Cheating, Penisgate and boos for Vance: the 10 wildest stories of the Winter Olympics
Amid the triumphs, failures and broken medals in Milano Cortina, here’s our countdown of the outstanding moments that will live long in the memoryCheating has been part and parcel of the Olympics since at least Eupolus of Thessaly in 388BC,But crooked boxers from ancient Greece never confessed their indiscretions on live television,Norwegian biathlete Sturla Holm Lægreid did exactly that after winning bronze in the men’s 20km biathlon for his first individual Olympic medal, publicly admitting he’d two-timed his girlfriend three months earlier and calling it “my biggest mistake” in an overshare for the ages carried live by national broadcaster NRK,Lægreid’s shot appeared to have missed the target one day later when the wronged party, wishing to remain anonymous, told the Norwegian paper VG it was “hard to forgive” what he did,Every Olympics produces at least one breakout star.
Few of them, however, arrive on four legs,Nazgul, a two-year-old Czechoslovakian wolfdog who lives at a nearby hotel in Tesero, burst on to the course during the women’s cross-country team sprint qualifier and launched a pell-mell dash for the line behind Croatia’s Tena Hadzic, though his time did not count because he is male,And a dog,Hadzic briefly wondered if she was hallucinating before officials escorted the crowd favourite off the snow,“He was cute but not aggressive,” Greece’s Konstantina Charalampidou observed.
Nazgul, a very good boy according to multiple sources, has yet to comment on his tactics.Canadians’ near-mythical reputation for politesse took a hit on the curling sheet during a bad-tempered game near the start of the competition.Tempers flared as Brad Jacobs’ Canada beat Sweden in a spicy round-robin tie, with Niklas Edin’s team alleging the Canadians were double-touching the stone after release.After a passive-aggressive back-and-forth in which each side asked the officials to monitor the other’s deliveries, tensions boiled over in the penultimate end when Marc Kennedy responded to Oskar Eriksson’s accusations of impropriety by telling him to “fuck off”.In a sport that prides itself on self-policing civility, the memes alone may have been worth it.
There was no bigger story during the early days of the Milano Cortina Games than “Penisgate”, the scandal which alleged that ski jumpers, seeking marginal aerodynamic gains after tighter suit regulations, had resorted to injecting hyaluronic acid into their members to inflate 3D body measurements and secure looser suits with the goal of increasing drag.World Anti-Doping Agency officials were asked, for perhaps the first time, to comment on penile enhancement as performance aid.The body’s Polish president Witold Banka, clearly as amused as the rest of us, said: “Ski jumping is very popular in Poland, so I promise you I’m going to look at it.”“Don’t jump in them,” was Olympic downhill champion Breezy Johnson’s warning after her gold medal detached from its ribbon during a moment of customary excitement on the podium.The American was hardly alone.
German biathlete Justus Strelow and US figure skater Alysa Liu both reported a faulty clasp connecting the medal to the ribbon, while Swedish cross-country skier Ebba Andersson said her silver medal split into two after falling in the snow.Some have attributed the design flaw to a breakaway mechanism required by law to prevent choking, but the rapid accumulation of complaints represented a rare wobble for Italian craftsmanship.One of the more original Olympic redemption arcs belonged to Julia Simon.The 29-year-old French biathlete, fined €15,000 and given a suspended sentence last October for using the credit card details of teammate Justine Braisaz-Bouchet and a team physiotherapist, won gold in the women’s 15km – light years ahead of 80th-placed Braisaz-Bouchet.Simon had denied the fraud for three years before admitting guilt after photos of the cards were found on her phone, saying in a court hearing in Albertville: “I can’t explain it.
I don’t remember doing it,I can’t make sense of it,” Before the massive hordes that packed the biathlon stadium at Rasen-Antholz, her aim proved considerably more reliable than her memory,It was difficult to see anyone derailing Ilia Malinin in the men’s figure skating entering Milan,He had gone nearly three years unbeaten in competition, owing to a stunning array of quadruple jumps including the quad axel, the heart-stopping four-and-a-half-revolution jump that had never been landed in competition until he came along.
The Olympic debutant had shown traces of fragility in helping the US to team gold, but after falling twice during a catastrophic free skate that dropped him out of the medals into eighth place – one of the biggest shocks in Olympic figure skating history – the 21-year-old from the northern Virginia suburbs effectively described having a panic attack on the ice,Ascension must wait for the Quad God, at least until French Alps 2030,It took only 102 years but Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale finally broke through for Team GB’s first gold medal on snow at the Winter Olympics by winning the mixed team snowboard cross,Seeded 13th out of 16 teams entering the final rounds, having both turned in forgettable performances in their individual events, Bankes and Nightingale both held their nerve in the four-team final, with the former overtaking France’s Léa Casta with a decisive move during the second leg that flipped silver into gold,“It’s hard to describe in words,” Nightingale said.
“We both put in so much hard work,The singles were tough but now there are tears of joy,”The Winter Games can seem like a purpose-built showcase for gen Z prodigies and teenagers, but Milano Cortina often felt like a millennials’ playhouse,Nick Baumgartner was back for snowboard cross at 44,Canada’s Deanna Stellato-Dudek made headlines competing in the figure skating aged 42.
Lindsey Vonn returned at 41 and was the biggest star of the whole Olympics for about 13 seconds,But the highest honours go to Austria’s Benjamin Karl, 40, who won the men’s alpine snowboarding parallel giant slalom in Livigno to become the oldest individual gold medallist in Winter Olympic history, a record that stood for exactly eight days, when it was lowered (raised?) by the American bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor,US vice-president JD Vance was seemingly everywhere all at once in Milan during the first week of the Games,He soft-launched what looked suspiciously like the 2028 GOP presidential ticket alongside Marco Rubio at the women’s hockey, kibbitzed with boxer-influencer Jake Paul from the VIP seats – perhaps even slipping him a few talking points – squeezed in some figure skating before a state visit with Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, then drew a chorus of lusty boos at the opening ceremony in a moment of audible dissent that was apparently scrubbed from the American broadcast,If the Olympics are usually a sanctuary from politics, Vance treated them more like a campaign stop with better lighting and tighter security.
Mind launches inquiry into AI and mental health after Guardian investigation
Mind is launching a significant inquiry into artificial intelligence and mental health after a Guardian investigation exposed how Google’s AI Overviews gave people “very dangerous” medical advice.In a year-long commission, the mental health charity, which operates in England and Wales, will examine the risks and safeguards required as AI increasingly influences the lives of millions of people affected by mental health issues worldwide.The inquiry – the first of its kind globally – will bring together the world’s leading doctors and mental health professionals, as well as people with lived experience, health providers, policymakers and tech companies. Mind says it will aim to shape a safer digital mental health ecosystem, with strong regulation, standards and safeguards.The launch comes after the Guardian revealed how people were being put at risk of harm by false and misleading health information in Google AI Overviews
West Virginia sues Apple over child sex abuse material stored and shared on iCloud
West Virginia’s attorney general filed a lawsuit on Thursday accusing Apple of allowing its iCloud service to become a vehicle for distributing child sexual abuse material.The state alleges that the company facilitated the spread of child sexual abuse material by declining to deploy tools that scan photos and videos and detect such material in iCloud users’ collections.JB McCuskey, a Republican, accused Apple of prioritizing user privacy over child safety. His office called the case the first of its kind by a government agency over the distribution of child sexual abuse material on Apple’s data storage platform.“These images are a permanent record of a child’s trauma, and that child is revictimized every time the material is shared or viewed,” McCuskey said in the statement
Skiers stranded by California avalanche used iPhone SOS feature to seek help
California’s deadliest avalanche killed at least eight people in a ski group near Lake Tahoe on Tuesday. The six survivors used the iPhone’s emergency SOS feature to help first responders find them as they waited under a tarp and discovered some of the bodies, according to the Nevada county sheriff. Apple’s feature, introduced in 2022, allows users to text law enforcement, even if there’s no cell service or wifi by connecting the phone to a satellite.First responders reached the skiers’ location and learned of the six survivors based on conversations held through the feature, Sheriff Shannan Moon said at a press conference on Wednesday.California office of emergency services law enforcement chief Don O’Keefe said his staff spoke with one of the stranded guides for more than four hours to relay information to the sheriff’s office, which was leading rescue efforts
US builds website that will allow Europeans to view blocked content
The US has built a portal that will allow Europeans to view blocked content including alleged hate speech and terrorism, according to Reuters.The portal, “freedom.gov”, will allow worldwide users to circumvent government controls on their content. The site features a graphic of a ghostly horse galloping above the Earth, and the motto: “Information is power. Reclaim your human right to free expression
Accenture ‘links staff promotions to use of AI tools’
Accenture has reportedly started tracking staff use of its AI tools and will take this into consideration when deciding on top promotions, as the consulting company tries to increase uptake of the technology by its workforce.The company told senior managers and associate directors that being promoted to leadership roles would require “regular adoption” of artificial intelligence, according to an internal email seen by the Financial Times.The consultancy has also begun collecting data on weekly log-ins to its AI tools by some senior staff members, the FT reports.Accenture has previously said it has trained 550,000 of its 780,000-strong workforce in generative AI, up from only 30 people in 2022, and has announced it is rolling out training to all of its employees as part of its annual $1bn (£740m) annual spend on learning.Among the tools whose use will reportedly be monitored is Accenture’s AI Refinery
Tell us: have you ever used AI to navigate everyday life and social relationships?
Lots of people now use chatbots as personal assistants, not just for work but in everyday life and social interactions. We want to hear your stories about the ways you’re using chatbots to navigate your social life or significant life decisions.Have you ever drafted a breakup text using AI? Or crafted a message to delicately cancel plans? Have you consulted AI on whether to take, or quit, a job? Or sought advice from a chatbot on a tricky friendship or relationship?Did that advice work, or backfire?Tell us about it in the form below or by messaging us. Please include as much detail as possible. Please include as much detail as possible
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