In the wake of the 2024 Paris Olympics, the Australian breakdancer Rachael Gunn has become "one of its highest-profile competitors", said Palmer Haasch in Business Insider. It's not because of a record or a gold medal. Gunn, 36, known in the sport as B-Girl Raygun, received a score of zero in her dance battles against three opponents, and did not progress past the first round. But her unique routine, in which, dressed in a green and gold Australia tracksuit, she thrashed her arms around, kangaroo-hopped, and slithered across the floor like a snake, led to an onslaught of ridicule, and a flood of parodies. She's now "a worldwide meme".

An Olympic loser

If you haven't already seen Raygun's routine, it's "joyous", said Sarah Ditum in The Times. "The weird, toddler-esque flopping and flailing. The kangaroo hops (to remind you she is Australian). The look of intense and solemn concentration as she did all this." Disappointingly, she has not embraced her "new-found fame". Raygun took to Instagram to say that the "hate" that has been aimed at her since has been "devastating", and to peevishly corrected her detractors on points of detail: she didn't technically receive zero points, she got zero votes from the panel of nine judges. But then I suspect Gunn is a little "po-faced" all round. She is a lecturer in media studies at Macquarie University and her papers include "Re-articulating gender norms through breakdancing".

I feel for her, said Graham Watts in The Spectator. As she put it, she worked her "butt off" to get to the Olympics, and now she's a global laughing stock. Not only that, but she has been blamed for getting breakdancing chucked out of the Olympics (a decision made months ago), and even accused of cheating to qualify. As for the routine: well, she tried to win on originality and humour against younger and more athletic opponents, and it didn't work. Don't worry too much about her, said Dee Madigan in The Guardian. The world loves an Olympic loser. Remember Eric the Eel's disastrous 100m swim at the Sydney Games? "He's now the official coach of Equatorial Guinea." Eddie the Eagle? He "laughed all the way to the bank". For Raygun, I foresee a lucrative future in advertising and reality TV.

When Algerian boxer Imane Khelif won her quarter-final bout to guarantee herself a medal, it was "a brief happy moment for the fighter", said Jack Rathborn in The Independent. She "thumped the canvas in delight", before tearfully declaring "I am a woman." But her time in Paris has not been a happy one. A year ago, at the World Championships run by the International Boxing Association, she had been disqualified, the IBA claiming she had XY (male) chromosomes and thus failed the gender eligibility test. They did the same to Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting, who this week also reached the semi-final. And as a result, the success of both women in Paris has been shrouded in "a cloud of toxicity and largely uninformed judgements".

Nevertheless, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which last year stripped the IBA of recognition, should have intervened in this case, said Owen Slot in The Times: it "has failed heinously in its duty of care to its athletes" by not doing so. Khelif's case is in some ways reminiscent of that of the runner Caster Semenya, whose Olympic titles came under scrutiny when it was revealed she had "DSD" – differences in sex development affording her testosterone-linked advantages. But the difference between track and field and boxing is that boxing exposes contestants to physical danger. Khelif's previous opponent, Angela Carini, had to abandon the fight after 46 seconds, saying she'd never before been punched so hard. She didn't stand a chance. The IOC should never have allowed Khelif and Lin to fight.

Yet we shouldn't take the IBA verdict on their gender as gospel, said Mike Keegan in The Mail on Sunday. The IBA is a discredited body with close ties to Moscow. Could we be "falling for another Russian-led misinformation campaign"? One thing is clear, said Barney Ronay in The Guardian, it has been horribly tough on the two boxers. "Seeing Lin and Khelif in the flesh, as people, not avatars in a war of ideologies" should give us pause for thought.

Russian media have dismissed Paris 2024 as the "Olympics of hell" as political tensions threaten to overshadow the event.

"I thought the Olympic Games were about sport," Russian MP Mariya Butina told the BBC. "No longer," she said, because now it's "about politics, religion, everything".

Yet Moscow has been accused of stoking geopolitical and culture war tensions that boiled over during the last fortnight.

What did the commentators say?

The Paris Games have been "hijacked by culture wars between Russia and the west", said Nathalie Tocci in The Guardian. The "politicisation" began with the opening ceremony's rendition of a feast of Dionysus, which was "immediately confused" with Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper". This caused "a furore among socially conservative groups worldwide" and the artistic director, Thomas Jolly, received death threats.

Then "all hell broke loose" after a viral disinformation campaign about Algerian boxer Imane Khelif's gender identity. The "false" claim that Khelif is a transgender athlete was "echoed by figures as prominent" as Donald Trump, Elon Musk, J.K. Rowling, and "legions of racist and antitransgender trolls on social media", wrote Bilel Nasiri for New Lines Magazine, putting her "unwittingly at the centre of Western culture wars".

But the issue of women's boxing is "part of a much wider Russian-led campaign against the west", said Tocci. Moscow has targeted the Games' organisers because they've "isolated Russia since its invasion of Ukraine". Cast out of the Games "as a pariah", Russia "appears to be hell-bent on hating on the international sporting tournament in Paris", said CNBC.

Russian media outlets, most of which are linked to the Russian state, have "appeared to revel in misfortunes and controversies" that have "sprung up during the competition". Some Moscow media figures have even described the few Russian athletes who have competed in Paris as "traitors", said Euronews.

Elsewhere, Taiwan's government spoke out over an incident at the men's doubles badminton final between players from Taiwan and China – a supporter had her sign reading "Let's go Taiwan" ripped from her hands and torn up. Taiwanese spectators and commentators said the incident brought geopolitics to the fore by highlighting "the tremendous pressure Taiwan has long faced from China", said VOA.

Taiwan is only allowed to participate in the Olympics and other international competitions under the name Chinese Taipei, said The Associated Press, and it cannot fly its own flag or play its national anthem. "Despite that," Taiwanese fans at the badminton final sang the anthem during the medal ceremony, "drawing a huge wave of support online".

Russia's exclusion also "led to speculation" that its agents may have been responsible for a series of railway sabotages that caused significant travel disruption on the opening day of the Games, said Simon Chadwick and Paul Widdop on The Conversation.

But as much as social media has been the forum for lots of cultural and geopolitical tension this summer, it has also "enabled some competitors to have their moment in the spotlight", said Forbes. "Rarely do the 'shooting' stars" of the Games get "much more than a passing mention", but "this certainly wasn't the case this year" as Kim Ye-ji and Yusuf Dikeç made the pistol shooting competitions a viral hit.

What next?

Attention now turns to future events and these are already being discussed in political terms. Describing the Paris opening ceremony as a "disgrace", Trump said that no such thing would be allowed to happen when the 2028 Summer Olympics convene in Los Angeles – "which he no doubt assumes will be under his watch as president", said Tocci.

Meanwhile, Indonesia's ambition to host the 2036 Olympics could "go up in flames" over geopolitics, said the South China Morning Post, because a "major hurdle" would be its "strained political ties with Israel". Last year, Indonesia was stripped of hosting rights for a major football tournament amid political controversy sparked by "high-level politicians opposing Israel's participation".

The Paris Olympics got off to a dramatic start today when arsonists conducted a series of attacks that have caused widespread disruption across France's high-speed train network.

On the day of the 2024 Games' opening ceremony, the state-owned railway operator SNCF said there had been a "massive attack aimed at paralysing the network". Fires were started along the lines connecting the capital with cities such as Lille in the north, Bordeaux in the west and Strasbourg in the east.

The attacks are the latest obstacle that the Games' organisers have encountered on the road to Paris 2024.

What did the commentators say?

Organisers will be hoping that the "spectacle" of the sports themselves can "drown the detail, cost, greed and waste" that have so far surrounded the Games, said The Guardian's chief sports writer Barney Ronay. 

The threats to "Olympic primacy" are now "existential", and it "needs to re-establish itself as a dream factory and a producer of moments". Because of the pandemic, the "last really significant Olympic moment" was Usain Bolt winning gold in Rio "eight whole years ago".

The role of Paris is to "fix this" and perhaps there is "something to be taken from Parisian coolness". That's one way of describing the mood. Emmanuel Macron's remark that the French "need to re-enthuse" about the Olympics, combined with a poll that found 44% of Parisians think the Games are a "bad thing", reflect just how low expectations have sunk.

The Games are "already an expensive nightmare for many locals and tourists", said CBS News. "If you're planning on coming to Paris for the Olympic Games… do not come! Do not come," one resident warned in an online rant. "The city of Paris is making it hell on earth."

Naturally, the greatest fear is of a terrorist attack, on either the athletes or the spectators, said Sky News, and a "huge amount of effort has been put into controlling movements around the city". There are also concerns that Russia will "cause trouble" and a 40-year-old Russian man was arrested on suspicion of planning to destabilise the Olympics. Authorities said he could face up to 30 years in prison, a "hint at the gravity of the accusations against him".

The prospect of industrial action will "hang over the whole games", with strikes threatened by workers "ranging from dancers at the opening ceremony to Uber drivers". And to add to the uncertainty, France "remains a country without a functioning government".

But pre-Games negativity seems to be part of the deal. Prior to the 2012 Games, many in London were "dreading" the event, said the BBC. Locals feared the Games would "cause chaos, disrupt business and make life more difficult for many people". Once the Games started, though, the mood lifted dramatically. Hugh Robertson, a former minister responsible for London 2012, told AFP that "there is always a moment that comes when people realise what a wonderful shop window they are for a country and they swing behind the Games". With expectations so low, Paris might not have to do much to pleasantly surprise the doubters.

Success will be judged ultimately on its legacy for the city. Paris should follow London's example and "embrace the ability to repurpose spaces and infrastructure" that are "already staples of their communities", said Fast Company. The French organisers should also use the Games as a "motivator" to improve their cities not only for the tourists who will "naturally flock in", but for their "long-term residents as well".

But the extent to which London achieved that second aim is contested. Twelve years on, the "promises of legacy housing" have "yet to be fulfilled", said Inside The Games. The main beneficiaries of London's Olympic housing legacy have been wealthier professional groups, but affordable housing is "conspicuous by its absence". Nearly 12,400 homes have been built in and around the Olympic site, but only about 1,000 are affordable, which is "hardly anything".

So perhaps it's London's failures that Paris should learn from. Although there were "high hopes" to create a "cultural hub" around the Olympic village in Stratford, east London, said The Telegraph, "in reality, the greatest legacy for many is understood to be the Westfield shopping centre". In contrast, the Paris organisers hope they are "building for the long-term".

What next?

The opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics takes place on the Seine today, with boats carrying athletes and dignitaries along almost four miles of the river. Around 300,000 spectators will watch the action on the water.

Robertson said this will be a key moment in the long-term journey. The opening ceremony is important for the success of the Games because it "sets the tone" for the entire event. If it starts the Games "in the right way" then that "allows you to concentrate subsequently on the athletes".

Olympic medalist Kim Glass says she was brutally assaulted on the street in an apparently random attack that left her with multiple facial fractures.

Glass, a volleyball player who competed with Team USA at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, took to Instagram to show her gruesome injuries and describe being assaulted while leaving a restaurant in downtown Los Angeles.

"This homeless man ran up," she said. "He had something in his hand. ... He just looked at me with some pretty hateful eyes, and as I turned to go tell my friend I think something's wrong with him … before I knew it, a big metal bolt —like pipe — hit me [in the face]."

The Instagram video showed that Glass' right eye was bruised and swollen shut. She says she received stitches but that "right now, it looks like my vision will be okay." In a subsequent update, she noted she was "incredibly grateful to God that I'll be able to see" and won't need to undergo surgeries, noting that it "could have been so much worse" and that an ophthalmologist says "my retina is solid."

Police arrested the suspect, according to Glass, and video obtained by TMZ showed the bloody aftermath of the attack. She encouraged her fans to "be safe out there."

"I wasn't ready for it," she said. "There's a lot of mentally ill people on these streets right now. You shouldn't have to be fearful when you walk, but it's true."

Russian athletes won't be barred from the Paralympics amid the Ukraine invasion — but they can't represent Russia.

The International Paralympic Committee announced Wednesday that athletes from Russia and Belarus will be permitted to participate "as neutrals" in the Winter Paralympics, which officially begin Friday. But they'll be competing "in an individual capacity" under the Paralympic flag, and they must cover their country's symbol on their uniforms. They also won't be included in the medals table. International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons called this the "harshest possible punishment we can hand down within our constitution and the current IPC rules."

Earlier this week, the International Olympic Committee recommended that Russian and Belarusian athletes not be allowed to compete at any international competitions in light of "the breach of the Olympic Truce by the Russian government and the government of Belarus" with the invasion of Ukraine. The committee said, though, that "wherever this is not possible on short notice for organization or legal reasons," athletes should at least not be "allowed to take part under the name of Russia or Belarus."

Since then, Russia has been barred from numerous other sporting events, with the International Skating Union announcing Russian athletes won't be invited to ice skating events until further notice. FIFA also suspended Russia in a move that will likely prevent the country from qualifying for the 2022 World Cup.

The IPC also announced Wednesday that it will not hold any events in Russia or Belarus "until further notice," and a meeting will be held this year to determine whether to suspend the Russian Paralympic Committee and Belarus Paralympic Committee.

"The eyes of the world will be watching the Paralympic Winter Games in the coming days," Parsons said. "It is vital we show to world leaders through our sport that we can unite as human beings and that our true power is found when promoting peace, understanding and inclusion."

A spectacular celebration and fireworks display brought the Winter Olympics to an end at the Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing yesterday. For Team GB, though, the final weekend of the games produced a huge sigh of relief as British competitors finally won some medals.

Having set off to Beijing with a target of between three and seven medals, they won just two, both in curling. On Saturday the men’s team led by Bruce Mouat had to settle for silver after losing to Sweden, then yesterday Eve Muirhead’s women’s curlers crushed Japan 10-3 to claim gold.

Team GB had their curlers to thank for a “disaster averted” at Beijing 2022, said Matt Majendie in the London Evening Standard. But once the glow of those medals fade, “it will be difficult to judge these Winter Olympics as much more than a disappointment”.

‘No knee-jerk decisions’

As the Winter Olympics progressed, “anxiety began to grow that Team GB might not return home from Beijing with a medal at all”, said Richard Newman on Eurosport. Instead, the “euphoria of a golden moment right at the end” reminded us what the Games are all about. “Now it is down to UK Sport to decide whether it wants more of the same.”

The body, which is responsible for supporting Britain’s Olympic and Paralympic sports and athletes, admitted that the Beijing medal return was “disappointing”. However, it insisted that the £28m funding for winter sports would not be slashed after the underwhelming Olympics, the Daily Mail reported.

Now is not the time to make “knee-jerk reactions or knee-jerk decisions”, said UK Sport chief executive Sally Munday. “The last two weeks have not altered our ambition to become an ever greater force in winter sport. These games have been a setback in Great Britain’s Olympic success story. We’ve taken some blows. We will go away, we will lick our wounds.”

Dreams come true for Muirhead

The 50-strong Team GB “faced flying home without podium honours to show for their efforts”, said Shekhar Bhatia in the Daily Mail. “But within the space of 24 hours, the curlers showed how it is done.”

A day after the men’s team won the silver medal, Britain then celebrated a “golden finish”, the BBC said. The women’s curling team – skip Eve Muirhead, Jennifer Dodds, Vicky Wright, Hailey Duff and alternate Mili Smith – went into yesterday’s final as favourites against Japan and “they were ruthless”.

It is Team GB’s first curling gold medal for 20 years: Muirhead follows in the footsteps of Rhona Martin who topped the podium in Salt Lake City in 2002. Competing in her fourth Olympic Winter Games, Muirhead added a gold to the bronze she won at Sochi 2014.

After “heart-breaking near misses and career-saving surgery on an arthritic hip”, Muirhead finally has her Olympic curling gold medal, the BBC said. And it’s “a fitting prize” for the 31-year-old from Stirling, Bhatia added in the Mail.

“I have waited a long time,” Muirhead said. “Dreams do come true, and it’s all thanks to these girls who have helped me get here, and helped me become a better curler, a better person. Finally we have managed to get that Olympic gold and yeah, it just doesn’t feel real.”

Coming hours before the closing ceremony, the “best moment of the games for Britain” happened “while most of us were asleep”, Newman said on Eurosport. “It was a shame that Eve Muirhead’s redemption after her agony at previous Olympics was not witnessed live by a mass British audience.”

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics closed Sunday after 15 days of competition.

The closing ceremony aired on NBC and featured children with illuminated snowflakes performing a loosely choreographed dance to an arrangement of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," followed by the Parade of Flags, set to an arrangement of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy."

Norway topped the medal table with 16 gold medals, followed by Germany with 12 and China with nine. The U.S. came in fourth with eight gold medals. American athletes also brought home 10 silver medals and seven bronzes.

Countries are ranked according to the number of gold medals they won. Thus, a country with only a single gold medal would finish ahead of a country with a dozen silvers but no golds.

Because China won only four silver medals, the U.S. could jump to third place in the overall rankings if a doping investigation overturns Russia's victory in the figure skating team event, in which the U.S. team finished second.

The U.S. also ranked fourth — behind Norway, Germany, and Canada — in the 2018 Winter Olympics, bringing home nine golds, eight silvers, and six bronzes.

Paris will host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The 2026 Winter Games will be held in the Italian cities of Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport announced Sunday in Beijing that the U.S. Olympic figure skating team will not receive their medals until a doping investigation into 15-year-old Russian skater Kamila Valieva has concluded, ESPN reports.

The World Anti-Doping Agency is investigating Valieva after a Dec. 25 blood test came back positive for banned substance. A CAS panel ruled Monday that Valieva could continue competing. The ruling also stipulated, however, that until the investigation into Valieva reached its conclusion, no medals would be awarded for the team figure skating event, in which she led the Russian Olympic Committee team to victory, or for any other events in which she finished in the top three.

The U.S. team, which finished second in the team event, appealed the decision, requesting that the nine skaters be awarded their silver medals before the end of the Olympics.

According to The Associated Press, the panel, which included "arbitrators from Denmark, France, and China," rejected the Americans' appeal after meeting "for two and a half hours Saturday evening."

Per AP, it may take months or even years for the investigation into Valieva to "winds its way through hearings and appeals." Only then will the Americans receive their medals — silver if Valieva is exonerated, and gold if the Russian team is disqualified.

Valieva was initially favored to win gold in individual women's skating on Thursday, but instead she bungled her performance and finished fourth. Valieva cried after her skate as coach Eteri Tutberidze demanded, "Why did you let it go? … Why did you stop fighting completely?"

After winning gold in 2018 and becoming internet sensations in the process, the U.S. men's curling team came in fourth at the 2022 Olympics, Sports Illustrated reported.

The U.S. team lost to Great Britain in the semifinals on Thursday and to Canada in Friday's bronze medal game, but team leader John Shuster took the loss well.

"If you have people you enjoy traveling with and hanging around with, the curling is a bonus … And winning in curling is even a bigger bonus," Shuster said.

According to The Guardian, the British team went on to defeat Sweden and win the gold medal.

Curling is an obscure sport, but in 2018 the U.S. team's upset victories over Canada and Sweden after nearly being eliminated earlier in the competition endeared them to their countrymen. Plus, they just seemed so relatable. One Twitter user likened them to "a group of dads at a barbecue."

Despite their gold medal win in Pyeongchang four years ago, the U.S. team faced stiff competition in Beijing that made a repeat win unlikely. BetMGM gave Shuster and company odds of +1200 to take home gold, meaning a $100 wager would pay out $1,200 in winnings.

The president of the International Olympic Committee — Thomas Bach — offered what is viewed as a "rare" criticism of a Chinese Olympic official during a news conference on Friday, The New York Times reports.

Bach's comments arrived after a spokesperson for the Beijing Olympics on Thursday issued remarks "that seemed to violate Olympic rules about political neutrality," the Times writes.

"We were in touch with [Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games] immediately after this press conference," Bach said Friday, "and both organizations, BOCOG and the IOC., have restated the unequivocal commitment to remain politically neutral as it is required by the Olympic charter."

On Thursday, Beijing Olympics spokesperson Yan Jiarong was asked whether athletes from Taiwan — who compete under the name Chinese Taipei — would march in Sunday's closing ceremony. "What I want to say is that there is only one China in the world," Yan responded, per the Times. "Taiwan is an indivisible part of China."

Though Taiwan in self-ruled, the Chinese government considers the island part of Chinese territory.

Yan also alleged that questions relating to reported genocide and forced labor in China's Xinjiang region "are very based on lies," she said. "Some authorities have already disputed such false information with a lot of solid evidence."

The comments were likely "in violation of Rule 50 of the Olympic charter, which prohibits any sort of 'demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda' at the Games," the Times explains.

Though Bach did not name Yan or her comments directly in his rebuke, "even a mild criticism amounted to some of the strongest words he has issued on China." Read more at The New York Times.

Russian figure skating prodigy Kamila Valieva was controversially cleared to compete in the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics this week, despite testing positive for the banned angina drug trimetazidine. The 15-year-old claimed she must have been contaminated by her grandfather’s heart medication.

When the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (Rusada) was informed of the failed drugs test on 8 February it provisionally suspended her in line with World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) rules. After Valieva appealed against the decision, Rusada agreed to lift the suspension. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), Wada and the International Skating Union then launched an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to reinstate the provisional suspension.

The winter games descended into “acrimony and farce” after CAS cleared Valieva to compete despite the positive doping test “hanging over her head”, The Guardian said. The court stated there were “exceptional circumstances” surrounding the case, and that banning her while it was ongoing would “cause her irreparable harm”.

The case has drawn “worldwide scrutiny” because of Russia’s doping history, USA Today said. In 2016, Wada found that more than 1,000 Russian athletes were involved in, or benefitted from, a state-sponsored doping program from 2011 to 2015.

As a nation, Russia is currently banned from competing at the Summer or Winter Olympics. But its athletes are allowed to participate under the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) flag.

An ‘asterisk’ next to her results

Valieva came into the games as the “biggest star in a highly-rated ROC squad”, the BBC said. And the “acclaim grew louder” when she became the first woman to land a quadruple jump at an Olympic Games – doing so in the team event, in which the ROC won gold. However, the medal ceremony was “unusually delayed” after it was revealed Valieva had failed the drugs test in December.

Cleared to compete in the women’s individual competition, Valieva performed a strong short programme on Tuesday and qualified in first place for the final free skate on Thursday, Sky Sports reported. Prior to her final skate, the IOC said the results would be “preliminary” and have an “asterisk” next to them if Valieva finished within the top three. There would also be no medal ceremony, as had been the case for the team event.

‘Uncomfortable and unpleasant’

After a week of “outrage” following the failed drugs test, Valieva’s Olympics came to a “distressing conclusion” in the free skate, the BBC said. “In the end it became one of the most uncomfortable, unpleasant moments of sport in recent memory.”

The young Russian skater crumbled under the pressure and fell several times in her final routine. She finished fourth with a total score 224.09 and her ROC team-mates Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova won the gold and silver respectively while Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto took the bronze.

Valieva left the ice “hiding tears behind her hands” before sobbing in the “kiss and cry” area, Sky News said. There was no comfort or sympathy from her adult entourage, though. Instead coach Eteri Tutberidze “badgered” her with questions such as: “Why did you let it go? Why did you stop fighting completely? Somewhere after the axel, you let it go.”

IOC president Thomas Bach said the treatment of the distraught youngster was “chilling” to watch. “When I saw how she was received by her closest entourage with what appeared to be a tremendous coldness, it was chilling to see this, rather than giving her comfort, rather than to try to help her,” Bach said. “All of this does not give me much confidence in this closest entourage of Kamila, neither with regard to what happened in the past, nor as far as it concerns the future.”

The “trials and global tumult” of the past week were “already far beyond what any 15-year-old should have to bear”, said The Guardian’s Sean Ingle. This “isn’t how sport should be”, said Owen Slot in The Times. After her “personal disaster on the ice” in Beijing, the now “globally famous teenager” will have to attend a doping hearing. The Kamila Valieva story is “not over yet”.

The women's individual figure skating competition — specifically the Russian skaters — stole the Beijing Olympics, and not in an entirely good way. "The gold medalist said she felt empty," The Associated Press recaps. "The silver medalist pledged never to skate again. The favorite left in tears without saying a word."

Russian skaters Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova won the gold and silver, respectively, but the botched free skate of fourth-placing teammate Kamila Valieva — performing under the cloud of a doping inquiry — overshadowed their wins. Bronze medalist Kaori Sakamoto of Japan seemed to be the only one enjoying the moment.

"I hate this sport," Trusova shouted when the scores were set, evidently believing her record five quadruple jumps should have won her gold. "I won't go onto the ice again." Shcherbakova seemed unsure how to react to her victory. "On the one hand I feel happy, on the other I feel this emptiness inside," she said. Valieva, 15, cried after her bungled performance, but the Russian coach, Eteri Tutberidze, immediately lit into her. "Why did you let it go?" she demanded. "Explain it to me, why? Why did you stop fighting completely? Somewhere after the axel you let it go."

That drew an uncharacteristically strong rebuke from International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach on Friday. "When I afterwards saw how she was received by her closest entourage, with such, what appeared to be a tremendous coldness, it was chilling to see this," Bach said, not naming Tutberidze but clearly referring to her. "Rather than giving her comfort, rather than to try to help her, you could feel this chilling atmosphere, this distance." He added: "All of this does not give me much confidence in Kamila's closest entourage."

"The adults in the room" abandoned Valieva, NBC Olympics host Mike Tirico agreed Friday. "Portrayed by some this week as the villain, by others as the victim, she is in fact the victim of the villains. The coaches and national Olympic committee surrounding Kamila Valieva" clearly "failed to protect her," whatever else they might have done.

The World Anti-Doping Agency is looking into how Valieva came to have a banned drug in a Dec. 25 blood sample and what to do about it, and Tutberidze and Russian figure skating team doctor Filipp Shvetsky — previously suspended for doping athletes — will be central to the investigation.

Freeskier Eileen Gu added to her medal count Friday in Beijing, and made her way into the history books.

The 18-year-old representing Team China won gold in the freestyle skiing halfpipe event, the third and final freeski event of the Olympics. She is now the first athlete to ever earn three freestyle skiing medals in one Olympics — earlier in the Games, Gu won a gold medal in the big air event and silver in slopestyle.

Gu won the halfpipe with her first run score of 93.25, and ESPN reports she tried even more tricks in the second run, going higher and completing back-to-back alley-oop flatspin 540s, earning a score of 95.25.

Canada's Cassie Sharpe, the defending Olympic gold medalist, took home the silver, while her teammate Rachael Karker won the bronze.

After the event, Gu said that being in the Olympics "changed my life forever," and she never imagined she would win two gold medals and a silver.

Gu was born in San Francisco to an American father and Chinese mother. Fluent in Mandarin, she was raised by her mother and grandmother, and spent her childhood summers in Beijing. Before 2019, she skied on the U.S. team, but left to compete for China in Beijing. She explained why in an Instagram post, writing that it was an "incredibly tough decision for me to make," but "the opportunity to help inspire millions of young people where my mom was born, during the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help to promote the sport I love."

Russia is insisting the results of the Olympics' team figure skating competition are final, no matter what happens in the doping investigation into Kamila Valieva.

Stanislav Pozdnyakov, president of the Russian Olympic Committee, on Thursday said Russia "strongly" disagrees with the International Olympic Committee's statement that the results of the team tournament and women's singles competition at the Beijing Olympics are "preliminary" because Valieva's doping case isn't resolved. Instead, he said Russia is insisting the medals can't be redistributed, The New York Times reports.

"The Russian Olympic Committee has already sent a letter to the [International Skating Union], in which it stated in detail and reasonably the position that the results of the team tournament are not subject to revision under any circumstances, regardless of the outcome of the disciplinary investigation against the athlete," Pozdnyakov said.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled Valieva could continue competing despite a positive drug test before the Olympics, the results from which were returned on Feb. 8. But the International Olympic Committee subsequently said there would be no medal ceremonies for the events Valieva wins a medal in until her doping case is resolved. Russia won gold during the team competion.

On Thursday, Valieva was set to participate in the women's free skate event. An IOC spokesperson said "there will be an asterisk against the results, because they will be preliminary obviously pending the investigation," per The Associated Press.

Pozdnyakov, though, says Russia is prepared to defend its position that the team results can't be revised "consistently in any possible proceedings, including in the [Court of Arbitration for Sport], if required."

U.S. two-time gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin failed to finish the Alpine Combined on Thursday after skidding out in the slalom portion of the two-leg event. She had the fifth-fasted run in the downhill portion, but slaloms — her specialty — have proved difficult for her in the Beijing Olympics. This is the third event she had to ski out of, and she did not place higher than ninth in the two events she completed.

Shiffrin entered the slalom leg "in fifth place after a strong downhill," The Washington Post reports. "Given the strengths of the skiers around her in the standings, she appeared poised for a redemptive medal, the likely favorite to win gold," but instead it ended with her "stomping around in a puff of snow, wondering how it went so wrong." Shiffrin won a silver in the combined four years ago and the gold in giant slalom, following her gold medal in the slalom in 2014.

"I wanted to ski just a good run of slalom, and, I don't know, I feel like a joke — but maybe it made someone smile," Shiffrin said after the race. Her slalom run started out good, and she was relaxed and enjoying herself before she lost her balance at the 10th gate and fell two gates later, she said. "Oh, man, I don't know if anybody's failed that hard with so many opportunities maybe in the history of the Olympics, but I will take it."

Shiflin won't medal in an individual event this year, but she still has a chance at group medal in the team event on Saturday.

The defending gold medal U.S. women's hockey team had to settle for silver at the Beijing Olympics after losing to archrival Canada in the finals on Thursday. The Canadian women's hockey team took an early 3-0 lead over Team USA, and despite a late scoring drive by the Americans, Canada hung on to win 3-2.

Canada dominated throughout the Games, winning all seven matches, including an earlier 4-2 win over the U.S. in group play last week. Canada also beat the U.S. 3-2 in last year's women's hockey world championship game. The Canadian women's team has now won gold in five of the seven Olympics since women's hockey became an Olympic sport in 1998. The U.S. women's team has won two golds and four silvers, all of their losses to Canada.

In Thursday's game, Canada's Marie-Philip Poulin — nicknamed Captain Clutch — scored two of Canada's three goals, and Sarah Nurse score the third. Nurse scored 18 points during the Games, a single-tournament record. Canadian goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens stopped 38 shots. The U.S. goals were from Hilary Knight and, with 14 seconds left in the game, Amanda Kessel. U.S. goalie Alex Cavallini stopped 18 shots.

This is Canada's fourth gold medal at the Beijing Games and Team USA's eighth silver. The U.S., with eight golds and 20 total medals, is currently No. 3 in the rankings, while Canada, with 19 medals, is No. 11.

When it comes to women's figure skating, Russian Olympians are leading the pack.

"Honestly, the Russians are so far ahead when it comes to base values, nobody will probably beat them," former Olympian Adam Rippon told The New York Times. "That's just the hard truth of where skating is right now."

But why, exactly?

Much of Russia's dominance has to do with its skaters' outsized ability to land quadruple jumps, which are incredibly difficult to execute and therefore worth more in points, even when landed imperfectly. Though a doping scandal concerning superstar skater Kamila Valieva — who recently became the first woman ever to land a quad jump in the Olympics — has cast a shadow over Russian competitors, it's true they nonetheless have other advantages in the world of quadruple jump execution.

For one, Russia's Olympic sports "on an elite level are government-funded, so athletes don't have to pay for coaches or time on the ice or off-ice training — or anything," writes the Times. That access to coaching thus "benefits those learning the hardest skills."

In the U.S., for instance, where elite coaching runs about $100 an hour, athletes often pay a fraction of that and practice on their own the rest of the time.

Not to mention many Russian women often have "the perfect body type for quads," former movement science professor Jim Richards told the Times.

"They're skinny, and the skinnier they are, the faster they can spin," Richards said. "Of course they have to be athletes, but being able to do a quad is partly about physical attributes."

With quads worth more in base value, Russians have successfully "gone out of their way" to use the jumps to their competitive advantage, the Times adds, per former Olympian Tara Lipinski. Read more at The New York Times.

American freestyle skier Alex Hall won his first Olympic gold medal Wednesday in Beijing during the men's freeski slopestyle event.

In his first run, the 23-year-old scored 90.1, and none of his competitors were able to top that. During his first jump, he landed a double cork 1620, flipping nearly five times during two off-axis flips.

American Nick Goepper won silver in the event, his third Olympic medal, and Sweden's Jesper Tjader took home the bronze.

Hall made his Olympic debut four years ago, but finished 16th and wasn't in the slopestyle final, USA Today reports.

Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva was in fact able to compete in the women's short program on Tuesday after being cleared by the Court of Aribitration for Sport in the wake of a delayed positive doping test — but not without some criticism.

In one instance, former U.S. Olympians Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir expressed their disappointment with the decision during NBC's live broadcast of the Games Tuesday morning, The Washington Post reports.

"We have to remind ourselves that she is just 15 years old, a minor, and I know more than anyone what it's like to compete at an Olympic Games at 15 years old," Lipinski said on-air. "But a positive [drug] test is a positive test. She cannot skate."

"The Olympics were everything that I ever dreamed about, everything that kept me going on the day-to-day," Weir added, per the Post, "and to have that experience and that feeling … diminished because of a positive drug test on one of your competitors when everyone else adheres to the rules … it's a slap in the face to every other skater."

"[I]t's putting a permanent scar on our sport," Lipinski went on.

And in a separate instance, sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson — who was forced to sit out the Toyko Summer Games due to a positive marijuana test — wondered aloud on Monday why her situation was treated differently than Valieva's.

Richardson previously said she had smoked marijuana during the Olympic trials to cope with the death of her biological mother.

Valieva did not speak with reporters following her time on the ice on Tuesday, notes the Post.

Just when you thought you'd seen — er, heard — it all.

Bing Dwen Dwen, the adorable panda mascot for the Olympic Games, is actually contractually forbidden from speaking, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

All things considered, the Journal notes, Bing Dwen Dwen is a rather successful mascot, especially compared to those of Games past. But its cuddly aura was shattered last week, when the "roly-poly space panda" opened its mouth during a livestream with state broadcaster China Central Television. Viewers and fans panicked almost immediately, distraught after hearing "the voice of a middle-aged man," rather than that of a cute, child-like character, per the Journal.

China's censors took care of the episode soon after, pulling the clip from China's internet and removing the hashtag "Bing Dwen Dwen has spoken" from the social media platform Weibo. Once Chinese media "moved in to contain the damage," writes the Journal, they slammed the speaking panda as an imposter and recirculated a pre-Games quote from a Beijing Olympics organizing committee legal expert who confirmed Bing Dwen Dwen was actually only allowed to make "babbling noises."

In fact, the panda, whose name describes an "Ice Child," is "contractually obliged under a deal with the International Olympic Commission to be gender-neutral and refrain from speaking," the Journal writes, per Wu Yujia, a legal expert.

"Once you speak," Wu said, "it is easy to identify the gender."

Bing Dwen Dwen, blink twice if you're okay.

Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva can compete in the individual women's skating events at the Beijing Olympics despite her positive pre-Games drug test, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled Monday. The CAS said it decided against barring Valieva from competition because she is, at 15, a "protected person" under the World Anti-Doping Code, her drug tests in Beijing have been clean, and there are "serious issues of untimely notification" in the results of her Dec. 25 drug test, returned by the Swedish lab on Feb. 8.

"The panel considered that preventing the athlete to compete at the Olympics would cause her irreparable harm in the circumstances," CAS Director General Matthieu Reeb said. The panel did not rule on the merits of Valieva's case or whether she will get to keep any medals she wins, including the gold won by not yet awarded to the Russian Olympic Committee for the team skating event. Valieva is favored to win the gold in the individual competition.

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee said it is "disappointed by the message" the CAS ruling sends. "Athletes have the right to know they are competing on a level playing field," USOPC chief executive Sarah Hirshland said in a statement. "Unfortunately today that right is being denied. This appears to be another chapter in the systemic and pervasive disregard for clean sport by Russia."

The Russian Olympic Committee — the banner under which Russian athletes are competing, since Russia itself was banned following a 2014 state-sponsored doping scandal — said before the CAS ruling that it is "taking comprehensive measures to protect the rights and interests of the ROC team members and to keep the Olympic gold medal won in fair competition." If the Russian win is disqualified, Team USA would win the gold in the team competition.

The Russian anti-doping agency will investigate whether Valieva is guilty of doping and whether anyone in her entourage is responsible, and determine if she and the ROC team get to keep their gold. That decision could also be appealed to the CAS.

Newly minted U.S. citizen Kaillie Humphries won the gold medal in the women's monobob event at the Beijing Olympics on Monday, earning her third gold medal and her first for Team USA. Humphries won her first two golds as the star bobsledder for Canada, but she moved to the U.S. in 2016, married former U.S. bobsledder Travis Armbruster in 2019, and was granted her U.S. citizenship on Dec. 2, 2021.

"I want to ... give back to a country that has adopted me, that has given me a longer career, and has given me a safe place in order to compete," Humphries said after notching an insurmountable lead after two of the four runs. "I'm very honored that the USA has backed me the way that it has."

Humphries is only the second Winter Olympian to have won gold medals for two different countries, joining short-track speedster Viktor Ahn, USA Today reports, citing Olympic historian Bill Mallon. Ahn won three golds for South Korea in Turin in 2006 and then took another three golds at the 2014 Sochi Games as a member of Russia's team.

U.S. bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor won the silver in the monobob event, her fourth medal and third silver. She now holds the record for most medals in USA Bobsled history. Meyers Taylor recently emerged from nearly a week in isolation after testing positive for COVID-19, and she said she still wasn't feeling in top form on Sunday. But her final run pushed her past Canada's Christine de Bruin, who won the bronze medal.

The first- and second-place women's monobob finishes put Team USA third in the rankings, with seven golds and 14 medals overall, behind No. 1 Norway and second-place Germany.

American snowboarders Lindsey Jacobellis, 36, and Nick Baumgartner, 40, won gold Saturday in the mixed-gender team snowboardcross, an event that debuted at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, The New York Times reported.

The two, who are longtime friends, were the oldest pair in the medal round. "We're the 80s babies," said Jacobellis after she embraced Baumgartner at the finish line. "We came in hot today, and we're really excited about it." Jacobellis won Team U.S.A.'s first gold medal of the 2022 Olympics in Wednesday's women's snowboardcross, USA Today reported.

Italy took silver in the mixed-gender snowboardcross, and Canada won bronze.

According to the Times, after Baumgartner barely won the first leg of the final race, "Jacobellis quickly fell into third place in a final that featured two Italian teams. She passed one rider on a small jump, then pursued Italy's Michela Moioli down the course. Jacobellis cut past her on the inside of a tight corner, held the lead and won by two tenths of a second."

The U.S. is currently ranked third overall with five gold medals, five silvers, and one bronze.

Former Olympic figure skater Adam Rippon came to 2022 Olympian Kamila Valieva's defense on Friday, after it was revealed the Russian athlete tested positive for a banned substance weeks before the Beijing Games began.

"This entire situation is heartbreaking," Rippon wrote on Twitter. "This young girl is just 15. She's a minor. The adults around her have completely failed her. They've put her in this awful situation and should be punished."

"I blame those in charge," he continued.

On Friday, the International Testing Agency confirmed Valieva had tested positive for trimetazidine, a drug commonly used to treat angina that can also improve endurance, reports CNN and The New York Times. A Swedish lab apparently found the banned substance in a sample taken from Valieva on Dec. 25, but — for reasons currently unknown — only reported the positive result on Feb. 8. The Russian anti-doping agency claims Valieva tested negative before and after the Dec. 25 sample.

"A positive test is a positive test," Rippon continued on Friday. "Testing negative now doesn't negate the fact that there were performance enhancing drugs involved in the process. It's a f--king shame. It didn't need to come to this. SHE IS A CHILD."

"The ROC has miserably failed its athletes and embarrassed themselves on the world stage YET AGAIN. My heart breaks for the Russian athletes competing in Beijing who will have everything they do at this Olympics questioned."

The fate of Valieva's team gold and her continued eligibility in the Games is not yet clear.

Russian figure skating superstar Kamila Valieva did test positive for the banned substance trimetazidine, the International Testing Agency confirmed Friday on behalf of the International Olympic Committee, and her case will be considered at an expedited hearing of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) before the women's individual competition begins Feb. 15.

Valieva, 15, already powered the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) team to gold in the team event, which ended Monday, Feb. 7. Whether Russia gets to keep that gold medal will likely be determined after the Beijing Games end. This weekend's CAS hearing will determine only whether Valieva can participate in the individual event. She is the 2022 European champion and Russian national champion and is heavily favored to win the women's event if she participates. Valieva practiced Thursday and Friday as if she will compete.

The International Test Agency explained Friday that a Swedish lab found trimetazidine in a sample taken from Valieva on Dec. 25, after she won the Russian national championship, but for reasons not yet disclosed, the lab only reported the positive result on Feb. 8. The Russian anti-doping agency RUSADA immediately suspended Valieva from the Games, but a disciplinary committee lifted her suspension on appeal Wednesday.

RUSADA's justification for lifting the preliminary suspension is not yet public, but the ITA said it "will be issued shortly to all concerned parties." The ITA will be representing the IOC in the CAS hearing, seeking to reinstate Valieva's suspension. RUSADA says Valieva tested negative before and after the Christmas sample. But she "will likely be disqualified from her Russian national title," whatever happens in Beijing, The Associated Press reports.

The fate of the team event medal will be determined by the International Skating Union, the sport's governing body, "only after a final decision on the full merits of the case has been taken," the ITA said. First, RUSADA will investigate and issue a judgement on Valieva's doping case, and that verdict could be appealed before the CAS.

Because the World Anti-Doping Code gives minors extra protections, Valieva "could ultimately receive just a simple reprimand," AP reports. But another doping scandal could extend the ban on Russia participating in the Olympics, set to expire in December. Russian Olympians have been participating without the Russian flag or anthem since after the 2014 Sochi Olympics, when a massive, state-run doping operation was uncovered.

Snowboarder Shaun White's Olympic career ended Friday in Beijing, when he competed in his final event: the men's halfpipe.

He started his third run in fourth place, and while White went on to land a 1440, he fell on his next trick. Japan's Ayumu Hirano, who completed two triple corks in his runs, took the gold medal, with Australia's Scotty James winning silver and Switzerland's Jan Scherrer winning bronze.

White, who won gold medals in Turin, Vancouver, and Pyeongchang, said Beijing would be his fifth and final Olympics. At 35, he is the oldest U.S. halfpipe rider in Winter Games history.

The International Olympic Committee declined on Thursday to elaborate on the "legal issues" behind the postponed medal ceremony for the group skating event, and would specifically not comment on Russian media reports that superstar Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, 15, had tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine.

"Obviously we ask for and hope for the patience and understanding of all the athletes involved here," IOC spokesman Mark Adams told reporters Thursday. "But it is a legal case, and I'm bound by this legal case, and I'm unable to say anything more." Asked about the Valieva doping reports, Adams answered, "I have seen the reports, but I cannot comment on them."

Valieva practiced as usual on Thursday, and neither she nor her Russian teammates would answer any questions. If she were disqualified, her team would lose its gold medal, elevating Team USA to its first-ever gold in the group skating event and giving Japan the silver and Canada the bronze.

Trimetazidine, or TMZ, is a metabolic agent typically used to treat chest pains and vertigo. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned in in 2014 because it can help endurance and increase blood flow efficiency, potentially helping figure skaters and other elite athletes, The Associated Press explains.

A Chinese swimmer and Russian bobsledder were handed bans after testing positive for trimetazidine at the 2014 and 2018 Olympics, respectively. But Valieva's case would be more complicated, in part because she is a minor, given extra privacy rights, and also because the alleged positive sample was taken last month, before the Olympics began. The Russian athletes are competing in Beijing under the banner of the Russian Olympic Committee because Russia was banned due to a massive state-sponsored doping operation.

"She is not suspended," Russian figure skating federation spokeswoman Olga Ermolina said of Valieva. Prominent Russian sports journalist Vasily Konov claimed on social media that "the drug trimetazidine does not help an athlete in any way" and only a "minuscule amount" was found in Valieva's blood, urging people to "leave Kamila in peace."

Trimetazidine "is not a drug that you would take accidentally" and "not something that you would expect a 15-year-old to be prescribed," former WADA director general David Howman told Reuters. "It is very disappointing and a real shame that Russians continue to test positive at major events after all that country has gone through."

In 2008, when China hosted the summer Olympics, it was a “flawless, military operation”, said Owen Slot in The Times. The contrast with this year’s Winter Olympics in Beijing couldn’t be starker. The inadequacy of provisions has been evident in everything from the treatment of those who’ve tested positive for Covid-19 to the facilities on the slopes and the ice rinks. At the Alpine skiing venue, the lack of hot meals has forced the US team to take their “own dried pasta up the mountain”. And horror stories emanating from the quarantine hotels where hundreds of athletes have been lodged – about the inedible food; the lack of Wi-Fi; the capricious treatment by the authorities – are legion, said Sean Ingle in The Guardian. “My stomach hurts, I’m very pale and I have huge black circles around my eyes,” Russian biathlete Valeria Vasnetsova posted from her hotel. “I want all this to end.” A Polish skater in another isolation hotel said she cries “until I have no more tears”.

As for the sports themselves, Team GB’s campaign got off to a decidedly underwhelming start, said Riath Al-Samarrai in the Daily Mail. In the opening few days, several medal hopefuls failed to qualify: Katie Ormerod “botched the qualifying in the snowboard slopestyle”; track skater Kathryn Thomson, who spent £22,000 funding her own season, crashed on the first corner of her 500m heat. Her fellow skater Farrell Treacy also suffered a shock early exit–though this time in circumstances tinged with “farce”. With two laps to go in his men’s 1,000m heat, he convinced himself that he’d “heard the bell for the final rotation”. He duly slowed down upon completing the next lap – only to realise, too late to salvage his chances, that he still had a lap to go.

Yet for both winners and losers alike, an air of unreality hangs over these winter games, said Cindy Yu in The Spectator. And that’s because, aside from a selected few, there are no spectators. So strict is China’s zero-Covid policy, and so terrified is the Chinese leadership of getting the disease (the average age on the Politburo Standing Committee is 63), the organisers decided last month not to sell tickets to the general public. But keen to sell a message of peace and togetherness, they did manage to stage a lavish opening ceremony involving some 3,000 teenagers dressed as snowflakes, said Aja Romano on Vox. Before the ceremony they also encouraged athletes from the different nations to sign a “truce mural”. More toe-curling still, said Kaya Terry in the Daily Mail, they made a 20-year-old Uyghur, the skier Dinigeer Yilamujiang, one of the faces of the Games by getting her to light the Olympic flame; they even showed a film of her delighted family. Days later she came 43rd in her event and duly vanished.

U.S. figure skater Nathan Chen won his first Olympic gold medal in Beijing on Thursday after skate-dancing and quad-jumping through a technically difficult and visually fun long program set to a medley of Elton John songs from Rocketman. Chen, 22, landed all five quad jumps in his four-minute performance, earning a score of 218.63 and the title, from NBC Sports, of "Quad King." (Watch his entire performance.)

Chen is only the seventh American to win the men's individual skating competitions at the Olympics.

Japan's Yuma Kagiyama won the silver medal and teammate Shoma Uno won the bronze. Japan's Yuzuru Hanyu, Chen's longtime rival, entered Thursday's long program at a significant disadvantage after a poor short progam performance earlier in the week. His plan to make up lost points with a four-and-a-half-rotation quad axel did not work out when he missed the jump.

Chen did not pump his fists after his gold-winning long program, as he did after his record-setting short program Tuesday. "I almost never do stuff like that, so I was like, 'why'd I do that?'" Chen laughed after Tuesday's performance. "I kind of broke character a little bit there, but just really happy."

After failing to medal at the 2018 Olympics, due to a disastrous short program, Chen won every major international competition he entered for the past three years, including three straight world titles and his sixth national championship. His medal on Thursday gives Team USA three golds and nine medal overall, raising the U.S. to fourth place in the rankings.

American snowboarder Chloe Kim won gold in the women's halfpipe event Thursday at the Beijing Olympics, and made some history, too.

The 21-year-old is now the first woman to win two Olympic gold medals in the event; she won her first four years ago in Pyeongchang. Her opening run on Thursday included two 1080s and a 900, and Kim's score of 94 all but secured her the gold. Because of her lead, Kim attempted a few new tricks, but fell twice while attempting a cab 1260.

Queralt Castellet of Spain took home silver in the event, while Sena Tomita of Japan won the bronze.

Russia won the gold medal Monday in the figure skating team competition at the Beijing Olympics, but the medal ceremony scheduled for Tuesday night did not happen as planned. International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams said Wednesday that "legal issues" had delayed the ceremony, adding, "We have athletes that have won medals involved." The U.S. team won the silver medal and Japan took the bronze.

The athlete involved was one of the six Russian skaters, and the legal issue is that he or she failed a drug test, USA Today reports, citing a person with knowledge of the situation. Russia is already competing under the Russian Olympic Committee banner because the country itself was banned from the Games due to a doping scandal.

Moscow did not directly address the speculation that the Russian athletes' gold could be at stake. "Let's, for the sake of understanding, wait for some explanations either from our sports officials or from the IOC," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday. If Russia or one of the other teams were disqualified, fourth place Canada would be bumped up to bronze.

The six-member Russian team includes 15-year-old individual gold medal favorite Kamila Valieva, Mark Kondratiuk, pairs skaters Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov, and ice dancers Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov. The name of the skater who tested positive was not released, USA Today said.

America's gold medal drought ended Wednesday when Lindsey Jacobellis won the women's snoboardcross event at the Beijing Olympics. Jacobellis, 36, is competing in her fifth Olympic Games, and while she is one of the most decorated snowboarders in her sport, she placed fourth in the 2018 Games.

Jacobellis' gold gives Team USA seven medals so far and raises its ranking to 10th place, far behind No. 1 Norway, with four golds among nine medals.

Donovan Carrillo is confident that his historic run at the Beijing Olympics is the start of something greater for ice skaters in Mexico.

The 22-year-old competed in the men's short program on Tuesday, the first Mexican figure skater to appear at the Olympics in 30 years. He successfully landed a quadruple toe loop, triple axel, and triple lutz–triple toe loop combination, and made history by becoming the first Mexican figure skater to advance to the free skate, which will take place on Thursday.

The path to the Olympics was a bumpy one, with Carrillo saying there were times when his family could barely pay for his skating lessons. He also had to deal with naysayers who told him "this was a crazy dream," Carrillo told Olympics.com. "People were always laughing or telling me it wasn't possible for a Mexican to qualify."

He did whatever it took to keep his figure skating dreams alive, including training at a shopping mall ice rink in León, Mexico, because it's the only one available. "It's challenging, I'm not lying," Carrillo said. "But instead of regretting and thinking of what I don't have, I always try to work with what I have."

Carrillo, who is already looking ahead to the 2026 Milan Games, said he hopes the boys and girls watching the Olympics at home in Mexico are "inspired and find my story as a motivation for them to look for their dreams, dare to try figure skating because maybe they can find their passion in it as I found it."

American alpine skiing phenom Mikaela Shiffrin was disqualified from her second race at the Beijing Olympics on Wednesday, after she fell in the first run of the slalom.

The 26-year-old, who was one of the favorites to win the event, skied out after the third gate. Following her elimination, Shiffrin spent several minutes sitting on the side of the course, her head down. At the 2014 Olympics, Shiffrin won gold in the slalom, and she took home the top medal again in 2018 in the giant slalom.

Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn tweeted her support, saying she was "gutted" for Shiffrin, but "this does not take away from her storied career and what she can and will accomplish going forward. Keep your head high."

On Monday, Shiffrin skied out of the women's giant slalom after she fell turning at the fifth gate. That was the first race she was unable to finish since January 2018. After the event, Shiffrin said it was "a huge disappointment," but it "also happens." She still has several opportunities to compete in Beijing, including in the super-G, downhill, and combined downhill events.

Red-blooded patriots across America are, one must assume, swinging wildly between impotent rage and abject grief as they grapple with the harsh reality that, after more than a week of competition, Team USA has yet to win a gold medal at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, the U.S. ranked fourth, with nine golds, eight silvers, and six bronzes.

In Beijing, the U.S. currently sits in 17th place behind New Zealand and the Czech Republic. American athletes have so far won four silver medals — in alpine skiing, figure skating, freestyle skiing, and snowboarding events — and a bronze in cross-country skiing.

However, it should be noted that of the nine events for which the U.S. team won gold medals in Pyeongchang, six have not yet taken place.

U.S. athletes failed to medal at all in two of the three that have been held. Mikaela Shiffrin, who won gold in the women's giant slalom four years ago, wiped out on her opening run Monday and skied off the course. In the third, women's snowboard slopestyle, American Julia Marino won silver.

The six forthcoming events are women's snowboard halfpipe, men's snowboard halfpipe, cross-country skiing women's team sprint, women's ice hockey, men's freeski halfpipe, and men's curling.

Yahoo Sports reports that, according to BetMGM, the defending champion U.S. men's curling team is only "the No. 5 favorite" with "odds of +1200 to win the gold medal again."

Betting odds do, however, slightly favor the U.S. women's hockey team to repeat its gold-winning 2018 performance, but the team will likely face a championship re-match against Canada, which won't be an easy game. The U.S. lost to its northern neighbor 4-2 in the preliminary round Tuesday.

Except for the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, in which American athletes did not participate, the U.S. has never failed to win at least one gold medal since the modern Olympics began in 1896.

Nathan Chen got a near-perfect 113.97 score in his short program at the Beijing Olympics on Tuesday, shattering the previous world record and putting himself in good position to win gold. Chen, 22, fared poorly in the short program at the 2018 Olympics, coming in fifth due only to his winning long program performance. He is now nearly 20 points ahead of longtime rival Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan, who gave a shaky performance Tuesday, abandoning his first quadruple flip seconds into the short program performance.

Chen, on the other hand, "opened with a perfect quad flip, breezed through a triple axel that sometimes causes him problems, then drilled his quad flip-triple toe loop combination to leave most of the crowd in awe," The Associated Press reports. You can watch the full performane at NBC Sports.

"I was just elated," Chen said afterwards. "At the last Olympics, both of the short programs didn't go the way I wanted. To finally get an opportunity to skate the programs I wanted feels really good."

Instead of Hanyu, who won gold at the last two Olympics, Chen's main competition is now from Hanyu's teammates Yuma Kagiyama and reigning silver medalist Shoma Uno. Chen's medal status will be determined after Thursday's long program.

Canadian snowboarder Max Parrot said it felt "amazing" to win his first Olympic gold medal on Monday, three years after he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma.

The 27-year-old took home the gold in the men's snowboarding slopestyle event in Beijing. It was the "biggest run" of his career, Parrot told reporters, with two triples in a row.

After his diagnosis in December 2018, Parrot went through 12 rounds of chemotherapy, declaring in July 2019 that he "won" his battle against cancer. There were "really hard times" he said, adding that he "felt like I was a lion in a cage because I wasn't able to do what I love the most, which is snowboarding. That was my first time in my life that I had to put my snowboard in the closet. Snowboarding is all I know, so it was really hard for me."

Parrot said he no longer takes life for granted, and has a more positive outlook on things. "Every time I strap my feet onto my snowboard, I appreciate it so much more than before," he said. "I appreciate being able to do my passion every day."

Olympic figure skater Karen Chen, who won silver alongside the rest of Team USA in the free skating team event on Monday, revealed in a video posted on Team USA's Instagram that it was her mother who made her bedazzled lavender costume, Vanity Fair reports.

"She probably does 90 percent of the work and I do like 10 percent and by 10 percent I just tell her like, 'Oh, that looks good' or 'That doesn't look good,'" Chen, 22, said of her mother's handiwork.

"She does all the hard work and she puts like blood, sweat, and tears into it," Chen added.

The Olympic athlete said her favorite detail is a tiny rhinestone butterfly closer to the bottom of the dress. Her mom "strategically picked the stones and arranged them in a way so it looks like a butterfly because my free program I'm skating to a 'Butterfly Lovers' Concerto' and so I just want to be a pretty butterfly on the ice," she went on.

Chen placed fourth in the event on Monday, with the U.S. team overall taking home silver.

Not long after Mikaela Shiffrin, the top U.S. woman in the giant slalom at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, fell on her first run Monday, dropping her from contention in the event, Nina O'Brien, Team USA's top women's giant slalom skier after Shiffrin, suffered what looked like a painful crash with just one gate left in the second run. O'Brien appeared to have seriously injured her leg, and she was carried off on a stretcher. Swiss skier Lara Gut-Behrami covered her mouth from the finish area while Norway's Ragnhild Mowinckel bowed her head.

U.S. Ski & Snowboard tweeted that O'Brien was "alert and responsive" and being transported for medical evaluation.

O'Brien, making her Olympic debut, placed sixth in the first giant slalom run, the best of any U.S. skier. (None of Team USA's male skiers finished in the Top 10 downhill, USA Today notes.) Sweden's Sara Hector took the gold in the women's giant slalom, followed by Federica Brignone of Italy and Gut-Behrami with the bronze.

Kamila Valieva, the 15-year-old Russian skating phenomenon, became the first woman to land a quadruple jump in the Olympics — and the first woman to land two quads in the same program — at the Beijing Olympics on Monday. Valieva first performed a quad salchow in her free skate, then landed another quad to loop. "The only blemish on her program came when she fell on her quad toe loop late in the program, but by that point her first gold medal in Beijing was assured," The Associated Press reports.

The NBC broadcasters were effusive in their praise.

Valieva's 178.92 points on the program gave the Russian Olympic Committee 74 points and gilded its gold in the team figure skating event. The Russian skaters were expected to dominate and have done so. Team USA won the silver, thanks in large part to a spectacular team free skate by ice dance team Madison Chock and Evan Bates.

Chock and Bates beat the Russian world champions, Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov, but a disappointing performance from Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier earlier Monday assured the Russians the gold. "We're celebrating silver," Bates said afterward. "Winning a silver medal at the Olympic Games is an incredible achievement, and the fact that we all get a silver medal, the whole team — I'm so happy. I'm so happy."

Mikaela Shiffrin, the giant slalom gold medalist in the 2018 Winter Olympics, wiped out in her opening run in this year's event in Beijing. Shiffrin skied out of the women's giant slalom after she hit the slope trying to turn at the fifth gate, making it the first race she hasn't finished since January 2018.

Shiffrin said she hopes to compete in the next four individual events in Beijing, starting with the slalom on Wednesday. She won gold in that event in 2014, making her the youngest Olympic slalom champion.

"It's a huge disappointment, not even counting the medals," Shiffrin said after Monday's wipeout. "The easiest thing to say is I skied a couple of good turns and skied one turn a bit wrong and really paid the hardest of consequences for that." She said she can't afford to dwell on this lost medal, with two more weeks left in the Games. "I'm sorry that that was the performance I did today, but that also happens," she added.

Team USA did pick up two silver medals on Sunday, USA Today reports: Julia Marino took silver in women's slopestyle snowboarding and Jaelin Kauf in women's moguls. The U.S. women's hockey team also beat Switzerland and will face Canada next.

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect Shiffrin's slalom win, which came in 2014, not 2018.

Beijing's Winter Olympics begin this week under the shadow of COVID and China's flagrant abuses of human rights. Here's everything you need to know:

How is Beijing preparing?

The 2022 Winter Games will take place in a "closed-loop system," or bubble, to prevent the spread of the coronavirus — a similar but more stringent version of the protocols utilized by last summer's Tokyo Olympics. Thousands of athletes, coaches, Olympic staff members, and journalists will be confined to an enclosed network of competition sites and hotels for the duration of the Games. Everyone must be vaccinated or go through three prior weeks of isolation, and athletes will be tested daily. China has operated under an extreme "COVID zero" policy since the first cases were detected in Wuhan, quarantining tens of thousands of people and testing millions in response to a single case. Thus far, it's been successful in limiting outbreaks: China has reported roughly 4,600 deaths, compared with nearly 900,000 in the U.S. But the Omicron variant has caused small outbreaks in Beijing and presents a new challenge. Olympic events will be held in Beijing and the cities of Yanqing and Zhangjiakou, northwest of the capital.

Who are the star U.S. athletes?

The U.S. is sending 223 athletes to the Games. Alpine skiing superstar Mikaela Shiffrin will look to add to her two previous gold medals and cement her status as a legend of the sport. Chloe Kim, who at 17 won gold in the halfpipe at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, will return and is favored to repeat as champion. Snowboarders Lindsey Jacobellis and Shaun White will become five-time Olympians when they compete in Beijing, as will curling legend John Shuster and Katie Uhlaender in skeleton. The Games will see the debut of seven new events, including the "monobob," a solo women's bobsled competition; three-time bobsled medalist Elana Meyers Taylor will be a top contender. Beijing is 13 hours ahead of U.S. Eastern time, so American viewers will see the opening ceremony and other "live" events with their morning coffee.

Why was Beijing chosen?

China was originally one of many contenders to host the 2022 Games, but Poland, Ukraine, and Sweden dropped out because of domestic opposition. Norway's bid collapsed over public outrage at the International Olympic Committee's demands for luxury treatment, such as special lanes on all roads for IOC members. China and Kazakhstan wound up as the only two bidders left. The IOC's selection process now has a built-in bias for autocracies willing to pamper IOC members and build expensive venues — without inconveniences such as democratic approval. China displaced 1.5 million people when Beijing hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics, and the 2022 announcement spurred a rush for developers to snap up properties in humble mountain towns, forcing longtime residents to move. Beijing and its environs receive little natural snowfall, so organizers have had to make artificial snow for outdoor skiing events. China's brutal persecution of its Muslim Uighur minority and dismal human rights record has led to widespread comparisons between these Games and the 1936 Berlin Olympics and 1980 Moscow Olympics, both of which sparked global controversy and boycotts.

Will there be any boycotts?

The U.S., U.K., Australia, and several other countries have announced "diplomatic boycotts," meaning they will not send government officials but will let their athletes participate. "We will not contribute to the fanfare of the games," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. No country has announced a boycott of the athletic competitions. Olympic corporate sponsors such as Procter & Gamble, Intel, and Airbnb have chosen to do low-key ads focusing on U.S. athletes rather than withdraw —- perhaps out of fear of angering Beijing and being denied access to billions of Chinese consumers. Adidas, Nike, H&M, and other fashion brands faced boycotts in China last year after they expressed concerns over sourcing cotton from forced labor in Xinjiang, where the government has put millions of Uighurs into re-education camps. The companies are no longer expressing that concern. China is "just so big, both as a market and a manufacturing juggernaut, that companies feel they can't afford to get in the crosshairs of the government," said Michael Posner, a former State Department official.

What happens if athletes protest?

Nobody knows. IOC spokesman Mark Adams said athletes could express personal views during interviews and on social media, but did not address how the Chinese government might respond. "I think we have to wait for concrete examples," Adams said. China's Olympic organizing committee has warned that foreign athletes whose speech violates "Chinese laws and regulations" at the Games may face "punishment," and has stated that the "politicization of sports" is opposed by the Olympic charter. The IOC relaxed its rules on athlete protests at the Tokyo Games, but it maintained restrictions on expression within Olympic venues and during competition. If athletes do protest, however, China's 1.4 billion people will probably not know it. TV broadcasts would not show any anti-government messages, and the Cyberspace Administration of China has announced a month-long internet "purification" campaign to cleanse the internet of "illegal" content and create a "healthy, happy, and peaceful online environment."

Xi's coming-out party

When Beijing hosted the Summer Olympics in 2008, those Games were seen as China's grand entrance onto the world stage — and, perhaps, a chance for the country to democratize its institutions and join a rules-based international order. IOC officials shared lofty hopes the Games would improve human rights in China, and some Chinese officials hinted at a path toward greater domestic freedoms. There are no such hopes surrounding the 2022 Games. Under ruler-for-life Xi Jinping, who took power in 2012, China has made a sharp turn into unapologetic authoritarianism, with no dissent or forbidden ideas permitted. Despite its human rights abuses and Orwellian surveillance of its citizens, China has emerged as a global economic power. Confident and emboldened by his country's economic and military might, Xi does not seem to care that the West disapproves of China's policies. "If anything, there's a lot less pressure than 2008," said Amanda Shuman, a China researcher at the University of Freiburg. "The Chinese government knows full well that its global economic upper hand allows it to do whatever it wishes."

This article was first published in the latest issue of The Week magazine. If you want to read more like it, you can try six risk-free issues of the magazine here.

China won its first gold medal of the Beijing Winter Olympics on Saturday when the Chinese team claimed victory in the short track speedskating mixed team relay, Reuters reported.

The mixed team relay, a new event at the 2022 Winter Olympics, features teams made up of both men and women. China's gold-winning team includes male skaters Wu Dajing and Ren Ziwei and female skaters Qu Chunyu and Fan Kexin.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "China appeared to have the gold medal sewn up midway through the race, after skaters from Hungary and Canada collided. That made it a two-way race between China and Italy, which trailed by an eighth of a lap. But Italy made up ground against China in the final six laps, prompting Italian skater Pietro Sighel and China's Wu Dajing to stretch out their skates over the finish line."

In the end, China's team finished with a time of 2 minutes and 37.348 seconds compared to Italy's 2 minutes and 37.364 seconds.

The Chinese team finished behind the United States and Hungary in the semi-final round but was able to advance to the medal round after the U.S. team was disqualified for obstruction.

Three-time Olympic gold medalist Shaun White, possibly the world's most recognizable snowboarder, announced Saturday that he plans to retire from competitive snowboarding after this year's Olympic Games, The Associated Press reported.

"In my mind, I've decided this will be my last competition," the 35-year-old White said during a news conference Saturday, according to ESPN.

He attributed his decision in part to injuries to his ankle, knee, and back but said he is feeling "pretty confident" about his prospects in Beijing and plans to "lay it out there" during his final Olympic appearance. The snowboarding halfpipe opens for training Sunday.

White, also known as "The Flying Tomato" for his once-flowing red hair, previously won Olympic gold medals at Turin in 2006, at Vancouver in 2010, and at Pyeongchang in 2018. Per ESPN, he also "has a remarkable 18 individual Winter X Games medals."

"I'm sort of pinching myself, with how lucky I am to still be here at this age," White said.

Running February 4th through the 20th, the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing will be different, and not just because of the coronavirus pandemic. The United States and several other countries have said they won't send diplomatic representation in protest of China's human rights violations, and there are several new events on the schedule. Here's everything you need to know about this year's games:

Why are some countries diplomatically boycotting the Olympics?

Most countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Denmark, are citing human rights abuses in Xinjiang province, where Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim minorities are being forced into indoctrination camps by the Chinese government. "It is no secret that we from the Danish side are very concerned about the human rights situation in China," Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said in January. Several German government ministers said they are boycotting over China's treatment of tennis star Peng Shuai, who accused a high-ranking member of the Chinese Community Party of sexual assault and later disappeared from public view for several weeks.

What were the protocols for athletes to enter China?

In order to get to Beijing, athletes had to test negative for COVID-19 two times within 96 hours of their chartered flight to China, and again when they arrived. If they tested positive once in Beijing and were asymptomatic, they were sent to an isolation hotel, only able to leave after having two negative PCR tests at least 24 hours apart and continuing not to show any symptoms. Anyone experiencing symptoms, like a fever or cough, received medical treatment at a hospital. If the athlete tested negative upon arrival, they could enter the "closed loop system." The doctor for the U.S. Olympic Team told The Associated Press last month that every single member of Team USA has been vaccinated against the coronavirus, and no one asked for a medical exemption.

What is the closed loop?

It's the bubble that the athletes and others involved in the Olympics, including journalists and people working the games, are living in for the next few weeks. All competition and training venues, housing accommodations, and transportation is inside the closed loop. The goal is to keep COVID-19 from entering and spreading, and there is regular testing. People also must wear an N95 mask or the equivalent except when they are "training, competing, eating, drinking, [or] sleeping." Social distancing rules are in effect, and in order to gain access to a competition or training venue, individuals must have their temperature checked. Once inside the closed loop, athletes can't leave.

Will there be spectators?

Because of the pandemic, it was decided last year that tickets would not be made available for international visitors. On Wednesday, organizers said that about 150,000 locals will be invited to watch certain events. The invitations are expected to go out to "international friends residing in China's mainland, members of diplomatic missions, and marketing partners," as well as "winter sports enthusiasts" and area residents and school children, AP reports.

Are there any new events?

Yes, seven, to be exact: women's monobob (bobsled); men's and women's freestyle big air skiing; mixed team relay in short track speed skating; mixed team ski jumping; mixed team snowboard cross; and mixed team freestyle skiing aerials. In total, there will be 109 events, with roughly 2,900 athletes competing. The International Olympic Committee says it expects this to be the most "gender-balanced edition of the Olympic Winter Games to date," with men making up 55 percent of the athletes and women 45 percent.

Who are some of the athletes to watch?

There are more than 200 elite athletes on Team USA going for the gold, and several are already standing out before the games have even started. Erin Jackson, the world's top female speed skater, will be making her second appearance at the Olympics, and is the one to beat in the women's 500-meter. Alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin already has two gold medals to her name, and aims to compete in all five individual events. This will likely be snowboarding star Shaun White's final Olympics — the three-time gold medalist told Rolling Stone he would like to retire after the games. In January, Nathan Chen won the U.S. Figure Skating Championship, becoming the first skater in 70 years to win six titles in a row, and he's looking for a victory in Beijing, too. Fans of Cool Runnings, take note: Jamaica's four-man bobsled team will be competing in the games, for the first time in 24 years.

How can I watch the Olympics?

In the U.S., you can catch the action — all 2,800 hours of it — on NBC, USA Network, and CNBC. Online, coverage will be available at NBCOlympics.com and YouTube TV. The Peacock streaming service will offer Premium users live and on demand access to every single event. FYI: Beijing is 16 hours ahead of the Pacific time zone and 13 hours ahead of the Eastern time zone, so plan your spectating accordingly.

When will the Paralympics begin?

The Paralympic Winter Games for athletes with disabilities will start on March 4 in Beijing and run through March 13. This year, for the first time ever, NBC will air primetime coverage of the Paralympics, USA Today Sports reports. The opening and closing ceremonies will air on USA Network, and some events will be shown on NBC, Peacock, USA Network, Olympic Channel, and the NBC Sports app. Viewers with Premium access can livestream all events on Peacock.

The Olympics aren't just about sports. As a major international media event, the Games also serve as a showcase for the host country. In some cases, as in the Tokyo Olympics of 1964 or the Seoul Games of 1988, that has meant celebrating newfound openness and prosperity. In others, including the notorious 1936 Games hosted by the Third Reich, it's been an opportunity to promote the dubious benefits of dictatorship.

The 2022 Winter Olympics, which officially opened in Beijing on Friday, fall into the latter category. As in 2008, when Beijing hosted the Summer Games, the Chinese Communist Party hopes to impress the world with its efficiency and confidence at a time when Western powers seem to be faltering.

It may not work as well this time, though. For one thing, the tyrannical character of the regime is even more obvious now than 14 years ago. In 2008, Western leaders could still imagine that China was moving along an idiosyncratic, perhaps swerving, but nevertheless progressive course toward liberalization. Today, that illusion has become impossible to sustain — hence the diplomatic boycott by the Biden Administration and several allied governments.

Second, China's zero COVID policies make it difficult to mount the impressive crowds that make the Games such an appealing public relations opportunity. Some events will be conducted without any outside attendance. Other venues will admit audiences well under their capacity from a hand-picked list of 150,000 approved spectators. You can count on careful filming and editing to conceal empty seats. But it's hard to fake the excitement that comes from a full house.

Harsh tactics used to maintain control of both political expression and public health could also backfire. Chinese officials have already manhandled a Dutch reporter in the middle of a live broadcast. That's not the kind of image they want showing around the world.

Finally, this year's Games have to contend with shrinking television audiences. U.S. ratings for the Tokyo Games in 2021, also conducted under COVID conditions, were down 45 percent from their predecessor in 2016. And the Winter Games traditionally attract fewer viewers than the summer ones. Some of that audience may be migrating to streaming platforms rather than tuning out entirely. But the disaggregation of media and declining interest in spectator sports suggest that expectations that the Olympics will attract mass audiences may belong to a bygone age of shared televisual experience.

That's too bad for athletes eager to compete, even under difficult conditions. But it could be a good thing for opponents of the CCP and its General Secretary Xi Jinping, who wanted another magnificent display of tightly choreographed power. If they lose their competition for Olympic prestige, the rest of the world wins.

The 2022 Beijing Olympics officially kicked off Friday, and there's already footage of a reporter being physically pulled away from his live shot while covering them.

Sjoerd den Daas, a journalist with the Dutch broadcaster NOS, was reporting on the opening ceremony when Chinese officials could be seen coming up to him to physically remove him from the area, Mediaite reports. He continued reporting as an official grabbed him before the shot was cut.

"Our correspondent @sjoerddendaas was pulled away from the camera by security guards at 12:00 pm live in the NOS Journaal," NOS said. "Unfortunately, this is increasingly becoming a daily reality for journalists in China. He is fine and was able to finish his story a few minutes later."

It wasn't clear why the guards were pulling the reporter away, but NOS editor-in-chief Marcel Gelauff told Algemeen Dagblad that this incident was a "painful illustration" of how China treats journalists, adding, "Sjoerd has often told and shown that it is difficult as a journalist in China. There is a far-reaching tendency to curtail freedoms, and this may be even stronger because of corona," per The Daily Beast.

The Olympics began Friday despite diplomatic boycotts from countries including the United States over what the White House described as China's "ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses," referring to its treatment of Uyghurs. Last year, an independent tribunal said China has carried out a "deliberate, systematic and concerted policy" to achieve a "long-term reduction of Uyghur and other ethnic minority populations."

During the opening ceremony, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said he was appealing to "all political authorities across the world" to "give peace a chance."

One of the Chinese athletes chosen to light the Olympic cauldron and mark the official start of competition on Friday is reportedly of Uyghur heritage, The New York Times reports.

The decision to feature the athlete — Dinigeer Yilamujiang, a cross-country skier — in such a quintessential opening ceremony ritual "confronted head on one of the biggest criticisms of China's role as host," the Times writes.

Officials from multiple countries have denounced the Chinese Communist Party-led "mass detention and re-education campaign targeting Uyghur Muslims in the western region of Xinjiang," writes the Times. The U.S. has declared such actions genocidal, and (alongside other nations) opted for a diplomatic boycott of the Games in protest.

The "provocative choice" to feature Yilamujiang aside, the "climactic moment" was also an homage to China's Olympic history in that it featured a man — Zhao Jiawen — and a woman working together, adds the Times.

Are the 2022 Winter Olympics perhaps the least hyped Olympics ... ever? And if so, why?

Well, according to a new Axios-Momentive poll, Americans' concerns about human rights abuses in China, Chinese government surveillance, "international competitiveness," and COVID-19 are to blame for bottomed-out enthusiasm toward this year's Games, Axios writes.

Forty-seven percent of respondents said they're less excited about the Beijing Olympics than they were about those hosted in South Korea in 2018, and 70 percent said they disapprove of allowing China to host; that said, half of respondents noted they'll tune in regardless, Axios reports.

What's more, six in ten of those surveyed couldn't name a single athlete competing — of those who were mentioned, snowboarder Shaun White got the most love at 6 percent. Another 1 percent of respondents brought up gymnast Simone Biles ... who competes only in the Summer Games.

Though 73 percent of respondents said they approve of the U.S. diplomatic boycott, 74 percent believe it won't make a difference in how the Chinese government operates. A majority (57 percent) are also concerned that China's mandatory health and travel monitoring app is actually being used for surveillance reasons rather than virus control.

Said Laura Wronski of Momentive: "People aren't happy that the Olympics are in China, but it's still the Olympics."

The Axios-Momentive poll surveyed 2,590 adults from Jan. 28-31. Results have a margin of error of 2 percentage points. See more results.