Disability sports

Japan National Stadium, where opening ceremony and many other events are planned for postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics, is seen from a rooftop observation deck Thursday, Jan. 21, 2021, in Tokyo. The postponed Tokyo Olympics are to open in just six months. Local organizers and the International Olympic Committee say they will go ahead on July 23. But it’s still unclear how this will happen with virus cases surging in Tokyo and elsewhere around the globe. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)

Speculation over Tokyo Olympics: 2021, 2032 or not at all?

Jan. 22, 2021 4:13 PM EST

GENEVA (AP) — Just about everybody, especially the organizers in Japan and Switzerland, want the Tokyo Olympics to open on July 23 — as scheduled. And yet, 2021 is starting on a similar path that led to the decision last March to postpone the games for a year because of the coronavirus pandemic....

FILE - In this Nov. 16, 2020, file photo, Thomas Bach, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President, speaks during the joint press conference between IOC and Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Tokyo 2020) in Tokyo, Japan. The International Olympic Committee is pushing back against reports that the postponed Tokyo Olympics will be canceled and will not open on July 23. The Tokyo Games were postponed 10 months ago at the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, and now their future appears threatened again.(Du Xiaoyi/Pool Photo via AP, File)

Amid cancellation talk, Tokyo Olympics `focused on hosting'

Jan. 22, 2021 7:01 AM EST

TOKYO (AP) — IOC President Thomas Bach and local organizers are pushing back against reports that the postponed Tokyo Olympics will be canceled. Now set to open July 23, the Tokyo Games were postponed 10 months ago at the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, and now the event appears threatened again. The...

Ontario Premier Doug Ford looks on as the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in Canada is administered to personal support worker Anita Quidangen by registered nurse Hiwot Arfaso at The Michener Institute in Toronto on Monday, Jan. 4, 2021. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

The Latest: Fla. lawyer in tobacco cases dies from COVID-19

Jan. 12, 2021 9:39 PM EST

PENSACOLA, Fla. — Florida attorney Fred Levin, who won a major legal battle against the tobacco industry in the 1990s, has died several days after contracting the coronavirus. He was 83. An attorney at the Levin Papantonio Rafferty legal firm says Levin died Tuesday from complications of COVID-19, the...

An Olympic torch for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics is on display in Tokyo, Tuesday, March 24, 2020. Japan has announced Thursday, Jan. 7, 2021, that it is halting a public display of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic torches as virus case jump in the country and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga orders a state of emergency for Tokyo and the surrounding areas until next month. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

Spreading virus pulls Olympic torches off display in Japan

Jan. 7, 2021 3:22 AM EST

TOKYO (AP) — Japan is halting a public display of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic torches as new virus cases jump in the country and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga orders a state of emergency for Tokyo and the surrounding areas until next month. Tokyo reported 2,447 new cases on Thursday. This is a jump...

One Good Thing: Special Olympian spreads message of love

Dec. 31, 2020 2:19 PM EST

Gary Schottle arrived in time to see the other kids in line hitting and jumping on his young son. Nicknamed “Tank,” Derek towered over the pestering kids, yet lacked the confidence to stick up for himself and was too kindhearted to intentionally hurt anyone. Head down, he took the blows without...

FILE - In this Dec. 31, 2011, file photo, David Greenham, of Readfield, Maine, reacts after taking a plunge with about 100 others participating in the annual Polar Bear Plunge at the East End Beach in Portland, Maine. The tradition of taking an icy plunge into the ocean to ring in 2021 is going virtual during the coronavirus pandemic. (John Patriquin/Portland Press Herald via AP)

Virtually shivering: Crowded Jan. 1 polar plunges put on ice

Dec. 30, 2020 10:50 AM EST

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The coronavirus pandemic has poured cold water all over the tradition of gathering en masse to ring in the new year by taking an icy plunge, but organizers are going with the floe. Organizers of many traditional “polar plunges” have resolved to stay safe on New Year's...

Paralympian Melissa Stockwell named to Olympic panel

Dec. 29, 2020 7:15 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — Paralympian Melissa Stockwell and University of Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens are among the picks for a Congressional committee tasked with studying possible reforms in America's Olympic system. Also chosen by Rep. Greg Walden, R-Oregon, who announced the picks Tuesday, were...

FILE - In this May 11, 1988, file photo, Michael Cusack carries the torch around the track at the University of Chicago's Stagg Field during the Special Olympics opening ceremony in Chicago. Cusack, a Chicago-area man who helped inspire the Special Olympics movement and who won multiple medals at the athletic event over years, has died. He was 64. The Chicago Tribune reported Monday, Dec. 21, 2020, that Cusack, who had Down syndrome, died at Good Shepherd Manor in Momence on Dec. 17 of natural causes associated with Alzheimer’s. (Charles Cherney/Chicago Tribune via AP, File)

Chicago-area man who helped inspire Special Olympics dies

Dec. 21, 2020 6:36 PM EST

CHICAGO (AP) — Michael “Moose” Cusack, a Chicago-area man who helped inspire the Special Olympics movement and who won multiple medals at the athletic event over years, has died. He was 64. The Chicago Tribune reported Monday that Cusack, who had Down syndrome, died at Good Shepherd Manor in...

FILE - in this July 28, 2009, file photo, Norm Bellingham, an Olympic gold medalist in kayaking and chief operating officer of the USOC, speaks during a news conference in Oklahoma City. Gold medalist and former Olympic executive Bellingham and Olympian Eli Bremer have been named to a congressional committee to study possible reforms in America’s Olympic system. (AP Photo/File)

Olympian Bellingham recommended for congressional panel

Dec. 19, 2020 9:09 AM EST

Gold medalist and former Olympic executive Norm Bellingham and Olympian Eli Bremer have been recommended for a congressional committee to study possible reforms in America's Olympic system. Also chosen for the panel by Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado, were athlete agent Peter Carlisle and former Defense Department...

Manuel Mendoza hitches a ride in his wheelchair by grabbing on to the back of a motorcycle in the La Paz neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Nov. 9, 2020. Moving from one point to another usually takes hours due to the lack of public transportation available for our condition. The Caracas subway is not an option.

Crisis-torn Venezuela a challenge for those in wheelchairs

Dec. 11, 2020 12:23 PM EST

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Working, studying or even leaving one’s home can be a challenge for someone in a wheelchair in Venezuela, where a once-lauded law defending their rights and requiring that buildings be adapted for their use has never been applied. Such daily difficulties do not daunt Manuel...

Latest Disability sports News