Category Archives: Olympics

China has reported a jump in Covid cases among athletes and team officials at the Beijing Winter Olympics.

The number of daily Covid infections rose to 19 on Friday from two a day earlier, and Games organisers said more cases could be expected in the coming days.

Thirty-six Games-related personnel, including the athletes and officials, have been found to be infected, 29 when they arrived at the airport in Beijing and seven already in the closed loop bubble that separates event personnel from the public, the organising committee said in a statement on Saturday.

We are now just going through the peak period of people arriving in China and therefore we expect to see the highest numbers at this stage, the Games medical chief, Brian McCloskey, told a news conference.

Organisers are confident in their Covid-19 prevention system and infections are unlikely to leak out to the public, he said.

Cases among athletes and team officials exceeded those for other stakeholders, including media, sponsors and staff, for the first time since China started releasing daily numbers of Olympics-related coronavirus cases on 23 January, according to a Reuters tally of previous statements.

Its annoying that every morning you need to get up a little earlier specially to get a PCR test. I think that in a few days, it will be like brushing your teeth, the Russian ice hockey player Anton Slepyshev told the RIA news agency.

Everyone is concerned that the test result will suddenly turn out to be positive, but the reality is such that we are living with Covid. We accept all the risks and fears.

The Games are to run from Friday to 20 February, its bubble sealed off from the rest of China, where the governments zero-tolerance Covid-19 policy has all but shut the countrys border to international arrivals.

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Beijing Winter Olympics reports jump in daily Covid cases - The Guardian

(Jae C. Hong | AP) Olympic workers in hazmat suits work at a credential validation desk at the Beijing Capital International Airport ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, Monday, Jan. 24, 2022.

| Jan. 29, 2022, 1:13 p.m.

The group pushing for another Winter Games in Utah wont get a chance to see first-hand how an Olympics is run during a pandemic after all.

The International Olympic Committee told The Salt Lake Tribune in an email Friday that it has canceled its Observer Program for the 2022 Games, to allow the teams on the ground in Beijing to focus on delivering the Games in the context of the current global pandemic.

An unexpectedly high number of COVID-19 cases has been linked to flights into Beijing. As of Wednesday morning, 50 people within the Olympic bubble had tested positive for the virus since it opened to foreigners Jan. 4, according to Olympic organizers. Another 79 tested positive at the airport during that period, including on Monday the first athlete or team official. In the past three days, about 3% of all Olympic personnel arriving in Beijing have tested positive for COVID-19.

A plane full of Team USA athletes and coaches was expected to arrive Friday in Beijing.

The IOCs decision came within days of the departure for China of three members of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games. The committee is lobbying to host the 2030 or 2034 Winter Games and its delegates planned to participate in the Observer Program. The group included president and CEO Fraser Bullock as well as committee chair and four-time Olympic speed skater Catherine Raney-Norman and Games advisor Darren Hughes.

Of course Im disappointed, because it was the opportunity to reconnect with so many friends in the Olympic and Paralympic movements and watch athletes at their very best, said Bullock, who said he was alerted Monday of the Observer Programs cancellation. However, I totally understand the extreme caution that the Beijing Games organizers are taking and support them 100%.

Earlier this month, the United States announced a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Olympics in protest of human rights violations by China. At the time, Bullock said that decision wouldnt affect his group because its mission was educational, not political.

Our focus is behind the scenes, he said, understanding what theyre doing in terms of hosting Games, new ideas that we can bring into our Games and talking with people about our future hosting opportunity.

The Olympic Observer Program is, according to Olympics.com, one of the key components of the knowledge transfer process, providing a unique opportunity to live, learn and observe real Games operations. Participants generally include delegations from future Olympic hosts, such as L.A. 2028, as well as applicant cities. Bullock said he expected all the cities interested in hosting the 2030 Games to have representatives there. That would likely include Sapporo, Japan; Vancouver, British Columbia; the Barcelona-Pyrenees region and Ukraine.

The groups would have observed such aspects as the Opening Ceremonies, ticketing, transportation, medical facilities and media operations. In addition, the SLC-Utah group planned to meet informally with IOC officials to learn more about the selection process and ways it could improve its bid.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Salt Lake City officials celebrate after getting the news that U.S. Olympics Committee chose Salt Lake City over Denver to bid for a future Winter Olympics, possibly 2030, as they gather at City Hall on Friday, Dec. 14, 2018 to announce the decision. Raising their arms in celebration are councilman Erin Mendenhall, former Salt Lake Organizing Committee chief operating officer Fraser Bullock, Utah Sports Commission CEO Jeff Robbins, Mayor Jackie Biskupski, Gov. Gary Herbert, speed skater Catherine Raney Norman and councilman Jim Bradley, from left.

The IOC said in its email that All learnings from the Games will be incorporated into the Beijing 2022 Debrief in Milano-Cortina later this year, which will provide an opportunity for [national organizing committees] and potential future Olympic hosts to discover topics such as vision and culture; legacy and funding; operating a mountain cluster; impact and reach; and evolutions and innovations.

This is the second time in-face meetings between the SLC-UT group and IOC members have been scuttled. A November meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, was also canceled because of the coronavirus. Bullock said he expects that meeting will be rescheduled.

At that time, he said, We can learn from them everything that happened in Beijing that we should be aware of.

Bullock said he also expects to be on site in Paris to observe the 2024 Summer Games.

In addition to those who tested positive, people who were within two rows of an infected person on an airplane bound for Beijing are considered close contact and may also be required to quarantine. That could have been an issue for the SLC-Utah delegates. They hoped to return to Salt Lake City by Feb. 8, in time to participate in 20th anniversary celebrations of the 2002 Olympics.

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Utah officials want to bring the Olympics back to Salt Lake City but they won't get to make their case in person in Beijing - Salt Lake Tribune

On a warm morning in early August, Heather MacLean laced up her sneakers and did what she usually does: She went for a run. Her time at the Tokyo Olympics was winding down after she had fallen short of qualifying for the final of the womens 1,500 meters, and as she began to jog, she found herself coping with that hard reality all the way down to her toes.

My legs had never felt heavier in my life, she said.

For many athletes, competing at the Olympics is the stuff of dreams, the product of years of painstaking work. But there is not much of a road map for what comes next, in the days and weeks following the Games. MacLean had heard others describe a sort of post-Olympics crash.

But I dont think there was any way for me to prepare for actually experiencing it, she said in an interview this week.

On Saturday, MacLean will compete in the Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games, the prestigious indoor meet staged annually at The Armory in Washington Heights. The field for the womens mile also features Elle Purrier St. Pierre, who set a national record for the event in 2020, and Athing Mu, the reigning Olympic champion in the 800 meters.

It will be MacLeans first track meet since the Olympics. Mark Coogan, MacLeans coach with Team New Balance Boston, had advised her to be methodical with her approach back to competition.

Just because I lived it a little bit myself, said Coogan, a former Olympic marathoner. I know there can be a huge letdown after the Olympics, and I think it was important just to be supportive: What an incredible year. No one but us thought you were going to make the Olympic team, and now youre an Olympian. And once you recharge, well get back at it.

MacLean, 26, has had something of a meteoric rise. She did not start running until her junior year of high school in Peabody, Mass., outside of Boston. At the time, she was working at a grocery store with one of her best friends.

She was my ride to work, MacLean said. So when she joined the track team, I figured I might as well join, too, so we could car-pool to work and practice together.

MacLean quickly revealed herself to be a natural talent who embraced hard work. After breaking a host of records at Peabody Veterans Memorial High School, she battled through injuries and adversity at the University of Massachusetts to become an all-American. But it was not until she was a fifth-year senior that she considered the possibility of running professionally.

Armed with a masters degree and liberated from academic demands, she joined Team New Balance Boston and made steady progress. At the U.S. Olympic track and field trials last June, she made her first national team by placing third in the 1,500 meters behind Purrier St. Pierre and Cory McGee.

MacLean was still riding the high from that experience when, on a flight home from a pre-Olympic meet in Monaco, she watched The Weight of Gold, an HBO Sports documentary that details the mental health challenges that some Olympic athletes face: their sacrifices, the outsize expectations they internalize and the inevitable uncertainties that confront them after the Olympics: What now?

She recalled dealing with immense pressure even before she arrived in Tokyo.

I was trying to hold onto my routine for dear life, she said, because Im obviously incredibly excited and so thrilled with everything thats going on, and I want to talk to everybody. But at the same time, I want to protect my own energy, and I definitely let a lot of people be in my space. So that was hard to navigate.

At the Olympics, she advanced through her opening heat in 4 minutes 2.4 seconds, just off her personal best, before fading to a 12th-place finish in her semifinal.

She had been planning to compete in a few more races after returning home, she said, but felt drained. She had to remind herself that she did not have anything to prove.

I made the best decision for myself, she said.

Before she officially pulled the plug on her season, though, she made a trip out to Cape Cod to run in the Falmouth Road Race with Molly Seidel, who had won the bronze medal in the womens marathon at the Olympics, and Dana Giordano, a close friend and fellow pro runner. Seidel had entered the race for charity: She would start at the back of the field and raise $1 for each runner she passed.

Seidel had assured MacLean that she was going to jog the seven-mile course, so MacLean took the liberty of meeting up with friends the night before the race. She was not feeling particularly spry at the start line.

Im running on three hours of sleep or whatever, and then they just started sprinting, MacLean said. And Im like, Why are we going so fast? But it was so much fun.

Seidel and her crew wound up passing nearly 5,000 runners. For MacLean, Falmouth was a fitting way to close out an extraordinary year. She could not fathom boarding another airplane. She also had some nagging injuries that she needed to address.

I hadnt felt fluid in a while, she said. So I just wanted to be able to go out for a run and have my body feel good and mentally feel good, and it just took a bit of time for that to happen.

During her self-imposed hiatus, MacLean moved into a new apartment in the Boston area. She celebrated her birthday. She took long walks and listened to podcasts. She went roller skating. She joined the Peloton craze. She became a regular at The Breakfast Club, her favorite diner. (She loves breakfast.) She made coffee runs for her brother Shawn. And she was the guest of honor at Heather MacLean Day, when the mayor of Peabody presented her with a key to the city.

By early December, she was easing her way back with some slow jogs. She spent recent weeks training with her teammates at altitude in Arizona.

Shes looking really good, Coogan said.

MacLean has learned to prioritize her mental health, she said, which has only helped her as an athlete. She reads books about mindfulness. She practices yoga. She does a guided meditation before bed. She has worked to detach herself from her phone and limit her time on social media. Her friends are aware of her various routines.

I think people think Im sitting in bed with all of these crystals around me, she said. Which, OK, I do have some crystals. But its not like that!

Now, ahead of her first track meet in months, she feels like herself again, she said. She is ready to run.

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Heather MacLean is Back on Track at the Millrose Games - The New York Times

Age:30Previous Olympics:N/AEvents:Two-man, four-manInstagram

Born in Bloomington, Indiana, Jimmy Reed moved to Garmisch, Germany as a child while his father worked for the Department of Defense. During his 16 years abroad, he attended Munich International School for high school.

Reed later competed in track and field at the University of Maine alongside now-bobsled pilot Frank Del Duca; during that time, running coach David Cusano often talked about how much fun bobsled was, and implored Reed to give the sport a shot. After graduating college in 2014, Reed did exactly that. He excelled during a bobsled combine test event and joined USA Bobsled days later.

Reed was an alternate during PyeongChang 2018, but did not compete. He has excelled primarily in the four-man discipline: Reed's World Cup results include a silver at the Lake Placid 2016 event and four bronze medals, most recently at the Innsbruck 2020 stop.

He announced via social media that, after 8 years with the sport, Reed would compete professionally for the last time at the 2022 Games.

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Meet the U.S. bobsled team for the 2022 Winter Olympics - NBC Olympics

Two more Mainers are set to compete at the Winter Olympics that begin next weekend in Beijing, China.

Sophia Laukli of Yarmouth is the most recent addition to Team USA, having been nominated to the U.S. Olympic cross country ski team, while Clare Egan of Cape Elizabeth earlier qualified for her second straight Olympic appearance in the biathlon.

Im so so excited, Laukli said after her selection. Its pretty incredible to actually be named to the Olympic team and I still havent fully wrapped my mind around it.

Laukli and Egan join Portland native Emily Sweeney (luge), Bethel resident and University of Maine graduate Frankie Del Duca (bobsled)and fellow University of Maine graduate Jimmy Reed (bobsled)among the 2022 Olympians with Maine connections.

Five current or former University of Maine womens ice hockey players also are bound for Beijing, with a sixth Black Bear an alternate for her countrys Olympic team.

The 21-year-old Laukli was named to the U.S. Olympic team last Thursday, capping a rapid rise from her domination of the Maine high school Nordic skiing scene until her graduation from Yarmouth High School in 2018 she won every race she entered as a senior to her success collegiately, first at Middlebury and now at the University of Utah.

Laukli placed fifth in a 15-kilometer mass start race and was part of a silver medal-winning U.S. relay team at the Nordic Junior World Championships in Germany in March 2020. A week later she earned All-American honors by finishing second in the 5K freestyle at the NCAA Championships in Bozeman, Montana just before the rest of the meet was canceled due to the arrival of COVID-19.

The dual U.S. and Norwegian citizen her father Bjorn was an All-American cross-country skier at the University of Colorado during the early 1990s subsequently was selected for the U.S. cross country ski programs womens development team.

Laukli made her FIS World Cup debut in a 15-kilometer skiathlon in Lahti, Finland, on Jan. 23, 2021, and her best finish on that circuit came earlier this month with a fifth-place effort in a 10-kilometer mass start event at Val di Fiemme, Italy.

She also ranked 23rd in the 2021-22 FIS Tour de Ski standings and was the second-leading American on that circuit behind 2018 Olympic team sprint gold medalist and 2020-2021 FIS World Cup overall champion Jesse Diggins.

Laukli this week was selected to represent the United States at the 2022 FIS Junior and U23 World Cross Country Championships set for Feb. 22-27 in Lygna, Norway, but declined due to her Olympic opportunity.

Even just a year ago, the Olympics seemed far-fetched, so it feels pretty surreal, Laukli said. That being said, I am so excited and grateful for the opportunity. Its definitely a proud moment and Im looking forward to the whole experience and learning a lot from it, and I especially cant wait to see what the U.S. team can do this year.

Egan qualified for Beijing last season and has said that this will be her last year competing for Team USA.

The 2006 graduate of Cape Elizabeth High School is a veteran of the World Cup biathlon scene, having debuted at the sports top level in 2015.

The 34-year-old Egan has scored eight top-10 World Cup finishes during her career and enters the Beijing Games coming off her second-best career finish, a fourth-place effort in a 15-kilometer individual race on Jan. 21 at Antholz-Anterselva, Italy.

She teamed with fellow Olympians Susan Dunklee, Deedra Irwin and Joanne Reid to finish fifth in the team relay the next day and placed 22nd last Sunday in the 12.5-kilometer mass start race.

Egans best career finish in World Cup competition is third place in a mass start race at the 2019 World Cup final in Oslo, Norway.

She finished 18th overall in the 2018-19 World Cup standings and 36th in the 2020-21 season.

Egan also has competed for the United States in six World Championships as well as the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Egan was elected in 2018 as chair of the International Biathlon Union Athletes Committee, a term that ends this year.

The Winter Olympics are set to run Feb 4-20.

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2 more Mainers are going to the 2022 Winter Olympics - Bangor Daily News

Not only is it the first time a Summer and Winter Olympics have been within six months of each other.But this is the first time ever that the Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl, live from Los Angeles and featuring a California team, will take place at the same time.There's a lot to celebrate. Like many Olympics before, there is controversy surrounding the host country.China has a long history of human rights violations.The Games shine a light on these issues and it's an important conversation that shouldn't be dismissed, but the Olympics should also not be dismissed.The thrill of these games has a way of bringing everyone together and bridging so many divides.In a time when we are so divided, and with so much we don't agree on, we can agree on good sportsmanship, the power of grace in the face of agony, that hard work pays off and what it means to achieve your dreams and that is something that brings us together. The Olympics is about heart, determination and hard work, and that's what we're supporting with our coverage of the Winter Games.In honor of our athletes, we're producing our Olympic Zone coverage live from Palisades in Tahoe, home of the 1960 Olympics. Every day that our inspiring local athletes step up to the global Olympics stage in Beijing we're celebrating them from our Olympic stage in Palisades Tahoe.Ariel Roblin is the president and general manager of KCRA 3 and My58. See more of her editorials here.

Not only is it the first time a Summer and Winter Olympics have been within six months of each other.

But this is the first time ever that the Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl, live from Los Angeles and featuring a California team, will take place at the same time.

There's a lot to celebrate.

Like many Olympics before, there is controversy surrounding the host country.

China has a long history of human rights violations.

The Games shine a light on these issues and it's an important conversation that shouldn't be dismissed, but the Olympics should also not be dismissed.

The thrill of these games has a way of bringing everyone together and bridging so many divides.

In a time when we are so divided, and with so much we don't agree on, we can agree on good sportsmanship, the power of grace in the face of agony, that hard work pays off and what it means to achieve your dreams and that is something that brings us together.

The Olympics is about heart, determination and hard work, and that's what we're supporting with our coverage of the Winter Games.

In honor of our athletes, we're producing our Olympic Zone coverage live from Palisades in Tahoe, home of the 1960 Olympics. Every day that our inspiring local athletes step up to the global Olympics stage in Beijing we're celebrating them from our Olympic stage in Palisades Tahoe.

Ariel Roblin is the president and general manager of KCRA 3 and My58. See more of her editorials here.

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Ariel Roblin: The Olympics is about heart, determination and hard work - KCRA Sacramento

One was decided by a newspaper poll, one by a public vote and some others through a contest. The most recent was chosen from thousands of global entries of illustrations by children. Over the years, the mascots for the Winter Olympics have been abstract forms, animals and humans.

And they have remained in the public memory.

Bing Dwen Dwen, the cheerful panda, is the official mascot for the 2022 Beijing Olympics, but there were plenty before. Shuss, a man on skis in abstract form, was the first official mascot for a Winter Olympics. He was the mascot for the 1968 Grenoble Games, made in the colors of France: blue, red and white.

Norwegian children Haakon and Kristin, dressed in Viking outfits, were the first mascots in human form. The 1994 Lillehammer mascots are said to have been inspired by historical figures Hkon IV Hkonson, the 13th century king of Norway, and his aunt Princess Kristin.

Schneemandl is said to have been a commercial success and inspired versions of living mascots. Austrian for Snowman, Schneemandl was the mascot for the 1976 Innsbruck Games.

A wolf isnt an expected character for a mascot but the 1984 Sarajevo Games transformed an animal known to be feared into a friendly image. In Yugoslavian fables, the wolf symbolizes winter. Vuko the wolf was chosen through a contest with hundreds of participants.

Neve and Gliz were the mascots for the 2006 Turin Olympics. Neve is a snowball and Gliz an ice cube.

In Beijing, Bing Dwen Dwen is everywhere on buses, at street corners and hanging from the rafters at some official Olympic venues. He is the face that those in a strict Olympic bubble at the Beijing Games will take back with them.

Check out the Winter Olympics mascots over the years here:

Beijing 2022

via Associated Press

Inflated Beijing Games mascot, Bing Dwen Dwen, tries to squeeze through the door to enter the main media center at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Pyeongchang 2018

via Associated Press

Workers browse their phones next to the mascots for the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games near the South Korean booth during the World Winter Sports Expo in Beijing, Sept. 7, 2017.

Sochi 2014

via Associated Press

Robotic mascots perform during the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, Feb. 7, 2014.

Vancouver 2010

via Associated Press

The mascots for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, from left, Miga, Quatchi and Sumi pose for photographers following their debut to students in Surrey, British Columbia.

Turin 2006

via Associated Press

Children attending the short track skating races in the Palavela Arena cheer with Torino Olympic mascots Neve, left and Gliz at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.

Salt Lake City 2002

via Associated Press

Supporters of the Austrian ski team make music with Powder, one of the Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games mascots, in Snowbasin, Utah on Feb. 11, 2002.

Nagano 1998

via Associated Press

Snowlets, the Olympic mascots, walk around the stadium prior to the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics at Minami Nagano Sports Park in Nagano, Japan on Feb. 7, 1998.

Lillehammer 1994

via Associated Press

The wooden mascots of the Winter Olympics watch over one of the main shopping streets on Feb. 8, 1994, in Lillehammer, Norway.

Calgary 1988

via Associated Press

Allison McAbe is framed by all kinds of souvenirs in a Calgary, Alberta, shop on Feb. 7, 1988.

Sarajevo 1984

via Associated Press

Amela Dizdar, 3, poses with a replica of the Winter Olympics mascot named Vucko in Sarajevo in 1984. The mascot was the creation of Joze Trobec, an academic painter from Kranj in Slovenia.

Innsbruck 1976

via Associated Press

Snowmen, mascots of the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck.

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Winter Olympics Mascots Through The Years - HuffPost

Hilary Knight wrote a book when she was in elementary school, and more than just the words, she also provided the illustrations. It was about a little girl with a special secret and a dream of making it to the top of her sport, and the title was written in pencil crayon: The Magical Hockey Stick.

Knight was a little girl obsessed with hockey but from a family better versed in skiing. She started in a bicycle helmet and ski gloves. As she got faster and stronger, she would keep her hair cut short, hoping to blend in on the ice, reducing the bullying from parents and boys jealous she had taken their spot.

As the book title suggests, the little girl had help on her journey. She made it to the big game in the end, thanks in part to her magic hockey stick. (Knights mother, Cynthia, pulled the book out of storage to show a local television crew a few years ago: A 5-1 final score was prominent on the cover.)

I think my pictures, although theyre not great, Hilary Knight said with a laugh, were probably better than the words.

She has spent the intervening decades backing those words up with action on the world stage, emerging as a driving force for her sport both on and off the ice. She is about to make her fourth appearance at an Olympic Games, where the United States will attempt to defend the gold medal it won four years ago.

When she returns to the U.S., Knight will work as an NHL analyst for ESPN, keeping her on a path that colleagues and former rivals believe will help the 32-year-old drive the very future of womens hockey.

Honestly? I think Hilary could do whatever she wants, said Canadian Olympic hero Jayna Hefford.

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Hilary Knight's story, at the Olympics and beyond, has a lot left to be written - The Athletic

At age 21, Red Gerard is one of the world's few people who have prepared to defend an Olympic gold medal. But if you think he's feeling the pressure, think again.

The Ohio native is set to compete in men's snowboarding slopestyle in the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, which begin next week. No matter what happens, he already made history four years ago: In 2018, Gerard became the youngest male U.S. Olympian to win gold in 90 years, when he took the top spot in men's snowboarding slopestyle at the Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.

But even though Gerard tells CNBC Make It that he's focused on his goal of winning a second consecutive gold medal, he says he'll be the first to cheer on his rivals as they vie to beat him. There's extra satisfaction to winning, he says, when your competitors also put up high scores.

Seeing his rivals succeed "is just going to motivate me to land my run better," Gerard says. "It's going to feel a lot better to win when you look at the results, and from fifth place up, everyone landed a run that was dang good and amazing."

Gerard, an avid sports fan, says he sees a level of camaraderie in snowboarding that isn't always present in other sports. He cheers on his friends because "at the end of the day, it's down to me" to perform and score well.

"Almost everyone that I'm competing against, I consider those guys my closest friends," Gerard says. "Especially the ones on the U.S. team and the ones on the Canadian team. Those guys, I'm pretty darn close with."

And, he says, they cheer him on too. "When we're at the top [of the slope] we're always rooting for each other," he says. "I want my competitor to land a run, and I want it to be really good. I just want mine to do better."

On Saturday, Jan. 22, Gerard placed fourth in slopestyle at X-Games Aspen 2022, where he faced off against reigning world champion and Olympic favorite Marcus Kleveland, among other rivals. Both snowboarders are slated to compete in the Olympics slopestyle qualifiers on Saturday, Feb. 5 at 11:30 p.m. EST.

The event's final will take place on Sunday, Feb. 6 at 11:00 p.m. EST.

Disclosure: CNBC Make It parent company NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics is the U.S. broadcast rights holder to all Summer and Winter Games through 2032.

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Why Olympic gold medalist Red Gerard always cheers for his opponents: Their success 'is just going to motivate me' - CNBC

The NHL is not sending players to the Beijing Olympics over concerns that the pandemic will disrupt the leagues ability to complete a full season.

Two people with direct knowledge of discussions told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the league informed the NHL Players Association it was exercising its right to withdraw from the Beijing Games because there was a material disruption to the season.

The people spoke to The AP on condition of anonymity because an announcement had yet to be made. An announcement was expected Wednesday.

The decision is an abrupt turnaround from September, when the NHL, union, International Olympic Committee and International Ice Hockey Federation struck a deal to put the best players in the world back on sports biggest stage after they skipped the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. The fast-spreading omicron coronavirus variant forced the scrapping of those plans.

A week ago, the NHL attempted to halt the spread of the omicron variant by reintroducing more restrictive COVID-19 protocols, which included daily testing and limiting player gatherings, especially on the road.

Then a sudden rash of postponements brought the total to 50 this season, a daunting number to reschedule and complete an 82-game season while taking an Olympic break for more than two weeks in February. The NHLs bottom line is at stake, with the league and players drawing no direct money from competing at the Winter Games.

The decision comes long before the league faced a Jan. 10 deadline to pull out without financial penalty. As a result, the mens Olympic hockey tournament will go on without NHL players for the second consecutive time.

Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, the likely U.S. Olympic starter, expressed displeasure Tuesday with the decision not to go and called the rash of postponements overkill.

Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby already was bracing for the possibility of the NHL not participating and, at the age of 34, ending what could be his final chance to represent Canada at the Olympics one more time.

These are opportunities and experiences of a lifetime that you dont get very many of as an athlete, and you might only get one, said Crosby, who won Olympic gold with Canada in 2010 and 2014. It just might happen to fall in your window and if it doesnt happen to work out, its unfortunate.

While the NHL and NHLPA agreed on Olympic participation last year as part of a collective bargaining agreement extension, the deal to go to Beijing was contingent on pandemic conditions not worsening.

Unless the Beijing Games are postponed a year like Tokyos, a generation of stars including American Auston Matthews, Canadians Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon, German Leon Draisaitl and Swede Victor Hedman will need to wait until 2026 to play in the Olympic mens hockey tournament for the first time.

Its a thing youve been looking forward to for a very long time, Hedman said. For us to not be able to go, its going to hurt for a while.

The NHL was full go on the Olympics until the delta and omicron coronavirus variants began spreading around North America earlier this month. Before Calgarys outbreak in the first half of December, only five games needed to be rescheduled and one was already made up.

The NHL did not participate in the Olympics until 1998, which started a string of five in a row through Sochi in 2014. The season was not stopped in 2018, leaving mostly professionals playing in Europe and some college players to make up the national rosters in South Korea, where the IOC was reluctant to pay for insurance and expenses.

Russia, which won gold at the Pyeongchang Games, immediately becomes the favorite without NHL players leading the Americans thanks to an influx of homegrown talent playing in the Kontintental Hockey League.

Several NHL players already had expressed hesitations about participating, including Vegas goalie Robin Lehner, who pulled his name out of consideration to represent Sweden. Lehner cited mental health reasons in noting the potentially lengthy quarantines for athletes who test positive during the competition.

Im very disappointed and it was a tough decision for me as its a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Reality is that what have been said about how its going to be is not ideal for my mental health, Lehner wrote in a text.

McDavid referred to the potential five-week quarantine requirement as unsettling.

Im still a guy thats wanting to go play in the Olympics, McDavid said. But we also want to make sure its safe for everybody. For all the athletes, not just for hockey players.

Pittsburghs Mike Sullivan will be missing his first opportunity to serve as coach of the U.S. national team. He had been holding out hope for NHL participation earlier Tuesday.

Were all human beings right. Emotions are a part of it. My hope is that we all have a chance to participate, said Sullivan, who served as an assistant coach on Peter Laviolettes staff at the 2006 Olympics. Its an unbelievable honor to represent your nation in the Olympics, its the honor of a lifetime quite honestly. And so I know I dont feel differently than a lot of people that pull their nations sweaters over their heads.

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AP Sports Writer Will Graves contributed to this report.

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More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/olympic-games and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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AP sources: NHL to withdraw from Olympics after COVID ...