Japan’s Ayumu Hirano won gold in an epic men’s snowboarding halfpipe final Friday as legend Shaun White placed fourth in his final Olympic run.
Czech snowboarder and alpine skier Ester Ledecká fell short in her bid for back-to-back Olympic double golds.
Take a look at the best photos from the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics so far.
Our live coverage has ended. Here’s more of our stories on the Games.
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USA's first gold medalist of Beijing 2022 Lindsey Jacobellis will be back in action on Saturday
From CNN's Ben Church
Lindsey Jacobellis won the US' first gold medal of Beijing 2022 in the women's snowboard cross.
(Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
Fresh off the back of winning Team USA’s first gold medal of this year’s Winter Games on Wednesday, Lindsey Jacobellis will be back in action at Beijing 2022.
The women’s snowboard cross champion will line up for the mixed team event on Saturday in the hope of adding yet more success.
After near misses at previous Games, the 36-year-old finally topped the podium at her fifth Winter Olympics earlier this week and was elated by her achievement.
It’s been a story of redemption for Jacobellis, who infamously won an Olympic silver in 2006 after throwing away her lead while attempting to showboat.
Safe to say there were no such mistakes this time around.
“This feels incredible because this level that all the women are riding at is a lot higher than it was 16 years ago,” Jacobellis told reporters after winning the gold. “So I felt like I was a winner just that I made it into finals, because that’s been a challenge every time.
“All these ladies out here have the potential to win and today it just worked out for me that my starts were good, that my gliding was great,” she added.
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Here's a look at the gold medal wins from Day 7 at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics
From CNN's Homero DeLaFuente
European countries dominated the podium across most events on Day 7 of the 2022 Beijing Winter Games. Take a look at who won the seven gold medals at stake and where the competition stands so far.
Alpine Skiing: Switzerland’sLara Gut-Behrami won the women’s super-G event.
Biathlon: Norway’s Marte Olsbu Røiseland captured the gold in the women’s 7.5km sprint event.
Cross-Country Skiing: Finland’s Iivo Niskanen took the top spot at men’s 15km classic event.
Short Track Speed Skating: Suzanne Schulting of the Netherlands clinched a thrilling, photo-finish gold in the women’s 1,000m event.
Skeleton: Christopher Grotheer’s gold gave Germany its first ever medal in the men’s event.
Snowboard: Japan’sAyumu Hirano impressed on his way to the men’s snowboard halfpipe gold.
Speed Skating: Sweden’sNils van der Poel captured the gold in men’s 10,000m event.
Some of the best photos from Day 7 at Beijing 2022
From CNN's Will Lanzoni
As Day 7 of the Winter Olympics wraps up, take a look back at a few of the best photos from Friday.
US snowboarding legend Shaun White becomes emotional after his final Olympic run in the halfpipe final on February 11. White, the Olympic champion in 2006, 2010 and 2018, finished fourth this time around.
(Chang W. Lee/The New York Times/Redux)
In this photo taken with a slow shutter speed, Germany ski jumper Karl Geiger competes in the men's large hill event on Feb. 11.
(Matthias Hangst/Getty Images)
Switzerland's Lara Gut-Behrami celebrates on the podium with her gold medal for winning the women's super-G on Feb. 11
(Mimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images)
Dutch speed skater Suzanne Schulting crosses the finish line just ahead of South Korea's Choi Min-jeong to win the women's 1,000m short track final on Feb. 11. Schulting also won the gold four years ago at the PyeongChang Games.
(Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/Getty Images)
Austria's Janine Flock competes in the women's skeleton event on Feb. 11.
Mikaela Shiffrin on her Olympics performance: "The girl who failed ... could also fly"
From CNN's Aditi Sangal
Mikaela Shiffrin skis in the super-G at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Shiffrin posted this picture along with her statement on Twitter on Friday.
(Alain Grosclaude/Agence Zoom/Getty Images)
Days after Mikaela Shiffrin crashed out of two events at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics in the space of three days, the 26-year-old US skiing star tweeted about experiencing “disappointment and heartbreak” and getting back up.
She added, “There’s a lot of disappointment and heartbreak going around in the finish area but there’s also a lot of support.”
Shiffrin was aiming to become the first US skier to win three gold medals at a single Winter Olympics.
“It’s a lot to digest in just one event…let alone the whole rollercoaster ride of an entire Olympics,” she wrote.
After her expressing her disappointment, Shiffrin struck a resilient note.
She expressed her gratitude to her team for supporting her through triumphs and tough times and gave a shout out to the athletes who displayed stellar performances at the Games.
“Today was a good day, so I’m just gonna let it be that,” she concluded.
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Here's the timeline of Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva's failed drug test
From CNN Sport staff
The ROC's Kamila Valieva in action during the figure skating team event on February 7.
She was allowed to compete despite testing positive for the banned heart drug trimetazidine, which is commonly used to treat people with angina. The failed test only came to light during the Winter Olympics, and it remains unclear if the drug test controversy will see the gold medal revoked.
Here’s a timeline of the events we know so far:
Dec. 25, 2021: Drug sample is taken from Valieva at the 2022 Russian Figure Skating Championships in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Jan. 15, 2021: Valieva wins 2022 European Championships in Tallinn, Estonia.
Feb. 1, 2022: Valieva arrives in Beijing for the Winter Olympics.
Feb. 7, 2022: Valieva helps the ROC win gold in the figure skating team event at Beijing 2022, landing the first ever quadruple jump by a woman in Olympic competition.
Feb. 7, 2022: A lab accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in Stockholm, Sweden, confirms an adverse analytical finding in Valieva’s sample, WADA said.
Feb. 8, 2022: Valieva is notified and provisionally suspended by RUSADA.
Feb. 8, 2022: The medal ceremony for the figure skating team event is postponed. Later, reports emerge of a failed drugs test by a member of the ROC team.
Feb. 10, 2022 : Valieva trains as normal at the Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing.
Feb. 11, 2022: The International Testing Agency (ITA) confirms Valieva failed a test for a banned substance in December, adding it will appeal RUSADA’s decision to lift the suspension at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on behalf of the IOC. WADA and the International Skating Union (ISU) also said they will appeal.
Valieva is scheduled to compete at two other events at the Beijing Games — one on February 15 and one on February 17.
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Nathan Chen 'truly hopes' medal ceremony will take place amid Russian teenager drug test controversy
From CNN's Coy Wire
Nathan Chen sat down with CNN to discuss his gold medal win and his hopes to do the medal ceremony for the team competition.
CNN
Newly-crowned Olympic champion Nathan Chen has told CNN that he still hopes to stand on the podium to celebrate Team USA’s figure skating silver in Beijing.
Chen and his US teammates missed the opportunity to collect their medals from the figure skating team event on Tuesday due to an ongoing doping scandal involving Russian athlete Kamila Valieva.
The US was beaten to gold by Valieva and the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) on Monday, but the medal ceremony was delayed as news emerged that a member of the ROC’s team had tested positive for a prohibited substance.
“The medal ceremony is definitely a very special part of the Olympics, and for those that should get a medal, I truly hope that they can,” Chen told CNN’s Coy Wire.
“Whatever happens, happens. But I do hope that we will have this opportunity to share that as a team.”
You can read the full interview here, as the ROC awaits a decision on what will happen next.
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IOC and WADA have filed their applications to appeal the decision to lift Kamila Valieva’s doping suspension
From CNN’s Aleks Klosok in London
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.
(Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images)
The Court of Arbitration (CAS) has received applications from both the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) appealing the Russian Anti-Doping Agency’s (RUSADA) decision to lift a provisional suspension on figure skater Kamila Valieva following a doping violation.
“The applications were received at the CAS Ad Hoc Division in Beijing at 20:45 and 22:20 respectively, on Friday, 11 February 2022 (time of Beijing),” CAS said in a statement, adding that the applications have been registered and that they will be consolidated.
Some background:Valieva, the 15-year-old Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) figure skater, was allowed to compete despite testing positive for the banned heart drug trimetazidine, which is commonly used to treat people with angina. The failed test only came to light during the Winter Olympics, and it remains unclear if the drug test controversy will see the ROC’s team figure skating gold medal revoked. Valieva is scheduled to compete at two other events at the Beijing Games — one on February 15 and one on February 17.
“A Panel of arbitrators will be appointed shortly to decide the matter. The Panel will issue procedural directions, including directions for a hearing. The date and time of the CAS decision will be announced after the hearing,” the statement concluded.
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German one-two in the men's skeleton as Christopher Grotheer takes the gold
From CNN's Patrick Sung
From left, Germany's Christopher Grotheer and fellow countryman Axel Jungk celebrate finishing first and second in the men's skeleton on February 11. The medals were Germany's first ever in men's skeleton, despite being a sliding sport powerhouse.
(Dmitri Lovetsky/AP)
Germany’s Christopher Grotheer won gold with a time of 4:01.01, while fellow countryman Axel Jungk finished 0.66 seconds behind in second place to seal Germany’s first ever medals in men’s skeleton on Friday at the Yanqing National Sliding Centre.
Yan Wengang finished 0.1 seconds behind Jungk to win China’s first ever medal in a sliding sport — and in the process become the second man not from Europe or North America to stand on an Olympic skeleton podium, after South Korea’s Yun Sung-bin won gold at PyeongChang 2018.
A two-time world champion in men’s skeleton, Grotheer couldn’t hide his excitement.
Grotheer’s triumph put Germany on 100 gold medals in Winter Olympic history, making them the third National Olympic Committee to reach the number after Norway (138) and the United States (109).
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Even a flying Swede can't stop Canada cruising into ice hockey semifinals
From CNN Sport staff
"I believe I can fly."
(Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
You should expect the unexpected at any Olympic event, but Sweden’s Jessica Adolfsson appears to have surprised even her own teammates with her powers of levitation here…
Despite her magical attempts, Adolfsson could do little to stop Canada thrashing Sweden 11-0 in the women’s ice hockey quarterfinals on Friday.
Canada will progress to Monday’s semifinal but do not yet know their next opponent.
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CAS is yet to receive applications appealing the decision to lift Valieva’s provisional doping suspension
From CNN's Aleks Klosok
Russia's Kamila Valieva attends a training session on February 11.
(Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/Getty Images)
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has “not received applications in relation to the figure skating matter,” it told CNN Friday, adding that if an application is filed, a short media release will be issued on its website.
The International Testing Agency (ITA), on behalf of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), and International Skating Union (ISU) said earlier Friday they would be appealing the Russian Anti-Doping Agency’s (RUSADA) decision to lift a provisional suspension on figure skater Kamila Valieva following a doping violation.
CAS has set up two temporary offices in Beijing designed to “provide rapid, high quality dispute resolution services immediately before and during the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022,” according to a press release issued by the arbitration body on Jan. 18.
The CAS Ad Hoc Division will “resolve any legal disputes submitted to it during the Games within a timeframe compatible with the competition schedule.”
The CAS Anti-Doping Division, which consists of a six-member panel, will be responsible for determining whether or not to reinstate Valieva’s provisional suspension once it receives any applications.
The chairman of the panel is Swiss former federal judge Ivo Eusebio, who was previously a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation’s (IIHF) disciplinary commission.
His co-president in the proceedings will be American David W. Rivkin, a partner at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP.
They will be joined by four other arbitrators: Australian lawyer John Boultbee, CEO of Australia’s National Sports Tribunal; Australian judge Tricia Kavanagh, who was on the inaugural CAS Anti-Doping Division at the 2016 Rio Olympics; Swiss lawyer Raphaëlle Favre Schnyder, a partner at Barandun LLP; and Austrian judge Martina Spreitzer-Kropiunik.
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Suzanne Schulting defends women's short track 1,000m title via dramatic photo-finish
From CNN's Jack Bantock
Netherlands' Suzanne Schulting crosses the finish line just ahead of South Korea's Choi Min-jeong in the final of the women's 1,000m short track speed skating event on February 11.
(Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/Getty Images)
The Netherlands’ Suzanne Schulting has won back-to-back women’s 1,000m short track speed skating gold medals — by the thinnest of margins.
The 24-year-old defended the title she won at the PyeongChang Games four years ago by the slimmest of margins, pipping Korea’s Choi Min-jeong at the finish line by just 0.052 seconds to win in 1:28.391.
“For the Netherlands, it means a lot,” Schulting said.
“I worked so hard for the whole team. I got the gold, but I got the gold for the whole team, and I am super proud.”
Schulting arrived in the final in blistering form and brimming with confidence after breaking the world record in the quarterfinal with a time of 1:26.514.
“I became really confident out there after skating a world record. I was really excited,” she said.
“I was focusing on what I had to do and on my technique and everything. It’s insane.”
A nail-biting finish capped an already dramatic race, with legendary Italian speed skater Arianna Fontana — a 10-time Olympic medalist — crashing out as the skaters rounded for their final lap.
Fontana had taken gold ahead of Schulting in the 500m final on Monday to defend her own title from PyeongChang 2018 but saw her hopes for a second gold slide away in the 1,000m.
Having taken out Kristen Santos of the US in the process, the Italian received a penalty and did not finish.
Nicknamed the ‘Queen of Korean Short Track,’ according to the Olympic website, Choi’s silver adds to the two gold medals she won in her home nation in 2018.
Debuting at her first Olympics, Belgium’s Hanne Desmet took bronze, with Schulting quick to congratulate her friend and training partner.
“I am super proud of Hanne,” Schulting said.
“We train together and we’re friends. It makes it even more special.”
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Norway's Marte Olsbu Røiseland wins women's biathlon 7.5km sprint for second Beijing gold
From CNN's Jack Bantock
Norwegian biathlete Marte Olsbu Røiseland celebrates on the podium after winning the 7.5km sprint on February 11.
(Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Norwegian biathlete Marte Olsbu Røiseland triumphed in the women’s 7.5km sprint to win her second gold medal of Beijing 2022.
The 31-year-old finished in 20:44.3 to become the first Norwegian woman to win the event, adding to her gold in 4x6km mixed relay on Saturday and her bronze in the 15km individual on Monday.
Sweden’s Elvira Öberg won silver — a first Olympic medal for the 22-year-old — in a race that also featured her sister Hanna, who finished 19th.
Italy’s Dorothea Wierer completed the podium by winning bronze.
After taking silver in the 7.5km sprint and mixed relay in Pyeongchang four years ago, Røiseland has now gone one better in both at Beijing.
“It feels great. This is my best performance ever and I did it today,” Røiseland told reporters.
“This year, I have enjoyed biathlon even more. I am smiling and having fun. I just feel so lucky that I’m here and that I can race good races. I’m just enjoying it.”
Røiseland revealed she was “disappointed” with her finish in Monday’s 15km event — won by Germany’s Denise Herrmann — but emphatically banished any lingering regrets in the sprint with a composed display of sharpshooting at the Zhangjiakou National Biathlon Centre.
“I was a bit disappointed because I missed the last shots, so I have worked a lot for three days now to try to focus on today and forget about the last race,” Røiseland said.
“I think I did a really good job in my head before today’s race and, for that, I’m really happy.”
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Athletes get creative during skeleton event at Beijing 2022
From CNN's Ben Church
American Katie Uhlaender's patriotic eagle flies high in our style rankings.
(Daniel Mihalescu/AFP/Getty Images)
If you’re going to throw yourself head-first down an icy track at speeds of over 100km/h, you might as well look good doing it.
Competitors for the skeleton event at Beijing 2022 have been doing just that as they get creative with their helmet designs.
From colorful parrots to patriotic eagles, it seems there is no artwork too imaginative for the track.
But Brazil's Nicole Rocha Silveira has the edge with this colorful macaw motif. Exquisite taste - 10/10.
(Adam Pretty/Getty Images)
Helmets in the skeleton are certainly a necessity, as participants balance on small sleds and hurtle down a narrow track.
Athletes compete on the same course across two days, getting four runs each. The competitor with the fastest combined time wins the event.
But perhaps the real winner is one of these rather colorful helmets…
Australian Nicholas Timmings went for a ghost look. It's a bold strategy, but it works for him.
(Julian Finney/Getty Images)
Read more about the skeleton and other events at Beijing 2022 in CNN’s guide here.
Finland's Iivo Niskanen competes in the men's 15km cross-country classic event on February 11.
(Sergei Bobylev/TASS/Getty Images)
Finland’s Iivo Niskanen captured cross-country skiing gold in the men’s 15km classic event on Friday, winning by 23.2 seconds ahead of the Russian Olympic Committee’s Alexander Bolshunov.
Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo took the bronze medal.
After the event, Niskanen made clear that he has been waiting for this opportunity for the past eight years.
“I was fourth, 0.2 seconds behind the medal in Sochi (2014), at this distance, and it’s been a long eight years to wait for this race again in the Olympic program.
“Now I managed to win it. I have been focusing on it all the time. This is a really big victory for me.”
This is the third Olympic gold medal for the 30-year-old Finnish skier and another win in the bag for the Niskanen family, as his elder sister, Kerttu Niskanen, won the silver medal for the women’s 10km classic event on Thursday.
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An event guide to the Games: Freestyle skiing
From CNN's Sana Noor Haq and Matias Grez
Chinese freestyle skier Xu Mengtao competes in the mixed team aerials final on February 10.
(Marco Bertorello/AFP/Getty Images)
Featuring balletic techniques and acrobatic skills, the International Ski Federation (FIS) first recognized freestyle skiing as a discipline in 1979.
Athletes ski in a motion that is similar to skating. They perform technically challenging moves during their runs and are scored on different aspects of their performance, depending on the competition they’re participating in.
In the aerials events, slopestyle, moguls and halfpipe, judges score competitors based on the finesse of their tricks and the form of their runs.
However, athletes in the big air are judged by the distance and height of their jumps. As for the ski cross, the competition is a timed event — so the athlete who traverses the finish line first takes gold.
Freestyle skiing made its debut as a demonstration sport at the Winter Games in 1988 in Calgary, Canada, and was given medal status at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France.
Eileen Gu, who elected to represent her mother’s native China over the USA, has been the poster child for these Games and was arguably the biggest name participating in freestyle skiing.
Competing under immense pressure, the 18-year-old wasn’t fazed in the slightest and won gold in the women’s big air final to delight of the home fans at Beijing 2022.
Gu’s victory was so popular in China that fans temporarily crashed the country’s leading social media platform, as tens of millions rushed online to celebrate the teenage sensation winning her first gold medal.
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Nils van der Poel wins gold in men’s 10,000m speed skating in world record time
From CNN's Homero de La Fuente
Sweden's Nils van der Poel skates on the way to a new world record during the men's 10,000m speed skating event on February 11.
(Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)
Sweden’s Nils van der Poel smashed his own world record in the men’s 10,000m speedskating event to secure his second gold medal of the Beijing Olympics on Friday.
Van der Poel’s time of 12:30.74, was over two seconds faster than the previous mark he set last February at the World Championships in the Netherlands.
After the race, van Der Poel said, “Going in, I thought I should be set to beat second. I was sticking to going after that. Technically, I didn’t have my best race, but physically, I am in great shape.
“I didn’t want to risk going too hard too early. With five laps to go, I felt like the world record was in reach, so I just went for that.
“I am very satisfied. This was the main goal when I started three years ago. It turned out a lot better than I could have ever imagined.”
With the victory, the Swede became the first men’s speed skater to win the 5,000m and the 10,000m events at the same Winter Games since Dutch speed skater Jochem Uytdehaage in 2002.
Patrick Roest of the Netherlands finished with a time of 12:44.59 — 13.85 seconds behind the Swede — to win the silver medal. Italy’s Davide Ghiotto notched a time of 12:45.98 to claim the bronze.
The gold medal is the fifth for Sweden, which now sits one behind Norway and Germany’s six on the Olympic medal table.
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WADA to lodge appeal with CAS against RUSADA’s lifting of Kamila Valieva’s provisional doping suspension
From CNN's Aleks Klosok
The World Anti-Doping Agency headquarters in Montreal, Canada.
(Marc Braibant/AFP/Getty Images)
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) announced Friday it will lodge an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in relation to the Russian Anti-Doping Agency’s (RUSADA) decision to lift a provisional suspension on figure skater Kamila Valieva following a doping violation.
WADA did not name Valieva in their statement, instead referring to “a Russian Olympic Committee figure skater.”
Per WADA’s Anti-Doping Code, doping violations involving adult athletes carry a mandatory public disclosure. Minors involved in doping cases (anyone under the age of 18) are considered “protected persons,” meaning their identity doesn’t have to be disclosed publicly.
WADA confirmed that a sample was collected in competition by RUSADA on December 25, 2021 before being transported to the WADA-accredited laboratory in Stockholm for analysis.
“On 7 February, the laboratory reported that the sample had returned an Adverse Analytical Finding for the non-specified prohibited substance, trimetazidine,” WADA said in a statement.
“Accordingly, the athlete was notified by RUSADA on 8 February and provisionally suspended, effective immediately.
“Following a hearing on 9 February, the RUSADA Disciplinary Committee decided to lift the athlete’s provisional suspension, allowing her to resume participation in the Games.
“Under the terms of the World Anti-Doping Code (Code), WADA has a right to appeal the decision to lift the provisional suspension before CAS and intends to do so on the grounds that the Code has not been correctly applied in this case,” the statement concluded.
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Nathan Chen tells CNN that first gold medal is "hard to put into words"
From CNN's Coy Wire, Nectar Gan and Simone McCarthy
Michelle Gisin inspired to super-G bronze medal by Italian Olympic swimmer
From CNN's Matias Grez
Switzerland's Michelle Gisin competes in the women's super-G final on Friday.
(Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images)
After clinching a bronze medal in the women’s super-G on Friday, alpine skier Michelle Gisin revealed she had found an unlikely source of inspiration for her journey to the podium.
Last summer, the Swiss athlete — the Olympic combined champion from PyeongChang 2018 — had been hit hard by a bout of mononucleosis and began to fear her chances of participating at Beijing 2022 were over.
“I was struggling so hard, I almost couldn’t make it up the stairs all day long,” Gisin told the Beijing 2022 website. “I went downstairs once and then sat on the couch all day.”
But it was during one of those days spent on the sofa watching the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games that Gisin’s outlook began to improve.
There were a number of athletes that she began to draw inspiration from, but there was one in particular who stood out: Italian swimmer Gregorio Paltrinieri.
“There was this Italian swimmer that also had mono a couple of months and weeks before and he got bronze in the 10km open water,” Gisin said of Paltrinieri, who also won silver in the men’s 800m freestyle in Tokyo.
“That was so amazing to see. It meant so much to me to see him compete because I was really deep, deep down in the hole and to see him achieve this gave me a lot of hope.”
Italian Olympic skier Luca De Aliprandini, Gisin’s boyfriend, got in touch with Paltrinieri and the swimmer was more than happy to offer his advice on coming back from mono.
“It’s just way too beautiful that it all worked out,” a delighted Gisin said.
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Beijing 2022 mascot Bing Dwen Dwen was a big hit... until it spoke
From CNN's Yong Xiong, Simone McCarthy and Ben Church
A staff member dressed up as Bing Dwen Dwen trying to enter a venue.
(Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)
Mascots are a huge part of any Olympic Games and Beijing 2022 appeared to have struck gold with its playful panda design.
Fans were loving the character known as Bing Dwen Dwen as it danced around venues and appeared on posters across the world.
But Bing Dwen Dwen supporters got quite the shock after hearing it speak with a deep male voice on a program aired Tuesday by state broadcaster CCTV.
“I have been hurt… when I opened (the online shopping platform) Taobao and wanted to buy a Bing Dwen Dwen key ring, I would think of the voice of a middle-aged man,” one social media user wrote.
“I don’t want to hear the ‘uncle’ voice of the Bing Dwen Dwen. It’s just a little cute panda,” said another.
Olympic mascots are not meant to talk under International Olympic Committee (IOC) guidelines in order to maintain a gender neutral status and, after the latest backlash, you can understand why…
