In: Sports Olympics

The International Olympic Committee announced Wednesday that it has suspended North Korea’s National Olympic Committee through the end of 2022 after it chose not to participate in this summer’s Tokyo Olympics.

The IOC executive board’s decision bans a North Korean delegation from entering the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, which begins in less than five months. The suspension also excludes the NOC from receiving financial or programmatic support from the IOC for the next 15-plus months.

North Korea, formally known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, was the only one of 206 National Olympic Committees to withdraw from Tokyo. The

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In: Sports Academy

SEOUL — The students ate lunch in silence before gathering in a dimly lit room packed with high-powered computers. There, coaches helped them learn to outmaneuver opponents in a digital fantasy world fraught with ambushes and monsters. School was over by 5 p.m., but individual practice continued well into the night — all in a hard day’s work for the students at one of South Korea’s many e-sports academies.

“I sleep only three or four hours a day,” said Kim Min-soo, 17, a student who wore a brace around his right hand to lessen the pain from so much gaming.

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In: Sports Olympics

TOKYO — The July 23 opening ceremony of the delayed Tokyo Olympics is drawing nearer, but there is still much to be decided before the world’s biggest sporting event can go ahead.

The International Olympic Committee is insistent that the Games take place as planned, and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga says the authorities will do their utmost to ensure a “safe and secure” event. But Tokyo is still under a state of emergency, polls show much of the Japanese public is opposed to holding them this year, and COVID-19 cases are rising again in countries across Asia and elsewhere.

Here

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