The World Opinion

Tag: Winter Olympics

  • Pandas in ice? Beijing places its mark on historical past of Olympic mascots

    By way of Andrés R. Martínez

    The organizers of the Wintry weather Olympics in Beijing grew to become to an previous buddy when selecting a mascot: the panda.

    This time round, organizers decided on Bing Dwen Dwen, designed via Cao Xue, from greater than 5,800 designs that have been submitted, in line with the legit website of the Olympics. Wrapped in a protecting layer of ice mimicking an astronaut’s go well with, Bing has been making its means across the bubble that’s the Olympic Village.

    Robot mascots carry out throughout the hole rite of the 2014 Wintry weather Olympics in Sochi, Russia, Feb. 7, 2014. (AP Photograph/Robert F. Bukaty)

    The panda, as soon as regarded as endangered, is local to China and is the rustic’s nationwide animal. It’s been utilized by the federal government as a diplomatic software — just like the pandas which were donated to zoos in the US — and has been minted on gold cash issued via the federal government. In 2008, when Beijing hosted the Summer season Video games, the organizers selected a panda as one of the most 5 legit Fuwa, or good-luck dolls, that served as mascots.

    A committee made up of representatives of the Guangzhou Academy of Wonderful Arts and the Jilin College of the Arts selected Bing, because of this “ice” in Mandarin. And Dwen Dwen interprets as “powerful and full of life,” and represents youngsters, in line with the site.

    Inflated Beijing Video games mascot, Bing Dwen Dwen, tries to squeeze during the door to go into the primary media heart on the 2022 Wintry weather Olympics, Jan. 24, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photograph/Jae C. Hong)

    The primary Olympic mascot, Shuss, was once created for the 1968 Wintry weather Video games held in Grenoble, France. On the time, organizers referred to Shuss as a “persona” and no longer as a mascot. Its crude depiction of a person zipping downhill on skis is more than likely a results of the truth that it was once created in a “hurry,” in line with the Olympics site. The clothier was once given one night time to design Shuss.

    Since then, there were 26 mascots for the Wintry weather and Summer season Video games, together with an anthropomorphic American bald eagle dressed as Uncle Sam for the 1984 Summer season Video games in Los Angeles. Probably the most extra well-known ones was once Cobi, a mountain canine from the Pyrenees that was once drawn in a Cubist shape, for the 1992 Summer season Video games in Barcelona.

    (This newsletter initially gave the impression in The New York Instances.)

  • Supervisor of India’s Wintry weather Olympics contingent assessments Covid sure upon arrival in Beijing

    The chief of India’s Wintry weather Olympics contingent, Mohammad Abbas Wani, has examined sure for COVID-19 upon arrival on the Beijing Airport.

    Abbas Wani is part of the six-member Indian delegation on the Wintry weather Olympics for which Kashmir skier Arif Khan is the one athlete from the rustic to have certified this time. Arif will probably be competing in Slalom and Large Slalom occasions all the way through the Video games.

    The contingent additionally comprises Harjinder Singh as its chef de venture, Ludar Chand Thakur as alpine trainer, Puran Chand as technician and Rop Chand Negi as staff legitimate.

    Indian Olympic Affiliation (IOA) president Narinder Batra knowledgeable about Abbas Wani’s sure COVID outcome and stated chef de venture Harjinder is coordinating with the Wintry weather Olympics organisers for a re-test.

    “The chief of the Indian contingent Mr. Abbas Wani examined COVID sure at Beijing Airport. The chef de venture Mr. Harjinder Singh is coordinating for a re-test.

    “The athlete and his trainer were shifted to every other flat to steer clear of any interplay,” Batra stated.
    The Beijing Wintry weather Olympics will probably be held from February 4 to twenty.

  • U.S. Bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor Checks Certain For COVID; Olympic Spot In Jeopardy

    International Cup champion Elana Meyers Taylor’s quest so as to add to her Olympic medal overall on the Beijing Video games is in jeopardy after the veteran U.S. ladies’s bobsled pilot published Tuesday she has examined certain for COVID-19.

    USA Bobsled and Skeleton stays hopeful that Meyers Taylor will be capable to compete on the Beijing Video games, particularly since bobsled doesn’t start till a few week into the Olympics. Girls’s monobob respectable coaching starts Feb. 10, with festival starting Feb. 13. Coaching for the two-woman match begins Feb. 15, with festival starting Feb. 18.

    “After arriving to Beijing on January 27, on January 29 I examined certain for Covid-19,” Meyers Taylor wrote on her social media platforms. “I’m asymptomatic and recently at an isolation hotel- and sure I’m utterly remoted.”

    She published on Jan. 27 that she handed an preliminary take a look at after arriving in Beijing. Meyers Taylor used to be making plans to stick in a resort and no longer the Olympic village, since she is touring together with her younger son.

    “That is simply the most recent impediment that my circle of relatives and I’ve confronted in this adventure, so I’m ultimate constructive that I’ll be capable to get better briefly and now have the chance to compete,” Meyers Taylor wrote.

    She is the one girl to win 3 Olympic bobsled medals for the U.S., with two silvers and a bronze already in her assortment. If she is cleared, she nonetheless can be thought to be a medal contender in each occasions; monobob, with only a driving force within the sled, is a part of the Olympic program for the primary time.

    USABS mentioned ultimate week that it used to be coping with numerous certain exams amongst its Olympic delegation, despite the fact that didn’t expose names on account of privateness rules. Josh Williamson, a push athlete who used to be picked for his first Olympic crew, published ultimate week that he examined certain at a crew camp in Chula Vista, California.

    Additionally Tuesday, the Courtroom of Arbitration for Game dominated towards U.S. ladies’s skeleton athlete Megan Henry, denying her request to be added to the sphere for the Beijing Video games.

    The U.S. earned two spots within the Olympic box, they usually went to five-time Olympian Katie Uhlaender and first-time qualifier Kelly Curtis. The spots weren’t made up our minds till the general race of the International Cup season and Curtis wound up edging Henry by means of a slender margin.

    When some countries who had been awarded Olympic spots declined to fill them, the World Bobsled and Skeleton Federation reallocates the ones positions. That gave the impression to open a door for Henry, who appealed for it however used to be denied by means of CAS.

    The verdict way Katie Tannenbaum of the U.S. Virgin Islands will stay within the box after she used to be awarded the spot that Henry later sought.

  • Olympics: Group Taiwan says it’ll be at Beijing Video games opening rite

    Taiwan’s group for the Beijing Wintry weather Olympics shall be on the opening and shutting ceremonies after being advised through the World Olympic Committee it was once required to take part.

    Chinese language-claimed Taiwan has feared Beijing may “downgrade” Taiwan’s standing through placing its athletes along the ones from Chinese language-run Hong Kong on the opening rite, a senior Taiwan reliable aware of the subject advised Reuters closing week.

    Sub-tropical Taiwan, which has no wintry weather wearing custom and hasn’t ever gained a medal on the wintry weather Video games, is sending 4 athletes to Beijing, the similar quantity because the closing wintry weather Video games in 2018. Taiwan had mentioned on Friday the group would now not be on the opening or final ceremonies, blaming not on time flights and hard anti-COVID-19 laws.

    However Taiwan’s Olympic committee mentioned past due Monday it had won “a number of notices” from the World Olympic Committee (IOC) “requiring all delegations to the 2022 Beijing Wintry weather Olympics to cooperate in sending team of workers to wait the hole and shutting ceremonies”.

    In accordance with its admire of the Olympic spirit and after discussions with Taiwan’s Sports activities Management, they’ll “alter” the plan and “cooperate with the coverage to ship workforce to wait the hole and shutting ceremonies”.

    It didn’t say how lots of the 15-member group, together with running shoes, could be there. The Beijing Video games are going down amid heightened tensions between China and Taiwan, together with repeated Chinese language army task close to the island.

    Taiwan competes in maximum wearing occasions, together with the Olympics, as “Chinese language Taipei” on the insistence of Beijing, which sees democratically ruled Taiwan as a part of “one China”. On Wednesday, China’s Taiwan Affairs Administrative center referred to Taiwan’s group as being from “China, Taipei”, somewhat than the reliable terminology of “Chinese language Taipei”. That drew a rebuke from Taiwan’s China-policy making Mainland Affairs Council, which mentioned China deliberately used the unsuitable identify.

  • ‘Genocide Video games’: Human Rights Activists Urge Athletes To Talk Out At Beijing Olympics

    BEIJING (AP) — Human rights activists issued a choice to motion towards the Beijing Olympics on Friday, imploring athletes and sponsors to talk out towards what they name the “genocide video games.”

    Talking at a web-based press convention arranged by way of the rights crew Human Rights Watch, activists representing Chinese language dissidents and the minority Uyghur and Tibetan populations suggested global attendants to voice their opposition to China’s website hosting of the Video games, which start subsequent week.

    “The 2022 Iciness Olympics can be remembered because the genocide video games,” mentioned Teng Biao, a former human rights activist in China who’s now a visiting professor on the College of Chicago.

    “The CCP’s objective is to precisely flip the sports activities enviornment right into a level for political legitimacy and a device to whitewash all the ones atrocities,” he added, regarding the ruling Chinese language Communist Celebration.

    China’s crackdown beneath hardline ruler Xi Jinping has been felt throughout large swaths of society. Hong Kong government overwhelmed anti-government protests within the town in 2019, and the central authorities in Beijing handed a countrywide safety regulation aimed toward stifling dissent, resulting in the arrest of activists and disbandment of civil society teams.

    In the meantime, within the nation’s western area of Xinjiang, an estimated 1 million other folks or extra — maximum of them Uyghurs — had been confined in reeducation camps lately, in line with researchers.

    An impartial, unofficial frame arrange by way of a outstanding British barrister to evaluate proof on China’s alleged rights abuses towards the Uyghur other folks concluded in December the Chinese language authorities dedicated genocide.

    China has constantly denied any human rights abuses within the area and has mentioned it performed its movements to counter extremism within the area in an effort to be sure other folks’s protection.

    China’s Overseas Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin has hit again on the rights crew for its persevered calls to boycott the Olympics, announcing that “the so-called human rights crew is biased towards China and fascinated with making mischief. Lies and rumors it fabricated are unpopular. Its egregious acts that hurt the Olympic motive won’t ever be successful.”

    The Overseas Ministry has additionally mentioned the Olympics will have to now not be politicized. But the contest is already dealing with a diplomatic boycott led by way of the U.S., whose dating with China has nosedived up to now few years.

    Activists have failed to succeed in a complete boycott of the video games, however have persevered to talk out. “Your silence is their energy. That is what they would like greater than anything else: that the arena will play by way of China’s laws, that we will be able to practice China’s lead, that we will be able to glance clear of those atrocities and crimes for the sake of commercial as same old,” mentioned Lhadon Tethong, director of the Tibet Motion Institute, on the press convention Friday.

    She appealed at once to athletes from the U.S., UK, France and others to talk. “I individually consider that you should utilize your platform and your privilege and this ancient alternative. You need to talk out towards the wave of genocide,” she mentioned.

  • U.S. Gold Medal Hopeful Drops Out Of Wintry weather Olympics

    CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — The US staff for subsequent month’s Olympics misplaced considered one of its best medal potentialities Tuesday when downhill racer Breezy Johnson mentioned damage will pressure her to omit the Beijing Video games.

    Johnson positioned 2d in the back of Olympic champion Sofia Goggia in each and every of the 3 International Cup downhills she began this season, then crashed in coaching runs sooner than two races in January.

    “I’ve to announce that I’ve sadly injured my knee and will have to withdraw from the Olympics,” Johnson mentioned on her Instagram account.

    Breezy Johnson on a training run in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, where another crash may have further injured her knee.
    Breezy Johnson on a coaching run in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, the place every other crash could have additional injured her knee.

    JURE MAKOVEC by way of Getty Pictures

    The 26-year-old racer crashed in coaching in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, remaining week, one week after skipping a downhill in Austria to let a reduce and bruised knee heal.

    Johnson wrote that during Cortina she “in an instant felt a large crack in my knee” and had dislodged cartilage.

    “I used to be given the choice to check out to compete on it. However I don’t suppose that this is life like or good,” she mentioned.

    Johnson positioned 7th in downhill on the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.

    “It was once the excitement of my lifestyles to constitute @teamusa on the Video games in 2018,” Johnson mentioned. “And all I’ve sought after ever since was once to come back again, more potent, sooner, to win a gold medal.”

    The ladies’s downhill is scheduled for Feb. 15. Goggia, who has gained 4 of 5 International Cup races, could also be an unsure starter after two crashes in January.

  • NBC Publicizes Drastic Transfer In Its Beijing Wintry weather Olympics Protection

    NBC might not be sending its announcers and maximum hosts to the Beijing Olympics because of endured issues about emerging COVID-19 circumstances international and China’s strict coverage about those that check sure.

    It is going to be the second one instantly Video games for which the printed groups will paintings most commonly out of NBC Sports activities headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, reasonably than the host town.

    “One thing important has modified nearly on a daily basis for the final 3 months, forcing us to regulate our plan a lot of occasions. And I be expecting that to proceed in addition to the problem of doing the Olympics,” stated Molly Solomon, the pinnacle of NBC’s Olympics manufacturing unit.

    “With COVID’s converting prerequisites and China’s zero-tolerance coverage, it’s simply added a layer of complexity to all of this, so we wish to be sure we will be able to give you the identical high quality revel in to the American audience. That’s why we’re break up between the 2 towns.”

    NBC Sports activities spokesman Greg Hughes stated in a telephone interview the community now not plans to ship pronouncing groups for Alpine snowboarding, determine skating and skiing to China. The ones have been some of the handful of announcers anticipated to go back and forth, however NBC’s plans modified during the last couple of weeks.

    “Our plans will proceed to adapt in accordance with the prerequisites, and we’re going to stick versatile as we transfer via this,” Hughes stated.

    NBC Olympics president Gary Zenkel is one in every of 250 folks the community already has in Beijing. Maximum of the ones are technical workforce.

    “We’re in a closed loop. It’s restrictive get admission to, nevertheless it does let us get admission to the printed heart and venues,” he stated.

    Olympic athletes, media and employees can be bring to a halt from the remainder of China all through the Video games, with the one puts they are able to cross being pageant venues, their lodging and transportation between the 2. China plans to isolate any person who exams sure for COVID-19 for no less than two days, pending a unfavorable end result. The rustic additionally has a compulsory 21-day isolation duration for any person coming into the rustic who isn’t vaccinated.

    USA Lately was once first to record on NBC’s determination.

    Maximum of NBC’s announcers have been stateside for the Summer season Video games, however the marquee sports activities of observe and box, swimming and gymnastics had announcers in Tokyo.

    NBC is anticipated to be clear about the truth that its announcers don’t seem to be onsite.

    Top-time host Mike Tirico will anchor protection from Beijing from Feb. 3-10 ahead of flying to Los Angeles to host the following 3 days and the community’s protection of the Tremendous Bowl. NBC stated it might resolve over Tremendous Bowl weekend the place Tirico could be primarily based for the general week of the Video games.

    Some journalists from NBC’s sports activities and information divisions can be primarily based in Beijing all through the Video games. With Beijing 13 hours forward of Connecticut, maximum announcers can be up at night time calling the motion.

    NBC has known as motion remotely for some sports activities all through previous Olympics, together with basketball and hockey. Far flung protection changed into commonplace on all networks all through the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in 2020 and early final yr when enthusiasts weren’t allowed in lots of arenas and stadiums.

  • U.S. Speedskater’s ‘Honorable Transfer’ Lets in Pal To Exchange Her In Olympic Race

    Brittany Bowe didn’t wish to cross to her 3rd and most likely ultimate Olympics with out Erin Jackson.

    So after Jackson slipped (see the video on the 1:40 mark) and didn’t qualify within the 500 meters on the U.S. speedskating trials in Milwaukee — a shocking consequence for the sector’s top-ranked skater within the match — Bowe knew what she sought after to do.

    Because the winner of the five hundred on the U.S. trials, Bowe and second-place finisher Kimi Goetz claimed the 2 spots for Beijing. Jackson used to be 3rd and the one method she would make the staff in her forte used to be if Bowe or Goetz gave up their spot.

    US Speedskating regulations didn’t permit for Jackson to have a re-skate — just a mechanical failure or a fall are explanation why for a do-over.

    Prior to leaving the Pettit Nationwide Ice Middle on Friday, Bowe walked as much as Jackson, hugged her and confident her excellent good friend that if she had the rest to do with it, Jackson could be becoming a member of her in Beijing.

    Bowe won a textual content message from US Speedskating officers telling her to be on the oval Sunday for the reliable staff variety and Champagne party.

    “I didn’t wish to have this second with out Erin available in the market. I known as her overdue this morning and mentioned that I sought after to formally give her her spot,” Bowe mentioned. “In my center, there used to be by no means a query.”

    Jackson used to be moved, pronouncing, “I’m simply extremely thankful. In point of fact humbled.”

    In November in Poland, Jackson turned into the primary Black lady to win a Global Cup match. She received 4 of 8 500 races at the Global Cup circuit, together with a moment and 3rd.

    “She has earned her spot,” Bowe mentioned. “Erin is admittedly on height of her recreation now.”

    Bowe’s gesture capped what Jackson known as a “loopy few days.” She didn’t sleep that night time after her slip.

    “I couldn’t flip my mind off,” Jackson mentioned. “It’s been in point of fact nerve-racking, being in limbo for goodbye and simply upset as a result of I used to be in point of fact excited to turn a excellent race.”

    Bowe and Jackson are from the similar native land of Ocala, Florida, the place they each and every began out inline skating together with three-time Olympian Joey Mantia. At 33, Bowe is 4 years older than Jackson.

    “We’ve a photograph of Erin status between myself and Joey,” Bowe mentioned, “and he or she comes as much as possibly our chest. We return very a long way.”

    Bowe downplayed her generosity, pronouncing, “That is larger than simply me. That is the Olympic Video games and it’s about Workforce USA and giving everyone the chance to exhibit what they were given.”

    Olympian Mia Manganello Kilburg known as it “undoubtedly an honorable transfer.”

    There’s nonetheless a possibility Bowe may just compete within the 500 in Beijing. Ultimate quota allocations for the Olympics will likely be made up our minds later this month and it’s imaginable the U.S. may just select up a 3rd spot within the dash.

    Jackson will likely be making her moment Olympic look, having completed twenty fourth within the 500 in 2018, now not lengthy after she switched from inline skating to the ice.

    3-time Olympian Bowe will compete within the 1,000 and 1,500 in Beijing. Goetz will compete within the 500 and 1,000.

    Within the 16-lap mass get started Sunday, Ian Quinn received the boys’s race and Giorgia Birkeland took the ladies’s match.

    Quinn earned the assured Olympic spot.

    Manganello Kilburg, who completed moment, earned the ladies’s assured spot as a result of she leads the full level general.