Coates also hit out at the suggestion that the IOC was ploughing ahead with the Games "at all costs" to fulfill lucrative contracts with broadcasters and sponsors.
International hockey can resume only after COVID-19 vaccine is developed: FIH
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) shut down the world tour and other sanctioned tournaments following the completion of the All-England in March due to the global health crisis.
BCCI is leaving no stone unturned to hold the upcoming edition of the IPL without any glitch
2021 has a lot to offer for sports lovers with the Tokyo Olympics topping the list.
Bajrang Punia says men's camp should start on schedule.
Berlin marathon organisers shelve plans for 2020 race
Russia has informed the United Nations Security Council that Russian buses are ready at crossing points to go to the eastern Ukrainian cities of Kharkiv and Sumy to evacuate Indian students and other foreign nationals who are stranded there, amidst the raging conflict in the East European country.
'The decision to hospitalise them was taken so as to ensure that the players were attended to at all times and could be given the best possible treatment. All six athletes are in good health and recovering well.'
Rio de Janeiro mayor Eduardo Paes has described Australia's Olympic committee as a "source of aggressions" against Brazil after it banned the team's athletes from visiting the city's favelas during the Games in August. Australia's team chef de mission Kitty Chiller told News Ltd media on Sunday that their Olympians would be barred from going to the urban slums, even on official tours, in accordance with advice from a security expert. "There is still much unfamiliarity about Rio and Brazil," Paes told Brazilian media. "There is a certain dramatisation. And between us, the Australian committee has been a source of aggressions to Brazil." Rio's favelas are among the most violent and crime-ridden areas of the city. Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) president John Coates, a member of the International Olympic Committee's coordination commission, said in April 2014 that Rio's Games preparations were the worst he had ever seen and critically behind schedule. Coates was more generous in a January assessment, however, saying he felt "very positive" about the delivery of the Games.
The hard-fought win took Zinedine Zidane's side on to 77 points after 34 games, seven clear of second-placed Barca who visit in-form Villarreal later on Sunday.
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Wednesday said it might freeze the world rankings for a while as it works on a "fair solution" to the Olympic qualification process after the coronavirus pandemic forced a postponement of the Tokyo Games to 2021. There have been growing calls to freeze the world rankings after cancellations and postponements wrecked the sport's calendar. Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal, B Sai Praneeth, Parupalli Kashyap and H S Prannoy have been leading the way in expressing concerns.
Lionel Messi scored his 650th goal for Barcelona while Antoine Griezmann struck the winner in a 2-1 home success over Athletic Bilbao
'And always there's this scare of COVID. 'Hope it's not me the next time'. You have to stay positive, you have to train yourself mentally.'
Palermo will mark the first professional tennis event across the WTA and men's ATP Tours since early March with action scheduled to get underway on the clay courts of the Sicilian capital from August 3.
The BWF said that it was also looking at options to host its annual general meeting and members' forum which were due to take place in Aarhus in August.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday
Bach's two-day visit to Tokyo is likely to bolster Japan's efforts to stage the Olympics, but will do little to assuage the concerns of a public deeply worried about the spread of the virus.
Damaging wind gusts, a fresh doping controversy and the robbery of a visiting government minister presented the Rio Games with a perfect storm of problems on Sunday, forcing organisers to scramble to keep the world's biggest sporting event rolling on.
China and Hong Kong have had to withdraw from this week's Badminton Asia Team Championships in Manila due to the coronavirus outbreak. India will, however, send its men's team after they agreed to travel to Manila.
The Barcelona legend showed his support following the end of the World Health Worker Week, which concluded on Saturday.
Footage showed the Leeds players in an open-top double-decker bus, surrounded by a swarming mass of chanting fans enveloped in smoke from flares and fireworks.
Dutch gymnast Yuri van Gelder has been expelled from the Olympics for "gravely" violating team rules by going out for a night of drinking in Rio after qualifying for the finals of the rings event, the Dutch team said.
Tokyo 2020 organisers received the Olympic flame in a scaled-down handover ceremony in the Greek capital on Thursday, amid the coronavirus spread that has cast doubt on the global, multi-billion dollar event. In a brief ceremony closed to spectators in Athens' Panathenaic stadium, site of the first modern Games in 1896, the torch was received by Tokyo Games representative Naoko Imoto.
Banned by basketball's governing body and a source of controversy at the Asian Games, hijabs were worn freely at the archery tournament in Incheon on Friday as athletes struggled to comprehend how a headscarf could cause such an uproar.
The Karni Singh Range in New Delhi will be divided into four risk zones to ensure that Olympic-bound shooters can safely resume training at a two-month long national camp which will be conducted from Thursday in a bio-bubble to ward off the COVID-19 threat.
For women's hockey in the country, this result may well turn out to be a watershed moment.
Japan's nuclear reactor crisis has forced the postponement of a world championship triathlon race in Yokohama next month because of radiation fears, the International Triathlon Union (ITU) said on Tuesday.
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) on Monday agreed with the safety concerns in Islamabad, raised by the All India Tennis Association (AITA) and moved the Nov 29-30 tie out of Pakistan's capital city.
Two Canadian Athletes have withdrawn from the Commonwealth games, both of them are archers. One is former World Champion Dietmar Trillus and other is Kevin Tataryn and both have cited concerns about health and safety.
In its 19-page Standard Operating Procedure for resumption of training as well as competitions, the Boxing Federation of India has mandated health protocols similar to what the Sports Authority of India has suggested.
Pakistan's 456-strong contingent for the upcoming South Asian Games in India has been cleared by its government to participate in the event starting February 5.
World champion P V Sindhu was on Friday ousted from the All England Championship after being outplayed by a determined Nozomi Okuhara of Japan, who rallied her way to a thrilling three-game win in the quarter-final of the women's singles in Birmingham. Sindhu's defeat ended India's campaign at the Super 1000 tournament.
Yulia Stepanova, the key whistleblower in the Russian doping scandal that almost led to her country being completely excluded from the Rio de Janeiro Games, will miss the Olympics after the runner was controversially ruled out due to her doping past.
New Zealand Federation of Athletes chief Rob Nichol said that 'hand on heart' he cannot say whether his country would send a team to the Commonwealth Games.
Tennis great and founder of the WTA Billie Jean King was among those who applauded the announcement.
The head of a Japanese doctors' union warned on Tuesday that holding the Olympic Games in Tokyo this summer, with tens of thousands of people from around the world, could lead to the emergence of an "Olympic" strain of the coronavirus.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Saturday
'We did not want India to either default or forfeit this tie'
The novel coronavirus outbreak has affected their Olympic preparations but India's top athletes like P V Sindhu and Bajrang Punia say they are optimistic about the quadrennial event going ahead as scheduled despite the current health crisis. Olympic silver-medallist Sindhu says she can understand the apprehensions of fellow shuttlers, including compatriot Sania Nehwal, who is racing against time to qualify for the Games due to the cancellation of tournaments in the wake of the outbreak. The Olympic Games are scheduled to start in Tokyo, from July 24.
