olympic-themed advertisements on Japanese television during the Tokyo Games despite being one of the IOC’s top corporate sponsors. The extraordinary decision by the country’s top automaker underlines how polarizing the Games have become in Japan as COVID-19 infections rise ahead of Friday’s opening ceremony. “There are many issues with these Games that are proving difficult to be understood,” Toyota Chief Communications Officer Jun Nagata told reporters Monday.

Two South African soccer players have become the first athletes inside the Olympic Village to test positive for COVID-19.

Fans will be banned from the Tokyo area’s stadiums and arenas when the Olympic Games begin in two weeks.

The Blacksburg native and Virginia Tech grad qualified for the 50m and 100m freestyle for Team Hong Kong.

We lost a lot last summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and one of those things was the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Japanese medical experts warn that allowing domestic spectators will lead to a spike in Covid cases.

Restrictions in Tokyo and nine other areas will now not be lifted until a month before the Olympics.

Meet Sky Brown, a skateboarding prodigy who is on the verge of becoming one of the youngest athletes to ever compete at the Summer Olympics.

When the coronavirus pandemic forced Tokyo last year to delay the Summer Olympics and Paralympics to July 2021, organizers kept the Tokyo 2020 name, saying they wanted the event to be seen as a “light at the end of the tunnel.” Covid-19 is still spreading but the games appear to be going ahead, in what would be the biggest world event of the pandemic era. But they are almost certain to look like no other Olympics, with a bar on spectators from abroad and uncertainty as to whether even fans in Ja

The Olympic host nation continues to struggle with COVID-19 but is still scheduled to open its doors for the Summer Games.

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."

The Tokyo Olympic torch relay is being pulled off the streets in Hiroshima prefecture.

Tokyo and Japan’s second largest metropolitan area of Osaka are coming under emergency orders aimed at stemming surging cases of the coronavirus.

It’s no secret that the United States is the most decorated country when it comes to winning medals at the Summer Olympics, with the red, white and blue taking home more than 2,600 medals, the most of any country.

Tokyo Olympic organizers are again being forced to assure the world that the postponed games will open in just over three months despite surging COVID-19 cases in Japan.

The Tokyo Olympic torch relay will not run through the streets of Osaka prefecture next week because of rising COVID-19 cases.

The governor of Osaka prefecture said on Thursday that he wants to cancel the Olympic torch relay legs going through Osaka later this month. (Kim Kyung-Hoon/Pool Photo via AP, File)TOKYO – The Tokyo Olympic torch relay ran into big trouble on Thursday when the governor of Osaka prefecture and the mayor of the city of Osaka asked that relay legs going through the city be canceled with the games opening in less than four months. “When I watch the torch relay elsewhere in Japan, people tend to gather and those places get crowded," Osaka Mayor Ichiro Matsui said Thursday. "It’s very unfortunate but I think we should call it off.”Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura echoed the mayor: "I think the torch relay through the middle of Osaka should be canceled.”Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga suggested on Thursday that the Osaka relay was off. AdThe torch relay is scheduled to arrive in Osaka prefecture on April 13 and will go through the city on April 14.

Seiko Hashimoto, center, President of the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, talks with Kyoko Raita, right, Tokyo 2020 Executive Board member and speaker for a presentation on the Olympic Charter and Gender Equality in Tokyo, Japan, Monday, March 22, 2021. Fujio Mitarai, Honorary President of Tokyo 2020, is at left. Hashimoto said they will take all possible COVID-19 countermeasures as the torch relay opens this Thursday from northeastern Fukushima prefecture. (Kimimasa Mayama/Pool Photo via AP)TOKYO – Volunteers from abroad will not be allowed into Japan for the postponed Tokyo Olympics, organizers said Monday. Japan's Kyodo news agency, quoting “sources close to the matter,” said around 500 overseas volunteers would be given exemptions to enter Japan.

Seiko Hashimoto, president of the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Tokyo 2020), speaks during a news conference Thursday, March 11, 2021, after attending the International Olympic Committee (IOC) general meeting. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)TOKYO – Japan will not take part in China's offer — accepted by the International Olympic Committee — to provide vaccines for “participants" in the postponed Tokyo Games and next year's Beijing Winter Games. Olympic Minister Tamayo Marukawa said Friday that Japan had not been consulted by the IOC about the Chinese vaccines, and that Japanese athletes would not take them. “We have been taking comprehensive anti-infectious disease measures for the Tokyo Games in order to allow participation without vaccinations,” Marukawa said. AdThe IOC has indicated it is a sports body and will not meddle in domestic issues in China.

(AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)TOKYO – Several IOC members on Thursday reminded Tokyo Olympic organizers about the potential negative consequences of banning overseas fans from attending the postponed games. Tokyo organizers say a final decision about fans from abroad will be made before the torch relay starts on March 25. Many unsourced reports in Japan, citing unnamed officials, say the decision has already been made to keep fans from abroad out of the country. “So the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee is not in a position to comment.”AdRecent polls show up to 80% in Japan think the Olympics should be postponed or canceled. Reports in Japan say organizers are considering allowing some fans from abroad to attend if they have tickets from sponsors, national Olympic committees, or sports federations.

Seiko Hashimoto, president of the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Tokyo 2020), speaks before reporters after a five-party meeting at the Tokyo 2020 headquarters in Tokyo on Wednesday, March 3, 2021. (Du Xiaoyi/Pool Photo via AP)TOKYO – The new president of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee has begun holding weekly news conferences hoping to win over a doubting Japanese public with the postponed games opening in just under five months. “I understand there are a lot of people in Tokyo and in Japan who have concerns about the games in Tokyo this summer. “People need to start to build confidence in the safety of the games,” Hashimoto said. “People in the world are now paying attention to gender issues, diversity issues on the organizing committee," she said.

This photo shows the opening remark session of a five-party meeting held by the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Tokyo 2020) at the Tokyo 2020 headquarters in Tokyo on Wednesday, March 3, 2021. (Du Xiaoyi/Pool Photo via AP)TOKYO – The postponed Tokyo Olympics look like they will take place without any fans from abroad when they open in just under five months. The report came just an hour before Tokyo organizers held “five-party” talks online with the International Olympic Committee, the International Paralympic Committee, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the central government of Japan. The organizing committee has budgeted income of $800 million from ticket sales. Seiko Hashimoto, the new president of the organizing committee, cautioned on Tuesday of the problems that await.

Christophe Dubi, Olympic Games Executive Director for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), joins other representatives from the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Tokyo 2020) at a Joint press briefing in Tokyo on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021. “There are indeed a lot of questions in the public domain about how the games will take place this summer. And today is a preliminary review of how things will be done," Olympic Games executive director Christophe Dubi said in a video news conference with Tokyo officials. The rollout of the Playbooks is aimed at assuring athletes, and an attempt to convince the Japanese public that the Olympics should go ahead. The IOC held a similar session earlier in the week with Olympic athletes and their representatives to explain the stringent guidelines in their rule books.

FILE - In this Nov. 16, 2020, file photo, ThomasBach, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President,speaks during the joint press conference between IOC and Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Tokyo 2020) in Tokyo, Japan. The International Olympic Committee is pushing back against reports that the postponed Tokyo Olympics will be canceled and will not open on July 23. The Tokyo Games were postponed 10 months ago at the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, and now their future appears threatened again. (DuXiaoyi/Pool Photo via AP, File)TOKYO – IOC President Thomas Bach and local organizers are pushing back against reports that the postponed Tokyo Olympics will be canceled. “There is no doubt the Tokyo 2020 Games will be very different to any previous games and that this summer’s event looks a long way off right now.

(Kazuhiro Nogi/Pool Photo via AP)TOKYO – The cost of the postponement for the Tokyo Olympics could reach about $2.8 billion, according to figures released Friday by the Tokyo organizing committee, the Tokyo city government and Japan’s national government. “I think our biggest challenge is the additional costs,” Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said during an online news conference. Tokyo said the Olympics would cost $7.3 billion overall when it won the bid in 2013 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The operational cost for the delay is listed at 171 billion yen, or about $1.64 billion at the present exchange rate. Tokyo organizers also said they could add 27 billion yen (about $260 million) from a contingency fund to help cover added costs.

IOC President Thomas Bach wearing a protective mask talks to journalists during a visit to Olympic and Paralympic Village in Tokyo Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020. (Nicolas Datiche/Pool Photo via AP)TOKYO – As he toured the Athletes Village on Tuesday, IOC President Thomas Bach issued a gentle plea to all competitors to get vaccinated before the Tokyo Olympics — if a vaccine is available. In a more private setting, Bach has spoken directly about Olympic athletes’ responsibility to consider the vaccine. In an on-line session last month with the IOC’s Athletes’ Commission, Bach was asked — among other things — if athletes would be “forced” to be vaccinated. As well as the 11,000 Olympic athletes, there could be tens of thousands of officials, judges, VIPs, and media and broadcasters traveling to Japan for the games.

ThomasBach, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President,puts on his mask before speaking during the joint press conference between IOC and Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Tokyo 2020) in Tokyo, Japan, Nov. 16, 2020. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Virus Response Minister Chris Hipkins announced the new rules on Monday after meeting with senior lawmakers. — South Korea’s daily coronavirus tally has stayed above 200 for a third consecutive day, as authorities consider raising the country’s social distancing rules. The 223 additional cases recorded Monday by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency raised the country’s total to 28,769, including 494 deaths. The agency says 193 of them are locally transmitted cases while the rest was associated with international arrivals.