SUMMER OLYMPICS

Ralph Boston, the Olympic long jump champion who broke Jesse Owens’ record, has died.

The new leader of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee has reiterated the federation’s support for exploring a way for Russian athletes to compete at the Paris Olympics as neutrals.

This weekend and next week will mark a slice of sports history in the United States, one that might be hard to fathom.

Changes are coming at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, sparked by frustration with years of flat revenue and what some portray as heavy-handed management in the wake of sex-abuse scandals that upended the movement in America.

Bottom of the ninth? Pressure. Two free throws to win the game? Pressure. Six-foot putt to win the U.S. Open? Pressure. But there's not pressure like that heaped on Olympic athletes, who carry the expectations of a nation and only get the chance to shrug it off every four years.

The first so-called modern Olympics were held in 1896 in Athens.

Tara Lipinski was a sprightly 15-year-old ballerina-on-ice when she won figure skating gold at the 1998 Nagano Olympics.

The Summer Olympics might be over, but these little kids were inspired by the athletes they saw on TV, and they're now ready to compete in future games.

In what was otherwise a rough two weeks in Tokyo for NBC Universal, viewers perked up a bit in the second week of the games when the U.S. team's performance did the same.

Here’s a breakdown of what certain countries pay athletes when they win a medal in the Summer Olympics, according to Forbes.

With the flame extinguished in Tokyo this past weekend, the torch for the Summer Olympics -- seeing as the Winter Games in Beijing are just six months away -- has been passed to Paris, the host of the 2024 Summer Games.

Baseball's traditional powers — Japan, the United States and the Dominican Republic — took the medals as the sport made a dramatic return to the Olympic program.

Japan secured Olympic baseball gold 11 days after winning the gold medal in softball on the same field in Yokohama.

Olympians themselves are absolutely impressive. Then, throw in the athletes who have medaled more than once. That’s certainly something to write home about.

The United States hasn’t hosted any Olympic Games since 2002, when Salt Lake City welcomed the world to the Winter Olympics, but man, there have certainly been some cities that have tried.

She had the long and colorful nails. She wore the flashy outfits, including a neon, one-legged spandex bodysuit. Above all, she had the iconic nickname “Flo-Jo,” which just sounded fast.

A third country has joined the medal table for the very first time at the 2020 Tokyo Games.

It will nearly impossible for Pita Taufatofua to outlast his original claim to fame as “the shirtless flag bearer,” which made him a legend on social media.

For anyone who’s waiting until the Games air in primetime Thursday night: Caution ahead! This article contains spoilers.

The Tokyo Olympics are still just getting started, but there already have been a good collection of stories that have pulled at the heartstrings of millions around the world.

Simone Biles came to Tokyo as the star of the U.S. Olympic movement and perhaps the Games themselves.

It was the portion of the Opening Ceremony that many were talking about, and no, it wasn’t the lighting of the torch.

BLOG: KPRC 2′s team in Tokyo brings you their experiences at the Games

Ja'Quan Lavender is a track star from Ohio that recently moved to Houston during the Summer of 2020. Lavender is originally from Steubenville, Ohio. and graduated from Tiffin University in Tiffin, Ohio. He was currently training for the 2020 Summer Olympics, but unfortunately, did not qualify for the 400 meter dash this year. So now, his focus is to prepare for the 2022 World Championships and 2024 Summer Olympics.

Tens of thousands of visiting athletes, officials and media are descending on Japan for a Summer Olympics unlike any other.

The largest of the Navajo Nation casinos is preparing to reopen for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began.

When the pandemic hit last March leading to a one year postponement of the Olympics and the inability of teams to practice and play together, the U.S. women’s volleyball team devised a plan.

The past two Olympics in indoor volleyball have shown that slow starts are far from detrimental.

Last week, the field of 60 who will compete in the men’s golf competition at the upcoming Tokyo Olympics was announced, and it will be a decorated field with six of the top-10 golfers in the world rankings included.

We lost a lot last summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and one of those things was the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Can you believe that one month from today, the Olympic flame will officially be lit to start the Tokyo Olympics?

Kevin Durant and Devin Booker are reportedly expected to head to the Tokyo Olympics.

When you think of the Summer Olympics, do you think of swimming? Gymnastics? Basketball? Track and field?

It's sinking in that Japan's scramble to catch up on a frustratingly slow vaccination drive less than two months before the Summer Olympics start may be too little, too late.

It’s no secret that the United States is the most decorated country when it comes to winning medals at the Summer Olympics, with the red, white and blue taking home more than 2,600 medals, the most of any country.

The State Department says the Biden administration is consulting with allies about a joint approach to China and its human rights record, including how to handle the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics.

The title of the most-decorated athlete ever belongs to United States swimmer Michael Phelps, who won 28 medals competing in five different Summer Olympics from 2000 to 2016. But there are so many highly decorated female Olympians, too.

Seiko Hashimoto, president of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Organizing Committee, speaks during a press conference following the Tokyo 2020 Executive Board meeting in Tokyo Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021. The 56-year-old Hashimoto was named president of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee after a meeting of its executive board, which is 80% male. She also held a portfolio dealing with gender equality and women’s empowerment. "I think it will be important for Tokyo 2020 to practice equality.”International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said Hashimoto was “the perfect choice” for the job. AdKotani is the sports director for the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee.

A medical worker receives a dose of COVID-19 vaccine Tokyo Medical Center in Tokyo Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021. Japan's first coronavirus shots were given to health workers Wednesday, beginning a vaccination campaign considered crucial to holding the already delayed Tokyo Olympics. Medical workers say vaccinations will help protect them and their families, and business leaders hope the drive will allow economic activity to return to normal. The first batch of Pfizer vaccines that arrived Friday is enough to cover the first group of medical workers. AdAfter the front-line medical workers will come inoculations of 3.7 million more health workers starting in March, followed by about 36 million people aged 65 and older beginning in April.

Bach said during this week's trip to Tokyo that he is encouraging all Olympic participants and fans to be vaccinated - if one becomes available - if they are going to attend next year's Tokyo Olympics. The Tokyo Olympics were postponed eight months ago, and now are to open in eight months: July 23, 2021. Hanging in the balance are 11,000 Olympic athletes and 4,400 Paralympians. Tokyo said the Olympics would cost $7.3 billion when it was awarded the games in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2013. Bach was asked this week in Tokyo about reported payments of $8 million made by the Tokyo bid committee to Haruyuki Takahashi.

TOKYO – The IOC and Tokyo Olympic organizers have been shouting the message for months now, that despite the continuing pandemic, the Games will open on July 23, 2021. Bach was also asked last week whether he was going to Tokyo to talk about contingencies for canceling the Olympics. Bach is travelling on a private charter and will meet new Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Monday morning. An hour later he’s with Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, and then holds a media conference with Tokyo organizing committee President Yoshiro Mori, another former prime minister. The IOC president has has called Tokyo the best prepared Olympics in history, a point he's likely to repeat.

TOKYO – Fans living in Japan who bought tickets for the postponed Tokyo Olympics have been guaranteed refunds, the local organizing committee said Friday. The IOC and Tokyo organizers are running several task forces looking at ways to handle immigration and COVID-19. He’s also organized a popular Facebook page that’s a go-to for Tokyo ticket information. Tokyo organizers have budgeted $800 million in income from ticket sales in Japan and aboard, their third largest source of income. Organizers say 4.48 million Olympic tickets have been sold in Japan, with 970,000 tickets for the Paralympics.

FILE - In this Feb. 18, 2020, file photo, United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee CEO Sarah Hirshland listens as President Donald Trump speaks during a briefing with the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Los Angeles 2028 organizers in Beverly Hills, Calif. Even before the coronavirus pandemic wiped the Summer Olympics off the 2020 sports calendar, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee was an organization in peril. “Last year I talked about evolution and ‘Jurassic Park,’” chair Susanne Lyons said, in a nod to the changes the USOPC had embarked upon, pre-COVID. College sports teams supplied the U.S. with about 75% of its roster at the 2016 Summer Games. The Summer Olympics are nine months away, with a Winter Games set for February 2022, and the Los Angeles Games — the first Summer Games in America in a generation — scheduled for 2028.

TOKYO – Tokyo Olympic organizers estimate they have found cost-savings of about $280 million by simplifying and cutting some frills from next year’s postponed games. The savings represent about 2% of the official Tokyo Olympic budget of $12.6 billion. Gakuji Ito, the chief financial officer of the Tokyo Olympics, acknowledged the cost-savings figure was only an estimate. Most of the bills for the Tokyo Olympics and the postponement fall on Japanese taxpayers. About $5.6 billion in the Tokyo Olympic budget is private money, and about $1.3 billion of that comes from the IOC.

TOKYO – The IOC and local organizers are trying to “simplify” the postponed Tokyo Olympics, promising to save money in what one study says is already the most expensive Summer Olympics on record. Organizers and the IOC say they had already slashed several billion dollars in costs before the Olympics were postponed six months ago because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tokyo and the IOC have not offered an estimate of the savings, but estimates in Japan put them at 1-2% of official spending of $12.6 billion. The document handed out last month by organizers showed them considering “measures to increase” donations to make up for lost income. To keep sponsors on board, the IOC and local organizers have talked confidently in the last several months about the Olympics opening as planned on July 23, 2021.

FILE - In this July 19, 1996, file photo, American swimmer Janet Evans passes the Olympic flame to Muhammad Ali during the 1996 Summer Olympic Games Opening Ceremony in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File)ATLANTA EDITORS With the Tokyo Olympics postponed for a year because of the coronavirus pandemic, The Associated Press is looking back at the history of Summer Games. Here are some of the highlights of the 1996 Atlanta Games, where Muhammad Ali provided the greatest moment before the competition even began. ___Less than 24 hours before the opening ceremony of the Atlanta Olympics, at a secretive midnight practice run, Janet Evans finally got the word. As the last host city to rely mainly on private funding, Atlanta faced griping that its commercial backers made the event look more like a tacky county fair than the Summer Olympics.

NBC which has the U.S. media rights through the 2032 Summer Games had already done most of its features and taped promos before the International Olympic Committee postponed the Games in March. Other issues include how many people NBC will send to Tokyo. ABC aired 63 hours from the Sarajevo Winter Games and 180 from the Los Angeles Summer Games, which were both records at the time. NBC's coverage from Tokyo will be over 7,000 hours and the 2022 Beijing Winter Games an additional 2,500. While ABC used only one channel for its coverage, NBC will again air across many channels along with online streaming.

This image provided by the Library of Congress, shows the athletics field at the 1904 Olympic games in St. Louis. The St. Louis Games were the first at which gold medals were awarded to winners, and they remain the only medals made entirely of gold. The first Olympic Games in the New World would produce a profound and permanent result," author and historian Carl Posy wrote years later, shaping every Olympic Games to come." GO FOR GOLDThe St. Louis Games were the first at which gold medals were awarded to winners, and they remain the only medals made entirely of gold. The outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War and the challenge in getting to St. Louis prevented many of the best European athletes from competing.

This July 17, 2020 photo provided by the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum shows the U.S. Olympic Museum in Colorado Springs, Colo. The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum announced Monday, July 20, 2020 that it will open July 30. It will have a first-of-its-kind tribute to the 1980 Olympic team, which was forced to miss the Moscow Games because of a boycott. Olympic & Paralympic Museum via AP)A 60,000-square foot museum that will include a first-of-its-kind tribute to the 1980 U.S. Olympic team is scheduled to open July 30 in Colorado Springs after a three-year construction project. The project was conceived in 2012, as Olympic leaders looked to establish the first full-fledged Olympic museum in the United States.