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Gold’s Gym parent company confirms CEO was on crashed plane
A press representative of the RSG Group of gym outlets, including Gold’s Gym and McFit, confirmed Monday that founder and CEO Rainer Schaller, family and friends were aboard a small plane that disappeared from radar just off Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast. (Chris D Swabb, Shutterstock)
Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — A press representative of the RSG Group of gym outlets, including Gold’s Gym and McFit, confirmed Monday that founder and CEO Rainer Schaller, family and friends were aboard a small plane that disappeared from radar just off Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast.
Company spokeswoman Kristen Kauffman distributed a message Monday confirming that Rainer Schaller, “his family, and two other people were on board the aircraft at the time of the crash.”
The company did not confirm Schaller’s death, despite the fact searchers have found two bodies, luggage and pieces of the aircraft in the sea.
“We are shocked, stunned, and full of grief about this tragic accident,” the RSG statement read. “The news during the last few days has shaken us deeply, and our thoughts are with the family in these difficult hours.”
“As the situation is currently still being investigated on-site, we cannot comment further at this time and ask for your understanding.”
Schaller is listed as “Founder, Owner and CEO of the RSG Group,” a conglomerate of 21 fitness, lifestyle and fashion brands that operates in 48 countries and has 41,000 employees, either directly or through franchises.
On Sunday, Costa Rica’s Security Ministry said the bodies of one adult and one child had been found at a site about 17 miles off the coast from the Limon airport, but said the bodies had not yet been identified.
Searchers also turned up backpacks and bags, and pieces of the plane.
All five passengers were German citizens. The plane’s pilot was Swiss.
Costa Rican authorities said pieces of the twin-engine turboprop aircraft were found in the water Saturday, after the flight went missing Friday.
The plane was a nine-seat Italian-made Piaggio P180 Avanti, known for its distinctive profile. It disappeared from radar as it was heading to Limon, a resort town on the coast.
The security ministry said the flight had set out from Mexico.
Schaller was in the news in 2010 for his role as organizer of the Berlin Love Parade techno festival. A crush at the event killed 21 people and injured more than 500. Authorities at the time said Schaller’s security failed to stop the flow of people into a tunnel when the situation was already tense at the entrance to the festival grounds.
Schaller fought back against the accusations of wrongdoing, noting that his security concept received official city approval.
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Rainer Schaller: Gold’s Gym owner feared dead after plane crash off Costa Rica, 5 others also on board
CNN
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Gold’s Gym owner Rainer Schaller, his family and two others are feared dead after a plane they were on apparently crashed off Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast on Friday, officials said.
The Costa Rican Ministry of Public Security posted on Facebook on Friday saying a plane heading from Mexico to Limon, Costa Rica, lost contact with the control tower at Costa Rica’s Juan Santamaria International Airport at about 6 p.m. local time (8 p.m. ET) while flying over the northeastern Parismina area off the country’s Caribbean coast.
CNN was given access to a copy of the flight manifest by the Public Security Ministry. Schaller, a German national and business tycoon, along with four other German nationals and a pilot, were aboard the private flight on Friday, according to the manifest. Among the German nationals were Schaller’s partner, Christiane Schikorsky, and two minors.
According to Martin Arias, the vice president of the Ministry of Public Security, the coast guard conducted a search operation in the Caribbean Sea starting at 5 a.m. local time on Saturday, and at 5:50 a.m., the remains of an aircraft were found 28 kilometers from Costa Rica’s Limon Airport.
Arias said the Red Cross has been asked to assist with search and rescue operations.
Costa Rica’s Minister of Public Security Jorge Torres Carillo tweeted on his verified account Saturday that the private plane was carrying a “foreign crew” and that two bodies have been recovered.
The German Foreign Office told CNN it is aware of the situation and that the German Embassy in the Costa Rican capital of San José is in contact with local authorities for further clarification.
“The embassy also stands ready to provide consular assistance to the families of the persons affected,” the German Foreign Office said.
Schaller is the founder and CEO of the RSG Group, which includes McFit, John Reed and Gold’s Gym fitness studios.
Jim Thorpe reinstated as sole winner for 1912 Olympic golds
LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Jim Thorpe has been reinstated as the sole winner of the 1912 Olympic pentathlon and decathlon in Stockholm — nearly 110 years after being stripped of those gold medals for violations of strict amateurism rules of the time.
The International Olympic Committee announced the change Friday on the 110th anniversary of Thorpe winning the decathlon and later being proclaimed by King Gustav V of Sweden as “the greatest athlete in the world.”
Thorpe, a Native American, returned to a ticker-tape parade in New York, but months later it was discovered he had been paid to play minor league baseball over two summers, an infringement of the Olympic amateurism rules. He was stripped of his gold medals in what was described as the first major international sports scandal.
To some, Thorpe remains the greatest all-around athlete ever. He was voted as the Associated Press’ Athlete of the Half Century in a poll in 1950.
In 1982 — 29 years after Thorpe’s death — the IOC gave duplicate gold medals to his family but his Olympic records were not reinstated, nor was his status as the sole gold medalist of the two events.
Two years ago, a Bright Path Strong petition advocated declaring Thorpe the outright winner of the pentathlon and decathlon in 1912. The IOC had listed him as a co-champion in the official record book.
“We welcome the fact that, thanks to the great engagement of Bright Path Strong, a solution could be found,” IOC President Thomas Bach said. “This is a most exceptional and unique situation, which has been addressed by an extraordinary gesture of fair play from the National Olympic Committees concerned.”
Thorpe’s Native American name, Wa-Tho-Huk, means “Bright Path.” The organization with the help of IOC member Anita DeFrantz had contacted the Swedish Olympic Committee and the family of Hugo Wieslander, who had been elevated to decathlon gold medalist in 1913.
“They confirmed that Wieslander himself had never accepted the Olympic gold medal allocated to him, and had always been of the opinion that Jim Thorpe was the sole legitimate Olympic gold medalist,” the IOC said, adding that the Swedish Olympic Committee agreed.
“The same declaration was received from the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports, whose athlete, Ferdinand Bie, was named as the gold medalist when Thorpe was stripped of the pentathlon title,” the IOC said.
Bie will be listed as the silver medalist in the pentathlon, and Wieslander with silver in the decathlon.
World Athletics, the governing body of track and field, has also agreed to amend its records, the IOC said.
Bright Path Strong commended the IOC for “setting the record straight” about the Sac and Fox and Potawatomi athlete.
“We are so grateful this nearly 110-year-old injustice has finally been corrected, and there is no confusion about the most remarkable athlete in history,” said Nedra Darling, the organization co-founder and citizen of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation.
At world championships in Eugene, Oregon, Native American hammer thrower Janee’ Kassanavoid said the announcement was news to celebrate.
“My ultimate goal is to follow in his footsteps, to inspire and empower the next generation of athletes to come,” she said.
As the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal for the United States, Thorpe “has inspired our people for generations,” said Fawn Sharp, president of the National Congress of American Indians.
In Stockholm, Thorpe tripled the score of his nearest competitor in the pentathlon and had 688 more points than the second-placed finisher in the decathlon.
During the closing ceremony, King Gustav V told Thorpe: “Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world.”
Olympics latest: Chinese skating pair leads as host nation wins best-ever 8 golds
The Winter Olympics are drawing to a close with the sports showcase set to wrap up on Sunday. There’s been plenty off action on and off the slopes.
New records have been set, U.S.-born skier Eileen Gu has taken the Games by storm as she competes for host China and there have been a few shockers too with hockey giants Canada and Team U.S.A. bounced from the tournament early.
But controversy has swirled as Russian teen skating sensation Kamila Valieva battled doping allegations. Sport’s highest court still cleared her to compete in a widely criticized decision.
Geopolitical tensions are also hanging over the event amid fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the U.S. and a handful of allies launched a diplomatic boycott over China’s rights record, and the highly transmissible omicron coronavirus variant tested Beijing’s bid to put on a safe event.
For all our coverage, visit our Beijing Winter Olympics page.
Read our in-depth coverage:
— Star skier Eileen Gu faces slippery slope after Beijing success
— Xi’s Olympics diplomacy stumbles as leaders avoid Beijing Games
— Indian skier from small Kashmir village reaches Beijing Olympics
— Inconsistent COVID tests bedevil athletes at Beijing Olympics
Entries include files from wire services and Nikkei Asia reporters.
Here are the latest developments:
Friday, Feb. 18 (Tokyo time)
11:55 p.m. Chinese figure skating pair Sui Wenjing and Han Cong lead the short program in the pairs event after breaking their own world record score.
4:49 p.m. Eileen Gu’s dominant win in the halfpipe added to host China’s best ever gold medal tally at a Winter Games. China now has eight golds and 14 medals in all. Defending champion Norway’s gold medal tally at Beijing is 15 — a record for any nation at a single Winter Olympics.
4:04 p.m. The World Anti-Doping Agency accuses the Court of Arbitration for Sport of ignoring global rules when it upheld a Russian agency’s decision to lift the provisional doping suspension of teenage figure skater Kamila Valieva at the Games.
3:42 p.m. Finland claims a 2-0 win over Slovakia to reach the men’s ice hockey final. They’ll face off against Russia or Sweden.
3:07 p.m. Tennis world number one Novak Djokovic says he has unfinished business at the Olympics and will be gunning for gold at Paris 2024. His quest for an Olympic gold in Tokyo ended in a semi-final defeat to Germany’s Alexander Zverev.
2:40 p.m. InternationalOlympic Committe president Thomas Bach says he was “very disturbed” watching Russian teen skater Kamila Valieva’s meltdown that resulted in her fourth place finish in women’s figure skating. He also hit out at her team, saying it was “chilling” to see her entourage criticize the 15-year-old for her performance.
12:01 p.m. Freestyle sensation Eileen Gu has done it. She grabbed her second gold of the Games in the women’s halfpipe final. That is three medals in all for the 18-year-old at her first Olympics. She also makes history as the first athlete to win three medals in three different freestyle skiing disciplines.
10:40 a.m. The women’s freeski halfpipe final is underway. Could be some history in the making here. Chinese freestyle superstar Eileen Gu is gunning for gold after taking gold and silver earlier in the Games. If she ends up on podium today, she’ll be the first athlete to win three medals in three different freestyle skiing disciplines.
10:35 a.m. We’re down to the final four in men’s ice hockey after favorites Team U.S.A and Canada were both eliminated in shock upsets. Slovakia faces off against Finland in today’s first semifinal, followed by the Russian taking on Sweden for a place in the final.
4:45 a.m. Some reactions to the women’s figure skating final.
Evgeni Plushenko, the four-time Olympic medalist men’s figure skater from Russia, calls gold-medal winner Anna Shcherbakova a “Russian Rocket” on Instagram. He tells fourth-place Kamila Valieva that “sometimes you have to fall” in order to take off in the future.
1:15 a.m. A visibly distraught Alexandra Trusova was overheard as saying “I hate skating” after her silver-medal-winning performance in Beijing.
The 17-year-old Russian appeared upset at the scoring of her routine, which put her second despite her multiple quadruple jumps.
“I will never skate again,” Reuters reports her as saying. In the end, Trusova stood on the medal platform with gold winner Anna Shcherbakova bronze medalist Kaori Sakamoto.
Thursday, Feb. 17
11:00 p.m. Embattled skater Kamila Valieva finishes fourth for the Russian Olympic Committee.
The 15-year-old Valieva, who is skating despite revelations she tested positive for a banned substance in December, has some uncharacteristic slip-ups in the women’s figure skating free skate.
Compatriot Anna Shcherbakova wins gold. Fellow Russian Alexandra Trusova finishes second for silver, while Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto takes home bronze in a tearful climax to the much-anticipated event.
Russian skater Anna Shcherbakova performs at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games.
© Reuters
Russian figure skater Alexandra Trusova gives her silver-medal-willing performance at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games on Feb. 17.
© Kyodo
Kaori Sakamoto of Japan in action in the women’s free skate at 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
© Reuters
7:15 p.m. Switzerland’s ski cross head coach criticizes Beijing Olympics judges after athlete Fanny Smith lost out on a bronze medal when she was penalized for kicking a rival in the women’s final.
7:14 p.m. Japan’s Miho Takagi clinches her first gold of the Beijing Olympics, following up on the three other medals she has already won in the Winter Games so far, as she sailed to victory in the women’s 1,000 meters speed skating.
Japanese speed skater Miho Takagi celebrates after setting an Olympic record and winning gold.
© Reuters
7:10 p.m. The women’s free skate has started. Russian teen star Kamila Valieva is up last as she goes for gold. But there won’t be any medals handed out tonight because the 15-year-old’s doping case has to be resolved first.
4:55 p.m. Canada beats the United States 3-2 to win the women’s ice hockey final, reclaiming the gold medal the Americans had taken from them four years ago in Pyeongchang.
4:38 p.m. Politics enters the Olympics again as an official for the Beijing Games declares “there is only one China” when the subject of Taiwan’s presence at the closing ceremony comes up. She also describes claims of rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang region as “lies.”
4:31 p.m. Gold medal favorite Mikaela Shiffrin suffers yet another disappointment after failing to finish a race for the third time at the Games.
2:55 p.m. No new cases of COVID-19 reported inside the Olympics “closed loop” for the first time Thursday, a victory for organizers who have gone to extreme measures to prevent outbreaks.
1:37 p.m. Eileen Gu may be the world’s best freestyle skier with legions of adoring fans, but she says she still has to win over her doubting grandma who would prefer that she becomes a doctor or a lawyer.” She’s never watched me compete,” the 18-year-old said. “She’s going to be unfazed and unimpressed I think.”
1:36 p.m. International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach offers U.S. figure skaters Olympic torches as holdover gifts while they await a resolution of the Russian doping case that is preventing them from receiving their silver medals, The Associated Press reports.
11:20 a.m. Skiing sensation Eileen Gu is sitting at the top of the pack in the women’s halfpipe qualifiers after two first-class runs. The U.S.-born Gu, competing for China, is aiming to land her third medal at Beijing 2022 after picking up a gold and silver.
11:00 a.m. The women’s figure skating finals kick off at 7:00 p.m. Be sure to tune in as Russian teen Kamila Valieva goes for gold with controversy swirling over her failed drug test. No medals will be handed out though until the case is resolved.
2:05 a.m. Another shock upset in men’s ice hockey. Sweden beats medal favorite Canada 2-0 to advance to the semifinals. Minnows Slovakia bounced Team U.S.A. from the tournament just hours earlier in another unexpected twist.
12:40 a.m. Japan defeats the U.S. 10-7 in women’s curling at the end of round-robin play. With the loss, the U.S. is out of contention for a medal. The Japanese team, which won bronze at Pyeongchang in 2018, advances.
Wednesday, Feb. 16
11:39 a.m. Another doping case hits The Games. Ukrainian cross-country skier Valentyna Kaminska is suspended after testing positive for an anabolic androgenic steroid and two stimulants, the International Testing Agency said.
10:49 p.m. Finland crushes Switzerland 4-0 to claim the women’s ice hockey bronze medal. Finland wins the bronze for the fourth time in seven Olympic tournaments.
10:35 p.m. Choi Min-jeong of South Korea wins the short track speedskating women’s 1,500-meter event. Italy’s Arianna Fontana takes the silver medal, and Suzanne Schulting of the Netherlands claims bronze.
10:26 p.m. Charles Hamelin captures his fourth Olympic title as he leads Canada to the gold medal in the short track speedskating men’s 5,000-meter relay, holding off silver medalist South Korea. Italy takes the bronze.
4:08 p.m. Medal favorite Team USA is knocked out of the men’s ice hockey tournament after Slovakia pulls off a stunning shootout win to advance to the semifinals. That sets up a chance for the country to take its first-ever Olympic medal in the sport.
1:34 p.m. An International Olympic Committee spokesman says his “heart goes out” to figure skaters who won’t get to take part in a medals ceremony because of the Russian doping case. The case needs to be resolved first, and that won’t happen before Games end on Sunday.
1:29 p.m. A person who made and sold knockoffs of Olympic mascots Bing Dwen Dwen and Shuey Rhon Rhon has been sentenced to a year in prison and fined 40,000 yuan ($6,300), reports say, as Chinese officials launch a crackdown on copyright infringement at the event.
1:00 p.m. India’s Winter Olympic dreams are over. The country’s only athlete, skier Arif Khan, failed to finish the slalom today. He got off to a good start but then veered off course in the final stretch.
Arif Khan was the only athlete competing for India in the Winter Olympics.
© Kyodo
6:40 a.m. Combination of three heart drugs in teen Russian skater Valieva’s system “seem to be aimed at increasing endurance, reducing fatigue and promoting greater efficiency in using oxygen,” says United States Anti-Doping Agency Chief Executive Officer Travis Tygart.
6:39 a.m. Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, whose doping case has rocked the Beijing Olympics, had three drugs that could be used to treat heart conditions in the sample she provided at a pre-Games event, The New York Times reports. Two of the three drugs are not on banned list. Valieva, 15, has alleged a mix-up with her grandfather’s medication.
4:10 a.m. Nigerian monobob and skeleton competitor Simidele Adeagbo lodges a formal complaint with the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF), alleging gender discrimination in the spots allocated to men and women at the Beijing Games.
2:10 a.m. China’snew digital currency, the e-CNY, is being used to make 2 million yuan ($315,000) or more of payments a day in its latest pilot at the Beijing Winter Olympics, says a top official from the Chinese central bank. Athletes, coaches and media from around the world can use the e-currency via smartphone apps, physical payment cards or wristbands.
Tuesday, Feb. 15
11:25 p.m. Russian teen Kamila Valieva, competing while facing a doping allegation, takes the lead in the women’s figure skating event by winning the short program with a score of 82.16 points.
Russian Anna Shcherbakova, the 2021 world champion, stands second at 80.20. Japanese champion Kaori Sakamoto follows closely in third, with 79.84 points.
10:59 p.m. Russia’s Kamila Valieva takes the lead with 82.16 points, about 8 points below her career-best score.
10:37 p.m. The final six figure skaters in the women’s short program take the ice for their warmup, including Russia’s Kamila Valieva. Japan’s Wakaba Higuchi leads with a score of 73.51 points, but the medal favorites remain to skate.
7:05 p.m. The women’s figure skating short program kicks off with all eyes on Russian teen sensation Kamila Valieva. She’ll take to the ice in a little bit. The 15-year-old, whose failed drug test rocked the skating world, was cleared to compete by sport’s highest court, a decision that drew sharp criticism.
6:44 p.m. Organizers of the Paris 2024 Olympics say they want to ensure the doping case of Russian teenage figure skater Kamila Valieva does not cast a shadow on their own Summer Games. “Paris 2024 is 100% committed to the fight against doping,” they said in a statement to Reuters news agency. “We must use this situation (the Valieva case) to make sure that it does not happen again.”
5:48 p.m. Canada wins gold in the women’s speed skating team pursuit after a mishap by defending champions Japan cost them the top prize.
5:42 p.m. Investors in Chinese manufacturer Yuanlong Yatu are a happy bunch these days. The company’s shares have shot up more than 50% this month on the back of surging demand for souvenirs bearing the image of Games mascot Bing Dwen Dwen, a portly panda that has captured the hearts of millions. Yuanlong Yatu is among just a handful of companies licensed to produce Bing Dwen Dwen stuffed toys.
3:13 p.m. Chinese snowboarder Su Yiming bags another medal for the host country by winning the men’s Big Air. China has 5 gold medals so far, putting it in 7th place. Norway leads the pack with 9 golds.
Chinese snowboarder Su Yiming going for a win at the men’s Big Air event.
© Reuters
3:03 p.m. Russia’s Freestyle Federation says it will complain to the sport’s governing body about the low score handed to Anastasia Tatalina in the women’s freeski slopestyle final. The Russian athlete finished 4th, putting her out of medal contention.
2:15 p.m. Plot thickens in Russian Kamila Valieva’s drug case. Turns out the 15-year-old told sport’s highest court that a banned angina drug got into her system due to contamination from her grandfather’s heart medication.
2:08 p.m. Switzerland’s Corinne Suter wins gold medal in the women’s downhill, beating defending champion Sofia Goggia of Italy by 0.16 seconds.
1:45 p.m. There will be no medals ceremony if Russian teen Kamila Valieva finishes on the podium at the women’s figure skating singles event because her drug case hasn’t been resolved. “We want to allocate the medal to the right person,” Denis Oswald, head of the International Olympic Committee’s disciplinary commission, told reporters.
12:56 p.m. Taking a pork bun out of a plastic container, home favorite Eileen Gu apologizes to reporters for snacking while answering questions. “I just have no other time to eat,” the San Francisco-born skier said after picking up her second medal of the Games.
12:05 p.m. Just one new COVID-19 case detected Monday among athletes and others linked to the Games, organizing comittee says, as officials move to stamp out any virus outbreak. That was the lowest daily figure so far.
12:01 p.m. China’s Eileen Gu narrowly misses second gold at the Games as she grabs silver in the women’s freestyle skiing slopestyle. Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud chalks up a victory with gold-medal performance.
11:55 a.m. Kokomo Murase, competing in her first Olympics, grabs bronze for Japan in the Big Air snowboarding event. Austrian snowboarder Anna Gasser takes gold while New Zealand’s Zoi Sadowski-Synnott picks up a silver medal.
Bronze medallist Kokomo Murase grabs a spot on the podium at Big Air event.
© Reuters
10:36 a.m. China’s intellectual property regulator says it is cracking down on illicit moves to use the trademarked image of massively popular Games mascot Bing Dwen Dwen. Stuffed toys and other souvenirs bearing the portly panda mascot’s image have been flying off the shelves. But only a small number of manufacturers are licensed to reproduce it.
10:21 a.m. Freezing temperatures are causing more problems for Olympic organizers. Tuesday’s biathlon 4 x 7.5 km relay was brought forward by two and a half hours to avoid the evening chill which could see temperatures drop to a frigid minus 15 degrees Celsius (5 Fahrenheit).
10:08 a.m. The women’s figure skating short program kicks off this evening and all eyes will be on Russian teen Kamila Valieva after she was cleared to compete, despite failing a drug test at a pre-Games competition. Valieva is a favorite in the women’s singles, but she said being at the center of a doping case has taken a toll. “It’s as if I don’t have any emotions left. I am happy but at the same time I am emotionally tired,” she told Russian television.
10:01 a.m. Keep your eyes on the women’s slopestyle final today. Eileen Gu is going for another gold at the Games, where the San Francisco-born athlete is competing for host China. She’s been a fan favorite and raking in endorsements. But will she match that success with a second top medal today?
5:58 a.m. The wife of Chinese film director Zhang Yimou says her husband’s role overseeing the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics had pushed his health to the limit. Chen Ting took to China’s Twitter-like Weibo to describe the 71-year-old Oscar-nominee’s “self-harming” work rate. She said she was keen for the Feb. 20 conclusion of the Games.
3:27 a.m. Sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson questions why Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva is allowed to continue competing at the Beijing Games amid a doping charge, months after a positive test for cannabis derailed her own Olympic dreams.
Monday, Feb. 14
10:49 p.m. China’s Xu Mengtao finally claims her elusive Olympic gold medal as she triumphs in a dramatic final of the freestyle skiing women’s aerials.
8:30 p.m. The IOC says that if Russia’s Kamila Valieva finishes in the top three in the women’s singles figure skating, “no flower ceremony and no medal ceremony will take place” during the Games. It adds that in the “interest of fairness” it would “not be appropriate” to hold the ceremony for the team event that Russia won, “as it would include an athlete who on the one hand has a positive A-sample, but whose violation of the anti-doping rules has not yet been established on the other hand.”
7:30 p.m. Japanese superstar figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu tells reporters that he is not sure if the Beijing Games will be his last Olympics, after his disappointing fourth-place finish.
“I thought the Olympics are special and this is the stage worth standing up for even if you are injured,” Hanyu says, referring to the ankle injury that has hampered him all season. “There is no other stage like this … I have a desire to skate here again.”
He also admits to feeling pressure to win a third consecutive gold medal. “Now I’m free from the pressure … but I want to continue taking pride in being a two-time Olympic gold medalist,” he says. “I want to live so that the me of tomorrow will be proud of me today.”
3:42 p.m. The Russian figure skating federation is unsurprisingly happy about the decision to let Valieva skate, calling it a “triumph of common sense and justice.”
3:41 p.m. U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee CEO Sarah Hirshland says the Valieva ruling sends a “disappointing message.” “This appears to be another chapter in the systematic and pervasive disregard for clean sport by Russia,” Hirshland adds.
3:20 p.m. It remains unclear if other members of the Russian team can receive their gold medals. The second-place Team USA and Japan in third are also waiting for news. The figure skating team event medals ceremony was postponed because of Valieva’s case.
3:19 p.m. The sports court did not address Valieva’s drug case — she was found to have a banned angina drug in her system. But it flagged “serious issues of untimely notification of the results.” No details are given on why her failed drug test was revealed more than a month after it was taken. “Such late notification was not her fault, in the middle of the Olympic Winter Games,” the ruling said of the teen.
3:18 p.m. The International Olympic Committee, the World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Skating Union had appealed a decision by Russia’s anti-doping agency to lift a provisional doping suspension of Valieva, which cleared the way for her to compete at the Olympics.
3:17 p.m. The result of the positive drug test was not revealed until Feb. 8 after Valieva had competed in the team event at the Winter Games, dazzling the world with the first quad jumps ever completed in the women’s Olympic competition. Her gold medal was on the line before Monday’s ruling in her favor.
3:15 p.m. Valieva’s case is exceptional and not letting her compete would do the teen “irreparable damage,” the court says. The three judges add it was not her fault that results from a pre-Games drug test were only disclosed during the Beijing Olympics. She is one of the youngest athletes to face a doping charge during the Olympics.
3:05 p.m. Russian skating sensation Kamila Valieva is cleared to compete despite failing a drug test linked to an event before the Games, multiple media outlets report, citing a decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The 15-year-old is a favorite in the women’s singles event on Tuesday.
12:51 p.m. Two-time gold medalist Jamie Anderson’s Olympic dreams are dashed as the American snowboarder fails to qualify for the Big Air finals.
12:39 p.m. The IOC spokesman says he “sincerely hopes” the Games are not remembered for the Valieva doping case. The teen Russian skater’s positive test for a banned substance wasn’t linked to Beijing 2022, but it has “ramifications” that must be dealt with now, he adds.
10:48 a.m. Winter sports powerhouse Norway sits at the top of the table with 9 gold medals. The Germans are hot on its heels with 8 golds while the Dutch squad has 6 in its pocket.
9:16 a.m. Athletes could face more blizzards and frigid temperatures, but the deteriorating conditions won’t derail games, says Huang Shanjiang, director of Zhangjiakou Meteorological Station. “The Games are at most delayed or postponed, but not interrupted,” he is quoted as saying.
5:54 a.m. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) finishes its hearing on Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva. A final decision on the teenager, who tested positive for a banned drug, will be announced later Monday. The 15-year-old prodigy’s gold medal is on the line. The situation presents another embarrassment for Russia, which was already competing without its flag and anthem owing to previous doping violations.
12:20 a.m. Japan Olympic team captain Miho Takagi on Sunday claims her second speedskating silver medal of these Beijing Games, finishing just behind new champion Erin Jackson of the United States in the women’s 500 meters. Defending Olympic champion Nao Kodaira falls short in her bid to win a second straight 500 crown, finishing 17th
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To catch up on earlier developments, see the previous version of latest updates.
NASA GOLD’s Bird’s-Eye Reveals Mysterious Dynamics in Earth’s Interface to Space
Processes in Earth’s upper atmosphere create bright swaths of color known as airglow, as seen here in an image taken from the International Space Station. Credit: NASA
New research using data from 
NASA’s GOLD mission – short for Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk – saw a surprising asymmetric motion in one of the twin bands of charged particles that form in Earth’s atmosphere at night. GOLD’s unique perspective (right) made this observation possible, as other types of measurements made from ground-based instruments (left) can’t see changes that happen over open waters. The red dots show the peak of the electron band as measured by ground-based sensors that measure total electron content, while the black dots show the peak of the electron band measured by GOLD. Towards the end of the visualization, the measured peaks appear in different places. Credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio
This means the ionosphere and upper atmosphere are shaped by a host of complex factors, including space weather conditions – such as geomagnetic storms, driven by the Sun – and terrestrial weather. These regions also act as a highway for many of our communications and navigation signals. Changes in the ionosphere’s density and composition can muddle the signals passing through, like radio and GPS.
From its vantage point on a commercial communications satellite in geostationary orbit, GOLD makes hemisphere-wide observations of the ionosphere about every 30 minutes. This unprecedented birds-eye view is giving scientists new insights into how this region changes.
Mysterious movement
One of the nighttime ionosphere’s most distinctive features are twin bands of dense charged particles on either side of Earth’s magnetic equator. These bands – called the Equatorial Ionization Anomaly, or EIA – can change in size, shape, and intensity, depending on the conditions in the ionosphere.
The bands can also move position. Until now, scientists have relied on data captured by satellites passing through the region, averaging measurements over months to see just how the bands might be shifting in the long term. But short-term changes were more difficult to track.
Before GOLD, scientists suspected that any quick changes that happen in the bands would be symmetrical. If the northern band moves north, the southern band makes a mirror motion south. One night in November 2018, though, GOLD saw something that challenged this idea: the southern band of particles drifted southward, while the northern band remained steady – all in less than two hours.
The shape of Earth’s magnetic field (represented by orange lines in this data visualization) near the equator drive charged particles (blue) away from the equator, creating two dense bands just north and south of the equator known as the equatorial ionization anomaly. Credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio
This isn’t the first time scientists have seen the bands move like this, but this shorter event – only about two hours, compared to a more typical six to eight hours seen prior – was seen for the first time, and could only have been observed by GOLD. The observations are outlined in a paper published on December 29, 2020, in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics.
The symmetrical drifting of these bands is caused by rising air that drags charged particles along with it. As night falls and temperatures cool, warmer pockets of air surge upwards. The charged particles carried within these warmer air pockets are bound by magnetic field lines, and for those pockets near Earth’s magnetic equator the shape of Earth’s magnetic field means that upward motion also pushes the charged particles horizontally. This creates the symmetrical northward and southward drift of the two charged particle bands.
The exact cause of the asymmetric drift observed by GOLD is still a mystery – though Cai suspects the answer lies in some combination of the many factors that shape the motion of electrons in the ionosphere: ongoing chemical reactions, electric fields, and high-altitude winds blowing through the region.
Though surprising, these findings can help scientists peer behind the curtain of the ionosphere and better understand what drives its changes. Because it’s impossible to observe every process with a satellite or ground-based sensor, scientists rely heavily on computer models to study the ionosphere, much like models that help meteorologists predict weather on the ground. To create these simulations, scientists code in what they suspect are the underlying physics at work and compare the model’s prediction to observed data.
Before GOLD, scientists got that data from occasional passing satellites and limited ground-based observations. Now, GOLD gives scientists a bird’s-eye view.
Reference: “Observation of Postsunset OI 135.6 nm Radiance Enhancement Over South America by the GOLD Mission” by Xuguang Cai, Alan G. Burns, Wenbin Wang, Liying Qian, Jing Liu, Stanley C. Solomon, Richard W. Eastes, Robert E. Daniell, Carlos R. Martinis, William E. McClintock and Inez S. Batista, 29 December 202, Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics.
DOI: 10.1029/2020JA028108
GOLD’s bird’s-eye reveals dynamics in Earth’s interface to space
New research using data from NASA’s Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk, or GOLD, mission, has revealed unexpected behavior in the swaths of charged particles that band Earth’s equator—made possibly by GOLD’s long-term global view, the first of its kind for this type of measurement.
GOLD is in geostationary orbit, which means it orbits around Earth at the same pace the planet turns and “hovers” over the same spot overhead. This allows GOLD to watch the same area for changes over time across longitude and latitude, something that most satellites studying the upper atmosphere can’t do.
“Since GOLD is on a geostationary satellite, we can capture 2D time evolution of these dynamics,” said Dr. Xuguang Cai, a researcher at the High Altitude Observatory in Boulder, Colorado, and lead author on a new research paper.
GOLD focuses on parts of Earth’s upper atmosphere stretching from about 50 to 400 miles in altitude, including a neutral layer called the thermosphere and the electrically charged particles that make up the ionosphere. Unlike the neutral particles in most of Earth’s atmosphere, the ionosphere’s charged particles respond to the electric and magnetic fields threading through the atmosphere and near-Earth space. But because the charged and neutral particles are mixed together, something that influences one population can also impact the other.
This means the ionosphere and upper atmosphere are shaped by a host of complex factors, including space weather conditions—such as geomagnetic storms, driven by the Sun—and terrestrial weather. These regions also act as a highway for many of our communications and navigation signals. Changes in the ionosphere’s density and composition can muddle the signals passing through, like radio and GPS.
From its vantage point on a commercial communications satellite in geostationary orbit, GOLD makes hemisphere-wide observations of the ionosphere about every 30 minutes. This unprecedented birds-eye view is giving scientists new insights into how this region changes.
Mysterious movement
One of the nighttime ionosphere’s most distinctive features are twin bands of dense charged particles on either side of Earth’s magnetic equator. These bands—called the Equatorial Ionization Anomaly, or EIA—can change in size, shape, and intensity, depending on the conditions in the ionosphere.
The bands can also move position. Until now, scientists have relied on data captured by satellites passing through the region, averaging measurements over months to see just how the bands might be shifting in the long term. But short-term changes were more difficult to track.
Before GOLD, scientists suspected that any quick changes that happen in the bands would be symmetrical. If the northern band moves north, the southern band makes a mirror motion south. One night in November 2018, though, GOLD saw something that challenged this idea: the southern band of particles drifted southward, while the northern band remained steady—all in less than two hours.
This isn’t the first time scientists have seen the bands move like this, but this shorter event—only about two hours, compared to a more typical six to eight hours seen prior—was seen for the first time, and could only have been observed by GOLD. The observations are outlined in a paper published on Dec. 29, 2020, in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics.
The symmetrical drifting of these bands is caused by rising air that drags charged particles along with it. As night falls and temperatures cool, warmer pockets of air surge upwards. The charged particles carried within these warmer air pockets are bound by magnetic field lines, and for those pockets near Earth’s magnetic equator the shape of Earth’s magnetic field means that upward motion also pushes the charged particles horizontally. This creates the symmetrical northward and southward drift of the two charged particle bands.
The exact cause of the asymmetric drift observed by GOLD is still a mystery—though Cai suspects the answer lies in some combination of the many factors that shape the motion of electrons in the ionosphere: ongoing chemical reactions, electric fields, and high-altitude winds blowing through the region.
Though surprising, these findings can help scientists peer behind the curtain of the ionosphere and better understand what drives its changes. Because it’s impossible to observe every process with a satellite or ground-based sensor, scientists rely heavily on computer models to study the ionosphere, much like models that help meteorologists predict weather on the ground. To create these simulations, scientists code in what they suspect are the underlying physics at work and compare the model’s prediction to observed data.
Before GOLD, scientists got that data from occasional passing satellites and limited ground-based observations. Now, GOLD gives scientists a bird’s-eye view.
NASA GOLD Mission to image Earth’s interface to space
More information:
Xuguang Cai et al, Observation of Postsunset OI 135.6 nm Radiance Enhancement Over South America by the GOLD Mission, Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics (2020). DOI: 10.1029/2020JA028108
Xuguang Cai et al, Observation of Postsunset OI 135.6 nm Radiance Enhancement Over South America by the GOLD Mission, Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics (2020). DOI: 10.1029/2020JA028108
Citation:
GOLD’s bird’s-eye reveals dynamics in Earth’s interface to space (2021, August 30)
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Paralympic Games: First golds up for grabs at Tokyo 2020 First golds up for grabs at Tokyo 2020 as Japan battles Covid increase
There will be 16 medal events in the swimming alone on Wednesday, while four gold medals each are up for grabs on the cycling track and in wheelchair fencing.
Speaking after qualifying for the men’s 400 meters freestyle final on Wednesday afternoon in Japan, Australian swimmer Alexander Tuckfield said getting into the water after the long postponement felt like having a “weight lifted from my shoulders.”
“Five years of just training, training and training for this competition,” Tuckfield said.
The wheelchair basketball and goalball competitions also began on Wednesday, with China’s women’s basketball team beating Algeria 74-25 and the Netherlands defeating Team USA 68-58.
The 2020 Paralympics kicked off with a colorful and celebratory opening ceremony Tuesday night, including a parade of the participating nations led by the six-member Paralympic Refugee Team. One volunteer carried the Afghanistan flag, in honor of Afghan athletes unable to compete in the Games after flights out of the country were canceled after the Taliban seized power.
“If the world has ever labeled you, now is your time to be relabeled: champion, hero, friend, colleague, role model or just human,” said President of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Andrew Parsons on Tuesday night.
“You are the best of humanity and the only ones who can decide who and what you are.”
But not every country attended the opening ceremony: New Zealand’s Paralympic team did not take part due to concerns over the spread of Covid-19.
Japan has seen record coronavirus cases in recent months, with more than 21,000 infections and 42 deaths nationwide reported Tuesday.
Tokyo confirmed 4,220 new cases on Tuesday, taking the total number of infections in August to over 100,000 — the first time a monthly tally has crested 100,000 cases. Last week, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said the situation was a “disaster-level” emergency.
According to the Prime Minister’s office, just over 40% of Japan’s population has been fully vaccinated as of August 22.
The Japanese government is set to decide Wednesday on expanding a state of emergency for Tokyo and 12 other regions to eight more prefectures, according to public broadcaster NHK.
Like the Olympics, the Paralympics are being held almost entirely without spectators to curb the spread of the virus. At least eight Paralympic athletes have tested positive for Covid-19 since August 12, according to the IPC, as well as 33 Games-related personnel.
CNN’s Emiko Jozuka in Tokyo contributed reporting.
Russia Melts Down, Claims U.S. Rigged Olympics to Steal Our Golds
Russia’s decades-long dominance in rhythmic gymnastics was shattered at this year’s Tokyo Olympics, where Russian athletes failed to win the Olympic gold in the individual all-around event for the first time since 1996. In Sunday’s group competition, Russia didn’t win gold either, losing to Bulgaria.
Since authoritarian countries cherish Olympic competitions as a tool to inflame nationalist sentiments and promote their countries’ global standing, Russia’s defeats were loudly rejected by a host of pro-Kremlin voices—who resorted to state media’s time-honored tradition of conspiracy-mongering.
Experts on Russian state television have been trying to read each country’s Olympic gold medals as tea leaves, suggesting that the outcome determines the new global hegemon. Last week, pro-Kremlin pundits, hosts, and experts relished the idea of the “weakened” United States being edged out by China. The host of the state TV show 60 Minutes, Olga Skabeeva, pontificated: “You can’t beat China. They have the most gold medals.” Eager to inject Russia’s notorious transphobic rhetoric into the conversation, Skabeeva added: “And none of them are transgenders, so they will keep procreating.”
To Russia’s dismay, the United States ultimately surpassed China, winning 39 gold medals and 113 medals overall—the most in the world. And that means, according to Russian state TV’s logic, that the U.S. is not relinquishing its global leadership—which does not sit well with Russia.
“Tokyo Olympics are the clearest example of total Russophobia. These Olympic Games stink. Global sports forever ceased being an honest competition, turning into a cheap political farce,” Skabeeva raged on Monday’s broadcast of 60 Minutes. She baselessly alleged: “At the behest of Americans, the International Olympic Committee took away two gold medals from Russia.”
Lawmaker Aleksei Zhuravlyov described other countries competing in the Tokyo Games as “a pack of Russophobic beasts, headed by the United States.” “Americans are freaks. Moral freaks. Why are we even discussing this parade of freaks and perverts?” asked Pyotr Tolstoy, deputy speaker of the Russian State Duma.
Oleg Matveychev, a member of the Russian Expert Institute for Social Research, claimed that Olympic judges’ decisions had been swayed by Russophobic propaganda.
“The medal of the Israeli sportswoman is worthless, she should throw it out,” he said, referring to Linoy Ashram’s win over Russian Dina Averina in the rhythmic gymnastics all-around competition—which the Russian team asked to be overturned. “She hung shame around her neck.” He proceeded to assert that American Olympic victories are “worthless” and likewise are “achieved by cheating,” calling for all U.S. athletes to be allowed to compete only in the Paralympics, because so many of them are “sick.”
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko told TASS on Sunday that the Russian Olympic Committee sent a request to the International Gymnastics Federation about judging in the rhythmic gymnastics. Accusing the judges of being biased, Chernyshenko said: “Naturally, we will not leave unaddressed situations when politics were above objective and fair appraisal of performances of Russian athletes.”
Appearing on state TV channel Rossiya-24, the president of the Russian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation, Irina Viner-Usmanova, claimed: “During these Olympic Games, for the first time in history there has been such horror and mayhem… This outcome was planned in advance.” She added that the decision was supposedly made “not based on the performance and not based on results, but based on the desired outcome.” Viner-Usmanova described the judging of the Olympic event in question as “obscene.”
On her Telegram account, Foreign Affairs Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova explained Russia’s losses by alleging that “Russophobic bastards” could not allow Russia to win and therefore “resorted to fraud in front of the entire world.” Appearing on Monday’s broadcast of 60 Minutes, Zakharova claimed that Russia’s victories and achievements are being usurped by its opponents. “Global sports are in danger,” she complained, bellyaching about “gross injustice” perpetrated against Russian athletes in Tokyo.
RT’s editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, was so upset with the judges of the gymnastics competition that she tweeted: “After the slaughter of our gymnasts by judges from different countries, I really regret not working for the GRU.” GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency, is known to specialize in sabotage and assassinations and was reportedly responsible for the attempted assassination of ex-double agent Sergei Skripal in the English city of Salisbury in 2018.
Russia’s overblown reaction has no basis in reality. The main complaint against the gold medal victory of Israel’s Ashram is that she dropped her ribbon during the last exercise, with Russian sports figures and commentators claiming that such a mess-up would have made it impossible for her to win. However, Averina, the Russian silver medalist in Tokyo, won gold at the 2018 world championship despite the fact that she had dropped her ribbon, beating none other than Ashram into silver. This year, Ashram’s routine exceeded Averina’s in its level of difficulty, with cumulative points securing her victory—even after the deduction for her error.
Disregarding the facts, the head of state-funded RT, Simonyan, described the Olympic judges as “beasts,” posted their names on her Twitter account, and called for the Russians in Tokyo to spit at their backs. Simonyan insisted that Ashram can “remain a human being” only if she returns the gold medal. As a result of the vicious smear campaign waged by Moscow, Ashram’s social media pages have been flooded by hateful comments from resentful Russians.
Aside from wounded pride, Russia’s accusations of rigged Olympics serve another important political agenda: nurturing the narrative of fortress under siege to promote national unity.
Appearing on Monday’s 60 Minutes, Professor Oleg Barabanov of the Russian Academy of Sciences explicitly articulated this approach: “I read a lot of comments on sports forums to decipher public opinions on various topics. I was amazed how unanimously our country supported Dina and [twin sister] Arina Averina in this unfair judging… The biggest outcome is that our entire country saw and understood that there is an ongoing anti-Russian campaign, that we are encircled by the ring of enemies… not only according to the tales of TV propagandists, but in real life. From this point of view, those judges who misjudged Dina Averina did a big, useful thing for the consolidation of Russian society.”
Xbox Live Gold’s New Free Games Met With Backlash
Shame
Hopefully the team at @Xbox is taking the feedback seriously about the quality of GwG. It’s been on a significant decline for years now, likely to make @XboxGamePass look better, but in reality, it just makes Xbox look bad and makes services like PS Plus look even bettter. Shame.
— Jeff (@outrigued) March 1, 2021
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Embarrassing
Games with gold has been terrible for ages. As per an earlier comment the balls of Xbox to try and double the price for the crap on offer. When PlayStation are offering much more when it comes to monthly free games. Look at the last 3 months for both consoles it’s embarrassing.!
— Gaming4Laughs (@gaming4laughs) March 1, 2021
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Absolutely No Effort
How does the person choosing these games sleep at night, knowing that PS Plus beats GWG every month smh. Absolutely no effort, just filler games to get through month after month
— Danny Streets (@DannyStreets1) March 1, 2021
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Do Better
None of these appeal to me except for metal slug…..and I’ve had that for years now.ill go back to AC Valhalla and see what comes next month.
Seriously though….I know they are free and microsoft doesnt have to do this but c’mon…..y’all can do better..have done better.— Joe Endress (@GrandBananna) March 2, 2021
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Wait, Is It April 1st?
Been a xbox fan for years but i have no words for how bad this month gwg is, had to look to see if it was march the 1st or April 1st, I see we are back to 4 games not 5 like last month
— Graham Blundell (@GrahamBlundell2) March 1, 2021
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What Are You Guys Doing?
Wow, I have never complained once about the games being brought to GWG. But this is downright embarrassing, especially after February’s titles. What are you guys doing?
— Lord Incognito (@LordIncognito) March 1, 2021
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Smelly Gym Socks
These games are a huge disappointment. More like Games with a Bag of Smelly Gym Socks.
— Paul Cross (@paulieslim) March 1, 2021
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Shovelware
This month basically shovelware galore. So glad by gold expires this month before my library gets even bloated with gold poisoning.
— cortez (@corteztheg) March 1, 2021
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Is This a Punishment?
Is this a punishment for the price raise backslash?
— Quasmin (@quasmin) March 1, 2021
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These Are Certainly Not Final Fantasy 7 Remake
Final Fantasy VII Remake for PS Plus users this month. Honestly, Games with Gold has been so bad of late. And to think you had the gall to think about doubling the price.
— Oi, Mario, Pipe Down (@JohnSlaterITFC) March 1, 2021
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