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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is a special edition of Up First.
Chapter 2: What are the major storylines in the Winter Games?
We have our gold medal team in Italy, and they're here to talk about the big storylines. You'll hear about the big names, such as Michaela Schifrin and Jordan Stolz, and all things Team USA. I'm Amy Martinez, and you're listening to an audio sneak peek of Up First Winter Games, a new video podcast from NPR during the Olympics. New episodes will post throughout the games at youtube.com slash NPR.
Stay with us for a preview of the show. The curling cheating scandal that's rocking the Olympics.
He told them to buzz off, but in stronger words, on live television. And this, in the worlds of curling, was totally shocking.
Why this isn't the first time Canada's curling team has been accused of cheating. Plus, Olympic organizers on thin ice. They promised a sustainable Winter Games, but did they live up to that pledge? NPR's Ruth Sherlock will have that story. And... Have you heard of the term sled head?
Even a slight impact on the wall could cause the brain to move within the skull.
Move within the skull.
And no helmet is going to protect you from that.
We'll talk about the risks to the brain athletes face when competing in high-speed sledding events. I'm Ian Martinez, and this is Up First Winter Games. It's Monday, February 16th, and here's what you need to know. Norway's Johannes Klabo won his fourth gold medal these games, making him the most decorated winner Olympian of all time.
The cross-country star now has a total of nine career Olympic gold medals, and his win on Sunday cements his place as one of the most dominant skiers the sport has ever seen. And get this, he may not be done yet. The 29-year-old still has two more events where he's the favorite for the top spot.
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Chapter 3: What is the curling cheating scandal about?
NPR's Brian Mann was there and has more on Schifrin's performance and what she said after the race.
This is definitely not that big dramatic comeback moment. The Giant Slalom is not her best event. She was injured in this event a couple of years ago. That said, as she came by and talked with us, she looked incredibly upbeat, incredibly positive. She said she was really hopeful that she was within touching distance of the leaders. And so she's got one more event here.
The slalom, which is her big race, that's going to come on Wednesday. This is her chance to bring home a medal of some kind for the U.S. We'll see if that can happen.
Chapter 4: Why is the double touch controversy significant in curling?
Normally, curling has a reputation for being one of the more, shall we say, polite sports at the Olympics. But now an alleged cheating scandal is rocking the Olympic curling world and things have gotten pretty heated between the men's Canadian and Swedish teams. NPR's Ping Huang has more on to touch or not to touch. What is happening, Ping?
All right, A. So in Curling, players throw a rock down a sheet of ice, and you have to release it before it gets to something called the hog line. If you don't release it before then, it gets disqualified, it gets burned, you're supposed to take it out of play. Now, the controversy here is over the allegation of a double touch.
In a match on Friday, the Swedes accused a Canadian player of touching the stone after he released it, keeping his finger on the stone as it crossed the hog line, which is a big no in curling.
Okay, yeah, so why does that matter? Why does this double touch matter so much?
Okay, so there's two things about the situation, A. Number one is the allegation itself, and number two is how the Canadians responded. So, for some context, as you mentioned, curling is a super polite sport, There is something called the spirit of curling, which is like their code of ethics. It's all about good sportsmanship.
And one critical part of that is that if you have a violation, you need to call it yourself. You call your own fouls. So if a stone gets touched by anything after it crosses the hog line by a hand, a foot, a broom, you're supposed to call it on your own. You're supposed to call a violation and take it out of play.
In this case, the Swede said that the Canadian player had touched the stone beyond the hog line and that he'd done it not just once, but several times over the course of the game.
Okay, so what's been Canada's response?
Okay, so the Canadians denied it, and then it got super heated. So Canadian curler Mark Kennedy hurled an expletive at the Swedes between the ninth and the tenth inning. He told them to buzz off, but in stronger words, on live television. And this, in the world of curling, was totally shocking, because as you mentioned, it's a very polite sport.
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Chapter 5: How did Team Canada respond to the cheating allegations?
Their brains are like going in multiple directions as they're being whipped around the track. And I mean, this is not a smooth ride. I know that the ice looks kind of smooth to us at home, but it's bumpy. And the concern is even a slight impact on the wall could cause the brain to move within the skull.
Move within the skull.
And no helmet is going to protect you from that. No helmet's going to protect you from that. So the concern for Peter McCarthy, he is a neurophysiologist at the University of South Wales, is what happens when the soft tissue of the brain moves in one direction and the skull moves in the other direction. There's also, of course, the issue of nerve tissue stretching. And it's not just your brain.
It's your brain stem, which connects your brain to your spinal cord. That's kind of important for your whole nervous system. So all these impacts, they add up.
They add up. OK, so how do they add up?
Well, think about the fact that these athletes, when they are training, they are doing these runs multiple times a day. They're competitive. They want to get as good as possible. They want to practice. And if they have a high G-force run, which by the way, the sport wouldn't be monitoring for. No one's tracking G-forces on the track. So they're getting exposure to these forces.
Maybe they don't know. Maybe they have some sled head, but they're like, I'm going to keep going. If their coaches don't pull them and they're not recovering from those races, the concern for scientists is that the accumulated trauma can create long-term effects.
And this is creating a real conversation in the sliding sports because over the last 15 years, there have been a number of high-profile suicides and drug overdoses from retired athletes, some of whom have had brain health issues.
So the question is, how can we make the sport maybe safer when the federations that oversee it, they're looking out for concussions for sure, but are they monitoring sled head in the same way?
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