Olympics Let Russian Figure Skater Kamila Valieva Compete Following Drug Test Fail -- And Sha’Carri Richardson Has THOUGHTS!

The international union that governs skating said Tuesday that it was following the recommendations of the International Olympic Committee in banning athletes from Russia and Belarus from its competitions across the sports of figure skating and speed skating. It becomes the latest organization in the sports world to take action since Russia began its military invasion of Ukraine.

Coverage of the 2022 Winter Olympics wraps up Sunday with the Closing Ceremony, which will air live from Beijing National Stadium on Peacock, NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app beginning at 7 a.m. ET/4 a.m. PT. NBC and Peacock will rebroadcast the finale gala in an “enhanced primetime presentation” beginning Sunday night at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

“We have reason to believe the Russian forces are planning to and intend to attack Ukraine in the coming week, the coming days,” Joe Biden said unequivocally Friday for the first time after weeks of looming crisis in the former USSR.

The 2022 Winter Olympics, now three Thursdays into competition, are back where they started ratings-wise.

The Stooges’ ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ while competing at the 2022 Winter Olympics this week.The 17-year-old athlete selected the rendition of the 1969 song (which was the Iggy Pop-led band’s debut single) that was recorded by John McCrea for the soundtrack to last year’s Cruella film.Trusova skated to the sounds of ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ during her free skate program at the Winter Olympics yesterday (February 17).Despite finishing top of the free skate standings, Trusova missed out on the overall gold medal after finishing fourth in Tuesday’s short program (February 15). She ended up picking up the silver medal, with Anna Shcherbakova winning the gold.Russian skater Trusova performing to Iggy & the Stooges “I Wanna Be Your Dog” pic.twitter.com/kNC3yPWaVz— Steve Kiviat (@SteveKiviat) February 18, 2022After she missed out on gold by 4.22 points, Trusova was heard to say (via Reuters): “Everyone has a gold medal, everyone, but not me. I hate skating.

EXCLUSIVE: NBCUniversal, amazingly, is now in its fifth decade of carrying the Olympic Games. With this month’s Beijing Winter Olympics, though, all of that accumulated institutional knowledge is colliding with a media landscape in massive flux.

Sha’Carri Richardson, the American track and field star who was banned from the Tokyo Olympics last year for marijuana use, has an issue with Russian Olympic Committee figure skater Kamila Valieva‘s participation in the Beijing Olympics. 15-year-old Kamila tested positive for a banned substance in the midst of the 2022 Winter Olympics, but on Feb. 14, she was granted approval to continue competing by the Court of Arbitration for Sports. The CAS said Kimila’s age is the main reason they decided to lift the ban on the teenager, according to Sport’s Illustrated.

Though many call Shaun White, 35, the G.O.A.T. (Greatest of All Time) of snowboarding, Nina Dobrev, 33 has coined a new term for him to celebrate his final Olympics: G.(B).O.A.T. (Greatest Boyfriend of All Time). Nina gushed over her BF of two years in a new Instagram post, where the actress revealed she was “in awe” of his accomplishments, writing: “You are one of a kind.”

Hoda Kotb took to social media to reveal an incredible bit of news that had fans feeling as elated as she was.MORE: Jennifer Lopez teases Hoda Kotb about Joel Schiffman split live on Today showThe Today Show star shared a picture on Instagram featuring the two athletes who had brought the United States gold at that point at the 2022 Winter Olympics.WATCH: Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie share how to watch the Winter Olympics GamesThe post highlighted Nathan Chen and Chloe Kim in competition, and Hoda happily wrote: "Good morning GOLD!!! Congrats @nathanwchen @chloekim."One fan excitedly commented: "Thank you Nathan and Chloe for an amazing job - it was so exciting and enjoyable watching you- your hard work and dedication certainly paid off!!"MORE: Hoda Kotb makes rare revelation about home life with daughters Haley and HopeAnother wrote: "Way to go guys!!!! So proud of you," with many others sharing congratulatory messages as well and sharing love for Hoda.While Hoda is currently dealing with the ramifications of her split from longtime fiancé Joel Schiffman, she has maintained that the two are still quite amicable.A post shared by Hoda Kotb (@hodakotb)Hoda celebrated the athletes that won gold for USA at the Winter OlympicsShe has been keeping herself busy by throwing herself into coverage for the 2022 Winter Olympics, which are being held in Beijing.While Hoda did attract a huge amount of fan love for her warm and enthusiastic coverage of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, this year the pandemic and ongoing fears of a resurgence have forced NBC to alter plans. MORE: Inside Hoda Kotb's stylish home where she will co-parent her kids with ex Joel SchiffmanMORE: Hoda Kotb announces split from fiancé Joel Schiffman live on

the Washington Post . Survivors of the camps have reported acts of torture, rape, and forced sterilization. Though China to have closed the camps, in 2020 a BuzzFeed News revealed that the government had built “high-security camps—some capable of housing tens of thousands of people” in which to forcibly house Uyghurs.

Go Team USA! Nina Dobrev cheered on Shaun White, while he competed in the 2022 Winter Olympics for snowboarding on Wednesday February 9. The 33-year-old actress posted tons of videos of her TV screen while her boyfriend, 35, shredding up the slopes to try to win yet another gold medal for the United States in Beijing. Nina topped it all off with a sweet photo with her boyfriend on screen to show that even miles apart, she’s rooting for him.

Figure skater Nathan Chen brought glory to the United States on the ice during Monday’s primetime coverage of the 2022 Winter Olympics, shattering the world record in the men’s short program at the Beijing games. Nabbing 113.97 points, Chen brought in the highest short program score in figure skating history. Monday saw new highs for Chen and the winter sport, not for NBC’s fifth night of coverage, or at least in early numbers.

In an unfortunate turn of events, Vincent Zhou will not be able to compete in the Men’s ice skating events at the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNBC Sports says 16 million viewers tuned in to watch the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics opening ceremony on Friday, an all-time low for Olympic ceremonies on linear television.That’s around 43% down compared to the 28.3 million viewers that watched the PyeongChang Winter Olympics opening ceremony in February 2018.Friday’s torch-lighting in Beijing aired live on NBC and the streaming service Peacock beginning at 6:30 a.m. ET yesterday morning and was replayed again in primetime.

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.