Tokyo 2020

NBC’s Olympics coverage has long been built on a foundation of human-interest stories and showcasing their road to the Games.

Olympic silver medalist Andrew Capobianco went back to his home town in Long Island to visit an athletic center he once worked at. NBC New York’s Greg Cergol reports.

The 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games closed on Sunday, officially beginning the countdown to the 2022 Beijing Olympics. With less than six months before the next games begin, the Winter Olympics are set to start on Feb. 4, 2022.

Between marathon swimming and artistic swimming, even the athletes themselves call the events by different names

In the darkest days of the pandemic, Evita Griskenas was stuck practicing in her parents’ Illinois basement, occasionally breaking lightbulbs as she tossed clubs and hoops through the air and cartwheeled to catch them. A song she had never heard started playing. Griskenas, a rhythmic gymnast, doesn’t so much hear music as she sees it: melodies become hoops spinning across the...

Weeks after encouraging his supporters to boo the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team at the Tokyo Olympics, Donald Trump now says “Leftist Maniacs” cost the team a gold medal — in the process falsely repeating a debunked allegation about their behavior during the Games. “If our soccer team, headed by a radical group of Leftist Maniacs, wasn’t woke, they would...

Wake up. Take a coronavirus test. Go to an empty arena. Practice or play a game. Return to the hotel. FaceTime family and friends who they’ve been separated from for weeks. Watch other games on television. Sleep. Such is the typical itinerary for basketball players at the Tokyo Olympics. For those who were in the NBA and WNBA bubbles...

Simone Biles is taking a break. Maybe a permanent one. Sunisa Lee, Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles and Grace McCallum are all basically sprinting to college. MyKayla Skinner is ready to start a family. The six American women who are bringing home six medals from the Tokyo Olympics may never compete internationally again. Biles is heading home to Texas to focus…

Weightlifters are among the most vocal athletes at the Olympics, letting out screams as they lock out at the top of a lift: “ahhhhhh!” Tennis players have long been known to be grunters, usually with some form of “ha-uh!” or “ha-ooah!” The loudest vocalizations of the Tokyo Games may come from the grounds in one of the Olympic program’s...

The history of karate’s journey to the Olympics would make a pretty good backstory for a martial arts movie. Generations of determined athletes have collectively spent half a century training, studying and working toward their goal, overcoming setbacks and patiently honing their martial art for the big moment. This epic quest finally ends Thursday when some of the brightest...

U.S. women’s basketball advanced to the semifinals with its win over Australia. The win marks the team’s 53rd straight win, putting the U.S. two victories away from a seventh straight gold medal.

Triple jumper Ana Peleteiro and gymnast Ray Zapata came out defending their Spanish roots after winning medals for their country at the Tokyo Olympics, with Peleteiro saying “a lot of people” back home were probably upset that two Black athletes succeeded. Bronze medalist Peleteiro and silver medalist Zapata said they should be celebrated for succeeding while representing the country at…

There is definitely a UConn flavor to the women’s basketball being played in the Tokyo Games. The school that has dominated women’s college hoops for the past two decades has branched out internationally with former players not only representing the U.S. but France and Canada as well. It’s not a coincidence. UConn coach Geno Auriemma has been recruiting more...

Usain Bolt hasn’t yet reached out to congratulate the man who succeeded him as Olympic 100-meter champion. Not on Twitter. Not on Instagram. Not by personal message. Not through an intermediary. “I know he received some messages from other Olympic champions welcoming him to the club, so to speak,” Paolo Camossi, the personal coach of the surprise gold medalist from Italy,...

For Brazilian volleyball player Lucas Saatkamp, the decision to wear a mask at the Tokyo Olympics is about protecting his family and not sending a message. With a 5-year-old son back home in Brazil who needs to use an inhaler because of respiratory issues, the last thing the player known as Luçao wants to do is endanger his son,...

After sport climbing made its Olympic debut on Tuesday, American climbers Colin Duffy and Nathaniel Coleman will compete for the first-ever Olympic gold medal in the sport on Thursday.

19-year-old Athing Mu took home gold in the women’s 800m at the Tokyo Olympics. U.S. teammate Raevyn rogers won bronze.

After withdrawing from the team all-around and four individual events after a case of the ‘twisties,’ a vertigo-like condition that makes gymnastics exceptionally dangerous, Simone Biles returned to compete in the final event of the Tokyo Olympics, winning bronze.

Two 18-year-old Namibian runners threw track and field’s contentious testosterone issue back into the Olympic spotlight Monday when they blazed into the women’s 200-meter final in Tokyo just weeks after being barred from the 400-meter race. One of them, Christine Mboma, broke the world under-20 record twice in the span of about eight hours at the Olympic Stadium on...

Transgender weightlifter Laurel Hubbard finally got to compete at the Tokyo Olympics. It didn’t last long, but it was significant. Hubbard couldn’t complete any of her first three lifts on Monday night, ruling her out of medal contention in the women’s over-87-kilogram division that ultimately was won by China’s Li Wenwen. Hubbard made a heart gesture to the audience...