Team event up 1st as Olympic figure skating begins

By DAVE SKRETTA AP Sports Writer BEIJING (AP) — The team competition in Olympic figure skating has always been a three-team scramble for the podium. There's the Russians, who won gold at the event's 2014 debut in Sochi and silver in Pyeongchang. There's the Canadians, who took silver ...

Quantum leap of ‘Q’: Spanish boarder soars into 5th Olympics

By PAT GRAHAM AP Sports Writer ZHANGJIAKOU, China (AP) — Spanish snowboarder Queralt Castellet goes by "Q" for one good reason: "She demands the respect of one big letter," her coach cracked. OK, maybe two reasons — the primary being that it saves everyone the effort of trying to ...

GLIMPSES: Testing, testing everywhere in the Olympic bubble

By SARAH DiLORENZO Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — Two hands reach through holes in the glass to fill up a pair of dangling gloves. The hands seem almost separate from the woman they belong to. She is one of the people performing COVID-19 tests inside Beijing's Olympic ...

EXPLAINER: Water Cube where Phelps ruled turns into Ice Cube

By BERNIE WILSON AP Sports Writer BEIJING (AP) — Somewhere under the four sheets of curling ice being used for the Beijing Olympics is the swimming pool where Michael Phelps splashed his way to history in the 2008 Summer Games. At first glance, the few spectators allowed into the ...

Olympian moved to village after tearful video in isolation

By TIM REYNOLDS AP Sports Writer BEIJING (AP) — Kim Meylemans thought she was going to the Olympic Village. She wound up in tears instead. Such was the start of a few confusing hours for the women's skeleton athlete from Belgium — whose trip into what would have been a second round ...

Making Olympics just the start for athletes avoiding COVID

By JIMMY GOLEN AP Sports Writer Mariah Bell had just won the U.S. figure skating championship to earn her first trip to the Olympics. Then came the hard part: remaining coronavirus-free until it was time to leave for Beijing. "That will be 100% top priority," Bell said after qualifying ...