Eff the Russian female hockey team ... is that why Putin went to China to talk to Xi Jinping? "Can we not Covid test the Russian athletes?" ...

Should disqualify the whole team. Imagine if they passed it on to one of our players!

I hate these friggin games already. Feel for the athletes who play by the rules and are trying to live their dreams.

So obviously China and Russia in cahoots when it comes to the testing..

During the opening ceremonies they panned to Putin and he was likely one of, if not the only one, to not be wearing a mask at his seat.

Knowing nothing about it she probably got offered a bag to do so $$$$$$

^ She don't even need it, her daddy is raf

That makes it a little more strange, lol.

Yeah but now they can put "Olympian" in their social media bios.

Could it be a chance that say the US ski team only had x amount of spaces for atheletes and if you don't get a spot then maybe you go to China for a spot on their team?

She's something of a celebrity in China, with a huge social media following, endorsements, modeling, etc. Representing them probably provides more opportunities for her

This happens every Olympics, I'm not sure why people are up in arms this time

...cuz it's China, duh.

Oh and she's pretty and passes for White

Pretty much.

My friend went to China to play hockey because the pay was substantially better in the KHL and the opportunities are way more than playing Canadian university hockey. Now he's in the Olympics, not many people get that chance.

What caliber of play would your friend be if he stayed in Canada? like what league would he be playing in if he had the opportunity?

What sort of pride do you get representing a foreign country based on the financial opportunities presented by that? Lol

Kinda just goes back to the sham argument of the olympics as a whole.

Not sure. Probably would still be playing in the CWUAA since he didn't get drafted into the NHL, so it's a huge upgrade for him.

At least for my friend, I don't think playing in the Olympics was his main goal for going over to the KHL. It's just something that came with the contract.

If someone offered me triple my pay (for example) to play in Russia for a few years, I'd do it too. We all got families to raise.

You could say that about Professional Sports in general. Why aren't all Canucks born and raised Vancouverites?!? Or Canadians for that matter!!

I guess but I think people build a connection to a professional team. Throughout professional sports there are the alumni groups that have long lasting connections to the city and the team.

Even the Canucks have so many alumni from 94 etc. that are still very closely associated with the team and basically live off the memory of those “good times”

An Australian competing for Qatar in high jump probably isn’t going to be old and grey holding up his medal thinking “damn I’m proud of Qatar” lol

Step back a bit and I think we've all been sold this fairytale idea that you need to "represent" something or, specifically a country to have meaning in your personal achievement. If you think about it, representing country A, or country B, serves the interest of the IOC and the general idea and marketability of the games more than the athletes themselves. Yes, it could be the extra cherry on top to bring glory to your home country or what not. However, does it take away from anyone's personal achievement if we just recognize people's achievements for THEM, so athlete A vs athlete B pure and simple.

We've been conditioned to place so much emphasis on this country vs country thing, and are projecting it on to the athletes as well without even second guessing it. I'm sure as heck some of them don't give two pennies worth about who they're representing but its all just part of the song and dance.

I don't hate the players for working the system to their advantage. It's a complex and often severely unfair system in the world of professional sports.

China still has white envy ...

We place emphasis on it because that is literally what the olympics is! Lol

It’s an interesting case study though for the athletes who actually have medal opportunities and choose to represent a different country as opposed to those who switch countries just to participate or earn a cheque

That's how they announce people at the Olympics. Then later they play the national anthem of the winner. Countries pay a bunch of money for people to train and travel just to represent them at the Olympics. Remove the rah rah national pride crap from the Olympics and nobody would care about most of these sports, as is evident by how most of them have little to no coverage the rest of the time.

If you want to say they're purely personal achievements then pull all the national funding from every Olympians training program and see how things go for them.

Aren't the people at the Olympics amateurs? This is specifically not supposed to be professional sports.

Tell that to the NHL players that wanted to go to the Olympics :p

Yes, all of this is correct and really just reinforces my point that we've been sold this idea of "Country and Glory" or what have you. There's an invisible social contract that the athletes are signing on to. They know it, we know it. They have to represent the country and put on a dog an pony show for the rest of us. In return, they get the support whether that be through sponsorships, payment, purpose-built facilities, coaches, etc etc. The point being made earlier was would someone feel a sense of pride if they switched allegiances from country (a) to country (b) and look back on it years later and feel prideful. Think there's a whole spectrum to that, ranging from those that a) don't give 2 rats-asses about the country and patriotism aspect ( despite of course, putting on the show during the process ). and b) Full on retard patriot mode, accomplishing their life's mission by bringing the medal home. How they actually feel, we'll never know. Better to recognize it's a elaborate show, and daresay I say a proxy for a giant dick-wagging contest for countries on the world stage. The athletes are just the dressed up pawns in this whole thing. If they find a way to benefit and make a living from it, good on them.

As an aside, the line between professional athletes and amateur athletes are incredibly grey anyways. What's in a term. If your career is dependent on you doing this one thing, and the one thing is doing a sport. Does that make you a professional regardless of how the money is being provided? Either through sponsorships, training programs and facilities or a traditional paycheque as per the definition of a "professional". Doing really cool backflips in the air doesn't magically produce food on the table.

as someone actually in China, before they did, now not so much.

or maybe a free ticket into harvard due to the olympian title.