Category Archives: Olympics

by Dave Johnson and Leslie McCullough | March 23, 2022

The following story originally appeared in the winter 2022 issue of the W&M Alumni Magazine. - Ed.

From her days as vice president of Major League Soccer to her current role as chief executive officer of LA28 the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles Kathy Carter 91 has been all about leadership.

Looking back, she got a crash course on that subject in her first year on the womens soccer team at William & Mary.

Her coach was John Daly, who would win 413 games in 31 seasons. Two of her teammates were seniors Jill Ellis 88, L.H.D. 16, who coached the United States to two World Cup championships, and Julie Shackford 88, now in her fourth season as the Tribes head coach. Carter saw little playing time that season. But she paid attention to the way the seniors encouraged younger players to keep up with their schoolwork.

How do you help somebody who was coming in behind you? That is an invaluable lesson of leadership, she says.

Carter also drew inspiration from Mark McCormack 51, L.H.D. 97.

When I was a senior, Mark, who was one of the originators of the sports marketing industry, cameback to William & Mary and spoke to a lot of the student athletes, she says. Coming out of that, everybody said, Boy, wouldnt it be great? This is exactly what I want to do, to go into sports.

Carter, who earned her B.A. in political science and government, will be using what she learned to the fullest over the next seven years. In September, Carter was promoted from chief revenue officer to CEO of LA28. It will be the first time the Olympics have been in the U.S. since 1996 and in Los Angeles since 1984.

Seven years might seem like a long way off, but Carter and her group are already busy.

There are probably three phases to the journey, she says. The first was for us to really establish how we pay for it. Whats the revenue look like? The second is starting to put the foundational elements of the organization in place, because were essentially a startup thatll grow to be tens of thousands of people and then well go out of business.

Then well move into the third phase, which is execution, and that wont happen until about 2024. So weve got a few years to make sure weve got the foundation of the organization in place.

Carters first job out of college was as a consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton in Bethesda, Maryland. In 1993, she joined World Cup Marketing to help organize the 1994 World Cup in the U.S. That started her on a path to a career in athletics.

She spent the majority of her career in soccer and was one of Major League Soccers founders. After the joint venture between LA28 and the U.S. Olympic Committee won the right to host the 2028 games in LA, she signed on as their chief revenue officer.

Carter also makes it clear that 30 years after graduation, she still loves her alma mater. She is strongly behind the All In campaign for W&M Athletics, which aims to build community, raise $55 million and increase annual giving.

To me, its non-negotiable to pay it forward and to help future leaders, she says. Part of that is contributing back to the university and certainly to W&M Athletics. That helps us create future leaders for our country and across the globe. Theres no better way to do that than through athletics.

Sports were always a big part of Carters life. She grew up in Northern Virginia, the same area as Ellis and Shackford. Together, the three of them worked a soccer camp run by Ellis father. She believes theseexperiences and her time at W&M set the foundation for her success.

If we look at the history and the statistics today, a disproportionate number of women who are in the C-Suite played collegiate athletics or were athletes through their childhood, says Carter. Theres no doubt that what you learn and the commitment you have to make to be a Division I collegiate athlete has an undeniable impact on future leaders.

She loves coming back to campus and being part of the W&M family. Every time she returns to Williamsburg, she enjoys reconnecting with all the great things she remembers from her time at W&M.

I made my lifelong friends at W&M. There is something very special about the experience as students, as athletes and as people, and I think the college does a great job of fostering that. It is sort of a special sauce. There is an experience that people come away with that is a foundational element of who they become.

In my recent trips to W&M, its been remarkable to see the investment in the facilities. And Id say to all alumni, get in the game and help continue that trajectory forward! William & Mary is a beautiful place and something we need to continue to make even better for the next generation.

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Kathy Carter '91 is bringing the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games to Los Angeles - William & Mary News

Kamila Valieva with coach Eteri Tutberidze during the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Xavier Laine / Getty Images

One peculiarity of the figure skating competition calendar is that during an Olympic year, the world championships are contested about a month after the Games. This world championship often has the feeling of an afterthought, coming on the heels of a once-every-four-years mega global sporting event.

The bigger names in figure skating tend to sit this one out. Sui Wenjing and Han Cong, the Chinese duo who won the 2022 gold medal in pairs, are not slated to compete. Yuzuru Hanyu, the 2014 and 2018 Olympic champion from Japan who placed fourth in Beijing, will also skip the world championship due to a sprained ankle he sustained during practice in China. And on Wednesday, 2022 Olympic mens gold medalist Nathan Chen of the U.S. announced he was withdrawing from the event due to a nagging injury. These kinds of withdrawals and absences are par for the course for a post-Olympics figure skating world championships.

But with the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent exclusion of Russian athletes by most international sports federations at the behest of the International Olympic Committee, the most notable absences in Montpellier will be the Russian skaters, making the field in France look very different from the one that just competed in Beijing. Not only will Sui and Han and Peng Cheng and Chin Yang the first- and fifth-place Olympic pairs finishers, respectively not be competing, but neither will the Russian pairs who placed second, third and fourth. With the top five finishers in Beijing out, the American pair of Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier, who placed sixth in Beijing, will enter the world championships as the highest-ranked team. The ice dance field will lose the Olympic silver medalists and sixth- and 14th-place finishers. The mens field will be affected the least by the ban, as only the eighth-, 15th- and 19th-place finishers in the Olympics were from Russia.

But Russias absence will be most keenly felt in the womens competition. Gone are defending world and Olympic champion Anna Shcherbakova, Beijing silver medalist (and defending world bronze medalist) Alexandra Trusova and Olympic fourth-place finisher Kamila Valieva, who had entered the Olympics as the overwhelming favorite to win the womens gold medal before a positive doping test result from December derailed her competition. That set into motion one of the most devastating spectacles ever seen in the womens event at the Olympics: the 15-year-old Valieva sobbing after her botched long program and berating by her coach, Eteri Tutberidze, who had been accused of using abusive coaching tactics; Trusova, also sobbing, shouting angrily that she wouldnt go up to the podium; and Shcherbakova, the winner, sitting alone, practically catatonic, with an expression that looked more like someone just died than I just won the Olympics. Though Shcherbakova appeared to be happier with her win a bit later, itll be hard to forget the image of her sitting alone on the couch, clutching a stuffed bear, looking absolutely forlorn at the moment of her greatest athletic triumph. Its unlikely we will see the Olympics replay these incidents ad nauseam in highlight reels.

The absence of the Russians at these world championships could have an impact not just on this particular competition but on the next four years of figure skating. Despite this event having been something of an afterthought historically, outcomes will determine the number of slots allotted for the next world championships and invitations for the next Grand Prix season. If Russian athletes are allowed to compete next year at international events, they will be limited to one entrant per skating discipline, down from three in each of the four skating events. They will have to climb their way back to complete rosters by the time the Olympics roll around. If the Russian athletes are banned for more than just this season, it will make the challenge of showing up at the 2026 Winter Games with the maximum number of entrants that much more difficult. And over the coming years, skaters from other countries will enjoy increased competitive opportunities and exposure.

The impact of the ban extends beyond athlete allotments in major events. In June, the International Skating Union will be hosting its congress, which will hear a proposal from the Norwegian federation that would raise the minimum age for senior skaters from 15 to 17. This particular measure would have faced fierce resistance from the Russians. In recent years, they have become known for sending very young skaters capable of extreme athletic feats to major competitions, including the world championships and the Olympics, where they have dominated the podium. Over the past few years, the young Russians have brought the quad jump to womens figure skating, a huge technical leap forward for the sport but one that is not without significant downsides, including serious injuries that have forced skaters into early retirement. Our main reason is to prevent the athletes from retiring after only a few years at senior level and to make it possible for more skaters to continue skating longer, Mona Adolfsen, the Norwegian federation president, told journalist Philip Hersh in an email.

Valievas positive doping test focused a new spotlight on the age-minimum discussion. The World Anti-Doping Agency has special rules for athletes under the age of 16, which means that an athlete who has been found guilty of a doping violation may get off with only a reprimand rather than a suspension. That would make using skaters under 16 highly advantageous to a federation such as Russias, which has a history of state-sponsored doping. And without the presence of the Russians or their Belarusian allies at the ISU congress, the measure is likely to pass without much resistance. Also, if Russia cannot be present at the June congress, it cant put up candidates for election to open ISU positions, which is due to include the ISU presidency. In these ways, the consequences of banning Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials from international competition will far outlast the length of the bans themselves; its impact will be felt for years to come.

The limitations on opportunities for Russian skaters will potentially translate to more opportunities for skaters from other countries. For starters, the top of the womens podium, which Russia has had a virtual stranglehold on since 2014 save for the post-Olympic worlds in 2018 will look completely different. Kaori Sakamoto, the bronze medalist in Beijing, is looking like the favorite to win in Montpellier. Her teammate, Wakaba Higuchi who landed a triple axel in her short and long programs at the Olympics, the first to pull off this feat since Mao Asada in 2014 is also in contention for a medal. Skaters like Young You and Loena Hendrickx could be viable podium candidates, too. Even the Americans have an outside shot with 16-year-old Alysa Liu, who placed seventh in Beijing with clean performances, though judges downgraded her triple axel attempt in the long program. The last time the U.S. women seemed to have such a good opportunity to earn a medal was in 2016. Also, the slots for next years world championships, which would likely have been scooped up by Russian skaters, will now be allotted to others. This means that over the coming years, skaters from countries besides Russia will enjoy greater competitive opportunities and exposure.

Some figure skating fans, particularly the Russian ones, will view the results of a world championship without Russian athletes as illegitimate, the same way gymnastics fans tend to mentally insert an asterisk when discussing the womens results of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, games which the USSR and most of its allies boycotted in response to the U.S.-led boycott of the Moscow Olympics in 1980. Mary Lou Retton is in the history books for having narrowly won the all-around over Ecaterina Szabo of Romania one of the few Communist countries to not join the boycott of the Los Angeles Games but its hard to consider the American gymnast the best in the world at that time given the strength of the Soviet and East German teams that didnt participate.

During the summer of 1984, the Soviets and their allies that joined the boycott gave the world a glimpse of what they were missing in Los Angeles by hosting an alternative Olympics called the Friendship Games. The gymnastics events were contested in Olomouc, in what was then Czechoslovakia. Soviet gymnast Olga Mostepanova scored a perfect 40 in the all-around competition a result that, even if partly attributable to scoring manipulation and inflation, lends credence to the idea that Retton probably wouldnt have won the all-around in a fully contested Olympics. (Mostepanovas performances in Olomouc were simply sublime.) Of the 65 nations that boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics, the gymnastics teams from the West were relatively weak, particularly on the womens side, so the results of those Games would likely be the same even if the West had participated (though the American women probably wouldve picked up a couple of individual medals).

In a similar vein, the Russians are currently hosting domestic skating competitions featuring their stars, including Valieva, whose participation at the world championships in Montpellier was unlikely even prior to the blanket ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes at international competitions. The dates of the Channel One Cup have been changed to coincide with the 2022 World Championships. But its doubtful that these domestic showings will have the same impact on gymnastics fans as the Olomouc competition did.

For many figure skating fans, however, the exclusion of Russian athletes from the world competition legitimizes, rather than delegitimizes, the event. The revelation that Valieva had tested positive for a banned substance validated the doping rumors that had been swirling around the Russian figure skating program for years, as many believe that she wasnt the only one who had used a banned substance but that she was simply the only one who had been caught. The 2022 World Championships without the Russians, then, offer an opportunity for a do-over of the womens event that many feel was tainted by the doping scandal in Beijing. And the prospect of a podium topped by the 21-year-old Sakamoto, who skated powerfully and maturely to a piece of music explicitly about womanhood, would seem an apt course-correction for the sport.

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Russias Figure Skating Ban Will Reverberate For Years To Come - FiveThirtyEight

Millions of moments were captured by photographers at the 2022 Winter Olympics: From sky-high aerial action and blink-and-youll-miss-it speed to raucous team celebrations and the solitary, still seconds in between.

But while women were responsible for many of the most memorable moments from the Beijing Games, most of their achievements as well as their disappointments were documented by men.

The Beijing Winter Games were technically the most gender equal in history, with women representing 45 percent of all athletes, but the media covering the Olympics were far less gender balanced. The International Olympic Committee helped highlight this disparity when the organization released the final number of validated media accreditations following the Closing Ceremony.

In Beijing, 9,388 individuals received media credentials. That total includes three categories: press organizations (1,952); rights-holding broadcasters (3,607); and host-broadcaster representatives (3,829).

The IOC released a gender breakdown for the first category, which includes print reporters and photographers. Of the 1,952 media members in Beijing, just 23 percent 443 individuals were women. Within that group, women photographers were the least represented, percentage-wise: Of the 603 photographers accredited at the Games, only 13 percent 80 individuals were women.

CATEGORY

FEMALE

MALE

TOTAL

FEMALE %

MALE %

E (Journalist)

290

801

1,091

27%

73%

EP (Photographer)

80

523

603

13%

87%

ET (Technician)

16

81

97

16%

84%

EC (MPC support staff)

6

13

19

32%

68%

ENR (Non-rights-holding broadcaster)

51

91

142

36%

64%

TOTAL

443

1,509

1,952

23%

77%

I think its jarring to see the numbers in print because my impression, honestly, when I was there is that the numbers were improving, said Getty Images photographer Maddie Meyer, whose resume includes four Olympic Games, 10 FIFA World Cups (women and men) and the Super Bowl.

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Meyer, a 2014 Ohio University grad and Boston resident, was stationed in Z-Zone in Beijing, formally known as the Zhangjiakou Zone, which hosted Nordic skiing events, as well as the bulk of freestyle skiing and snowboarding events. She was one of 11 Getty photographers in the zone, three of whom were women. Overall, Getty Images had 61 representatives in Beijing staff included photographers, editors, editorial operations, product and technology staff with 13 being women (21 percent).

[While] its not 50/50, I thought, Oh this is great, Ive got two girlfriends up here with me. This is awesome. But I did notice when, for example, I covered Shaun Whites last run and hanging out in the scrum near the mixed zone, looking around and I do notice, of course, women are still a minority there.

Shaun Whites reaction following his fourth-place finish in the mens snowboard halfpipe competition is among Getty Images photographer Maddie Meyers favorites from Beijing. (Photo by Maddie Meyers/Getty Images)

At major sporting events in the U.S., Meyer said she can easily see female photographers are still the minority, yet she remembers a different picture while in college, where she says women made up the majority of her fellow visual communications students. While that makes her hopeful that growing gender equality in her profession is not a supply-chain issue, Meyer says it remains a challenge to get women photographers game-ready for pressure-packed sports competitions.

How do we make sure theyre coming up and getting opportunities at the highest level, said Meyer. Because thats another thing: Were covering the Olympic Games. Thats the pinnacle of sport photography, and this is not the time to give somebody a first chance or first try when its a really high-pressure situation.

So how do you get new photographers, men or women, into a position where theyre covering these really high-demand, high-pressure sports?

While Getty has addressed that question with targeted internship programs and mentorships, part of the answer lies in Meyer herself. As the first woman to earn the Getty Images Sports Internship in 2013, her living, breathing, trailblazing path inspired fellow colleague and OU alum Sarah Stier, who is here to confirm: Representation matters.

When I saw that Maddie that her full-time job was being a sports photographer thats what I wanted to do, and so I had Maddie to look up to, said Stier, who worked the 2022 Winter Games as an Alpine photo editor as well as a photographer in the Beijing Zone, which primarily hosted the Olympic ice sports. They always say it, but it helps when you have people to look up to, and I think thats the key and thats how were going to (bring more women into the profession).

Photographers Maddie Meyer and Sarah Stier in the field at the Beijing Olympics. (Photo courtesy Getty Images)

Stier also worked the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, where the media accreditation numbers provided by the IOC reflected a similar breakdown percentage-wise by gender. The press corps totaled 4,187 (down by approximately 1,800 from normal Summer Games numbers), with 20 percent of the total credentials going to women, and just 12 percent of the 1,042 photographer credentials were held by women.

When it comes to documenting the action, Meyer and Stier bring a similar approach to their craft, intent on capturing the action as they see it, no matter the subject. But both women also have embraced their position among the minority, seeing it as an opportunity to elevate their points of view as well as to champion the same dynamic coverage of female athletes and womens sports.

While there are disadvantages to being a woman in this male-dominated field, I will say that I do think when I am covering female athletes, I think they do feel more comfort around me and so maybe in that moment thats my advantage, said Stier.

In particular, Stier said she seized those advantages last year while covering the Professional Womens Hockey Players Associations history-making game hosted at Madison Square Garden, as part of the 2021 Dream Gap Tour.

As I was shooting, I was trying to challenge myself to think beyond the the photos and storylines that we always see in womens sports, she said, referring to the stereotypical images of ponytails and painted fingernails.

What can I shoot beyond that? Because when we photograph mens reactions after they score a goal or something, theyre these almost guttural screams, you know? Its intense and I want to make sure that when I photograph female athletes, Im photographing them in the exact same way that I photograph male athletes.

Thats going to be hard for some people to adjust to because women athletes dont always look pretty when theyre scoring.

Meyer noted that she, too, considers it her responsibility to provide the same gritty coverage for womens sports as she does for men.

I need to be sure that Im showing the women in their peak action and getting dirty and sliding on the turf and things like that, so that ultimately its a little bit out of my hands but I make such an effort to be able to provide these tough, peak-action moments.

But Meyer has found a little magic in differences between on-field celebrations at womens events vs. mens: Often (women) give great reaction to each other. A lot of men will celebrate to the cameras or by themselves, and women tend to come together and celebrate with their teams, so there are more pictures there, and often I find that more interesting.

But at the end of day, its respect for their subjects that rules the work.

I always try and put myself in the (place) of whatever athlete Im photographing, man or woman, and I know something thats true for all of them is theyve worked really hard to get to this point, said Meyer.

They have dedicated likely their entire lives to getting here, and I want the athlete to be shown in a good light, in a respectful light, and to honor the work that theyve done to get to that moment.

Last year, the IOC released an extensive Gender Equality and Inclusion Report as well as detailed Portrayal Guidelines, both of which encourage gender equality among content creators, storytellers and news organizations. These recommendations even go so far as to encourage sports organizations to offer incentives like additional accreditations to media outlets to assign female staff to cover their athletes or events.

In an email to On Her Turf, IOC Media Relations also confirmed that the IOC Press Committee has a working group on gender equality that is looking at various initiatives including, amongst others, allocating a small quota of press accreditation to females in some parts of the world, plus ensuring equal gender representation and geographic representation in the Young Reporter Programme.

Images from the Olympic Games are seen by billions of people around the world, creating icons and role models for women and girls proving that if she believes it, she can be it,' wrote the IOC in a report in Tuesday detailing its gender parity initiatives in celebration of International Womens Day.

Stier recognizes that a shift toward 50-50 representation behind the camera wont change overnight, but she finds the prospect motivating.

I think thats the challenge and the motivator for getting women to work in sports, she said. What we can do now is to recognize young women who want to be sports photographers early and give them the courage and confidence to really own whatever market theyre in, (and also) give them that courage and confidence by valuing their work over that idea of, Were going to value you because youre a woman.

Thats where we get the change.

Meyer said she sees a time in the future where she arrives at an Olympic Games and can gather with a veteran group of women photographers and share the same camaraderie that she sees her male counterparts enjoying.

Im working generally around a lot of men who have had this group and have known each other for decades, said Meyer. And I know thatll be me one day, with all the women Ive (worked alongside).

Hopefully, Ill know them for decades, and Ill be 50 or 60 years old hanging out with them wherever the Olympics are.

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Women starred at 2022 Winter Olympics, but men photographed most of the action originally appeared on NBCSports.com

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Women starred at 2022 Winter Olympics, but men photographed most of the action - Yahoo Sports

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. Dan Hicks should be exhausted.

If he is, the veteran NBC sports announcer is doing a heck of job of hiding it.

Hicks, 59, will anchor the networks weekend coverage of The Players Championship for the 30th year at TPC Sawgrass, working again with producer Tommy Roy, a Ponte Vedra Beach resident.

This week is just another huge event for Hicks, who in the last eight months has covered swimming at the Tokyo Summer Olympics, the final two events of the PGA Tours FedEx Cup, the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits, skiing at the Beijing Winter Olympics and now the third leg of the PGA Tours four-event Florida Swing.

Except Hicks thinks there should be a bit of a disclaimer: like most of the NBC talent covering the Winter Games, Hicks did it from the NBC broadcast compound in Stamford, Connecticut.

Players:Leaderboard | How to watch | PGA Tour Live on ESPN+

Ive got to say that the Winter Olympics was a bit of a break on the body and the wear and tear, he said. That last thing I thought I would do is drive from my own house in my car to cover the skiing. It was still a lot of work and because of the difference in time, a lot of late nights.

Its not what you sign up for, to cover an Olympics from the studio. We tried to do the best possible job to convey to the audience what they were seeing but theres no substitute for being there. The good news is that the cafeteria food is Stamford is pretty good.

Hicks covered two of the biggest storylines of each Olympics: Green Cove Springs native Caeleb Dressel in swimming and Mikaela Shiffrin in skiing. They were at both ends of the spectrum in terms of Olympic success.

Dressel won five gold medals for the U.S., the fifth swimmer to accomplish that. In the process, Dressel captured fans all over the world with his power, grace and homespun background.

Caeleb had all the pressure and the spotlight on him going in, Hicks said. I was taken aback by how calm and focused he was. Hes never tried to be anybody he isnt. Hes true to himself, a small-town Florida guy. Its his comfort zone.

But Hicks told one anecdote that spoke of Dressels confidence and passion. He interviewed Dressel at the USA Olympics swim team camp in Hawaii before the Tokyo Games and at the end of the interview, Hicks said Dressel gave him a preview of coming attractions.

He just said, Im going to put on a show for you guys,' Hicks said. I thought, Wow, this guys ready to roll. And then he went out and put on that show.

Then there was Shiffrin. A two-time Olympic gold medalist and the youngest slalom champion in Olympic alpine skiing history, she was favored to win gold in as many as three events, but then fell in each of her first two, the giant slalom and the slalom.

After she skied out in the second event, she dragged herself to the side and sat forlornly on the snow for around 20 minutes.

NBC was criticized for keeping its cameras on Shiffrin until she finally left the slope with a U.S. official. But Hicks defended the networks coverage.

Hicks said Shiffrins agony could be compared to the best golfers in the world coming to the 17th hole of the Stadium Course and dumping balls in the water, in front of thousands of people on the ground and millions watching on TV.

Golf is one of those sports that strips you bare, Hicks said. Weve seen some of the catastrophes at No. 17 and you feel for the athlete. We all felt for Mikaela but its not our job to pick them off the snow and give them a pat on the back. Its the same situation at No. 17. You see the splash and you see that crushed look on their faces.

When she fell the first time, you could just say, well, thats racing,' Hicks said. But then it happened again, and all I could think of was Dan Jansen.

Jansen was favored to win 500-meter speed skating gold medal in 1988. Hours after learning his sister had died of cancer, Jansen took the rink and then fell. It took him until 1994 to win his elusive gold medal.

Hicks said Jansen must have read his mind. He got a text from Jansen that said, sometimes the best dont always win at the Olympics.

Hicks said one key story line at the Players is the emergence of young stars such as Viktor Hovland, Joaquin Niemann and Scottie Scheffler.

Hes especially looking forward to see how Scheffler handles the Stadium Course after winning under difficult conditions last week in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill.

Ive got to give credit to [broadcast partner] Paul Azinger. before the Ryder Cup, he was saying constantly that this guy has the most potential of all of the young players, Hicks said. This guy won a birdie fest at Scottsdale, then went bogey-free on the weekend at as tough any test weve seen at Bay Hill. a very deserving winner and he might be the main story on Tour this season. Zinger said it best. He said Scottie has a great disposition and nothing rattles him.

Hicks said a Players field that doesnt include both Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson for the first time since Woods turned pro before the 1997 tournament doesnt leave the field short of star power and that includes the Stadium Course and its finishing stretch from Nos. 16-18.

Theres nothing like having those guys in the field, Hicks said. But if The Players has proven anything, youre going to get some incredible competition down the stretch, even with guys who might not be the biggest stars at the moment. The course is always the biggest star of this tournament and Id put that finish up against any in the world.

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NBC's Dan Hicks has had a whirlwind year covering two Olympics, Ryder Cup and now Players Championship - Golfweek

During an interview with Eurosport, Justine Henin analyzed in detail the situation of Novak Djokovic, who has just announced that he will not participate in the two ATP Masters 1000 in Indian Wells and Miami. Henin said: "There is no doubt that Novak Djokovic is going through a difficult time.

In difficult times, you are often forced to make important decisions. Nole is no exception to this rule. I think the Serbian got stuck a bit after the defeat against Alexander Zverev at the Tokyo Olympics. Djokovic's confidence has cracked since that day, if you know what I mean.

Recently, we learned that his longtime coach Marian Vajda was not in favor of his participation in the Games. This separation will certainly have an impact on Novak in the coming months." The Belgrade had to witness the triumph of his eternal rival Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open.

The Spaniard, who overtook Federer and Djokovic in the all-time Grand Slam standings, will try to stretch further at Roland Garros.

Novak Djokovic is having a lot of difficulties at the start of the season.

The Serbian phenomenon has played only one tournament so far, not having been able to defend the title at the Australian Open due to the well-known events. His run in Dubai was already interrupted in the quarters by the hand of the revived Jiri Vesely, able to exploit the negative day of the 20 times Grand Slam champion.

Due to the vaccination issue, the 34-year-old from Belgrade will not be able to participate in the Masters 1000 in Indian Wells and Miami. As if that were not enough, Daniil Medvedev overtook him at the top of the ATP ranking, becoming the 27th number 1 in the history of men's tennis.

On the other hand, good news has come from France, where the Green Pass will soon be abolished. This should allow Nole to compete in the Masters 1000 in Monte Carlo and above all in Roland Garros. A few days ago, Djokovic and Marian Vajda announced that they have ended their glorious collaboration. Under the leadership of the Slovakian coach, Novak has won all 20 majors that embellish his showcase.

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Henin: "Novak Djokovic's confidence cracked after the Olympics" - Tennis World USA

Jessie Diggins earned a bronze medal Saturday in the final World Cup individual race of the season, taking third in a 10-kilometer freestyle in Falun, Sweden. The cross-country skier from Afton finished second in the women's overall standings, 180 points behind overall champion Natalia Nepryaeva of Russia.

Diggins concluded the individual racing schedule with six podium finishes, including two victories during January's Tour de Ski. The defending World Cup overall champion, she took the runnerup spot by 21 points over Ebba Andersson of Sweden. Diggins, who won silver and bronze medals at the Beijing Olympics last month, also finished fourth in the sprint standings and was ninth in the distance points race.

The World Cup cross-country season ends Sunday with a mixed team relay in Falun, with Diggins anchoring the four-person U.S. team. The World Cup finals, originally scheduled for next week in Russia, were canceled after Russia invaded Ukraine last month.

"It was really special to finish second in the overall World Cup,'' Diggins said. "Overall, I'm very happy and satisfied and proud of the season.

"I came in with very concrete goals about my preparationboth physically and mentallyfor the Olympics, and that was the big target. But to be able to have some World Cup wins and some World Cup podiums was really just the icing on the cake.''

Norway's Therese Johaug won Saturday's 10k, the final race of her World Cup career, in 22 minutes, 34.4 seconds. Sweden's Jonna Sundling was 35.9 seconds back in second place, and Diggins was only 4/10ths of a second behind Sundling.

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Jessie Diggins gets bronze medal in final World Cup race of the season - Star Tribune

Multi-sport event in Beijing, China

The 2022 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games (Chinese: ; pinyin: D rshs Ji Dngj olnpk Yndnghu) and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), was an international winter multi-sport event held between 4 and 20 February 2022 in Beijing, China, and surrounding areas with competition in selected events beginning 2 February 2022.[1]

Beijing was selected as host city in 2015 at the 128th IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, marking its second time hosting the Olympics, and the last of three consecutive Olympics hosted in East Asia. Having previously hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics, Beijing became the first city to have hosted both the Summer and Winter Olympics. The venues for the Games were concentrated upon Beijing, its suburb Yanqing District, and Zhangjiakou, with some events (including the ceremonies and curling) repurposing venues originally built for Beijing 2008 (such as Beijing National Stadium and the Beijing National Aquatics Centre).

The Games featured a record 109 events across 15 disciplines, with big air freestyle skiing and women's monobob making their Olympic debuts as medal events, as well as several new mixed competitions. A total of 2,871 athletes representing 91 teams competed in the Games, with Haiti and Saudi Arabia making their Winter Olympic debut.

Beijing's hosting of the Games was subject to various concerns and controversies including those related to human rights violations in China, such as the Uyghur genocide, which led to calls for a boycott of the games.[2][3] Like the Summer Olympics held six months earlier in Tokyo, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the implementation of health and safety protocols, including restrictions on public attendance at the Games, as well as the non-participation of some nations.

Norway finished at the top of the medal table for the second successive Winter Olympics, winning a total of 37 medals, of which 16 were gold, setting a new record for the largest number of gold medals won at a single Winter Olympics. The host nation China finished third with nine gold medals (albeit eleventh by total medals), marking their most successful performance in Winter Olympics history.[4]

The bidding calendar was announced by the IOC (International Olympic Committee) in October 2012, with the application deadline set for 14 November 2013.[5] The IOC Executive Board reviewed the bids from all applicant cities on 7 July 2014 and selected three cities, Oslo (Norway), Almaty (Kazakhstan), and Beijing (China), as the final candidates.[6]

Several cities withdrew their bids during the process, citing the high costs or the lack of local support and funding for hosting the Games.[7] The Oslo bid, considered the clear frontrunner, was canceled in the wake of a series of revelations about the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) demands the luxury treatment of IOC members that strongly turned public opinion and the parliamentary majority against the bid. The city withdrew its application for government funding after a majority of the Norwegian parliament had stated their intention to decline the application. In the days before the decision Norwegian media had revealed the IOC's "diva-like demands for luxury treatment" for the IOC members themselves, such as special lanes on all roads only to be used by IOC members and cocktail reception at the Royal Palace with drinks paid for by the royal family. The IOC also "demanded control over all advertising space throughout Oslo" to be used exclusively by IOC's sponsors, something that is not possible in Norway because the government doesn't own or control "all advertising space throughout Oslo" and has no authority to give a foreign private organization exclusive use of a city and the private property within it.[8] Several commentators pointed out that such demands were unheard of in a western democracy; Slate described the IOC as a "notoriously ridiculous organization run by grifters and hereditary aristocrats."[9][10][11][12] Ole Berget, deputy minister in the Finance Ministry, said "the IOC's arrogance was an argument held high by a lot of people."[13] The country's largest newspaper commented that "Norway is a rich country, but we don't want to spend money on wrong things, like satisfying the crazy demands from IOC apparatchiks. These insane demands that they should be treated like the king of Saudi Arabia just won't fly with the Norwegian public."[13]

Beijing was selected as the host city of the 2022 Winter Olympics after beating Almaty by four votes on 31 July 2015 at the 128th IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

In February 2021, Beijing announced that the 26 venues (including training venues) for these sports would be running on entirely renewable energy.[14][15]

Five ice events were held at the Olympic Green, the Capital Indoor Stadium and the Beijing Wukesong Sports Center, which were some of the main venues of the 2008 Summer Olympics. The Big Air snowboarding and freestyle skiing events were held in a former industrial area in Shijingshan District, at Western Hills area.[16] Since the end of 2009, the Beijing Olympic Village apartments on the Olympic Green have been transformed into a residential area. Therefore, there was a need to build another Olympic Village on a smaller scale for the Winter Olympics. These new buildings are located in the southern area of Olympic Green on the neighbour area of the National Olympic Sports Center.[17]

Yanqing District is a suburban district localized at the Beijing's far north. Competitions for luge, skeleton, bobsleigh and alpine skiing were held in Xiaohaituo Mountain area in the West Dazhuangke village[18] of Zhangshanying in Yanqing District, northwest of the urban area of Beijing, 90 kilometres (56 miles) away from the city center of Beijing and 17.5 kilometres (10.9 miles) away from the town of Yanqing, using artificial snow because of the rarity of natural snow in this region.[19][20]

All other skiing events were held in Taizicheng Area in Chongli District, Zhangjiakou city, Hebei province. It is 220km (140mi) from downtown Beijing and 130km (81mi) away from Xiaohaituo Mountain Area. The ski resort earned over 1.54 billion (US$237.77 million) in tourism during the 201516 winter season for a 31.6% growth over the previous season. In 2016, it was announced that Chongli received 2.185 million tourists, an increase of 30% from the previous season, during the first snow season after winning the Olympic bid. The snow season lasted for five months from November, during which Chongli has hosted thirty-six competitions and activities, such as Far East Cup and Children Skiing International Festival. A total of twenty-three skiing camps have also been set up, attracting the participation of 3,800 youths. All the venues construction started in November 2016 and was finished by the end of 2020 to enable the city to hold test events.[21][needs update]

The design for the Games' medals was unveiled on 26 October 2021. The concept is based on traditional Chinese astronomy and astrology as the games were held coinciding with the Chinese New Year festivities.[22]

The uniforms for medal presenters at medal ceremonies were unveiled in January 2022.[23] The uniforms have been designed by the Central Academy of Fine Arts and Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology.[23]

The torch relay started on 18 October 2021 in Greece. On 20 October 2021, it was announced that the local leg would start on 2 February and end on 4 February 2022 during the Opening Ceremonies. The local leg only visited two cities: Beijing and Zhangjiakou.[24] Activists staged a protest at the Olympic torch lighting ceremony in Greece.[25]

The inclusion and television appearance of Qi Fabao, a People's Liberation Army commander well known in China for his involvement in the 20202021 ChinaIndia skirmishes, as one of 1,200 torchbearers have been controversial, with India launching a diplomatic boycott of the Games as a result.[26]

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in changes in the qualifying process for curling and women's ice hockey due to the cancellation of tournaments in 2020. Qualification for curling was based on placement in the 2021 World Curling Championships and an Olympic Qualification Event that completed the field (in place of points earned across the 2020 and 2021 World Curling Championships). The IIHF based its qualification for the women's tournament upon existing IIHF World Rankings, without holding the 2020 Women's World Championship.[27][28]

On 29 September 2021, the IOC announced biosecurity protocols for the Games; all athletes were required to remain within the bio-secure bubble for the duration of their participation, which includes daily COVID-19 testing, and only being allowed to travel to and from Games-related venues. Unless they are fully-vaccinated or have a valid medical exemption, all athletes were required to quarantine for 21 days upon the arrival. Mirroring a protocol adopted for the 2020 Summer Olympics before they were moved behind closed doors, the IOC also announced that only residents of the People's Republic of China would be permitted to attend the Games as spectators.[29][30]

On 23 December 2021, the National Hockey League (NHL) and National Hockey League Players' Association (NHLPA) announced that they had agreed to withdraw their players' participation in the Games' men's hockey tournament, citing concerns over COVID-19 and the need to make up games that had been postponed due to COVID-19 outbreaks.[31] As part of their latest collective agreement with the NHLPA, the NHL had agreed to accommodate a break for the Olympics and player participation for the first time since 2014.[32]

On 17 January 2022, amid increasing lockdowns across China and the first detected case of the Omicron variant in Beijing, it was announced that ticket sales to the general public were cancelled, and that limited numbers of spectators would be admitted by invitation only. These, therefore, became the second Olympics in a row that were closed to the general public.[33] In the lead-up to the Games, organizers stated that they had aimed for at least 30% capacity at each venue.[34]

Everyone present at the Games, including athletes, staff, and attendees, were required to use the My2022 mobile app as part of the biosecurity protocols, which was used for submissions of customs declarations and health records for travel to the Games, daily health self-reporting, and records of COVID-19 vaccination and testing. The app also provided news and information relating to the Games, and messaging functions. Concerns raised about the security of the My2022 app and how information collected by it wouldbe used.[35][36]

Because of the strict COVID-19 protocol, some top athletes, considered to be medal contenders, were not able to travel to China after having tested positive, even though they were feeling well and had no symptoms. The cases included Austrian ski jumper Marita Kramer, the leader of the World Cup ranking,[37] and Russian skeletonist Nikita Tregubov, silver medalist of the 2018 Olympics.[38]

The new BeijingZhangjiakou intercity railway opened in late 2019, starting from Beijing North railway station and ending at Zhangjiakou railway station. It is built for speeds of up to 350km/h (220mph); with this new road system, the travel time from Beijing to Zhangjiakou has decreased to around 50 minutes. A dedicated train for the Winter Olympics began to run on this line in January 2022, featuring a CCTV mobile television studio that supports live broadcasts on the train.[39]

The Beijing Subway was expected to continue expanding and by 31 December 2021, it was 783km (487mi) in length.[40][needs update]

Planned before the city was awarded the rights to the games, the Beijing Daxing International Airport opened in 2019. The airport replaced the Beijing Nanyuan Airport and since then the local and international demands with the older Beijing Capital International Airport.[41] However, according to the COVID-19 epidemic prevention manual issued by BOCWOG and International Olympic Committee, only the Capital Airport was allowed for the entry and exit of foreign delegations.[42]

The original estimated budget for the games is US$3.9 billion, less than one-tenth of the $43 billion spent on the 2008 Summer Olympics.[43] However, it was estimated that the true budget was likely more than US$38.5 billion, ten times higher than the original estimate.[44]

The opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics was held on 4 February 2022 at Beijing National Stadium.

Amid the political controversies and tensions impacting the Games, IOC president Thomas Bach instructed athletes to "show how the world would look like, if we all respect the same rules and each other", and pledged that "there [would] be no discrimination for any reason whatsoever."[45]

The final seven torchbearers reflected multiple decades of Chinese athletes, beginning with the 1950s, and concluding with two skiers competing in the Games21 year-old skier Zhao Jiawen from Shanxi (the first Chinese athlete to compete in Nordic combined), and 20-year-old Dinigeer Yilamujiang from the Xinjiang autonomous region (cross-country, and the first Chinese cross-country skier to win a medal in an ISF event).[46][47]

For the first time in Olympic history, the final torchbearers did not light a cauldron: instead, they fitted the torch into the centre of a large stylised snowflake, constructed from placards bearing the names of the delegations competing in the Games.[47] Three similar snowflakes were also erected as public flames, with one outside of the stadium lit by a volunteer, one in Yanqing District lit by speed skater Yu Jongjun, and the third in Zhangjiakou lit by skier Wang Wezhuo.[46]

The closing ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics was held at Beijing National Stadium on 20 February 2022; it included a cultural presentation, closing remarks, and the formal handover to Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo as hosts of the 2026 Winter Olympics.[48]

The 2022 Winter Olympics include a record 109 events over 15 disciplines in seven sports.[49] There are seven new medal events, including men's and women's big air freestyle, women's monobob, mixed team competitions in freestyle skiing aerials, ski jumping, and snowboard cross, and the mixed relay in short track speed skating.[50]

Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of medal events contested in each discipline.

In October 2016, the International Ski Federation (FIS) announced plans to begin permitting women's competitions in Nordic combined, to contest the discipline at the Olympic level for the first time in Beijing.[51] In November 2017, a further three events were put forward by the FIS for possible Olympic inclusion: a ski jumping mixed team competition and men's and women's big air in freestyle skiing.[52] At their May 2018 Congress at the Costa Navarino resort in Messenia, Greece, the FIS submitted several additional events for consideration, including a proposal to make telemark skiing an Olympic discipline for the first time in Beijing, with proposed competitions to include the men's and women's parallel sprint and a mixed team parallels sprint. The Congress also approved to submit the aerials mixed team event, and several new snowboarding events: the men and women's snowboard cross team event; a mixed team alpine parallel event; the men's and women's parallel special slalom; and a mixed team parallel special slalom event.[53] The individual parallel special slalom events were featured at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, but were dropped from the Olympic program in 2018 to make way for the snowboarding big air competitions.[citation needed]

The International Luge Federation (FIL) proposed the addition of six new events, including natural track luge (men's and women's singles), a women's doubles competition on the artificial track, and sprint events (men, women, and doubles) on the artificial track.[54][55]

The International Skating Union (ISU) continued to campaign for the addition of synchronized skating as a new event within the discipline of figure skating.[56] The ISU also proposed a new mixed team event in short track speed skating.[54]

In biathlon, a single mixed relay was proposed by the International Biathlon Union (IBU) to complement the four-person mixed relay that featured at the 2018 Winter Olympics.[54] Also, the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) proposed a new team event, but there was no plan to introduce a four-woman bobsleigh event despite the recommendation from the federation's executive board to propose such an event in the interests of gender equality.[54]

In July 2018, the IOC announced changes to the program for the 2022 Winter Olympics as part of a goal to increase the participation of women, and appeal to younger audiences. Seven new medal events were added (expanding the total program to 109 events), including men's and women's big air freestyle, women's monobob, mixed team competitions in freestyle skiing aerials, ski jumping, and snowboard cross, and the mixed relay in short track speed skating.[57] Women's Nordic combined was not added; Nordic combined remains the only Winter Olympic sport only contested by men.[58]

On 9 December 2019, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned Russia from all international sport for four years, after the Russian government was found to have tampered with lab data that it provided to WADA in January 2019 as a condition of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency being reinstated. As a result of the ban, WADA planned to allow individually cleared Russian athletes to take part in the 2020 Summer Olympics under a neutral banner, as instigated at the 2018 Winter Olympics, but they were not permitted to compete in team sports. WADA Compliance Review Committee head Jonathan Taylor stated that the IOC would not be able to use "Olympic Athletes from Russia" (OAR) again, as it did in 2018, emphasizing that neutral athletes cannot be portrayed as representing a specific country.[59][60][61] Russia later filed an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the WADA decision.[62]

After reviewing the case on appeal, CAS ruled on 17December 2020 to reduce the penalty WADA had placed on Russia. Instead of banning Russia from sporting events, the ruling allowed Russia to participate in the Olympics and other international events, but for two years, the team cannot use the Russian name, flag, or anthem and must present themselves as "Neutral Athlete" or "Neutral Team." The ruling does allow for team uniforms to display "Russia" on the uniform as well as the use of the Russian flag colors within the uniform's design, although the name should be up to equal predominance as the "Neutral Athlete/Team" designation.[63]

On 19 February 2021, it was announced that Russia would compete under the acronym "ROC" after the name of the Russian Olympic Committee although the name of the committee itself in full could not be used to refer to the delegation. Russia would be represented by the flag of the Russian Olympic Committee.[64]

On 8 September 2021, the IOC Executive Board suspended the Olympic Committee of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) through at least the end of 2022 for violations of the Olympic Charter, over its refusal to send athletes to the 2020 Summer Olympics due to COVID-19 pandemic-related concerns. North Korean athletes would be allowed to participate under the Olympic flag.[65][66][67][68] However, North Korean Ministry of Sports and the National Olympic Committee said in a letter to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee, the Chinese Olympic Committee, and the General Administration of Sport of China on 7 January 2022 that "Due to the "action of hostile forces" and the COVID-19 pandemic, they would not be able to participate in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics."[69] In addition, the North Korean Olympic Committee said "supports all the work of our comrades in China to host a grand and wonderful Olympics. The United States and its followers are plotting anti-Chinese conspiracies to obstruct the successful hosting of the Olympics, but this is an insult to the spirit of the Olympic Charter and an act to damage China's international image. We firmly oppose and reject these actions."[70]

The following 91 National Olympic Committees have qualified athletes (two less than four years earlier), with Haiti and Saudi Arabia making their Winter Olympic dbuts.[71][72] Kenya qualified one athlete, but withdrew.[73]

The participating countries at the 2022 Winter Olympics

Debuting countries at the Winter Olympics

2,871 athletes from 91 NOCs:

Competition began two days before the opening ceremony on 2 February, and ended on 20 February 2022.[168] Organizers went through several revisions of the schedule, and each edition needed to be approved by the IOC.[169]

Norway finished at the top of the medal table for the second successive Winter Olympics, winning a total of 37 medals, of which 16 were gold, setting a new record for the largest number of gold medals won at a single Winter Olympics.[4] Germany finished second with 12 golds and 27 medals overall, and the host nation China finished third with nine gold medals, marking their most successful performance in Winter Olympics history.[4] The team representing the ROC ended up with the second largest number of medals won at the Games, with 32, but finished ninth on the medal table, as only six gold medals were won by the delegation. Traditional Winter powerhouse Canada; despite having won 26 medals, only four of them were gold, resulting in a finish outside the top ten in the medal table for the first time since 1988 (34 years).[170][171]

*Host nation

The emblem for the 2022 Winter Olympics, "Winter Dream" (), was unveiled on 15 December 2017 at the Beijing National Aquatics Center. Designed by Lin Cunzhen (who previously designed the emblem of the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics in Nanjing), the emblem is a stylized rendition of the Chinese character for winter () as a multi-coloured ribbon, reflecting upon the landscapes of the host region. The beginning of the ribbon symbolizes an ice skater, while the end of the ribbon symbolizes a skier. The emblem carries a blue, red, and yellow colour scheme: the latter two colours represent both the flag of China, and "passion, youth, and vitality".[174]

Bing Dwen Dwen was the mascot of the 2022 Winter Olympics. Bing Dwen Dwen was chosen from thousands of Chinese designs in 35 countries worldwide. "Bing" () means ice in Chinese, and was meant to suggest purity and strength. "Dwen Dwen" () was meant to suggest robustness, liveliness, and youth. Bing Dwen Dwen's astronaut-like clothes implied that the Winter Olympics embraced new technologies and created possibilities.[175]

The Games' official slogan, "Together for a Shared Future" (Chinese: ; pinyin: Yq xing wili), was announced on 17 September 2021; organisers stated that the slogan was intended to reflect "the power of the Games to overcome global challenges as a community".[176]

The slogan was compared in media with Xi Jinping's policy slogan: 'Building the Common Future of Humanity'.[177]

In China, domestic rights to these Games are owned by China Central Television (CCTV), with rights being sublicensed by China Mobile's Migu streaming service.[178] In some countries, broadcast rights to the 2022 Winter Olympics were already agreed upon through existing long-term deals. In France and the United Kingdom, these were the first Games where Eurosport would be the main rightsholder; the BBC sub-licensed a limited amount of coverage on free-to-air television, as part of a deal in which the BBC sold the pay-TV rights to the 2018 and 2020 Games to Eurosport.[179][180] In January 2022, the BBC announced it would broadcast over 300 hours of free-to-air live coverage, as well as highlighting programmes.[181][182]

The scheduling of the Games impacted the U.S. broadcast rights to the Super Bowl, the championship game of the National Football League (NFL) and historically the most-watched television broadcast in the United States annually. The rights to the game rotate between CBS, Fox, and long-time Olympic broadcaster NBC; to prevent the Games from competing for viewership and advertising sales with Super Bowl LVIwhich was scheduled for 13 February 2022 at Los Angeles' SoFi StadiumCBS and NBC announced in March 2019 that they would swap the rights for Super Bowl LVI and LV (2021), so that both the 2022 Winter Olympics and Super Bowl LVI would be broadcast by NBC.[183][184] In a break from the established practice of airing premieres or special episodes of entertainment programmes after the Super Bowl to take advantage of its large audience, NBC aired its prime time coverage for Day 10 of the Games immediately following the game.[185] Furthermore, the NFL's new media rights beginning in 2023 (which extends the Super Bowl rotation to four networks) codifies this scenario, with all of NBC's future Super Bowl games being in Winter Olympic years (2026, 2030, and 2034).[186][187]

This edition also confirmed an ongoing trend of declining viewership for the event on US, achieving historically the lowest television ratings.[188][189]

On 19 February 2022, during the 139th IOC Session in Beijing, the International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach made an announcement awarding the people of the People's Republic of China the Olympic Cup. Bach commented "Beijing 2022 could not have achieved this level of excellence (in delivering the Games) without the support of the Chinese people. We all have experienced the support of the Chinese people, even from within our closed loop."[190]

During the bidding process, critics questioned the Beijing bid, arguing that the proposed outdoor venue sites do not have reliable snowfall in winter for snow sports. Concerns have been raised that snow may need to be transported to the venues at great cost and with uncertain environmental consequences.[191][192]

Additional concerns about weather conditions were raised during certain events. Swedish athlete Frida Karlsson nearly collapsed after the women's skiathlon due to low temperatures.[193] Afterwards, the Swedes considered putting in a request for races to be moved to earlier in the day, stating that the afternoons and early evenings scheduled for European TV audiences were hurting the performance of the athletes.[194]

As with 2008, there were calls[by whom?] to boycott the Olympic Games when they are hosted by the People's Republic of China. In the aftermath of the 2019 leak of the Xinjiang papers, the 201920 Hong Kong protests, and the Uyghur genocide,[195][196] calls were made for a boycott of the 2022 Games.[197][198][199] Because of these issues, the selection of an athlete from Xinjiang as part of the final torchbearers received a mixed reaction.[200][201][47]

In February 2021, the Chinese Communist Party-owned tabloid Global Times warned that China could "seriously sanction any country that follows a boycott."[202][203] In March 2021, Chinese spokesperson Guo Weimin stated that any attempt to boycott the Olympics would be doomed to fail.[204] Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also told the EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell that they should attend the games to "enhance exchanges on winter sport", and to "foster new highlights" in bilateral cooperation.[205]

The IOC stated that it remains neutral in all global political issues and that the award of hosting the games does not mean that the IOC agrees with the political structure, social circumstances, or human rights standards in the country they are held in. The committee's response to Agence France-Presse read: "We've repeatedly said it: the IOC isn't responsible for the government. It only gives the rights and opportunity for the staging of the Olympic Games. That doesn't mean we agree with all the politics, all the social or human rights issues in the country. And it doesn't mean we approve of all the human rights violations of a person or people." The statement attracted criticism, with Pacific University professor Jules Boykoff accusing the IOC of "hypocrisy".[205]

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February, The New York Times published a report alleging that China requested Russia to delay the invasion until after the Olympics to avoid damaging the Games' public image.[206] Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, has rejected the claims as "speculations without any basis, and intended to blame-shift and smear China".[207]

The following countries confirmed a diplomatic boycott of the games:

In addition, the following countries or area did not announce a diplomatic boycott, but have confirmed in an official statement that they will not send government leaders to the ceremony and will only be represented by ambassadors or sports officials.[219] They have cited COVID-19 restrictions for their reasoning while also expressing concern over China's human rights conditions.[220]

Chinese leaders and media reacted to the diplomatic boycott by condemning it as a "politicization" of a sporting event.[224]

An estimated 49million US gallons (190,000,000l; 41,000,000impgal) of water was expected to be used to create snow at the various venues. Pyeongchang, South Korea, which held the previous Winter Olympics, also had a cold but similarly arid climate that required vast quantities of artificial snow. Professor Carmen de Jong, a geographer at the University of Strasbourg, argued that these would be the "most unsustainable" Winter Olympics in history. The IOC stated that "a series of water-conserving and recycling designs have been put into place to optimize water usage for snowmaking, human consumption, and other purposes.[225][needs update]

Artificial snow forms a harder piste compared to real snow. It is often favoured by professionals for being fast and "hyper-grippy" but also raises their fear of falling on it.[225][226] American snowboarder Jamie Anderson compared it to "pretty bulletproof ice" while her teammate Courtney Rummel compared it to the man-made snow in Wisconsin.[226]

According to Jules Boykoff on February 2022, Beijings renewable electricity came largely from coal and this coal power was what supported the construction of some Olympic venues. To offset emissions from construction and air travel, China had planted roughly 60 million trees.[227]

There were concerns about decisions and disqualification in several events during the games. These issues included the following:

The food and overall conditions in quarantine hotels given to athletes testing positive for COVID-19 were criticised early on.[244][245] Team officials from delegations including Belgium, Germany, Poland, Finland and the Russian Olympic Committee all brought up issues their athletes faced in quarantine hotels, among them were the lack of internet connections, low-quality food, insufficient facilities and no training equipment.[246][247][248]

With China's Zero-COVID policy, there were issues raised about the process of quarantine at the games.[244] On 2 February, Belgian skeleton athlete Kim Meylemans posted on social media and was in tears about the conditions she faced while in quarantine.[249][250] According to Newsweek and Time, the hotels' conditions appeared to have improved after the athletes' complaints were made public.[245][251]

There were some complaints about the food served outside of quarantine. Germany's alpine coach Christian Schweiger called the catering "extremely questionable" for not having hot meals but he echoed athletes from several nations that the food at the nearby Athletes' Village was great.[252] The US and South Korean teams elected to bring their own food.[253] Austrian skier Matthias Mayer said that Kitzbuehel would have offered "the best of the best" but also that a hot meal right before a race might not bring out top performances.[252][254]

Other complaints included low temperatures and related safety concerns. Sweden's Frida Karlsson nearly collapsed at the conclusion of the women's skiathlon cross-country race. Afterwards, her team considered requesting that races held in afternoons and evenings for European TV audiences be moved to earlier during the day.[255][256] Some athletes resorted to putting tape on their faces and noses to protect them from the bitter cold.[257] Heavy snowfall disrupted a number of competition and training events on 13 February. Thirty-three skiers did not finish their first run of the men's giant slalom. Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway said that he "couldn't see s**t." Switzerland's Loic Meillard said, "It's not what I was hoping for but it's part of the game ... we've raced in conditions like that before."[258]

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2022 Winter Olympics - Wikipedia

The 2022 Winter Paralympics have officially kicked off and Team USA has already set out to impress.

The U.S. sled hockey team reigned supreme after securing a shutout victory, 5-0, during their opening game against Canada.

Rookie Malik Jones scored his first international goal, while three-time Paralympian Declan Farmer landed a four-point performance, making him the all-time leader in Paralympic points for the United States.

Captain Josh Pauls scored Team USAs first point after being assisted by Farmer in the first 5:44 into the contest. This marked Pauls second goal and 13th point overall in his four Paralympic appearances.

Farmer assisted Brody Roybal for another point towards the end of the first period. This marks the 20th point of his career following his unbelievable Sochi performance when he was just a mere 15-year-old.

Jones, born without shin bones, secured his second goal in the second period for Team USA. He made history as only the second Black athlete to represent the United States at the Paralympic Games.

Watch all the action from the Beijing Olympics live on NBC

The fourth U.S. goal came from former marine Josh Misiewicz, who previously had a 10-point performance in the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.

In the final period, Farmer scored the U.S. their fifth goal, securing the 5-0 shutout against their Canadian rivals. The U.S. sled hockey team has yet to lose a Paralympic game since their loss to Russia in the preliminary round at the Sochi Games in 2014.

This is no surprise, considering Team USA entered the Games as the No. 1 favorite following their world champion and previous Paralympic wins. The U.S. sled hockey team is the reigning Paralympic champions, following their captivating comeback win against South Korea in the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. The U.S. is the dominant sled hockey country after having won three consecutive Paralympic gold medals.

Team USA is composed of both returnees and rookies. Ralph DeQuebec, Travis Dodson, Declan Farmer, Noah Grove, Jen Lee, Kevin McKee, Josh Misiewicz, Josh Pauls, Rico Roman, Brody Roybal, Jack Wallace are the returnees. David Eustace, Mailk Jones, Griffin LaMarre, Evan Nichols, Joseph Woodke and Kyle Zych are the rookies.

Team USA will return to the ice in their second and final preliminary round against South Korea, the reigning bronze medal champions. The match is set to begin at 12:05 a.m. ET on Sunday on the USA Network.

Link:

U.S. Sled Hockey Team Takes Win Over Canada in Opening ...

Paul Wilson never ran a 10,000 meter race at the Olympics, but he sure must feel like it.

Wilson has supervised much of the work that NBCUniversals ad-sales team has had to do over the past two decade to make the companys investment in the Olympics pay off. He is stepping down from his role as senior vice president of Olympics ad sales at NBCU, ending a streak of selling commercial inventory for the past ten editions of the Games, eight as the leader making him directly responsible for $10 billion in ad revenue. During the pandemic, NBCU really had to work for its ad support, breaking down buys that sponsors had committed for the 2020 Games, then rebuilding them for 2021 after coronavirus forced a years delay of the Summer Games. There was even more work to do the delay meant the Summer Olympics took place just six months before the 2022 Winter Games.

Wilson hopes to keep his ties to the event. Once it gets in your blood, it stays in your blood, he says in an interview. Olympics advertisers come into it, and they come in all guns blazing. They want to do their bit for the movement. They want to do their bit for the athletes.

Dan Lovinger, who had been overseeing all of NBCUs sports ads sales, was named earlier this year to take on the Olympics directly. NBCUniversal executives hopes that the Games, which have proven nettlesome as viewers migrate to streaming venues and try to suss out how to watch athletic contests that have taken place in Beijing and PyeongChang in recent outings, will be easier to broadcast from Europe and the U.S., where they are slated to take place in 2024, 2026 and 2028.

Wilson spent the past 22 years at NBCU, starting out selling MSNBC and Today as part of the companys efforts to line up advertising behind news programs. After making a jump to sports, he first started selling the Olympics during the 2004 Games in Athens. He truly believes the Olympics are the soul of our company and the greatest platform available to marketers! Lovinger said in a memo to staffers. That passion has helped Paul build the strongest customer relationships in the business.

Wilsons exit is the latest in a parade of veteran ad-sales executives who have specialized in sports when streaming wasnt really a verb. He will follow Neil Mulcahy, the longtime Fox Sports executive; Ed Erhardt, the head of ad sales at ESPN; and, most recently, Seth Winter, who supervised NBC Sports ad sales before moving over to Fox. These sales chiefs started out in an era when sports were fully the province of TV, and they exit when the companies they work for are increasingly interested in using NFL games, MLB match-ups and NHL contests to bring viewers to subscription-video-on-demand sites. The hope is that once the viewers do that, the ads will follow.

Modern marketers understand that they need to embrace every platform, Wilson says. The content alone is enough to separate you from the pack. They also recognize they need to try new things. In his time, Wilson helped Toyota move to support the Paralympic Games, and worked with Visa to devise real time ads that had messages responding to the wins viewers saw just before the commercials aired.

Putting together and creating those partnerships really was what kept me going, he says.

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Paul Wilson, NBCUs Olympics Ad-Sales Guru, Passes The Torch - Variety

Dan Hicks should be exhausted.

If he is, the veteran NBC sports announcer is doing a heck of job of hiding it.

Hicks, 59, will anchor the network's weekend coverage of The Players Championship for the 30th year on Saturday and Sunday at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, working again with producer Tommy Roy, a Ponte Vedra Beach resident.

This week is just another huge event for Hicks, who in the last eight months has covered swimming at the Tokyo Summer Olympics, the final two events of the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup, the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits, skiing at the Beijing Winter Olympics and now the third leg of the PGA Tour's four-event Florida Swing.

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Except Hicks thinks there should be a bit of a disclaimer: like most of the NBC talent covering the Winter Games, Hicks did it from the NBC broadcast compound in Stamford, Conn.

"I've got to say that the Winter Olympics was a bit of a break on the body and the wear and tear," he said. "That last thing I thought I would do is drive from my own house in my car to cover the skiing. It was still a lot of work and because of the difference in time, a lot of late nights.

"It's not what you sign up for, to cover an Olympics from the studio. We tried to do the best possible job to convey to the audience what they were seeing but there's no substitute for being there. The good news is that the cafeteria food is Stamford is pretty good."

Hicks covered two of the biggest storylines of each Olympics, Green Cove Springs native Caeleb Dressel in swimming and Mikaela Shiffrin in skiing.

Caleb Dressel's careerin photos

They were at both ends of the spectrum in terms of Olympic success.

Dressel won five gold medals for the U.S., the fifth swimmer to accomplish that. In the process, Dressel captured fans all over the world with his power, grace and homespun background.

"Caeleb had all the pressure and the spotlight on him going in," Hicks said. "I was taken aback by how calm and focused he was. He's never tried to be anybody he isn't. He's true to himself, a small-town Florida guy. It's his comfort zone."

But Hicks told one anecdote that spoke of Dressel's confidence and passion. He interviewed Dressel at the USA Olympics swim team camp in Hawaii before the Tokyo Games and at the end of the interview, Hicks said Dressel gave him a preview of coming attractions.

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"He just said, 'I'm going to put on a show for you guys,'" Hicks said. "I thought, 'wow ... this guy's ready to roll.' And then he went out and put on that show."

Then there was Shiffrin. A two-time Olympic gold medalist and the youngest slalom champion in Olympic alpine skiing history, she was favored to win gold in as many as three events, but then fell in each of her first two, the giant slalom and the slalom.

After she skiedout in the second event, she dragged herself to the side and sat forlornly on the snow for around 20 minutes.

NBC was criticized for keeping its cameras on Shiffrin until she finally left the slope with a U.S. official. But Hicks defended the network's coverage.

Hicks said Shiffrin's agony could be compared to the best golfers in the world coming to the 17th hole of the Stadium Course and dumping balls in the water, in front of thousands of people on the ground and millions watching on TV.

"Golf is one of those sports that strips you bare," Hicks said. "We've seen some of the catastrophes at No. 17 and you feel for the athlete. We all felt for Mikaela but it's not our job to pick them off the snow and give them a pat on the back. It's the same situation at No. 17. You see the splash and you see that crushed look on their faces."

"When she fell the first time, you could just say, 'well, that's racing,'" Hicks said. "But then it happened again, and all I could think of was Dan Jansen."

Jansen was favored to win 500-meter speed skating gold medal in 1988. Hours after learning his sister had died of cancer, Jansen took the rink and then fell. It took him until 1994 to win his elusive gold medal.

Hicks said Jansen must have read his mind. He got a text from Jansen that said, "sometimes the best don't always win at the Olympics."

Hicks said one key story line at The Players is the emergence of young stars such as Viktor Hovland, Joaquin Niemann and Scottie Scheffler.

He's especially looking forward to see how Scheffler handles the Stadium Course after winning under difficult conditions last week in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill.

"I've got to give credit to [broadcast partner] Paul Azinger ... before the Ryder Cup, he was saying constantly that this guy has the most potential of all of the young players," Hicks said. "This guy won a birdie fest at Scottsdale, then went bogey-free on the weekend at as tough any test we've seen at Bay Hill ... a very deserving winner and he might be the main story on Tour this season. 'Zinger said it best. He said Scottie has a great disposition and nothing rattles him."

Hicks said a Players field that doesn't include both Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson for the first time since Woods turned pro before the 1997 tournament doesn't leave the field short of star power and that includes the Stadium Course and its finishing stretch from Nos. 16-18.

"There's nothing like having those guys in the field," Hicks said. "But if The Players has proven anything, you're going to get some incredible competition down the stretch, even with guys who might not be the biggest stars at the moment. The course is always the biggest star of this tournament and I'd put that finish up against any in the world."

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NBC's Dan Hicks has had a whirlwind year covering two Olympics, Ryder Cup and PGA Tour - The Florida Times-Union