The 2022 Winter Olympic Games, being held in Beijing, China, have drawn ire due to human rights abuses committed by the government against the Uighurs and other ethnic minority groups. This has called into question the possibly of boycotting the games, something that the United States has not done since the 1980 Summer Olympics in the Soviet Union. Whether or not this is the right course of action is subject to debate; however, the complaints of “politicizing sports” are disingenuous toward the history of the Olympics.
Read MoreWomen competing in Winter Olympics deserve same treatment as male athletes
Women athletes have long been pushed to the side, if not ignored altogether. It is of the utmost importance that the Winter Olympics break this trend and gives female athletes the recognition and praise they rightfully deserve.
Read MoreLochte swimming in hot water
Despite taking gold in the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay this past summer in the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, American swimmer Ryan Lotche has found himself taking home more than just the medal, but also the baggage of an international controversy and embarrassment. As quickly as social media spread the news that the American swimming hero was robbed at gun-point during a night out in Rio, it was just as quickly debunked in what became a game of international cat and mouse. The morning of Aug. 14 found the world waking up to claims by Lochte and his three relay teammates—Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and Jimmy Feigen—that they were robbed the night before while returning to the Olympic village from a party. Red lights immediately went off by both Brazilian authorities and the Olympic committee when the stories began to diverge.
The situation escalated quickly, when just three days after the initial claim, a Brazilian judge ordered the seizure of the four athletes’ passports to ensure they would need to give their testimonies on the events that occurred before leaving the country. While Lochte and Feigen were already back in the United States, Bentz and Conger were not as lucky and were pulled off their plane before takeoff. Authorities detained the two for questioning and attempted to bring Lochte and Feigen back to Brazil via court order.
As time went on, it soon became clear that the whole account was a hoax created by the swimmers to cover up the fact that they were inebriated and vandalized a gas station at the time of the incident. The International Olympic Committee, along with the U.S. Swimming Organization, has issued discipline for the athletes on the account that the case is still in its end phases. It seems to be the case, however, that the athletes will face suspensions.
Even before talks of possible suspension, Lochte already found himself losing sponsors left and right. The 12-time Olympic medalist lost over $6.2 million in endorsements from companies such as Speedo, Airweave, Ralph Lauren and Syneron Candela in under a month.
Had Lochte come out with the truth immediately after the incident, the weeks of investigation that only continued to hurt his career and image could have been quelled in an instant with a reimbursement for damages and an apology. By trying to avoid the situation completely, he only made the already embarrassing international incident even worse.
Though Lochte seems to be on the backend of his career at this point—having only qualified for two events at Rio on top of his recent embarrassment—there is still an opportunity for him to bounce back. One only has to look as far as 23-time Olympic gold medalist Micheal Phelps to see hope for Lochte’s career.
Phelps, now the most decorated Olympian in history, found himself in a spot of trouble with multiple DUI arrests back in 2004 and 2014. After losing sponsors, Phelps went through rehab and showed that he was ready to compete again in time for Rio.
Lochte needs to take a leaf out of his fellow teammate’s book and show that he is indeed worthy of being kept on the team and able to compete at the international level by taking responsibility for his actions.
The greatness of Biathlon
Biathlon! The great winter pastime of cross-country skiing … mixed with target shooting? Yeah, in concept, it doesn’t make a whole deal of sense. But in practice, oh man, step back, because it is action packed. Three laps, with shooting stops on the first and third laps, means that the competitors can’t get too comfortable. On the first and third laps, they have to hit five individual targets, standing up on the first lap and the third in a prone position, or laying on the ground.
First introduced to the Winter Olympics in 1960 with only one event, the men’s 20-kilometer sprint. Modern day Olympics have 11 events, five for men and five for women with one mixed event.
Many of the Scandinavian countries are the heavy favorites going into this event every Olympics, with Norway having a stronghold on the men’s front. As of writing this, Ole Einar Bjoerndalen of Norway had won the men’s 10-kilometer event, beating out Domink Landertinger of Austria by only 1.3 seconds.
On the women’s front, it was Anastasiya Kuzmina of Slovakia who won the 7.5-kilometer sprint, with Olga Vilukhina of Russia winning silver and Vita Semerenko from Ukraine winning bronze. In the women’s 10-kilometer pursuit, Darya Domracheva of Belarus won gold. Martin Fourcade of France won the men’s pursuit with a time of 33:48.6, taking only one penalty and beating his competitors by 14.1 seconds. A penalty, by the way, ccurs when a competitor misses one of the targets they are shooting at. They ski around a 150-meter loop for every target that they miss.
Germany leads the all-time medal count for biathlon at 43, with Norway at 29 and the USSR at 25 – I feel like they’ll remain at 25. Hopefully the coming weeks are as exciting for biathlon as they are for the rest of the sports. Wait, who am I kidding, of course they’re going to be exciting; it’s skiing and shooting. That’s a formula for success.