Play It Again Sports Hockey Tape
Brianna Decker, a U.S. hockey star, is out for the residue of the Beijing Games.
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Brianna Decker was screaming, her desperation audible to most everyone in an arena that was virtually empty on Th. The cries kept coming after the tangling standoff, the showtime menstruum's clock stopped at 10:58.
American hockey officials later on confirmed what about had immediately assumed: that Decker, i of the well-nigh formidable and experienced players for the U.S. women'southward team, would not exist able to play for the remainder of the Games, a harsh blow to the team's ambitions to repeat every bit Olympic champions.
The Us, which defeated Finland, 5-2, did non bring any reserves to Beijing. Coach Joel Johnson said after the game that he would explore his options for any necessary roster adjustments.
"It was awful," Kendall Coyne Schofield, the American captain, said of the moment when Decker was injured in a collision with Ronja Savolainen of Republic of finland. "There's no other way to put it. It was really tough to see. She'south 1 of the toughest, strongest players in the world, then when you hear her react like that, obviously, information technology was devastating and nerve-racking for us."
Decker, a forward from Dousman, Wis., made her tertiary Olympic roster just four years after she had led the United States in assists during its gold medal run at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. This year, she has been an alternate captain.
After medical officials evacuated an warning and at-home Decker from the ice on a stretcher, the Americans responded swiftly. Amanda Kessel slowly approached the net along the goal line, edged around the pucker and, just 21 seconds after play had resumed, scored the showtime goal of the tournament for the The states.
Less than three minutes subsequently, Alex Carpenter scored on a ability play to add to the U.Due south. lead. Coyne Schofield added ii goals for the Americans in the second period, and Carpenter scored again in the third.
Susanna Tapani had two power play goals for Finland in the third period.
"It wasn't because of the injury that we played amend, but I call up there was some extra emotion that took place within of everybody," Johnson said.
Although the game against Finland was essentially a glorified scrimmage — both teams were already guaranteed to advance to the tournament's next round — the matchup was an opportunity for both teams to accept early on measures of formidable rivals.
Finland won the bronze in Pyeongchang, South korea, in 2018. Canada, which took argent that year, beat Switzerland, 12-1, earlier on Thursday.
Simply Thursday turned into a costly nightmare for the Americans.
"This team has depth, and everyone has a role, and that role may alter," Coyne Schofield said. "And no affair what that role is, you have to encompass it."
She added: "You saw that our line shifted when Brianna went downwardly, and everyone did an amazing job stepping up. There'due south no replacing Brianna Decker in that state of affairs, only anybody stepped up to the plate in the way they were asked to."
Who's on the U.S. Women'due south Hockey Team?
Who's on the U.South. Women's Hockey Team?
The United states of america women'southward hockey team opened play today against Republic of finland. The Americans won gilt in 2018 and are expected to contend this month in Beijing.
Let's run into some of the players →
The coronavirus continues to sideline Olympic athletes as they fix for competition.
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Coronavirus infections amid athletes go on to jeopardize medal hopes in Beijing.
According to the Beijing Organizing Committee's Covid tracker, 26 new infections among athletes and squad officials were reported as of Th, bringing the number of full confirmed positive cases to 287.
The Ukrainian figure skater Ivan Shmuratko tested positive for the virus, sidelining him from the men'due south component of the squad figure skating outcome on Friday and preventing Ukraine from accumulating whatsoever points. The Ukrainian Olympic Committee said it hoped that Shmuratko, who is making his Olympic debut, could recover in fourth dimension for the beginning of the men's individual competition on Tuesday.
Germany has also been thwarted in the team effigy skating competition later on the pairs skater Nolan Seegert tested positive. Minerva Fabienne Hase, his skating partner, has and then far tested negative, but at that place are no alternates for the pair. Rather than withdraw altogether, Frg is moving forward in the team upshot simply will not larn any points in the pairs skating component, dashing whatever hopes for a medal.
The globe'south No. 2 Nordic combined athlete, Jarl Magnus Riiber of Kingdom of norway, also tested positive for the virus. Riiber, who won silver equally part of a team event in the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, was a medal contender in Beijing. He posted a photograph of himself on Instagram with the explanation, "The gilt is yours, guys," using a gold medal emoji and adding a virus emoji and a winking face at the end. The commencement Nordic combined event is on Wednesday.
The Czech hockey player and former Boston Bruins center David Krejci tested positive upon arriving in Beijing and missed the team's first total pre-Olympic practice. Their first game is on Wednesday against Denmark.
The Czech team said that the ski jumpers Viktor Polasek and Cestmir Kozisek had also tested positive. Polasek entered isolation, while Kozisek, who recently recovered from an infection, is allowed to train while living separately from others.
The Japan Times reported that an unidentified skier had also tested positive after arriving in Beijing, the Japanese squad'due south first positive infection.
Correction :
Feb. three, 2022
An earlier version of this story misstated the professional status of a hockey player. David Krejci is a former Boston Bruins player, not a current one.
U.S. broadcast coverage on Th includes figure skating, hockey and curling.
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The U.S. circulate coverage of the 2022 Winter Games continues on Thursday with figure skating, skiing and hockey. All times are in Eastern.
HOCKEY The U.S. women'due south team, the reigning champions, takes on Republic of finland at 5 p.m. on United states Network on a record delay. At 11:x p.m., the Russian Olympic Committee volition play Switzerland, aired live on U.s.a. Network.
MIXED DOUBLES CURLING Us Network volition carry live coverage of Italy'due south friction match confronting Norway at 7:35 p.m. NBC will besides have a live broadcast of the United States versus Sweden at 12:35 a.m.
FIGURE SKATING Nathan Chen of the The states, the three-time earth champion and a 2018 Olympian, volition compete in the men'southward short plan portion of the team event, with live coverage outset at 8:55 p.m. on NBC. Live coverage of the rhythm dance component of the squad contest, featuring Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue of the United States, begins at 10:35 p.thousand. At 12:fifteen a.g., Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier of the United states will compete in the pairs short program squad consequence.
Thomas Bach won't request an inquiry of Peng Shuai's accusations unless she asks: 'It's her life.'
Paradigm
Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, said Thursday that he would meet at the Wintertime Olympics with Peng Shuai, the tennis player from China who largely disappeared from public life after making sexual corruption accusations against a political official in November.
"The answer is yep," Bach said soon after sitting downwardly to respond questions at his traditional pre-Games news briefing. "We will accept the meeting. I am very happy, and besides grateful to Peng Shuai."
The questions, on a variety of pressing issues, were plentiful. Main amongst them, though, was the status of Peng, whom Bach had invited to dinner during a private phone telephone call in November. They would meet, Bach said, afterward Peng was cleared to enter the Olympics' so-called airtight loop, the restrictive bubble created effectually the Games to try to prevent coronavirus outbreaks.
Asked whether he planned to printing for an investigation of Peng'southward claims of sexual attack — a suggestion sure to anger China's regime — Bach said he would first speak with Peng to come across whether she wanted an inquiry. "Information technology must exist her decision," he said. "It'southward her life. It's her allegations."
Peng'south condition remains and then sensitive in China that the interpreter handling the Chinese translation of the news conference did non mention her name when relaying the question.
An I.O.C. spokesman said afterward that there was no timetable all the same for the meeting.
Bach was also questioned well-nigh the Beijing Games' strict Covid prevention measures, which have snared several athletes and squad personnel in sometimes onerous and confusing protocols; and almost People's republic of china'south suppression of the predominantly Muslim Uyghur minority, in the western Xinjiang region, and accusations that Uyghurs are beingness pressed into forced labor.
Bach, a old Olympic fencer, lamented the "extremely challenging" bug faced past athletes forced into coronavirus quarantine in Red china, and drew on his ain able-bodied experiences in expressing sympathy with those whose competitive hopes have been jeopardized, or ended, by positive tests.
On the Uyghur issue, though, Bach demurred. "The position of the I.O.C. must be, given the political neutrality, that we are not commenting on political issues," he said. "Because otherwise, if we are taking a political standpoint, and we are getting in the middle of tensions and disputes and confrontations between political powers, then nosotros are putting the Olympics at take chances."
The Games would lose their "universality," he said, if they became politicized. That, Bach said, "would lead to the end of the Olympic Games."
Pressed on thinly veiled threats by Chinese officials to arrest athletes who program protests that would be illegal under Chinese law, Bach said, "The athletes enjoy freedom of speech in press conferences and social media." This right, he added, was "enshrined implicitly" in the rules about protests that govern the Olympic motility.
Still, he cautioned, "I would propose to every athlete, wherever the Games are taking place, whenever an athlete is making a statement, he does not insult other people, that he is not violating the rights of other people."
The status of Peng, nonetheless, took centre stage. The I.O.C. has been broadly criticized for its response to the situation, suggesting at first that it would handle the instance with "quiet diplomacy" — meaning that the organization would non publicly contribute to the furor over her whereabouts.
Critics and human being rights campaigners viewed that not as diplomacy, but equally an unwillingness to face up Communist china — a vital Olympic partner — about its treatment of Peng, a three-time Olympian. Many ridiculed his proposition that they meet for dinner.
Just the furor connected. Later that month, Bach conducted a video call with Peng. The I.O.C. did non release a video or a transcript of the call, and their statement revealing that it had taken place, which fabricated no reference to Peng's accusations, raised more questions than it answered.
Listen to 'The Daily': The Censoring of Peng Shuai
China'due south decision to censor a star athlete has confronted the sports industry with a dilemma — speak out on her behalf or protect its financial interests in the country.
transcript
transcript
Listen to 'The Daily': The Censoring of Peng Shuai
Cathay's determination to censor a star athlete has confronted the sports manufacture with a dilemma — speak out on her behalf or protect its fiscal interests in the land.
- sabrina tavernise
-
From The New York Times, I'thou Sabrina Tavernise. This is The Daily.
People's republic of china's decision to censor a star athlete has confronted the sports manufacture with a dilemma. Speak out on her behalf or protect their financial interests in China. Today: I spoke to my colleague, Matt Futterman, most the unexpected manner that dilemma is playing out.
It's Friday, Dec 10.
Matt, I go along seeing headlines involving China and a woman tennis role player. And I'k not quite sure what to make of them. And as a longtime sportswriter for The Times who's covering this story, help me empathize it. Tell me, where does information technology outset?
- matthew futterman
-
So this story starts on November 2nd when Peng Shuai, who has long been one of Cathay's most popular tennis players, certainly, and probably fifty-fifty i of its nearly popular athletes — a three-time Olympian, K Slam doubles champion — she goes on one of Mainland china's largest social media sites, Weibo, and she posts a lengthy blog post, I guess you would call it, detailing her relationship, which culminated in a sexual assault. And she states in this post, "Even if it's just me, like an egg hitting a rock, or a moth to a flame, courting self-destruction, I'll tell the truth about you." And "yous" happens to be a gentleman named Zhang Gaoli, who was one of the members of People's republic of china's seven-member ruling committee along with Xi Jinping. And this is the sort of accusation that does non get made against powerful people in China.
- sabrina tavernise
-
Wow. And so hither's this woman tennis player who's taking on a really prominent and powerful Chinese leader. And but listening to her words and the image it makes — "crack like an egg hitting a rock." I hateful, it's like she knows, and she'due south saying she knows this is an incredibly risky motility.
- matthew futterman
-
Yes, she says that, and she says a lot of other things that are really disturbing. She talks nigh not feeling like she's worth living substantially, but as well non having the courage to die. Talking most sort of her mind being worthless at this point, a land of confusion. Information technology's a real sort of cry for help in a lot of means.
And it's just incredibly upsetting and disturbing for people to read, and I'thou sure very disturbing for her to reveal. And information technology takes off sort of immediately. She has over 500,000 followers on Weibo. And within minutes, the post is taken downwards.
- sabrina tavernise
-
Oh, wow.
- matthew futterman
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Clearly, the people who monitor China's social media, which is very closely monitored, as we know, this sets off alert bells. But non earlier it'south been copied and put onto Twitter and Instagram and other social media platforms that aren't bachelor in Red china. And so it sort of very quickly circles across the world. And while it's catching fire, she is immediately basically scrubbed from the internet in China.
- sabrina tavernise
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How so? What happens?
- matthew futterman
-
Well, you lot can't search her name anymore, and Chinese officials just did everything they possibly could to finish whatsoever discussion of this. There are people who report that they mention her in private chat groups. And of a sudden, their chat grouping gets zapped out.
- sabrina tavernise
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Wow.
- matthew futterman
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And so the extent to which China goes to try and brand this disappear is really boggling.
- sabrina tavernise
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I hateful, Prc really wants this to go away.
- matthew futterman
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It would seem and so. It would seem so. And we see in the coming days they also want her to go abroad.
- sabrina tavernise
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What do y'all mean?
- matthew futterman
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Well, for the next couple of weeks, nobody sees her, nobody can go far touch with her. She has had a fairly large social media presence in China. She'due south a big star. She's generally seen out and about, but there's just no reported sightings of her. And this happens in China, people do disappear when they run afoul of the government and top government officials, only in the example of Peng Shuai, it's a little unlike because she has some pretty powerful supporters in the due west.
- sabrina tavernise
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Earlier we get to that, who is Peng Shuai? What practice we need to know about her?
- matthew futterman
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She's born in 1986 in Hunan province. Begins to play tennis as a young girl, and she shows some promise. And what I think is important nigh her story is that she is born sort of right in the sweet spot of where Red china is in terms of trying to institute itself in mainstream sports.
At that place are certain sports that Prc has been very expert at for a very long time, most notably table tennis. But in the 1990s, Mainland china sort of decides that it wants to use sports to establish itself as a really sort of well-rounded world ability. And if you have designs on existence an international athlete and you are born in the late '80s, early '90s, yous hit it only right in China.
Their big goal is that they want to host the Olympic games. And China pretty much steps on the gas in terms of developing athletes, sending kids to sports schools. And people similar Peng Shuai, who was a really proficient tennis histrion every bit a child, she is sent off to the national lawn tennis development plan, and that's actually where her career as a tennis role player begins to have off.
She starts winning some tournaments and winning some matches in the early 2000s and begins to establish herself in the afterwards 2000s as someone who can play with the best players in the world. And that actually climaxes in 2013.
- archived recording
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Shuai, who was dumped out of the early on stages of the ladies singles, appears to be thriving on the doubles excursion. Her conviction at the net, an instrumental part of her game, was reaping the rewards for her and her partner.
- matthew futterman
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When playing with her Taiwanese doubles partner, Hsieh Su-Wei.
- archived recording
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[NON-English language Voice communication]
- matthew futterman
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She wins the Wimbledon doubles championship. The side by side year she wins the French Open doubles championship. And she actually even makes the U.S. Open singles semifinals that twelvemonth likewise.
- archived recording
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Match indicate hither. Peng finishes this match with 24 winners and only 7 unforced errors. A perfect debut, and she is in the U.Southward. Open up semifinals for the first time in her career.
- matthew futterman
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And she is immediately launched into a kind of level of superstardom in Cathay. They don't have G Slam champions, for the most role. So she is seen as a really valuable asset for China in terms of making its mark as just a fully modern land that can compete on the earth stage in every facet of society.
- sabrina tavernise
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So it's really interesting, Matt. I mean, it sounds similar from everything you're saying she just has this really outsized role as i of the players who helped popularize tennis in Red china. In some ways, she kind of helped bring tennis to China.
- matthew futterman
-
I think that's absolutely right.
- sabrina tavernise
-
So Peng Shuai makes this post about this loftier-ranking official, this sexual assault she'southward accusing him of, and then she disappears. So what happens next?
- matthew futterman
-
Well, people have noticed, and they're trying to become in impact with her. Nearly importantly, the Women'southward Lawn tennis Association, which is the professional women's bout, which has every interest in trying to protect one of its players, and tries to start reaching out to her in every possible fashion that they can through Chinese tennis officials. People have her contact information. And they can't. They have no thought where she is, if she is rubber, fifty-fifty if she'southward live or expressionless.
And so on November 14, Steve Simon, the head of the W.T.A., makes the decision in consultation with the players and the other officials who are on his board of directors that he's going to become public with this. And he sets upwards a number of interviews in which he says this is unacceptable. Nosotros're really concerned about Peng Shuai'southward safe.
And in add-on to wanting to speak with her, we desire Prc to listen to these allegations and fully investigate them in a very public and transparent way. And the next question, of course, is well, what if they don't? And that's when Steve Simon says, well, if they don't, we're going to have to consider non doing business in Prc anymore.
- sabrina tavernise
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Oh, wow. And and so how does China respond to that?
- matthew futterman
-
Not well. China comes back and saying that you shouldn't exist mixing sports and politics similar this. But in terms of how they really react to it, they don't make a motility at outset in terms of producing Peng Shuai. They don't say, OK, we'll ready a phone call with you. What they do instead is they keep things pretty quiet for a couple more than days.
Just what happens later Steve Simon goes public with this is the hashtag on Twitter that has been sort of bubbling out there — where is Peng Shuai? With a picture of her — that begins to take off in the same way that her initial mail service begins to have off.
- archived recording
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This morning, tennis's top stars enervating answers as to the whereabouts of 35-year-old Chinese lawn tennis star Pung Shuai.
- matthew futterman
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And yous have incredibly prominent tennis players and even some people outside of tennis who starting time posting that on Twitter in solidarity.
- archived recording
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Last week, Roger Federer proverb that the tennis world is united around her.
- matthew futterman
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These are people like Serena Williams, Billie Jean King, who is the founder of the Women'due south Tennis Tour. Naomi Osaka.
- archived recording
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I'chiliad in stupor of the current situation. And I'm sending love and light her way. #WhereIsPengShuai?
- matthew futterman
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And fifty-fifty someone as prominent every bit Gerard Piqué, who is ane of the most popular soccer players in the earth who has something like 20 meg followers on social media.
- sabrina tavernise
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Wow.
- matthew futterman
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And he posted. And so this becomes a real matter.
And all of a sudden, not only are all of these athletes putting the spotlight on Mainland china, just they're too beginning to put pressure on the International Olympic Committee for them to do something nigh this, because Beijing is fix to host the Winter Olympics beginning in February. And in response to that, China starts scrambling.
The first thing they practise is they post an email on western social media. It's a very awkward email that begins, "This is Peng Shuai." And it's an immediate tip-off that this actually isn't Peng Shuai.
And in several sentences, she basically recants everything she says and tells everybody she'south safe and fine and pay no attending to what I said earlier this calendar month. And Steve Simon says, actually, this doesn't make me feel improve most what's been happening with Peng Shuai. It actually makes me experience more than concerned considering it'due south and then clear that she hasn't written it.
- sabrina tavernise
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Right.
- matthew futterman
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The next thing they do is they have their correspondence in the country-run media go into the moving-picture show. And one announcer posts pictures of Peng Shuai in a bedroom surrounded by stuffed animals, smiling. Information technology'due south not clear exactly when these pictures had been taken. He claims to accept been taken that day. And once again, nobody really believes that.
- archived recording
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[NON-English language SPEECH]
- matthew futterman
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And and so, when those pictures don't make anybody experience better —
- archived recording
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[NON-English SPEECH]
- matthew futterman
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— another Chinese news figure releases a video of Peng Shuai in a Beijing eating place with a bus talking well-nigh tennis in Communist china. And she's generally listening, and this guy is talking to her and clearly trying to institute the date.
- archived recording
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[Not-English language SPEECH]
- matthew futterman
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Maxim things like, yesterday was November xix, correct? Tomorrow is November 20, right? And I retrieve Cathay is trying to practise what it always tries to practise, which is control this story and trying to put out the burn down, but they also realize it's not working. And that'southward when the International Olympic Committee gets involved.
- sabrina tavernise
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And so tell me almost that.
- matthew futterman
-
So on Sunday, Nov 21, the International Olympic Committee releases pictures of Peng Shuai in a video call with the president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach. And they say that they've held a thirty minute chat with her. She said that she's safe and fine and in Beijing and resting and would like some privacy.
They don't release a transcript of the call. They don't explicate many details of the call, only they say that they made plans to take dinner in Jan when Thomas Bach arrives in Beijing for the Wintertime Games, merely there'southward some interesting details about that phone call which are really important. The first is that Peng Shuai is not alone on this phone call. She has it with an I.O.C. athletes representative, only she also has it with a Chinese representative to the International Olympic Committee who was a part of the Chinese Tennis Federation.
And there'southward another person on the telephone call who was described to me every bit a friend to help her with her English. And that raises some alarm bells because Peng Shuai speaks perfectly fine English, according to everyone who I've talked to who have spoken with her. So she'due south clearly not speaking independently and freely. And at that place's likewise no mention in the statement that there'due south any give-and-take of the sexual assault, of the allegations, of anything that's actually happened to her in terms of an investigation of those things.
And that prompts Steve Simon to say once again, while I'm perfectly happy to see that she's live and seemingly rubber, I'k not satisfied. We haven't been able to speak with her independently, and there'due south been no movement on an investigation into this matter. And so he decides along with the people on his board, who include several top players, that plenty is enough.
- archived recording
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And now a very big update on a very of import story we have been post-obit.
- matthew futterman
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And what he announces he's doing is —
- archived recording
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The Women'due south Tennis Association announcing information technology is immediately suspending all of its tournaments in China and Hong Kong.
- matthew futterman
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He'due south going to suspend all of the W.T.A.'s business in People's republic of china, which essentially means nosotros're non going to take tournaments there until we meet some real meaningful motion on this.
- archived recording
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Now, the system'southward chief of the W.T.A. says in a statement, quote, "If powerful people can suppress the voices of women and sweep allegations of sexual assault nether the carpet — "
- matthew futterman
-
Nosotros are pulling out of China, the world's largest country.
- archived recording
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"And the basis on which the W.T.A. was founded. Equality for women would suffer an immense setback."
- matthew futterman
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A place that everyone has agreed for decades that every sport needs to exist doing business with and accept a presence in.
- archived recording
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"I will not and cannot allow that happen to the WTA and its players."
- matthew futterman
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Simply the WTA is leaving, and that simply never happens in sports.
- sabrina tavernise
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Nosotros'll be right back.
Matt, so the Due west.T.A. suspends all tournaments in Mainland china. And yous said that was extremely unusual in sports.
- matthew futterman
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Never happens.
- sabrina tavernise
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Why not?
- matthew futterman
-
Well, I think you only take to look at the N.B.A. to understand what happens when yous mess with Red china. 2 years agone, 2019, a Houston Rockets executive sends out this tweet —
- archived recording
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"Fight for freedom, stand up with Hong Kong."
- matthew futterman
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— in back up of the protesters in Hong Kong.
- archived recording
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Now, the tweet was quickly deleted, but the damage, it was already done.
- matthew futterman
-
And all all of a sudden, it becomes an accented firestorm. China is furious. They terminate selling Houston Rockets gear on their websites. They take N.B.A. games off Chinese television.
- archived recording
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Those games have been canceled.
- matthew futterman
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All these things suddenly happen.
- archived recording
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The N.B.A. is at present scrambling to contain the fallout —
- matthew futterman
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You have the N.B.A. commissioner going on bended-knee and at outset apologizing.
- archived recording
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Mr. Morey'southward views have deeply offended many of our friends and fans in China, which is regrettable.
- matthew futterman
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But then after he gets criticized, having to say, oh, actually, our executives and players practise have free speech.
- archived recording
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We are not apologizing for Daryl exercising his freedom of expression.
- matthew futterman
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So it's just this sort of an incredible, very volatile situation where, if you sort of mess with Prc, there's black and white with the Chinese. You lot're either in or you're out. And if you lot cross the line with them, they're going to come later you lot. And the N.B.A. estimates it toll them about $300 million just considering that i tweet. And what unfolded after that.
- sabrina tavernise
-
Wow. That'southward a very steep cost.
- matthew futterman
-
Yeah, $300 million is a lot of money, fifty-fifty for the N.B.A., which is a $ten billion organization populated by some of the richest people in the world.
- sabrina tavernise
-
Are there other examples?
- matthew futterman
-
Yep, I think the most current example is the I.O.C., which has had some behavior in this situation, which has actually surprised a lot of people. Forget almost criticizing China. They have essentially been propping up the Chinese government by putting out these videos and these statements.
And I think there's a large question as to why they're doing this. And the reason is the Olympics are coming to Beijing in less than ii months. And their mission is to bring the biggest countries in the globe, really, all countries, big and smile, together. Information technology's something of a peace mission, simply information technology'southward likewise sort of the ground of their existence. That's the product that they're selling.
And if they can't sell that production, if they tin can't bring all these countries in the world together to compete against each other and create this TV prove, which engrosses so many millions of people every two years, at that place are huge financial stakes to that. And it really sort of poses an existential threat to the Olympics if big countries decide that they don't want to go. And the biggest of all is China.
- sabrina tavernise
-
Then Matt, coin is this constant theme with companies in People's republic of china. And I guess what I'm wondering is, doesn't the West.T.A. too have business interests in China? I mean, they suspended tournaments, so presumably this affects them as well, right?
- matthew futterman
-
It absolutely affects them. The W.T.A. actually has a huge business involvement in China. We're talking about a country that is the host in nine tournaments, including that season ending championship. And over the class of the next decade, it's estimated that you lot're looking at a loss of several hundred 1000000 dollars in China in terms of growth and in terms of investment that they have promised to make. And so this would be a actually costly decision.
- sabrina tavernise
-
So given that pretty meaningful fiscal stake, why is the W.T.A. taking such a difficult opinion here then? I hateful, what's driving them to become against China's leadership on this result with Peng?
- matthew futterman
-
Well, in that location'south a few reasons for that. I mean, I think the first is that the West.T.A. does believe it'southward going to have other opportunities. For example, most recently, the tour finals. They could non be held in People's republic of china because of Covid.
They moved them to Guadalajara. It was a perfectly fantabulous tournament. So the money is not going to get to zip. It might non be equally much as they tin become in China, but they will have other opportunities, and they believe in themselves. And so I think that's i reason at a very sort of basic dollars and cents level.
Another reason is that this arrangement, the W.T.A., was founded in the 1970s at a time when women's sports really didn't exist. And it was founded on the sort of basis of women really believing in themselves. It was founded by Billie Jean Rex who was i of the great tennis players of her era and likewise just a huge activist for women's rights. And the idea of this tour was that women deserved to be paid attention to and listened to, just like anyone else. And that brings us to Peng Shuai, who is not but not being listened to, but she'southward existence silenced.
- sabrina tavernise
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So this state of affairs that she'south in, her effective disappearance, is actually kind of going against the entire mission of the W.T.A.
- matthew futterman
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Aye, this is the principle upon which this tour was founded, and information technology's just sort of sacrosanct with these people that you stand up for your own, and you lot certainly stand up for one of your ain when they put these incredibly serious allegations out there. But at this indicate, information technology doesn't seem like any other sport is doing much more than voicing business organisation for Peng Shuai. Non fifty-fifty men's tennis.
No one else is sort of joining the W.T.A. and maxim that they're going to follow the aforementioned lead and to spend their own events in China unless there's a full investigation and she'south able to speak freely. That's non happening. It's sort of existence seen as either a lawn tennis problem or a female problem rather than a human being problem.
Peng Shuai along with Li Na was a woman who really brought tennis into the limelight in China. And it really worked in the manner China wanted it to. It helped legitimize the state as a truly mod guild.
Only beyond that, she besides served every bit a real inspiration to women and girls that they could do anything and be anything, considering that's what happens when you lot become a champion in sports. And at present, through no fault of her own, she's been silenced by the Chinese government. She's kind of disappeared. And then much of what she has dedicated her life to, it'due south lost.
- sabrina tavernise
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Matt, thank you.
- matthew futterman
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Thanks very much.
- sabrina tavernise
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Nosotros'll be correct dorsum.
Hither'south what else you need to know today. Federal wellness regulators canonical booster shots of the Pfizer BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for 16 and 17-year-olds, immigration the way for several one thousand thousand teenagers to receive an boosted shot. Adults accept been eligible for boosters since November 19. And about 50 million people, that'southward 1/4 of all vaccinated adults, have gotten one.
Early on tests suggests that the fast-spreading variant, Omicron, dulls the ability of 2 doses, and regulators say the booster would offer additional protection. And a Starbucks store in Buffalo voted to form a union, making it the only one of nearly 9,000 company-owned stores in the U.South. to be unionized. Workers said they heard from other Starbucks employees across the state during the campaign, saying they were interested in unionizing too. The number of workers was pocket-size, simply the attempt was significant for the potential challenge information technology presents to the giant coffee retailer, which has opposed unionization.
Today's episode was produced past Robert Jimison, Mooj Zadie, Rachel Quester, Alex Immature and Luke Vander Ploeg. It was edited by Lisa Grub and Patricia Willens and engineered by Chris Woods, with original music by Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Brad Fisher and Dan Powell. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly.
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That's it for The Daily. I'm Sabrina Tavernise. See yous on Monday.
Who will lite the cauldron at the opening ceremony?
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It's i of the hot topics at the beginning of whatever Games, and one of the well-nigh closely guarded secrets: Who volition light the Olympic cauldron in the stadium at the opening ceremony?
The New York Times has a pretty good record recently of predicting who gets the honor, so let's attempt our hand at it again.
Typically, Olympic cauldron lighters are legendary athletes from the host country. At the 2010 Vancouver Games, who else to light the cauldron but Wayne Gretzky? 4 years agone, the Due south Korean figure skater Yuna Kim was called for the Pyeongchang Games.
It's also possible that an active athlete will be chosen: The tennis star Naomi Osaka was picked at the Tokyo Games last year.
China has a relatively short history of success at the Winter Games, simplifying our search somewhat. The land won its commencement winter medals simply in 1992 and its first gold in 2002.
With history in mind, here are some leading candidates:
seven. Chen Lu . Well remembered in China and abroad for her cute performances in figure skating in 1994 and 1998, Chen has the drawback of having won simply 2 statuary medals and no golds.
6. Han Xiaopeng . His gilded medal in skiing aerials in 2006 is Cathay'due south just gilt in a snow sport.
5. Eileen Gu . An active athlete is less likely this year, considering People's republic of china doesn't take one marquee performer at these Games. Gu, who could win a gold medal in freestyle skiing, might seem like a top candidate, but she was born and raised in the Usa. Though she has chosen to represent China internationally, her background may count against her if officials are looking for homegrown athletes.
4. Wang Meng. The brusk-rails speedskater has four gold medals and six total medals, both records for China. That would seem to vault her to the top of the list. But her choice is not a slam dunk: She was ousted as the caput coach of the Chinese speedskating team in 2020 after less than a yr on the job, which might brand her an awkward choice. In 2011, she was kicked off the skating team afterward a physical fight with squad officials. That sort of checkered history could hurt her with paradigm-conscious selectors.
iii. Yang Yang (S). Ten of Cathay'due south thirteen Winter Olympics golds have come in short-track speedskating. Yang won 5 medals but no golds. Her unconventional name was called because there was some other height speedskater at the time named Yang Yang. Which brings us to …
two. Yang Yang (A). With two golds and five full medals, Yang Yang (A) has fifty-fifty improve credentials to light the cauldron than her namesake. Merely despite Red china's great success in short track over the years, we're going to get in a different direction for our concluding choice.
1. Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo . The pairs champions of 2010 are China's but gilt medalists in effigy skating, perhaps the most popular sport at the Games worldwide. The husband-and-married woman squad would have the added bonus of having a homo and a woman light the cauldron together.
1 of Mainland china's picks for a torchbearer is an army commander who clashed with India.
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Prc has ofttimes denounced what information technology calls the politicization of the Olympics, including a diplomatic boycott that the United States has tried to organize. Yet China'due south selection of i of the start of the i,200 torch bearers has struck a nationalistic note: a colonel who fought Indian forces at the western end of the Himalayas.
Col. Qi Fabao, a regimental commander in China's army, carried the torch on Wednesday, on the first day of its three-day tour in and near Beijing. He suffered a four-inch gash across the brow during deadly border skirmishes with India in 2020.
Mainland china's selection of Colonel Qi was swiftly denounced by the Indian government, which said on Thursday evening that the top diplomat at its embassy in Beijing would not attend the opening or closing ceremonies of the Olympics.
"Information technology is indeed regrettable that the Chinese side has chosen to politicize an event like the Olympics," Arindam Bagchi, a spokesman for the ministry of external affairs in New Delhi, said at a news conference.
He did not address whether Indian officials might attend other events during the Olympics, and he was not asked whether India would lend any back up to the American-organized diplomatic cold-shoulder of the Games.
India'southward public broadcaster, Doordarshan, announced afterwards Thursday evening that it would likewise not broadcast the opening or endmost ceremonies.
India has acknowledged twenty expressionless and China has acknowledged 4 dead in the fighting, which took place in the Galwan Valley. China after gave the honorary championship of Hero of Defending the Border to Col. Qi and to the four Chinese soldiers who died in the fighting.
Thomas Bach, the International Olympic Commission'southward president, responded to a question about Colonel Qi at a news conference in Beijing on Th by noting that an injured British veteran who had fought in Afghanistan was allowed to deport the torch at the opening of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
But the comparison of Colonel Qi to a Western soldier who lost both legs fighting Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan may not go over well in India either. India supported the Afghan government for many years against the Taliban.
There are spectators at the Games, only so far they are largely silent.
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Hockey is inappreciably a silent sport, a rollicking cascade of ice-shaving, board-crashing and puck-slamming.
But when Sarah Fillier scored for Canada about a infinitesimal into a game against Switzerland on Th in Beijing, there was hardly a audio, especially from the stands. So it went as Canada began its pursuit of a gold medal.
Cheering? Even so forbidden, plainly, for fearfulness that it will spread the coronavirus. Clapping for a big play? Didn't happen. Some people waved small flags featuring Bing Dwen Dwen, the panda mascot of the Beijing Games. But the heads of others did non seem to motility with the action.
Information technology is not clear who, exactly, is filling the seats at these Olympics. Organizers said last calendar month, when they rescinded a policy to sell tickets to residents of the Chinese mainland, that officials would "invite groups of spectators to be present on site." And on Thursday, they said virtually 150,000 people from outside the Olympic bubble would nourish events, including diplomats, "wintertime sports enthusiasts" and students.
Fans will exist permitted only at venues in the Beijing and Zhangjiakou event clusters, meaning that spectators will be absent-minded from Tall skiing and sliding sports competitions, all of which will be contested outdoors.
"The number of spectators we'll have will very much depend on the event itself and volition be decided on an ad hoc basis," Pierre Ducrey, a top International Olympic Committee official, said this week.
There were indeed several hundred spectators for hockey at the National Indoor Stadium in Beijing. They were masked, distanced and kept well away from the athletes, journalists and others who accept been allowed inside the Olympic bubble. (A phalanx of medical personnel, dressed in white protective suits, sat nearly the Swiss.)
They stirred briefly in the 3rd menses, coaxed by a stadium declaration. Only the only cheers for the skating and the scoring came from the benches. Well, one of them at least: Canada won, 12-i.
"To be honest," said Canada'south Blayre Turnbull, "we're and so focused on the game and only cheering each other on, that we don't notice that stuff."
Alpine skiers tackle an unknown grade 3 days before their race.
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Alpine skiers are non the kind of people who rattle easily, only at that place was Matthias Mayer of Austria, the gold medalist in the downhill in 2014 and the Super-G in 2018, rocking back and forth in the starter's hut at the summit of the downhill course and experiencing something he does not often feel at the meridian of a mount: nerves.
Mayer was the get-go person to ski the Olympic downhill grade nether race conditions during Th's kickoff training session at the Yanqing National Alpine Heart, roughly 50 miles northwest of Beijing.
Alpine skiing at the Olympics often takes identify on an unfamiliar mount that isn't on the World Cup circuit, but to allow racers to fix the World Loving cup usually holds an event at the Olympic venue in the year before the Games. The pandemic, and Red china'southward strict edge controls, prevented that from happening in Yanqing.
So on Thursday, only three days before the actual downhill race, the world's all-time skiers got their outset run a risk to take a run on the mountain where they will compete for the biggest prize in their sport.
"It's dissimilar, for sure," Aleksander Aamodt Kilde of Norway said of the prospect of competing for Olympic medals on unfamiliar terrain.
They arrived early, many reaching the mountain non long subsequently the sun rose for a 90-minute inspection of the slope.
"It was really clear when we got up top, and you lot could encounter the towers of downtown from upward there," said Travis Ganong of the The states.
What was the skiing like? Nearly everyone was swooning over the light, crisp, manufactured snow. "Some of the best I've ever seen," Vincent Kreichmayr of Austria said of the conditions.
The well-nigh 2-mile course, nicknamed Rock, winds its way through what is essentially a downhill canyon. It provides little time to relax. "In that location'south just non actually a gliding department," said Bryce Bennett of the United states.
The jumps are fairly tame by World Cup standards, including the concluding shot out of the canyon just in a higher place the finish, Bennett said, but the turns come ane right after another.
Managing the run was pretty much all anyone was trying to exercise on Thursday, saving the speed for the coming days when they know the form a little better.
"I was trying not to take information technology too crazy, because I didn't know the speed," Mayer said of his maiden run, the 37th fastest of the day. "I missed two gates. I have a lot to learn."
In pictures: Skaters, skiers, suits and, yes, a giant panda.
The Winter Olympics exercise not officially open until Friday, merely New York Times photographers accept already fanned out to find glimpses of the Games — sporting, spectacular and strange — that you lot might have missed.
Pandas in ice? Beijing puts its marker on the history of Olympic mascots.
Paradigm
The organizers of the Winter Olympics in Beijing turned to an sometime friend when picking a mascot: the panda.
Organizers selected Bing Dwen Dwen, designed by Cao Xue, from more than 5,800 potential mascot designs that had been submitted, according to the official site of the Olympics. Wrapped in a protective layer of water ice mimicking an astronaut'due south suit, Bing has been making its way effectually the chimera that is the habitation to hotels, competition sites and the Olympic Village.
The panda, one time considered endangered, is native to People's republic of china and is the land's national fauna. It has long been used past the government every bit a diplomatic tool — like the pandas that accept been donated to zoos in the United States — and has been minted on gold coins issued by the regime. In 2008, when Beijing hosted the Summer Olympics, the organizers chose a panda equally 1 of the 5 official Fuwa, or skillful-luck dolls, that served as mascots.
A committee made upwardly of representatives of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and the Jilin University of the Arts chose Bing, which means "ice" in Mandarin. And Dwen Dwen translates as "robust and lively," and represents children, co-ordinate to the website.
The first Olympic mascot, Shuss, was created for the 1968 Games held in Grenoble, France. At the time, organizers referred to Shuss as a "character" and non as a mascot. Its rough depiction of a human being zipping downhill on skis is probably a result of the fact that it was created in a "bustle," according to the Olympics website. The designer was given 1 nighttime to design Shuss.
Since and so, in that location take been 26 mascots for the Wintertime and Summer Games, including an anthropomorphic American bald eagle dressed as Uncle Sam for the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. Ane of the more famous ones was Cobi, a mount canis familiaris from the Pyrenees that was drawn in a Cubist grade, for the 1992 Games in Barcelona.
An Olympic rule and warnings from China accept made it risky for athletes to speak out.
Prototype
The chat at the Wukesong Sports Eye veered dangerously from the growth and speed of women'southward hockey toward the question of political statements at the Olympic Games. Hilary Knight, wrapping upward practice ahead of her fourth Olympic advent for the United states, paused, glanced effectually, and chose her words carefully.
"I call up it's of import to be able to identify value on things that you concord dearest to you, and it's something that is important to me," Knight began. Then she pivoted, saying that her priority was the American team'south opening game.
"As of at present," she said, "we're specifically focused on Finland."
As competitions began in a Winter Olympics overshadowed by controversy over China's record on human rights, the issue of what participants can and cannot say has loomed larger than at whatever Olympics in years.
Athletes have found themselves caught betwixt activists urging them to use their celebrity to speak out and the rules of the International Olympic Committee that restrict what they can say and where.
Cathay'due south Communist Party has also warned that athletes are subject not only to Olympic rules, merely also to Chinese law. The warnings accept been role of a crackdown in the weeks before Friday'south opening anniversary that, critics say, has had a chilling effect on dissent inside and outside the Olympic bubble.
"Athletes need to be responsible for what they say," Yang Yang, a senior official of the Beijing Organizing Committee and an Olympic champion, said at a news conference this week.
The Year of the Tiger overshadows the Olympic panda.
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Parks and avenues in Beijing are lined with red Lunar New year lanterns. Streets are deserted as families gather at domicile to celebrate the Year of the Tiger. The five-ring symbol of the Olympics and the cuddly panda mascot of the Winter Games are hardly to be seen.
Winter sports lovers around the earth are turning their eyes toward Beijing as the Winter Olympics brainstorm on Friday. But in the Chinese uppercase itself, outside the "airtight loop" bubble for participants, there are few signs of an Olympic fever.
The biggest reason seems to be the time of twelvemonth. The arrival of the Lunar New Year was celebrated in China on Mon nighttime. The unabridged week, through Sunday, is a national holiday in mainland People's republic of china. Many stores, restaurants and other public areas are closed.
Pandemic precautions are another reason for the silence in Beijing. Earlier the pandemic, an influx of tour groups from the state's hinterland poured into the capital each winter during the holiday. Not this year.
Most tourism across provincial borders has been banned in Communist china this winter to foreclose spreading the coronavirus. The city of Beijing has been strict about prohibiting out-of-boondocks tour groups.
Only traveling home is nevertheless allowed. Many Chinese did not return to their hometowns the previous two Lunar New Years, when coronavirus vaccines were non widely available, but they are heading back this year. Information from the Ministry of Ship shows that long-haul holiday travel in the two weeks preceding Lunar New Year rose by half compared with the same flow in 2021.
Beijing residents who accept not left town take limited options for going out. The local authorities are telling groups booking restaurants or other venues during the adjacent few weeks that they must accept a vaguely divers legal responsibility if anyone at their outcome is infected with the coronavirus.
Still, there are some indications in Beijing that the Olympics are underway. Special lanes have been marked on highways for Olympic vehicles. Some signs accept been placed on roadsides and buses. In Zhangjiakou, an area near Beijing that will host outdoor events like cross-country skiing, streets have been decorated with Olympic signs.
The muted approach is notwithstanding a large contrast to the 2008 Summer Olympics, which were held in August and prompted residents to inundation sunny sidewalks and cheer on the Games.
Li You contributed enquiry.
Russian athletes again make an appearance every bit R.O.C.
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Russian federation is nonetheless banned from the Olympics, only hundreds of its athletes are still ready to compete in Beijing.
Only as their compatriots did at the Tokyo Games, which were held final summertime after being delayed by a year because of the coronavirus pandemic, 215 Russian athletes will again compete under the banner of the Russian Olympic Committee. The Russian flag and anthem are too banned.
The R.O.C. flag features the Olympic rings forth with white, blueish and red waves to a higher place them — the same colors as on Russia's flag. At the Tokyo Olympics, a portion of Tchaikovsky's Pianoforte Concerto No. 1 was played for winning athletes instead of the Russian anthem.
So why is Russia not really Russia at the Olympics?
In 2019, the Earth Anti-Doping Agency barred Russia from participating in global competitions for four years, a punishment connected to a doping and comprehend-up scheme that was amongst the about serious in sports history.
Russia appealed the ruling in the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which has the concluding say in international sport disputes, and in 2020 had its suspension reduced to two years. The court then cleared the style for Russian athletes who had not been linked to the doping scandal to participate in international events, including the Olympics, as neutral competitors.
The court likewise watered down several aspects of the anti-doping agency'south ruling, such as allowing senior Russian government officials to attend global sporting events if they are invited past the caput of the host country; they are otherwise barred from doing and so. He was not at the Tokyo Games, just President Vladimir 5. Putin of Russa is expected to attend Friday night's opening ceremony on an invitation from President 11 Jinping of Mainland china.
Russia'due south ban from global sports competitions ends at the terminate of this year.
What's in a proper noun? For Taiwan, a lot.
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A calendar week ago, Taiwan said it would non participate in the opening ceremony of the Wintertime Games in Beijing. And so the island commonwealth reversed its decision, citing pressure from the International Olympic Committee.
In at first declining, Taiwanese officials had pointed to inconvenient flight schedules and pandemic restrictions. Merely they are also engaged in a political rivalry with Beijing over the Olympics, embodied in one persistent upshot: the proper name of Taiwan's delegation.
Taiwan, a self-ruled island that China claims as its territory, has for decades been compelled to compete in international sports events every bit "Chinese Taipei" rather than as Taiwan or nether its formal name, Republic of Prc. The International Olympic Commission'southward rules prohibit delegations from Taiwan from using any symbols suggesting that the island is a sovereign nation.
When Taiwan said on Monday that it had decided to take office in the opening anniversary, officials from the island urged China not to try to use the Games to suppress Taiwan. They did not go into specifics, but some Taiwanese officials worry that Beijing might use the Games to undermine the island's status.
The dispute centers on the Chinese rendering of the Taiwanese delegation'south name, "Chinese Taipei." Officially, the delegation'due south Chinese proper noun is Zhonghua Taipei. Simply officials on the mainland often refer to the Taiwanese delegation as Zhongguo Taipei. Zhongguo is the Chinese name for Cathay; referring to the Taiwanese delegation as such implies that the athletes and the isle they represent are part of China.
In 2008, when the Taiwan delegation marched into the National Stadium in Beijing for the Summer Olympics, the event's Chinese announcer stuck to the official version of the delegation's proper noun. But relations betwixt the ii sides have since deteriorated, and concerns take grown that this fourth dimension, China might apply the ceremonies as an opportunity to assert its merits over Taiwan.
On Friday, the delegation will non get to use the proper noun Taiwan on their national squad uniforms, sing their anthem or acquit the island'south flag during the opening anniversary.
"I actually feel a chip disappointed that I can't compete with the name of Taiwan," Lin Sin-rong, a luger who is competing in Beijing, said in January. "When it comes to People's republic of china, I do what I should and go on what I shouldn't say in my heart."
Ho Ping-jui, a 23-year-sometime Tall skier and a beginning-time Olympian, said he hoped to raise the international visibility of Taiwan, where he grew upward.
"I hope more friends from the world tin know Taiwan past seeing me ski," Ho, 23, said before heading to Beijing from Taipei concluding calendar week. "I always tell people that I'm from Taiwan when I'g abroad."
Why is China hosting another Games?
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A lot of cities, initially, raised their hands to host the 2022 Winter Games. Oslo. Stockholm. Cracow. Munich. St. Moritz and Davos. Simply over fourth dimension, one by one, they dropped out, in many cases citing the high cost of hosting the Olympics and a lack of popular support at dwelling house.
Eventually, Beijing and Almaty, Republic of kazakhstan, were the but ii bidders left. Beijing won past four votes. The host selection process was accounted such a disaster that the International Olympic Committee went on to chip it. Host cities are now selected through a closed-door procedure, a organization that trades an former gear up of complaints virtually off-white play and graft for a new one focused on insider influence.
The adjacent Summertime Olympics will be in Paris in 2024. The 2026 Winter Games will take place in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. The Summertime Games will then caput to Los Angeles in 2028 and to Brisbane, Australia, in 2032.
The host of the 2030 Winter Games will be selected in 2023.
NBC is opening its Olympics coverage with 'the worst hand imaginable.'
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Last yr, NBC Sports executives called the Tokyo Olympics their most challenging undertaking always. Now, that experience is starting to look like a cakewalk.
For Beijing, NBC confronts an even trickier mix of challenges, threatening to diminish one of the network's signature products and one of the last major draws for broadcast idiot box.
The listing of headaches is long: an consequence nearly gratis of spectators, which drains excitement from the loonshit and the ski slopes; the threat that star athletes will test positive for the coronavirus, potentially dashing their Olympic dreams; and the fact that a vast majority of the network'south announcers, including Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski, are offering color commentary from a company compound in Stamford, Conn., instead of from China.
The rising political tensions between the Usa and People's republic of china, including those related to claims of homo rights abuses past China, add together a troubling cloud to what is typically a feel-good spectacle.
"My friends and colleagues at NBC have been dealt the worst hand imaginable," said Bob Costas, who served every bit the network's prime-time Olympics host for more than two decades.
The success of the Games is critical to NBC. Even equally streaming services like Netflix and Disney+ have lured millions of people from broadcast networks, sports have remained a reliable moneymaker for the traditional outlets. The company has exclusive broadcast rights to the Olympics through 2032, at a cost of $7.75 billion.
Ratings for the Games accept dipped in recent years — and fell sharply during final year's Summer Olympics. NBC has told advertisers to wait the ratings to be lower than the 2018 Wintertime Games, according to 3 people familiar with the network'southward ratings estimates.
How we got Wintertime Olympians to talk nigh fear.
Video
transcript
transcript
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"One, two, iii, four, five, six, seven, viii, 9, 10." "OK, so nosotros're fix to roll?" "Aye, we're rolling." "Allow me ask you lot the basic question: How does fear play a role in what you do?" [sigh] "Every sport in the Winter Olympics is risky for sure." "The sports in general are so gnarly." "Completely against human nature." "It'southward a lot like golf game: The only deviation is, y'all're the brawl." "If you say yous're non afraid, y'all're lying, like 100 percent." "Yeah, like I'yard scared thinking virtually the Olympics." "I happen to exist 20 feet in the air." "15 meters in the air." "Almost 100 miles per hour on a track." "Worst place to take something go wrong." "I'1000 lamentable." "Fear is what keeps u.s.a. alive in the end."
In the months before Beijing 2022, The New York Times sat down with three dozen Olympians in the scariest, nearly unsafe events in the Wintertime Games and asked them if they get scared by what they do. Estimate what? They all do.
They were eager to talk about information technology, in fact. Fearfulness virtually getting hurt, about trying new tricks, about bad weather, about the doubtfulness it brings and about what it's like when y'all're skiing almost blind. "Fear," the snowboarder André Höflich said, "is what keeps us live in the stop."
The interactive project that resulted examines the intersection of danger and daring, victory and disaster, even life and death, through the words of Olympians like Shaun White, Eileen Gu, Jamie Anderson, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, Marker McMorris and dozens of others.
Information technology may change how yous watch the Games forever.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/02/02/sports/olympics-winter-news
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