Daily Archives: March 8, 2022

What Is Bigorexia? – The New York Times

Posted: March 8, 2022 at 10:33 pm

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Like many high school athletes, Bobby, 16, a junior from Long Island, has spent years whipping his body into shape through protein diets and workouts.

Between rounds of Fortnite and homework, Bobby goes online to study bodybuilders like Greg Doucette, a 46-year-old fitness personality who has more than 1.3 million YouTube subscribers. Bobby also hits his local gym as frequently as six days a week.

Those guys made me realize I wanted to get bodies like them and post stuff like them, said Bobby, who has fluffy curls of dark hair and the compact frame of a gymnast. (The New York Times is not publishing the surnames of minors or the names of their parents in this article to protect their privacy.)

He makes sure to hit the fridge, too, grazing on protein-packed Kodiak Cakes and muscle-mass-building Oreo shakes. He consumes so much protein that classmates sometimes gawk at him for eating upward of eight chicken-and-rice meals at school.

But Bobby isnt getting buff so he can stand out during varsity tryouts. His goal is to compete in a different arena: TikTok.

Bobby now posts his own workout TikToks. Shot on his iPhone 11, usually at the gym or in his familys living room, the videos are devoted to topics like how to get a gorilla chest, Popeye forearms or Lil Uzis abs.

Bobby said that he has occasionally fallen behind on his schoolwork because he dedicates so much time to weight lifting and prepping high-protein meals.

When Bobby first started posting his videos, our family did not even know what he was doing for months, as he was extremely independent and did stuff on his own, said his father, 49, who is a correctional officer at Rikers Island. He doesnt really talk much about what goes into his videos, but I know he takes his time with them to make sure theyre perfect.

Bobbys father can, in some ways, relate. When I was younger, I remember seeing the mens fashion magazines and seeing the jacked, buff guys on there and wanted to look like them, he said. It took me a while to realize that those mens bodies were most likely unattainable.

But unlike his fathers experience, as Bobbys body mass grows, so does his online audience. Young guys see me as their idol, said Bobby, who has more than 400,000 followers on TikTok. They want to be just like me, someone who gained muscle as a teenager.

Among his disciples is Tanner, 16, a high schooler from Arkansas, who reached out to Bobby on Instagram. Thank you for inspiring me, Tanner wrote.

For many boys and young men, muscle worship has become practically a digital rite of passage in todays beefcake-saturated culture. Examples are everywhere the hypermasculine video games they play, the mesomorphic superheroes in the movies they watch. The top grossing films of last year were ruled by C.G.I.-enhanced masculine clichs: Spider-Man, Shang Chi, Venom and the entire Marvel universe.

Many doctors and researchers say that the relentless online adulation of muscular male bodies can have a toxic effect on the self-esteem of young men, with the never-ending scroll of six packs and boy-band faces making them feel inadequate and anxious.

And while there has been increased public awareness about how social media can be harmful to teenagers spurred in part by the leak of internal research from Facebook showing that the company hid the negative effects of Instagram much of that focus has been on girls.

Recent reports, however, have found that those same online pressures can also cause teenage boys to feel bad about their bodies.

Girls discuss those pressures more, but its completely the same for boys, said Elliot, 17, a mop-haired high school student from Colorado, who began posting workout videos on TikTok two years ago, often with the hashtag #teenbodybuilding. I feel like Im trying to be some character just to get more views, rather than the person I want to be.

A 2019 survey published in the Californian Journal of Health Promotion examined body image in boys. Almost a third of the 149 boys surveyed, aged 11 to 18, were dissatisfied with their body shapes. Athletes were more likely to be dissatisfied than non-athletes and most wanted to increase muscle, especially in the chest, arms and abs.

The quest for perfect pecs is so strong that psychiatrists now sometimes refer to it as bigorexia, a form of muscle dysmorphia exhibited mostly by men and characterized by excessive weight lifting, a preoccupation with not feeling muscular enough and a strict adherence to eating foods that lower weight and build muscle. The condition can also lead young men to become obsessed with their appearance, checking themselves in the mirror either constantly or not at all.

Bryan Phlamm, 18, a college freshman in Illinois, often posts shirtless videos of himself in the locker room of Charter Fitness, flexing his chiseled hamstrings and pectoral muscles. But once his camera is off, he throws on a hooded sweatshirt to disguise his body while he works out on the gym floor.

I try not to look at myself, he said. I just get discouraged, especially when you look at social media and see these guys who utilize camera angles and lighting to make themselves appear as if theyre three times the size they actually are.

Most studies on the topic of body satisfaction and social media are conducted with a female population in mind, which, of course, is quite understandable, said Thomas Gltzow, a public health researcher at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. Almost none of what is out there focuses on men.

In 2020, Mr. Gltzow and his co-authors published a study that analyzed 1,000 Instagram posts that depicted male bodies. Idealized images of highly muscular, lean men, the report found, received more likes and shares than content showing men who are less muscular or have more body fat.

A scroll through the most popular TikTok or YouTube accounts today reveals a landscape dominated by musclemen. Social media stars like the bros from Dude Perfect, the bodybuilder and comedian known as The Black Trunks, and the bad-boy creator Jake Paul all have bulging biceps and rock-hard abs. TikTok hype houses are populated by heartthrobs like Noah Beck, Chase Hudson and Bryce Hall, who strut around shirtless.

Even many gamers, once dismissed as geeks, are sizing up. PewDiePie ignited a Reddit frenzy when he showed off his newly ripped physique during the pandemic. His 20-minute workout diary has been viewed more than 10 million times on YouTube.

Some Hollywood hunks have started reassessment, though. Last month, Channing Tatum pushed back against a shirtless image of himself from Magic Mike XXL that was flashed in front of the audience of Kelly Clarksons daytime talk show.

Its hard to look like that. Even if you do work out, to be that kind of in shape is not natural, Mr. Tatum said. Thats not even healthy. You have to starve yourself. I dont think when youre that lean, its actually healthy.

Even if there is a long history of celebrating muscled physiques, no form of media has disrupted how young men view their bodies quite like the insatiable voyeurism and staged exhibitionism that fuels platforms like TikTok and Instagram.

Social media is really where young men experience evaluations of their appearance from others, said Veya Seekis, a lecturer at the School of Applied Psychology at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia. The more men view their bodies as objects for public display, the more they fear being negatively evaluated, which so often triggers compulsive exercising and other healthy behaviors that can end up having an impact on their well-being.

For three years, Dr. Seekis has been collecting data on the social-media habits of 303 undergraduate men and 198 high school boys in Australia. She has found, in part, that exposure to images of archetypal masculine physiques was linked to low body esteem in young men and an increased desire to become more muscular.

Its a fitness feedback loop that has ensnared Johnny Edwin, 22, a linebacker-size scaffolder from British Columbia, Canada. He said that when he was in high school, he would spend hours glued to YouTube channels like that of Chris Jones, a self-described exercise guru known as Beastmode Jones.

Social media, and the pressure to live up to those guys and have that manly-looking physique, has completely taken over my life, said Mr. Edwin, who still watches weight lifting videos on YouTube.

Three years ago, Mr. Edwin started uploading his own gym-training content on TikTok under the user name Big Boy Yonny, where he has more than 12,000 followers. Even though people are saying I look good or whatever, I know Ill never have a perfect body, he said. If I gain any weight now, Im not going to look as good, which means Ill lose followers.

Pressure for a better body can start as early as elementary school.

Rudy, 17, a senior at a Los Angeles high school, said boys as young as 10 have hit him up on Instagram and YouTube seeking advice on what to eat and how to achieve a Dorito physique, the broad-shouldered triangular shape desired by many fitness influencers.

I just tell them, Have your parents buy you chicken breast or lean meat with white rice and vegetables, Rudy said.

The schoolboy body talk can be startling. Two parents from Burlington, Vt., gave their 13-year-old son permission to use social media for the first time last summer. It opened up this whole new world to him of Instagrammers and YouTubers in muscle shirts, the boys mother said.

Over the next several months, their son became fixated on his lack of muscle definition and complained he felt weak and not the right size. When you have 10 to 20 boys, all in eighth grade, referring back to that content content that has become their goal of what a man is and what they want to look like thats a powerful stew, the mother said.

The boys father said that his son doesnt even have a mans body yet because he hasnt gone through puberty, but he already has this incredibly high standard of what he should look like.

Dr. Jason Nagata, a pediatrician who specializes in adolescent medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, believes that the pandemic may have exacerbated some of these unhealthy behaviors.

The pandemic created a perfect storm for eating disorders with the combination of social isolation, disruption of normal routines and sports seasons, and constantly being in front of cameras through social media or videoconferencing, Dr. Nagata said. A lot of boys had their schedules and regular sports activities interrupted during the pandemic, which caused them to become anxious about either losing or gaining weight.

Dr. Nagata has met with teenage boys who have fainted at the gym sometimes suffering headaches, temporary blackouts and confusion because they overexerted themselves lifting weights and had low energy because of a compulsion to count calories (a condition known as orthorexia).

A study published last year in The Journal of Adolescent Health looked at eating disorders among men throughout young adulthood. By age 16 to 25, one-quarter of the 4,489 male participants told researchers they were worried about not having enough muscles. Eleven percent reported using muscle-building products such as creatine or anabolic steroids.

The consumption of over-the-counter supplements has become so pervasive that dry scooping protein powder consuming it without mixing it in water became a popular TikTok challenge last year. The stunt was dangerous enough to cause health experts to issue a warning that it could lead to wheezing and breathing troubles. Over-consuming powdered protein can also cause problems with metabolism and gut comfort, according to a Finnish meta-analysis.

The line between getting fit and fanatical is not always clear. We know there is a ton of pressure on guys, but disordered behaviors that fall specifically on the more muscular end of the spectrum tend to get a pass publicly, since goal-oriented habits around the gym are socially accepted, glamorized even, said Stuart B. Murray, who directs the eating disorders program at the University of Southern California.

Bigorexia can lead to interpersonal problems too. Many young men who overexercise and follow rigid diets often skip meals with family and friends, and complain of feeling isolated and socially anxious.

Ive completely lost my social skills, said Mr. Edwin, the Canadian TikToker. He frequently misses birthday parties and avoids socializing with friends because he fears the next days workout and how that could affect my muscle growth, he said, adding, there are so many memories that Ive missed because Ive been at the gym. I basically dont leave my house besides for groceries, work and the gym.

Mr. Edwin said that he ignores texts and calls from everybody and rarely finds the time to see his family, who lives 15 minutes away by car.

If there was no social media or internet, I probably wouldnt even care about my physique, to be honest, he said.

Bobby, the high schooler with a big TikTok following, has also experienced the downsides of so much working out. His mood at school may depend on how good he thought he looked that morning.

After school, socializing often takes a back seat to the gym, even though he feels a certain malaise when he sees his classmates on Instagram having a social life. When he does attend a party, he sometimes spends the whole night thinking, he said, I could have been getting an arm pump right now.

At first, he thought a muscular physique might be a way to make new friends, especially among the girls at school. But most of the attention has come from other boys on TikTok looking to get buff.

Your only new friends are the weights, he says in one video.

Audio produced by Kate Winslett.

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Phygital education could prove transformative for the country – Mint

Posted: at 10:33 pm

The governments vision of a digital university to reach all students across the country, with its promise of personalized teaching at the doorstep, should be considered a landmark step in Indian education.

While serving on the Harvard Board of Overseers that launched Havardx (which offers free online courses from Harvard University) and Edx (a massive open online course provider by Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology), I was encouraged to see that the enrolment of Indian students for Edx was second only to that of US students. However, sadly only 16% of students completed these digital only courses.

There are many challenges that need to be overcome. Piramal Foundations own experience of working with about 2 million students and 700,000 educators during the pandemic has helped us see the lacunae in a digital-only approach.

Students struggle in their transition to online learning, feel demotivated in the absence of a mentor or peer group, and also struggle with tests and assignments. Teachers, on the other hand, struggle with producing online content and find it difficult to keep children engaged.

What does work is a phygital model that combines online course instruction with weekly or fortnightly in-person educational sessions. As observed, phygital education makes it easier for students to transition to learning online, stay motivated to complete their courses and also complete their tests and assignments. Phygital education also helps teachers keep students engaged, read behaviour patterns among them that may be of relevance, and tailor their delivery accordingly.

A phygital approach alone is not enough, though. We need many more components in order for it to be truly inclusive and game-changing, as it can prove to be.

Here are our key recommendations.

Employ a learning management system that is multi-lingual and accessible: Language barriers are a key challenge to online learning in our country, with such vast diversity of languages and dialects. Videos and frequently asked questions (FAQs) are primarily in English, and students struggle with access, navigation, understanding and synthesizing content. The website interface, applications, support and content for digital learning need to be made available in prominent regional languages. These need to be inclusive in other ways as well, keeping in mind the needs of people with disabilities, so that all learners embark on their learning journey with confidence.

Enable the adoption, retention and completion of courses: Students are overwhelmed with creating online accounts and filling and uploading complex documents, and all this adds to their confusion about using applications. Fixing this requires building their digital literacy through simple, concise learning modules on how to operate a device and engage with a digital platform. Providing on-call support with minimum wait time via call centres, chatbots, etc, will help them overcome teething issues.

Create engaging, immersive learning experiences: Shared teaching-learning experiences that have dipped because of the use of a virtual interface can be rebuilt by promoting a spirit of competition through periodic contests and events which rate performance and boost student motivation levels. A weekly in -person interaction between teachers and students will further enhance the experience for both.

Link peer learners to create strong learning communities: One of the big challenges in digital education is the absence of a peer network. Students cope with the difficulty of studying alone, coupled with the boredom of online education, which can lead to discontinuity and drop-outs. Creating peer learning communities and linking groups of 3-5 students who are located in the same geographical vicinity will bring back joy, while fostering healthy competition and cross-learning.

Improve the quality of instruction on digital platforms: Teachers face unique challenges with infrastructure required to teach online, an inability to adapt to the virtual-lecture mode, especially in the face of poor attendance and lack of real-time student feedback. Educators need to be supported in creating hygiene-checked content and regularly assessed to raise their competence levels. Additionally, curriculum frameworks need to be developed that encourage the creation of competency-based micro modular courses.

Phygital education has the potential to transform education in India. It is the future because it contextualizes and reimagines education. However, we need to put in place an enabling environment that makes students and teachers feel comfortable and confident navigating this space in their own language. Blended education opens up immense opportunities for capacity building among frontline workers. It holds high empowerment potential because it can enable adults, especially women, resume education. Phygital education can serve as an engine of economic growth and a transformative force that empowers every Indian.

SwatiPiramal & Aditya Nataraj are, respectively, vice-chairperson ofPiramalGroup and chief executive officer ofPiramalFoundation.

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Fighting Abortion Now Requires Fighting Increasing Hatred Of Children – The Federalist

Posted: at 10:30 pm

The impending change in the federal abortion landscape with theDobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization case promises plenty of added legislative battles over abortion, including efforts to curtail theepidemic of chemical abortion.

Exposing abortion as lethal violence towards innocent people and abolishing it as such is the fight of our lifetime, and knowing exactly who (or what) that fight is against is mission-critical.

In the nearly five decades that unrestricted abortion has been legal in the United States, pro-abortion sloganeering has explored many avenues, sheltered safely in the realm of misdirection and ambiguity.To defend abortion honestly requires a fairly stark deviation from the standard moral compassthat requires we protect the weak and helpless.Hence, vague propaganda like reproductive rights, never again, no uterus, no opinion, and my body, my choice became mainstays over the years for Womens Marchers and angsty college students alike.

Butold sloganshave been increasingly joined by a new fellow: F-ck them kids.Signs with the crass messagewere spottedat Womens Marches nationwide in 2021, and again atcampus protestsagainst Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins during a speaking tour visit to the University of San Diego in the fall.

Its easy to write these off as a few rage-filled outliers. Buta recent Pew Research studysuggests this hateful new addition to the pro-choice mantra family is grounded in a depressing reality; childless Americans flat-out do not want kids. Like, ever.

Along with the rise of the term childfree (reducing the idea of children to burdens), Pew is finding that an unprecedented number of Americans dont plan to have children for no reason other than that they dontwantthem.The study, released in November 2021, found that a whopping44 percent of childless 18- to 49-year-olds said theyre not too or not at all likely to have children.

Of the childless, more than half (56 percent)said theyjust dont want kids.Another 74 percent of those who have kids said they dont plan to have more.

Other polling hones in further on specifics, withone outlet noting,3 in 5 childless millennials say kids are too expensive and they want to focus on their career. Mic.com tookan audience pollon why young people did not want children and received answers like, The physical changes my body would go through with the pain of birth is not appealing at all to me, With the way I want to live my life,kidswould get in the way, and I dont want kids because theyre a f-ckton of work.

A desire to remain childless doesnt exactly explain the bitter vitriol that staunch F-ck them kids abortion supporters seem to harbor towards children. Perhaps Pew ought to explore that dark enigma next. Nevertheless, the pro-life movement now faces the challenge that reasons for abortion seem to have shifted towards undisguised selfishness, laziness, careerism, and contempt for children, versusthe older datathat showed women were choosing abortion for reasons of circumstance, such as finances, relationship trouble, coercion, or health concerns.

IfRoev. Wade is indeed reversed this summer, the right to regulate abortion will be returned to each individual state.Nearly half of statesare projected to ban abortion, meaning the pro-life communities in those states will be busyoffering assistance to womenwho wouldve otherwise found themselves at Planned Parenthood. Now, on top of those not insignificant duties, pro-lifers are set with the task ofde-stigmatizing children.

When attempting to appeal to a population of self-interested young adults, perhaps the most compelling approach is indeed an appeal to self. Rabid abortion supporters, anti-natalists, and other child-averse groups may have their minds most effectively changed on the issue via data that conclude a positive outcome for parents.

A lot of research on parentsis very nuanced, with many studies on parental happiness presenting more than a few flaws (most notably, an inflated definition of happiness itself as the end-all, be-all of human existence).Writing forThe Atlantic, Paul Bloom squashes this horde of deficient parental happiness studies:

theres more to life than happiness. When I say that raising my sons is the best thing Ive ever done, Im not saying that they gave me pleasure in any simple day-to-day sense, and Im not saying that they were good for my marriage. Im talking about something deeper, having to do with satisfaction, purpose, and meaning. Its not just me. When you ask people about their lifes meaning and purpose, parents say that their lives have more meaning than those of nonparents. Astudy by the social psychologist Roy Baumeister and his colleaguesfound that the more time people spent taking care of children, the more meaningful they said their life waseven though they reported that their life was no happier.

America would benefit from more babies, and rejecting the furtherance of our species harms us all.The United States has been riding a downward spiral of population since before Covid, having seenrecord-low birth rateseach of the last five consecutive years. Right now, we restbelow the replacement rate.

Happiness, selfishness, and procreative aversion aside, the most pressing issue at hand is the rate at which Americans are killing offspring as opposed to not conceiving them at all.

Working mother Brenna Lewis is a staff writer with Students for Life of America.

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North country corespondent who covered 2022 Olympics …

Posted: at 10:29 pm

Mar. 7A north country National Public Radio corespondent who covered the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing says although the athletic performances were inspiring, they were set against a backdrop of authoritarian politics and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brian P. Mann was in Beijing for last month's games. He is also a former Adirondack bureau chief for Canton-based North Country Public Radio.

He said being there in person "was definitely more complicated" than just covering two weeks of some of the best athletics in the world.

"It was an extraordinary experience to be there. It really was. I was glad to be there. It was a complicated thing. It wasn't the big party that some had hoped for," he said. "It was complicated, but it was still something where I got to have a front seat for some kind of remarkable events."

Mr. Mann described his experience as "this weird collision of history" involving the COVID-19 pandemic and "the tension around Vladimir Putin and the Chinese government that was really present there." He said the 2022 event "was not an Olympic games where you could put politics aside."

"During the opening ceremony, I was sitting in this massive national stadium in Beijing, up there on this big screen are the leader of the Chinese communist party and the leader of China, also (Russian President) Vladimir Putin, and he was there (in the stadium). Sadly, these Olympic games were ushered in against the backdrop of these two authoritarian leaders," he said. "(Putin) was really in, what we all knew ... (were) initial stages of preparing for an invasion of Ukraine. That tension was there. The Olympic officials were being asked daily about this."

Mr. Mann said the omnipresence of authoritarian leadership in some way defined the 2022 Olympics.

"Just the fact that the games were held in Beijing ... I think the evidence is clear that they (the Chinese government) have committed extreme human rights violations," he said. "There were questions of what the (International Olympic Committee) did or didn't do to question those facts."

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He pointed out a moment during an event when a Chinese official at the podium "started spouting propaganda about the Chinese human rights violations."

"This was supposed to be apolitical ... here was a Chinese official being allowed to use the podium to express the Chinese party line," he said.

Mr. Mann said a doping scandal involving a Russian athlete "swallowed a lot of my time."

Kamila Valieva, a 15-year-old Russian figure skater, tested positive for a heart medication that's banned as a performance-enhancing substance by the World Anti-Doping Agency. Despite the positive drug test which was from a December sample taken by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency but not confirmed until February she was still allowed to compete.

"It revived debate about Russia's role in international sport. It is well documented Russian teams have doped and used banned substances for years," Mr. Mann said, adding that Russian officials have "deep historic ties" to the IOC.

Many Olympic commentators and fans talked about the disparity between Miss Valieva, who is white, using a banned performance-enhancing drug and still being allowed to compete, and American runner Sha'Carri Richardson, who is Black, testing positive for marijuana and not being allowed to compete in the Tokyo Summer Olympics last year.

Russia's history of using performance-enhancing drugs led to Team Russia being banned from all 2022 competition. Russian athletes instead competed as the Russian Olympic Committee.

"It's really impossible to set aside this complicated relationship with the IOC and Russia. It was impossible to set aside the political tension that existed," Mr. Mann said. "U.S. Olympic officials have been dismayed by the position of the IOC allowing Russian athletes to compete."

"It was a test of how the Olympics can operate in this world. We've seen the IOC evolve its posture" and allowed Russians to compete, he added. "(The IOC has) since pivoted. They think Russian athletes should be blocked from all international competition."

In addition to the politics of the games, there were constant reminders of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

"We were constantly surrounded by this COVID security bubble," he said, adding that health workers in full-body hazmat suits were "just a permanent sight everywhere we went. People in full-body hazmat suits tested us, enforced the quarantine bubble around officials, around journalists."

He said the COVID health measures worked.

"They successfully really kept the pandemic outside and there were few infections detected inside the quarantine bubble," Mr. Mann said.

Despite the complicated political and social backdrop, he said his experience in Beijing "was not entirely joyless" and he "came away really inspired."

Mr. Mann, who is 56 years old, said he was "inspired by these athletes in their 30s and 40s."

He said he was impressed seeing the older athletes compete with "elements of skill that continue to improve through your 30s."

"These are also athletes who are remarkably disciplined and careful and know how to compete and win in ways that were remarkable," he said, adding that despite the "incredibly disruptive" COVID-19 pandemic, they still managed to show up and put on a world-class performance.

He said he was particularly impressed with north country luger Emily C. Sweeney, who lives and trains in the Saranac Lake-Lake Placid area.

"She had a devastating crash four years ago, really astonishingly violent crash," Mr. Mann said. "She trained and came back and kind of reinvented herself as a sledder. She had amazing support from the Adirondack community."

"The stories I came away with from Beijing were not so much about the people who medaled or won ... in watching Emily slide again this year and compete, she crashed again and she struggled. I have to tell you, again, in the context of this time we're living in when very few of us are living perfect lives, it was a moment of compromise."

"You've damaged your body on an icy sled track in front of the whole world ... it was an amazing thing to see," he added Sweeney "overcoming amazing fear."

He said he also enjoyed seeing performances from freestyle skier and snowboarder Eileen Gu, an American-born 18-year-old who competed as part of Team China. She won several medals in those events, including a gold in freestyle skiing.

"She was one of the stars of these games and truly an amazing athlete," Mr. Mann said.

He wasn't able to see Massena luger Johnny Gustafson compete in person but did see him on a screen. It was difficult to see all the events he wanted to because everything was spread out over a huge area.

"Because of the pandemic rules, it was very difficult for us to be at all the different events. They were spread out so you had to take a bullet train to get to the core city and out to the mountains where all the venues are," he said. "Whenever possible, I did watch the Adirondack and north country athletes and followed them in real interest and excitement. It is really cool to me that, it waxes and wanes a little bit, but I think it is remarkable the north country continues to have this Olympic culture. It's kind of crazy how many athletes we have."

He said another regional athlete who left an impression was Vermont cross-country skier Jessie Diggins.

"She's really been a history-making athlete for the U.S. She won gold four years ago in Pyeongchang and this year, she won bronze and silver. She was one of the people you could really see by the end of the race, especially in the 30K endurance ski race, she absolutely poured everything out. She collapsed on the snow. It took her several minutes to be able to stand on her own," Mr. Mann said. "It was one of the moments I was doing little fist pumps, I guess. It was really exciting to watch. She was honored with a medal ceremony at the closing ceremony, and it was really dramatic to see her leaping and celebrating. It was really fun to see how resilient and powerful she really is."

All of the snow at Beijing was artificial, made by snow machines similar to the kind used at local ski hills like Titus Mountain. Despite the lack of natural snow, he said this year's games were "bitter cold" and "one of the coldest Olympics we've seen in a long time. They were really facing pretty extreme conditions."

"The Chinese did an amazing job, because they had the cold weather and they made a strong infrastructure, they manufactured really quality snow" that the athletes were satisfied with, he said. Artificially created snow is "increasingly the norm for a lot of these competitions ... with climate change. These are venues that used to have reliable snow. That's something people just can't depend on anymore."

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Special Olympics Teams Up with Smartsheet for Efficient …

Posted: at 10:29 pm

The following is an excerpt published by the Harvard Business Review from the article titled The Competitive Edge in Better Collaborative Processes.

Theres more to Special Olympics International (SOI) than providing opportunities for athletes with intellectual and physical disabilities. The organization is central to its community, providing leadership training opportunities and health initiatives.

But SOI struggled to coordinate its global teams, which sometimes meant limited visibility across projects, duplicated efforts, and insights and solutions that might go unshared. The organization needed to make work more efficient at every opportunity, freeing its employees to think creatively and focus on strategic work by using transparent collaboration programs and tools to eliminate duplicative processes and efforts.

SOI implemented a CWM that offers clear collaboration across teams, eliminating silos and allowing ideas and processes to spread quickly with intuitive, real-time dashboards, rather than bottling knowledge within practices that innovate it. In one case, three dispersed teams used the CWM to share tips and solutions for a single project, saving each team more than 45 staff hours a month.

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Did the Olympics lose their escape appeal? The Statesman

Posted: at 10:29 pm

The Olympic Rings. The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics this year have been riddled with political and ecological problems in the background. VUSI VILANCULOS BY CC BY-SA 4.0

It pains me to say it, but was I the only one who didnt bother checking up on the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics this year? I dont think I was, since the ratings for this sporting event were at all-time lows. These definitely disguise the viewership garnered by social media and streaming platforms, but it paints a picture of what seemed to be a moment that came and went. Its almost sad, in a way; these recent scandals have torn apart the original purity of a sporting sensation.

I guess, perhaps, there were a few things that occurred during the month of February that may have taken people away from the slopes. Lets revisit a couple of moments.

World politics meddled with the Olympics. The Russian build-up at the Ukrainian border drastically increased in late-January heading into the Olympics, with nearly 190,000 troops along Belarus and Crimea throughout the games themselves. Chinas authoritarian policies spilled over into the games, with journalists who were covering the events being routinely subjected to Chinese authorities, even when they had been directed to film in so-called designated areas. There were also discussions about Chinas treatment of the Uyghur population in Xinjiang. President Xi Jinping addressed these allegations by having Uyghur Olympian Dinigeer Yilamujiang hold the ceremonial torch during the opening ceremony.

The Winter Olympics have been under existential threats due to climate change, with Beijing marking the first Olympics to be almost entirely dependent on artificial snow. While the process of making artificial snow can help offset the effects of a warming planet, it is an extremely resource intensive, environmentally destructive practice that brings into question not only the economics of future Winter games, but also the sustainability of the Olympics themselves.

Media coverage has also been a topic at these games ever since Simone Biles stepped down from many of her best events in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, citing mental health concerns. Many have pointed to the heavy media coverage the athletes receive leading to increased burnout and pressure to meet expectations. In these Games alone, Mikela Shiffrin and Shaun White both saw heavy media exposure after disappointing turnouts in their events. Stations lavished in their pitfalls, starting with Shiffrin hunched over crying for minutes after her fall.

Now, lets be honest; all of this has been ingrained in our consciousness long before the Games began thats why its been such an engaging story for many media outlets.

And these outlets need this kind of coverage in order to maintain their presence. People dont watch four-hour prime-time slots on NBC; they watch highlights on social media, from crashes to victories, along with the interwoven reality checks of war and famine.

It was always this way, but to me, its a radical departure from my time watching the Olympic Games.

I started being invested in 2014, when Sochi hosted the Winter Olympics. The games had a similar undertone of Russian aggression, with the upcoming annexation of Crimea. However, that didnt bother me at the time. I wasnt caught up on geopolitics, I was interested in what was on T.V.

My mom was the one to put on the Olympics, being a fan of the ice skating events. It couldve been a reminder of her times back in the Netherlands, where she would go ice skating on frozen lakes and ski in the Alps with her family. Trips like those were momentous occasions, like my experience going to Disney World every year.

You could say it was her escape from 40 hour work weeks.

Whenever any kind of controversy or scandal would come up, from Sochis lack of snow to the Russian doping scandal that led to the establishment of the Russian Olympic Committee, my mom would brush it off; Its always been this way, she would respond, not letting anything get in the way of the athleticism on display.

I quickly got into the sporting sensation, being amazed by the races on ice, the tricks skiers and snowboarders would pull off on the half-pipe and the incredible speeds Bobsledders and Lugers would go through. I would keep my mom updated on medal totals, even letting her know how the Netherlands were fairing (they won 24 medals, their highest showing at the Winter Olympics).

I look back now at those times a whopping eight years ago, with the innocence that I held, with the nature of the Games being something more aligned with the founding principles of the Olympics thousands of years ago. A standstill of the world, an escape from war and distress, to instead appreciate and nurture the human spirit in sport and culture.

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Connor Fields, Olympics BMX racer, bouncing back from …

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Connor Fields, who was involved in a frightening BMX crash at last years Summer Olympic Games in Japan, said he found out last month from doctors that his cognitive abilities are completely restored.

Fields was taken to a Tokyo hospital after he crashed July 30 and was treated for a brain hemorrhage among other major injuries.

Any sort of injury, whether its a knee, an ankle or a shoulder, thats just time and physical therapy, Fields said. Those will heal. With your head, its a totally different ballgame. And for everything that we know about the brain, we really dont know that much.

Fields, who went to Green Valley High School and UNLV, also should recover from shoulder surgery in about a month.

Then he will begin easing back onto a bike. But he isnt setting a deadline about deciding whether to return to competitive racing.

Fields, 29, won the gold medal in 2016 at Rio de Janeiro and was a strong favorite in Japan.

For the past seven months, I havent done anything that is risky because I dont want to hit my head, Fields said. Ill start riding a little bit again as well as stop living like Im made of glass.

Strong start for Cunningham

Bishop Gorman High graduate Vashti Cunningham won both her high jump events this year, including the U.S. Indoor Championships on Feb. 27 in Spokane, Washington, with a leap of 1.91 meters (just more than 6 feet 3 inches).

Her leap of 1.98 meters (6 feet 6 inches) two weeks earlier in Louisville, Kentucky, is the worlds second-highest this year.

The next major meets for Cunningham, 24, are the U.S. Outdoor Championships on June 23-26 and the World Athletics Outdoor Championships on July 15-24. Both are in Eugene, Oregon.

NEO Studios is doing a six-part documentary series on discovery+ on Cunningham and two other children of notable athletes Zaire Wade (Dwyane Wades son) and Evan Holyfield (Evander Holyfields son). Randall Cunningham, who also serves as Vashtis coach, was a star UNLV and NFL quarterback.

Randall Cunningham also coaches Jelena Rowe, who moved to Las Vegas from Chicago. Rowe, 22, is ranked second nationally in the high jump with a leap of 1.95 (nearly 6 feet 5 inches) in Louisville.

Swimming in the Springs

Nine Sandpipers of Nevada swimmers are training for a month in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to prepare for major upcoming events.

The Open Water National Championships are April 1-3 in Fort Myers, Florida, and the International Team Trials are April 26-30 in Greensboro, North Carolina. Sixteen-year-olds Katie Grimes and Bella Sims, Olympians last year, are the two locals most likely to qualify for the World Championships on June 18-July 3 in Budapest, Hungary.

Another Sandpiper, 16-year-old Abby Dunford, is preparing for the Canadian trials on April 5-10.

Sullivan delivers twice

Texas freshman Erica Sullivan, an Olympic silver medalist last year who also swam for the Sandpipers, recently won Big 12 Conference championships in the 1,650 meters (15 minutes, 58.74 seconds) and the 500 (4:39.46).

The Palo Verde High product will compete in the NCAA Championships on March 16-19 in Atlanta.

Sullivan also is preparing for the open water World Championships.

Contact reporter Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @markanderson65 on Twitter.

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Topic of dual citizenship revived at this year’s Winter Olympics – The Aggie – The Aggie

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Eileen Gu, along with other American-born athletes, represented China for the Beijing Olympics 2022

By Katherin Raygoza- sports@theaggie.org

The Winter Olympics kicked off on Feb. 4 and recently, there have been headlines regarding nationality and an athletes ability to compete for two different countries. News stories have emerged about 18-year-old Eileen Gu, who was born in the U.S. and won gold representing Chinas Olympic team. She is one of many Chinese-American Olympians straddling between two countries, and some people have questioned whether athletes are allowed to do this or why they would do this.

There are those who love her, moved by her ability to soar over treacherous slopes with ease, wrote Ashley Wong from The New York Times. Others are inspired by her efforts to navigate the uneasy political tension between two countries and cultures. Some believe she chose to represent China simply to cash in on the lucrative opportunities it has afforded her.

Gu or Gu Ailing Snow Princess, as she is known in China was born in San Francisco to a Chinese mother and an American father. She began skiing at the age of eight on weekend trips. American-born Gu has talent that allowed her to grow as a skier and was finally able to land the double cork 1620 a move in which skiers spin 4 times while rotating 20 plus feet in the air.

Chinese fans have been very supportive of Gus success and are proud to watch a Chinese win gold for their country, as opposed to her birth country which criticizes her decision.

Its very cheering. Shes of Chinese origin and has returned to China. I feel proud of her, said Jiang Yu, a Beijing resident and a Gu fan.

This is a great accomplishment for the skier, as she became the youngest freeski Olympic gold medalist in history and the first action-sport athlete to win three medals at the same Olympics. Despite her accomplishments, she is being called a traitor and ungrateful.

She has also received backlash on social media because users are arguing that she cannot be American if she competes for China. Some are saying that she must pick between identifying as American or Chinese.

Im an 18-year-old out here living my best life. Im not going to waste my time trying to placate people who are uneducated, and dont experience the gratitude and love I have on a daily basis, Gu told The Guardian.

Some dual citizens face the same challenges as Gu, and it has been seen all throughout sports, especially during the Olympics. That is why there has been a set of rules created which indicate that if a competitor who is a citizen in two or more countries, they have the freedom to represent the country they desire. They cannot represent a country if they play for a different country in other events like the Olympic Games, continental or regional games or world or regional championships. Once they compete in those games, they cannot change the country that they represent.

An athlete can be exempt from these rules under certain circumstances. For instance, if an athlete has gained a new citizenship or wishes to change their Olympic status, they can do so if three years have passed since they competed for their previous country.

There is an especially large controversy with China because they have 30 foreign-born athletes competing in the 2022 Winter Olympics. Olympians in China must follow specific rules since they do not allow dual citizenship. So the question remains whether American-born athletes are following the rules or simply have been exceptions to compete. Are they allowed to be U.S citizens while competing for Team China?

It has appeared that the Chinese Government has loosened their strict laws on nationality to attempt to win more medals. Other than Gu, about half of the Chinese Mens Hockey Team are American and all maintain their U.S citizenship.

I told China that Ill never give up my [U.S.] passport, and they said thats fine, said goalie Jeremy Smith, a Michigan native whos eligible to represent China due to a stint with Chinese club Kunlun Red Star.

Other countries have used naturalized foreign athletes for decades, but very few have laws as strict as Chinas. Regardless, China is slowly relaxing their rules, but it seems they still require a particular allegiance, such as Chinese players using Chinese names and not speaking in English during interviews.

Competing for a country that is not where the athlete was born is not a new concept. Many Olympians take pride in having a diverse background and are given an opportunity to compete for a national team that can utilize their talent. Still, it seems as though the topic will always stir headlines.

Written by: Katherin Raygoza sports@theaggie.org

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UC Davis students, professor weigh in on US’ diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics – The Aggie – The Aggie

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The 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing spark conversation about the role of politics in sports and the effectiveness of boycotts

By ALINA ISSAKHANIAN features@theaggie.org

Much conversation around the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, has been focused on the current human rights crisis in the country. Globally, governments and international entities have chosen to diplomatically boycott the games, citing harsh human rights violations committed by the Chinese government in recent years.

In March 2021, the Biden administration declared Chinas treatment of Uyghur Muslims a genocide, officially categorizing it as a crime against humanity. According to the Human Rights Report discussing the poor treatment of Uyghur Muslims, China was involved in the imprisonment, torture, enforced sterilization and persecution of Uyghurs, as well as members of other religious and ethnic groups.

The U.S., U.K., Australia and Canada have diplomatically boycotted the games in an effort to call out the human rights abuses in China. While each country has its own definition of boycotting, generally, it includes that dignitaries representing the countrys government do not attend the games while athletes still get to compete.

UC Davis professor of political science and Department of International Relations director Ethan Scheiner explained that international power dynamics play a large role in who does and does not boycott in situations like these.

The United States, in particular, is one of the few countries that has less to fear from Chinese retaliation than other countries, Scheiner said. The fact that the United States is such a big country is a big factor. Also, the United States actually has a much stronger stake in pushing for democracy and has done so for a longer period of time, whereas others have been less inclined to do so.

Many believe that the U.S. should have taken a stronger stance in opposition to Chinas human rights violations, since they are classified as crimes against humanity. Scheiner said that he does not believe that the diplomatic boycott will be very effective, and that both the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2022 Winter Olympics could have been opportunities for the U.S. to make a more impactful statement.

What China learned in 2008 when it hosted the Summer Olympics was, Hey, we can do whatever we want, and nobodys gonna make us change, Scheiner said. We saw that carryover where China became increasingly aggressive between 2008 and 2022. Nobody ever called them on it and so now the problem still exists. So in many ways, either in 2008 or in 2022, [this] was sort of a lost opportunity to send a stronger signal.

However, Scheiner explained that most likely, the U.S. did not take any other steps because of international power dynamics and economic concerns.

If China wanted to, it could lash out at the United States in various economic ways, Scheiner said. American companies and sports leagues especially the NBA are terrified of losing the Chinese market [] If China wanted to boycott the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, and not show it on television or market it at home, that would have an economic impact on the ability of people trying to hold those Olympics and athletes competing in them to make money using the Chinese market.

He also said that this is not the first time that the U.S.has boycotted an Olympics. The U.S. actually implemented a full boycott of the 1980 Moscow games, during which the U.S. did not even send athletes to compete. According to Scheiner, some believe that even a full boycott like that in 1980 is not very effective.

The main lesson that people draw about boycotts they draw from 1980, Scheiner said. [After the 1980 games], when everybody came away with oh, boycotts dont work, if you boycott all you do is hurt the athletes. And so I think the United States is always coming back to that example and saying, Okay, we shouldnt boycott because all it did was have our athletes lose their opportunity, and everybodys mad about it.

First-year psychology student Michell Bancks, a volleyball player and co-captain for Davis second club team, said that athletes often see the Olympics as a career-defining moment, and some believe that those spots should not be lost due to politics.

Many Olympic athletes can only perform at the Olympic level for a few Olympics, Bancks said. I think its rare for an athlete to attend more than three Olympic Games, and between those competitions, its even more rare for an athlete to medal more than once. There are athletes who are at their prime for this Olympics and wont be as competitive in four years, so they should be given the chance to try for a medal.

However, Scheiner pointed out that others believe that its not possible to keep politics and sports completely separated.

Its sort of like saying lets keep life out of sports, Scheiner said.

First-year American studies major Nic Sardo agreed with Bancks that the loss to the athlete is great if they do not compete, but he said that choosing to do so sends a strong statement.

An athlete can sacrifice so much and spend years training for the Olympic games so if that same athlete decides that their energy is put to better use by boycotting those games, I believe that is very brave. By boycotting or speaking out against ones own country, or against the host country, that athlete is putting a lot at risk and may have their whole life disrupted because of that one decision.

Written by: Alina Issakhanian features@theaggie.org

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Park closed since the 1996 Olympics reopens in Northwest Atlanta – WABE 90.1 FM

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A park with a view of Midtown is open to the public again after being fenced off for more than 25 years.

The grassy hill next to a reservoir and water treatment plant in Northwest Atlanta is a spot where visitors can look over streets and trees to enjoy a skyline view. But since the Atlanta Olympics its been off-limits, surrounded by a security fence.

George Koulouris with the community group Friends of Waterworks Greenspace said he found the spot when he moved to the neighborhood about 10 years ago. He and his husband wanted to get a dog, and they wanted to find a place where they could walk him. When they learned the history of the hill with the view, they started advocating to get it opened again.

We had temporary fences go up in 1996, Koulouris said. Its the most permanent temporary thing Ive ever seen in this city.

He spoke at an event Tuesday morning, when the park officially reopened. Mayor Andre Dickens said its been in the works for some time.

Its been a long time coming, Dickens said. I think it will become a destination for all of us. At some point a lot of us will be here hanging out and enjoying a picnic.

Its in a part of the city that needs parks, Elizabeth Hollister with the Upper West Side Community Improvement District said. Her group worked hard to get this one reopened for people in the area.

It was industrial for decades, and so no parks were built, she said. The three surrounding neighborhoods of Berkeley Park and Marietta Street Artery and Blandtown still do not have any City of Atlanta parks. So this two and a half acres is fulfilling an important parks deficit.

Getting to the park, which is at the corner of 17th Street and Howell Mill Road, can still be a little dicey on foot. There arent many sidewalks in the area. But that might be addressed with the citys plan to fund more transportation and sidewalk infrastructure projects with a sales tax on the ballot in Atlanta this year.

And Koulouris and his husband do now have the dog they wanted and a place to bring him; Tucker the basset hound mix was in attendance at the park opening.

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