Mogul competitor back home
USA’s Johnson failed to leave hotel room because of isolation
The night before she was to head home from the Beijing Olympics, Tess Johnson turned on the TV in the hotel room and flipped the channels until she found it — the opening qualification round of the women’s moguls competition. In her mind, she should have been on the screen, wearing bib No. 5 to designate her World Cup ranking. Instead, she watched while packing her bags for the trip home.
Four years ago, Johnson had competed PyeongChang, finishing 17th in the first round of qualifying. But this time, the entirety of her Olympic experience amounted to a seven-day stay in an isolation hotel, feeling aggrieved by a contentious team selection process that left her as an alternate. A case of food poisoning on her first full day in Beijing was just an added insult.
“It was hard. But I’ve survived, and I’m OK, and I’m heading home for the first time in six weeks. I’m looking ahead,” said the 21-yearold from Vail, Colo. She spoke by phone late Friday night from the waiting area inat Gate B46 of Denver International Airport, where she was preparing for the fourth and final segment of her trip home, a trip that went: Beijing to Tokyo to Los Angeles to Denver to Vail.
“I really couldn’t start healing until today.”
On Jan. 17, Johnson had been in a Deer Valley, Utah hotel room — watching her favorite movie, “Ratatouille” — when she received a phone call from Team USA head moguls coach Matt Gnoza. She was expecting the call, but not the news: She was being left off the four-woman moguls team that would compete in Beijing.
This is it for White
Shaun White says the Beijing Games will be his last competition.
The three- time gold medalist held a reflective, sometimes emotional news conference not far from the halfpipe where he’ll take his last competitive ride.
The 35-year-old said it’s a decision that has been building since a soul-sucking training stop in Austria in November.
He was dealing with nagging remnants from injuries to his knee and back and ankle. He got lost on the mountain with the sun going down. This has been a rough season for him — including an ankle injury, a bout with COVID-19, a late unscheduled trip to Switzerland to secure his Olympic spot.
Downhill postponed
The start of the men’s downhill skiing competition was postponed because of high winds.
The race was scheduled to start late Saturday night, but organizers were hoping to delay only by an hour or two. It’s the first race of the Alpine competition at the Games.