Iran's sole female Olympic medalist Kimia Alizadeh announced that she has permanently left her country for Europe. "Let me start with a greeting, a farewell or condolences," the 21-year--old wrote in an Instagram post explaining why she was defecting. "I am one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran who they have been playing with for years."

Agnes Keleti, the oldest living Olympic champion and a Holocaust survivor, earned 10 gymnastics medals between the 1952 and 1956 Olympics. Keleti is the oldest living Olympic champion and a Holocaust survivor. She won 10 medals in gymnastics — including five golds — between the 1952 Helsinki Games and at the 1956 Melbourne Games.

The Tokyo Olympics are to be postponed until 2021 after talks between Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, and the International Olympic Committee president, Thomas Bach. Abe said they had established that cancelling the Games was out of the question, and that Bach had agreed “100%” that a postponement was the most appropriate response to the global disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Fifa could raise the age limit for the men's football tournament at next summer's rearranged Olympics to 24.

Team GB's Olympic hero Mo Farah's two gold medals could not prevent him being held by US customs officials on suspicion of terrorism as he returned home to Portland, Oregon for Christmas.

Amazing shot of this eruption!

A Russian lawmaker has said the ‘gay propaganda’ law will remain enforced during the Sochi Winter Olympic Games in 2014. Vitaly Milonov, co-sponsor of the ‘non-traditional relationships’ bill, said the government cannot decide when to selectively enforce the law.

Three months before Russia’s parliament unanimously passed a federal law banning the propaganda of “non-traditional relationships” — that is, same-sex ones — the bill’s sponsor went on the country’s most respected interview show to explain her reasoning.

Local authorities in Russia have allegedly harassed activists and journalists critical of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Human Rights Watch (HRW) claims. The human rights organization stated in a report that, beginning in 2008, it has documented efforts by the government to intimidate those speaking out on, among other things, the effects of Olympic venue construction on the environment and locals' health.

Gay Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir has said that he does not plan to campaign for LGBT rights or even openly kiss his Russian-born husband at the games in Sochi, but that he is prepared to be arrested by Russian authorities. The flamboyant athlete and reality TV star told CBS News that he is uncertain whether he will even be allowed into the country to compete.

Valerie Grand'Maison of Montreal won Canada's first gold medal at the Paralympic swimming world championships, taking the women's 100-metre butterfly in the visually impaired category in Montreal.

No flashes of lightning like last weekend nor any sparkling new world record to accompany the great man in the Luzhniki Stadium this time but Usain Bolt still illuminates the track above all others as he added world title No 7, this time over 200 metres, to his matchless CV here in Moscow.

Russian legislators have said they will enforce new anti-gay laws during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, but the ancient athletic games started out as little more than a gigantic festival of homoerotic excess.

Usain Bolt, the Jamaican sprinter widely regarded as the fastest man alive, says he's thinking about hanging up his running shoes after the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.

At 64, Yasuo Hazaki admits he may no longer have the speed of an Olympic athlete, but guile is as important an attribute in his chosen sport - competitive hide-and-seek - and he is lobbying for it be included in the 2020 Games.

TO TRIUMPHANT shouts of “banzai!” it was announced on September 7th that Tokyo would host the 2020 Olympic games. The city fended off not-especially-stiff...

Athletes and spectators attending the Winter Olympics in Sochi in February will face some of the most invasive and systematic spying and surveillance in the history of the Games, documents shared with the Guardian show.

The best thing you can say about Canada’s 2014 Olympic hockey jerseys is that they’re not the United States’ 2014 Olympic hockey jerseys. Team Canada’s uniforms were officially unveiled Tuesday, four months before the Winter Olympics open in Sochi. The reactions up north have been lukewarm, to say the least.

Russia on Friday said it did not have confirmation of a single country boycotting next year’s Sochi Winter Olympics despite a furore over an anti-gay law and vowed to hold one of the best Games ever. Speaking to the Russian lower house of parliament, Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said that no country had definitely announced a boycott.

Ahead of the Sochi Olympics in February, Russia is taking saliva samples from religiously conservative Muslim women, according to locals in the North Caucasus, gathering DNA so authorities