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The New York Times

Feb 16 • 8 tweets • 5 min read

For the first time, the quadruple jump could be essential for Olympic medals in women’s figure skating. It’s a Russian specialty and they are expected to land several in Thursday’s free skate, the only program in which they are allowed to perform quads. nyti.ms/3uVk5h5

The Russian women are so good at those quads that even the top male skater, the Olympic gold medalist Nathan Chen, said he did not want to compete against them. “They are so awesome that I think they’d beat all of us,” he said with a laugh. nyti.ms/3uVk5h5

Men have been landing quadruple jumps for years, beginning in 1988. But on the women’s side, the advent of the jump and its necessity for success is relatively new and has shaken up the sport. nyti.ms/3uVk5h5

What sparked this quad era in women’s skating was a monumental performance from the Russian skater Alexsandra Trusova one month after the 2018 Olympics, when she was 13. Trusova, now known as the Quad Queen, last fall landed five quads in one long program. nyti.ms/3uVk5h5

Quads are worth many more points than other jumps. Landing them — even poorly — gives that skater a huge advantage over her competition. For the same jump, a skater who performs a quad could score more than twice the amount of a triple. nyti.ms/3uVk5h5

In 2018, the triple axel was a rare feat for women. Now, that isn't enough to compete with the Russians, who have gone out of their way to use the points system to their advantage and push the technical limits of figure skating year after year. nyti.ms/3uVk5h5

Kamila Valieva of Russia recently became the first woman to land a quad at the Olympics. The question now is whether she can perform at her usual high caliber after being swept up in a doping scandal that nearly cost her the right to compete in Beijing. nyti.ms/3uVk5h5

Arbitrators ruled on Monday that Valieva could skate, but that no medals ceremony would take place if she won a medal. After Tuesday’s short program, she was in first place. Her performance will be closely watched during Thursday’s free skate. nyti.ms/3uVk5h5

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Feb 10

Figure skating in the U.S. is now plainly an Asian American sport.

For the second consecutive Winter Games, four of the six figure skaters representing the U.S. in the singles events are Asian American: Karen Chen, Nathan Chen, Alysa Liu and Vincent Zhou. nyti.ms/3HIBZHn

Asians make up around 7% of the U.S. population but have become vividly overrepresented in ice rinks and competitions at every level, from coast to coast.

Gradually, they have transformed a sport that, until the 1990s, was almost uniformly white. nyti.ms/3HIBZHn

Skaters have infused competitions with music that draws from their Asian heritage, expressing their roots while navigating the perils of hate on social media and a climate of anxiety about anti-Asian violence. nyti.ms/3HIBZHn

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Feb 10

Nathan Chen is on the cusp of winning an Olympic gold medal in men's figure skating. After his defeat at the Games four years ago, he was crushed. This time, he's trying to appreciate the experience — win or lose. nyti.ms/3BiZYuw

In an interview, Chen described how finishing 17th in the short program in the 2018 Games was the worst moment in his young life. But, in many ways, it was also the best. nyti.ms/3BiZYuw

Four years ago, Chen was an 18-year-old rising star under pressure that threatened to crush him. The world expected him to win an Olympic gold medal. The expectations soon started to feel like demands, and he internalized them. nyti.ms/3BiZYuw

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Feb 8

For some extreme Olympic sports — halfpipe, slopestyle, big air — there is no limit to the imagination. They can fly as high as they want. Winning means doing tricks that no one else can do. Or wants to do.

They live in fear of the next new trick. nyti.ms/34jYcNK

Just keeping up gets harder every Olympic cycle. The tricks get higher, bigger, twistier — more dangerous. Performances that won medals at past Olympics might not even qualify this time. Time weeds out those who do not evolve, who cannot keep up. nyti.ms/34jYcNK

Shaun White, 35, is heading to his fifth Olympics. He has to be doing tricks much more difficult and dangerous than he performed when he won gold medals in 2006, 2010 and 2018. It is a cruel trick of reverse-aging — getting better while getting older. nyti.ms/34jYcNK

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Feb 7

A letter alleging an Islamist plot to take over schools in Birmingham, England, started a national panic. The letter was fake, but the fallout for Muslims in Britain was real. Our new podcast from Serial investigates “The Trojan Horse Affair.” nyti.ms/3GwCzqs

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To get to the bottom of the Trojan horse affair, @BriHReed and @HamzaMSyed go into "Sherlock Holmes mode" to investigate who wrote the letter that started a panic over a fake plot to infiltrate Birmingham’s schools. Listen to Part 2 of the Serial podcast. nyti.ms/334nrmv

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“Mate, I’m pissed.” An interview with the Birmingham city councilor who first received the Trojan horse letter outlining an alleged Islamist threat unsettles @HamzaMSyed in Part 3 of a new Serial podcast. “It was eye-opening,” he says. nyti.ms/3LluKYj

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Feb 5

During the Summer Olympics, conditions are mostly controlled. The courts are the same size. The temperature is consistent. The lighting is dependable.

But for many Winter Olympians, the stadium is a mountain, the ceiling is the sky. nyti.ms/3rpFzR4

Winter Olympians expect the unexpected. They train in wind and bitter cold, on ice and slush. But they never know what they will encounter on competition day. Four years of preparation can be undone by the fickle unpredictability of Mother Nature.

Among the fears for winter athletes is a sky that looks just like snow and ice. “If the light is flat, it’s easy to lose yourself because you look at the snow and you look up in the air, and it looks similar,” said Anna Gasser, an Austrian snowboarder.

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Feb 4

A record spike in coronavirus cases in the U.S. wasn’t enough to derail the job market recovery at the beginning of the year.

The economy added 467,000 jobs in January. Here's what else we learned from the jobs report. nyti.ms/3Hsavpi

Despite the growth in employment, there are still nearly three million fewer jobs now than before the pandemic. If you take population growth into account, an expert said, the shortfall is 4.5 million. nyti.ms/3Hsavpi

One of the sectors where employment is higher than it was before the pandemic is business services, with 511,000 more jobs than in February 2020.

In January, leisure and hospitality led the job growth. nyti.ms/3Hsavpi

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