Saudi Arabia, Haiti make first showing at Winter Games
Saudi Arabia made its first appearance at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony after alpine skier Fayik Abdi qualified to compete.
Its small delegation hoisted the Middle East kingdom’s green and white flag while wearing what appeared to be cold-weather versions of the country’s traditional anklelength national dress.
Also making its first appearance is the Caribbean island nation of Haiti. It is being represented by alpine skier Richardson Viano, who was adopted by Italian parents and raised in France.
Shirtless entry
It has become an Olympic tradition — the shirtless
Notebook
athlete in the opening ceremony. And Tonga’s Pita Taufatofua now has some company.
Meet Nathan Crumpton. Born in Kenya, resident of Utah, graduate of Princeton, skeleton athlete formerly with the United States and now competing for American Samoa — and he grabbed attention Friday night at the Beijing Games, by walking in shirtless and underterred by a temperature of 23 degrees.
Taufatofua wasn’t at these Olympics, ending his streak of three consecutive games — summer and winter — representing Tonga. He is currently trying to lead relief efforts there after a tsunami caused catastropic damage.
Crumpton carried the (shirtless) flag. He also competed for American Samoa in track and field at the Tokyo Games last summer. His mother’s family background allowed him to switch his athletic allegiance to American Samoa in 2019.
Time running out
The clock is ticking for American speed skater Casey Dawson to get to his first Olympics. He tested positive for COVID-19 three weeks ago. Recently, Dawson had been testing negative and he believed that by producing two consecutive negative tests he would be cleared to join his teammates in Beijing.
“Everything was good until I received news that they now require four negative tests to even consider sending me over,” Dawson wrote in an Instagram post.
Interrupted
A correspondent for Dutch national broadcaster NOS was manhandled away from his camera during a live news show shortly before the opening ceremony. Sjoerd den Daas, the NOS correspondent in China, was speaking when security officials pushed him away. Den Daas remained calm and told the anchor in the Netherlands, “I fear we will have to come back to you later.” The broadcaster said in a tweet that “sadly, this is increasingly the daily reality for journalists in China.” It added that Den Daas is fine and was able to “complete his story a few minutes later.”