Today, Explained - The Olympics on thin ice

Episode Date: February 22, 2022

This year’s weird Winter Olympics were overshadowed by politics, Covid-19, and the threat of war. But as NPR’s Tom Goldman explains, the biggest scandals were still about the sports. This episode was produced by Will Reid with help from Victoria Chamberlin, edited by Matt Collette, engineered by Paul Robert Mounsey, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained   Support Today, Explained by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Get groceries delivered across the GTA from Real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. The Winter Olympics in Beijing are officially over. Going into them a few weeks ago, the biggest story was COVID, of course, but then also human rights in China. The Biden administration will not send any diplomatic or official representation to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games, given the PRC's ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang.

Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai spoke with the president of the Olympic Committee on a video call today, but there are still many questions, many questions about her safety. The plight of China's weaker community and their harsh repression looms large over the Winter Olympics. But then the game started and that sort of seemed like the end of all that human rights stuff. Is that fair? Very fair, Sean. We reached Tom Goldman in Beijing, where he was covering the games for NPR. You know, certainly a disappointment to human rights activists and advocates.

Disappointment to journalists, too. I mean, I covered those stories a lot going into these games. But then basically, as we say, when we got here, crickets, and we didn't hear a thing. In fact, there was one protest that we know about, and it had nothing to do with Chinese documented human rights violations. It had to do with the Ukrainian skeleton racer holding up a sign saying, no war in Ukraine. After he finished competing, It had to do with the Ukrainian skeleton racer holding up a sign saying, no war in Ukraine. After he finished competing, Haraskiewicz added,

I want peace in my country. I want peace in the world. I fight for peace. That was an easy one for the IOC. They could get behind that, so he wasn't punished. But the other stuff never really happened. Why do you think that the Uyghurs or Peng Shui weren't a bigger story at these games? Was it something that the Chinese government did? Was it something that the IOC did? Was it just sort of the magic of sports taken over? You know, that was part of it, Sean. But I think athletes, not I think, I know athletes got a very strong message from the Chinese organizers. A member of the Chinese organizing committee said in the week leading up to the Games, athletes who criticize or speak about something that doesn't have to do

with Olympism, and I'm putting that in quotation marks, will be punished. Any behavior or speeches that is against the Olympic spirit, especially against the Chinese laws and regulations, are also subject to certain punishment. The official never detailed what that punishment would be, but there are enough stories about what happens to people who speak out against the Chinese government, I think, to have a pretty effective chilling effect on the athletes. You know, the great snowboarding legend, Sean White, some activists had contacted Sean White at a pre-Olympics event and had actually taken a photo with him. He posed

with the flag, and I think it was Students for a Free Tibet, SFT. And so we were thinking, well, maybe he'll say something. He never did. He never was asked as well. And I think that's an important thing to mention. It was a dilemma, obviously, for athletes who had been told explicitly by the Chinese organizers that they would be punished. And also told by their National Olympic committees not to not speak out, but warned that, you know, there could be consequences. You're there to compete. Do not risk incurring the anger of the Chinese government because they are ruthless. So they had to be careful in what they did. And I think it put journalists in a difficult position too,

because a lot of the communication we had with athletes was through very public press conferences. And to put an athlete on the spot like that, I think a lot of us chose, we're not sure we wanted to do that. It was a very uncomfortable thing. Activists will say, well, it's important that people are in uncomfortable situations. But these athletes were here to compete, to perform, to, as they say, and it sounds like a cliche, but to do their best if they could. And we shouldn't hang everything on these athletes. The ones to be put on the spot about this are the International Olympic Committee, obviously, because the athletes have no say in where an Olympics are held. The IOC has everything to say where an Olympics are held and they choose to put it in countries with authoritarian regimes. And so the questions were for them.

Mark, what's the IOC's reaction to Madam Yan's comments on Taiwan or Chinese Taipei? Was that not a political statement when sports and politics don't mix? the questions and they did what the IOC always does, artfully dodged and painted a narrative of we are only about political neutrality. Our concern here is with the 206 National Olympic Committees and that's what we're concerned about. There are many views on all sorts of things around the world but our job is to make sure that the games take place and the magic of the games can happen and that we can improve the world through sport. We are about bringing the world together. We don't talk about politics. Despite the attempts to sort of avoid all the difficult conversations and just concentrate on the sports, it seems like the sports themselves still managed to present some

controversies, right? I mean, let's start with this one that was just about nationality, it seemed. It seemed like there were some issues with Chinese Americans choosing between China and the United States. Is that how it went down? Yeah, I think that's accurate. And I think no athlete fits that description or narrative than Eileen Gu. I don't know if this is like different personalities per se, but I've always felt like when I speak Chinese,

I always feel like my voice is higher. Is it higher? I always feel like it's higher, but I'm not sure if it's true. But now I feel like it's really higher. The 18-year-old born and raised in the U.S., she chose to compete for China. And she has a Chinese mother. She speaks Mandarin very well. So she definitely has Chinese connections. Since I was little, I've always said when I'm in the U.S., I'm American. When I'm in China, I'm Chinese. I preserve it by having friends and being able to communicate with people because that's the best way to transmit culture. She tried to be a bridge to this adversarial relationship that's grown between the United

States and China, but it was hard for her. She got hard questions here in Beijing about her citizenship, for one thing, because it's against Chinese law to have dual citizenship. So she was asked, well, did you have to renounce your U.S. citizenship to compete here? One thing we've been trying to clarify, are you still a U.S. citizen or how's that work? I've always been super outspoken in my gratitude to the U.S., to the U.S. team as well. She wouldn't answer it. She worked around it. She ultimately came back to a very IOC-sounding message of, I'm just here, you know, if anything, I want to bridge this adversarial relationship and show that we can all live in harmony. And

then when that failed and reporters were still skeptical, she said, Here's the thing. I'm not trying to keep anyone happy. I'm an 18-year-old girl out here living my best life. Like, I'm having a great time. You know, it doesn't really matter. Look, guys, I'm 18 years old. So, you know, maybe direct your questions elsewhere. But, you know, she took heat from reporters here. She's also taken heat from conservatives in the United States who believe she is a traitor. Wow. So welcome to China. I hope stardom and the riches that you have earned through betraying America are all worth it

because you have definitely sold out. So, you know, she was dealing with those issues as well. Well, I don't really want to pick on an 18-year-old either, but did she ever actually say why she chose to compete for China instead of the United States? As close as I can get to an answer on that is she said it was basically because her mother is Chinese and she wanted to dedicate it to her mother. She also, you know, wanted to be, she said she wanted to be a role model for Chinese kids in her sport and she wanted to

grow her sport in China. So her sport of free ski. So those were reasons she gave. She also said, again, as a way to bridge the divide, she said, when I'm in China, I'm Chinese. When I'm in America, I'm an American. She became a political lightning rod, certainly in the US. In China, she was revered. You couldn't watch CCTV without seeing her on like every third advertisement. And she went away with two gold medals and a silver medal in her sport. So she is probably feeling fairly good, although probably exhausted by the whole experience. Here we go, the third and final run for Aileen Gu of China. Aileen going for that rotation of the 16-20.

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We're back with Tom Goldman from NPR. We left off talking about the adversarial relationship between the United States and China at the Olympics. And for everyone who wanted a distraction from that, there was Russia. Sean, there's always Russia. For scandal-hungry journalists, and there were thousands of us here, it was manna from heaven what happened, although incredibly painful for a 15-year-old. We, of course, are talking about Kamila Valieva. Kamila Valieva, 15 years of age, from Moscow,

the Russian national champ, the world junior champ in 2020, and the favorite for the Olympic gold. Yeah, somehow we're not talking about the fact that Russia was maybe or maybe not going to invade Ukraine the entire time. We're talking about a doping scandal. As we have done for the last three Olympics, when Russia has attended the Olympics,

but also been kind of banned, kind of punished. With the Summer Olympics in Rio less than 100 days away, Russia finds itself embroiled in a doping scandal unseen since the days of the East German sports machine. Let me remind you, when Russia had been exposed as being involved in a state-sponsored, widespread doping system after the 2014 Sochi Games. Russia's cheating was worthy of a Hollywood script. Dirty urine samples were passed through a hole in the wall and swapped for clean ones at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014. The World Anti-Doping Agency said before the next Olympics, the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro,

hey, let's ban these guys for four years. I mean, when an athlete tests positive for drugs, they are banned, and so maybe we need to punish Russia so they can go away, do some soul-searching, so they can get back to competing without performance-enhancing drugs. But the International Olympic Committee, of course, balked at that. Russia is a hugely important Olympic stakeholder, rich. They paid a record $51 billion for those Sochi Olympics.

Wow. billion dollars for those Sochi Olympics. So the IOC has soft pedaled this and wrist slapped Russia for the last three Olympics. At these games, athletes are competing as the Russian Olympic Committee, officially known only as ROC. They're supposed to go by just those three letters. They can't wear Russian uniforms. They can't fly the Russian flag. They can't be identified uniforms. They can't fly the Russian flag. They can't be identified as Russian athletes when everyone knows they're Russian. Russia has never fully acknowledged

that it has a doping problem. They have never done that. They still have not to this day. They've fought everything. And now they found themselves at these games back involved with a doping situation. The 15-year-old Valieva, you know the story. She's been allowed to compete in the Winter Olympics despite testing positive for a banned heart drug prior to the Games.

And there's no consensus right now, Sean, as to whether it is a performance enhancer. That still has to be established now that the games are over. We're perhaps months away for her case being adjudicated, if you will. So she somehow ingested this. She had told Russian officials that it was from a heart medication that her grandfather had been taking, and that she, whether it was drinking from the same cup or whatever, had become contaminated with this. And the New York Times reports a document filed in her hearing reveals that in addition to the banned drug, there were two other legal substances that can treat the heart found in her sample from Christmas Day.

Of course, you have the backdrop of Russian doping, and so it's very easy to take the leap and say, well, of course, she's a doper. We don't know that, and it's really important to say that, and that still has to be proved. Where fingers do need to be pointed, though, two places. One is her coaches, because I think everyone is of the belief that if there is intentional doping proved, that she didn't actively, knowingly do it. It was probably the adults around her. The other finger needs to be

pointed at the testing agencies. The fact that Camila Valleva was tested, had a urine sample taken on December 25th of last year, and had the positive test revealed once the games were underway is unconscionable. The fact that the testing agencies and all those who were involved allowed it to just sit or whatever happened for a month and a half and then blow up, and we are talking nuclear blow up at the Olympics, is really hard to deal with. And that's where the investigation has to go as well. How'd she actually do in her events? The skating competition is divided into the short program and then the longer free skate. In the short program, she still skated well enough, beautifully, to go into first place.

When she got to the free skate two days later, it was a disaster. She skated last. The stage was set for what many skating experts said would be a Russian sweep because her compatriots, Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova, had skated right before her. They were sitting in first and second, so we were all primed to have Valieva skate, bump them down, and then it would be Russia 1-2-3. And she was going to attempt three of the very difficult quadruple jumps, which the Russians are leading a revolution in, in women's sport. And so on her first one, it was shaky, and then things just got worse.

Stumbles, falls, and it was an absolute disaster russian olympic committee figure skater camilla valieva failing to make the podium after falling several times during the free skate and i think everyone who watched will remember in the ioc president thomas bach made note of this what he called the chilling moment afterwards when she was openly berated by her coaches instead of being given comfort. Part of the world saw that as horrific. The Russians, of course, shot back. A Kremlin spokesman said, it takes rough behavior to have the top athletes and to have winners. So basically saying that's what it takes to win an elite sport. Do we think we'll see her at the games again? Seems like a rough go.

You know, that's to be determined, Sean, in a very interesting question. She trains with a very successful but controversial coach named Eteri Tutberidze, who also trained the two Russian medal winners in this event. Tutberidze also trained the gold and silver medalists at the 2018 Olympics. So she's had a high success rate, but there are credible reports that she has questionable practices as far as strict dietary restrictions and working her skaters' young bodies to the point where they are broken down before they turn 20. So will we see her again? That is to be determined, but I think definitely first what has to happen

is she has to recover psychically from this whole thing, and then she has to have her case adjudicated about whether she intentionally doped or not. Of course, it wasn't Russia or China or the United States who won the most medals here. It was Norway? Norway. Well, I won't stand for it. It was Norway. That's right.

37 total medals, a Winter Olympics record, 16 gold medals. I think it's a country of about 5 million people, but they just dominated countries with such larger populations. Where did Norway come from? They've been around. They've been around. It's a cold country. Sports like biathlon, cross country, these are huge sports, Sean. These are like the NBA and the NFL in the United States. When you're a kid, you aspire to be a Therese Johog, the Norwegian who won three individual golds here and won the last gold medals in the last cross country race that I watched. It was an amazing race in the 30 kilometer.

As Therese Johag comes to the finish line rather casually in a race that she is utterly dominated, imperious and peerless out on the course. She crosses the finish line. So they just do really well in these winter sports. All credit to them. Favorite moment from these Olympics? Did you have one? Was it Norway? I don't have one. I have a number. This was an Olympics to survive. I think certainly that was the IOC's attitude here. But there were moments, you know, probably the first moment probably NBC glommed on to because it was a great athlete moment when Julia Marino, the snowboarder from the U.S., was sitting in first place until the very last competitor of the slope-style event went. That was New Zealand's Zoe Sadowski-Sinnett.

This is the big moment here down the bottom. What is she going to bring? Oh, wow. She uncorked a great run. Into a huge, huge. Oh, my. Wow. Zoe Sadowski goes massive on the bottom jump.

Won the gold. And Marina ran out and tackled her out of joy. And the bronze medalist from Australia, Tess Cody, joined in this dog pile. And it was just one of those wonderful Olympic moments where I don't care if I didn't just win a gold. I think it's cool that you won. And who doesn't love a moment like that? Mariah Bell, the U.S. figure skater at 25. The only way people were describing her was she's the oldest U.S. Olympian figure skater, female figure skater, since 1928. She's the oldest ladies national champion in 95 years. And also she's only 25, which does make you feel like you want

to drop dead when you hear that she's the oldest. And she skated a gorgeous free skate. She looked joyous during and after. And she knew she wouldn't medal, but she was thrilled to have competed well. And watching her coach, the great Adam Rippon, who's hilarious, jumping for joy next to the rink while she competed, that was really fun too. And what that does is lead into one of my favorite moments, which Sean is actually a quote from an Olympic athlete, the figure skating pairs gold medalist. Her name is Sui Wenjing from China. After she and her partner performed beautifully in the short program, she said this, and I'm going to quote it.

We feel like when we show our best selves to the world, the world belongs to us. Only during these several minutes, perhaps billions of people around the world world belongs to us. Only during these several minutes, perhaps billions of people around the world are looking at us. That is the most honorable moment of our life. And I think what I loved about it is that illustrates so many experiences in the Olympics of athletes who do well after training so hard and for many years in obscurity. And then the world watches, the world cares about them for a few minutes and they do it. And it's an incredible triumph for these guys. And that's what I loved about that quote.

And it's another reminder that if you put aside all the scandals and politics, there is something pure here to celebrate. I mean, we've spoken back-to-back Olympics now, Tom, about all the politics and the scandals and the controversies and the COVID. What have you gotten from covering these two and I believe something like another dozen Olympics after so much controversy and so much politics? What is the fix here for these Olympics? How about taking the IOC out of it, which, you know, is crazy because the IOC says

we run this thing and we fund it and all that. Yes, they do. Well, find another funding mechanism, find a really good sports management company or something like that. And then you cite an Olympics in a country that doesn't have questionable policies against its people. No authoritarian governments anymore, okay? And then you just have a great sports spectacle, a great sports festival, which is what people want to see. And people don't want to be rolling their eyes constantly when the International Olympic Committee comes out with its grandeur and holier-than-thou attitude about, we are uniters of the world and look at all these people who signed the Olympic truce as if you're going to stop warfare and pestilence and horror in the world. You're not. We just want to watch a sports festival for two and a half weeks. We want to party and then get back to the misery of the world. That is my top of the head spitballing idea, Sean, without being thought out. And when the IOC hears it, they will say, we are banning this guy because he's an idiot.

He doesn't understand how it works. But take the bad part of this equation out and let's just emphasize the good. Tom, you had a great run. 14 Olympics. But I'm done. Tom Goldman, he does sports for National Public Radio. You can hear him on Morning Edition and the Up First podcast occasionally. I'm Sean Ramos for Amidst Today Explained. Our show today was produced by Will Reed with help from Victoria Chamberlain,

edited by Matthew Collette, engineered by Paul Mounsey, and fact-checked by Laura Bullard. The next Olympics are scheduled for 2024 in Paris instead of, you know, in a few months. you