SUMMARY: Seventeen-year-old American snowboarder Chloe Kim dazzled the 2018 Winter Olympics with her aerial acrobatics and athletic spins, winning a gold medal on Monday. Jeffrey Brown talks with Eddie Pells of the Associated Press about Kim, the daughter of South Korean immigrants, as well as several other snowboarding standouts in Pyeongchang.
SUMMARY: The Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, come at a particularly tense moment in the region. But there's also a lot of excitement around the Games themselves. John Yang talks to Christine Brennan of USA Today about what and who to watch, the Russian doping scandal, and how one athlete has spoken out against Vice President Mike Pence leading the American delegation.
SUMMARY: Fireworks opened the 2018 Olympic Games, but competed for attention with a diplomatic spectacle. The leaders of South Korea and North Korea showed off a historic handshake, while Vice President Mike Pence kept his distance, underscoring apparent divisions between Washington and Seoul. John Yang gets two views from former State Department officials Anthony Ruggiero and Frank Jannuzi.
SUMMARY: For the first time in more than two years, officials from the two Koreas sat for high-level, closed-door talks. The two sides agreed to hold future military talks to ease border tensions and the North pledged to send a delegation to next month's Winter Olympic Games. Judy Woodruff discusses the developments with former U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Kathleen Stephens.
SUMMARY: Russia was slapped with an unprecedented punishment from the International Olympic Committee for systematic doping. While some Russian athletes may be allowed to compete, its national team will be banned at the upcoming winter games in South Korea, and President Vladimir Putin has warned that such a punishment could provoke a boycott. William Brangham talks to Christine Brennan of USA Today.
Members of Russia’s secret service intimidated workers at a drug-testing lab to cover up top athletes’ positive results. They impersonated lab engineers during the Winter Olympics in Sochi last year. A lab once destroyed more than 1,400 samples. Athletes adopted false identities to avoid unexpected testing. Some paid to make doping violations disappear. Others bribed the anti-doping authorities to ensure favorable results, and top sports officials routinely submitted bogus urine samples for athletes who were doping. Those allegations were among hundreds contained in a report released Monday by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Across 323 pages, it implicated athletes, coaches, trainers, doctors and various Russian institutions, laying out what is very likely the most extensive state sponsored doping program since the notorious East German regime of the 1970s.
In addition to providing a granular look at systematic doping, the group that drafted the report made extraordinary recommendations, including a proposal that Russia be suspended from competition by track and field’s governing body and barred from track and field events at next summer’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
“It’s worse than we thought,” Dick Pound, founding president of the World Anti-Doping Association and an author of the report, said at a news conference in a Geneva hotel. “This is an old attitude from the Cold War days,” he said. Russian officials responded with defiance, disputing the investigation’s findings. “Whatever we do, everything is bad,” Vitaly Mutko, Russia’s sports minister, told the news agency Interfax. “If this whole system needs to shut down, we will shut it down gladly. We will stop paying fees, stop funding the Russian anti-doping agency, the Moscow anti-doping laboratory. We will only save money.”
Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, director of the Moscow lab whom Monday’s report accused of having solicited and accepted bribes, dismissed the suggestions. “This is an independent commission which only issues recommendations,” he said. “There are three fools sitting there who don’t understand the laboratory.”
Pound said he had presented the group’s findings to Mutko before they were released publicly. “He’s frustrated to some degree,” he said. “He certainly knew what was going on. They all knew.”
The report also recommended WADA impose lifetime bans on five Russian coaches and five athletes, including the gold and bronze medalists from the women’s 800 meters at the 2012 London Olympics.
“The Olympic Games in London were, in a sense, sabotaged by the admission of athletes who should have not been competing,” the report read.
Bans from competition are not all that could come of the inquiry. Pound said the agency had negotiated a cooperation agreement with Interpol and handed over extensive documents and evidence. Interpol confirmed that cooperation with its own announcement Monday, noting that related inquiries stretched from Singapore to France.
Last week, French authorities announced they had opened a criminal investigation into the former president of track and field’s world governing body, Lamine Diack of Senegal, for having allegedly accepted bribes to allow at least six Russian athletes to compete, including in the 2012 Olympics.
The former director of the medical and anti-doping division of that governing body is also under investigation, the International Association of Athletics Federations, French authorities said, along with Diack’s legal counsel.
Russian athletes, in soaring numbers, have been caught doping in recent years. Russia had far more drug violations than any other country in 2013: 225, or 12 percent of all violations globally, according to data from WADA. About a fifth of Russia’s infractions involved track and field athletes, the focus of Monday’s report.
“This level of corruption attacks sport at its core,” Richard McLaren, a Canadian lawyer and an author of the report, said in an interview. In contrast to corporate governance scandals like those roiling world soccer, he said, drug use by athletes has distorted the essence of professional games. “Bribes and payoffs don’t change actual sporting events,” McLaren said. “But doping takes away fair competition.” The report released Monday was the result of a 10 month investigation by an independent commission of WADA. Its inquiry stemmed from a December documentary by the German public broadcaster ARD, which drew on accounts from Russian athletes, coaches and anti-doping authorities, who said the Russian government had helped procure drugs for athletes and cover up positive test results.
Further allegations emerged in August, when ARD and The Sunday Times of London released another report more broadly focused on the leaked results of thousands of international athletes’ blood tests dating to 2001, showing decorated athletes in good standing with suspicious drug tests. Those allegations — which drew significant suspicion to Kenya — are also being investigated by the independent commission, but the results were not included in Monday’s report, as the inquiry is continuing, the agency said.
The three-person commission, chaired by Pound, also included McLaren, who teaches law at Western University in Ontario, and Gunter Younger, head of cybercrime for the police in the German state of Bavaria.
WADA’s foundation and executive board will decide whether to act on the commission’s recommendations; they are scheduled to meet next week in Colorado Springs, Colo., an event that motivated the timing of the release of the commission’s report, Pound said.
In a statement Monday, the International Olympic Committee called the report “deeply shocking,” and said it trusted the judgment of the IAAF, which would decide whether to bar Russia from competition.
Pound did not offer any time frame for the recommended suspension. If Russia did not fight the prescriptions — to enact rigorous and specific drug-testing controls — he said he thought it could be possible for the country’s track and field athletes to compete in the summer Olympics.
The commission also recommended that the Russian anti-doping authority be declared non-code-compliant, indefinitely; that the director of the Moscow laboratory be removed from his job; and that the lab, which was provisionally banned in 2013, lose its accreditation.
SUMMARY: To outsiders, Russia carries a near mythic reputation. Gregory Feifer, whose mother grew up during communism and lived there himself as a news correspondent, teases out an understanding of Russian character through observations of daily life in his new book, “Russians: The People Behind the Power.” Feifer joins Jeffrey Brown to discuss how Russian behavior is reflected in the Sochi Olympics.
Cameron Bolton was approaching a jump when he clipped Italy’s Omar Visintin in the Olympic men’s snowboard cross semifinal. The Australian fell on his face before getting hit by another Italian, Luca Matteotti.
“Welcome to boardercross,” Nick Baumgartner, a U.S. snowboarder, said during an interview as Bolton was left with a bloody face and a suspected broken wrist. “It’s fun to watch, we put on a good show every time. When you’re in the air, you do whatever you can to survive. I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all.”
Of the 38 athletes competing in the event at Sochi’s Rosa Khutor Extreme Park yesterday, 13 were disqualified or didn’t finish as crashes and falls drew gasps and sharp intakes of breath from spectators. France’s Pierre Vaultier won gold while Nikolay Olyunin of Russia beat American Alex Deibold to take silver for the host country.
The final of the snowboard cross, also known as boardercross, was postponed by a day because of dense fog on the hill, but the murky conditions returned during the event’s latter stages while freezing rain made the snow slushy and exposed ice. The injury toll at the Winter Games is rising as bad weather and risk-taking by athletes combine to provide an element of danger that fans crave, yet has some competitors being carried off on stretchers.
In snowboard cross, athletes race in groups of as many as six on terrain featuring cambered turns, gap jumps, drops and flat sections over 1,200 meters (3,937 feet) with a vertical drop of 213 meters.
‘Lot of Slush’
Among the casualties was Canada’s Kevin Hill, 27, who ended up with his face bloodied and his ski goggles broken into four pieces after a fall. Such was the amount of rain on the course it reminded him of water sports.
“Because of the wet conditions, there’s a lot of slush, and underneath the slush there’s ice, and I hit my face on the ice,” Hill said in an interview. “I wouldn’t mind if I was swimming when I was racing, as long as I get to the bottom. I’m happy to be safe and happy to be going home healthy.”
Bolton, who finished 11th, was winded for about 30 seconds during one of his two crashes and was scheduled to see a doctor later yesterday.
“I’m a little bit worse for wear,” the 23-year-old said after the race. “I think my wrist is broken. I got it strapped up and got out there and crashed again. I hit it somewhere in there, but I don’t think I hurt it any further in that last crash as I hit my head and rolled around and hit some other things.”
Stretchers
The number of athletes injured during Sochi 2014 isn’t significantly different to the previous games in Vancouver four years ago, according to Mark Adams, a spokesman for the International Olympic Committee.
“Winter sports are not without their risks, but we don’t see any difference between this games and the last one,” he told reporters Feb. 17. “The ski federation, as I understand, is very happy with the venue.”
The IOC, which has added new so-called extreme sports to boost interest among younger audiences, declined to say how many athletes have been injured so far.
Bode Miller, the oldest alpine skiing medalist, today aggravated a knee injury during the men’s giant slalom at the Rosa Khutor Alpine Center. He said “it looks like” it will be his final Olympic event and he may now miss the slalom event on Feb. 22.
Extreme Crashes
Extreme sports accounted for some of the most high-profile crashes and injuries. Ski-cross racer Maria Komissarova of Russia broke her spine during a practice run at the Extreme Park and is being treated in Munich after undergoing surgery in Krasnaya Polyana, the nearest town to the venue.
Canadian skier Yuki Tsubota suffered a mild concussion and a fractured cheekbone in a Feb. 11 crash during the women’s slopestyle event, when athletes soar and slide over obstacles before launching themselves off progressively larger jumps. The 20-year-old landed short and was taken off the course on a stretcher. She has returned home to see if she needs surgery.
“Those who will win will take risks and make no mistakes,” men’s parallel giant slalom snowboarder Andrey Sobolev of Russia said today. “You obviously always have to take some risks, because without it you’ll never make it. The course is very difficult, as it has been very well prepared and the snow is hard, so a lot of riders commit errors.”
During the women’s snowboard cross event on Feb. 16, Jacqueline Hernandez of the U.S. was carried off after she banged her head, as was Norway’s Helene Olafsen with a knee injury.
Intimidating
“This is a great course but it’s intimidating,” said 21-year-old Faye Gulini of the U.S., who finished fourth. “We don’t usually have courses that have jumps this big. These big features scare people but it’s fun and that’s what we need to separate the field.”
Aerial skiing also poses injury risks. The competitors start at a height of 1,075 meters and slide down a ramp at speeds of more than 65 kilometers (40 miles) an hour before launching themselves into the air. They’re judged on execution of tricks, height achieved and style, as well as on their landing.
Aerials skier Christopher Lambert of Switzerland was another victim of Extreme Park with a suspected dislocated elbow. Britain’s Rowan Cheshire, a skier in the women’s halfpipe event, withdrew from the games after being knocked unconscious during training.
‘It’s Crazy’
“With a concussion injury there needs to be a rest period followed by a graduated return to play phase,” the British team’s chief medical officer Niall Elliott said in a statement. “The time scale is unfortunately too tight for Rowan.”
Although the danger and speed draw fans, such as 40-year-old Robert Campbell from Atlanta, he says there should be limits to the risks that athletes are running in snowboard cross.
“I want to see ‘big air’ but safely,” the construction manager said in an interview. “The outdoor element has something to do with it too. In speedskating there’s definitely not as much risk for a big injury, big fall.”
U.S. snowboarder Baumgartner, 32, says “anything can happen” in such a demanding sports event.
“We’re a winter sport so we’re not used to doing this very often,” he said. “It’s crazy. When you hit the ground with your head it’s a lot softer in these conditions, maybe it’s like a pillow.”
SUMMARY: Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week’s news, including the state of the economy in light of the latest job numbers, whether the debt ceiling will inspire another fight, the ongoing immigration debate in the House, plus hopes for the Olympic Games.
A top U.S. counterterrorist official says there are “a number of specific threats” aimed at this week’s Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia — with the greatest danger coming from the Caucasus Emirate, which has threatened to attack the games.
Matthew Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, is telling Congress Tuesday that the U.S. and Russia are tracking threats of “varying degrees” of credibility. He said potential attacks seem more likely outside the venues for the games, and instead in the area or region around Sochi.
He described intelligence sharing with Russia as “good.”
FBI Director James Comey said U.S. cooperation with the Russian Security Service has improved.
Russia has mounted a massive security operation for the Olympics, deploying more than 50,000 police and soldiers amid threats from Muslim insurgents.
SUMMARY: Security pressures for the upcoming Olympics are high, due to the bloody history of its location. Sochi was the site of a massacre 150 years ago, bringing fresh symbolism to insurgents wishing to avenge more recent bloodshed. For more, Hari Sreenivasan talks to Robert Bruce Ware of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): Russian President Vladimir Putin presided over his annual news conference today, and despite the marathon session with reporters, he held back the most news-making announcement until after it was over.
The tightly choreographed event attracted hundreds of Russian journalists, with some holding signs and even stuffed animals and dolls, hoping Putin would notice and call on them. But the Russian leader saved his biggest headline until the four-hour-long news conference finally ended, announcing he will pardon the jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, Russian President (through interpreter): He has already spent more than 10 years in jail. It is a serious punishment. He refers to circumstances of the humanitarian nature. His mother is ill. And I think that, bearing in mind those circumstances, it is possible to make that decision, and I will soon sign an order about his pardon.
SUMMARY: Was Russian President Vladimir Putin's amnesty announcement for some high-profile dissidents mostly a public relations tactic? To put Putin's move in perspective, Judy Woodruff talks to Angela Stent of Georgetown University and Dimitri Simes of the Center for the National Interest.
SUMMARY: As Russia gears up to host the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, it has also ramped up anti-gay laws, generating international protest. To examine the restrictions and the backlash, as well as the significance of the upcoming Olympic games for Russia, Gwen Ifill sits down with Miriam Lanskoy of the National Endowment for Democracy.
