Winter Olympics Continue Full Steam Ahead in China Despite Pandemic
posted by Jacqueline Leibman | February 14, 2022 | In SportsThe XXIV Winter Olympics began in Beijing, China a week ago without a hitch despite ongoing concerns over human rights in China and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The opening ceremonies, which took place on February 4, showcased a high-tech cinematic display. This contrasted with the 2008 games where a large majority of critics stated that it was the “people of China” who made the opening ceremony spectacular with their overwhelming presence. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bird’s Nest stadium was fairly empty as the ongoing country-wide lockdown allowed only a small number of tickets to be distributed to Chinese nationals. The ceremony, which took place on the fourth day of the Chinese New Year, highlighted China’s youth, and the official games’ motto: “Together for a Shared Future.”
Though the Olympics are meant to represent international competition, void of politics, President Biden made headlines this past fall after stating that he would not attend the games. On behalf of the Biden administration, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki cited the “ongoing genocide” against the Uyghurs in China and “other human rights abuses” for their lack of attendance.
Biden was also joined by leaders from Canada, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as well as most of the European Union and Japan, according to several press briefings. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin along with leaders from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates chose to ignore the “diplomatic boycott” of the games.
With the overwhelming amount of media coverage surrounding the politics that these games bring, there is sympathy for the 2,871 athletes competing across 109 events. The U.S. sent our second largest Winter Olympics contingent with 244 athletes, including 108 women, 115 men, and one non-binary athlete.
Here is your week one recap:
- As of Friday morning, the U.S. sat in sixth place in the medal count with 10 total medals—4 gold, 5 silver, and 1 bronze.
- Our first medal came from women’s snowboarder, Julia Marino, with a silver medal in slopestyle after a second run score of 87.68. This was followed by four more silver medals in women’s moguls (Jaelin Kauf), the figure skating team event, men’s super-G (Ryan Cochran-Siegle), and big air freestyle skiing (Colby Stevenson).
- Jessie Diggins won a bronze medal in the women’s individual sprint freestyle, making her the first American to win multiple Olympic medals in cross-country skiing.
- Lindsey Jacobellis won our—and her—first gold medal of the games in women’s snowboard Cross. At 36, and in her fifth Olympics Jacobellis is the oldest Olympic snowboarding medalist in history. Following Jacobellis, Chloe Kim annihilated the competition to win gold in the women’s halfpipe snowboarding event. After nailing a frontside 1080 tailgrab, a cab 900, a switch backside 540 and a cab 1080, Kim became the first back-to-back gold champion in women’s Olympic halfpipe.
- Nathan Chen also swept the field in the men’s singles figure skating event. Chen, who has only lost two competitions in the last four years, won his first Olympic gold medal after a spectacular 218.63-point free skate to the sound of an Elton John medley. Chen successfully completed 5 quad jumps, bringing his total number of points for the event up to 332.60. Our latest gold comes in the Olympic debut of Mixed Team Aerials in Freestyle Skiing (Ashley Caldwell, Chris Lillis, and Justin Schoenefeld).
- You can’t talk about the Winter Olympics without mentioning the absolute legend of men’s snowboarding halfpipe, Shaun White, though we will now have to get used to it. After qualifying to make the team in the last qualifying event of the year, White announced that the Beijing 2022 Olympics would be his last games and last competition. At 35 years old and going into his fifth games, White has dominated the sport with 3 Olympic gold medals and 15 Winter X Games gold.
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