Category Archives: Olympics

Team U.S.A. takes the ice for national anthems before their international hockey exhibition game against Team Canada on a My Why Tour stop in Maryland Heights, Missouri, U.S. December 17, 2021. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Dec 28 (Reuters) - The United States and Canada women's ice hockey teams agreed to cancel the final two games of their My Why Tour, a series of exhibition contests ahead of the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics, USA Hockey said Tuesday.

The games in Edmonton and Red Deer were intended to be a warm-up before the Olympics begin on Feb. 4 but instead the U.S. will keep the team at their "home base" in Blaine, Minnesota, until leaving for Beijing to begin their title defence.

"We're obviously disappointed as the competition against Canada is an important part of our Olympic preparation," Katie Million, director of the women's national team programs, said in a statement.

"With our team's departure for China less than a month away, our focus is doing the absolute best we can to make sure our players and staff are in a position to be able to participate in the Olympic Games."

Another game between the two teams was also called off last week, with USA Hockey citing "concerns around COVID-19."

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Reporting by Amy Tennery in New YorkEditing by Christian Radnedge

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Canada, U.S. exhibition games cancelled ahead of Beijing Olympics - Reuters

Starting Jan. 1, some NBC Sports Olympic sports programming will appear on USA Network as NBCSN ceases operations.

USAs first Olympic sports broadcasts will be the U.S. Olympic Speed Skating Trials and U.S. Figure Skating Championships next week. USA will also air 2022 Winter Olympics coverage with a full schedule to be released.

Beijing Winter Games competition begins Feb. 2, two days before the Opening Ceremony.

USAs daily live coverage of the U.S. Olympic Speed Skating Trials begins Wednesday. Its daily live coverage of the U.S. Figure Skating Championships begins Thursday, with NBC splitting weekend coverage.

Most linear coverage can be streamed via authentication on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app, plus NBCOlympics.com for events leading up to and during the Beijing Games.

Peacock continues to be the place for comprehensive Winter Olympic sports programming, including the Alpine skiing World Cup, and original series, documentaries and full event replays related to the Olympics.

Peacock is available across a variety of devices and platforms, with the full list available here. To learn more about sports on Peacock and how to sign up, visit https://www.peacocktv.com/sports.

U.S. Olympic Speed Skating Trials West Allis, Wisconsin

U.S. Figure Skating Championships Nashville

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How to watch Olympic sports on USA Network after NBCSN shuts down - Home of the Olympic Channel

In his first media interview since the Board of Governors meetings earlier this month, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly spoke with The Athletic's Pierre LeBrun on Thursday on the decision not to send NHL players to the Olympics, preparation for Saturday's Winter Classic and whether or not a full 82-game NHL season is feasible given the recent postponements due to COVID-19.

"A larger and larger percentage of our player population has been affected by COVID this season and that number continues to grow every day," said Daly. "Really by sheer numbers, if you accept the fact that once youre hit by COVID youre not going to get hit again this year, then I dont foresee an issue in finishing the season."

In terms of the Winter Classic going ahead as planned on Jan. 1, Daly said everything is going "very, very smoothly. No hiccups," and addressed the expected freezing temperatures.

"Obviously we know how to put on these games, we know how to make the ice, we know how to account for the weather conditions from a technical standpoint. Obviously I understand its going to be cold in Minnesota; maybe the coldest weve encountered yet for an outdoor game," Daly said. "Im less worried about the players in those types of conditions because the bench areas are heated and the nature of our game is that youre taking short shifts and exerting yourself and when you come back to the bench youre in a warm environment. Im really less worried about the exposure of the players, Im worried more about the spectators. But I was just assured theres a lot of indoor space where they can seek shelter from the elements if theres a need to. And we have extra measures in place to make sure were keeping everyone as warm and protected from the elements as possible."

With capacity restrictions continuing in arenas across Canada due to rising COVID-19 cases, Daly also addressed whether or not he anticipates further postponements for home games in Canadian cities.

"We're going to try and be as cooperative and flexible as we possibly can be. But as I said with respect to other elements of the schedule, theres only so much we can do. I dont think we can fully compensate for the problem," Daly said. "If in fact these attendance restrictions carry on for multiple weeks, theres no way we can make up all those games or move or shift all those games. Like everything else, itll be a balancing act."

For more, here is the full interview.

(Photo: Mike Stobe / NHLI via Getty Images)

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NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly addresses Olympics, Winter Classic and if a full 82-game NHL season is feasible - The Athletic

World Athletics boss Sebastian Coe says he has no sympathy for athletes who abuse doping rules, describing them as architects of their own downfall.

The double Olympic champion was responding to questions about British sprinter CJ Ujah, who tested positive for two banned substances after helping Team GBs 4x100m relay team win silver at Tokyo 2020. The 27-year-old strongly denies wrongdoing and his case is now with the Court of Arbitration for Sport, having also returned a positive B sample.

Ahead of the summer Olympics, Christian Coleman was the highest-profile track and field to miss out on the Games, having missed too many drug tests - but Coe says the rules all competitors have to follow are obvious.

Tokyo 2020

Athletics already has the new Bolt - its time to appreciate Thompson-Herah

24/12/2021 AT 13:32

Take Great Britain out of this, I would share the disappointment in any federation and in any athlete that falls foul, said Coe.

We spend hundreds of thousands of pounds a year through the Athletics Integrity Unit, for its education programme, making sure athletes and federations understand what the roles, the rules, the obligations are.

So, yes, I am disappointed in so far as every positive is not a good story. But in a way it does show that we are at least tackling this issue now and we are a federation who are not doing junk tests.

'He was reeled in like a fish' - Italy snatch men's 4x100m relay gold from GB

Coe also had his say on political boycotts of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, describing them as meaningless. The UK, US and Australia are among the administrations that are staging a diplomatic boycott of the Games due to Chinas human rights record, particularly in relation to Uighur Muslims. But the head of World Athletics does not believe they will have much effect.

Im not insouciant or cavalier about human rights, I take them very seriously, he said.

But thats not to be an apologist for countries that do not conform to the basic standards around human rights. Ive never witnessed sport leaving any country in worse shape than when its been there. The impact across the board can be, on many occasions, quite profound.

Tokyo 2020

Thompson-Herah and Warholm named World Athletes of the Year

02/12/2021 AT 09:48

Tokyo 2020

World Athletics finds 'disturbing' levels of abuse directed at female athletes during Tokyo 2020

01/12/2021 AT 14:00

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World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe ahead of Beijing 2022 Olympics: Dopers architects of their own downfall - Eurosport COM

Let me start by saying I think there is a NEGATIVE ZERO chance that this actually happens. Canadian Major Junior will object. The NCAA will object. Both leagues would be playing important games relative to their playoffs/conference games. I am sure there are financial ramifications and some risk with sending the U-20s to China to play in the Olympics...

This would be incredible and the second best option to having NHL players participate. It would make people still care about the Olympics in a genuine way that did not exist in the 2018 Olympic Games that literally not one single person watched. You would get the best of the best amateurs playing on the World's biggest amateur stage the way the Olympics were always supposed to be. The kids who got this chance ripped away from them still get to represent their country. The Olympics still get a top tier competition in their flagship winter sport event. Fans get to watch a tournament they actually care about. It is a win win win as long as you don't count the NCAA and Canadian Major Junior teams. Michigan in particular would probably scream bloody murder and pressure their guys to opt out since they have a potential national championship hanging in the balance with Owen Power, Kent Johnson, Luke Hughes, Matty Berniers, and Mackie Samoskevic all on WJC rosters. Let me be the first to sayfuck Michigan. We want a good tournament at the international level. Something that NEVER happens anymore. Hasn't happened since 2014, actually. Put the stars of tomorrow on the world stage and let's find a resolution that works for everyone. The NHL wants that sweet sweet China streaming money that the NBA has. That is the only reason why they agreed to let their players go in the first place. Well, imagine a scenario where they get familiar with names like Connor Bedard, Shane Wright, and Matty Berniers because they went to a shootout in the Gold Medal game. Fans all over the world get familiar with those stars and they become household names to the point that their future wives are instagram influencers like TJ Oshie. I want it so badly. I don't even care if Putin gives Datsyuk and Kovalchuk fake names and birth certificates to get them on the Red Army Team Team Russia. Just give me a world class event in February because we are desperately going to need entertainment that month.

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Send The WJC Teams To The Olympics And Save Both Events - Barstool Sports

Athletes and sports officials around the world have for months been viewing the approaching Winter Olympics in Beijing, set to take place in February amid a still-raging pandemic, with a mixture of apprehension and weariness. Now, a global surge of cases tied to the highly contagious Omicron variant has given them all the more reason to be on edge.

A single positive test before the opening ceremony on Feb. 4, after all, could derail an athletes entire career. An outbreak in China could still derail the entire Games.

With the new variant being out and about, its definitely a little scary, said Karen Chen, an American figure skater. I know its definitely been going around. All we can do is sanitize our hands, wear a mask and hope for the best.

China has already announced elaborate precautions to protect against the coronavirus reaching its own population or participants in the Winter Games, and to ensure those two groups have almost no contact with one another. On Thursday, as athletes around the world continued to plot out the safest personal routes to the Games, China detailed some of the strictest rules yet for its own citizens.

Spectators at the Winter Olympics which were already limited to residents of China will be allowed to clap, but not shout, in support of athletes. Waiters, cleaners and other support staff will not be allowed to leave Olympic venues to visit their families. And any Olympic participants leaving the vicinity for the rest of China will be required to spend at least one week in quarantine, followed by at least two weeks of isolation at home.

And still, Chinese officials acknowledged they were bracing for the inevitability that some infections will emerge at the Olympics, where everyone will face daily polymerase chain reaction (P.C.R.) tests.

A certain number of positive cases will become a high probability event, Han Zirong, the secretary general of Beijings Winter Games organizing committee, told reporters on Thursday.

China has barred overseas spectators from entering the country. It is allowing vaccinated foreign athletes, trainers, coaches, referees, journalists and a few others to enter without enduring the usual two or more weeks of quarantine followed by a week of home confinement.

The exemption, however, comes with a stringent requirement that foreigners not leave a closed loop of hotels and sports venues, linked by special buses and trains.

We must never go outside the closed loop, let alone reach the city level this is our bottom line, said Huang Chun, deputy director of the Olympic organizing committees Office of Epidemic Prevention and Control.

For those outside China, getting to the Olympics in the first place remained the most urgent goal.

Many are now taking proactive measures to keep the virus at bay before their scheduled departures to Beijing. The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, for instance, has begun strongly encouraging, but not requiring, that its athletes receive booster shots. The British Olympic Association said it was similarly recommending boosters for its athletes where feasible. Some teams are going further, specifically telling athletes to try to obtain the Moderna booster after the company announced the results of early studies that appeared to show it was slightly more effective against the Omicron variant. Other studies have suggested those findings are more hopeful than realistic since the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines remain largely unavailable in much of the world.

For many athletes and teams, though, the heartbreak of having years of hard work erased by a positive test on the eve of the Games seemed almost unimaginable. That fear has led to changes large and small.

Dec. 25, 2021, 5:01 p.m. ET

In the Netherlands, the national speedskating trials typically a boisterous, multiday affair held in front of tens of thousands of fans will take place next week behind closed doors amid nationwide lockdowns, with only teams and select members of the news media allowed to enter the rink.

In Austria, a group of American biathletes training at a high-altitude camp in Ramsau am Dachstein has been sending a single staff member out for sporadic visits to the grocery store with a big shopping list containing the athletes various requests, as part of an effort to limit potential exposure.

And Olympic hopefuls attending the U.S. figure skating championships next month in Nashville where masks will be required for fans, but vaccinations will not are already mapping out plans to avoid risky situations. Madison Hubbell, an American ice dancer, said major figure skating competitions were already infamous for spreading colds and flus. As in previous years, Hubbell will be staying in a rental apartment rather than the team hotel.

We have our own accommodations that are walking distance that dont require ground transportation, she said. The N95 mask does wonders, and distance does wonders, and we try to take that same policy that we take into the grocery store here and into the airport.

China has reported dozens of coronavirus cases daily this week. On Thursday, the local authorities locked down Xian, a city of 13 million people. At least 242 cases have occurred there in an outbreak this month. Beijing has not divulged how many involve the Omicron variant.

New treatments. The Food and Drug Administration authorized in short succession the firsttwo pill treatments for Covid-19 from Pfizerand Merck. The new drugs, which can be taken at home with a doctors prescription, will be available to some Covid patients who are at higher risk of becoming severely ill.

The country has been mostly successful in controlling the virus by quarantining hundreds of close contacts of infected people, and in some cases contacts of contacts. But similarly broad measures at the Olympics could make it hard to hold the Games.

Some precautions are already visible at a ski resort in the mountains near Zhangjiakou, about 100 miles northwest of Beijing, where nearly half of the Olympic events will be held. Thick, clear plastic sheeting from floor to ceiling separates bus drivers from their passengers.

At the resorts high-speed-rail station, visitors must provide proof of a negative P.C.R. test in the preceding 48 hours. Also required is proof on a smartphone app that the traveler has not visited any Chinese city in the previous two weeks that has had a recent infection.

For construction workers putting the finishing touches on the venues, the authorities already do nucleic acid tests once every three days, Jia Maoting, the general manager of the Olympic Sports Construction and Development Company, told reporters during a visit to the Olympic ski jump venue.

Han, the secretary general of the Olympic organizing committee, cautioned that further measures may be added in the weeks to come. Everything depends on the changes in the global and Chinese epidemic situation, he said, especially the infectiousness of the new mutant strain, Omicron.

For prospective international attendees, unease about the virus itself has been amplified by uncertainty about the official protocols should they test positive or be identified as a close contact of someone who has.

The National Hockey League this week announced that its players will not participate, a reversal of the leagues earlier position. And Natalie Geisenberger, an Olympic luge champion from Germany, drew attention this month after criticizing the restrictions she experienced during a three-week training trip in China and suggesting she was reconsidering whether she was even willing to travel there again for the Games.

Geisenberger, 33, told a German broadcaster that she was identified as a close contact of someone who had tested positive and was forced to quarantine for several days in her room, despite testing negative herself. She said the food provided for her during her isolation fell short of the standard required for an elite athlete in the midst of training and competition.

The conditions that we experienced there speak in favor of not necessarily going back there again, said Geisenberger, who has won four Olympic gold medals in her career.

Others, including Zach Donahue, Hubbells skating partner, seemed resigned to the fact that many things would be out of their control, and that going to China to chase an Olympic dream in the middle of a pandemic already meant they were willing to encounter some potentially uncomfortable situations.

The decision to continue on to the Games means we choose to accept anything that happens due to testing or anything like that, he said. We know going into it that its high risk. We know going into a grocery store theres risk. Its part of the journey.

Liu Yi and Li You contributed research.

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As Olympics Near, China Tightens Rules and Athletes Invent Their Own - The New York Times

As Simone Biles entered the Ariake Gymnastics Centre for the womens team final at the Tokyo Olympics, the eyes of the sporting world slowly fixated on her. She was, to many, the most dominant athlete in the world and the greatest gymnast in history, undefeated in the all-around, team and floor competitions since 2013. She had pushed the boundaries of the sport even further throughout the summer and after winning four gold medals and a bronze in Rio, it was the start of what could have been the final, crowning moment of her career.

Instead, what unfolded that evening was astonishing. On her first event in the team final, the vault, Biles completely lost track of herself in the air as she attempted her 2.5 twisting Yurchenko vault, one of her most trusted skills. After aborting the skill and somehow avoiding injury, Biles disappeared from the competition floor with her national team staff. When Biles eventually returned, she huddled with her teammates, and then she was done.

After the competition, Biles could have avoided speaking in depth or even walked straight past the journalists in the mixed zone. Instead, numerous reporters departed in awe of what they had heard after she openly explained her mental health struggles. Asked exactly why she decided not to compete, her response was clear: To focus on my wellbeing, she said. There is more to life than just gymnastics. Later that evening, during the official press conference, her teammates rallied around her and offered their unending support.

Biles had followed in the footsteps of Naomi Osaka, whom she referenced, by placing discussions about mental health in the centre of sports. As with Osaka, another prominent black woman, it immediately led to predictable backlash and scorn across social media. But Biles remained resolute and in the following days her issues became clearer. She had developed the twisties, which occurs when a gymnasts mind and body are out of sync, rendering them unable to complete certain skills safely. Biles had completely lost her air-awareness during her twisting skills so continuing to compete meant there was an extremely high chance of her falling and injuring herself, possibly seriously.

Each day brought news of Biles withdrawing from another event, but she would still travel to the arena for each final and cheer louder ithan anyone else for her compatriots and rivals from other countries alike. Behind the scenes, Biles was secretly doing everything in her power to return. She located a private gym outside of the Olympic Village and each day she would safely attempt her skills into its foam pits.

At no point in Tokyo did she regain her twisting ability, but Biles decided to remove all of the twists from her balance beam routine and attempt to compete on the very final day of competition. After days of hearing her mental strength questioned, Biles returned to competition and threw down an extremely clean routine to earn a bronze medal despite the diminished difficulty level.

Over the past few years, so much has happened to Biles that led to the events in Tokyo. She has competed at the highest level since 2013, an eternity in womens gymnastics. Even though she has avoided any lengthy injury layoffs, which are common in gymnastics, so many years of pounding her muscles and joints in training has left a painful mark on her body. After nearing what finally seemed an appropriate finish line for her career, she was distraught when the pandemic pushed the Olympics back by a year.

Meanwhile, Biles continued to compete and cement her greatness while coming to terms with being a very public survivor of sexual abuse by the former US team doctor Larry Nassar, who also abused many of her former teammates. She wrestled with the reality that she could only continue to chase her personal goals in her sport by representing USA Gymnastics, the organisation that had failed to protect her. That she was the last remaining survivor on the team only increased the pressure she felt to continue to compete and hold the governing body to account.

As Biles collected her medal on 3 August and digested her thoughts, she was not yet prepared to fully embrace the narrative that she had ended her week triumphantly. Speaking afterwards, she finished most comments by noting that despite her pride at bouncing back, it sucked she had to withdraw from so many events. Beyond the medals and golds, after all of her efforts to make it to Tokyo, it was crushing that she simply could not perform as she wished.

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But in the months since she returned home, with time and space, Biles has come to fully understand the impact of her decisions. She cherishes the bronze medal and the fortitude it took to gain it. She has said that she often felt in recent years she was competing for other people, and here she decided for herself. In a sport known for creating a toxic culture of overtraining and competing with injuries, she has shown a generation of new gymnasts the importance of prioritising safety and wellbeing. After spending so many years changing her sport within the confines of the competition floor, she did so again by stepping away from it.

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Jaw-dropping sport moments of 2021: Simone Biles at the Tokyo Olympics - The Guardian

The Chicago Blackhawks were going to have a lot of players that are participating in the Winter Olympic Games. It was going to be a lot of fun to see players from around the National Hockey League represent their countries in the games but it will not happen now.

The NHL and NHLPA have mutually agreed to not send players to the Olympics because of concerns with COVID-19. Cases are rising all over the world and hockey has been severely impacted. The league started to make slow adjustments but it eventually led to them shutting it down through the Christmas holiday.

This announcement is sad but it is for the best. Nobody wants to see an NHL player miss time with his club because he tested positive in China and cant come home. As fun as it would have been, the league needs to do what is in the best interest of its teams and players.

There are a fair amount of Blackhawks players that were going to be participating. Each country announced three players that were the first three named to the roster. Patrick Kane and Seth Jones were two of the three players that were named for Team USA.

Each of them would have really helped the team win games in the Olympics. Alex DeBrincat would have probably made it as well when the rest of the roster was announced as he is one of the best American players in the league right now. Unfortunately, his first-ever Olympics is going to have to wait. Team USA would have been really good so this hurts.

Guys like Marc-Andre Fleury and Dominik Kubalik would each have a chance as well. None of them are locks but they would have at least been considered. Now, the Blackhawks know that they will have their full roster safe in North America instead of taking risks in China.

There are other NHL superstars that are missing out as well. It is disappointing to see players like Connor McDavid, Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, Auston Matthews, Leon Draisaitl, and Nathan MacKinnon miss out as they all would have been a pleasure to watch.

Some of them will be able to get another chance at this in 2026. However, 37-year-old Patrick Kane might have a hard time cracking Team USA at that point in time. It is a bummer for a lot of players in the league in similar situations. This is less than ideal but as mentioned before, it is in the best interest of the league.

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Chicago Blackhawks players wont be seen at the Winter Olympics - Da Windy City

The Winter Olympicshave been marked by controversy and scandal since the first Games in 1924. From cheating by East German lugers to the sordid Tonya Harding figure skating fiasco, here are six events that made headlines:

American speedskater Charles Jewtraw

Corbis Historical via Getty Images

At the Games in Chamonix, France, Norwegians contended the 500-meter speedskating final had been mistimed in favor of American Charles Jewtraw, a heavy underdog who won the gold.

"[B]ack then, races were timed by handby cold, frozen handon stopwatches," author Jack Harris wrote inThe Winter Olympics. "And the 500 meters is such a short race that slow trigger fingers by race officials could dramatically alter the finish."

Jewtraw's win, by 1/5 of a second, stunned him. too. In a 1983 interview with Sports Illustrated, Jewtraw said he had never competed in the 500 prior to the gold-medal race and hadn't even trained for the Games.

"I wasn't even nervous the day of the race," he said. "Why would I be? I knew I couldn't win.But by finishing in 44 seconds, his time bested contenders from Norway and Sweden.

"The whole American team rushed out on the ice," he said. "They hugged me like I was a beautiful girl."

France's Jean-Claude Killy earned three gold medals in alpine skiing in Grenoble, France, but his victory in the slalom was nearly taken away. Competing in a thick fog, Austria's Karl Schranz, Killys top rival, claimed a mysterious figure in black emerged on the course during his second run. He skidded to a halt and asked for a re-run.

With three witnesses verifying his account, the request was granted and Schranz produced a gold medal-winning time. But hewas disqualified two hours later after a jury ruled he had missed two gates before seeing the strange figure in the second run. Killy kept his gold.

Schranzs supporters contended the mystery man had been a French policeman or soldier who had purposely interfered with the run to ensure Killys victory. The French hinted Schranz had made up the story.

"I was descending and I saw a dark shadow ahead of me," Schranz said at a news conference."I wanted to avoid it, and I stopped. It was apparently a ski policeman."

When asked if he missed the gate before the incident, Schranz said he was "hypnotized by the dark shadow I saw ahead. It is possible that for the moment I missed a gate to avoid it."

The women's luge competition at the Grenoble Games was all but a lock for East Germany. Defending champ and gold-medal favorite Ortrun Enderleinstood in first; teammates Anna-Maria Mller and Angela Knsel were second and fourth.

But when fellow competitors complained that they had witnessed the East Germans warming the blades of their metal runners, an illegal practice, they were disqualified.

A jury member acted immediately, International Luge Federation president Bert Isatitsch said, according toUPI. "He went to the starting line and put his hands on the runners. They were warm."

Isatitsch said East German officials used "foul language" when notified of the disqualification. One waved his arms around, shouting and screaming," he told UPI.

After the disqualifications, Italys Erica Lechner took the gold. West Germans received the silver and bronze.

Tonya Harding (left) did not earn a medal at the 1994 Games. Nancy Kerrigan (right) won a silver.

Vincent Amalvy/AFP via Getty Images

"Terror on Ice," "Ice Follies," "Thin Ice"newspaper and magazine headline writers had a field day in wake of figure skating's most notable scandal.Americans Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding stood at the center of events that inspired documentaries, aSeinfeldTV episode, song parodies and a feature-length movie.

A month before the 1994 Winter Games, a man wielding a metal baton attacked gold- medal favorite Kerriganduring a practice at the U.S. Nationals, paving the way for Harding to win the event and to qualify for the Olympics.

Soon afterward, however, it was discovered that Hardings ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, had planned the attack. With Kerrigan recoveredand Harding allowed to compete despite her not-yet-confirmed connection to the crimethe womens figure skating competition became the hottest event at the Olympics.TV ratings soared.

The event was punctuated by Harding dramatically stopping during her long program and officials granting her a re-skate because of a broken skate lace.In the end, Kerrigan took silver behind Ukraines Oksana Baiul; Harding finished eighth.

READ MORE: Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan: A Complete Timeline

Ice dancing got a dose of spy games in Nagano, Japan, when a Canadian judge secretly taped a conversation with another judge about picking winners before the competition.

After her complaints to officials had been brushed aside, Jean Senft recorded Ukrainian judge Yuri Balkov discussing skater placements as proof of her accusations. During the call, Balkov said he would vote for Canadians if Senft voted for a Ukrainian pair.

"The athletes are not competing on a fair playing field," Senft later told CBC News. "This isn't sport. Somebody had to get proof."

The Canadians failed to earn a medal, though many believed their performance was at least worthy of a bronze. Balkov was suspended for one year, and Senft was handed a six-month suspension. "For heaven's sakes, if I were part of it, why would I bring it forward?" she later told Time magazine.

The scandal led Dick Pound, a top International Olympic Committee official, to urge for ice dancing's removal from the Olympics unless judging reforms were made. (Ice dancing was not removed from Olympic competition.)

"If [cheating] happens at the world championships in some small town, nobody notices," Pound said, according toThe New York Times. "But in the Olympics, hundreds of millions of people are watching."

Figure skating judges were again at the center of a scandal when another vote-trading plot among judges, this time in pairs ice dancing, was uncovered.

The Russian team of Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze edged Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier for the gold medal. But Marie-Reine Le Gougne, a French judge, came forward, saying she was pressured by the French ice sports federation to put the Russians first.

I knew very well who would vote in favor of the Russians and who would vote in favor of the Canadians," she told Reuters. "I was almost certain that I was the one who would award the Olympic title. What I feared would happen really did.

After investigations, officials awarded Sale and Pelletier gold medals. (The Russians were allowed to keep theirs.)"We do hope we get the bronze, too, so we can get the entire collection," Pelletier quipped at a news conference after the ruling.

Le Gougne was suspended from judging for three years and banned from the 2006 Winter Games. The scandal led to sweeping judging reforms in the sport.

READ MORE: 9 Doping Scandals That Changed Sports

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6 Scandals That Rocked the Winter Olympics - History

Chinas zero-Covid policy of lockdowns and quarantines has been so strict that the countrys president, Xi Jinping, hasnt left the country in about two years. Now that the highly transmissible omicron variant has been reported in China, what will it mean for the Olympics and for us?

One thing is certain: With the Beijing Olympics a little more than a month away and the politically significant National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party to be held in the fall, the harsh localized lockdowns that have defined Chinas response to the pandemic are likely to persist throughout 2022, maybe even longer.

Chinas policy is basically the polar opposite of how the US has been trying to live with the virus. Any positive case is quarantined. Contact tracing, enabled through surveillance tech and artificial intelligence, can pinpoint a flare-up: Buildings, city blocks, or even whole neighborhoods are sealed when a case is reported. Its pretty brutal. Its a blunt tool, said Megan Greene, an economist with the Kroll Institute. Yet as a result of the policy, China has had many, many fewer deaths.

But zero Covid is going to be much more difficult to implement with a more transmissible variant, and the lessened effectiveness of Chinese vaccines against variants suggests that this policy will only be hardened. (To be fair, two doses of the mRNA vaccines arent doing great in preventing omicron infection, according to initial studies, although they still offer strong protection against severe illness.)

On the surface, [the spread of the new variant] seems to have vindicated that approach, said public health expert Yanzhong Huang of Seton Hall University. They seem to be confident with the existing approach and strict implementation. And that existing approach had an effect on markets and supply chains, and now its likely to do that again.

Just a few cases of omicron have appeared in China so far. One infected person in a southern city bordering on Vietnam has caused 200,000 people to go into lockdown and the city of 13 million to be shut down, according to the Washington Post. With the Lunar New Year approaching, experts say even more precautionary measures, such as travel bans, may come next.

The countrys leadership will now face a major public health headache as the omicron variant collides with the Beijing Olympics. The February games were going to be a chance to celebrate China on the global stage, and now the prospect of athletes coming from across the world will put a spotlight on what many see as a severe policy of lockdowns, one that is much more intense than Japans last summer. I think omicron coinciding with the Olympics is keeping a lot of people up at night in Beijing, said former diplomat Daniel Russel of the Asia Society.

Over the last two years, with certain products missing from our favorite stores and crucial items like N95 masks and Covid-19 tests sometimes in short supply, weve all learned about the fragility of the supply chain. Electronics, cars, and consumer products have been highly sensitive to these types of disruption.

Many shortages are connected to Chinas lockdowns: A single case can close down a giant port. But China is so big that many instances of lockdowns at a local level have gone under the medias radar, notes economist George Magnus of Oxford University. Shutdowns have been happening constantly without global consequences. A small town of a million in the middle of the countrys butterfly-wing effects are obviously pretty small, but a big entrept in a coastal province in China will be observed and commented upon, Magnus said.

The good news is, despite some shortages, supply chains have proved mostly resilient and major retailers have adjusted. Its amazing how well supply chains have held up, said David Dollar, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank. China is big enough that its shown it can lock down a particular port for coronavirus reasons, but its got 20 other ports.

Experts are divided on how consumers will feel the effect of omicron. Even localized shutdowns at Chinas manufacturers, ports, or hubs could have an impact, warned Per Hong, an expert on supply chains at the advisory firm Kearney. The chain is only strong as its weakest link, and when it comes to the global supply chain, there are weaknesses everywhere, Hong said.

With demand on the rise in the United States after two years of isolation, everyone seems to be spending right now there will be some shortages, and its very difficult to predict what will be in short supply in the coming months. Supply chain disruptions can take up to half a year to be felt by consumers.

The Chinese economy was already slowing down because of the burst of the Chinese real estate bubble and a crackdown on tech companies, like e-commerce giant Alibaba. Now, with omicron entering the mix, economists warn of less growth in China, which will also have effects on the US economy. China pulled us out of the global recession because it has so much demand globally. This time we know we cant rely on China to pull us out of it since theyre in a slowdown, said Greene, the Kroll Institute economist.

China may be trying to control the weather to rid cities of smog and turn the sky blue for the Olympics. Millions will watch remotely, with spectator-less stadiums as backdrops. But more important than how Beijing projects itself in the Olympics is how the zero-Covid policy affects Chinas place in the world.

What experts call draconian policies are likely to stay in place past the Olympics and until the Party Congress in the fall, maybe long after.

Though economic knock-on effects are concerning for China and the world, a bigger issue might be the isolation of China. If the rest of the world learned to live with Covid, is China going to be the only country that locks itself out of conferences, international travel, and students going there? They are going to pay a high price for going this path, Dollar said.

The absence of real communication channels between officials, businesspeople, and students will exacerbate the US-China relationship, according to Russel. And it might lead China to be a lot more socially distant. The most extreme and usually the most paranoid actors in both systems get the final word, Russel said. The insulation has been stripped off the wires of the complicated relationship, and the wires have been exposed. Itd be very easy for a crossed wire to short-circuit the relationship.

For analysts like Gabriel Wildau of the consulting firm Teneo, it means he hasnt visited China since 2019. Neither have most of his friends or colleagues. I do worry about the long-term impact, he said. The human relationships formed are really important for the US-China relationship.

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Can China keep out omicron and still hold the 2022 Winter Olympics? - Vox.com