winter Page 2 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The 10 most proficient cheaters in the history of sports
There are many forms of cheaters in sports, and often the dumbest of them get the press because they’re as close to dumb criminals as one gets — and everybody loves a dumb criminal. The 2000 Spanish Paralympic basketball team that won gold despite only two of the 12 players actually having a mental ...

Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney are really nice guys and if you don’t believe it just ask them
I have a confession, and it’s one that usually shocks the people who know me. I have only ever seen two episodes of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, and that number will never grow beyond that. If I wanted to feel like I got yelled at for half an hour, I’ll check in on my social media DMs that hav...

You won’t have 15-year old figure skaters to kick around anymore
Anyone remember the hot garbage fire that was the Olympic figure skating finals in February? For those who don’t, allow me to jog your memory — 15-year-old star Kamila Valieva, the center of a Russian Olympic Committee doping scandal, sobbing after falling twice as the pressure of the PED investigat...

Why you never dance with devils
The reckoning has finally come for the sports organizations that have played footsie with autocratic nations. And not just FIFA and the International Olympic Committee, but for the Premier League, Formula One, and any sports league that has cashed checks from questionable international sources while...

Not all Olympians are apoplectic over the Beijing Games
I tried. I tried to focus on the competitions and athletes at the Olympics instead of wallowing in the politics, conditions, and COVID of it all. No longer. I can’t take it anymore. The men’s skiing halfpipe final was more scary to watch than it was fun because gale-force winds (probably an exaggera...

Debacle on ice: Olympics women’s figure skating was the opposite of heartwarming
The scene after the end of the women’s free skate was hard to watch Thursday — tears, screaming, and heartbreak pouring from the Russian athletes expected to sweep the podium, their Olympic experience destroyed by a doping scandal involving the country’s 15-year-old star, Kamila Valieva....

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.”...

Never a silver lining in this rivalry
Talk your shit, Natalie Spooner. ...

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…...

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...

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...

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. ...

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...

The Beijing Olympics are everything you’d thought they’d be
At least we can say the Winter Olympics are practiced at holding their events in a communist dictatorship, as they’ve held two of the last three in one. We’re just about three or four days into the whole thing, and already the stories of athletes being held against their will, shitty facilities, unp...

America’s Olympic biathlon podium drought continues
The US came extremely close to a podium spot in the only Winter Olympic discipline they’ve never medaled in: The biathlon. I’m not an expert on the sport, I’m only pretending to be after watching a couple hours of competition, but when I heard the announcers say we’ve never even medaled in the biath...