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    Ahead of Paris Olympics, France’s Sports Minister Faces Trials by Fire

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    Amélie Oudéa-Castéra’s first year in office brought chaos at the Champions League final and scandals in multiple sports. With the Paris Olympics looming, her toughest days may be ahead.PARIS — It was the middle of September and Amélie Oudéa-Castéra needed to know if there was any truth in the lurid headlines she was reading.As France’s sports minister, Oudéa-Castéra had the power to summon Noël Le Graët, the octogenarian who has run French soccer for more than a decade, and confront him about the allegations about his behavior: serious accusations of inappropriate comments and text messages to female staff members; whispers about heavy lunchtime drinking sessions; news reports that the federation had ignored sexual harassment and sexual abuse.“Before those revelations from the press I personally did not know Noël Le Graët,” Oudéa-Castéra said in an interview last week. “I had never met him.”So Oudéa-Castéra, not yet four months into her post, reached out arranged a meeting. On the appointed day, the two executives sat down at a circular glass table in Oudéa-Castéra’s cavernous sixth-floor office, and she began to ask questions. Unable to reconcile the two conflicting narratives, the news coverage and the denials being offered by Le Graët, Oudéa-Castéra commissioned an independent investigation.By the time it was underway, the stack of problems on her desk had already grown.Dark CloudsThese should be heady days for French sports. The country’s men’s soccer team played in its second straight World Cup final in December, and its women’s squad will be among the favorites in its own championship this summer. France will host the Rugby World Cup later this year, and then step onto the biggest stage in sports in 2024, when it will welcome the world to the Summer Olympics in Paris.All of those events had been expected to bring an outsize focus on French sports and by extension on Oudéa-Castéra, an old friend and college contemporary of President Emmanuel Macron who took the job of sports minister last May. Few could have predicted how hot that spotlight would become.A former junior tennis champion and professional player, Oudéa-Castéra had arrived at the sports ministry from a short stint leading the French tennis federation. She came armed with folders filled with big ideas and grand plans, excited to use her office to promote youth affairs, health and job creation.Instead, she has been fighting fires almost nonstop.Noël Le Graët faces a board vote this week that could see him removed as president of the French soccer federation.Alain Jocard/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesOne of her major headaches may be addressed this week: A decision on the status of Le Graët is expected during a meeting of the soccer federation’s board on Tuesday.But there are more ahead, as leadership scandals, ugly public disputes and mounting security concerns have cast a cloud over French sports that never seems to lift. The soccer federation’s leadership problems, for example, extend far beyond one man. The same is true for rugby. And, most disconcertingly for Oudéa-Castéra, she is still facing withering criticism for her role in the response to security problems at last year’s Champions League final.That game took place only eight days after Oudéa-Castéra took office. But her comments in the aftermath of the match, which descended into chaos after organizational and policing failures saw thousands of Liverpool fans trapped in dangerously small areas, cast her as a central figure in a near disaster, and continue to shadow her to this day. That no one died in the crushes outside the stadium gates, investigators later concluded, was “a matter of chance.”Much of the criticism of Oudéa-Castéra is linked to a specific claim that she and France’s interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, made publicly: that 30,000 to 40,000 fans with fake tickets, or without tickets at all, were partly to blame for the crowd problems.Oudéa-Castéra said she had merely relied on numbers supplied to government officials at the time, and in an interview said that she still believes the figures, in the context they were provided to her, remain true. But the anger, particularly among Liverpool fans, shows no sign of abating. Hours after she sat for an interview in her office last week, a banner was raised in the stands at a Champions League game in Liverpool — a rematch of the final with Real Madrid — that featured cartoon images of Oudéa-Castéra and Darmanin with long noses, captioned with the French word for liars.“Can I ask you a question?” Oudéa-Castéra said, stopping the interview at one point. “It always feels a little bit like we have not apologized.” She has done so repeatedly, she said, writing letters to Liverpool’s chairman and maintaining a regular dialogue with him about the final. She says that she recognizes her initial comments were particularly sensitive for Liverpool fans since some in Paris that day had survived the 1989 Hillsborough disaster.That is why, she said, she has sought to make amends in the nine months since the game. It is also why the ongoing criticism stings. “For me it’s very sensitive because I cannot admit people say that we have lied,” Oudéa-Castéra said. “It’s not true.”Liverpool fans delivered their scathing verdict on Oudéa-Castéra and Gérald Darmanin, France’s interior minister, during a Champions League match last week, calling them liars. Michael Regan/Getty ImagesAn independent report commissioned by European soccer’s governing body came to a different conclusion. It argued that the figures for fans without tickets or with fake tickets had been incorrectly inflated and then stated as fact by top officials “to deflect responsibility for the planning and operational failures of stakeholders.”Oudéa-Castéra acknowledged mistakes were made in real time and in the immediate aftermath as officials scrambled to parse fact from fiction. She said her office eventually concluded ticketing was only one of “seven or eight things” that combined to create a potentially deadly crush. But she also conceded that the veracity of official remarks was not the only issue.“The one thing we should have clearly done much better was right from Minute 1 to say how sorry we were to Liverpool fans,” she said. “Clearly the time lag in showing that sorrow and that empathy lacked.”Weeks after the chaotic scenes at the Stade de France, Oudéa-Castéra and others were summoned by a French Senate committee to explain the failures. Almost as soon as the senate delivered its verdict in July, though, she was facing a whole new set of crises.New ProblemsWeeks after the Senate hearing, chaos engulfed the organizers of the Rugby World Cup, which will be the biggest sporting event in France before next year’s Olympics.In August, the tournament’s chief executive was suspended and Oudéa-Castéra ordered an investigation amid reports of a “climate of terror” within the organizing committee. In October, the chief executive, Claude Atcher, was fired.The plans for the tournament were further undermined when the powerful head of French rugby, Bernard Laporte, was convicted in December on charges of corruption and influence peddling. Laporte resigned in January, reportedly minutes before he arrived for a meeting in which Oudéa-Castéra was to be present.(Days later, the head of France’s national handball league, Bruno Martini, was out, too; he quit after pleading guilty in a child pornography case.)Oudéa-Castéra with Alexandre Martinez, right, the interim president of the embattled French rugby federation, at France’s Six Nations game against Scotland on Sunday.Franck Fife/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesPersuading Le Graët, the French soccer federation’s president, to leave has proved a far sterner task. Oudéa-Castéra has said publicly that he should resign but has to date declined to fire Le Graët herself, wary that ignoring the autonomy of French sports bodies — and soccer’s rules about government interference — might only make the situation worse.She has done little, though, to hide her opinions. Even before the investigation into Le Graët’s conduct had been completed, Oudéa-Castéra said she worried that he had begun to exhibit what she labeled “weird” behavior. First, he infuriated the French government by downplaying concerns over the treatment of migrant laborers in Qatar ahead of the World Cup. Then, after the tournament ended, he enraged fans and others by making derogatory statements about the French soccer legend Zinedine Zidane.“It was so inappropriate, so disrespectful, that you can only feel that is someone who is not 100 percent with his mind there,” Oudéa-Castéra said.The investigation has only strengthened Oudéa-Castéra’s belief that Le Graët should step down or be removed. “He cannot continue,” she said. “That is clear.”Asked why well-established problems inside the soccer federation, including accusations of bullying, harassment and sexism by top administrators reported by The New York Times in 2020, were only now being examined, Oudéa-Castéra said the true scale of the crisis had only recently emerged.Virgile Caillet, a former senior official at France’s athletics federation, said it was more likely something else that had stalled a reckoning: “a lack of courage” by sports administrators unwilling to take on powerful officials.Fabien Archambault, a sports historian, argued that Oudéa-Castéra’s presence in the post underlined its importance to Macron, especially as the Olympics approach. Previous sports ministers wielded far less power than Oudéa-Castéra, Archambault said, and would not have taken on entrenched leaders the way she has without the French president’s full support.“We have to do it,” Oudéa-Castéra said, “because there is also the need for the image of France to be a clean and positive one before we welcome the world.”The Current StormFor now, the focus in France remains on Le Graët, a man with powerful allies.After Oudéa-Castéra publicly called on him to resign in January following his comments about Zidane, FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, wrote to the French federation to remind it of the organization’s firm rules on government interference.“I think they wanted to say, ‘OK, the state is something, but we should be managing our own destiny,’” Oudéa-Castéra said. “In France it doesn’t work this way.”That will mean new oversight for soccer and other sports. It will mean a new focus on security ahead of the Olympics, and on fan safety during the Games. It will mean navigating a treacherous path between the International Olympic Committee, which is studying ways to return Russian athletes to competition, and a group of more than 30 nations — including France — that wants to see Russians banned while the war in Ukraine continues.It also suggests that the pile of problems on the desk in Oudéa-Castéra’s office will only continue to grow.“The responsibility is very heavy so I try to leverage every minute to be up to the challenge,” she said. “It’s clearly the challenge of my life.”The Stade de France, the site of serious crowd control failures at last May’s Champions League final, and the venue for track and field events and the closing ceremony at the Paris Olympics.James Hill for The New York Times More

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      An Australian Open Final With Tennis and Debate on the Ukraine War

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      Nearly a year after Russia invaded Ukraine, a Russian-turned-Kazakh will play a Belarusian in the finals, which is sure to stir the debate over whether athletes from those countries should participate in international sports.MELBOURNE, Australia — In the two women’s semifinal matches at the Australian Open on Thursday night, geopolitics won in straight sets.For nearly a year, professional tennis — the most international of sports with its globe-trotting schedule and players from all over the world — has tried to balance its stated opposition to the Russian president Vladimir V. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine with its hopes that its competitions rise above the quagmire of international politics.It is not going well. Geopolitics has been everywhere at the Australian Open and will be on center stage in the women’s final.It has been 11 months since the sport banned Russia and Belarus from participating in team events at tournaments, as well as any symbol that identified those countries. It’s been nine months since Wimbledon prohibited players representing Russia and Belarus from competing, and it’s unclear whether they will be able to play this year. Players from Ukraine have lobbied to have them barred from all events instead of simply not being allowed to play under their flags or for their countries.That has not happened, and on Saturday Elena Rybakina, a native Russian who became a citizen of Kazakhstan five years ago in exchange for financial support, and Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus will meet for the women’s singles title.Both Rybakina and Sabalenka, who blast serves and pummel opponents into submission, played tight first sets, then ran away with their matches.Rybakina beat Victoria Azarenka, another Belarusian, 7-6 (4), 6-3, while Sabalenka topped Magda Linette of Poland, 7-6 (1), 6-2. Conditions at this tournament — warm weather, balls the players say are tough to spin — have favored the big flat hitters since the first round, making the final showdown between Rybakina and Sabalenka almost inevitable.The 2023 Australian OpenThe year’s first Grand Slam event runs from Jan. 16 to Jan. 29 in Melbourne.No Spotlight, No Problem: In tennis, there is a long history of success and exposure crushing champions or sucking the joy out of them. In this Australian Open, players under the radar have gone far.Victoria Azarenka’s ‘Little Steps’: The Belarusian player took a more process-oriented approach than in the past. The outcomes were strong.Behind the Scenes: A coterie of billionaires, deep-pocketed companies and star players has engaged for months in a high-stakes battle to lead what they view as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to disrupt the sport.Endless Games: As matches stretch into the early-morning hours, players have grown concerned for their health and performance.The matchup is sure to rekindle the debate over Russian and Belarusian participation in sports, a discussion that has become increasingly heated in recent days, both at this tournament and throughout the world. Rybakina’s and Sabalenka’s victories occurred hours after videos surfaced of Novak Djokovic’s father, Srdjan, posing with fans who waved a Russian flag and wore the pro-war “Z” logo and voicing his support of Russia, against tournament rules. Serbia and Russia have close historical and cultural ties.Another video raised the ire of Ukraine’s ambassador to Australia and New Zealand, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, who wrote on Twitter, “It’s a full package. Among the Serbian flags, there is: a Russian flag, Putin, Z-symbol, so-called Donetsk People’s Republic flag.”Last week, Tennis Australia, organizers of the Australian Open, prohibited fans from exhibiting any form of the Russian or Belarusian flags or other symbols that supported Russia’s war in Ukraine.On Thursday, Tennis Australia said four people waving the banned flags had been detained and questioned by the police for both revealing the “inappropriate flags” and threatening security guards.Djokovic, the nine-time Australian Open champion, plays in the semifinals Friday against Tommy Paul of the United States.On Wednesday, the International Olympic Committee made clear that it was intent on having athletes from Russia and Belarus at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. The move went against the stated wishes of Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, who lobbied President Emmanuel Macron of France on the issue earlier this week.The I.O.C. last year recommended that sports federations not allow athletes from those countries to compete, a move it said protected Olympic sports from having the national governments in countries hosting competitions from inserting their politics into sports. Most international sports federations have followed that recommendation, but a few have recently relaxed their stances.In a statement Wednesday, the organization said, “No athlete should be prevented from competing just because of their passport.” The I.O.C. said it planned to pursue “a pathway for athletes’ participation in competition under strict conditions.” If it follows recent precedent, that will most likely involve requiring Russians and Belarusians to compete either under a neutral flag or no flag at all and in uniforms without their national colors.Russian and Belarusian athletes could also compete in the Asian Games later this year, which will serve as an Olympic qualifier.The geopolitical strife at the Australian Open hasn’t even been limited to the war in Ukraine. Karen Khachanov of Russia, who faces Stefanos Tsitsipas in a semifinal Friday, has been writing messages of support to the people of Nagorno-Karabakh. The area is a long-disputed enclave that is home to tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians within Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized borders, where a full-scale war was fought in 2020. Since December, Azerbaijani activists have blocked a main supply route for Nagorno-Karabakh, causing a growing humanitarian crisis.Karen Khachanov of Russia, who faces Stefanos Tsitsipas in a semifinal Friday, has been writing messages of support to the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.Ng Han Guan/Associated PressKhachanov, who is of Armenian descent and has spent extensive time in the country, said Wednesday he “just wanted to show strength and support to my people.”Khachanov’s messages prompted officials in Azerbaijan to write to the International Tennis Federation demanding it punish Khachanov. His messages do not violate any tournament or federation rules. He said Wednesday no one had told him to stop writing them.All this has put tennis back where it was last summer at Wimbledon. The tournament, along with the Lawn Tennis Association, prohibited players from participating in the sport’s most prestigious event and the lead-up tournaments in Britain.The men’s and women’s tours responded by refusing to award rankings points, an attempt to essentially turn Wimbledon into an exhibition. All the Grand Slams are supposed to abide by the sport’s rules prohibiting discrimination, but not awarding points for wins at Wimbledon also turned the tour’s rankings into something of a farce.Rybakina, a Russian through her childhood who became a citizen of Kazakhstan at 18 when the country promised to pay for her tennis training, spent the better part of two weeks talking about whether she was actually Kazakh or Russian and being asked to answer for her native country’s invasion as she stampeded to the title. Her family still lives in Russia.She has mostly not had to answer any political questions here. The actual Russians and Belarusians received those, allowing Rybakina to focus on tennis.“I think at Wimbledon I answered all the questions,” she said. “There is nothing to say anymore.”Sabalenka and the other players from Belarus and Russia have not had that luxury. They know how the world and many of their competitors have viewed them and their countries.“I just understand that it’s not my fault,” she said. “I have zero control. If I could do something, of course I would do it, but I cannot do anything.”The political currents show no sign of letting up. Wimbledon and the Lawn Tennis Association are discussing whether to let the players from Belarus and Russia participate this year. A decision is expected in the coming weeks. Wimbledon was the only Grand Slam to prohibit them from participating.Djokovic, the defending Wimbledon champion and seven-time winner of the championship, has been strategizing with his fledgling players’ organization, the Professional Tennis Players Association, to get the ban lifted.Russian players are desperate to get back to the All England Club.“The last information that I heard was, like, maybe one week ago that the announcement will be in couple of weeks,” Andrey Rublev said after Djokovic beat him in their quarterfinal Wednesday. “We’re all waiting. Hopefully we’ll be able to play. I would love to play. Wimbledon is one of the best tournaments in our sport.” More

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      in Soccer

      As the World Focuses on Soccer, a Women’s Team in Exile Aches to Play

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      When the Afghanistan women’s national soccer team watches the men’s World Cup, every image on the TV screen feels bittersweet.Each country’s flag flying high and each roaring, roiling cheering section. Each national anthem echoing across a pristine pitch. The Afghan women’s team, still in the developmental stages after years of playing in a war-torn country, hopes to be good enough someday to take part in soccer’s most prestigious tournament.But this year’s men’s tournament, with all its pageantry and thrill, is just a stinging reminder of how distant that ambition remains after the players fled their country last year when the Taliban took over.The Taliban have barred girls and women from playing sports. And the women’s national soccer team is still feeling the effect of it even though its members have settled in Australia, 7,000 miles away and safe from the Taliban. Because the Afghanistan Football Federation doesn’t recognize the team as an official national team, neither does FIFA, the global governing body of soccer.Now the players who risked their lives to play soccer inside of Afghanistan, and then risked them again to flee for a shot at freedom, are no longer eligible for international competitions. They are calling on FIFA to reinstate the Afghan squad so the women can officially represent their country.Afghan players warmed up at an event where they received new team jerseys at their Australian club.Gabriela Bhaskar/The New York TimesThe jerseys were labeled “AWT” for Afghan Women’s Team and bore Afghanistan’s flag.Gabriela Bhaskar/The New York Times“We had to leave our home and stop our dreams, but it always was our goal to play as a national team again,” said Fati, the team’s goalkeeper who lives in a suburb of Melbourne. (The New York Times is not using the players’ last names at their request because they fear retribution from the Taliban.)“Now it looks like us playing for the national team is not going to work anymore. My heart can’t stand this,” Fati said.She added, “FIFA has the money and the power to help us, but it’s not doing anything.”Khalida Popal, one of the founding players of the Afghan women’s national team and the person who orchestrated the team’s escape from Afghanistan, said, “FIFA will say they don’t want to get involved in politics, but this is a human rights issue and they know it. They’ve just chosen to discard us.”FIFA officials, including President Gianni Infantino and Sarai Bareman, the federation’s chief officer for women’s football, did not respond to repeated requests for comment about how the Afghan women’s team could return to the international game, as the players in Australia have been ready to play and travel for months.Firooz Mashoof, spokesman for the Afghanistan Football Federation, said there was nothing the Afghan federation could do to help because, as he explained, the women’s national team dissolved when the players and women’s soccer committee fled the country. Inside the country, the 50 or so women’s soccer teams — from youth to the club level — also have vanished, he said.The federation has yet to discuss the future of women’s soccer with the Taliban, Mashoof said, because “the situation of women’s human and social rights in Afghanistan is not good.” He said FIFA would have to step in to make something happen.Khalida Popal, founder of the Afghan women’s national team, said FIFA officials “have just chosen to discard us.”Charlotte de la Fuente for The New York TimesIn August, Popal worked with young players at a training session for the Afghan women’s development team in Doncaster, England. Mary Turner for The New York TimesThe Afghan players and some human rights activists, including Minky Worden, director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch, said that couldn’t happen soon enough. Worden noted that the men’s senior national team, which did not qualify for the World Cup, and other Afghan men’s nationals teams, including ones for boys under 14, continued to play internationally while the women’s side of the sport had been completely shut down. That glaring inequality of opportunity, she said, is a violation of the Olympic Charter and FIFA’s own rules regarding human rights and nondiscrimination.“Right now, the Afghan federation is absolutely in full, flagrant violation of FIFA’s human rights policy and should be thrown out of the football world until women and girls can resume playing football in their country — and for their country,” Worden said. “The Taliban is totally getting away with banning women and girls. Global governing bodies like FIFA have an obligation to thwart what is happening.”Worden said it was time for the International Olympic Committee to suspend the Afghanistan Olympic Committee. The I.O.C. did so in 1999 after the Taliban barred girls and women from sports the first time it came to power, as it is doing now.Friba Rezayee, who competed in the 2004 Athens Games as one of Afghanistan’s first two female Olympians, said in a telephone interview that the I.O.C. and FIFA are actively ignoring the humanitarian crisis that is unfolding in Afghanistan.“Just last week, the Taliban beat people, including women, inside a stadium where athletes should be playing their sport,” said Rezayee, a judo competitor who fled to Canada in 2011. She added that dozens of female athletes in Afghanistan have told her that the Taliban is hunting for women who play sports so they can punish them. She heard from one judoka who recounted being beaten by the Taliban with a rifle when they found her practicing at her dojo. The soldiers let that woman go so she could be an example to other women who dare to play a sport, Rezayee said.Fati, the team’s goalkeeper, shown playing in Australia in April, said “it was always our goal to play as a national team again.”Gabriela Bhaskar/The New York TimesThe national team at a match in Australia in April.Gabriela Bhaskar/The New York Times“What more does the I.O.C. and FIFA have to see to stand up for female athletes?” she said. “These organizations have the capacity and the budget to ensure the safety of athletes and also ensure that women are free to play their sport.”I.O.C. action against the Afghanistan Olympic Committee could happen next week. Mark Adams, spokesman for the organization, said the I.O.C. was “very concerned about developments regarding the participation of women and girls in sport in Afghanistan” and that the executive board would review the issue at its meeting on Dec. 6.If the I.O.C. goes forward with that suspension, it will put needed pressure on each sport’s international federation to decide whether its Afghan athletes can participate in non-Olympic international competitions. But FIFA doesn’t have to wait. It already has the power — and the duty, Worden said — to suspend the Afghan Football Federation for its exclusion of girls and women, bypassing the Taliban so girls and women can compete.One international sports federation, the International Cycling Union, has taken the initiative to help the Afghan women without any prodding from the I.O.C. The organization has been going out of its way to support Afghan cyclists and find ways for those women to compete, showing other federations — such as FIFA — that it is possible to do so without making it a political statement.David Lappartient, the president of the cycling union and a French politician, used his political and sports connections to help evacuate 125 people, including cyclists and other athletes, from Afghanistan. The federation has since sponsored a group of cyclists who now live and train in federation housing in Aigle, Switzerland, the cycling union’s home base. Last month, the federation also hosted the Afghanistan women’s cycling national championships, and more than four dozen Afghan women competed.Many of the members of the national team living in Australia share housing, shop and work together.Gabriela Bhaskar/The New York TimesGabriela Bhaskar/The New York Times“We must address a message of hope that sports is possible for women when it is quite difficult or impossible now in Afghanistan,” Lappartient said. “I just want to give this idea that the light is still on.”Without similar support from FIFA, the Afghan women’s soccer team is now looking for somewhere to play as an official national team. It’s considering joining the Confederation of Independent Football Associations, or Conifa, said Popal, the longtime Afghan women’s football program director. According to Conifa’s website, the organization “supports representatives of international football teams from nations, de facto nations, regions, minority people and sports isolated territories.”But the level and depth of competition at Conifa is not what the Afghans have been used to at the FIFA level, where 187 women’s teams compete. In comparison, Conifa’s website listed only three women’s programs in its rankings from July: FA Sapmi (from the Indigenous Sami people who inhabit part of Norway, Finland, Sweden and Russia), Northern Cyprus and Tibet.For the Afghan women, the goal is to return to play under FIFA’s umbrella. To get there, Popal, who lives in Denmark, has sent multiple emails to FIFA officials asking them for help reinstating the Afghan team. For months and months now, she has yet to receive an answer.Last month, she also filed an official grievance with FIFA, writing, “All the coaches and players need to have their right to play respected and FIFA has the responsibility to guarantee our right to represent Afghanistan, even in exile.” At least a half dozen current and former players have also filed grievances, she said.Again, no response.“Men took away the players’ right to play football in Afghanistan, and now FIFA is taking away the right for the players to play football anywhere else,” Popal said. “I’m so frustrated that women have no voice. Why do the women of Afghanistan always have to pay the price?”Gabriela Bhaskar/The New York TimesThe players’ bond goes beyond being teammates as they share meals and have sleepovers at each other’s houses. Gabriela Bhaskar/The New York TimesIn addition, the Afghan players have been hurt by the re-emergence of Keramuddin Keram, the former president of the Afghanistan Football Federation, Popal said. Keram, who was charged with sexually abusing players on the national team after Popal made the case public, had been hiding from authorities after his indictment. Now, with the Taliban in charge, he has returned to public life.“Our players have suffered so much in so many different ways, and it’s disgusting how they’ve been treated,” Popal said.Popal and the national team players said they didn’t want the I.O.C. or FIFA to bar the Afghan men’s team because the women’s team does not exist anymore. There should be a way for both the men’s and women’s teams to play, even while the Taliban is in control of the country, they said.If FIFA isn’t willing to help, Popal said she would like to establish a football association that includes all the players living in the Afghan diaspora and run that association from outside of Afghanistan. Other countries affected by war or countries that curtail the rights of women could follow her lead, she said.Already, Popal has ideas of running a training camp for the senior national team players in Australia, the under-17 players who ended up in England, the under-15 players who are now in Portugal — or any female Afghan soccer player. During that camp, there could be a tryout for the senior team that would theoretically play FIFA tournaments, she said.Gabriela Bhaskar/The New York TimesThe team won its second game as part of the Melbourne Victory club 10-0.Gabriela Bhaskar/The New York TimesFati, for one, would love that idea. Her dream as a young goalkeeper was to play in the World Cup. But right now, with the current restrictions on the national team and the practice the Afghan team needs to reach the sport’s highest level, the closest Fati will get is when the Women’s World Cup is held in Australia and New Zealand next year. Melbourne, Fati’s new home, will be a host city.While waiting to hear about its fate with FIFA, the Afghan team has been playing together at the professional club Melbourne Victory, with that club supporting the team’s travel, training and gear. The team competed in a state league and finished third in its division.But the players want so much more.“I am so mad at FIFA right now,” Fati said. “They are always saying that football is a family and that they take care of their football family. But that’s not the truth. They don’t care about us. They have forgotten us.”Gabriela Bhaskar/The New York TimesNajim Rahim More

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      U.S. Men’s Basketball on 1972 Munich Olympics: ‘We Deserve Gold Medals’

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      Fifty years after a painful, and controversial, loss to the Soviet Union in the 1972 Olympics, some American men’s basketball players still hope to be declared the rightful winners.It was after 2 a.m. on Sept. 10, 1972, when Tom McMillen and Tom Burleson made their way to the Hofbräuhaus, the famed beer hall in central Munich, so they could commiserate in the dark over German sausage and pilsners.“We were there for quite a long time,” Burleson said.They were teammates on the United States’ men’s basketball team, and by the time they headed back to the Olympic Village, it was past dawn and the daylight seemed blinding. But nothing was clear, and much of the haze from that window of their lives has remained.“I remember when I came home, I kind of had to slap myself because I had gone to the Olympics thinking it was the most hallowed ground,” McMillen said. “And I came away from it feeling much different: ‘Wow, this is a very human institution.’”Fifty years after its controversial loss to the Soviet Union in the gold medal game at the 1972 Olympics, the U.S. men’s basketball team still steadfastly refuses to accept its silver medals. Instead, the players wait — for the elusive truth about what happened in the game’s closing seconds, and for the International Olympic Committee to redress what the team has long considered an injustice.“We deserve gold medals,” said Ed Ratleff, 72, a forward-guard on the team.The memories are vivid for players like McMillen, Burleson and Ratleff, who have gotten used to reliving the experience every few years, on anniversaries when the public’s curiosity is piqued. McMillen, 70, always appreciates the renewed interest. It is a piece of history that ought to be remembered, he said, especially given the current state of geopolitical affairs.The American player Mike Bantom (No. 7) was surrounded by Soviet players in the paint.Rolls Press/Popperfoto via Getty Images“The Ukrainian conflict brought this into new perspective for me,” said McMillen, who spent 11 seasons in the N.B.A. before he became a three-term congressman representing Maryland. “We were in the middle of the Cold War when we played the Soviets in ’72, and here we are, back in the same kind of world conflict.”Just 20 at the time, McMillen went to the Olympics believing it was “the most idealistic thing in the world,” he said. His perception was shattered on Sept. 5, 1972, when eight Palestinian terrorists scaled a fence at the Olympic Village, killing two members of the Israeli delegation before taking nine others hostage. Early the next morning, amid a botched rescue attempt at an airport outside Munich, all were killed.“I remember we had to practice on the day of the attack on the Israelis, and it was incredibly difficult,” McMillen said. “Some of us were talking about how maybe the game should be canceled.”The Games went on, a decision that organizers described as a repudiation of the terrorist attack. And in the semifinals, the United States overpowered Italy to run its record in Olympic play to 63-0.Facing an older and more experienced Soviet team in the final, the Americans trailed until Doug Collins made two free throws to put the Americans ahead, 50-49, with 3 seconds left. Those 3 seconds would be re-examined for years to come.After Collins’s second free throw, the Soviets inbounded the ball, but one of the officials stopped play because of commotion at the scorer’s table: Had the Soviet coach tried to call a timeout? Was he even allowed to call one?In sum, the Soviets got a do-over, with 3 seconds put back on the clock. They even managed to make an illegal substitution. But when their subsequent full-court pass was deflected and the buzzer sounded, the Americans began to celebrate, believing they had won.Henry Iba, left, coach of the U.S. men’s basketball, looks over the shoulder of referee Artenik Arabaijan as the final seconds of the game are discussed.Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesAnd then things really got crazy. William Jones, the head of international basketball, emerged from the stands to rule that the Soviet team should get a third chance to inbound the ball. Why? Because the scoreboard operator had neglected to reset the clock. The Americans, who were coached by Henry Iba, were furious and threatened to leave the court. Amid the chaos, a pickpocket filched Iba’s wallet. (Yes, someone really stole his wallet.)Burleson, 70, said the U.S. team was left with no choice.“They told us that if we didn’t go back out on the court, we’d forfeit the game,” he said.As the Soviets readied themselves for yet another attempt at a last-ditch miracle, the referee along the baseline seemed to motion for McMillen to back off Ivan Edeshko, who was set to inbound the ball. That gave Edeshko more room to make a court-length pass to Aleksander Belov, a center who brushed off two smaller defenders for the game-winning layup.After an appeal failed, the U.S. team unanimously agreed to boycott the medal ceremony. For 50 years, the team’s silver medals have remained in a vault in Lausanne, Switzerland.In 2012, when the team reunited for the first time since Munich and participated in a televised round table, all 12 players said they remained steadfast in their decision to reject their silver medals. One player, Kenny Davis, said he had even added a clause to his will barring any of his family members from posthumously accepting it on his behalf.McMillen and others on the team have spent decades wondering whether the game was fixed.“But we could never find anything definitive,” McMillen said. “I think it was incompetence combined with complicity, meaning there was a comedy of errors, but I think there was also some complicity with Jones and some of the East Bloc nations to arrange an outcome.”As Ratleff put it, “Once it got close at the end, I don’t think there was any chance they were going to let the Americans win.”Soviet basketball players celebrated after their victory against the Americans in 1972.Associated PressWhile the game disillusioned many of the American players and helped foster a general sense of cynicism about the Olympics themselves, it also demolished the perception that the Americans were unbeatable at basketball. That the United States lost — no matter the circumstances — gave hope to other countries that they, too, could vie for gold. In its own way, the game may have helped grow the sport.“I think it motivated European clubs to step up and become a part of the international game,” said Burleson, a center who played seven seasons in the N.B.A.The American players no longer entertain the possibility of the I.O.C. overturning the result of the game, said Ratleff, a small forward who spent five seasons with the Houston Rockets.“I don’t think you’re ever going to take the gold medals away from Russia,” he said.McMillen, though, suggested that the team would be willing to accept a duplicate set of gold medals. He felt encouraged in July when the I.O.C. restored Jim Thorpe as the sole winner of the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Games, decades after he had been stripped of his medals for violating rules against professionalism. The I.O.C.’s announcement came 40 years after it declared him the co-winner of both events, a compromise that had done little to appease his supporters, who kept campaigning on his behalf.“If Jim Thorpe can get his medals posthumously, I’m still hoping that some shoes will drop and we can get our medals — hopefully not posthumously, but sometime down the road,” McMillen said.During the medal ceremony for the basketball competition, the second-place step of the podium remained empty as the U.S. men’s basketball team protested the decision to award the gold to the Soviet Union.Rich Clarkson & Assoc. via Getty ImagesAn I.O.C. spokesman responded to a request for comment, but did not address questions on the Americans’ desire for gold medals.In Russia, the gold medal final continues to be celebrated. A 2017 film, “Going Vertical,” was one of the most popular Russian-made movies in the country’s history.In the United States, meanwhile, McMillen fears that the game — and what he considers a wrong that has never been righted — is slowly being forgotten, its significance eroded by time.“It’s unfortunate because that’s exactly what the I.O.C. wants,” he said. “Our medals sit in Lausanne, and there are going to be fewer of us around for the 60th anniversary. History fades into the ether.” More

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      in Athletics

      London working on plans to host Olympic Games for a record FOURTH time after roaring success of 2012

      by

      LONDON Mayor Sadiq Khan said he is “working on plans” to land the Olympics in the capital for a FOURTH time.Los Angeles will join London as a three-time Olympics host in 2028, with the 2024 Games in Paris and the 2032 celebration based in Brisbane.
      London want to host the Olympics for a record fourth time after the success of 2012Credit: Getty Images – Getty
      But with the new International Olympic Committee host process seeing Games chiefs identifying a “preferred” candidate, Khan said he could see London spearheading another bid off the back of the success of 2012.
      Khan said: “We are working on a plan to bring the Olympic Games back to London.
      “We have got to make sure future Games are green – and our plan would be for the greenest Games ever.
      “The great thing about London is that we wouldn’t need to expend carbon on building a new stadium, cycle track or swimming pool because we’ve got all the kit already – so watch this space.”
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.nk-headline-heading{color:rgba(71,30,121,1);}.css-1uyse24:before{content:”;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;left:0;overflow:hidden;position:absolute;z-index:1;}.css-xpuujo{border-width:0 1px 1px 1px;border-style:solid;border-color:rgba(149,199,208,1);padding:12px;max-height:104px;min-height:98px;}.css-tqcu81{padding:0;border-width:0 1px 1px 1px;border-style:solid;border-color:rgba(149,199,208,1);padding:12px;max-height:104px;min-height:98px;}.css-124tga5{overflow:hidden;-webkit-line-clamp:3;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;display:-webkit-box;word-wrap:break-word;line-height:1;}.css-5jzxpx{overflow:hidden;-webkit-line-clamp:3;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;display:-webkit-box;word-wrap:break-word;line-height:1;}.css-bq4915{margin:0;padding:0;color:rgba(34,97,108,1);text-transform:uppercase;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;font-family:The Sun;font-size:18px;line-height:1.333;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:0%;font-stretch:normal;display:inline;}.css-bq4915:hover:not(:disabled){-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}’FOR YOU GRANNY’ .css-8h3gc3{margin:0;padding:0;color:rgba(34,37,38,1);-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;font-family:The Sun;font-size:18px;line-height:1.333;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:0%;font-stretch:normal;display:inline;}.css-8h3gc3:hover:not(:disabled){-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}Heartbroken Dina Asher-Smith dedicates 200m bronze to late grandma’
      Khan was speaking after lighting an anniversary flame on Queen Elizabeth Park, marking 10 years since the 2012 Games.
      British Olympic Association bosses are reluctant to commit to a bid at this stage and it is evident that this is a Khan project rather than one being orchestrated by the BOA.
      They would have to woo the IOC, likely to be in new hands at the time of a decision on 2036, although the Brisbane decision was made last year, with an 11-year lead-up.
      Khan added: “With the next three Games tied up, there’s no pressure on the IOC.
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      “The key thing for us is to make sure we’ve got all the building blocks in place.
      “It would be great to break a record by becoming the first city to host four Games although it’s early days.
      “But the ambition is there to engender that Olympic spirit through the power of sport.”
      Mayor of London Sadiq Khan was back at the London Stadium to mark ten years since the GamesCredit: Getty More

    • 225 Shares159 Views

      in Boxing

      Joe Joyce could have 2016 Rio Olympic silver upgraded to gold as IOC continue investigation into suspicious fights

      by

      JOE JOYCE could still have his controversial silver medal upgraded to gold amid an investigation by the International Olympic Committee. Joyce was left to stand on the second-placed podium in Rio following defeat to France’s Tony Yoka in the super-heavyweight division. 
      Joe Joyce was controversially beaten by Tony YokaCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
      Joe Joyce poses with his 2016 Olympic silver medalCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
      But that was the last year the International Boxing Association had control over the Olympic sport, amid allegations of corruption. 
      The IOC stripped AIBA and launched an investigation in the wake of the refereeing and judging scandals in Brazil. 
      Among the controversies was Joyce’s loss to Yoka, meaning the Brit is still hopeful of receiving a delayed gold as the probing continues. 
      He said: I’ve seen the report that I could be promoted to gold, although I’m still waiting for the medal to come in the post.
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Sun;font-size:18px;line-height:1.333;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:0%;font-stretch:normal;display:inline;}.css-bq4915:hover:not(:disabled){-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}PULLING NO PUNCHES .css-8h3gc3{margin:0;padding:0;color:rgba(34,37,38,1);-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;font-family:The Sun;font-size:18px;line-height:1.333;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:0%;font-stretch:normal;display:inline;}.css-8h3gc3:hover:not(:disabled){-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}Joe Joyce gives verdict on heavyweight rivals as he chases mega-fight
      “Hopefully it will happen soon but now I need to keep fighting.” 
      Joyce, now 36, turned professional in 2017 and has since raced towards a first world title shot.
      He is currently mandatory challenger for the WBO belt held by Oleksandr Usyk, 35.
      But the Ukrainian defends that and the other two belts he won against Anthony Joshua, 32, in an August 20 rematch in Saudi.
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      It leaves Joyce at the front of the queue but still waiting for his opportunity.
      To pass the time, he stopped Christian Hammer, 34, at the weekend in a bout where he took more damage than needed.
      Joyce admitted: “I don’t want to keep taking big shots like this, even though the crowds find it exciting. 
      “The ring rust affected my boxing skills but not the timing of my own punches.
      “I feel I’m ready for Fury and Joshua but I will use the wait to make improvements to my defence.”
      Joe Joyce beat Christian Hammer in four roundsCredit: Reuters More

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      in Soccer

      FIFA Will Ban Russia, Ejecting It From World Cup Qualifying

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      World soccer’s global governing body suspended Russia and its teams from all competitions on Monday, ejecting the country from qualifying for the 2022 World Cup only weeks before it was to play for one of Europe’s final places in this year’s tournament in Qatar.The suspension, which was announced Monday evening in coordination with European soccer’s governing body, also barred Russian club teams from international competitions. The decision came a day after FIFA was heavily criticized for not going far enough in punishing Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, and amid mounting demands from national federations for stronger action.The initial pressure for an outright ban of Russia came from soccer officials in Poland, Sweden and the Czech Republic, whose national team faced the prospect of games against Russia in a World Cup playoff in March. Other countries and officials, including the federations representing France, England and the United States, quickly said they would not play Russia under any circumstances.England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿, Albania 🇦🇱, Czech Republic 🇨🇿, Denmark 🇩🇰, Ireland 🇮🇪, Norway 🇳🇴, Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿, Switzerland 🇨🇭, Sweden 🇸🇪, Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿… football Europe follows the Polish path. Together we are stronger! #SolidarityWithUkraine 🇺🇦Dziękujemy! | Thank you!— Cezary Kulesza (@Czarek_Kulesza) February 28, 2022
      FIFA and its European counterpart, UEFA, said the ban on Russia would be in place “until further notice.”“Football is fully united here and in full solidarity with all the people affected in Ukraine,” FIFA said in a statement. Ukraine’s team, which is set to play Scotland in its own World Cup playoff in March, will remain in the competition.UEFA then went a step further in breaking its deep ties to Russia: It announced that it had ended a sponsorship agreement with the Russian energy giant Gazprom. The deal was worth a reported $50 million a year to European soccer.UEFA had last week stripped St. Petersburg, the home of Gazprom, of this year’s Champions League final. The game will be played in France instead.Ukraine will take part in the playoffs for the final European World Cup places next month. Russia, now, will not.Fehim Demir/EPA, via ShutterstockFIFA and UEFA decided to bar Russia only hours after the International Olympic Committee called for international sports federations to prohibit Russian athletes and teams from all global sporting events where possible. The Olympic officials said Russia had breached a commitment — known as the Olympic Truce, and signed before the start of the Beijing Winter Games and scheduled to run through the Paralympics that open this week — when it invaded Ukraine.The immediate consequence of soccer’s ban on Russia is that it will lose its place in a four-team group for one of Europe’s final places for the World Cup. Poland, which was scheduled to play Russia in March in Moscow, had said flatly that it would refuse to take the field for the game, a stance it repeated after FIFA announced its initial slate of penalties on Sunday night.Cezary Kulesza, the president of Poland’s soccer federation, called FIFA’s initial decision not to eject Russia “totally unacceptable.” In a post on Twitter, he added: “We are not interested in participating in this game of appearances. Our stance remains intact: Polish National Team will NOT PLAY with Russia, no matter what the name of the team is.”Sweden and the Czech Republic, the teams that could have met Russia — also in Moscow — if the Russians beat Poland, said that they, too, would refuse to play, even at a neutral site.Russia-Ukraine War: Key Things to KnowCard 1 of 4On the ground. More

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      in Tennis

      Thomas Bach, I.O.C. President, Says He Will Meet Peng Shuai at the Games

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      Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, said Thursday that he would meet at the Winter Olympics with Peng Shuai, the tennis player from China who largely disappeared from public life after making sexual abuse accusations against a political official in November.“The answer is yes,” Bach said soon after sitting down to answer questions at his traditional pre-Games news conference. “We will have the meeting. I am very happy, and also grateful to Peng Shuai.”The questions, on a variety of pressing issues, were plentiful. Chief among them, though, was the status of Peng, whom Bach had invited to dinner during a private phone call in November. They would meet, Bach said, after Peng was cleared to enter the Olympics’ so-called closed loop, the restrictive bubble created around the Games to try to prevent coronavirus outbreaks.Asked whether he planned to press for an investigation of Peng’s claims of sexual assault — a suggestion sure to anger China’s government — Bach said he would first speak with Peng to see whether she wanted an inquiry. “It must be her decision,” he said. “It’s her life. It’s her allegations.”Peng’s status remains so sensitive in China that the interpreter handling the Chinese translation of the news conference did not mention her name when relaying the question.What to Know About Peng ShuaiThe Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai disappeared from public view for weeks after she accused a top Chinese leader of sexual assault.What Happened: The athlete’s vanishing and subsequent reappearance in several videos prompted global concern over her well-being.A Silencing Operation: China turned to a tested playbook to stamp out discussion and shift the narrative. The effort didn’t always succeed.Eluding the Censors: Supporters of the tennis star found creative ways to voice their frustration online.A Sudden Reversal: Ms. Peng retracted her accusation in an interview in December. But her words seemed unlikely to quell fears for her safety.An I.O.C. spokesman said afterward that there was no timetable yet for the meeting.Bach was also questioned about the Beijing Games’ strict Covid prevention measures, which have snared several athletes and team personnel in sometimes onerous and confusing protocols; and about China’s suppression of the predominantly Muslim Uyghur minority, in the western Xinjiang region, and accusations that Uyghurs are being pressed into forced labor.Bach, a former Olympic fencer, lamented the “extremely challenging” issues faced by athletes forced into coronavirus quarantine in China, and drew on his own athletic experiences in expressing sympathy with those whose competitive hopes have been jeopardized, or ended, by positive tests.On the Uyghur issue, though, Bach demurred. “The position of the I.O.C. must be, given the political neutrality, that we are not commenting on political issues,” he said. “Because otherwise, if we are taking a political standpoint, and we are getting in the middle of tensions and disputes and confrontations between political powers, then we are putting the Olympics at risk.”The Games would lose their “universality,” he said, if they became politicized. That, Bach said, “would lead to the end of the Olympic Games.”Pressed on thinly veiled threats by Chinese officials to arrest athletes who plan protests that would be illegal under Chinese law, Bach said, “The athletes enjoy freedom of speech in press conferences and social media.” This right, he added, was “enshrined implicitly” in the rules about protests that govern the Olympic movement.Still, he cautioned, “I would suggest to every athlete, wherever the Games are taking place, whenever an athlete is making a statement, he does not insult other people, that he is not violating the rights of other people.”The status of Peng, however, took center stage. The I.O.C. has been broadly criticized for its response to the situation, suggesting at first that it would handle the case with “quiet diplomacy” — meaning that the organization would not publicly contribute to the furor over her whereabouts.Critics and human rights campaigners viewed that not as diplomacy, but as an unwillingness to confront China — a vital Olympic partner — about its treatment of Peng, a three-time Olympian. Many ridiculed his suggestion that they meet for dinner.But the furor continued. Later that month, Bach conducted a video call with Peng. The I.O.C. did not release a video or a transcript of the call, and their statement revealing that it had taken place, which made no reference to Peng’s accusations, raised more questions than it answered.Listen to ‘The Daily’: The Censoring of Peng ShuaiChina’s decision to censor a star athlete has confronted the sports industry with a dilemma — speak out on her behalf or protect its financial interests in the country. More

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      in Soccer

      Inside Beijing’s Olympic Bubble: Robots, Swabs and a Big Gamble

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      There are multiple tests and guards and anxious Olympians as China stages the Games under a “zero Covid” bet. Our correspondent’s journey into the walled-off maze.BEIJING — The strategy is audacious and stifling, and that is very much the point.To Chinese officials, the creation of a vast bubble was their best (and maybe only) hope to stage the Olympic Games safely and preserve the kind of “zero Covid” policy that has been a priority for the government and a point of national pride.Games organizers said they had conducted more than 500,000 tests since Jan. 23 and uncovered at least 232 virus cases, most of them as people arrived at Beijing Capital International Airport. Eleven people have been hospitalized, the authorities said.Here is a journey through 48 hours in the Olympic bubble, starting when Air France Flight 128 from Paris arrived on Monday.Monday, 7:06 a.m.Even before sunlight drenches the airport, all it takes to spot the “closed loop” is a glance out the Boeing 777’s window: The tarmac workers marshaling Games flights as they arrive in Beijing are dressed in protective gear, the crisp white more startling than their illuminated orange batons.Gabriela Bhaskar/The New York TimesMore gowned-and-gloved people stand in the jetway. Then more in the cavernous, empty concourse, sealed off to all but those connected to the Games. Still more await in small bays, armed with nasal and throat swabs to check thousands who tested negative just before their flights and are, for the most part, fully vaccinated.After some twists in a nostril and some swirls in the throat, eliciting a bounty of gags, the attendant has specimens that are one of China’s last and best chances to contain the virus.10:34 a.m.The bus driver sits behind a plastic barrier, leaving him and his passengers to communicate by gestures and shrugs.A worker sprays the bus, presumably with disinfectant, as it leaves the airport for a hotel with guards who control a gate that opens only to allow bubble-approved vehicles through.An assistant manager hands over a key to my room, where I will stay until my airport test result is ready. I can, however, order room service during the wait.The doorbell rings. By the time I reach the door, the delivery person is barely in sight down the hall, the neatly packaged food abandoned on a table marked “Contact-free Handover Desk.”At 1:14 p.m., a woman calls with the test result: negative. I can leave my room. Beijing is open, or as open as it will be this trip.2:19 p.m.The repurposed city bus is racing through Beijing. Every block showcases how the serendipity that so often comes during traveling and reporting will be stunted.Outside venues, “Closed Loop Area” signs remind a Chinese public that their views of the Olympics on the ground will be through glimpses past fences and guards. “Please Don’t Cross the Line.”Gabriela Bhaskar/The New York TimesGabriela Bhaskar/The New York TimesRestaurants beyond the bubble are, of course, forbidden for Games participants. But the machinery of the state and the Olympics have conjured a city unto itself. The “Main Media Center,” more than 400,000 square feet, can feel like a cross between Epcot and Willy Wonka’s factory, where robots and computers orchestrate cleaning floors, taking temperatures and scanning credentials at checkpoints.I have heard about a robot that will nag anyone not properly masked, and I see machines prepare dumplings, fried rice and broccoli. Saucers sometimes descend from the ceiling with glimmering bowls of hot food. (The dumplings and broccoli were excellent; the rice, though, was a bit dry.)Outside after dusk, the 846-foot Olympic Tower glimmers with red and blue lights as music pulses just ahead of the Lunar New Year. The plazas closest to it, though, are largely empty.Tuesday, 2:49 p.m.I apparently passed the Covid test I took on Monday evening at the hotel, part of the daily ritual of covering these Games. I figure I will breathe easier later, once the threat of infection from the travel to Asia has ebbed.I watch American hockey players and coaches cruise the ice at practice. Kendall Coyne Schofield, appearing in her third Games, beams as she poses for a snapshot in the face-off circle. There is, even in this cloistered world, still joy in sports, still pride that these are the Olympic Games.Gabriela Bhaskar/The New York TimesGabriela Bhaskar/The New York Times4:23 p.m.My phone buzzes just before Hilary Knight, a star American forward, plans to chat with reporters.“A person is confirmed positive on Flight AF128 seated in SEAT 53A,” the formulaic email announces.I flew in seat 54A and am now classified as a close contact.I leave the interview room hurriedly, a touch rattled but mostly uncertain of every nuance of the protocols and fearful of inadvertently tripping more trouble. Between emails and calls with Terri Ann Glynn, the Olympics logistics mastermind for The New York Times and our designated Covid liaison officer, I debate whether to text my wife back home, 13 hours behind Beijing. I decide to let her sleep.I take a private car to the media center; the Olympic bus system is not an option for close contacts.I remember enough of the rules to know that the days ahead hinge on whether I am “critical” to the Games. I am surprised to learn that I am, and so the rules are essentially these: For seven days, medical personnel will visit my hotel room twice a day for testing. I must eat alone, and I must stay off the buses.But I can still cover the Games — if I remain negative.Gabriela Bhaskar/The New York Times8:57 p.m.When the doorbell rings this time, the visitor does not flee. Instead, two attendants in blue protective gear are waiting to start the enhanced testing. I think I hear chuckles as I bend so the man can swab my throat. Maybe I am becoming accustomed to it; I barely gag.About 10:15 p.m., a photographer sends a group text: “Ambulance outside the hotel again,” presumably for someone needing treatment for Covid-19 elsewhere. I wonder whether my result is already back.It is not. But a testing team will visit my room again in less than 12 hours.Wednesday, 5:53 a.m.I have no symptoms. I am awake, though, because of jet lag, and I am paranoid about morphing into a case and being cast into an isolation facility. I eat a piece of chocolate to see if I still have a sense of taste. I do, so I again calculate potential incubation periods.But it is an exercise of only so much value. There is nothing that can stop the infection that might be brewing in the bubble. I turn my attention to writing about sports.After all, the Games are still on course to happen, just as China promised. More