Flotilla on Seine, rain and Celine Dion mark start of Paris Olympics

Updated: 8am (AEST) Paris, France Reuters French President Emmanuel Macron declared the Olympic Games open on Friday after a soaking wet ceremony in which athletes were cheered by the crowd along the Seine, dancers took to the roofs of Paris and Lady Gaga sang a French cabaret song. France’s three-time Olympic gold medallists Marie-Jose Perec […]
Superstar Osaka lights flame as Japan’s COVID-hit Olympic Games open

Tokyo, Japan Reuters Japan’s global superstar Naomi Osaka on Friday lit the Olympic cauldron to mark the start of Tokyo 2020, in an opening ceremony shorn of glitz and overshadowed by a pandemic but defined by hope, tradition and gestures of diversity. Postponed by a year due to the coronavirus, the Games are being held […]
Explainer: What’s driving a possible boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics?

AP Some kind of boycott is almost sure to affect next year’s Beijing Winter Olympics. It’s driven by the widely reported internment of Muslim Uighurs and other ethnic minorities in China, which has been termed a genocide by human rights groups. In this 3rd February, file photo, exiled Tibetans use the Olympic Rings as a […]
Tokyo Games chief expects decision by March on allowing spectators

Tokyo, Japan Reuters Organisers of the postponed Tokyo Olympics should decide in February or March whether the coronavirus risks have fallen enough to let spectators attend the Games in July, the head of the organising committee said on Tuesday. The Japanese Government and the International Olympic Committee made the decision last March to postpone the […]
IOC chief Bach says Olympic Games cannot be “marketplace of demonstrations”

Reuters International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said the Olympic Games are not about politics and must guard against becoming a “marketplace of demonstrations”. Against the backdrop of the Black Lives Matter movement to protest racial injustice, calls have increased this year for a change to Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter, which bans any […]
STOP THE CLOCK: JAPAN AWAKES TO REALITY OF TOKYO GAMES POSTPONEMENT

JACK TARRANT and JU-MIN PARK, of Reuters, report from Japan as news that the Olympics Games have been postponed sinks in…
Tokyo 2020 refugee team to be bigger than in Rio – IOC’s Bach

Lausanne, Switzerland Reuters The Tokyo 2020 Olympics refugee team will be bigger than the inaugural 10-member squad in Rio de Janeiro four years ago, the International Olympic Committee said on Thursday. The IOC unveiled a list of 37 refugees who are currently receiving Olympic scholarships and who will attempt to make the final cut for […]