Category Archives: Olympics

LAUSANNE, SWITZERLANDIn the wake of two straight Olympics with record-low TV ratings, an increasingly desperate International Olympic Committee announced plans Friday to increase viewership by adding skinny-dipping to the 2024 Summer Games in Paris. As times and tastes change, the Olympics are no different, which is why were giving viewers young and old alike a chance to watch the most ripped, nubile nude athletes compete to bring home the skinny-dipping gold, said IOC president Thomas Bach, describing how the committee fast-tracked several skinny-dipping eventsincluding pairs, synchronized, and 400-meter-relay skinny-dippingso that each nations sexiest, most desirable athletes could train over the next two years. These events will of course be broadcast live and with no censorship whatsoever. Well be working with our television and internet streaming providers to offer comprehensive underwater coverage of these outstanding, totally nude athletes as they seek Olympic glory. Who knows what theyll get up to in the crystal-clear waters of our giant Olympic pools? You wont want to miss the most supple, alluring, completely undressed athletes the world has ever seen. Skinny-dipping is reportedly one of several new, more sensational changes to the Games, with the IOC also modifying rules for dressage events to mandate that all competitors must be nude and riding bareback on a horse.

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Desperate Olympic Committee Attempts To Increase Viewership By Adding Skinny-Dipping To 2024 Games - The Onion

Local freestyle skiers Alex Ferreira and Hanna Faulhaber and cross-country skier Hailey Swirbul competed in the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing last month.

Ferreira, who grew up in Aspen, took home a bronze medal for Team USA in the mens ski halfpipe.

To have people rooting for me that I dont know is bigger than my wildest dreams, said Ferreira, 27. Bringing home a medal is like a cherry on top, in my eyes.

In 2018, he won silver in his first Olympic appearance.

Mike Dawson

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U.S. Ski & Snowboard

Basalt resident and Olympic rookie Hanna Faulhaber finished sixth in the womens halfpipe. The 17-year-old has been making waves skiing the superpipe over the past year, starting with her fourth-place finish at the world championships last spring in Aspen.

In December, Faulhaber earned her first major podium, finishing third at the Dew Tour at Copper Mountain. She won bronze in her X Games debut in January.

All of the podiums that I had throughout the season were just shocking, and I dont think that any of them have really hit me yet, she said. Honestly, Im just happy with how I skied and I gave it my all.

Ryan Escandon

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U.S. Ski & Snowboard

El Jebel resident Hailey Swirbul made her Olympic debut last month in three cross-country ski events. The 23-year-old led the first leg of the course on the U.S. womens 4x5-kilometer relay team, which finished sixth. Swirbul's teammates were Jessie Diggins, Rosie Brennan and Novie McCabe.

In Swirbuls first two events, she finished 32nd out of 98 in the womens 10-km classic and 40th out of 62 in the 7.5-km + 7.5-km skiathlon.

A medal was way out of reach for me this year unless it was in a relay-team event, where our team actually did have a shot, she said. Im not leaving disappointed in my efforts or my results.

Ryan Escandon

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U.S. Ski & Snowboard

Aspen Public Radio talked with Ferreira, Faulhaber and Swirbul about their experience competing in the Winter Olympics and growing up skiing with the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club.

Listen to the conversation above.

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'Bigger than my wildest dreams': Three local athletes share their experience skiing at the Winter Olympics - Aspen Public Radio

Julia Marino signs autographs at Copper Mountain on Saturday, March 5. Photo courtesy of Copper Mountain Adventure

Fresh off becoming Americas first medalist at the Winter Olympics in Beijing, we caught up with the snowboarding star at Copper Mountain.

A pack of kids followed snowboarder Julia Marino everywhere she went at Copper Mountain this past Saturday. The 24-year-olds visit was part of a tour following her silver medalwinning performance in the womens slopestyle event at the Winter Olympics in Beijing last month. It was also a chance for her to pay homage to the region where she learned to ride after switching from skiing at age 13.

Marino, who has also collected seven X Games medals, is originally from Westport, Connecticut. But she considers the two winters she spent in Breckenridge and Vail as a teenager to be some of the most important on her path to becoming one of the best snowboarders in the world.

During the event this past weekend, we caught up with Marino to hear how winning an Olympic medal has changed her life, why she decided not to participate in the Big Air competition after the International Olympic Committee asked her to cover the Prada logo on her board, and what she hopes to accomplish next.

5280: How has life changed now that you have an Olympic medal?Julia Marino: Its changed a little bit, but not too much. I have more people recognizing me, I guess. But its snowboardinga little different than basketball or something super popular. Its mostly been a lot of messages from friends and family and people I havent heard from in a while.

Whats the coolest experience youve had since Beijing?One of the coolest things was going to the fashion week in Milan [with sponsor Prada]. That was insane. I got to meet a lot of really cool people. It was a culture shock to me. It was cool to see what that world was like.

You bowed out of the Olympic Big Air competition after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) suddenly told you that the Prada logo on your board had to be covered up, even though youd already used the same board in the slopestyle event. I know they tried to cover up the logo with Sharpie. Did that really slow the board down? What exactly happened?A person from the IOC told me to my face in slopestyle that my board was fine, so I dont understand. They put something on top of the Sharpie so it wouldnt come off and it just felt kind of odd. I had gotten hurt a few practices before. It didnt help my decision [on whether to compete in Big Air]. My board didnt feel right in addition to my body feeling hurt. It was just a combination of factors. It was a ridiculous situation, but slopestyle is my main event. I was happy to walk out of there happy and healthy.

You were in the lead spot of the slopestyle event until New Zealander Zoi Sadowski-Synnott nailed an amazing final run. What was it like to watch her beat you out there?[Zoi] is such a strong rider. If she puts together what I think shes going to put together, its obviously going to be on top. Im super happy for her. Shes one of the hardest working out there. Shes always grinding. To see her success, thats something we all predicted. She deserves it a lot.

You spent some time here in Colorado when you were growing up. How pivotal was that time in your growth as a snowboarder?At 13, I made the switch from skiing to snowboarding. And at 14, I went to Stratton Mountain School [in Vermont]. My dad saw what I was able to do, and he thought being out West would be the best option. He moved out [to Colorado] with me. It gave me the opportunity to ride bigger courses and bigger jumps, and get prepared for whatever was to come.

Youve steadily progressed throughout your career, but you seemed to skyrocket to the next level at the Winter Olympics. How do you explain that progression?I think the progression has just come from having a better understanding of how I am on my snowboard, a deeper connection with my feet and my board, understanding tricks better, having a better knowledge of the sport and how to throw things. It makes me more comfortable to throw stuff that may have been scarier in the past and just try to approach the competitions like Im going to come and do what I know how to do.

Whats next for you?I dont think Im going to do many comps for the rest of the season. I just want to snowboard with friends. Im looking forward to getting to do some solo boarding and be on my own terms, not having a schedule to follow, just snowboard for the sake of snowboarding and having fun.

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Snowboarder Julia Marino Discusses Her Colorado Connections, Olympic Success, and the Prada Incident - 5280 - 5280 | The Denver Magazine

Former Clemson star and current Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Hunter Renfrow is back in Tiger Town, and hes been hanging out at Dabo Swinneys house this week.

The Tigers head coach said after Wednesdays practice that Renfrow, his wife and their baby daughter have been staying at Swinneys house since Sunday and joked that with Renfrow around, its like the Olympics are going on at his home.

Hes staying in my basement, Swinney said. He and (his wife, Camilla) and baby Collins have been in my basement since Sunday. So, theyre hanging out with us. We played basketball till 11 oclock the other night. For the record, me and Dillon, one of the guys, took he and Will (Swinney) down just for the record, two-on-two, that is an absolute fact. He wasnt real happy about that.

So, its like the Olympics at the Swinney house every day right now. When Renfrows in town, its always some type of competition cards, whatever it is, egg toss, theres something going on.

Swinney said Renfrow, who earned his first Pro Bowl selection last season, spoke to the Clemson football team on Wednesday and that Raiders quarterback Derek Carr will be coming to visit Clemson with Renfrow in a few days.

Its been great to see him and spend some time with him, Swinney said of Renfrow. He spoke to the team, actually, (Wednesday). Came to practice Monday, came to practice Wednesday, said a few words to the guys (Wednesday). I think hes going to down to Disney tomorrow for a couple days. Hes going to come back here Sunday, Monday. I think his quarterback, Carr, is coming in maybe Sunday to spend the day in Clemson. So, always good to see those guys.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

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With Renfrow back in Clemson, its like the Olympics at the Swinney house - The Clemson Insider

Mar. 7A north country National Public Radio corespondent who covered the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing says although the athletic performances were inspiring, they were set against a backdrop of authoritarian politics and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brian P. Mann was in Beijing for last month's games. He is also a former Adirondack bureau chief for Canton-based North Country Public Radio.

He said being there in person "was definitely more complicated" than just covering two weeks of some of the best athletics in the world.

"It was an extraordinary experience to be there. It really was. I was glad to be there. It was a complicated thing. It wasn't the big party that some had hoped for," he said. "It was complicated, but it was still something where I got to have a front seat for some kind of remarkable events."

Mr. Mann described his experience as "this weird collision of history" involving the COVID-19 pandemic and "the tension around Vladimir Putin and the Chinese government that was really present there." He said the 2022 event "was not an Olympic games where you could put politics aside."

"During the opening ceremony, I was sitting in this massive national stadium in Beijing, up there on this big screen are the leader of the Chinese communist party and the leader of China, also (Russian President) Vladimir Putin, and he was there (in the stadium). Sadly, these Olympic games were ushered in against the backdrop of these two authoritarian leaders," he said. "(Putin) was really in, what we all knew ... (were) initial stages of preparing for an invasion of Ukraine. That tension was there. The Olympic officials were being asked daily about this."

Mr. Mann said the omnipresence of authoritarian leadership in some way defined the 2022 Olympics.

"Just the fact that the games were held in Beijing ... I think the evidence is clear that they (the Chinese government) have committed extreme human rights violations," he said. "There were questions of what the (International Olympic Committee) did or didn't do to question those facts."

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He pointed out a moment during an event when a Chinese official at the podium "started spouting propaganda about the Chinese human rights violations."

"This was supposed to be apolitical ... here was a Chinese official being allowed to use the podium to express the Chinese party line," he said.

Mr. Mann said a doping scandal involving a Russian athlete "swallowed a lot of my time."

Kamila Valieva, a 15-year-old Russian figure skater, tested positive for a heart medication that's banned as a performance-enhancing substance by the World Anti-Doping Agency. Despite the positive drug test which was from a December sample taken by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency but not confirmed until February she was still allowed to compete.

"It revived debate about Russia's role in international sport. It is well documented Russian teams have doped and used banned substances for years," Mr. Mann said, adding that Russian officials have "deep historic ties" to the IOC.

Many Olympic commentators and fans talked about the disparity between Miss Valieva, who is white, using a banned performance-enhancing drug and still being allowed to compete, and American runner Sha'Carri Richardson, who is Black, testing positive for marijuana and not being allowed to compete in the Tokyo Summer Olympics last year.

Russia's history of using performance-enhancing drugs led to Team Russia being banned from all 2022 competition. Russian athletes instead competed as the Russian Olympic Committee.

"It's really impossible to set aside this complicated relationship with the IOC and Russia. It was impossible to set aside the political tension that existed," Mr. Mann said. "U.S. Olympic officials have been dismayed by the position of the IOC allowing Russian athletes to compete."

"It was a test of how the Olympics can operate in this world. We've seen the IOC evolve its posture" and allowed Russians to compete, he added. "(The IOC has) since pivoted. They think Russian athletes should be blocked from all international competition."

In addition to the politics of the games, there were constant reminders of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

"We were constantly surrounded by this COVID security bubble," he said, adding that health workers in full-body hazmat suits were "just a permanent sight everywhere we went. People in full-body hazmat suits tested us, enforced the quarantine bubble around officials, around journalists."

He said the COVID health measures worked.

"They successfully really kept the pandemic outside and there were few infections detected inside the quarantine bubble," Mr. Mann said.

Despite the complicated political and social backdrop, he said his experience in Beijing "was not entirely joyless" and he "came away really inspired."

Mr. Mann, who is 56 years old, said he was "inspired by these athletes in their 30s and 40s."

He said he was impressed seeing the older athletes compete with "elements of skill that continue to improve through your 30s."

"These are also athletes who are remarkably disciplined and careful and know how to compete and win in ways that were remarkable," he said, adding that despite the "incredibly disruptive" COVID-19 pandemic, they still managed to show up and put on a world-class performance.

He said he was particularly impressed with north country luger Emily C. Sweeney, who lives and trains in the Saranac Lake-Lake Placid area.

"She had a devastating crash four years ago, really astonishingly violent crash," Mr. Mann said. "She trained and came back and kind of reinvented herself as a sledder. She had amazing support from the Adirondack community."

"The stories I came away with from Beijing were not so much about the people who medaled or won ... in watching Emily slide again this year and compete, she crashed again and she struggled. I have to tell you, again, in the context of this time we're living in when very few of us are living perfect lives, it was a moment of compromise."

"You've damaged your body on an icy sled track in front of the whole world ... it was an amazing thing to see," he added Sweeney "overcoming amazing fear."

He said he also enjoyed seeing performances from freestyle skier and snowboarder Eileen Gu, an American-born 18-year-old who competed as part of Team China. She won several medals in those events, including a gold in freestyle skiing.

"She was one of the stars of these games and truly an amazing athlete," Mr. Mann said.

He wasn't able to see Massena luger Johnny Gustafson compete in person but did see him on a screen. It was difficult to see all the events he wanted to because everything was spread out over a huge area.

"Because of the pandemic rules, it was very difficult for us to be at all the different events. They were spread out so you had to take a bullet train to get to the core city and out to the mountains where all the venues are," he said. "Whenever possible, I did watch the Adirondack and north country athletes and followed them in real interest and excitement. It is really cool to me that, it waxes and wanes a little bit, but I think it is remarkable the north country continues to have this Olympic culture. It's kind of crazy how many athletes we have."

He said another regional athlete who left an impression was Vermont cross-country skier Jessie Diggins.

"She's really been a history-making athlete for the U.S. She won gold four years ago in Pyeongchang and this year, she won bronze and silver. She was one of the people you could really see by the end of the race, especially in the 30K endurance ski race, she absolutely poured everything out. She collapsed on the snow. It took her several minutes to be able to stand on her own," Mr. Mann said. "It was one of the moments I was doing little fist pumps, I guess. It was really exciting to watch. She was honored with a medal ceremony at the closing ceremony, and it was really dramatic to see her leaping and celebrating. It was really fun to see how resilient and powerful she really is."

All of the snow at Beijing was artificial, made by snow machines similar to the kind used at local ski hills like Titus Mountain. Despite the lack of natural snow, he said this year's games were "bitter cold" and "one of the coldest Olympics we've seen in a long time. They were really facing pretty extreme conditions."

"The Chinese did an amazing job, because they had the cold weather and they made a strong infrastructure, they manufactured really quality snow" that the athletes were satisfied with, he said. Artificially created snow is "increasingly the norm for a lot of these competitions ... with climate change. These are venues that used to have reliable snow. That's something people just can't depend on anymore."

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North country corespondent who covered 2022 Olympics ...

The following is an excerpt published by the Harvard Business Review from the article titled The Competitive Edge in Better Collaborative Processes.

Theres more to Special Olympics International (SOI) than providing opportunities for athletes with intellectual and physical disabilities. The organization is central to its community, providing leadership training opportunities and health initiatives.

But SOI struggled to coordinate its global teams, which sometimes meant limited visibility across projects, duplicated efforts, and insights and solutions that might go unshared. The organization needed to make work more efficient at every opportunity, freeing its employees to think creatively and focus on strategic work by using transparent collaboration programs and tools to eliminate duplicative processes and efforts.

SOI implemented a CWM that offers clear collaboration across teams, eliminating silos and allowing ideas and processes to spread quickly with intuitive, real-time dashboards, rather than bottling knowledge within practices that innovate it. In one case, three dispersed teams used the CWM to share tips and solutions for a single project, saving each team more than 45 staff hours a month.

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Special Olympics Teams Up with Smartsheet for Efficient ...

Connor Fields, who was involved in a frightening BMX crash at last years Summer Olympic Games in Japan, said he found out last month from doctors that his cognitive abilities are completely restored.

Fields was taken to a Tokyo hospital after he crashed July 30 and was treated for a brain hemorrhage among other major injuries.

Any sort of injury, whether its a knee, an ankle or a shoulder, thats just time and physical therapy, Fields said. Those will heal. With your head, its a totally different ballgame. And for everything that we know about the brain, we really dont know that much.

Fields, who went to Green Valley High School and UNLV, also should recover from shoulder surgery in about a month.

Then he will begin easing back onto a bike. But he isnt setting a deadline about deciding whether to return to competitive racing.

Fields, 29, won the gold medal in 2016 at Rio de Janeiro and was a strong favorite in Japan.

For the past seven months, I havent done anything that is risky because I dont want to hit my head, Fields said. Ill start riding a little bit again as well as stop living like Im made of glass.

Strong start for Cunningham

Bishop Gorman High graduate Vashti Cunningham won both her high jump events this year, including the U.S. Indoor Championships on Feb. 27 in Spokane, Washington, with a leap of 1.91 meters (just more than 6 feet 3 inches).

Her leap of 1.98 meters (6 feet 6 inches) two weeks earlier in Louisville, Kentucky, is the worlds second-highest this year.

The next major meets for Cunningham, 24, are the U.S. Outdoor Championships on June 23-26 and the World Athletics Outdoor Championships on July 15-24. Both are in Eugene, Oregon.

NEO Studios is doing a six-part documentary series on discovery+ on Cunningham and two other children of notable athletes Zaire Wade (Dwyane Wades son) and Evan Holyfield (Evander Holyfields son). Randall Cunningham, who also serves as Vashtis coach, was a star UNLV and NFL quarterback.

Randall Cunningham also coaches Jelena Rowe, who moved to Las Vegas from Chicago. Rowe, 22, is ranked second nationally in the high jump with a leap of 1.95 (nearly 6 feet 5 inches) in Louisville.

Swimming in the Springs

Nine Sandpipers of Nevada swimmers are training for a month in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to prepare for major upcoming events.

The Open Water National Championships are April 1-3 in Fort Myers, Florida, and the International Team Trials are April 26-30 in Greensboro, North Carolina. Sixteen-year-olds Katie Grimes and Bella Sims, Olympians last year, are the two locals most likely to qualify for the World Championships on June 18-July 3 in Budapest, Hungary.

Another Sandpiper, 16-year-old Abby Dunford, is preparing for the Canadian trials on April 5-10.

Sullivan delivers twice

Texas freshman Erica Sullivan, an Olympic silver medalist last year who also swam for the Sandpipers, recently won Big 12 Conference championships in the 1,650 meters (15 minutes, 58.74 seconds) and the 500 (4:39.46).

The Palo Verde High product will compete in the NCAA Championships on March 16-19 in Atlanta.

Sullivan also is preparing for the open water World Championships.

Contact reporter Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @markanderson65 on Twitter.

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Connor Fields, Olympics BMX racer, bouncing back from ...

The Olympic Rings. The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics this year have been riddled with political and ecological problems in the background. VUSI VILANCULOS BY CC BY-SA 4.0

It pains me to say it, but was I the only one who didnt bother checking up on the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics this year? I dont think I was, since the ratings for this sporting event were at all-time lows. These definitely disguise the viewership garnered by social media and streaming platforms, but it paints a picture of what seemed to be a moment that came and went. Its almost sad, in a way; these recent scandals have torn apart the original purity of a sporting sensation.

I guess, perhaps, there were a few things that occurred during the month of February that may have taken people away from the slopes. Lets revisit a couple of moments.

World politics meddled with the Olympics. The Russian build-up at the Ukrainian border drastically increased in late-January heading into the Olympics, with nearly 190,000 troops along Belarus and Crimea throughout the games themselves. Chinas authoritarian policies spilled over into the games, with journalists who were covering the events being routinely subjected to Chinese authorities, even when they had been directed to film in so-called designated areas. There were also discussions about Chinas treatment of the Uyghur population in Xinjiang. President Xi Jinping addressed these allegations by having Uyghur Olympian Dinigeer Yilamujiang hold the ceremonial torch during the opening ceremony.

The Winter Olympics have been under existential threats due to climate change, with Beijing marking the first Olympics to be almost entirely dependent on artificial snow. While the process of making artificial snow can help offset the effects of a warming planet, it is an extremely resource intensive, environmentally destructive practice that brings into question not only the economics of future Winter games, but also the sustainability of the Olympics themselves.

Media coverage has also been a topic at these games ever since Simone Biles stepped down from many of her best events in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, citing mental health concerns. Many have pointed to the heavy media coverage the athletes receive leading to increased burnout and pressure to meet expectations. In these Games alone, Mikela Shiffrin and Shaun White both saw heavy media exposure after disappointing turnouts in their events. Stations lavished in their pitfalls, starting with Shiffrin hunched over crying for minutes after her fall.

Now, lets be honest; all of this has been ingrained in our consciousness long before the Games began thats why its been such an engaging story for many media outlets.

And these outlets need this kind of coverage in order to maintain their presence. People dont watch four-hour prime-time slots on NBC; they watch highlights on social media, from crashes to victories, along with the interwoven reality checks of war and famine.

It was always this way, but to me, its a radical departure from my time watching the Olympic Games.

I started being invested in 2014, when Sochi hosted the Winter Olympics. The games had a similar undertone of Russian aggression, with the upcoming annexation of Crimea. However, that didnt bother me at the time. I wasnt caught up on geopolitics, I was interested in what was on T.V.

My mom was the one to put on the Olympics, being a fan of the ice skating events. It couldve been a reminder of her times back in the Netherlands, where she would go ice skating on frozen lakes and ski in the Alps with her family. Trips like those were momentous occasions, like my experience going to Disney World every year.

You could say it was her escape from 40 hour work weeks.

Whenever any kind of controversy or scandal would come up, from Sochis lack of snow to the Russian doping scandal that led to the establishment of the Russian Olympic Committee, my mom would brush it off; Its always been this way, she would respond, not letting anything get in the way of the athleticism on display.

I quickly got into the sporting sensation, being amazed by the races on ice, the tricks skiers and snowboarders would pull off on the half-pipe and the incredible speeds Bobsledders and Lugers would go through. I would keep my mom updated on medal totals, even letting her know how the Netherlands were fairing (they won 24 medals, their highest showing at the Winter Olympics).

I look back now at those times a whopping eight years ago, with the innocence that I held, with the nature of the Games being something more aligned with the founding principles of the Olympics thousands of years ago. A standstill of the world, an escape from war and distress, to instead appreciate and nurture the human spirit in sport and culture.

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Did the Olympics lose their escape appeal? The Statesman

Eileen Gu, along with other American-born athletes, represented China for the Beijing Olympics 2022

By Katherin Raygoza- sports@theaggie.org

The Winter Olympics kicked off on Feb. 4 and recently, there have been headlines regarding nationality and an athletes ability to compete for two different countries. News stories have emerged about 18-year-old Eileen Gu, who was born in the U.S. and won gold representing Chinas Olympic team. She is one of many Chinese-American Olympians straddling between two countries, and some people have questioned whether athletes are allowed to do this or why they would do this.

There are those who love her, moved by her ability to soar over treacherous slopes with ease, wrote Ashley Wong from The New York Times. Others are inspired by her efforts to navigate the uneasy political tension between two countries and cultures. Some believe she chose to represent China simply to cash in on the lucrative opportunities it has afforded her.

Gu or Gu Ailing Snow Princess, as she is known in China was born in San Francisco to a Chinese mother and an American father. She began skiing at the age of eight on weekend trips. American-born Gu has talent that allowed her to grow as a skier and was finally able to land the double cork 1620 a move in which skiers spin 4 times while rotating 20 plus feet in the air.

Chinese fans have been very supportive of Gus success and are proud to watch a Chinese win gold for their country, as opposed to her birth country which criticizes her decision.

Its very cheering. Shes of Chinese origin and has returned to China. I feel proud of her, said Jiang Yu, a Beijing resident and a Gu fan.

This is a great accomplishment for the skier, as she became the youngest freeski Olympic gold medalist in history and the first action-sport athlete to win three medals at the same Olympics. Despite her accomplishments, she is being called a traitor and ungrateful.

She has also received backlash on social media because users are arguing that she cannot be American if she competes for China. Some are saying that she must pick between identifying as American or Chinese.

Im an 18-year-old out here living my best life. Im not going to waste my time trying to placate people who are uneducated, and dont experience the gratitude and love I have on a daily basis, Gu told The Guardian.

Some dual citizens face the same challenges as Gu, and it has been seen all throughout sports, especially during the Olympics. That is why there has been a set of rules created which indicate that if a competitor who is a citizen in two or more countries, they have the freedom to represent the country they desire. They cannot represent a country if they play for a different country in other events like the Olympic Games, continental or regional games or world or regional championships. Once they compete in those games, they cannot change the country that they represent.

An athlete can be exempt from these rules under certain circumstances. For instance, if an athlete has gained a new citizenship or wishes to change their Olympic status, they can do so if three years have passed since they competed for their previous country.

There is an especially large controversy with China because they have 30 foreign-born athletes competing in the 2022 Winter Olympics. Olympians in China must follow specific rules since they do not allow dual citizenship. So the question remains whether American-born athletes are following the rules or simply have been exceptions to compete. Are they allowed to be U.S citizens while competing for Team China?

It has appeared that the Chinese Government has loosened their strict laws on nationality to attempt to win more medals. Other than Gu, about half of the Chinese Mens Hockey Team are American and all maintain their U.S citizenship.

I told China that Ill never give up my [U.S.] passport, and they said thats fine, said goalie Jeremy Smith, a Michigan native whos eligible to represent China due to a stint with Chinese club Kunlun Red Star.

Other countries have used naturalized foreign athletes for decades, but very few have laws as strict as Chinas. Regardless, China is slowly relaxing their rules, but it seems they still require a particular allegiance, such as Chinese players using Chinese names and not speaking in English during interviews.

Competing for a country that is not where the athlete was born is not a new concept. Many Olympians take pride in having a diverse background and are given an opportunity to compete for a national team that can utilize their talent. Still, it seems as though the topic will always stir headlines.

Written by: Katherin Raygoza sports@theaggie.org

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Topic of dual citizenship revived at this year's Winter Olympics - The Aggie - The Aggie

The 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing spark conversation about the role of politics in sports and the effectiveness of boycotts

By ALINA ISSAKHANIAN features@theaggie.org

Much conversation around the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, has been focused on the current human rights crisis in the country. Globally, governments and international entities have chosen to diplomatically boycott the games, citing harsh human rights violations committed by the Chinese government in recent years.

In March 2021, the Biden administration declared Chinas treatment of Uyghur Muslims a genocide, officially categorizing it as a crime against humanity. According to the Human Rights Report discussing the poor treatment of Uyghur Muslims, China was involved in the imprisonment, torture, enforced sterilization and persecution of Uyghurs, as well as members of other religious and ethnic groups.

The U.S., U.K., Australia and Canada have diplomatically boycotted the games in an effort to call out the human rights abuses in China. While each country has its own definition of boycotting, generally, it includes that dignitaries representing the countrys government do not attend the games while athletes still get to compete.

UC Davis professor of political science and Department of International Relations director Ethan Scheiner explained that international power dynamics play a large role in who does and does not boycott in situations like these.

The United States, in particular, is one of the few countries that has less to fear from Chinese retaliation than other countries, Scheiner said. The fact that the United States is such a big country is a big factor. Also, the United States actually has a much stronger stake in pushing for democracy and has done so for a longer period of time, whereas others have been less inclined to do so.

Many believe that the U.S. should have taken a stronger stance in opposition to Chinas human rights violations, since they are classified as crimes against humanity. Scheiner said that he does not believe that the diplomatic boycott will be very effective, and that both the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2022 Winter Olympics could have been opportunities for the U.S. to make a more impactful statement.

What China learned in 2008 when it hosted the Summer Olympics was, Hey, we can do whatever we want, and nobodys gonna make us change, Scheiner said. We saw that carryover where China became increasingly aggressive between 2008 and 2022. Nobody ever called them on it and so now the problem still exists. So in many ways, either in 2008 or in 2022, [this] was sort of a lost opportunity to send a stronger signal.

However, Scheiner explained that most likely, the U.S. did not take any other steps because of international power dynamics and economic concerns.

If China wanted to, it could lash out at the United States in various economic ways, Scheiner said. American companies and sports leagues especially the NBA are terrified of losing the Chinese market [] If China wanted to boycott the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, and not show it on television or market it at home, that would have an economic impact on the ability of people trying to hold those Olympics and athletes competing in them to make money using the Chinese market.

He also said that this is not the first time that the U.S.has boycotted an Olympics. The U.S. actually implemented a full boycott of the 1980 Moscow games, during which the U.S. did not even send athletes to compete. According to Scheiner, some believe that even a full boycott like that in 1980 is not very effective.

The main lesson that people draw about boycotts they draw from 1980, Scheiner said. [After the 1980 games], when everybody came away with oh, boycotts dont work, if you boycott all you do is hurt the athletes. And so I think the United States is always coming back to that example and saying, Okay, we shouldnt boycott because all it did was have our athletes lose their opportunity, and everybodys mad about it.

First-year psychology student Michell Bancks, a volleyball player and co-captain for Davis second club team, said that athletes often see the Olympics as a career-defining moment, and some believe that those spots should not be lost due to politics.

Many Olympic athletes can only perform at the Olympic level for a few Olympics, Bancks said. I think its rare for an athlete to attend more than three Olympic Games, and between those competitions, its even more rare for an athlete to medal more than once. There are athletes who are at their prime for this Olympics and wont be as competitive in four years, so they should be given the chance to try for a medal.

However, Scheiner pointed out that others believe that its not possible to keep politics and sports completely separated.

Its sort of like saying lets keep life out of sports, Scheiner said.

First-year American studies major Nic Sardo agreed with Bancks that the loss to the athlete is great if they do not compete, but he said that choosing to do so sends a strong statement.

An athlete can sacrifice so much and spend years training for the Olympic games so if that same athlete decides that their energy is put to better use by boycotting those games, I believe that is very brave. By boycotting or speaking out against ones own country, or against the host country, that athlete is putting a lot at risk and may have their whole life disrupted because of that one decision.

Written by: Alina Issakhanian features@theaggie.org

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UC Davis students, professor weigh in on US' diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics - The Aggie - The Aggie