The 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing saw bitter cold, with temperatures so frigid that the male participants needed to be concerned about a certain appendage.
On Saturday, Finnish cross-country skier Remi Lindholm reportedly suffered a frozen penis during the men’s 50km mass start race.
“You can guess which body part was a little bit frozen when I finished [the men’s Olympic 50km race]…it was one of the worst competitions I’ve been in. It was just about battling through,” Lindholm told Finnish media.
Due to weather conditions, the race was delayed an hour and then shortened to 30km.
“When the body parts started to warm up after the finish, the pain was unbearable,” he added.
On Sunday in Beijing, the 2022 Winter Olympics came to an end with the Closing Ceremonies. It was an Olympics filled with political issues and controversy.
The beginning of the games, the Opening Ceremonies, saw China make the controversial decision with who would be lighting the Olympic cauldron, reportedly selecting a Chinese athlete with a Uyghur last name to do the honors. According to The New York Times, the athlete was Dinigeer Yilamujiang, a cross-country skier with Uyghur roots.
“This moment is quite provocative,” Savannah Guthrie of NBC said. “It’s a statement from the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, to choose an athlete from the Uyghur minority. It is an in-your face response to those western nations, including the U.S., who have called this Chinese treatment of that group genocide, and diplomatically boycotted these games.”
In December, the Biden administration announced a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Games, citing the PRC’s “crimes against humanity” and “ongoing genocide” as to why the U.S. would not be sending any official representation to Beijing.
Also in the first week of the Olympics, the medal ceremony for the team figure skating event was delayed due to a positive drug test from the gold medal-winning Russian team.
It quickly emerged that 15-year-old Russian skater Kamila Valieva reportedly tested positive for a banned substance. According to Russian media, the substance was trimetazidine, used to treat chest pain, and was found in a sample collected two months prior to the Olympics.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) declined to provisionally suspend Valieva, citing her age, the timing of the failed test, and the threat of “irreparable harm” to the athlete. The decision to allow Valieva to continue competing outraged many with the Olympic community.
NBC commentators Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski expressed their disappointment in the decision to allow Valieva to skate.
“We have to remind ourselves that she is just 15 years old, a minor, and I know more than anyone what it’s like to compete at an Olympic Games at 15 years old,” Lipinski told viewers. “But a positive [drug] test is a positive test. She cannot skate.”
“The Olympics were everything that I ever dreamed about, everything that kept me going on the day-to-day,” Weir said, “and to have that experience and that feeling … diminished because of a positive drug test on one of your competitors when everyone else adheres to the rules … it’s a slap in the face to every other skater.”
Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers, and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected].
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