Tennis great and founder of the WTA Billie Jean King was among those who applauded the announcement.
Images from the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics, at the National Stadium, on Friday.
On Wednesday the countdown had been replaced by the current date - "25-3" for March 25 in the days display - and the current time, after the International Olympic Committee decided to postpone the Games by one year.
The IOC will hold discussions that will include an option of putting back the July 24 start date or even moving the Games by a year or more due to the global coronavirus outbreak, but said cancelling the Games would not solve problems or help anybody. They have raised several issues in the past week with the IOC, including athletes' inability to prepare due to restrictions caused by the virus and their overall safety.
It was an extraordinary turnaround for an Olympics that was expected to be held without major issues by a country known for public safety and economic stability. It also revealed a fatal miscalculation by Japanese and IOC officials of public sentiment at a time of heightened fears over the coronavirus.
Tokyo was awarded the 2020 summer Games on Saturday, beating Istanbul in a head-to-head vote after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had addressed the International Olympic Committee in person to allay fears over the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.
Brazil soccer great Pele died on Thursday, aged 82, after a long battle with cancer.
The new president of the International Olympic Committee, who will be elected next month, must ensure future Games' hosts comply with human rights according to the Olympic charter, human rights organisations said on Friday.
One of his cherished memories was being in the Commonwealth Games village in Kuala Lumpur way back in 1998 and Sachin Tendulkar had that same feeling of deja vu as he dropped in at the Olympic Games athletes village in Rio on Saturday. "That incredible feeling of being in a Games village came back today (Saturday). The memories of being a part of the Indian cricket team during the 1998 CWG kept coming back. The sheer magnitude of the Games can't be compared. But the spirit and energy level is same as 1998, the ambience of being around champions is also no different," Tendulkar told PTI from Rio de Janeiro.
The U.N. General Assembly called on Wednesday for an international truce during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia and urged Moscow "to promote social inclusion without discrimination" amid outrage over the country's ban on gay "propaganda" among minors.
Baseball and softball, out of the Olympics since the 2008 Beijing Games, edged closer to a return to the world's biggest multi-sports event on Monday when the IOC approved sports programme changes.
A Russian medallist at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics is suspected of having tested positive for a banned substance, a source at the Games said on Sunday, in a potential major blow to Russia's efforts to emerge from a drug-cheating scandal.
Michael Phelps urged US lawmakers on Tuesday to push for a reform of the global anti-doping effort in sport after a career in which the Olympic great said he was never confident he was competing against clean athletes.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) faces a challenge to tackle cheating in sport while it has an annual budget of less than the income of many top athletes, its president Craig Reedie said. Lack of money could equally prove a handicap for a proposed independent testing authority, said Reedie, who also expressed support for global athletics chief Sebastian Coe and said WADA was in a state of "peace not war" with Coe's troubled sport. "I could do with a lot more money," Reedie said in an interview with Newsweek published on Saturday. The Scot said governments decided their own contributions to WADA's budget, which were then matched by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). "The total is not nearly enough," he said. "WADA's total annual budget of $30 million a year is exceeded by many athletes around the world who make more than that themselves in one year."
A day after clinching the 50m pistol gold in the ongoing Asian Games, Jitu Rai said he has not spoken to his mother for the last one month.
While a billion hearts would pray for all the participants to do well, all eyes would be set on the duo of Deepika Kumari/Atanu Das, the four shooters and Mirabai Chanu to open India's medals count.
The Russian government and security services will overcome security threats and can guarantee safety at the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said.
Russia asks World Athletics to postpone decision on possible expulsion.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) dented any slim hopes that Russian athletes might have had of competing at the Rio Games in August by backing the IAAF's decision to uphold its ban on the country for systematic doping.
The Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics countdown got under way on Thursday with the lighting of the torch at the site of the ancient Olympics, with organisers hoping it will shift attention away from Brazil's political and financial turmoil.
'The Olympic Spirit has been thrown to the wind in Xi Jinping's China.' 'The International Olympic Committee is ready to kowtow to totalitarian China,' notes Claude Arpi.
Beijing was chosen by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to host the 2022 Winter Olympics on Friday, becoming the first city to be awarded both summer and winter Games.
Terming the IOA-IOC saga as a turning point, Union Minister for Youth Affairs & Sports Jitendra Singh said the entire episode is a blessing in disguise for Indian sport.
Left cornered after being served an ultimatum by the International Olympic Committee, the Indian Olympic Association is all set to amend its constitution in a general body meeting in New Delhi on Sunday to bar charge-framed contestants from its elections.
While the debate over the political, financial and health implications of holding the Tokyo Olympics in July rages around the world, triple jump gold medal hopeful Will Claye believes a crucial voice is not always being heard - that of the athlete.
Kenya's Ruth Chepngetich overcame extreme heat and humidity to win the World Championship midnight marathon on Friday, in a gruelling test of survival that saw nearly a third of the 70 starters fail to reach the finish line.
With neither partner seemingly willing to consider scrapping the event as the coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc globally, we consider the options available, and possible scenarios:
Brazil's national Olympic committee (COB) and its head Carlos Nuzman were provisionally suspended by the International Olympic Committee on Friday, a day after the 75-year-old was arrested in Rio de Janeiro in connection with a corruption investigation.
Concerns are swirling that Japan's dream of hosting the Tokyo 2020 Olympics could be a fatality of the spread of the new coronavirus, jolting organisers, sponsors, and media firms who have spent billions of dollars in the run-up to the event. Global insurers face a hefty bill if the coronavirus forces the cancellation of the Games, with estimates of the cost of insuring the showpiece running into billions of dollars.
Triggering angry criticism from the West and even calls to boycott the Sochi games, Russia adopted in June a ban on homosexual "propaganda" among minors, a law denounced by critics as discriminatory and aimed at stifling dissent.
Indian Olympic Association President Narinder Batra today said that the country should aim to win 'double digit' medals at the Tokyo Olympics
About 41,000 rooms are being provided for the Games and any failure to have them ready in time would be a potential blow to President Vladimir Putin's hopes that the Winter Olympics will show how far Russia has come since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Monday
Organisers warn participants against eating out over COVID-19 risks.
A Russian whistleblower who helped uncover the biggest doping scandal in decades has told Reuters that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is more concerned about protecting the organisation than ridding world sport of drugs cheats.
Several anti-doping agencies, including those of the United States and Canada, want a complete ban on Russia competing at the Rio Olympics if next week's key report into allegations of state-backed doping at the 2014 Sochi winter Olympics is damning, they said on Saturday.
World athletics' governing body decided on Friday to maintain its doping ban on all Russian athletes, Sky News reported, quoting unnamed sources, leaving the country's hopes of competing in the Rio Olympics dependent on Olympic chiefs giving special dispensation at a meeting next week. The Council of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) was meeting in Vienna to decide whether to lift the ban after hearing from a task force that significant doping problems still existed in Russia. The suspension was first imposed in November and extended in March. A spokeswoman for Russia's athletics federation said she could not confirm the reports that the ban had been upheld.
IOC inspectors who visited last year warned that unless the pace of construction picked up soon, some arenas may not be ready in time to host test events ahead of the Games.
'Jaan hai to jahaan hai' 'It's a good decision because everyone is disturbed. Athletes' health is paramount'
Behind the scenes, sponsors who have pumped billions of dollars into the Tokyo Olympics have grown increasingly nervous about how the coronavirus outbreak will impact the tournament.
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