the-olympics Page 5 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
It's hard to even care about the MLB lockout
It feels strange to say this, but it’s hard to get too into baseball’s labor negotiations right now, to try to read the tea leaves of a 15-minute meeting on Thursday, who might be willing to budge on which issues, any of it....
Mikaela Shiffrin’s response to failure is more important than failing
When I’m left sifting through the rubble, struggling to find any remnant of hope in the disaster that has befallen me, I try to remember advice my father never stops giving me: “You can’t control the things that happen to you, but you can control how you react to them.”...
No Miracle on Ice, at least not for USA
So, about those Miracle on Ice comparisons for the United States men’s hockey team in Beijing…...
Funny how the little white girl who skates got treated differently than the fast Black girl who sprints
Unsurprisingly, Emmanuel Acho doesn’t have anything to say. ...
Kamila Valieva’s saga sets a dangerous precedent for skaters
It wouldn’t be a proper Winter Olympics without a figure skating melodrama. It’s earned a reputation as the Olympics’ closest equivalent to soap opera. In 2002, a judge cheating scandal led to a reform of the entire scoring system. Tonya Harding’s sabotage of Nancy Kerrigan before the ‘92 Olympics a...
This was not Miracle on Ice
Fact, an American team primarily made up of NCAA players took down a veteran Canadian team 4-2 in the preliminary round of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing late Friday night. ...
Longtime Team USA snowboard coach under investigation for alleged sexual misconduct
You can add “Sexual misconduct allegations against a U.S. coach” to the list of off-the-slopes issues overshadowing the on-snow and -ice accomplishments at the Winter Olympics. In a series of Instagram posts Friday, former U.S. snowboard cross athlete Callan Chythlook-Sifsof alleged current U.S. sno...
Lindsey Jacobellis and Nick Baumgartner’s gold is more than Super
Lindsey Jacobellis’ gold medal, 16 years after she stumbled to silver in Turin, and after three other Olympic disappointments, was a good enough story on its own, but now it’s even better....
No NHL stars, but plenty of drama for Team USA men's hockey
It’s obvious that the inclusion of the NHL at the 2022 Winter Olympics would’ve given a facelift to the United States men’s hockey roster competing in Beijing. Leaving Auston Matthews, Connor Hellebuyck and plenty of others at home takes away some of the best in the world. The Americans are far from...
Shaun White is gonna leave us alone now, right?
I know Shaun White never had a chance with me, even if he wasn’t an obnoxious, harassing tool. 20 years ago, snowboarding was forced into the Olympics so Americans could win an event for once. They mostly did, White did most of that, and he’s been bothering us ever since....
In a surprise to no one, Russian Olympic team in another doping scandal
Only seven years after a comprehensive Russian state-sponsored doping program was discovered, and two years after Russia was consequently sanctioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, the Russian Olympic Committee’s 15-year-old star skater Kamila Valieva has tested positive for a banned substance, pos...
Mikaela Shiffrin doesn’t have to look too far for a tale of redemption
When Mikaela Shiffrin skied out of her second event at the Winter Olympics on Tuesday night, it was shocking. She’s been the face of U.S. Olympic coverage, including my coverage, and not only did she fail to medal in her first two races, she failed to even finish a run. ...
If Lillard and McCollum didn’t work, then why was it so much fun?
I just saw CJ McCollum in Chicago like a week ago. He seemed fine — he had 29 on 13-of-23 from the floor and played well — but the team wasn’t itself anymore. It was a Sunday morning, and I was in bed when my girlfriend asked, “Hey Portland’s playing today. Want to go?”...
NBC gets the story it wants
The mystery of why NBC ponies up most countries’ defense budgets for the right to broadcast the Olympics still evades me. I know what the answers are. The ratings are worth it, which means the ad rates make it worthwhile, and that those who tune in aren’t really interested in the results of various ...
Nathan Chen deserves every second of the Olympic spotlight he’s about to get
The Winter Olympics are always sports’ most unique event. For the most part, it’s a collection of niche sports getting international attention all at once. Exceptions have existed with men’s ice hockey, with five straight Olympiads allowing the NHL’s stars to participate for their countries, last ta...
Don’t look at us, China, you asked for this
Hosting an Olympics of any kind is like when it’s your turn to host a house party after you turn 30. Yes, we all like social gatherings and it’s fun seeing everyone, but I have to spend money to feed people who dirty shit up, judge my house, complain about the free food, and then leave a mess for me...
Little trouble in big China
The Olympics are underway, and China is showing the world that all that talk about totalitarianism and suppression of freedom is… uh… well, let’s check in with Sjoerd den Daas, the East Asia correspondent for the Dutch news network NOS....
International athletes to watch at this year’s Winter Games
Finding noteworthy athletes from the rest of the world might still be easier than cherry picking from the America tree, but it’s harder to decide which multi-medalist athlete or teenage phenom to leave off the list. I tried to get a nice mix of both, but there are quite a few times when I simply had...
These skiers, snowboarders, curlers, and skaters will have you chanting ‘U-S-A!’
Yes! The Winter Olympics are here, and I’m not going to be sitting at a copy desk in a Colorado ski town awaiting results from halfway around the world this time. I don’t know what to be happier about: My work inbox being free of Olympic coverage plans, or my knowledge of skiers, snowboarders, cross...
So what is the Olympic spirit, anyway?
We’ve all known that these upcoming Olympic games were a bad idea, and that’s putting it insultingly lightly. When they were first announced, even if you could get past the tiny little morsel of the egregious human rights abuses of the Chinese government (and you shouldn’t), there’s the whole thing ...