2021

Today in a nutshell: rather than the calm before the storm, the start of Tokyo 2020 so far feels more like the storm before the storm, with Covid disruption in the camps and a host of problems of the organisers’ own making. Tomorrow’s key moments: there will be a little bit of sport, but all […]

Team GB officials are increasingly exasperated with the refusal of Tokyo 2020 authorities to say when the 10 British athletes and staff who have been forced to self-isolate at these Olympics for nearly a week can be released. It comes as the steeplechaser Zak Seddon admitted he was struggling mentally after spending the past six

Last April, fully 15 months ago, the president of the Tokyo organising committee, Yoshiro Mori, said planning for the opening ceremony was “almost complete”. Three months earlier the ceremony’s creative director, Mansai Nomura, had announced that he and his team “have finished 70 to 80%” of the show. “We have made steady progress and hopefully

When are the key events? The opening ceremony is at 8pm Tokyo time (9pm AEST/noon BST/7am EDT) on Friday 23 July, but the baseball, softball and football competitions begin on Wednesday 21 July. The first gold medal is expected to be awarded in the women’s 10m air rifle early on Saturday 24 July, with the

Medal count winner These Olympics are more unpredictable than usual due to the absence of many qualifying events over the last year, but the United States should lead the pack in both most overall medals and total golds. BG China. Just a hunch that they’re keeping some athletes under wraps who didn’t register many results

A first-half goal from Lachlan Wales and a second in the 80th minute from the substitute Marco Tilio stunned 10-man Argentina as Australia seized top spot in Group C at the Tokyo Olympics. Australia’s head coach, Graham Arnold – an Olympian at Seoul in 1988 – had promised that his team would “shock the world”

Despite not being part of Team USA after a failed drugs test, Sha’Carri Richardson made a reappearance yesterday in an advert for Beats by Dre soundtracked by a new song from Kanye West. With her trademark long nails, long lashes and fire-cracker hair, Richardson has underlined the point that, Olympian or not, she is one

When a national leader as conservative as Shinzo Abe was persuaded to emerge from a giant pipe in Rio dressed as the world’s most famous plumber, it felt like Tokyo had already hatched plans to put on an Olympic show like no other when its chance came four years later. The coronavirus not only forced

10.30am EDT 10:30 I was in the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games opening ceremony as a dancer. Happy to provide some choreography tips to the lads. 10.24am EDT 10:24 Sean Ingle sat down with Reece Prescod, if you’re into that sort of thing. 10.19am EDT 10:19 Geraint Thomas is aiming for a first Olympic road medal

Veteran Australian sports administrator John Coates might have expected to wake on Thursday to national adoration – bouquets for a crowning achievement after five decades in the Olympic movement. But the morning after Brisbane was announced as host of the 2032 Olympic Games, Australians largely paused celebrations and rounded on the bid’s most influential backer