Category Archives: Olympics

YANQING, China At this point, Mikaela Shiffrin has gotten used to a certain rhythm to her life. Every four years, the world appears on her doorstep and asks how many medals she is going to win at the Olympics.

After all, she is, by many accounts, the best skier in the world.

Yet for several years now, Shiffrin has been trying to explain that Alpine skiing, with its microscopic margins for error and its laundry list of uncertainties, is not that predictable. A shift as subtle as a gust of wind, or the movement of a cloud that allows sunlight to soften the snow in the middle of a race, can make the difference between a gold medal and 11th place.

On Monday, the lesson was evident: She slid off course during her first run in the giant slalom and is out of contention for a medal in that event.

It proved again what even the worlds best skiers know, that years of preparation and training can mean little at the Olympics if conditions and circumstances do not cooperate. It is a reality that this year has driven Shiffrin to try not to overthink what she is about to confront on a mountain she and almost everyone else will be racing on for the first time.

When the wind is like this, were just going to have to know that you could do everything right and get a gust of wind, and thats that, Shiffrin said of the competition that will unfold on the blustery, unfamiliar terrain of the Yanqing National Alpine Skiing Center.

Depending on her results, her energy level and the schedule, she might compete in all five individual races at these Games, starting with the giant slalom on Monday. The idea that she might not win any of them, through no fault of her own but because of bad luck, she admits, is a little bit of a bummer.

It is one of the great frustrations of Alpine skiing. Nothing solidifies an athletes status as one of the greats like an Olympic medal. But those medals can be won, or lost, in as little as two minutes.

The globe winner is the best skier of the whole season, Vincent Kriechmayr of Austria said on Friday, referring to the glass trophy awarded to the World Cup champion each year. But being an Olympic champion is one of the most important goals you can reach in your career.

As the wind blew snow across the finish area in Yanqing last week, Kriechmayr spoke in a downcast tone, which made sense. He has a crystal globe and four world championship medals two of them gold but he has yet to win an Olympic medal.

Feb. 7, 2022, 6:32 a.m. ET

Its critical to a legacy, said Lindsey Vonn, the retired champion. She won the downhill at the 2010 Vancouver Games, a triumph she described as the transformational event in her life in her autobiography, Rise.

It was on my mind going into Vancouver, Vonn said. To truly be great, I had to win at the Olympics.

As Shiffrin heads to the starting hut on Monday to defend her gold medal in the giant slalom, the argument for the sheer randomness of the Olympic Alpine competition has most likely never been stronger. There are the usual array of uncontrollable factors that nature can deliver at any ski race, including bright sunshine and warming temperatures that can soften the snow and make the course slower with each passing minute.

In Yanqing, an exposed, blustery and rocky peak, skiers have been saying for days that the wind could be the leading differentiator between the podium and also-rans, which means a life-changing medal could be determined by the luck of the bib draw that assigns starting places. A difference of half a second, Travis Ganong of the United States said after his training run on Friday.

There is also the cruel truth of the sport, in which there is rarely time to recover from a slight slip or a momentary catching of a ski edge. Shiffrin won her fifth crystal globe in slalom in 2018, but she finished fourth in the Olympic slalom competition at the Pyeongchang Games that year because of a rough night of sleep before the race.

And then there is the newness of the slopes at Yanqing. Olympic competitions often take place on mountains that are not part of the World Cup circuit, but every skier at Yanqing is racing the courses for the first time because the coronavirus pandemic prevented the traditional test events from taking place in the year before the Games.

We know the hill is steep and all the snow is man-made and maybe going to be cold, Paula Moltzan, a teammate of Shiffrins, said as she prepared to travel to China from Europe. But every microclimate has its own type of snow.

So far, the dry cold of Yanqing has kept the snow crisp, light and hard, but the forecast is for warming temperatures throughout the week and an unpredictable wind.

Shiffrin has been thinking for a while now that her ability to quickly learn a new slope may be to her advantage: She is at her core a specialist in slalom and giant slalom, disciplines that typically do not have pre-race training with gates set on the course. That often requires racers to arrive in the morning, examine the piste and the gates and have at it. In contrast, speed specialists usually excel by getting to know the same slopes year after year, and learning the best paths through the twists and rolls of the different tracks.

That does not lessen the pressure of the Olympics races, though. Before Shiffrins first Games in 2014, she said, she did not understand the gravity of what winning an Olympic medal could mean. Then she won and got a big taste of it, and it was on her mind perhaps a bit too much going into Pyeongchang in 2018.

Control what you can control, Shiffrin said. Just try not to get too disappointed about the rest.

See the rest here:

The Best Skiers Dont Always Win at the Olympics. Here's Why - The New York Times

The Olympics have now earned their second pandemic gold medal, against the advice of many protesting the games this year. Despite the rising Omicron variant and the lack of IRL coverage, 109 events are taking place this year, more than any other winter season. After beginning the season on a slippery slope (literally, a camera was caught sliding down the ski slope), the Winter Olympics have returned to Beijing for their first stint with snowy games.

Where there are numerous competitions happening in the early mornings, there are roundups to accompany them. From Johnny Weirs Hunger Gamesesque outfits to the Jamaica bobsled teams return, the highs are as glamorous and cinematic as they can get in a global pandemic. There are also the lows of another sports competition during a variant spike, which makes rooting for your favorite snowboarder (or rainbow panda) not feel quite right. Regardless of how you feel, the Winter Olympics have slid into our TVs like a rogue camera, lost on a mountain in China.

This post will be updated as the Olympics continue.

HIGH: Kamila Valiyeva ushers in Womens Skatings quad era

Kamila Valiyeva became the first woman to land a quad (specifically a quadruple Salchow) at the beginning of her free skate. She is the first woman to land a quad at the Olympics. Part of Russias Quad Squad, she is building on the work of skaters that came before her like Surya Bonaly, who was the first woman to attempt a quad in competition at the 1990 European Championships. Quadruple jumps are still outlawed in Womens Skating short programs, but allowed during free skate.

LOW: Mikaela Shiffrins inauspicious Beijing debut

Defending Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin was disqualified on her first Beijing Olympics event, giant slalom. She slid and crashed on her side, missing a gate. Shiffrin, 26, is still trying to be come the first Apline skiier to win three Olympics golds, and she still has some chances at Beijing. Her next event is the slalom (regular size) on Wednesday, an event she won at Sochi.

HIGH: Russian Jesus Skater

Who has a crown of thorns, a love for one of the silliest musicals of all time, and a flair for the dramatic? Its Mark Kondratiuk, the 18-year-old Russian figure skater who free-styled to a Jesus Christ Superstar medley while dressed (of course) like Jesus himself. The performance, which you can watch in full below, even featured a figure-skating-interpretation of the flagellation of Christ, which is just as campy as it sounds.

LOW: Whatever Johnny Weir is wearing here.

Were not sure what to make of this.

HIGH: Rainbow Panda Mascot!!

The 2022 Winter Olympics mascot is a cute rainbow panda named Bing Dwen Dwen. Does he resemble a Masked Singer mascot? Yes. Is he slightly terrifying? Okay, maybe!! Nevertheless, this little guy is an adorable rainbow astronaut panda who should win every medal.

LOW: Someone Skated in a Joker Costume

And to the soundtrack of the film! When will we know peace

HIGH: The Yassification of Team USA

Skims, a.k.a. Kimberly Kardashians clothing line, sent Team USA a swag bag full of clothing so they can be winter baddies.

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Winter Olympics 2022: The Best and Worst Moments - Vulture

BEIJING China did not move mountains to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. But it flooded a dried riverbed, diverted water from a key reservoir that supplies Beijing and resettled hundreds of farmers and their families, all to feed one of the most extensive snow-making operations in the history of the Games.

This is what happens when the International Olympic Committee decides to bring the Winter Games to a place almost completely lacking in one of the main ingredients for winter sports: snow. Whats more, Beijing and its nearby mountains did not have that much water to make the artificial kind, either.

Machine-made snow has played a major role in winter sports for decades, even in snowier places like Norway, Switzerland and Colorado. In Beijings version of the Winter Games, the competitions that begin this weekend will for the first time take place almost entirely on artificial snow, necessitating an Olympic snow-making and water-management operation of enormous scale, and foreshadowing the reality of snow sports everywhere as the planet warms.

On the mountains where the Alpine competitions take place, which do not have any recreational skiing, narrow strips of white, visible from miles away, now cut through the brown mountains.

Beijing officials insist that snow production for the Games will not strain local water supplies, which have struggled to keep pace with the citys demands. But Chinas herculean investments in snow making are part of larger efforts to turn the arid mountains near Beijing into a permanent ski and snowboard hub, a project that could face challenges as climate change upends patterns of rainfall and drought.

Worldwide, the environmentally unfriendly secret of skiing and snowboarding competitions is that, as natural snow becomes less reliable, they almost always take place on the artificial kind. As the planet continues to heat up, machine-made snow will play an ever-larger role in guaranteeing a consistent, high-caliber field of play.

You could not have winter sports now without man-made snow, said Michael Mayr, the Asia manager of TechnoAlpin, the Italian company in charge of snow-making for the Beijing Games and at six previous Winter Olympics.

What sets Beijing apart from many of those past venues are its tight supplies of water, whether for snow making or for anything else. Over the past few decades, rapid development has sapped Beijings groundwater. July and August often bring heavy rains, but the city and nearby mountains get only sprinkles of precipitation in the winter: less than 2.5 inches per season on average in recent decades, according to data from a weather station near the Olympic venues.

In 2017, the last year for which international figures are available, Beijing had only about as much freshwater resources per resident 36,000 gallons as the western African nation of Niger, at the edge of the Sahara. Zhangjiakou, the city 100 miles northwest of the capital that will host some skiing and snowboarding events, had 83,000 gallons per resident, comparable to Djibouti in the Horn of Africa.

The United States, by contrast, had 2.3 million gallons per person. Countries with less than 260,000 gallons of freshwater resources per person are considered water-scarce.

Florian Hajzeri, who has been in China for four years overseeing the snow-making project for TechnoAlpin, said he realized the magnitude of his task as soon as he saw the landscape of the Olympic competition areas.

There are trees and vegetation, but it is not like an Alpine forest: It is vegetation for a drier climate, he said. It snows, but it is not enough for the competitions.

Before TechnoAlpin could install pumps and build more than 40 miles of pipe, at a cost of nearly $60 million, Chinese officials first had to figure out how to deliver enough water to the mountains.

How much water? Roughly one million cubic meters, according to TechnoAlpin, enough to fill 400 Olympic-size swimming pools. And that is just to start the Games. More snow, and more water, will likely be needed as the competitions take place.

To gather it all, Chinese authorities have built pumping stations to carry water from reservoirs miles away.

According to a state-run newspaper, Beijing has diverted water from the citys Baihebao Reservoir to the Guishui River, which flows near the Olympic zone but had long been mostly dried up in winter. Previously, Baihebao had primarily supplied the Miyun Reservoir, one of the largest stores of clean water for Beijing households.

Officials in Zhangjiakou which is pronounced sort of like jong jah coe have turned off irrigation across tens of thousands of acres to conserve groundwater, and resettled farmers who were living in what is now the Olympic competition area in high-rise apartments.

Modern China is no stranger to monumental water projects. Its biggest effort to ease Beijings water troubles began well before the Olympics: a colossal series of waterways that is transferring trillions of gallons of water a year from the nations humid south to its thirsty north. Hundreds of thousands of villagers were relocated to make way for the canals. Water from the project accounted for a sixth of Beijings water supply in 2020.

While the Chinese government has made progress on water issues in recent years, scientists and environmentalists say the capital cannot afford to rest on its laurels.

They still have to do more on water conservation, increasing water-use efficiency and ensuring social equity in water allocation, said Ximing Cai, a professor of water resources engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. If the Olympics spur a burst of economic development in the hills near Beijing, he said, the water use associated with that should be planned with caution.

But climate change could both deepen northern Chinas need for water and affect southern Chinas ability to provide it. Scientists have found that recent severe heat waves and floods in China were much more likely to occur because of human-caused climate change.

Under the backdrop of global warming, the risks to major infrastructure projects in China are increasing, Zheng Guoguang, then the countrys top weather official, told a Communist Party journal in 2015, citing the South-North transfer project among others.

Chinese officials say they are limiting the impact of snow-making, particularly because the snow that is made will be collected after it melts so it can be reused.

But scientists who study snow-making have found that a portion of the water evaporates after it is blasted out of a cannon but before it can crystallize into a flake. Some of the flakes are blown away by wind. Some droplets do not fully freeze and end up draining into the ground.

Two researchers in Switzerland, Thomas Grnewald and Fabian Wolfsperger, conducted experiments at a ski resort near Davos and found that as much as 35 percent of the water used for snow making was lost in these ways. (Water that seeps into the ground is not gone completely, of course. It helps replenish groundwater.)

Still, Wolfsperger said, Its definitely not environmentally friendly to build a ski hub near a water-scarce place like Beijing. But winter sports have never been that in general.

Other research has found that artificial ski runs can erode the soil and degrade vegetation, regardless of the kind of snow they use.

For skiers and snowboarders, competing entirely on machine-made snow changes everything about how they prepare for the Olympics, the biggest event of most of their lives, from the wax they use to increase speed, to training for the heightened risk of a slicker surface. In warmer weather, man-made snow surfaces tend to break down more quickly than those made of natural snow, athletes said.

This is not the first time we have been racing on artificial snow, and unfortunately it does not seem like its going to be the last, said Jessie Diggins, a gold medalist in cross-country in 2018 who has become a climate change activist in recent years.

Its harder and icier and transforms differently with different weather, she said. And because it is faster, some of the downhills ski much faster when you are rolling in. It can make the course I dont want to say dangerous but more tricky in terms of figuring out how you are going to navigate corners.

Under certain conditions, though, such as the very cold temperatures expected in China, Alpine skiers sometimes prefer artificial snow, because technicians can produce wet flakes that freeze into the kind of smooth, rock-hard surface they prefer.

It is more dense, said Travis Ganong, an American who specializes in speed events. It doesnt really form flakes, and when it is groomed it gets more packed. It just sits really well, and it becomes very uniform. Its actually how we like it.

Keith Bradsher contributed reporting.

See the article here:

How Beijing Created Snow for the Winter Olympics - The New York Times

Therese Johaug of Norway after winning the 15-kilometer womens skiathlon cross-country race at the National Cross-Country Center in Zhangjiakou.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times

Therese Johaug of Norway won the first gold medal of the Beijing Games on Saturday, dominating the 15-kilometer skiathlon after opening a commanding lead midway through the race that determines the worlds best all-around skier.

The 33-year-old Johaug, a 14-time world champion and three-time Olympic medalist, left the field behind after the first half of the race, which is skied half in the classical up-and-down skiing style and half in the less-regimented skating style.

The World Cup leader, Natalya Nepryayeva of Russia, held off Teresa Stadlober of Austria in a close battle for silver and bronze. Nepryayeva edged Stadlober, a surprise medalist, by three-tenths of a second, but both finished more than 30 seconds behind Johaug, whose winning time was 44 minutes 13.7 seconds.

The race was held in the frigid, blustery conditions of the Zhangjiakou National Cross Country Skiing Center, on a day so cold that dozens of skiers competed wearing hats and facemasks and tape on their cheeks to prevent windburn, a rarity in a sport that involves so much exertion.

The American Jessie Diggins, a hero of the 2018 Games after her dramatic closing leg delivered gold in the womens team sprint Theyve given it everything on the Klaebo bakken! finished sixth, nearly a minute behind Johaug.

A really promising start, said Diggins, whose specialty is the sprint races and who would have been a surprise medalist in a race that required so much classical skiing, her weaker style.

The frigid temperatures and gusty winds made for brutal racing conditions. Hailey Swirbul, another American, said one gust of wind nearly brought her to a complete stop.

The gold is Johaugs second in an Olympic race, joining a collection that includes a relay gold from the 2010 Vancouver Games and a silver and bronze from Sochi in 2014.

Russian Olympic Committee

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She missed the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, however, while serving a doping suspension for testing positive for a banned steroid in 2016. Johaug and Norwegian skiing officials blamed the result on a team doctors mistake, claiming he had accidentally given her the substance that was contained in a lip balm.

But the international ski federation pressed for a longer ban, and the Court of Arbitration for Sport agreed, extending her suspension to 18 months.

Diggins, the American star, had wanted to kick off the Olympics in grand style, but she couldnt match the power of Johaug and a clump of other European skiers during the classical first half of the race. Four years ago, Diggins and her former teammate Kikkan Randall became the first Americans to win gold in cross country, and the first Americans to win a cross-country medal since 1976.

Since that victory, Diggins has become one of the most feared skiers in the world, a wiry spark plug with seemingly limitless reserves of energy that force her competitors into submission and propel her to the finish when a race is on the line.

Skiathlon is a unique test, though, since it requires skiers to excel at both classical style skiing, in which the skis remain in a straight line, and freestyle, or skate skiing, a motion that is similar to ice skating.

Its an event that has always proven tough for American skiers, most of whom grow up skiing freestyle and then learn how to ski classical when they get older and begin to compete. European skiers are far more likely to have been introduced to classical style skiing at a young age.

Diggins has spent countless hours during the past four years trying to improve her performance in classical. The efforts helped lead to her becoming the first American woman to win the prestigious Tour de Ski in 2021, a multidisciplinary, eight-stage race that takes place in three venues in multiple countries over 10 days.

She will have several more chances to medal in Beijing, especially in the individual sprint, scheduled for Tuesday.

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Olympics Highlights: China Wins Its First Medal at the Beijing Games - The New York Times

A fiasco with COVID-19 testing left American speedskater Casey Dawson unable to compete in the 5,000 meter event at the Winter Olympics -- and stuck stateside -- but he was determined to participate in his first Olympic Games no matter what and no matter how late he arrived.

On Sunday, Dawson began a journey halfway around the world, in hopes of arriving in China just hours before the 1,500 meter race on Tuesday.

The 21-year-old tested positive for the virus about three weeks ago, but was under the impression he would be able to make the trek if he produced two consecutive negative tests. He was then informed he needed four consecutive tests from approved testing sites.

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Dawson was unable to get cleared in time to be there for his first race, but the Team USA athlete refused to miss out on the opportunity. After getting his fourth negative test on Saturday night, Dawson left Salt Lake City on Sunday morning for a flight to Atlanta. He then hopped on a red-eye to Paris and will then get on another red-eye to Beijing.

If globetrotting was an Olympic sport, Dawson would most certainly get the gold medal.

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Winter Olympics 2022 -- Team USA's Casey Dawson will not be deterred on globe-crossing journey to Beijing - ESPN

BEIJING, China If youre going to freeze to death at a Winter Olympics in China, do it early, is what I always say. And so, as the Games began, I took a train, a bus, a cab, another bus and a gondola to the mens downhill, where temperatures were rumored to be in the negative four-millions. As it turns out, it actually wasnt that cold. But it was apparently too windy to race down a mountain like an insane person, and so the downhill was postponed.

Andrew P. Scott/USA TODAY Sports

We are three days into the Olympics, and despite a few logistical mishaps, a lack of snow not made by humans, a host country with an atrocious human-rights record, and the strong suspicion that everybody here knows when we poop, I am happy to report that countries are bonding over the one thing that unites us all: stupid COVID protocols. There are small panes of useless plexiglass between diners, people perpetually disinfecting random surfaces, and rules that prohibit us from sitting next to each other on the bus unless there are a lot of people on the bus, in which case the official position is whatever. At the alpine venue media center in the Yanqing zone, if you lower your mask in the first-floor workroom, a volunteer will immediately tell you to raise it or go upstairs to the second floor, which is exactly as crowded as the first floor.

There was something mildly reassuring about knowing that a government that wants to control everything still cant control the wind. Unpredictable weather is as much a part of the Winter Olympics as balletic skaters getting robbed by corrupt judges. Wind delays could and do happen anywhere, even at a real ski resort.

It was a reminder that these Olympics, like all others, are going to create spontaneous moments of joy, even if the few people allowed to attend events are not allowed to celebrate them because of more stupid COVID protocols. Fans are allowed to clap but not cheer from behind their masks.

Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated

The first moment of surprising American joy came Sunday, when Julia Marino won silver in the snowboard slopestyle. Marinos second run (of three) put her in first place with one competitor left: Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, who managed a gold-medal winning run for New Zealands first-ever Winter Games gold medal.

That moment will linger for yearsfor Marino, for Sadowski-Synott and for New Zealandand there will be more like it. Over the next two weeks, the 2022 Beijing Games are going to prove that the Olympics are unbreakable. You could put them anywhereand for the right price, the IOC would.

This week, a handful of American sporting celebrities will take a shot at shaping that overused and misguided word: legacy. Starting with Mondays giant slalom, Mikaela Shiffrin could affirm with the American public what has become obvious in the skiing world: There has never been anyone like her. We will see that Chloe Kim is no longer the giggly teenager who dominated and tweeted her way into our hearts in PyeongChang. Nathan Chen can win gold and become an American rarity: a man who becomes a star in figure skating.

Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated

If you are wondering whether these Olympics have been fun so far, the answer is well, not really, and even if they were, I would not risk saying so. Fun is greeted with suspicion. Its going to be a hard couple weeks for the athletes, and circumstances will surely have some effect on the competition. We could see a repeat of what happened to Simone Biles in Tokyo, even if it is on a smaller scale and doesnt make international news. The combination of Olympic pressure and a sterile, soulless environment will wear on people. And, as in Tokyo, there are no friends or family here for support.

But the Olympics go on. They are not just an exercise in identifying the best in the world; they help athletes discover the best within themselves. There is nothing quite like having an Olympic medal on the line and the wind at your back you know, as long as its not too much wind.

More Winter Olympics Coverage:

U.S. Figure Skating Isnt Too Concerned About Falling Short in the Team Event Polish Luger Overcomes Gruesome Injury to Compete at Olympics The Mysterious Case of the Missing Luge Equipment

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Extreme Weather Shows That Even These Olympics Will Have Unpredictable Moments - Sports Illustrated

Let's say you were a gold-medal winning athlete packing for China and the Winter Olympics ... look I ain't one either, but let's just pretend for a second. What would be the most important things you'd want to bring from home?

I asked my buddy, Matthew Hamilton, who is probably the most famous curler in America today.

At the XXIII Winter Olympic Games aka PyeongChang 2018, Hamilton was half of the team who earned the United States its very first gold medal in curling.

After he qualified for the XXIV Olympic Games in Beijing, China, I texted my golfing buddy and fellow sneakerhead asking: "Hey man, what are the most important things you're taking with you this trip? Because China ain't got Wal-Mart or Target if you forget something!"

The following is what he sent me in reply.

Fly footwear

"Some wild and crazy curling shoes! My guys at Project Blitz really hooked it up. They are the Nike SB Dunk Low 'What the P-Rod.' They are the perfect shoe for a guy like me!" -- MH

Matt is a wild sneakerhead. Last Olympics he wore the Nike PG3 Nasa Blue Apollo 15 Mission editions specially modified for curling.

It only took Hamilton's "guy" one day to modify this iteration for curling.

Hometown coffee

Hamilton is taking specialty coffee to China. The coffee pictured is from a local, gourmet coffee house in Duluth, Minnesota, where the skip of Hamilton's curling team, John Schuster, lives.

"Coffee is a must for me. I gotta have my coffee and travel coffee maker! I love coffee, plus it's a reminder of home." -- MH

'Stache care is a must

The epic, push broom mustache has become Hamilton's trademark look. At the 2018 Games, he drew comparisons to a mustachioed plumber by the name of Mario. So the 'stache has to look right.

"Some gear to keep my mustache fresh and a shirt to promote the charity I'm working with! Stachestrong ... 100% of donations go to grants and research funds." -- MH

Bringing the flat brims

"My hats that I'll be competing in! I like a clean straight brim and these are as clean as they get." -- MH

Hot sauce in his bag

"HOT SAUCE!!!! I really love a little heat in my food and this is something I wish I had packed last Olympics."

Follow up question (as a hot sauce lover), give me a go-to food for each sauce while you're in China?

"Well the Sriracha goes on any Asian dish. The Frank's goes on any classic American food. Burger, mac-n-cheese, etc." -- MH

Headphones

"My headphones! I need my music. It helps me get into the zone before a game. And it's something to do while I kick it between games." -- MH

Time keeper

"My Oak & Oscar watch. Multiple straps so I can switch up the look and keep it fresh." -- MH

Fresh fits

"My uniforms! Columbia really went all out this year making sure we look super fly on the ice." -- MH

There's magic in that hat

"My lucky hat! In the words of Michael Scott, 'I'm not superstitious, but I'm a little 'stitious.' This goes to every event I play and goes in the back pocket." -- MH

Mystery care packages

Home is a long way from Beijing. So, take a little home with you.

"Care package from my wife!!! She makes sure I have something to look forward to each day. I'm a very lucky guy."

I had to ask, the care packages from the wifey...are they a surprise or do you know what she put in them?

"Not a clue." -- MH

Bonus extra credit question

Is there anything you're taking to China you wish you didn't have to?

(There was about a 10 minute lull before I got this reply).

"Yeah. A 'burner' phone. We were warned about malware and getting hacked, so my personal phone won't be used while I'm there."

"That makes sense and sucks at the same time. Better safe than hacked," I texted back.

"For sure." -- MH

And that was his last text to me before beginning the journey to try and win another gold medal.

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2022 Winter Olympics -- What does an Olympian pack? We asked curler Matthew Hamilton ahead of Beijing - ESPN

Five Beijing Olympic storylines to know including stars to watch

The Beijing Olympics are the second Games to take place in the pandemic era. Here is what you need to know.

Michelle Hanks, USA TODAY

I'm USA TODAYeditor-in-chief Nicole Carroll, and this is The Backstory, insights into our biggest stories of the week. If you'd like to get The Backstoryin your inbox every week,sign up here.

Lori Nickel thought she was stuck.

The columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, part of the USA TODAY Network, iscovering her first Olympics and missed the window for morning COVID-19 testing. The list of sports Nickel will be covering includes cross country skiing, freestyle skiing and snowboarding, as well as speed skating, and is going to require a fair amount of coordination.

But the first order of business is to leave the hotel. And you cannot leave the hotel without taking your dailycoronavirus test.

"I thought, 'Oh boy, here we go,'" she said. "'I'm quarantined the first day.'"

She asked nearby volunteers for help. They saidthey'd try.

Five minutes later, ayoung Chinese volunteer, in full hazmat suit,was at her doorto give her a COVID-19 test. Nickel was free to go.

She thanked him with Milwaukee Bucks gear.

"I gave him a T-shirt, thehat, everything I had," she said. "And I had a note that I had translated andsimplified in Chinese just saying, 'Thank you so much for helping me.'"

He was thrilled.

"We don't speak the same languages," she said, "but we arestill communicating."

Sometimes the problems are things we can never anticipate.One of our photo editors traveling to the Games was a few seats behind someone on the planewho tested positive atarrival. He's now a "close contact" and must test twice a day, ride in a separate taxi and eat by himself for seven days.

Overall, our journalists' movements aretightly controlled.

In addition to daily testing, media must wear masks at all timesin public spacesand stay a safe distance from others. There is a "mixed zone" after competitions, where athletes will come and talk to reporterssix feet away.AllU.S. athletes and other members of thedelegation must be vaccinated to attend.

Competitions are held across three clusters: Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou.The Yanqing Zone is approximately 47 milesnorthwest of Beijings city center and the Zhangjiakou Zone is about 112 miles northwest of the capital.

The USA TODAY Network has23 staffers there, distributed across the three zones. It's about a four-hour bus ride toZhangjiakou,the farthest location from Beijing.

"Games organizers in Beijing are taking coronavirus precautionary measures tonew heights," reported USA TODAY foreign correspondentKim Hjelmgaard. "For a start, athletes, coaches, observers and media are separated from 'mainland China' by a closed-loop Olympic bubble thatcordons themoff from the outside world. Most participants arrivein China on special charter flights and enterthe loop as soon as they land.

"Their experiences of China will probably be limited to the airport, a hotel room and Olympic venues, which are connected by a closed transportation system that includes buses, taxis and high-speed trains."

Everyone in the Olympic bubble encounters robots designed to spray disinfectant in thehotels or make cocktails (really). They alsoprepare and deliver food in the press center dining hall. Sports editor Roxanna Scott said with the tight controls, the dining hall is journalists' only entertainment.

Beijing is 13 hours ahead of Eastern Time. We'll be reporting results as they happen. Scott's day starts early and ends past midnight, when she hands off to sports editors back in the U.S.

There are no international spectators, and it's unknown how many locals, if any, will be allowed to attend the Games.Tickets are distributed by organizations affiliated with China's Communist Party. Hjelmgaard reported Chinese authorities requested spectators and teammates clap rather than shout when they want to cheer on athletes, hoping that will cut down on thespread of the virus. Reporters aren't allowed to interview any spectators in the stands.

Visual journalistHarrison Hill is covering his first Olympics. Hillwas supposed to go to the Tokyo Games last summer but caught COVID-19 right beforehand. This time around, his Los Angeles roommates made sure to be "extra safe" around him.

"I felt really good when I didn't get a call in my hotel room," Hill said after his first COVID-19 test in Beijing. "Because if you don't get a call that signals you're good to go."

Hillwill be covering bobsled, skeleton and luge and also the opening ceremony.

"I'm going in withfresh eyes," he said.

Her husband, Nic, and toddler son Nico also tested positive and are quarantined apart.

Taylor is a gold-medal hopeful in two events, monobob and two-man. She said she hadn't been home since Nov. 10 trying to avoid COVID-19, only to get it in Beijing. The three-time Olympic medalist needs to produce consecutive negative tests within a 24-hour span in order to be released from isolation and compete.

Columnist Nancy Armour and visualseditor Sandy Hooper reached out to Taylor to ask if she'd record a video diary for us, to show us what life was like in Olympic quarantine. She did just that, pointing her cellphone around the crowded isolation hotel room. Taylor started the video saying, "Hi, everyone, this is Cribs: Olympic edition, quarantine edition."

Olympian Elana Meyers Taylor shows daily life in COVID isolation

Bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor tested positive for COVID on Jan. 29 inside the Beijing Olympic bubble. Her husband Nic and son Nico also tested positive and are quarantined apart.

Sandy Hooper, USA TODAY

Hooper has been reaching out to athletes and governing bodies for weeks to get video for our coverage. "It's just trying to be creative with the limited access that we have," shesaid.

Armour has covered every Olympics since 1996 and will cover Alpine skiing, womens bobsled and other sports in Beijing. Back in 2008, she wrote, the International Olympic Committeethought giving the Summer Olympics to China would help the country improve its record on human rights, which didn't happen. Armoursays the IOC has sold itself out in giving the Olympics to Beijing a second time.

"Having dazzled the world with the Summer Olympics in 2008, and knowing the Chinese government would spare nothing and no one to do it again, the IOC saw Beijing as the safe and easy choice (for 2022)," Armour wrote this week.

"All it had to do was turn a blind eye when China suppressed dissent among its people. Stripped Hong Kong of its autonomy and cracked down on religious freedom in Tibet. Imprisoned more than a million of the minority Muslim Uyghur population and subjected them to slave labor, forced sterilization and abortion."

Armour said she thinks China isusing this closed COVID-19 loop as an excuse to not allow us to see those types of things: "Normally our news reporter here would be out speaking with regular people in China, he'd be going to Tiananmen Square and talking to people. We don't have the opportunity to do that this time, and I think that's done withpurpose."

Still, points out columnist Christine Brennan, there are reasons to cheer, to hope these Games are successful.

"Why? Not for Chinas leaders no, never for them but for the athletes," she wrote this week. "For most of them, this will be theirone and only chance to compete at an Olympic Games. Its not their fault that the Olympics are here. They had absolutely nothing to do with that decision.

"This is the stage the IOC has given them for the grandest moment of their careers, and in most cases, their young lives."

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Nicole Carroll is the editor-in-chief of USA TODAY. Reach her at EIC@usatoday.com orfollow her onTwitterhere. Thank you forsupporting our journalism.You can subscribe here for $1 a week for 52 weeks.

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Behind the scenes at the Winter Olympics: Journalists in a bubble, robots making cocktails - USA TODAY

Five Beijing Olympic storylines to know including stars to watch

The Beijing Olympics are the second Games to take place in the pandemic era. Here is what you need to know.

Michelle Hanks, USA TODAY

BEIJING Yes, were doing this again.

Less than six months after the Summer Games in Tokyo ended, the Winter Games in Beijing open Friday. The city was a controversial choice to host theGames from the onset, given its lack of actual snow, and recent events made the decision more problematic.

Chinas record on human rights is appalling, particularly its treatment of the Muslim-majority Uyghur population characterizedas genocideby the United States, which is staging a diplomatic boycott in protest, along with several other Western nations. The COVID-19 pandemic that forced a years postponement of the Tokyo Olympics is even worse because of the omicron variant, giving the term positive test a whole new meaning for athletes.

EXCLUSIVE WINTER OLYMPICS UPDATES:Sign up fortextsto get the latest news and behind-the-scenes coverage from Beijing.

OLYMPIC NEWSLETTER:The best Olympic stories straight to your inbox

Despite all that, Beijing organizers and the International Olympic Committee are plowing ahead with the Olympics, which run through Feb. 20, and the Paralympics, which are March 4-13. Given that inevitability, heres a look at 10 questions surrounding the Beijing Games:

Question: Why are the Beijing Games happening?

Answer: Tokyo proved that an Olympics could be held in the midst of a pandemic, so there was no way the IOC or Beijing organizers were going to cancel or even postpone theWinter Games. There is simply too much money at stake for the IOC in the form of broadcast rights and sponsorship deals, and pulling the Olympics off after Japan did it is a matter of national pride for China.

Besides, athletes really do want the chance to compete. For many, the Olympics are the pinnacle of their career, their one chance to be noticed and celebrated by people who are not already diehard fans of their sports. The window of opportunity for Olympic athletes is small, so any delay would effectively close it for many.

The COVID-19 protocols will be even stricter than they were in Tokyo, resulting in some athletes being sidelined. The venues will again be largely empty of fans, making for sterile and surreal atmospheres.

But the Beijing Games will produce their share of magical moments, as all Games do, and some athletes will find their lives changed forever. Its why the Olympics are so captivating, and these will be no different.

Q: Why are they happening in Beijing?

A: Because no one in Europe wanted them.

Cities in Germany, Poland, Sweden and Ukraine kicked the tires on a bid before deciding it wasnt worth it literally and figuratively, in most cases. The IOC had its hopes pinned on Oslo, Norway, but citizens were so turned off by the organizations arrogance and greedthat public support for the bid crumbled, and the city dropped out less than a year before the vote on a 2022 host.

That left the IOC to choose between Beijing and Almaty, Kazakhstan, neither of which was a great option. Almaty had never hosted an event of this scale, which made the IOC wary. China has little history as a winter sports nation, to say nothing of the aforementioned lack of natural snow and broken promises of reform the last time Beijing hosted an Olympics.

But the IOC at least knew what it was getting with China. The Summer Games in 2008 were a dazzling spectacle, and Olympic officials were confident the country would spare nothing to ensure theWinter Games were equally successful. Given the vote for a 2022 host city occurred in 2015, when the IOC was knee-deep in the disorganized nightmare of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, its easy to see why stability had such appeal.

Q: What impact will COVID-19have?

A: Thoughthe IOC and Beijing organizers didnt insist that athletes be vaccinated, they did everything but, imposing a 21-day quarantine upon arrival for anyone who is not. (The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee said last fall that its Olympians and Olympic hopefuls would have to be fully vaccinated.)

Just as in Tokyo, athletes needed to have two negative coronavirustests before arriving in Beijing, including one within 72 hours of departure. They are tested every day, and a closed loop system that prohibits contact with any non-Games personnel is designed to stem outbreaks.

The higher transmissibility of omicron makes it inevitable that some athletes will have their Olympic dreams cut short. Austrias Marita Kramer, the gold medal favorite in womens ski jumping, is out after testing positive for the coronavirus last weekend. U.S. bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor, a three-time Olympic medalist who is a medal contender in both monobob and two-man, is in quarantine after testing positive two days after her arrival.

Still others, including Mikaela Shiffrin, Shaun White and Meyers Taylors teammate Kaillie Humphries, had their training disruptedafter getting COVID-19.

Its one of those things, Meyers Taylor told USA TODAY Sports on Tuesday. We were trying to do everything right, (but) its still hitting everybody.

Q: COVID-19 disruptions aside, who will be the stars of these Games?

A: Just as they did four years ago, White, Shiffrin, Chloe Kim and Nathan Chen top the list.

This is the final Olympic appearance for White, a three-time gold medalist who has done as much as anyone to transform snowboarding from its outcast origins into a mainstream sport with mass appeal. He wont be a favorite for gold, and maybe not even a medal of any color at these Olympics. At 35, White is outdone on the most gravity-defying tricks by Japans Ayumu Hirano and Australias Scotty James, among others. Hampered by an ankle injury and that bout with COVID-19, Whitestruggled in the run-up to Beijing and needed a last-minute competition in Switzerland to secure his spot on the U.S. team.

But White has become synonymous with his sport. Knowing this is his last major competition is enough to make it a must-watch.

Shiffrin has a pair of gold medals and a silver from her first two Olympic appearances and could add a bunch more in Beijing. She is arguably the best slalom skier in the sports history, setting the record for most World Cup victories in a single discipline last month with her 47th win in slalom, and she'll be a favorite for gold in slalom and giant slalom.

Shiffrin is not simply a technical specialist. If weather and her training permits, she wants to do all five Alpine racesand would be a medal contender in all of them.

A spot on the podium in any race would tie Shiffrin with Julia Mancuso for most Olympic medals by an American woman. Two more golds would match the Olympic record for Alpine skiing held by Norways Kjetil Andre Aamodt and Croatias JanicaKostelic.

At 17, Kim was the darling of the Pyeongchang Games in 2018 in South Korea. She became the youngest person to win gold in Olympic snowboarding, in the halfpipe, and her unassuming candidness she tweeted about being hangry in the middle of the competition endeared her to folks who thought corks were made for wine bottles and backside was a body part.

Kim took time off from snowboarding after Pyeongchang, spending a year at Princeton. That absence did nothing to diminish her skills, and she is once again the one everyone will be chasing.

Fingers crossed that we get the showdown between Chen and two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu that was so hotly anticipated four years ago.

Chens bomb in the short program in Pyeongchang ended any chance he had for a medal, let alone challenging Hanyu for gold. Since then,Chen has claimed three world titles and comes to Beijing with a much different outlook than he had four years ago.

"I was a kid, not really knowing exactly what the Olympics was, Chen said this week. I didnt have fun with it."

Others to keep an eye on? Meyers Taylor and Humphries, who will be medal contenders in both of the womens bobsled events; the U.S. womens hockey team; and Jessie Diggins, who could give the USA its first individual gold medal in cross-country skiing.

2022 Beijing Olympics: What you need to know about venues, new sports, weather, budget

The 2022 Winter Olympics are near: Here are23 Team USA athletes you need to know before you watch

Q: Wait, what happened to the NHL players?

A: Blame COVID-19. After 100-plus games were canceled in November, December and January, the league decided it needed to play through the planned three-week Olympic break or risk disrupting the rest of the regular season and the playoffs.

There will still be some notable players in Beijing.

The biggest name is Canadas Owen Power, the overall No. 1 pick in last years NHL draft. Many expectPower to be in the NHL before the season ends, and the Beijing Games will give Buffalo Sabres fans a glimpse of what they have to look forward to. Captaining Team Canada is Eric Staal, a Stanley Cup winner with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006 and part of the team that won Olympic gold in Vancouver in 2010.

Although the name Jieke Kailiaosi might not be familiar, the Anglicized version will be. Jake Chelios, son of NHL Hall of Famer and four-time Olympian Chris Chelios, is one of 19 foreign-born players on Chinas roster. The younger Chelios has spent the past three seasons in Beijing playing for Kunlun Red Star, Chinas only professional hockey team.

Q: What should we expect from Beijing?

A: Beijing is the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Games, and some of the venues will look familiar to those who watched the 2008 Olympics.

The Birds Nest will once again host the opening and closing ceremonies. The Water Cube has been repurposed as the Ice Cube, the venue for curling. Hockey will be played at the Beijing National Indoor Stadium, where gymnastics and trampoline were in 2008. Figure skating and short-track speedskating will take place at the Capital Indoor Stadium, used for volleyball in 2008.

Most of the outdoor events will take place outside Beijing, in Yanqing (Alpine skiing, bobsled) and Zhangjiakou (snowboarding, freestyle, cross-country skiing, biathlon, ski jumping and Nordic combined). There is little natural snowfall in either area, meaning Beijing organizers have made tons literally of artificial snow.

Q: Are there new sports or events?

A: Yes! Seven of them.

Monobob has been added for womens bobsled, and there ismens and womens Big Air in freestyle skiing. There are four new mixed-team events, in snowboard cross, aerials, short-track speedskating and ski jumping.

Q: Whats up with Russia these days?

A: The charade is the same as it was in TokyoandPyeongchang.

Technically, Russia is banned from Beijing as punishment for tampering with drug-testing data. Russia was supposed to prove it had reformed its ways from the state-sponsored doping program it devised to rig the medal count in Sochi in 2014, the scheme that earned Russia a ban from Pyeongchang.

But the IOCs definition of a ban is, shall we say, generous. Russia will still have a team in Beijing. Rather than the generic Olympic label, the athletes will be identified as representing the Russian Olympic Committee. Their uniforms will feature Russias red, white and blue colors.

So, no, not an actual ban. Again.

Q: Will athletes protest Chinas human rights abuses?

A: This will be something to watch.

Some athletes have condemned China for repressing its people and slammed the IOC for putting the Olympics here again. Under the IOCs Rule 50, they would be free to make similar statements during the Games at news conferences or in the interview area, though protests or demonstrations on the medals podium andduring competition are prohibited.

China is sensitive to any criticism, and a member of the Beijing organizing committee gave an ominous warning last month to athletes who might considerspeaking out.

Any expression that is in line with the Olympic spirit, Im sure, will be protected," Yang Shu, deputy director general of international relations for the Beijing Organizing Committee, said, according to The Washington Post. Any behavior or speech that is against the Olympic spirit, especially against the Chinese laws and regulations, are also subject to certain punishment.

The IOC should make it clear to China that the committee has the backs of the athletes and will not tolerate any heavy-handedness. But the next time the IOC stands up to China will be the first.

Q: Speaking of that, where is Peng Shuai?

A: An excellent question.

The IOC has been widely criticized for helping China silence the tennis player and three-time Olympian, who has not spoken freely since she said in November that she had been sexually assaulted by a former top-ranking government official. Despite his claims that the IOC is not political, President Thomas Bach staged what was essentially a photo op with Peng as China faced international condemnation over her whereabouts.

Peng has since made several carefully orchestrated appearances. You can bet Bach will be game for one more before the Games are done.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour.

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Winter Olympics 2022: Why Beijing? Who will be the stars? 10 questions you want answers to - USA TODAY

Squid Game? No! Olympic Games! Photo: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

When you think of the Olympics, what scene comes to mind? A quiet and sparsely populated arena? Medical staff in hazmat suits? Little to no cheering? Well, that is precisely what the 2022 Winter Olympics will look and sound like. Fun!

Like the 2020 Summer Olympics, this years Winter Games will have a very limited number of spectators given *gestures wildly* all of this. Additionally, officials are encouraging those spectators who are allowed in to abstain from cheering. Nary a hoot nor a holler! On Thursday, the New York Times described the crowd at a preliminary hockey game between Canada and Switzerland as subdued. Not usually what youd expect from a worldwide sports event, especially when that sport is hockey. In addition to the quiet crowd, a group of medical staff in hazmat suits was in attendance, as per the Beijing Olympics COVID-19 guidelines.

As silly as it seems, the no yelling rule is not a completely absurd precaution. Evidence does suggest that yelling and singing can increase the spread of COVID-19. Still, Id imagine a crowd of shouting fans is far less intimidating than a room of people sitting quietly, saying nothing, as you do your little ice jumps and sports goals.

With these dystopian guidelines in place, I would like to propose a few alternative cheering options for any and all 2022 Olympics spectators to consider:

- Snapping la a poetry reading- A few loud stomps- Initiating a low clap- Air horns- Making fart noises with your hands- Jumping up and down quietly- Doing a little dance- Giving a thumbs-up- Making a swoosh-ing sound with your hazmat suit like you would wind pants- Lip-syncing the words to Fight Song- Whispering good job into your mask

If you would like to quietly whisper along, the Olympics kick off tomorrow with an Opening Ceremony Im sure will be just as eerie as last years.

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Wow, the 2022 Winter Olympics Sound Dystopian - The Cut