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Though President George W. Bush did attend the 2008 Summer season Olympics in Beijing, the American delegation usually is headed by the vp (Joe Biden in Vancouver, Mike Pence in PyeongChang) or First Woman (Michelle Obama in London, Jill Biden in Tokyo). One notable exception was in Sochi, when President Barack Obama despatched Janet Napolitano, the previous homeland safety secretary, as head of a various group that included two brazenly homosexual athletes, a pointed White Home commentary on Russia’s human rights insurance policies.
China’s “ongoing genocide and crimes in opposition to humanity in Xinjiang and different human rights abuses” was the Biden administration’s acknowledged cause for not sending a delegation to Beijing, which was echoed by the choices of Nice Britain, Canada, and Australia to do the identical.
Whereas China’s response was that the boycott was a farce that was “doomed to fail,” the absence of the standard dignitaries within the VIP field clearly will rub a few of the gloss from the Video games for the hosts.
One distinguished determine might be current, although. Russian president Vladimir Putin accepted China’s invitation to the Opening Ceremony “with pleasure” despite the fact that his nation’s flag has been banned by the IOC due to Russia’s brazen doping violations.
China in, however who will play?
Now that the Worldwide Ice Hockey Federation has confirmed that China’s males’s group will compete in Beijing regardless of its lowly world rating (thirty second), the query is who’ll be on the roster.
The Kunlun Pink Star membership that competes in Russia’s KHL is generally made up of North Individuals corresponding to Boston College grad Brandon Yip and Jake Chelios, son of Hockey Corridor of Famer Chris Chelios. Since China doesn’t permit twin citizenship, the foreigners must conform to turn out to be naturalized.
We meet once more
The US and Canadian ladies’s hockey groups resume their nine-game exhibition tour with two St. Louis conferences on Wednesday and Friday.
The archrivals, who’re anticipated to fulfill within the Olympic last for the sixth time in seven Video games, have break up their first 4 encounters with each profitable on the highway. Their last three dates might be in St. Paul, after which two in Alberta.
Hilary Knight, Amanda Kessel, and Hayley Scamurra have scored seven of the eight American targets.
House-ice benefit
The US long-track speedskaters made essentially the most of dwelling ice final weekend, profitable a quartet of medals on the World Cup cease in Salt Lake Metropolis.
Apart from a world file in males’s group pursuit by Joey Mantia, Emery Lehman, and Casey Dawson, there was a victory within the 1,500 by Mantia plus Erin Jackson’s fourth victory of the season within the ladies’s 500 and a bronze by Brittany Bowe within the 1,000.
The Individuals are on a well-known oval once more this weekend in Calgary, the final Cup occasion earlier than the Olympics.
Assist has arrived
The US bobsled group’s medal probabilities acquired an enormous increase this month when Kaillie Humphries’s citizenship lastly got here by.
Humphries, who received two Olympic golds and a bronze for Canada, left this system and an allegedly abusive coach two years in the past and since has competed for the States, claiming each the two-woman and monobob titles ultimately season’s world championships.
However to compete within the Video games, Humphries, who’s married to former US sledder Travis Armbruster, wanted an American passport. She was sworn in in San Diego, then flew to Germany the place she promptly received the World Cup two-woman occasion in Altenberg (with Kaysha Love) and the monobob.
In sturdy place
Italy’s Sofia Goggia, who hit the trifecta final weekend at Lake Louise, Alberta, the place she received each World Cup downhills and the super-G, is nicely positioned to retain her Olympic downhill crown in Beijing. Goggia, who missed final season’s world championships on dwelling snow in Cortina with an harm, has received a record-tying six straight Cup downhills. Mikaela Shiffrin, who hadn’t raced the downhill in two years, had a tough reentry, ending twenty sixth and thirty eighth. However she nonetheless leads the general Cup standings going into this weekend’s races in St. Moritz due to 4 podium placements, two of them victories … The US feminine cross-country skiers, hoping for a number of medals in Beijing after their breakthrough gold within the group dash in 2018, picked up two ultimately weekend’s World Cup occasion in Lillehammer, Norway. Jessie Diggins earned a dash silver and Rosie Brennan the 10K bronze. The tour switches to Switzerland for this weekend’s Davos races … The 2 moguls medals ultimately weekend’s World Cup opener in Finland — gold by Olivia Giaccio of Redding, Conn., and bronze by Kai Owens — augured nicely for the US ladies, who had been blanked on the 2018 Video games after making the rostrum at 5 of the earlier seven … By profitable the ultimate Olympic qualifying occasion in blended doubles curling within the Netherlands on Thursday, the US once more collected a full set of Beijing tickets with the lads’s and girls’s groups already having earned spots. Vicky Persinger and Chris Plys, who’s additionally on the lads’s group, rolled unbeaten by their seven-team group and defeated the Russians, 6-4, within the playoff … The World Cup lugers who had been subjected to spring-like slop on the first Sochi weekend in southern Russia needed to cope with a farce within the second final weekend when dozens of sled bins remained caught in Chinese language customs after the Yanqing opener. Almost a dozen sliders, together with Italian males’s dash winner Dominik Fischnaller and Russian runner-up Roman Repilov, had to make use of borrowed gear. The circuit this weekend shifts to Germany, the place the rivals can anticipate the customary winter-quality ice on the Altenberg monitor.
Materials from Olympic committees, sports activities federations, interviews, web sites, and wire companies was used on this report.
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