National Sports

By Wayne Sterling, CNN Eighteen athletes won gold medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics on Sunday. Here’s a breakdown of who clinched gold: Archery Women’s Team: Republic of Korea Cycling Women’s Road Race: Anna Kiesenhofer, Austria Diving Women’s Synchronised 3m Springboard: China Fencing Women’s Foil Individual: Lee Kiefer, USA Men’s Epee Individual: Romain Cannone, France

By Jacob Lev, CNN An Iranian taekwondo athlete competing for the Refugee Olympic Team made her mark at Tokyo 2020 after she defeated two-time Olympic gold medalist Jade Jones. Kimia Alizadeh beat Team Great Britain’s Jones 16-12 on Sunday in the women’s -57kg taekwondo round of 16. She then overcame China’s Lijun Zhou in the

By Sana Noor Haq and Matias Grez, CNN Dutch cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten threw her arms up in the air, her face a picture of ecstasy and joy. That’s what you do when you think you’ve won Olympic gold — except she hadn’t. That honor went to Austria’s Anna Kiesenhofer, who capitalized on her rival’s

By George Ramsay, CNN These are early days for the Tokyo Olympics, but Naomi Osaka is quickly emerging as the headline act. Two days after lighting the cauldron at the Opening Ceremony — a moment she called “the greatest athletic achievement and honor” of her life — Osaka took to the tennis court for her

By Seamus Fagan and Kevin Dotson, CNN The United States has won its first medals of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as Chase Kalisz and Jay Litherland finished first and second in the Men’s 400-meter Individual Medley. Chase Kalisz won gold with a time of 4:09.42, while Litherland finished just behind him with a time of

By Wayne Sterling, CNN All 11 gold medals have been awarded at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics for Saturday. Here’s a breakdown of who clinched gold: Archery Mixed Team: Republic of Korea Cycling Men’s Road Race: Richard Carapaz, Ecuador Fencing Women’s Epee Individual: Yiwen Sun, China Men’s Sabre Individual: Aron Szilagyi, Hungary Judo Women’s -48kg: Distria

By John Sinnott and Matias Grez, CNN Day one of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and things are hotting up — not least the weather. World No. 1 Novak Djokovic described the humidity as “brutal” after beating Bolivian Hugo Dellien 6-2 6-2 in the men’s singles first round, while Russian tennis star Daniil Medvedev resorted to

By Don Riddell, CNN More than 10,000 athletes compete in the summer Olympics. There are gold medalists and athletes who’ll never get anywhere near the podium. There are global superstars and athletes who soon will be, all rubbing shoulders with competitors from countries that they’ve never heard of. There will be veterans of the greatest

By David Close, Taylor Barnes and Aqeel Najim, CNN Algerian judo athlete Fethi Nourine says he has chosen to withdraw from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics rather than face an Israeli competitor. Nourine told Algeria’s Echourouk TV that he “decided to withdraw out of conviction, because this is the very least we can offer the Palestinian

By Leah Asmelash, CNN The Tokyo Olympics — after a long delay — are finally happening. The opening ceremony formally kicked off the Games Friday and sporting events are underway. There’s nothing but excitement in the air, according to IOC Athletes’ Commission Chair Kirsty Coventry. In her statement Tuesday, Coventry painted a rosy picture, saying

By Teele Rebane, CNN Covid-19 has thrown more than a few curve balls at Tokyo Olympic organizers — but this isn’t the first Games to battle a pandemic. A century ago, the 1920 Antwerp Olympics were held only a few months after the Spanish flu ravaged the world, killing at least 50 million people. In

By Homero De la Fuente and David Close, CNN Players from the United States women’s national soccer team filed an appeal Friday to overturn a 2020 decision against their equal pay lawsuit, saying last year’s decision “defies reality.” In May 2020, Judge Gary Klausner ruled there was no basis to prove the players’ claims that

By George Ramsay, CNN With no fans in attendance and a reduced number of athletes joining the parade, the Tokyo Olympics‘ Opening Ceremony officially kicked off the Summer Games on Friday as tennis star Naomi Osaka lit the cauldron. Earlier on Friday, a request from Tokyo 2020 organizers to push back Osaka’s opening match of

By Seamus Fagan and Sara Spary, CNN Over 150 athletes, sports organizations, human rights and social justice experts have signed an open letter calling on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to allow athletes the “fundamental human right” to protest, including at the podium. As the Tokyo Games open, the signatories — including US hammer thrower

By Ben Morse, Jill Martin, Coy Wire, CNN Well over three quarters of the US athletes that are in Japan for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics have received Covid-19 vaccines, the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) revealed on Friday. Team USA announced earlier this month that a total of 613 athletes were set to

By George Ramsay, CNN The Covid-19 pandemic has loomed large over the Tokyo Olympics ever since last year’s postponement, shaping a Games the like of which has never been seen before. When the opening ceremony gets underway on Friday, it will put an end to months of speculation over whether the Olympics would be even

By Eric Levenson, Jacob Lev and Homero De la Fuente, CNN If a National Football League game cannot be rescheduled and is canceled due to a Covid-19 outbreak among unvaccinated players, that team will have to forfeit and will be credited with a loss, the NFL said in a leaguewide memo obtained by CNN. The

By Ben Morse, CNN Defending Olympic champion Brazil defeated Germany on Thursday in what was a rematch of the 2016 Rio men’s football final. Striker Richarlison scored a stunning first-half hat-trick as Brazil beat Germany 4-2 in their opening game of the 2020 Summer Games in Japan. Brazil also got the better of Germany in