Team USA makes a bold statement in solidarity with its athletes looking to respectfully make their own statements on social equality and justice. Your move, Thomas Bach.

Naomi Osaka is Vogue's covergirl for January, and reflects on 2020 and her increased profile.

Karateka Maria Dimitrova wins a high honor in the Dominican Republic.

Wrestling is back! The 2020 Individual World Cup is underway in Belgrade with competition across 30 weight categories and all three disciples, in an event replacing this year's world championships. Russia has started off well...

​Star skier Mikaela Shiffrin returned to winning ways after a long and tumultuous off-season, with a giant slalom win this weekend. It was her 67th career World Cup win, putting her joint-third on the all-time list.

Runner Alexi Pappas talks with The New York Times on the mental health challenges she's faced as a competitor on and off the track.

​World Athletics Indoor Championships: wouldn't it be simpler to just move them to 2024 to get on the even-year track again?

Pole vaulter Kurtis Marschall talks confidence from early success and his recovery from humbling injury with Spikes. 

Track and Field News features Christina Clemons, still intent on chasing global hurdling success.

Hurdler Thomas Barr is making known his desire for a strong Olympic return with a focus on the right mindset and training during the pandemic.

Canadian speed skating star Ivanie Blondin looks for icy pastures overseas to find available training.

London 2012 Olympians and football star Juan Mata talks with Laureus on the current state of football and its impact in the near future.

British gymnast Dominic Cunningham is making worldwide news for his basketball trick shot.

Getting to Know Trampoline Gymnastics vlog gets to know Beijing 2008 medalist Jason Burnett.
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Meanwhile, as part of the Rainbow Laces campaign in the U.K. highlighting LGBT presence in sports, legend​ footballer Jamie Carragher meets up with Luke Strong and gets his own lesson in trampolining.

Former U.S. skier Hig Roberts becomes the "first male World Cup alpine skier in the world to publicly come out as gay". 

Cody Simpson is a global pop star...and possibly an Olympic swimmmer?

Snowboard legend Pierre Vaultier announces his retirement, with knee pain preventing a return to competition. Vaultier is a two-time Olympic gold medalist in snowboard cross, and a multiple Crystal Globe and World Cup winner.

The general Paris 2024 program is set (bar a suspended offshore sailing decision and a TBD athletics event at the expense of race walkers). Frustration for established sports not able to add events that make sense - modern pentathlon mixed relay, table tennis doubles. And head scratching on the expected confirmation of breakdancing - er, breaking - a sport that, Youth Olympic Games 2018 inclusion aside (really, that's the sole go-to example), just hasn't had enough of a track record to prove worthy of Olympic inclusion. If I'm squash, I'm beyond devastated. And anyone else note the exclusion of baseball/softball. Really, sports and events need to be added with long term inclusion in mind. Those ball players must be so irritated, facing what is a lame duck inclusion at Tokyo 2020. How to develop a sport if there isn't a repeat appearance offered? My thoughts are summed up succinctly here.

Congrats to the World Athletics 2020 awards winners, including athletes of the year Mondo Duplantis and Yulimar Rojas!

Valencia: It must have been something in the water for long-distance runners in 2020...

Canadian Olympic ice hockey gold medalist Shannon Szarbados is now a children's book author.

U.S. swimming legends Donna de Varona and John Naber are elected onto the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee Board, representing athlete alumni.

Olympian Breanna Stewart named one of Sports Illustrated's Sportspersons of the Year...not without some deserved controversy, though.

The Sports Australia Hall of Fame inductee class for 2020 includes Olympians Lauren Jackson (basketball), Matthew Mitcham (diving), Bridgette Ireland (water polo), and Cadel Evans (mountain biking). Congrats, all!

Double Olympian and London 2012 gold medalist Katie Taylor named "best pound-for-pound professional women's boxer" in the world, according to Ring magazine to end the year.

Tokyo 2020: Canada has a bounty of riches in the women's -57kg class in judo, with the top two world-ranked judokas...and only one Tokyo 2020 spot.

Salt Lake City 2002 gold medalist Rhona Howie speaks up to support and protect endangered curling opportunities in home Scotland.

Turmoil within Australian field hockey? The women are currently ranked third in the world.

Munich 1972 gold medalist Dan Gable honored with the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom for his career's work in wrestling as an athlete and coach.

New Zealand veteran freestyle skier Byron Wells speaks with Team NZ on his career, and plans on the future on the heels of his retirement announcement.

Legend Kerri Lee Walsh joins Volleyball Ireland for an online Q&A to discuss her road to Tokyo, volleyball, and more.

Tomasso Dotti shares his thoughts on what has made the Italian short track team succcessful over the last few Games.

Did you know? Leonard Bernstein's Olympic Hymn was created for the 1981 Olympic Congress. The work's orchestration was by arranger Hershy Kay...whose birthday was today, November 17, in 1919. Olympic Hymn was the last work he completed.

Tokyo 2020 shares a feature on Georgia Taylor-Brown, top triathlete headed to her first Olympics after a successful 2020 season despite the pandemic.

Table Tennis' #RESTART series finished its mid-point in Weihai as China's Fan Zhendong wins his fourth World Cup title. This follows compatriot Chen Meng's first win in the women's competition.

​The NBA looks set to allow its stars to compete at Tokyo 2021. Take that, MLB and NHL.

More basketball: Team Argentina stalwart for men's basketball Luis Scola isn't ready to retire yet, according to The Olympic Channel.

The International Swimming League nears its second season conclusion with three world records in the semifinals: Adam Peaty's 100 meter breaststroke 55.49, Kira Toussaint's 50 meter backstroke 25.60, and Caeleb Dressel's massive 100 meter IM 49.88. Swimmers were  ready for 2020!

Via the AP, Venezuelan fencer Ruben Limardo reveals the financial effects that the Covid-19 pandemic has caused him as he looks to continue training.

Good news for Tokyo 2020 tennis as Dominic Thiem is on board, finally. It's been frustrating to watch / listen top players not give much value to Olympic competition. They all need to watch what it has meant to those who do compete to appreciate the unique opportunity it presents.

Rosie MacLennan gives thanks to her coach for her and Canada's trampolining success, and, at Tokyo 2021,  seeks to add to her two gold medals.

Elite international swimming is underway in 2020, with two match days completed of the International Swimming League's revamped season. Congrats to all the participants!

World champion sprinter Salwa Eid Naser is cleared of breaking doping testing rules. "This was a case very much on the borderline.". Of course, backlash ensues...

​13 positive Covid-19 tests on one swimming team!

Beach volleyball Olympian Martin Reader shares some mental strength tips along with breathing exercises via Pan Am Sports.

London 2012 Olympians Kellie Wells and Lavonne Idette debut as contestants on The Amazing Race.

​After gymnastics and figure skating, maybe it's artistic swimming's turn to look inward at abuse allegations and reports of misconduct.

Unfortunately: I bet if she were a man, she'd have the respect.

Nikola Karabatic: Will Team France be without its star handball player on the road to Tokyo?

More from The Olympic Channel: Flavia Saraiva is determined to medal for Brazil in Olympic gymnastics.

​Biathlon World breaks down the finales of the winning 2019/20 seasons for Dorothea Wierer and Johannes Tinges Boe in honor of the recent World Statistics Day.

Canadian bronze medalist Erin McLeod talks with FIFA.com on the importance of mindfulness and what she has been doing lately.

Badminton is a big sport in India; its stars movements are certainly scrutinized. Just ask PV Sindu.

Russia: Isn't it beyond time to get tough?

Australian rugby sevens star Chloe Dalton looks to inspire with a new podcast supporting women's sport.

The Irish Times looks at how Team Ireland is shaping up, with a prospect of a record-number of athletes qualifying for the next Games on the horizon.

Despite global outcry, Navid Afkari has been executed. A national-level wrestler in Iran, his case drew attention from the sporting community, including athletes, the International Olympic Committee (I.O.C.), Global Athlete, the World Players Association, and even the MMA, and beyond, as the murky circumstances of his trial and sentencing have all the earmarks of a sham trial and punishment-as-an-example.

Unfortunately, the world’s sports leaders’ opinions didn’t matter much. Accused of the murder of a security guard during protests against the government, Afkari’s alleged crime was not directly connected to his athletics or competition — although his sentencing was certainly due to his high national profile as an athlete.

Afkari’s death may hopefully serve a purpose in sport, as it now brings more attention to the broader complications of Iran on the global sports stage. The country has long made sports a platform for political expression, a provocation against the ideals of pure competition, outlined in places such as the Olympic Charter.

At the Athens 2004 Olympics, Iranian judoka Arash Miresmaeili no-showed for his first round 66-kilogram match and was promptly disqualified. For an athlete who was his nation’s flag-bearer at the Opening Ceremony, and already a two-time Asian Champion and two-time World Champion in that weight class, and maybe the favorite for the gold medal, such carelessness was surprising, at minimum.
Officially, Miresmaeili was reported as having failed a pre-match weigh-in. But surely something more nefarious than a reckless diet was afoot; his opponent in that first match was Ehud Vaks, an Israeli. Ahead of the competition, Miresmaeili lobbied a personal boycott of the tournament, in objection to Team Israel’s presence, and in support of Iran’s official antagonism against Israel. Had his official withdrawal been recorded as politically motivated — as he had threatened earlier — Iran’s judo federation would have faced discipline. Luckily for him, and for Team Iran, Games authorities and judo record books accepted his excuse and a deeper political scandal was avoided.

But this was surely at the expense of Team Israel’s dignity and a breach of the Olympic Charter, which prohibits politicization of competition and fair access. Most outrageously, Miresmaeili was congratulated back home and awarded the same governmental prize as gold medalists. He also was elected later as the president of Iran’s judo federation.

It was not the first time Israel has faced such protests on the athletic field. It wasn’t even the first in judo. In 2001, Hamed Malekmohammadi defaulted his match against Yoel Razvozov at the World Championships. And the list goes on — not just in judo, but swimming, taekwondo, fencing, badminton, and more. Other nationalities have been culprits as well, but Iranians far outpace others in these self-appointed boycotts.

Fast forward to 2019, when Iranian Saied Mollaei defected to Germany after not agreeing to withdraw from the Judo World Championships to avoid a potential matchup against Israeli Sagi Muki in the final. Other high-profile defections have occurred since as well.

Notably, Mollaei’s allegations of withdrawal pressure came after Iran reportedly agreed — directly to the International Judo Federation — to allow free competition against Israelis.

If that is true, a subsequent reassurance to the I.O.C. surely cannot be trusted by I.O.C. president Thomas Bach, can it? It would be convenient for Bach to believe it so. Chances are he’ll be tested on this in short order.

The refreshing chink in Iran’s boycott armor provided by Mollaei was buoyed by the subsequent indefinite suspension of Iran’s judo federation. (Note: the Iranians are appealing.)

Back to the present. As Afkari’s death shows, the Iranian government still does see sports figures as political pawns, and the temptation to do so again on the Olympic and world stage may be too much.

Currently, soccer World Cup organizers are under pressure to ensure Iran eases restrictions on women watching soccer live. This comes on the heels of Sahar Khodayari committing suicide after arrest when attempting to watch a men’s soccer match. Her crime? Just that — trying to watch a soccer game live. That this has prompted much belated scrutiny on upcoming World Cup qualifiers to be held in Iran is welcome.

Between backlash from Afkari’s and Khodayari’s deaths and the rising defections, perhaps momentum may be here to challenge Iranian status quo in abusing sports. Its sports must remain free of politicization, and the world’s sporting bodies must take advantage of this momentum. Organizations such as Global Athlete are trying to keep pressure on United World Wrestling and the I.O.C. following the Afkari tragedy, and the other groups must follow.

Iranian athletes excel internationally in judo, wrestling, weightlifting, volleyball, and more. They provide quality, passionate competition when allowed to do so. Its athletes should be free to compete and prove their mettle. They need the sporting community to hold Iran to the ideals of sport. As Joel Bouzou of the World Olympians Association says of athletes, “They possess the power to transcend sport to promote diversity, tolerance and positive values that make a difference everywhere.”
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Let’s hope the time is now.