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Russia’s Figure Skating Ban Will Reverberate For Years To Come

One peculiarity of the figure skating competition calendar is that during an Olympic year, the world championships are contested about a month after the Games. This world championship often has the feeling of an afterthought, coming on the heels of a once-every-four-years mega global sporting event. The bigger names in figure skating tend to sit […]

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U.S. Ski Jumping Is Looking For More Friends In High Places

It is impossible not to notice the ski jump. It looms above the office parks of southwest Minneapolis, Mount Everest to their glass-walled foothills. At night, it glows — power lights reflecting on snow in a soft-focused, brilliant white, like angels descending into a 1970s shampoo ad. If you drive by it on the city’s […]

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The Winter Olympics Are A Wealthy Countries’ Club

When “Cool Runnings” hit the silver screen in 1993, American audiences were captivated by the feel-good story of Jamaica — a tropical country better known for its sprinting prowess — improbably sending its first bobsled team to compete in the 1988 Calgary Olympics. And though Jamaica ultimately crashed out of the competition that winter, the […]

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Russian Doping Isn’t The Only Problem In Figure Skating

When 15-year-old Russian skater Kamila Valieva took to the ice Tuesday in her purple chiffon skating dress to warm up for the women’s short program, NBC analysts Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski seemed at a loss for words — unusual for the chatty commentating team. “To be honest, I almost don’t believe what I’m seeing,” […]

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