House Speaker Mike Johnson on Saturday criticized the opening ceremonies of the Olympics for featuring a drag queen parody of Leonardo da Vinci’s rendition of the Last Supper.

“Last night’s mockery of the Last Supper was shocking and insulting to Christian people around the world who watched the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games,” Johnson wrote in a post on X.

The organizers of the Paris Olympics issued a brief apology on Sunday after coming under heavy criticism from religious groups and conservative politicians for including a bawdy scene in Friday night’s Opening Ceremony that resembled Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.” The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of France had decried it as a “mockery.”

“There was never an intention to show disrespect to a religious group,” a Paris 2024 spokeswoman said. “If people have taken any offense, we are, of course, really sorry.”

The organizers behind the Paris Olympics apologized to anyone who was offended by a tableau that evoked Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper" during Friday's opening ceremony and provoked outrage by religious conservatives around the world. The organizers, however, defended the concept behind it.

Women who say they were sexually assaulted by a disgraced US national gymnastics team doctor plan to sue the FBI for $1bn (£800m).

Claimants say the FBI mishandled credible complaints of sexual assaults by Larry Nassar.

They include Olympic gymnastics gold medallists Simone Biles, Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney.

Nassar is serving up to 175 years in prison for molesting gymnasts.

The agency's own watchdog found the FBI disregarded allegations about Nassar and made early errors in its investigation.

Following the news that the Women’s Tennis Association has suspended all WTA tournaments in China — including in Hong Kong — the International Olympics Committee (IOC) announced a second call with Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai held on Wednesday. 

Former U.S. Olympic swimmer Tara Kirk Sell was in Russia to compete in the World Cup swimming circuit in 2006 and remembers the Moscow crowd’s reaction when her name was announced just before she dove into the pool.

“It was dead silent,” Kirk Sell said.

Athletes taking part in the Tokyo Olympics this year are also likely to hear crickets when they compete because the Japanese organizers and the International Olympic Committee, concerned about containing the pandemic, are limiting the number of spectators to no more than 10,000 in the venues.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach agreed Tuesday to postpone the Olympics by about one year.

Abe put the suggestion to Bach, who agreed that the latest date the Olympics will be held is summer 2021.

It was also announced that the event will still be dubbed Tokyo 2020 Olympics despite the postponement.

The global spread of the coronavirus has forced the Tokyo Olympics to be postponed until next summer at the latest, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced Tuesday.

Abe said that he and the International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach came to an agreement to postpone the Games. The latest the event can take place is the summer of 2021.

Veteran International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound told USA TODAY Sports on Monday afternoon that the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games are going to be postponed amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“On the basis of the information the IOC has, postponement has been decided,” Pound said in a phone interview. “The parameters going forward have not been determined, but the games are not going to start on July 24, that much I know.”