75º

INSIDER

MICHAEL PHELPS

Welcome 2021: The year of the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics

Ever since the Olympics were postponed nine months ago, local organizers and the IOC have been biding their time. Ever since the Olympics were postponed nine months ago, local organizers and the IOC have been biding their time. The International Olympic Committee and Tokyo organizers will have to start getting specific in the next few months. “The fact that you're going to put 10,000-plus athletes, plus all the volunteers, plus all the coaches, plus, plus, plus, plus plus. There is just too much unknown.”Q: Despite the uncertainties, what do we firmly know about staging the Tokyo Olympics?

Swimmer Ryan Lochte miffed at his times in return to racing

“This is probably going to go down as my worst meet that I’ve ever had,” he said by phone from Sarasota, Florida. Lochte figures he’s competed in just seven meets since 2016. Lochte said he’s still in touch with Phelps, who retired after Rio and has three boys of his own now. Lochte looks around the pool deck at his young competitors and admits not knowing their names and who is the fastest. It’s still fun.”Lochte still has his supporters, whether it’s his fans who know he’s always willing to accommodate their requests or those in the sport.

'Empire' star Taraji P. Henson hailed for mental health work

“Empire” star Taraji P. Henson has enjoyed wealth, celebrity, a Golden Globe win and an Academy Award nomination. “It’s OK to not be OK," Henson, the latest recipient of the Morton E. Ruderman Award in Inclusion, told The Associated Press via email. In 2018, the Washington, D.C., native started the Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation to stop those with mental illness from being stigmatized — especially Blacks, who she says are less likely to seek treatment. This year, with the coronavirus pandemic complicating people's mental health struggles, Henson's foundation has been helping African Americans — who've been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 — access free online therapy. “We need more people like Taraji to continue to eliminate the stigma around mental health across all our communities in America.”___Follow AP New England editor Bill Kole on Twitter at http://twitter.com/billkole.

Olympics return to antiquity at the 2004 Athens Games

FILE - In this Aug. 13, 2004, file photo, the Olympic Rings are shown in flames in a pool of water during the Opening Ceremony of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File)When the Olympics returned to Athens in 2004, they also returned to antiquity. They finished in central Athens at the Panathenian Stadium, the marble venue used for the opening and closing ceremonies of the inaugural 1896 Games. Irina Korzhanenko of Russia became the first woman to win a gold medal at the ancient site that birthed the Olympics. The gold medal instead went to Argentina, a team led by Manu Ginobili.

Bird's Nest and Water Cube: Beijing venues were stars, too

That was true in Beijing in 2008, and the stars were Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt. But Beijing is also storied for its signature venues like the Bird's Nest stadium, and the Water Cube swimming venue. Here are some of the highlights of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. That was true in Beijing in 2008, when the stars were Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt. But Beijing is also storied for its signature venues like the the 91,000-seat Bird's Nest stadium, and the nearby swimming venue called the Water Cube.No games before or since have impacted a city the way the Olympics did Beijing.

Cold War rivalries split the Olympics in Moscow in 1980

Here are some of the highlights of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. The Cold War made for decades of tense Olympic battles between the United States and the Soviet Union. Four years later, the Soviet Union boycotted the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles as retaliation. The Soviet war in Afghanistan rumbled on through the 1980 Olympics. Barely a decade later, the Soviet Union would be a thing of the past as it fractured into 15 newly independent countries.