Corruption in sports
This photo shows the Meiji Jingu Stadium, center, in Tokyo on July 22, 2015. Above the Meiji baseball stadium is Jingu Daini, or Second, Stadium, the Chichibunomiya rugby stadium, bottom left, and a construction site for the National Stadium, center right, used for the 2020 Summer Olympics, which were postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Kyodo News via AP)
Tokyo plan likened to putting 'skyscrapers' in Central Park

By Stephen Wade Apr. 28, 2023 01:16 AM EDT

FILE - This photo shows the headquarters of Aoki Holdings Inc., a clothing company, in Yokohama, near Tokyo Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2022. The first verdicts in the sprawling Tokyo Olympic bribery scandal were handed down Friday, April 21, 2023, in Tokyo District Court with defendants found guilt but avoiding jail time. (Kyodo News via AP, File)
First Tokyo Olympic bribery verdict ends with no jail time

By Yuri Kageyama And Stephen Wade Apr. 21, 2023 12:44 AM EDT

Japanese Olympic Committee President Yasuhiro Yamashita, from left, and Sapporo Mayor Katsuhiro Akimoto listen to International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, right, speak during a news conference in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Jan. 11, 2020. Sapporo's bid for the 2030 Winter Olympics has been slowed, but not stopped, by fallout from the still-developing corruption scandal around the 2020 Tokyo Games. (Masashi Inoue/Kyodo News via AP)
Sapporo may delay Olympic bid to 2034 after Tokyo scandal

Apr. 10, 2023 08:22 PM EDT

Sapporo Mayor Katsuhiro Akimoto, left, speaks during a news conference at a proposed site for the Olympics ski jump in Sapporo, northern Japan, on July 30, 2022. Sapporo's bid for the 2030 Winter Olympics has been slowed, but not stopped, by fallout from the still-developing corruption scandal around the 2020 Tokyo Games. (Yuta Omori/Kyodo News via AP)
Sapporo election could restart bid for 2030 Winter Olympics

By Stephen Wade And Yuri Kageyama Apr. 06, 2023 01:57 AM EDT

FILE - Simone Biles, of the United States, poses wearing her bronze medal from balance beam competition during artistic gymnastics at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. The sport of gymnastics' international investigations agency was created in 2019 to help protect athletes after the American sexual abuse scandal. The Gymnastics Ethics Foundation has now published its strategy to set new standards in safeguarding before the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The “Gymnasts 2028” details goals for its work to protect athletes from harassment and abuse, investigate complaints, prosecute disciplinary cases and monitor national federations. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko,File)
Ethics agency to better protect gymnasts for LA Olympics

By Graham Dunbar Mar. 23, 2023 07:15 AM EDT

FILE - Boats prepare to tow giant Olympic rings as they are removed from the waterfront area at Odaiba Marine Park after 2020 Summer Olympics came to an end on Aug. 8 in Tokyo, Japan, Aug. 11, 2021. The Tokyo Olympic bid-rigging scandal widened Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, with Japanese advertising giant Dentsu and five other companies being charged by Tokyo district prosecutors. (Kim Kyung-Hoon/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Dentsu and others charged in Tokyo Olympic bid-rigging probe

By Yuri Kageyama Feb. 28, 2023 02:57 AM EST

FILE - In this Dec. 1, 2020, file photo, the Olympic rings are reinstalled after it was taken down for maintenance ahead of the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics in the Odaiba section in Tokyo. A senior official with the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee and three company executives were arrested Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023, in an ongoing bid-rigging scandal related to the Games. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)
Tokyo Olympic official, 3 others held in bid-rigging probe

By Yuri Kageyama Feb. 08, 2023 02:17 AM EST

FILE - Workers prepare to remove giant Olympic rings from the waterfront area at Odaiba Marine Park after 2020 Summer Olympics came to an end on Aug. 8 in Tokyo, Japan, Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021. A Japanese company embroiled in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic corruption scandal said Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023, it would strengthen oversight to prevent further wrongdoing. (Kim Kyung-hoon/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Tokyo Olympic bribery scandal rolls on; company apologizes

By Yuri Kageyama And Stephen Wade Feb. 02, 2023 04:33 AM EST

Leading Australian Olympic official Phil Coles dies aged 91

Jan. 28, 2023 10:00 PM EST
SYDNEY (AP) — Phil Coles, who played key roles in getting an Australian team to the 1980 Moscow Olympics despite a U.S.-led boycott and later helped secure the 2000...

Scandal hits another Olympic sport in France -- handball

By John Leicester Jan. 25, 2023 09:51 AM EST
PARIS (AP) — The head of France's professional handball league resigned Wednesday after pleading guilty to child corruption and child pornography charges — the...

FILE - In this Dec. 1, 2020, file photo, the Olympic rings are reinstalled after it was taken down for maintenance ahead of the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics in the Odaiba section in Tokyo. The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee is encouraging individual sports to consider “category qualifiers” — classified in some sports as “open” categories — to ensure transgender athletes will have events to participate in once they reach puberty. The USOPC finalized its two-page “position paper” at its board meeting earlier this month and released it Monday, Dec. 19, 2022, addressing a proposed path forward for transgender participation in sports. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)
Sapporo mayor says Tokyo bid-rigging hurt its Olympic bid

By Stephen Wade Dec. 20, 2022 07:53 AM EST

A building which houses the headquarters of major advertising company Dentsu is pictured in Tokyo Friday, Nov. 25, 2022. Japanese prosecutors raided the headquarters of Dentsu Friday, as the investigation into corruption related to the Tokyo Olympics widened. (Kyodo News via AP)
Japan investigators raid Dentsu in widening Olympic probe

By Yuri Kageyama Nov. 25, 2022 12:18 AM EST

Kadokawa Corp. Chairman Tsuguhiko Kadokawa speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Sept. 5, 2022. Kadokawa was charged Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022 with bribing a former Tokyo Olympics organizing committee member. (Kyodo News via AP)
Bribes scandal continues to sully Tokyo Olympic legacy

By Yuri Kageyama And Stephen Wade Oct. 19, 2022 01:08 AM EDT

Kadokawa Corp. Chairman Tsuguhiko Kadokawa speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Sept. 5, 2022. Kadokawa was charged Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022 with bribing a former Tokyo Olympics organizing committee member. (Kyodo News via AP)
Publishing executive charged in Tokyo Olympic bribes scandal

By Yuri Kageyama Oct. 04, 2022 03:34 AM EDT

FILE - Haruyuki Takahashi, executive board member of the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games attends the Tokyo 2020 Executive Board Meeting in Tokyo on March 30, 2020. Criminal allegations against a former Tokyo Olympic organizing committee board member widened Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022, as Japanese prosecutors “re-arrested” Takahashi in suspected payments from a publisher that became a sponsor for the Games. (Issei Kato/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Tokyo Olympics bribery arrests widens to third Japan sponsor

By Yuri Kageyama Sep. 27, 2022 04:30 AM EDT

FILE - Haruyuki Takahashi, executive board member of the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games arrives at Tokyo 2020 Executive Board Meeting in Tokyo on March 30, 2020. Japanese prosecutors arrested Takahashi and three employees of a clothing company on bribery charges Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2022. (Issei Kato/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Japan makes arrests on bribery suspicions in Tokyo Olympics

By Yuri Kageyama Aug. 17, 2022 03:40 AM EDT

FILE - Haruyuki Takahashi, then executive board member of the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games arrives at Tokyo 2020 Executive Board Meeting in Tokyo, Japan on March 30, 2020. Prosecutors searched the home of former Tokyo Olympic organizing committee executive board member Takahashi on Tuesday, July 26, 2022, in connection with payments made to him by an Olympic sponsor of the Tokyo Games, the Japanese news agency Kyodo reported. (Issei Kato/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Report: Tokyo Olympic board member under investigation

Jul. 26, 2022 01:45 AM EDT

FILE - In this Feb. 18, 2020, file photo, United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee CEO Sarah Hirshland listens during a briefing with the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Los Angeles 2028 organizers in Beverly Hills, Calif. At their keynote addresses at this week's annual assembly of U.S. athletes and administrators, both CEO Sarah Hirshland and chair Susanne Lyons said the federation's top-line priority for the upcoming year is on athlete excellence and expanding revenue. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Tensions sparking change in US Olympic world, but how much?

By Eddie Pells Jun. 24, 2022 03:26 PM EDT

FILE - Kamila Valieva, of the Russian Olympic Committee, falls in the women's free skate program during the figure skating competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022, in Beijing. No 15-year-old figure skaters will be allowed to compete at the 2026 Olympics following the controversy surrounding Russian competitor Kamila Valieva at this year's Beijing Games. A new age limit for figure skaters at senior international events was passed Tuesday, June 7, 2022 by the International Skating Union in a 110-16 vote that will raise the minimum age to 17 before the next Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, File)
WADA says fresh court ruling can reopen Russian doping cases

By Graham Dunbar Jun. 11, 2022 02:23 PM EDT

Russian seeks to keep senior role at skating federation

By Graham Dunbar Apr. 27, 2022 01:14 PM EDT
GENEVA (AP) — A Russian official was among the candidates announced Wednesday for the International Skating Union’s elections in June, if he is allowed to stand to...