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The International Olympic Committee is delaying the selection of the 2030 Winter Olympics host city after discussing climate change and sustainability during its executive board meeting on Tuesday. The 2030 host city was originally scheduled to be announced after the 2023 IOC session. The executive board is giving the Future Host Commission more time to look at the preliminary results of academic research that shows a potential reduction in the number of climate-reliable hosts. A proposal to ensure climate reliability would require hosts to show average minimum temperatures of below zero degrees for snow competition venues during the Winter Games...

In 1986, the International Olympic Committee voted to split the Winter and Summer Olympics so they would alternate every two years instead of occurring together every four years. The new tradition began in 1994 with the Lillehammer Winter Olympics, site of the infamous showdown between figure skaters Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding. The IOC initiated the split schedule in part to bring greater attention to the winter events, and while this move did bring them out from the shadow of the more popular summer games, it also locked the Winter Olympics into permanent competition with an even bigger quadrennial athletic...

How convenient when a bureaucratic body has the power to switch COVID standards at the drop of a hat in order to allow it to continue moving forward and not shut down as the rest of us have been forced to do. COVID Standards around testing and quarantine rules are going from asinine and impossible to achieve to almost gone in the blink of an eye. Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced last week he was doing away with all COVID precautions from vaccine mandates to mask wearing, and instead, would rely on the judgement of its citizens to protect...

The ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee suggested Friday that China will launch an invasion of Taiwan sometime after next month’s Winter Olympics in Beijing. “I do think after the Olympics — China has gotten so provocative, so aggressive in the South China Sea, that you are going to see the CCP, the [Chinese] Communist Party invading Taiwan,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) told reporters on a conference call. McCaul argued further that resident Biden’s botched messaging on the ongoing Ukraine crisis sent a signal of weakness to America’s adversaries, which McCaul believes they will look to exploit. ......

As some sports leagues embarrass themselves with actions antithetical to American values, the National Hockey League followed the right path earlier this week.Professional hockey, which planned to pause their season for three weeks in early 2022 to accommodate players traveling to Communist China, made a bold decision by announcing this week the league will not compete in the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics.Some hockey fans may be disappointed, but they’re likely sentient enough to know it’s the right move.The “Genocide and State-Sanctioned Kidnapping Games,” as they should be called, should of course have no American presence.A noxious country that spits on...

LONDON (AP) — No U.K. government minister will attend the Beijing Winter Olympics, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Wednesday, calling it “effectively” a diplomatic boycott. The announcement came after the White House and the Australian government confirmed diplomatic boycotts of the Winter Olympics in February to protest Chinese human rights abuses. China has vowed to react with “firm countermeasures.” When asked in the House of Commons on Wednesday whether Britain would join in the diplomatic action, Johnson said “There will be effectively a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing." “No ministers are expected to attend and no...

Beijing: China on Wednesday registered over 100 new COVID-19 infections, including nine in Beijing, which has already forced several curbs restricting its resident's travel to other parts of the country amid the new surge in infections. China's National Health Commission said on Wednesday that 93 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases and 16 new imported cases were reported on Tuesday, the highest in a single day in recent weeks. Of the new local cases, 35 were reported in the province of Heilongjiang bordering Russia, 14 in Hebei, another 14 in Gansu, nine in Beijing, six in Inner Mongolia, four each in Chongqing...

Beijing, which will host the 2022 Winter Olympics, is staging a series of test events -- giving a strong taste of what the Games will look like and what coronavirus measures will be in place.... ...Chinese officials say participants will stay in a "closed loop" -- a strict bubble insulating them from spectators and the outside world for the whole Games. Athletes will have to be fully vaccinated or undergo a 21-day quarantine on arrival in the Chinese capital... ...State media showed overseas participants landing in Beijing met by police in hazmat...

Lausanne (AFP) - The World Anti-Doping Agency on Monday banned Russia for four years from major global sporting events including the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar over manipulated doping data, prompting an angry response from President Vladimir Putin. WADA's executive committee, meeting in Lausanne, handed Russia the "robust" four-year suspension after accusing Moscow of falsifying data from a doping testing laboratory that was handed over to investigators earlier this year. The toughest ever sanctions imposed on Russian state authorities will see government officials barred from attending any major events, while the country will lose the...

Yes, this is an odd time to be talking about the Olympic Games, since we’re sort of in the middle of a cycle. But it’s worth pointing out that the 2022 Winter Olympics are out there on the horizon and they’re going to be in Beijing. (Technically in a bunch of places across China, but that’s the center.) It’s something I look forward to because I really enjoy watching the curling. But wait, you might be thinking. Didn’t China just host the games pretty recently? Yes, they did. They hosted the Summer Olympics in 2008 and put on one...

The Soviet Union had won the gold medal in five of the six previous Winter Olympic Games, and were the favorites to win once more in Lake Placid. The team consisted primarily of professional players with significant experience in international play. By contrast, the United States' team—led by head coach Herb Brooks—consisted exclusively of amateur players, and was the youngest team in the tournament and in U.S. national team history. Equally well-known was the television call of the final seconds of the game by Al Michaels for ABC, in which he declared: "Do you believe in miracles?! YES!" In 1999,...

I’m convinced that John Avlon stays up nights before his CNN appearances, working on snarky one-liners that will get him noticed. So part of me hates falling for his shtick. Even so, I’ll report the shot he took at Ivanka this morning. Commenting on a report that chief of staff John Kelly didn’t think that Ivanka was qualified to represent the US at the Winter Olympics, Avlon said: “This is serious stuff, and simply freelancing in a fur coat ain’t going to cut it.” Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

We keep hearing about NBC's ratings problems, as we see in this report: At the halfway point of the XXIII Winter Olympics, things are certainly feeling a little chilly for both Team USA and NBC. As last night's primetime coverage displayed, even with the surprise silver in the short-track speedskating that John-Henry Krueger scored, both the medal count for America's athletes and the ratings for the broadcaster are struggling to gain traction in the PyeongChang games. Currently, Team USA is in sixth place with 10 overall medals, just behind the Russian competitors, and tied for third in gold medals with...

For the 3rd straight Winter Games, cross-country skier Tucker Murphy is Bermuda's only athlete. No matter the season, Bermuda athletes usually wear their trademark shorts during Opening Ceremonies.

Opening Ceremony now underway in Pyeonchang. Beginning of XXIII Winter Olympic Games.y

If recent trends continue, it’ll only get worse. ... NBC* paid $963 million for the rights to air the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, a 24 percent jump over the $775 million it paid for the last Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. ... Viewership declines aren’t really surprising, as similar trends have unfolded across the TV landscape and viewers opt for on-demand and online entertainment alternatives. Even football and the Super Bowl — considered the last holdouts where advertisers could guarantee huge live audiences would be watching — are not immune.

The astonishing number is reportedly 10,000 more than the number of condoms distributed to athletes during the previous Winter Olympics held in Sochi, Russia. In fact, it breaks the record of the most number of condoms prepared for all participants in the history of Winter Olympics. According to the outlet, the amount will be allotted to 2,925 athletes representing 90 countries that will stay in the Olympic Village. That means each athlete gets approximately 37 condoms for the duration of the event, which will run from February 9 to February 25. To put it into perspective, that’s about 2.5 condoms...

Vice President Mike Pence will work to undermine any North Korean attempt to normalize its regime at the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic Winter Games in South Korea, according to a report."The vice president will remind the world that everything the North Koreans do at the Olympics is a charade to cover up the fact that they are the most tyrannical and oppressive regime on the planet," one of Pence's aides told Axios of Pence's role as leader of the White House's delegation to the sporting event. "We are seeing unprecedented level of international cooperation on the maximum pressure strategy targeting the...

Graham: I 'fully believe that if North Korea goes to the Winter Olympics, we do not' Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Monday said if North Korea goes to the Winter Olympics, the U.S. should not attend. "Allowing Kim Jong Un’s North Korea to participate in #WinterOlympics would give legitimacy to the most illegitimate regime on the planet," Graham tweeted. "I’m confident South Korea will reject this absurd overture and fully believe that if North Korea goes to the Winter Olympics, we do not." Lindsey Graham ✔ @LindseyGrahamSC Allowing Kim Jong Un’s North Korea to participate in #WinterOlympics would give legitimacy...

Skiing star Lindsey Vonn suffered a back injury during a World Cup super-G race in Switzerland Saturday, two days after she criticized President Donald Trump in an interview about next year's Winter Olympics.Vonn crossed the finish line in obvious distress, almost one second behind the then-leader, and slumped to the snow. .... Vonn stayed in the finish house to be treated, and one hour later limped slowly into a waiting car to be driven from the St. Moritz course. .... Vonn tweeted that she had suffered an "acute facet (spinal joint) dysfunction"