NewsBite

Winter Olympics

April

Graham Quirk, who a taxpayer-funded review venue infrastructure, appears at the Senate inquiry on Wednesday.

Taxpayer review into 2032 Games venues ‘blindsided’

An independent review into 2032 Games venues was supposed to deliver the ‘right’ infrastructure. But Queensland bureaucrats were working on rival plans.

  • Liam Walsh and Michael Bleby

February 2023

Anna Meares beats Victoria Pendleton to win gold at the 2012 Olympics.

Nine snatches Olympics from Seven in $305m cash deal

The blockbuster sports rights deal sees Nine become the official Olympics broadcaster for the next five games, including Brisbane 2032.

  • Mark Di Stefano

April 2022

The Shanghai lockdown shows Xi is committed to a now-globally unique elimination strategy.

Shanghai tests the limits of Xi’s zero-COVID policy

The city of 26 million is dealing with rising cases of omicron but there are signs of growing public anger at the strict and costly lockdown.

  • Thomas Hale, Andy Lin and Primrose Riordan

February 2022

Doing on her own steam, without a program behind her: Jackie Narracott won silver in skeleton at Beijing.

Beijing’s four medals give winter athletes a shot at more funding

While the country has scored its highest-ever Olympic medal tally, the questions about how to allocate money to sports haven’t gone away.

  • Michael Bleby
Gu is aiming to win three gold medals at these Games while skiing her way through a geopolitical and financial minefield.

The foreign athletes winning gold for China

It serves China’s interests domestically to put talent that would prefer to work for China than the United States on a pedestal. But not one that is too high.

  • Michael Smith
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Attendees can buy their Winter Olympic souvenirs with digital yuan.

China has been showing off its digital yuan at the Olympics

Beijing’s trial run is a victory in the race among countries to create an electronic currency. But it also hands the Communist Party another surveillance tool.

  • Joe Light

Russian skater can compete in Beijing but won’t receive medals

The decision has angered many who say honest athletes are suffering unjustly because of Kamila Valieva’s presence in the competition after failing a drug test.

  • Juliet Macur, Andrew Keh, Daniel Victor and Tariq Panja
Silver medallist skeleton rider Jaclyn Narracott.

Winter Olympics medal tally hits record with skeleton silver

Brisbane-born Jaclyn Narracott was the first woman from outside Europe and North America to claim a medal in the sliding sport.

  • Michael Bleby
Silver medallist Scotty James.

Scotty James takes silver in men’s Olympic snowboard halfpipe final

Snowboarder Scotty James won Australia’s first silver medal of the Beijing Games in a hard-fought battle for first place with Japan’s Ayumu Hirano.

  • Michael Bleby
Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin at the Winter Olympics as Ukraine remains on edge.

This is a turning point in Cold War 2.0

In 1972, Henry Kissinger triangulated Beijing against Moscow. Now Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are playing the same manoeuvre against the US.

  • Stephen Roach
Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai watches the freestyle skiing at the Winter Olympics.

Peng Shuai watches as China tops Olympic medals table

Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai has denied she made sexual assault allegations.

  • Julien Pretot and Krystal Hu
Jakara Anthony of Team Australia added an extra rotation at the top to throw a cork 720 mute in her gold medal-winning run in the women’s moguls finals.

Queensland’s ‘game-changing’ facility gives Jakara Anthony moguls gold

Australia’s newest Olympic gold medallist says a new aerial ski training centre helped her perfect the trick that clinched her the top spot in Beijing.

  • Michael Bleby
Vladimir Putin, left, and Xi Jinping during their meeting in Beijing on Friday.

China, Russia accuse AUKUS pact of increasing arms race risk

China and Russia have used a meeting on the sidelines of the Winter Olympics to declare they may back each other on Ukraine and Taiwan.

  • Michael Smith
Jakara Anthony has already qualified for Sunday’s freestyle ski moguls.

Australia’s high-fliers are confident ahead of Beijing Games

Australia’s Olympic flag bearer Laura Peel dominated her sports at the last world championship event in January, but she realises she is carrying the weight of national expectations.

  • Michael Bleby
Eileen Gu after placing first in the Women’s Freeski Halfpipe competition at Mammoth Mountain in January.

Meet the Olympian trying to soar over the geopolitical divide

Can Eileen Gu avoid a wrong step as a dual Chinese-American citizen, supermodel, social influencer and Olympic skier?

  • John Branch
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As snow conditions worsened around the world, Mikko Martikainen spotted an opportunity.

How bone-dry Beijing created snow for the Winter Olympics

The host city of this year’s Winter Games has had to make millions of cubic metres of the white stuff, helped by a Finn who is the world’s top snowmaker.

  • Updated
  • Simon Willis
Aerial skier Laura Peel and figure skater Brendan Kerry.

Recycled Bird’s Nest clouds Beijing’s Olympic bill

For all the organisers’ efforts – and in common with every other country – the cost of holding the Beijing Winter Olympics looks increasingly pricey.

  • Michael Bleby
Former Olympian speed skater Luo Zhihuan  kicks off the 2022 Winter Olympics torch relay at the Olympic Forest Park in Beijing.

Shortened torch relay marks final countdown to Winter Games

Luo Zhihuan, the country’s first internationally competitive speed skater, ran the first leg.

Eileen Gu celebrates her win in the women’s Freeski Halfpipe in California last month.

China’s American-born Olympic star is playing it safe

Teenage freestyle skier Eileen Gu is the face of China’s efforts at the Winter Games, and she has no desire to talk politics.

  • Ellen Huet
Christopher Wray: “When we tally up what we see in our investigations . . . . there’s just no country that presents a broader threat to our ideas, innovation, and economic security than China.”

FBI chief: China ‘more brazen’ than ever before

Even as American foreign policy remains consumed by Russia-Ukraine tensions, the US continues to regard China as its biggest threat to long-term economic security.

  • Eric Tucker

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/winter-olympic-games-hq7