Category Archives: Olympics

Just 37.04 seconds. Thats how long it took Erin Jackson of the United States to race to her gold medal in the womens 500-meter speedskating event. Thats also how long every photographer had to capture her win.

So much of the Olympics is about speed, sacrifice and emotion. Photographing the Games can sometimes take a lot of that, too.

No articles Id read or television Id watched could do justice to witnessing the action on the ground. My heart pounded as cross-country skiers collapsed to the ground at the finish line. A Chinese cross-country skier, Jialin Bayani, unclipped her exhausted teammate Dinigeer Yilamujiangs bindings after a race. A Swedish skier placed his hands on the slumped-over back of J.C. Schoonmaker of the United States. I was moved to tears by these small gestures. Minutes later, I filed photos with fingertips numbed by the subfreezing cold and wind. Later that night, my lens frosted over.

The first full Friday of competition was a big news day. Shaun White had announced that this would be his last Olympics.

On Whites third and final run, I waited for him to pop up on the side of the halfpipe when I heard that dreaded scraping sound. He fell. A few seconds later, he glided to the finish, helmet in the air, and just like that, history was written. A sporting legends career was ending, and the halfpipe would be getting a new master, Ayumu Hirano of Japan, the gold medalist.

Shoulder to shoulder with my colleague Chang Lee as White collapsed to the ground and wept, I pulled out my Polaroid SX-70. Although my digital camera allows me to shoot 30 frames a second, I sometimes turn to my Polaroid to slow down and enjoy the unpredictability of its film. I had four frames left in my Polaroid, so I waited and shot two frames.

The athletes are the stars of the Olympics, but behind the scenes thousands of people have been working tirelessly to make this happen. We walked out of the main press center one night, giddy about the dusting of snow that had fallen, and saw a team of workers in orange jackets sweeping the snow off the pavement with long brooms of dried leaves and sticks. Every time it snowed, these teams would shift gears from sanitizing the venues to standing in the cold, sweeping the entrances and walkways and shoveling roadways.

I also came to appreciate all the behind-the-scenes work at events. Between ends at curling, Mark Callan quietly laid down pebbles on the ice sheets, with his water backpack and hose. The team he is a part of spent weeks preparing the venue, the National Aquatics Center, using humidifiers to keep the ice sheets from disintegrating in the dry Beijing climate.

Crews of volunteers, pails in hand or driving a big machine, took to the ice between figure skating routines to repair the skating surface.

One night, as I raced back to the media workroom at the cross-country skiing site, having shot hundreds of images, I realized that I had barely stopped to take a breath all day. I pulled out my Polaroid camera again and took a photo. As the film came out, I watched the chemicals frost in the film. The next day on the halfpipe the cameras focus was frozen.

When we are given only one opportunity to succeed, when 37.04 seconds can be all we get to capture a moment and when somewhere between the anxiety and freezing temperatures we are moved to tears, pulling out a 50-year-old camera that is slow, a little faulty and held together by a few pieces of neon orange tape can often be the perfect way to take a breath and really enjoy the amazing spectacle before us.

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I Captured the Olympics With My Polaroid. Until the Camera Froze. - The New York Times

The 2022 Winter Olympics was less an unforeseen disaster for NBC than something that, almost by design, was fated to be forgotten even while it was happening. That the Beijing Games now has the unhappy distinction of being the least-watched Olympics on the books is nothing anyone at 30 Rock cares to dwell on, but the results by no means came as a shock to the network suits or the sponsors who backed the event.

NBC almost certainly did not make a profit on these Winter Olympicsas of last nights primetime replay of the closing ceremonies, NBC had yet to provide guidance either way, an uncharacteristic silence which translates to a resoundingnopealthough making money on the event is never a given. The last two Olympics that aired on NBC prior to Comcasts acquisition of the companyBeijing 2008 and Vancouver 2010failed to recoup their combined $1.7 billion rights fee, and the massively popular 2012 London Games just about broke even, despite an ad sales haul of $1.25 billion.

Because NBCs ad sales team deftly played the hand it was dealt, pricing its primetime inventory at a discount while offering correspondingly lower-than-usual performance guarantees, the network was able to at once manage and satisfy its clients expectations. Depending on the size of an advertisers overall commitment, primetime units could be had for as much as $200,000 less than the average 30-second spot went for in 2018.

A 17% increase in overall Olympics coverageNBCs Beijing slate beat out its Pyeongchang lineup by some 400 hours, thanks in large part to Peacocks expanded streaming offeringsand growth in social-media sales likely went some way toward offsetting the impact of the slashed ad rates. That said, a more precise read on how NBC fared in China may not be unearthed until late April, when parent company Comcast is expected to file its first-quarter earnings results.

On the day of the 2018 closing ceremonies, then-NBC Broadcasting and Sports chairman Mark Lazarus said the Pyeongchang Games had generated more than $920 million in national ad sales. Two months later, Comcasts 10-K report indicated that the Winter Olympics had generated $1.15 million in total revenue, with $770 million landing at NBCs broadcast flagship and another $378 million at the cable networks unit. (In the same document, Comcast said NBCs broadcast of Super Bowl LII had booked $423 million in revenue.)

Given the steep rise in the Olympics rights fees, the likelihood of NBC sauntering out of Beijing with a few extra bucks in its pocket is up there with Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding joining forces to revive the Ice Capades. When NBC renewed its contract through the 2032 Summer Games, Comcast plunked down $7.75 billion, and while the cost of each individual event has not been disclosed, historical precedent would put the price of carrying these Winter Olympics somewhere around $975 million.

Even with the savings that came with keeping the majority of the staff back home in Stamford, Conn.only 600 production, engineering and operations workers made it to China, a far cry from the 2,000 employees that were on the ground in PyeongchangBeijing was all but destined to break NBCs money-making streak. The sense of resignation was hard to miss; NBC Sports Group chairman Pete Bevacqua earlier this month acknowledged the difficulty of staging two COVID-stunted Olympics in a half-year window.

Were holding these Games during a pandemic, [and] weve had two Olympics within six months of one another, Bevacqua said on Feb. 10, before noting that the empty venues in Beijing made for a rather dispiriting backdrop for the various athletic competitions. Its no secret thatthose great moments of Olympic athletes hugging their family and friends and spouses and partners, so much of that magic is just out of necessity not present.

Not helping matters was the dystopian vibe that comes from attempting to showcase the Olympic spirit and global solidarity in a place where people are regularly ground under the boot of techno-totalitarianism. (For a more human-scale representation of what it looks like when the State turns dreams into despair and hope into hamburger, go back and re-watch the Black Mirror episode that was the womens figure skating event. Sacr bleu!)

NBCs Olympics anchor Mike Tirico addressed the 800-pound panda bear in the room during Sundays closing ceremonies, saying that while the Winter Games had proceeded without an international incident, the atmosphere in Beijing had been predictably oppressive. These Games have made it to the finish line, though no one would deny the shadow that Chinas place in the worldand a world that seems to be more troubled and complicated by the daycast over the competition, Tirico said. Its fair to question how were going to look back at these Games months, maybe years, into the future. Fair to question whether they should have been held here, and what they did and did not achieve.

In all likelihood, very few of the tens of millions of viewers who watched the Beijing Olympics will have much cause to think about it at all, and the Games westering tendenciesthey head to Paris in 2024, followed by a spell in Milan two years later, before splashing down in Los Angeles in 2028should go a long way toward burying any residual memories of Chinas cheerless spectacle.

After all, the Olympics have managed to survive two World Wars, the Great Depression, the 1972 Black September murders and an extended period of Cold War jockeying that blighted two consecutive Summer Games. The Beijing Olympics were far from ideal, but collective amnesia will make short work of whatever it was that happened there, even if such forgetfulness wont make up for NBCs revenue shortfall. It couldve been a lot worse, which is probably what Fox execs will be saying to themselves this December as they jet out of Qatar.

The Olympics have always been imperfect, and maybe more so now than ever before, Tirico said Sunday, by way of putting a bow on Beijing. There are real challenges ahead for this movement. But nothing else brings the world together like this. With troops amassing and militaries maneuvering, these 18 nights again reminded us of the power of sport, the power of people, and the power of the Games to galvanize.

So, as we formally say goodbye to these Olympics, well spend every one of the next 887 days hoping that scene on the Seine to open the 2024 Summer Games will be the start of something special.

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NBC Wont Profit on Beijings Least-Watched Olympics, but Hopes are High for Paris - Sportico

The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics wrapped up on Sunday, but Pittsburghers are still flocking to skating rinks and ski slopes, many of them inspired by the games.

February is typically the busiest month for Seven Springs Mountain Resort in Somerset County, said Alex Moser, the director of marketing and communications for the resort. And thanks to the recent snow and the greater visibility of winter sports, even more people are skiing and snowboarding.

The average person isnt going to watch a snowboarding event on TV unless its the Olympics, Moser said, but the games may encourage beginners to give the sport a try or push lapsed skiers and snowboarders to get back on the trails. He estimates that the Olympics boost attendance between 10% and 20%.

We wish the Olympics were every year, he said.

Attendance at the UPMC Rink at PPG Place downtown has been strong and steady, which operations manager Andre Sanders said isnt only attributable to the Olympics, but it definitely doesnt hurt that the games were this year.

In the 2019 regular season, the rink averaged about 206 people a day. This year, the average is closer to 322 people a day.

Especially after the Olympics we get a little boost, he said. The weekends have been up way up compared to previous Saturdays.

According to Sanders, around 1200 skaters came to the rink on Feb. 12 to see a figure skating demonstration and Olympic flag display. Thats up from 500 to 700 skaters on previous weekends.

At Allegheny Countys South Park ice rink, attendance peaked in early December and was maybe slightly heightened by the winter Olympics, manager Matt Witt said. But the pandemic has played a role in boosting attendance across facilities.

Data from the National Ski Areas Association, a trade organization for ski facility owners and operators, found that roughly 5.2 million people visited the southeast ski region (which includes Pennsylvania) during the 2020 to 2021 season. Only 4.2 million people visited the sites during the 2018-2019 season.

With the pandemic the last two winters weve seen a huge interest in learning how to ski and snowboard because its outdoors and its relatively safe, said Moser. Were still seeing people be interested in outdoor sports.

Moser hopes the Olympics will bring more people to winter sports.

Who doesnt want to emulate an incredible athlete? he asked. Winter can be very harsh on people mentally, physically. And I think skiing and snowboarding really offers that chance to enjoy winter.

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Winter sports hit their peak in Pittsburgh after the Olympics - 90.5 WESA

The Closing Ceremony wrapped up the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, but not before Nathan Chen punctuated his trip with a backflip, and Mikaela Shiffrin won a race.

BEIJING, China

The 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing officially came to an end Sunday morning with the Closing Ceremony. If you werent awake to see the ceremony live, it will air again during NBCs Olympic Primetime Coverage.

Before the games concluded there were still plenty of exciting moments, including figure skater Nathan Chen ending his gold medal-winning trip with a stunning performance, and skier Mikaela Shiffrin got her first win in an event after a disastrous start in Beijing.

Figure skating gala

American Nathan Chen gives a freeing performance to end his Olympic experience during the figure skating gala. During his routine, Chen landed an impeccable backflip punctuating his first gold medal at the Olympics.

Alpine skiing

In the alpine skiing combined team event, Mikael Shiffrin got her first win at the Beijing games over Slovakia's Rebeka Jancova, helping the U.S. to advance out of the first round. Unfortunately, the American team finished just off the podium in fourth.

Cross-country skiing

American skier Jessie Diggins guts it out to win the 25th and final U.S. medal of the Beijing Games, taking silver in the 30km cross-country race while combating the lingering symptoms of food poisoning.

Closing Ceremony

Athletes representing Team USA enter National Stadium, also known as the "Bird's Nest," to 'Ode to Joy' during the Closing Ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Anyone who wasnt awake early Sunday morning to watch live has another chance to see the ceremony in its entirety during NBCs Olympic Primetime coverage Sunday night.

Olympic Bloopers

From inadvertent stumbles to the dire need for snacks, here are the zaniest offbeat moments from the 2022 Winter Olympics.

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Winter Olympics top video moments for Sunday: Chen backflips, Shiffrin wins and the Closing Ceremony - 9News.com KUSA

21 February 2022, 13:59

Violinist Giovanni Andrea Zanon led the Italian national anthem alongside pop singer Malika Ayane at the closing ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics.

At the closing ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, China handed over duties to Italy, which is set to be the host country for the next Winter Games in 2026.

To mark the handover, the Italian national anthem was performed by pop singer Malika Ayane and violinist Giovanni Andrea Zanon as a beautiful solo violin-led arrangement.

Chinas theme for the 2022 Winter Games was to celebrate ordinary people and they did not have any major celebrities perform at the opening and closing ceremonies. Italy however, decided to highlight their national talents during the flag handover ceremony.

According to Christian Milici, Head of Events for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics, the performance decision of bringing a pop star and classical star together was to, represent the excellence of their seemingly distant worlds, as a metaphor or a harmonious dialogue between two opposites.

Read more: When Pavarotti sang his final Nessun dorma to close Italys Olympics Opening Ceremony

Pop singer Ayane, born in 1984, grew up in Milan, and as a teenager sung in the White Voices Choir at Italys famous opera house, the Teatro alla Scala. She also studied the cello at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in her hometown.

Ayane broke into the pop industry in the 2000s, and had multiple top 10 singles in Italy during the 2000s and 2010s.

However, she has also crossed over into the classical genre before. In 2009 she featured on Andrea Bocellis cover of Blue Christmas on the operatic Italian tenors 13th studio album, My Christmas.

Violinist Zanon, born in 1998, is a graduate of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia, and at the age of just 24 has already won over 30 national and international competitions.

Zanon performs on a Giuseppe Guarneri del Ges violin which was made in 1739 and was previously owned by American-born violinist Yehudi Menuhin.

Unlike the usually full orchestral version of the Italian national anthem, Ayane and Zanon performed a solo violin-led arrangement, where Zanon added impressive semi-quaver passages to the score.

The Italian national anthem only technically became the countrys official anthem in December 2017, 170 years after its original composition.

Read more: What are the lyrics to Italys national anthem, and what do they mean?

The 2026 Olympics will take place across both Milan and Cortina dAmpezzo, hence the name Milano Cortina. It will be the first Olympic Games to be hosted by two cities, two regions and two provinces.

The choice of location is reflected in the main theme for the 2026 games, which is creating a bridge between mankind (Milano) and nature (Cortina).

The 2026 logo was revealed in a theatrical performance at the 2022 closing ceremony as two young people walked on the surface of what appeared, thanks to lighting tricks, to be thin ice while playing with a globe.

According to the Milano Cortina Instagram page, this was to suggest the fragile condition of our planet, and sustainability will be at the heart of these next Games.

The performance was concluded by the tagline of the next Games lit up on the floor by LED lights, Duality, Together.

Read more: This mesmerising dance of bodies for the Paralympic Games is a visual masterpiece

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Violinist duets with vocalist at Olympics closing ceremony for unique take on Italys national anthem - Classic FM

Feb 20, 2022

Greg WyshynskiESPN

Finland won its first ever Olympic men's ice hockey gold medal with a 2-1 victory over the Russian Olympic Committee on Sunday in Beijing.

Finland forward Hannes Bjorninen scored the game-winning goal just 31 seconds into the third period. He added an assist on Ville Pokka's goal in the second period that tied the score after the ROC opened the scoring in the first period.

This was the 18th Olympic men's ice hockey tournament appearance for Finland, which was undefeated in six games in Beijing. The nation won silver in 1988 and 2006 and captured bronze four times (1994, 1998, 2010, 2014) before capturing gold.

"It is hard to put in words what it means. What a tough tournament. I felt like we played well the whole time, and this is the reward," said Finland forward Valtteri Filppula, who won a Stanley Cup with the Detroit Red Wings in 2008. "Hockey's a big thing in Finland. This is for all of us, for sure."

Harri Sateri made 16 saves, but it was the Finnish offensive attack and forecheck that won the day. Finland had a 21-14 shot edge after two periods and ended with a 31-17 shot advantage for the game. Russia was seeking its second straight Olympic men's hockey gold medal -- although not necessarily by name.

Russia competed as the Russian Olympic Committee due to a ban from the World Anti-Doping Agency, which prohibited Russian athletes from wearing their flag or any Russian symbol on their uniforms. This follows IOC sanctions in 2018, when Olympic athletes from Russia captured the gold at the Pyeongchang Olympics.

The ROC opened the scoring on its second shot. With Bjorninen in the box for a high-sticking penalty, forward Mikhail Grigorenko used a perfectly set screen from teammate Pavel Karnaukhov to beat Sateri for a 1-0 lead just 7:17 into the game. Nikita Gusev picked up an assist for his team-leading sixth point.

The Finns tied the score just 3:28 into the second period. Defenseman Ville Pokka sent a shot from just inside the blue line that went through the legs of defenseman Nikita Nesterov and past goalie Ivan Fedotov to knot the score at 1-1.

The Finns took a 2-1 lead 31 seconds into the third period. The sequence began with Fedotov giving the puck away to Bjorninen. That sparked a forechecking clinic by Finland that had the ROC running around in its own zone. Forward Marko Anttila collected the puck and sent a wrist shot from high in the zone. It was deflected by Bjorninen for the first Finland lead.

Among the former NHL players winning gold for Finland: forwards Markus Granlund, Valtteri Filppula and Leo Komarov, as well as defensemen Sami Vatanen and Mikko Lehtonen.

"Great team. Great effort. It wasn't easy for us, but we found a way to win every game," Anttila said. "We found a way to win these tough games."

The Beijing Olympics marked the second straight Winter Games without the participation of NHL players. Despite an agreement between the NHL and the NHLPA to send players to Beijing, the league decided to opt out due to a material change to its 2021-22 regular-season schedule because of COVID-19 postponements.

Finland wasn't the only Olympic team to make history in Beijing. Slovakia, which eliminated the U.S. in the quarterfinals, defeated Sweden 4-0 to capture the bronze, its first Olympic men's hockey medal.

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Finland beats ROC to win nation's first Olympic men's ice hockey gold medal - ESPN

US hockey loses gold to Canada, Shiffrin skis out; Two-woman bobsled Friday

Mikaela Shiffrin will leave Beijing without an individual medal. US women's hockey falls to Canada in gold medal game. Kaillie Humphries returns Friday.

Sandy Hooper, USA TODAY

BEIJING The 2022 Winter Olympics will likely be remembered as bothcontroversial and isolating. They've featuredpolitical tensions and severe COVID-19 restrictions. Questions about the whereabouts of Peng Shuai and forced labor camps in Xinjiang. Plexiglass barriers. A Russian doping scandal. Complaintsfrom athletes about quality of food and quarantine conditions.

But you wouldn't know any of that from talking with 16-year-old figure skaterAlysa Liu.

"ITS BEEN SO FUN SO FAR," she wrote on Instagram last week.

The youngest athlete on Team USA in Beijing, Liu said she's been having a blast in her first trip to the Games, despite all the negativity surrounding them. She's made new friends from other countries, bought souvenirs for friends back home, participated in multiple snowball fights and raved about the peach juice available in the Olympic village.

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The experience hasn't really been what she expected, but in a great way.

"I thought because of COVID and everything, I would just be in my room, and then (at the rink). But thats not the case," Liu said after her short program Tuesday night.

"And theres, like, a mall (at the Olympic village). I didnt know there was a mall. I found out when I got here. I was like, theres a mall? I think they told us there was a mall, but I obviously didnt hear that. So the village is really fun."

Liu said she's also been surprised by how many games are available in the village, including a mini basketball arcade game outside their Team USA apartment, and cornhole boards outside of Team Canada's.

"Apparently, I was playing it wrong," she said, laughing."I was like throwing (overhand). Someone from our medical team was like, uh, underhand Alysa.' "

That Liu skated well in her short program Tuesday night was just an added bonus.

A two-time U.S. champion who was knocked out of this year's national championships by a positive COVID-19 test, Liu finished eighth in the first half of the women's individual competition, leaving her as the highest-ranked American in the field. She later said teammate Madison Hubbell, who won a bronze medal in ice dance, did her makeup ahead of the competition.

"Im really glad I did a clean short program," Liu said afterwards."I would also be fine if I didnt do a clean short, but Im glad I did a clean short program."

Naturally, she had a huge smile when she stepped onto the ice, and perhaps an even larger one when she left.

Liu's outlook has offered a rare glimpse of the excitement that usually permeates the Olympics but has been harder to come by in Beijing. And it hasn't been dampened by what's happening in Liu's own event with Russian skater Kamila Valieva, who has been permitted to compete despite testing positive for a banned substance, sparking a high-stakes legal battle and international backlash.

When asked if they're following Valieva's case, most skaters Tuesday demurred or said they were only focused on their own performances. But Liu?

"Yeah, its like the biggest thing thats happened here so far in the figure skating event," she said."So, yeah, weve definitely talked about it. ...Every time something new happens, we tell each other, because there's updates on it."

Liu admitted that "it does suck" that Valieva's case led to the cancellation of the medal ceremony for the team figure skating event, where her teammates were scheduled to receive silver medals. But she understands it. And while the Valieva saga continues to loom over her event, she said it hasn't tarnished her Olympic debut.

"Im still having fun here," Liu said. "It hasnt ruined my experience here."

Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on Twitter @Tom_Schad.

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Alysa Liu having a blast during Winter Olympics that have been controversial and isolating - USA TODAY

BEIJING They have come to an end, the strangest, most controversial, most unwelcoming Olympic Games of our lifetime.

Walled off from the outside world in order to succeed, accompanied every step of the way by questions about Chinas human rights abuses, the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games ended their bizarre 17-day run on a frigid Sunday night at the Birds Nest, Chinas National Stadium.

We have never seen anything quite like these Olympics. They will be deemed a success only because they were not an abject failure. The closed-loop fortress worked; COVID-19 did not explode and run rampant through the Games.

But at what cost? These were an Olympics without personality, untouchable by design. The purpose of an Olympics is to unite the athletes, to extend into the community, to metaphorically bring the world closer.

There was no chance of that here. This wasnt a joyous festival of sport; this was a forbidding fortress of separation. Gates slammed shut every minute of every day, keeping anyone associated with the Olympics away from everyone else in Beijing. It had to be, but it was jarring, and wont soon be forgotten.

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AT GAMES WITH NOTHING POSSIBLE: US athletes showed obstacles can be overcome

Dancers perform during the closing ceremony for the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

In this sense, these were the non-Olympic Olympics. There were times they felt more like a big multi-sport world championships, detached and unconnected. While there were momentous triumphs, heartbreak stole the show: from Mikaela Shiffrins star-crossed ski slopes to Kamila Valievas unrelenting sheet of ice, from the devastating quarantine isolation of American athletes Elana Meyers Taylor and Vincent Zhou to an empty medal stand where team figure skaters should have stood.

We were celebrated back home but we werent celebrated here, U.S. team figure skating co-captain Evan Bates lamented on Sunday, referring to the International Olympic Committees decision to keep the silver-medal-winning Americans and bronze medalist Japanese from receiving the medals they won nearly two weeks ago out of fear that the gold-medal-winning Russians will be disqualified due to Valievas positive drug test.

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This moment has now passed and this window is closing and people move on, Bates said sadly. To leave here without the Olympic medal that we won fairly is unbelievable. Its unprecedented.

What a fitting coda on Beijings Olympics, unprecedented in so many ways, and at times, just very sad.

Dancers perform during the closing ceremony for the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

Coming along six months after the Tokyo Summer Olympics, these Games were so much like those last year in Japan, forever altered by the pandemic, never reaching their potential. But the issues emanating from Beijings Olympics were far more serious, making the Tokyo Olympics look almost normal by comparison.

The troubling saga of three-time Olympian Peng Shuai served as a prelude to these Games, then merged with them when she was paraded from event to event by the IOC as if to say all was well, whitewashing the worlds current biggest #MeToo case.

These Games offered more questions than answers, more uncertainty than resolution. What becomes of Valieva, an athlete who should have transcended the Olympics, but instead left broken under the weight of their pressure? Who ends up winning the gold medal in team figure skating, and when will they win it? Will Russia and its state-sponsored doping system ever be taught a lesson? How does Shiffrin move on from here?

To be sure, all was not lost, perhaps best exhibited at the closing ceremony by Meyers Taylor robustly waving the rippling U.S. flag as she entered the massive stadium. She was supposed to carry the flag in the opening ceremony but was in COVID isolation instead. After getting out, then winning silver and bronze here, she got another chance.

Russia seems to get more chances than anyone, so it was fitting that the last medal ceremony of these Games, held on the floor of the stadium, was for a Russian cross-country skiing gold medalist. The Russian flag wasnt supposed to be here, but there it was on his detachable armband. The irony was lost on no one that the nation the IOC officially didnt allow to be at these Games was the one holding the final celebration.

Thats Beijing 2022 in a nutshell. Nothing was quite right; everything seemed a bit off. One big cautionary tale, thats what it was.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 2022 Winter Olympics go down as most unwelcoming, controversial

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The most controversial, most unwelcoming Olympics of our lifetime are now over | Opinion - Yahoo! Voices

Norway's Therese Johaug gestures as she wins the women's skiathlon 2x7,5km event during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games on February 5, 2022. Odd Anderson/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Norway's Therese Johaug gestures as she wins the women's skiathlon 2x7,5km event during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games on February 5, 2022.

BEIJING When Tore Ovrebo, head of Norway's vaunted national athlete development program known as Olympia toppen, arrived in Beijing, he predicted exactly how many medals his country would win.

"The medal aim is 32 three, two," Ovrebo said at a press conference, making the number crystal clear for anyone not listening closely.

That is an astonishingly high bar, sort of like a Major League Baseball manager promising his pitcher will throw a no-hitter.

Ovrebo proceeded to map out his game plan, predicting Norway would medal repeatedly in three core disciplines: alpine skiing, biathlon and cross-country skiing.

Gold medallists Hallgeir Engebraaten, Peder Kongshaug and Sverre Lunde Pedersen of Team Norway pose during the Men's Team Pursuit medal ceremony at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics on February 15, 2022. David Ramos/Getty Images hide caption

Gold medallists Hallgeir Engebraaten, Peder Kongshaug and Sverre Lunde Pedersen of Team Norway pose during the Men's Team Pursuit medal ceremony at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics on February 15, 2022.

With the Winter Olympics entering the final days of competition, his country's athletes are actually well ahead of schedule. The U.S. with its vastly larger population lags by half a dozen medals.

Norway's athletes are outpacing the U.S. even though its team is less than half the size, with 99 Norwegians competing in Beijing compared to 223 Americans.

So how does a nation with so few people do it? The Norwegians have been asked this a lot in Beijing.

"It's a good question," said Birk Ruud, a member of Norway's freestyle ski team, who won a gold medal in the Olympic big air competition. "We're a country with a lot of good genes and we work hard."

He and his teammate Ferdinand Dahl told reporters that winter sport is a big part of life in their northern country. It's something just about everyone does from the time they're little kids.

"We have this term, that we're born with skis on our feet," Dahl said. "Fun is the fundamental drive. A lot of hard work, I think and a lot of fun and dedication and skiing."

That national sports culture has created a pipeline of skiing superstars that other countries, so far, can only aspire to match.

Maiken Caspersen Falla of Team Norway competes during the Women's Cross-Country Team Sprint Classic Semifinals at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics on February 16, 2022. Clive Rose/Getty Images hide caption

Maiken Caspersen Falla of Team Norway competes during the Women's Cross-Country Team Sprint Classic Semifinals at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics on February 16, 2022.

Young people compete against each other, growing stronger before they ever reach the international level.

Sometimes Norwegian athletes are so dominant, so much better than the competition, other nations build strategies around the race for silver and bronze.

"Therese is queen of cross-country skiing and now I feel like I'm the little princess," said Finnish skier Kerttu Niskanen, after finishing second to Norway's star cross-country racer Therese Johaug.

At that press conference, Johaug herself - who had already won a pair of gold medals - confidently predicted she might reach the podium two more times.

"Today I took the second [gold medal] and its fantastic but the Olympics is not finished yet," she said.

There are some practical things, beyond a love of winter and snow, that raise Norway's Olympics game. Many of these sports disciplines are pretty marginal in the U.S. in terms of audience appeal.

But in Nordic countries, cross country skiing and biathlon are mainstays on television. With that popularity comes fame for Norwegian athletes, along with more sponsorships, more money.

Norway also funds its Olympic athlete development programs with a national lottery.

Billy Demong is a former U.S. Olympian in Nordic combined, a sport that pairs ski jumping with cross country skiing. He won a break-out gold medal in Vancouver 12 years ago.

Norway's Robert Johansson soars through heavy snow fall during the Ski Jumping Men's Large Hill official training on February 13, 2022 during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games. Odd Anderson/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Norway's Robert Johansson soars through heavy snow fall during the Ski Jumping Men's Large Hill official training on February 13, 2022 during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

But he notes that his success wasn't followed by a pipeline of other American athletes reaching the podium.

"Was there a group [of U.S. athletes] behind me?" Demong said. "Absolutely there was. Did they all quit essentially or retire young? Absolutely."

Demong now heads a team called USA Nordic that develops Olympic-caliber ski jumpers and Nordic combined athletes. He says the problem isn't a lack of talent, though he does think the the U.S. does need a broader base of grassroots winter sports programs.

He says there's just not enough money to keep Americans in these sports at the elite level until they can mature and get really good the way Norwegians can do.

"Nobody's making money from sponsors in these niche winter Olympic disciplines" in the U.S., Demong said. "We certainly don't have the income to be able to pay our athletes."

Demong said if the U.S. wants to compete for medals in a broader variety of winter sports, Congress needs to work with the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and other sports programs to revamp funding programs.

"We've got to get more creative than this," Demong said. He suggested expanding the U.S. military's athlete program and considering a small tax on sports betting to support development of Olympic talent.

But that kind of transition, even if it happens, won't produce Norway-style success for years. It takes a long time to nurture, train and polish athletes of this caliber.

Meanwhile the Norwegian Olympic machine is firing on all cylinders now, with its athletes still looking forward to many of their best events in the final weekend of the Beijing Games.

That 32-medal goal? It's starting to look like a low-ball estimate.

Gold medallists Tarjei Boe, Sturla Holm Laegreid, Johannes Thingnes Boe and Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen of Team Norway celebrate with their team and staff during Men's Biathlon 4x7.5km Relay flower ceremony on February 15, 2022 at the Beijing Winter Olympics. Patrick Smith/Getty Images hide caption

Gold medallists Tarjei Boe, Sturla Holm Laegreid, Johannes Thingnes Boe and Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen of Team Norway celebrate with their team and staff during Men's Biathlon 4x7.5km Relay flower ceremony on February 15, 2022 at the Beijing Winter Olympics.

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Norway dominates the Beijing Winter Olympics medal count. Why is it so good? - NPR

There is a reason why Charlie Volker became the NSJIAA 100-meter dash champion at Rumson-Fair Haven High School, an All-Ivy League running back at Princeton University and a member of the USA Bobsled team for the 2022 Winter Olympics.

He holds himself to sky-high standards.

So Volker departed Beijing Sunday with decidedly mixed feelings after his four-man bobsled team finished 10th and his two-man team placed 27th.

A very cool experience, he wrote via text as he prepared to board a plane home. To compete against the best in the world, share meals, and live amongst them is something like I have never experienced before. As for our results, I have mixed emotions.

BACKSTORY: How Charlie Volker made the USA Bobsled team

Neither of the two U.S. pilots, Hunter Church and Frank Del Duca, was able to attend a crucial test event on Beijings bobsled track last fall. Del Duca wasnt ranked high enough at the time yes, there is a worldwide ranking for bobsled pilots.Church, who was Volkers pilot in both events, broke his toe over the summer after dropping a weight on his foot.

We were fighting an uphill battle, Volker said. Despite this, we had some fun learning the track. When it finally came time for the races, for the most part I dont think we performed as expected. The 2-man was awful, and I was disturbed with how slow we pushed compared to in season. Then the first day of 4-man racing we were the last sled up to the start, and thus started off the competition on the wrong foot. After the first day, we sat in 13th in what was supposed to be our medal contention event.

Volkers four-man bobsled team earned a bronze medal at Januarys Bobsleigh World Cup, which is viewed as a reliable precursor to the Olympics. In Beijing they wound up finishing 2.76 seconds behind the gold medalists from Germany. Each bobsled team makes four runs, and the first one left Volkers quartet playing catch-up.

That was frustrating, but we came back swinging today (Sunday) with some better start times and down times, he said. So in a way we ended the season on a better note. Theres definitely still frustration, because we were shooting to medal, but a top 10 finish is decent, and will only fuel my fire.

The 24-year-old, who hails from Fair Haven, was a newcomer to bobsledding in 2020 after NFL scouts recommended it to him. He earned a spot as thebrakeman the fourth and final push-man on the USA's top sled.

This sport has taught me a lot about the importance of leadership, and these games have taught me the importance of having a support system, Volker said. I had family and friends watching from New Jerseyto Okinawa, and that was incredible to feel so supported.I am very blessed to have them all in my life rooting me on.

Although he spent most of his time in Beijing focused on his events, Volker wound up sitting next to American snowboarding legend Shaun White during the opening ceremony (hes a cool dude) and took a gondola ride atop a local mountain on an off day (the views up there were incredible).

With this experience under his belt, will he continue to pursue bobsledding with an eye toward the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Games in Italy?

Thats a question Ive been asked a whole lot recently, he said. I need to go home and spend some time with my family and friends before I make my game plan.

Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996. Contact him atjcarino@gannettnj.com.

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Winter Olympics: Fair Haven's Charlie Volker departs Beijing with 'mixed emotions' - Asbury Park Press