Dutch Journalist Covering Beijing Olympics Pulled Away by Guard During Live Broadcast

Despite all the high-tech tricks, political posturing and pyrotechnics, the best part of the Closing Ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics proved to be the athletes.

EXCLUSIVE: NBC has revealed the hosts for its coverage of Sunday’s Closing Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics — and two of them have been in the news this week.

Vladyslav Heraskevych, who is representing Ukraine in the skeleton race, unfurled an 8 X 10″ sign as he came off his third of four heats that read simply, in English, “No War in Ukraine.” It marks the first overtly political statement from a competitor in a Games that has been rife with subtle (and not to subtle) political messaging.

Focusing on the positive. After a difficult start at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Mikaela Shiffrin offered a glimpse at how she approached her remaining time at the international sports competition.

A legendary career. Shaun White reflected on his snowboarding achievements after his final Olympic Games ended without a medal.

Kamila Valieva is cementing her place as one of the greatest figure skaters of all time and she is only 15-years-old.

kicked off their opening day, tweeting her thoughts about the city’s alleged human rights violations.“There is no reason to watch a Winter Olympics that is holding up and spreading propaganda for a regime that is committing actual genocide and ethnic cleansing,” she claimed. “On top of poisoning the world and killing 6 million people.

Go team go! Team USA has a long history of winning at the Winter Olympics and the 2022 Beijing Games are no different.

Wyatte Grantham-Philips editorShaun White has announced his official retirement from competitive snowboarding, with Beijing 2022 marking not only his last time on the Olympic stage, but also in any official competition.“It will be my last competition, which is pretty special,” White told a news conference in Zhangjiakou, China on Saturday, according to the official Olympic website. “It’s been a beautiful run.

It’s early days at the XXIV Olympic Winter Games, but NBC must already be praying for some Gold medal glory or the Super Bowl to give them a boost. Right now, coming off record low viewership in the first night of primetime coverage, the billions the Comcast-owned network fork out to broadcast the Games until 2032 isn’t looking like money well spent.

Chinese authorities interrupted a Dutch journalist’s live report on the Winter Olympics Friday, dragging him off-camera and creating confusion as to why his broadcast was halted.

Meghan McCain has slammed the 2022 Winter Olympics, branding them the "Genocide Games" over China's human rights abuses.MORE: Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie share disappointment over 2022 Winter Olympics newsThe 37-year-old took to social media to share an image designed by Chinese artist badiucao, which was created in protest of the host country. It showed an ice hockey player wearing the Chinese flag with blood on their stick and mask as they knocked over a Tibetan monk.WATCH: Meghan McCain announces departure from The View"I will not watch one minute of the @Beijing2022," she captioned her post, adding the hashtag, "#GenocideGames."On Twitter, she expanded on her opinion, writing: "There is no reason to watch a Winter Olympics that is holding up and spreading propaganda for a regime that is committing actual genocide and ethnic cleansing - on top of poisoning the world and killing 6 million people.

The opening ceremony for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics has happened and we have tons of great photos from the event.

is curling, exactly?” Debating which athlete will next compete on . There are certain mainstays around the that we've come to depend on, and that includes near-constant coverage from the journalists broadcasting live from the Games. But this year will look a lot different due to a variety of factors—the ongoing pandemic, the strict protocols the Chinese government has placed on those traveling to Beijing, and the in protest of China's alleged human rights abuses among them. And because of that, the majority of the NBC team is staying home to report on the Games from the U.S. For Today hosts Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie, the change of plans comes with mixed feelings. "The pandemic obviously has changed plans in a multitude of ways.

only 15 out LGBTQ athletes competed.Outsports reports that the athletes hail from 14 countries and will compete in nine different sports, including ice hockey, figure skating, skiing, and snowboarding.They include veteran LGBTQ competitors like Canadian figure skater Eric Radford, the first out gay man to win a gold Winter Olympics medal, bisexual Dutch speed skater Ireen Wüst, the most decorated LGBTQ Olympian of all time, and gay skier Gus Kenworthy, who will be competing for Great Britain after switching from Team USA (Kenworthy holds dual citizenship).Also Read: A tennis player yelled anti-gay slurs at the Olympics. He blamed the weather.The Beijing Winter Games will also feature a number of freshly out LGBTQ athletes, including Brazilian skeleton athlete Nicole Silveira and Team USA figure skater Timothy LeDuc, who will be the first out nonbinary athlete at the Winter Olympics.Team USA’s Brittany Bowe, a world record-holding speed skater, holds the honor of being the only out LGBTQ athlete to be chosen as a flag bearer for the Winter Olympics opening ceremony.Bowe, the only openly LGBTQ woman athlete on Team USA, will compete in her third Olympic games in Beijing.

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains details of this morning’s Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony live on NBC.

When the mixed doubles round-robin matches begin in curling Wednesday morning in Beijing, so too will XIV Olympic Winter Games, underway in China less than six months after the torch was extinguished to wrap up the delayed Tokyo Summer Olympics.