KOHEI UCHIMURA

China’s Hu Xuwei upstaged Tokyo Olympic champion Daiki Hashimoto of Japan to win the horizontal bar gold medal on the final day of the 50th artistic gymnastics world championships.

Russia is back on top in men's Olympic gymnastics.

Hardly half a day passed before politics, the pandemic and blistering heat impacted events across the Tokyo Olympics.

The International Surfing Association has confirmed a last-minute alternate: Carlos Munoz, who will surf for Costa Rica as the sport makes its Olympic debut. Munoz replaces Frederico Morais of Portugal, who announced Friday that he had tested positive for COVID-19 and would not travel to Japan while he quarantines at home. Munoz’s confirmation comes at the very last minute possible, as the association had set the 3 p.m. Saturday Tokyo time as the deadline for alternates to be approved.

American star Simone Biles is ready for her Olympic encore.

(AP Photo/Stephen Wade)TOKYO – Three-time Olympic champion gymnast Kohei Uchimura wants the postponed Tokyo Olympics to happen next year. “Unfortunately, 80% of the Japanese don’t believe that the Tokyo Olympics can take place as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Uchimura said after a one-day exhibition gymnastics meet last weekend. Organizers say they can hold the Games, vaccine or no vaccine. Incoming travel has been mostly halted, but it's sure to change for Olympic athletes and staff. Olympic finances say the Games must go on — particularly on television, which pays most of the bills.

Audience members cheer for Wataru Tanigawa of Japan as he competes in the rings during an international gymnastics meet in Tokyo on Sunday, Nov. 8, 2020. The non-Japanese entered after a 14-day quarantine at home and were largely kept penned up in their Tokyo hotel in strict isolation. The event is the latest — a Japanese baseball stadium was filled to capacity last week — intended to show that the postponed Tokyo Olympics can open in just under nine months. Fans entering the stadium, which was the venue for swimming in the '64 Olympics, had temperatures taken and hands sanitized. Japan is officially spending $12.6 billion to organize the Olympics, although a government audit last year said it was twice that much.

What’s important is for Japanese government and Olympic officials to show that foreign athletes can enter the country safely and not spread COVID-19. This is another step in attempting to illustrate that Tokyo will be able to hold next year’s Olympics — even without a vaccine — in the midst of a pandemic. “I have no worries with the venue and there are no restrictions inside of the gym. They will involve 15,400 Olympic and Paralympic athletes and thousands of staff, judges, officials, media and broadcasters. Two-time defending Olympic champion Kohei Uchimura of Japan, who reported a positive test last week for COVID-19, subsequently tested negative several times.

FILE - In this Aug. 31, 2020, file photo, a staff gestures at Japan Olympic Museum where a lantern containing the Olympic Flame shown prior to public display, in Tokyo. The postponed Tokyo Olympics are to open in just under nine months, and there are still far more questions than answers. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)TOKYO – The postponed Tokyo Olympics are to open in just under nine months, and there are still far more questions than answers. The experiments will be passed on to Tokyo Olympic officials. The organizers say the official cost is $12.6 billion although a government audit last year said it's twice that much.