Winter Olympics 2022

And it seems like the promo was a rather ballpark estimate of when he might skate……

He’s in the last group so it’ll be awhile.

However it turns out , I am glad he was not sidelined by Covid. Good luck to Nathan!

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Bolero is quite popular this year.

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squeeeeeeaaaaallllll

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USA! USA! :tada: :clap: :medal_sports: (Not saying more, in case some haven’t watched.)

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Mixed Team Aerials was fun to watch. All the camera angles! It’s a quick competition.

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Best men’s figure skater I have ever seen…and love the commentary by Lipinski and Weir!

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He is definitely the G.O.A.T.

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Was just watching an interview with Scott Hamilton 1984 Gold Medalist Men’s Figure Skating (also from my area) - he rattled off the names of all/most past USA FS Gold Medalists - and said that they were all on a text message last night during/after Nathan’s performance. I just thought that was pretty cool.

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So wonderful with snowboard just now! Very exciting and emotional!

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I am really enjoying the mixed team competitions!!!

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My niece is here for a few days and it has been great to get an “insiders’” view. She was a jr. olympian in 2002 and could explain all the alpine scoring rules. She’s also married to a Canadian so he knows a lot about the Olympics and winter sports. We were all thrilled for the American mixed cross snowboard team win.

One thing she did pick up was that 17 of the 22 Team China men’s ice hockey team are from N. America. They won’t talk about their citizenship status, just that when they play in China they are Chinese (even with different names, but not really Chinese names, just Chinese style names) and when they play in other countries they can play under their original names. The international hockey assoc lets players play on a team if they’ve lived in that country for 2 years.

“Smith, 32, talked at length of his appreciation for China. What he would not answer was whether he had to renounce his American citizenship to compete for China – questions that Chinese-American big air gold medal winner Eileen Gu also would not comment on. According to the Associated Press, the men’s hockey players who are U.S. or Canadian citizens have not been asked to renounce their native citizenships, but Chinese law prohibits dual citizenship.”

I think the Chinese have created a new status of ‘Chinese Nationals’ that are allowed to play for them but not be considered citizens and thus don’t have to give up their other country’s citizenship (although the figure skater did renounce her US citizenship).

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Yes, there are many North American born hockey players playing for China, including Chris Chelios’ son, Jake. They all play for the Chinese KHL team. As long as they have played 2 years with a country’s team they can qualify as a player of the country for international play. They also get Chinese names. Many of them have said they still have their passports, so China must be making exceptions.

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It still surprises me that athletes represent countries other than their own at the Olympics.

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Does not surprise me at all, and has been going on forever. If an athlete will just miss the cut for a US contingent, but can easily get a place in another nation’s team, I can see why they might jump at the chance. Where it gets questionable, for me, is when the athlete has no ties to the second country.

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Not surprising at all. It is very hard to make teams in certain countries. If you are playing in the KHL, you are not good enough to make an NHL team and therefor would most likely not make an Olympic team (if the NHL plays, which was supposed to happen). Athletes in many sports go to other countries to play in their professional leagues. It’s a way to keep doing something you love.

The same thing for athletes who come to the US to go to college. Many athletes from other countries are here to play their sport. This is a common practice.

For Eileen Gu the problem is she is good, so people are upset. If she wasn’t, no one would care that she is competing for China. Same thing for the men’s hockey team for China, as long as they aren’t wining no one will care.

USA has a Canadian bobsled member. She just got approval at the last minute to be a part of the team. Everyone does this.

I know how often and long this has been occurring….I’ve been watching the Olympics for many decades. It doesn’t change my reaction when I hear about US citizens competing for other countries.

Playing professional sports is a completely different situation. Especially when some of those sports have no equivalent in the US.

I think the Canadian bobsledder is a very different example.

She’s married to an American, she is a US citizen. And she left the Canadian term because of charges of harassment against her trainer. Very different than other examples of competing for a different country.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/more-sports/from-canada-to-us-olympic-bobsledder-kaillie-humphries-races-on/ar-AARHiXo

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Yes- I am glad she is able to compete. Sounded like a bad situation.

Also happy to see the French Ice Dancing team had a wonderful skate! The wardrobe malfunction from the last Olympics was awful.