The 2022 Beijing Winter Games will likely be remembered for being yet another "COVID Olympics."To get more news about 2022 winter olympics, you can visit shine news official website.
Similar to the Summer Games only six months ago, athletes, staff and journalists were required to stay in a closed "bubble," cut off from the local population over fears of spreading the disease. Athletes performed before an audience on television with few fans in attendance.Still, there was much more to the Winter Games than the cloud of the ongoing pandemic.
NPR's team in Beijing put together moments and storylines that stuck out — including those that showed immense inner strength, athleticism and grace.It wasn't a gold-medal winning moment by U.S. Alpine star Mikaela Shiffrin that put her on the top of the list. Rather, it's the way the Olympian failed — and responded to her unusual struggles on the slopes.
Shiffrin is a bona fide star — despite what internet trolls have been saying about the 26-year-old. She has won more World Cup slalom races than anyone in history, woman or man. She came into these Games already having won three Olympic medals, including two gold.
Asked about the pressure of coming into the Games as one of those few athletes expected to win medals, Shiffrin said she felt pressure but no more than she had experienced before."That's the whole shebang in sport: You can have preparation, confidence ... and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't," she said. "And I literally have no idea why we keep coming back and doing it."
In the mountains northwest of Beijing, she didn't finish three of her five individual races after either falling or skiing out of the course after a matter of seconds.She managed to face those difficulties thoughtfully, honestly and with a sense of humor.
"I don't know if anybody's failed that hard with so many opportunities — maybe in the history of the Olympics. But I will take it," she said joking.One of the Games' lasting images may be her after her second race: Sitting by the safety netting off to the side, with her head down.
She leaves China with no hardware, but Shiffrin can take solace in her handling of failure. And how, if people were paying attention, she taught them something about failing with grace and honesty.These Games were billed as U.S. figure skater Nathan Chen's chance for redemption after a disastrous performance during the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.
In the face of immense pressure heading into Beijing, Chen managed to deliver. His stunning short program performance netted him a season-high, world record score of 113.97. It set the bar high for his final run on the ice later that week.
He was the last skater of the day among a slew of talented skaters — each better than the last. It seemed each man executed routines that were energetic and just pure fun. Some performances even had even the audience clapping their hands to the beat of the music.