GENEVA (AP) — Russian athletes and officials who have been banned from international sports because of the war in Ukraine are being protected rather than punished, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said Friday.
BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — IOC president Thomas Bach was in Brisbane on Saturday for the first time since the Queensland state capital was awarded the 2032 Olympics.
Bach flew into Australia last weekend to attend a testimonial dinner for outgoing Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates and spent this past week visiting several Pacific island countries.
SYDNEY (AP) — Ian Chesterman has moved up from vice president to president after voting was held Saturday to replace departing Australian Olympic Committee chief John Coates.
Chesterman defeated former Olympic swimmer Mark Stockwell 67-26 in the vote held during the AOC's annual general meeting.
JERUSALEM (AP) — Alex Gilady, an Israeli media pioneer and longtime International Olympic Committee member, has died. He was 79.
Gilady was a former sport executive at U.S. network NBC and was the first Israeli journalist to report from Egypt in 1977 ahead of the signing of a landmark peace treaty with its Arab neighbor.
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Alex Gilady, an International Olympic Committee member from Israel who also previously served as a senior vice president of NBC Sports, has died. He was 79.
BEIJING (AP) — 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.”
LONDON (AP) — The invasion of Ukraine drew more punitive measures across the sporting world on Friday when Russia was stripped of the Champions League final in St. Petersburg and Formula One dropped the Russian Grand Prix in Sochi.
BEIJING (AP) — The International Olympic Committee member who oversaw preparations for the Beijing Games was voted back onto the body's executive board on Saturday.
Juan Antonio Samaranch, whose father was IOC president from 1980-2001, was the only candidate for the sole vice president slot that was open.
BEIJING (AP) — IOC President Thomas Bach joined the global bandwagon of support for Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva on Friday, criticizing her entourage and questioning whether 15-year-old athletes should be put under such pressure at the Olympics.
ZHANGJIAKOU, China (AP) — The leader of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee called the decision not to award American figure skaters the silver medal they won in the team competition an outcome that is “frankly, unfair to the athletes.”
ZHANGJIAKOU, China (AP) — IOC president Thomas Bach offered U.S. figure skaters Olympic torches as holdover gifts while they await a resolution of the Russian doping case that is preventing them from receiving their silver medals, The Associated Press has learned.
BEIJING (AP) — The Latest on the Beijing Winter Olympics:
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The United States is out of the men’s hockey tournament at the Olympics in stunning fashion after blowing a late lead.
When the Beijing Olympics close on Feb. 20, IOC President Thomas Bach, by tradition, will call on the “youth of the world to assemble four years from now.” He may consider expanding that invitation to the 2026 Winter Games at Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo in Italy to another group: the oldies but goodies.
ZHANGJIAKOU, China (AP) — There were doubts, and falls, and fear for Chloe Kim.
Ultimately, there was a gold medal, too.
The 21-year-old American's second straight trip to the top of the Olympic podium — a trip taken Thursday after a terrible pre-contest training session that made her wonder if she really could make it — came with a timely reminder not only for her, but for everyone else paying attention to her latest domination of the halfpipe.
BEIJING (AP) — Another day, another German Olympic luge threepeat. The best sliding nation in the world is leaving absolutely no doubt at the Beijing Games.
Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt won the doubles title at the Olympics on Wednesday, their third consecutive gold medal in the event.
BEIJING (AP) — 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 Tuesday.
BEIJING (AP) — Nothing to see here, move on.
That was the message that Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai delivered Monday in a controlled interview in Beijing that touched on sexual assault allegations she made against a former high-ranking member of China's ruling Communist Party.
BEIJING (AP) — The question that won't go away for the International Olympic Committee and Beijing Olympic organizers: Where is Peng Shuai?
And the corollary: When and where will the three-time Olympian and former No.
His collar turned up against the cold, the head of the International Olympic Committee looked out over the stadium and spoke of the ideals that had brought together athletes from all over the world.
BEIJING (AP) — The ever-present slogan that governs these Winter Olympics is meant to evoke the ideal of one world. In reality, it's two.
Bus shelters, buildings and the walls that form the membrane of the Olympic bubble all exhort: “Together for a shared future." But the Chinese residents waiting in front of these hoardings, bundled up against the frigid temperatures, are solidly out of the loop.
BEIJING (AP) — FIFA’s fading plan for biennial World Cups was labeled a threat from soccer to all other sports by the International Olympic Committee on Thursday.
IOC President Thomas Bach chided FIFA counterpart Gianni Infantino, an IOC member for the past two years, for not being in Beijing to hear the criticism.
BEIJING (AP) — The president of the International Olympic Committee sought to play down concerns about the safety of Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai on Thursday while also saying he planned to go ahead with their long-promised dinner during the Beijing Games.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea on Friday said it would skip next month’s Beijing Olympics because of the COVID-19 pandemic and “hostile forces’ moves,” a largely redundant statement since the country has already been banned from the Games by the IOC.
GENEVA (AP) — Boxing, weightlifting and modern pentathlon were set a target of about 18 months on Thursday to make changes in order to keep their status as Olympic sports for the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
IOC President Thomas Bach can't escape repeated questions about Peng Shuai and issues raised by two video calls the IOC has had with her.
The calls were aimed at conveying a message that Peng was safe despite being absent from public view after the three-time Olympic tennis player accused a top Chinese politician of sexual assault almost six weeks ago.
GENEVA (AP) — The president of the International Olympic Committee did his best to stay neutral Wednesday as Canada, Britain and Australia followed the United States in announcing diplomatic boycotts of the Winter Games in Beijing.
The Beijing Winter Olympics open in just under two months and are the target of a diplomatic boycott by the United States, with others likely to follow.
So how did Beijing land the Winter Olympics, so soon after it was host to the Summer Olympics in 2008?
If Thomas Bach or Adam Silver need some pointers on standing up for human rights instead of the bottom line, they should give a call to Steve Simon over at the women's tennis tour.
Finally, someone picked right over the almighty yuan.
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — The International Olympic Committee said it held a second video call with Peng Shuai but again didn't release any video or transcript nor make any reference to the tennis player's sexual assault allegation against a former Chinese government official.
A video call between the head of the International Olympic Committee and Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai, whose nearly three-week disappearance from public view sparked an outcry, was meant to reassure the world that she was safe — but instead has raised more questions.
BEIJING (AP) — Missing Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai told Olympic officials in a video call from Beijing that she was safe and well, the International Olympic Committee said Sunday after Peng reappeared in public at a youth tournament in Beijing, according to photos released by the organizer.
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai has taken part in a 30-minute video call from Beijing with IOC officials and told them she was safe and well, the Olympic body said on Sunday.
A global trade union body has joined a long list of human-rights advocates in challenging the propriety of China holding the 2022 Winter Olympics and has singled out the International Olympic Committee for acquiescing in the face of alleged genocide and crimes against humanity reportedly taking place in the host country.
BEIJING (AP) — The Olympic flame arrived in Beijing on Wednesday amid calls from overseas critics for a boycott of the Feb. 4-20 Winter Games.
Beijing’s Communist Party Secretary Cai Qi, the top official in the Chinese capital, received the flame at a closely-guarded airport ceremony.
GENEVA (AP) — The International Olympic Committee said on Saturday it has “concerns” about FIFA’s push for soccer World Cups every two years.
Though IOC President Thomas Bach said last month “we will not interfere in this discussion,” his organization stepped in on Saturday after meeting in Athens to detail objections it shared with soccer stakeholders.
When the International Olympic Committee awarded Beijing the 2008 Summer Olympics, it promised the Games could improve human rights and civil liberties in China.
GENEVA (AP) — North Korea was formally suspended from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics by the IOC on Wednesday as punishment for refusing to send a team to the Tokyo Games citing the COVID-19 pandemic.
GENEVA (AP) — An influential Olympic official accused of forgery in an alleged plot that implicated political rivals in Kuwait in a coup attempt had his trial open on Monday.
Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah was publicly sidelined as an IOC member and president of the global group of national Olympic bodies, known as ANOC, after he was indicted in November 2018.
TOKYO (AP) — A brief return visit to Tokyo by International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach to view the Paralympic Games has been widely criticized in Japan but defended by organizers.
Bach, who spent about a month in Japan for the recently-completed Olympics, returned the day before Tuesday's Paralympic opening ceremony and then departed about 24 hours later after attending some events and handing out medals at the swimming venue.
PARIS (AP) — Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo brandished the Olympic flag on Monday in Paris upon her return from Tokyo, as the French capital will organize the Games in 2024.
After leaving the plane at Charles de Gaulle airport, surrounded by many of France’s Olympic medalists, Hidalgo spoke of her “great emotion.”