Crowd roar as Xi opens Hangzhou Asian Games
After a year's delay due to COVID-19, the 19th Asian Games officially opens in Hangzhou on Saturday with hosts China eager to lift a country mired in economic gloom.
They are not only skilful but also dead gorgeous. With these beauties strutting their stuff, the Sochi Games could well be the most photogenic event in sporting history. Here are the hottest athletes to look out for when the action gets underway from February 7.
As Covid-19 cases spiralled in China ahead of the next month's Beijing Winter Olympics, authorities effectively put Anyang under lockdown, the third city after Xian and Tianjin, confining over 20 million people to their homes to arrest the spread of the contagion.
Held on the first day of Spring by the Chinese calendar, it began with a performance by dancers waving glowing green stalks to convey the vitality of the season, followed by an explosion of white and green fireworks that spelled the word "Spring".
People in a Beijing district with some 2 million residents were ordered Sunday to undergo mass coronavirus testing following a series of infections as China tightened anti-disease controls ahead of the Winter Olympics.
At their medal ceremony, the players team sang the Russian anthem over the sound of the Olympic anthem at the Gangneung Hockey Centre despite being barred from having their flag raised or anthem played.
Knowing that it had been a tie an overjoyed Friedrich and Margis had rushed over to Kripps and Kopacz to celebrate as they finished their final run.
The 26-year-old told Reuters on Sunday he was excited about representing the United States as well as the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community at the ongoing Games in South Korea.
Images from the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Images from the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
British freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy has urged the International Olympic Committee (IOC) not to allow countries that have "appalling human rights stances" to host the Games and questioned China's suitability to stage the 2022 Winter Olympics.
'The group commands 85 per cent of the global GDP, and if you are able to convey your point of view effectively to this group then you have reached more or less all the important players that matter.'
Led by Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra, India will seek to showcase its ascendency as a sporting power at the Asian Games, which opens formally on Saturday after an unprecedented one-year delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Yao said he and Peng had known each other for nearly 20 years. However, he did not comment directly on the controversy that flared up last year after Peng, a former world No. 1 doubles player, appeared to allege that a former vice premier, Zhang Gaoli, had sexually assaulted her in the past.
The IOC said in a statement that the North and South have agreed to march under a single flag at the opening ceremony and would field a united team in the women's ice hockey.
The United States has asserted that it stands with India against Chinese aggression as several lawmakers slammed China for choosing a People's Liberation Army soldier.
The marchers -- many wrapped in the red, yellow and blue flag of Tibet and dressed in traditional robes -- chanted and played drums, holding a minute of silence for their "martrys" before starting a "peace march" along Lake Geneva.
Olympic downhill champion Lindsey Vonn will miss next month's Sochi Games after failing to recover from a knee injury.
The 38-year-old has also been handed the responsibility of talent scouting, infrastructure planning.
The decision follows a US-led diplomatic boycott of the Games over concerns about human rights in China
President Vladimir Putin told Olympic chiefs on Wednesday that Russia would have its facilities ready in time to host the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, despite rising costs and concerns about corruption and humans rights abuses.
While many Western countries, including the United States, Britain and Australia, are diplomatically boycotting the Winter Olympics over China's human rights record, Putin will join a number of Beijing-friendly leaders at the Games.
While several international sporting events were cancelled in China because of the pandemic, the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics were held behind closed doors under strict COVID-19 guidelines.
China rejects allegations of human rights abuse and has repeatedly lashed out against the politicisation of the Games.
'No significant impact' on Tokyo 2020 from possible cyber attacks
The Games will also include five competitors from China's western Xinjiang region, media there reported, including two ethnic Kazakhs, one Uyghur, one Kyrgyz and one from China's Han majority.
Images from the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
The activists demanded countries withdraw from the event they have called the "Genocide Games", which they say are being used to burnish China's reputation.
The tally from the weekend showed 37 new cases on Sunday with most testing positive after arrival at the airport
Asian Games are scheduled to take place from Sept. 10-25 in the capital of Zhejiang province
When India's Arif Khan steps into the Beijing National Stadium for the opening ceremony at next month's Winter Olympics it will mark the culmination of a journey over a decade in the making.
Ukrainian athletes were given a warm welcome in Beijing as the Winter Paralympics opened
An outcry over the whereabouts of Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai escalated on Friday as the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) said it was prepared to pull its tournaments out of China if they were not satisfied with the response to her sexual assault allegation.
The principles are a departure from Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter that stipulates "no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas".
All Olympic-related units will provide appropriate quantities of condoms for free at the appropriate time to people who've checked in to stay inside the loop.
Olympic Council of Asia has postponed the 19th edition of the multi-sports Games
A three-man crew successfully blasted off into space with the Olympic torch, ready to take it on its first space walk in what they said would be a "spectacular" showcase for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.
The Olympic torch relay began its second day on Thursday atop the Great Wall, with Hong Kong actor Jackie Chan and Chinese Olympic medallists among those taking turns carrying the flame along a route shortened to three days because of COVID-19.
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