Cheater Olympics is Over

The fake Olympics are now behind us.   That's right-- the Beijing games didn't have any of the real stuff and was the first to use 100% artificial snow.  And the cheating started even before the games began.  Russia wasn't even supposed to be there, after they were caught blatantly using performance enhancing drugs in a government sponsored doping program. In the last 15 years alone, Russia has been stripped of over 50 Olympic medals due to drug testing.  But China is a friend to Putin, so naturally they would figure out a way to have Russia present-- going so far as to highlight Putin at the opening ceremony.

During the games, Russia continued its cheating ways, resulting in U.S. figure skaters being cheated out of their medal ceremony.  Russia's Kamila Valieva tested positive for a banned substance, but was allowed to compete anyway.  As a result, the Chinese Olympic authorities refused to conduct a medal ceremony in team figure skating, which meant the U.S. figure skating team went home empty-handed.

During the games, Finnish skier Katri Lylynpera posted a number of photos and videos from the athletes village showing water pouring down from the ceiling and through lighting fixtures, creating puddles on the floor.  She was ordered by Chinese officials to delete the posts.

It was widely reported that the Uyghur athlete that China used for propaganda purposes to carry the Chinese flag was quickly shunted out of view after the opening ceremony.  20-year-old Dilnigar Ilhamjan was later given a perfunctory chance to compete in the skiathlon, but was then excluded from the women’s 4 x 5 km relay team. The athlete who replaced her actually had worse results earlier in the week. China ended up finishing 10th in the 18-team race.

At a press conference during the games, Chinese women’s hockey goalie Kim Newell was prevented from speaking English.  Newell, who was born in Canada and lives in Vancouver, was asked if she could answer a few questions in English. And according to Reuters, an aide next to Newell interrupted and said, “She’s not allowed to speak English."

In the Men's 1000 meter speed skating semi-final, South Korea's Hwang Dae-Heon was disqualified for an “illegal late pass causing contact” after winning his race which gave Ren Ziwei of China the ultimate win. Then in the final, Hungary's Liu Shaolin was also disqualified after winning-- giving the gold to (you guessed it) China's Ren Ziwei.  Many observers commented that Ziwei probably should have been disqualified as well due to grabbing his opponent. 

Nils van der Poel, a 25-year-old Swedish speedskater who won two gold medals, summed things up appropriately after he returned home  to Sweden.  "The Olympics is a fantastic sporting event where you unite the world and nations meet," he said.  "But so did Hitler before invading Poland, and so did Russia before invading Ukraine.  I think it is extremely irresponsible to give it to a country that violates human rights as blatantly as the Chinese regime is doing."