Month: February 2018

As the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics get underway in South Korea, here in the U.S., a group of schoolchildren is hitting the slopes in Vernon, New Jersey, enjoying the expensive sport of skiing for the very first time thanks to a non-profit foundation. Faiza Elmasry has this story narrated by Faith Lapidus.
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Four years ago, American skaters Mirai Nagasu and Adam Rippon were upset that they failed to make the Olympic team. They drowned their sorrow in hamburgers that they ate on the roof of Nagasu’s house, Rippon told NBC News. 

Now, the 24-year-old Nagasu and Rippon, who is 28, are roommates at the Olympic Village and they both delivered strong performances Monday, enabling the United States figure skaters to win the bronze medal in the team event. 

Nagasu, of Montebello,California, became the first American woman – and the third overall – to land a triple axel in the women’s free skate in the team competition. She accomplished the feat 21 seconds into her routine and the crowd gave her a standing ovation. 

Rippon, the first openly gay man to compete in the Olympics, nailed two triple axels in his free skate turn. 

Canada took home the gold medal in team figure skating, while the Russians earned the silver. 

Meanwhile, the U.S. won its second gold medal and it was in snowboarding, again. 

Jamie Anderson defended her title in Olympic women’s slopestyle snowboarding. She was one of the few able to navigate the tricky series of rails and jumps safely as the wind wreaked havoc on the field. 

She is the first woman to win multiple Olympic gold medals in snowboarding. 

Laurie Blouin of Canada came in second, Ennie Rukajarvi won third. 

Seventeen-year-old Red Gerard, from Silverthorne, Colorado won gold for the U.S. in men’s slopestyle snowboarding Sunday in his debut Olympics.

In the men’s luge, Austria’s David Gleirscher took the gold while Chris Mazder won the silver to give the U.S. its first men’s singles medal in the event. Germany’s Johannes Ludwig took the bronze.

The frigid weather at the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang is causing some schedule changes. 

On Monday, the below freezing temperatures caused the postponement of the women’s giant slalom less than three hours before it was supposed to start. That followed Sunday’s postponement of the men’s down hill. 

Both races will be held Thursday, but on different slopes. 

Signs are everywhere around the Olympics reminding people to wash their hands in the fight against the norovirus that has broken out. 

Another 19 cases of norovirus have been reported, bringing the total to 177 since February 1. 

The Centers for Disease Control says the norovirus is a very contagious virus that can be transmitted from an infected person, contaminated food or water, or by touching contaminated surfaces. The agency says the virus can lead to stomach pain, nausea, diarrhea and vomiting. 
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Forget the Winter Olympics, the Champion’s League or the Super Bowl. The real competition right now is who’s going to be invited to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding.

Everyone who is anyone in Britain is angling for an embossed royal ticket.

British heavyweight boxer Anthony Joshua, who is seeking to add two more world championships to the three he already owns, says he would be happy to interrupt his high-level training for a trip to Windsor Castle on May 19. The ebullient Joshua has not been shy, tweeting a picture of himself and Harry with the question “Need a best man?”

“I’m single,” the 28-year-old told the BBC, expressing an interest in seeing if the elegant, raven-haired Markle’s “got any sisters.”

(For the record Anthony, she has a half sister, 53-year-old Samantha Grant, a divorced mother of three who has called Markle “a social climber.”)

The actual guest list is a closely guarded secret – and details about it may not be released until the event is underway. But that hasn’t stopped speculation about who’s in or who’s out from becoming a national parlor game and the subject of wagers in Britain’s legal betting shops.

 

Any bride and groom run into parental interference in their guest list, whether it’s adding random cousins or forgotten neighbors. Yet Harry and Markle are enduring this phenomenon at a cosmic level due to the royal expectations that come along with being a grandson of Queen Elizabeth II.

At least Harry and Markle won’t face the 3,500 guests that his parents, Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, welcomed to their 1981 “wedding of the century” in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.They also avoided the warehouse-sized Westminster Abbey, where Harry’s brother Prince William and Kate Middleton packed in 1,900 guests for a 2011 royal wedding extravaganza televised around the world.

 

Their wedding venue, St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, holds a mere 800 guests. Even so, it’s going to be tough to cut that list.

The British royals’ close relatives alone number over 50 – and this time Princess Eugenie gets to bring a plus-one, fiance Jack Brooksbank. Harry also won’t forget non-royals like Kate’s sister, Pippa Middleton, her husband James Mathews, and brother James Middleton.

At William’s wedding, 45 foreign royals from 20 countries were invited from nations as diverse as Spain, Norway, Malaysia, Thailand and Saudi Arabia. William also invited governor generals from Commonwealth countries (23 seats); foreign dignitaries (27); U.K. politicians (42); religious figures (31); senior military officers (14) and 80 workers from charities that he backs. Oh – and don’t forget the ambassadors from countries with ties to Britain.

 

William barely could squeeze in A-listers like David Beckham and TV adventure host Ben Fogle – who may return for Harry’s nuptials.

Britain’s governing elite – Prime Minister Theresa May, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond – would normally expect a Windsor invite. But with turmoil over Brexit roiling the ruling Conservative Party, perhaps the bride and groom should just wait until a week before the wedding, then invite whoever is still left standing.

The juiciest debate has been over invites for rival U.S. presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Harry and Obama have obvious chemistry and have worked together promoting Harry’s Invictus Games competition for wounded soldiers. Some British officials, however, fear that an invite to Obama would anger Trump.

 

The royals could note that Obama, the U.S. president in 2011, was not invited to William’s wedding. And they have a bit more leeway because Harry’s wedding is not considered a state event. Markle, meanwhile, is a Hillary Clinton fan.

“We’ve changed our minds on this. We think Harry is in a position that he does not have to worry about the political implications of an invite,” said Rupert Adams, a spokesman for the betting agency William Hill PLC. “We feel strongly that the Obamas will get an invite.”

As for Trump?

 

“We’d be very surprised to see him on the guest list,” Adams said.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has a trifecta of ties to the bride and groom:He’s the head of a Commonwealth country, host of Harry’s latest Invictus Games and leader of the nation where Markle had been living.

 

On the celebrity front, Elton John, who turned his song “Candle in the Wind” into an anthem for the late Princess Diana, is considered a 1-50 lock for an invite (98 percent chance) and singer James Blunt comes in at 1-4. Singer/songwriter Ed Sheeran is also reportedly close to Harry’s royal cousins and his U.K. tour doesn’t start until a few days later.

 

The betting for wedding performer includes John, Sheeran, Coldplay, Joss Stone and Adele.

Violet von Westenholz who introduced the couple will get a nod, along with Harry’s buddies Thomas and Charlie van Straubenzee, Thomas Inskip and Arthur Landon.

 

Yet A-listers could find themselves outnumbered by British military members and charity workers. Look for dress uniforms from both the Blues and Royals regiment and the Army Air Corps, because Harry served as a former Apache helicopter co-pilot in Afghanistan.

“You create significant bonds in a war zone,” noted Adams.

Among the 10 guests that Markle is allowed to pick [just kidding] will be her mom Doria Ragland, dad Thomas, half brother Thomas Jr. and possibly Grant. Markle’s friends include tennis star Serena Williams, stylist Jessica Mulroney, “Suits” star Patrick J. Adams and former “Made in Chelsea” cast member Millie Macintosh.

Markle’s ex-husband, producer Trevor Engelson, is not expected to receive an invitation.

But William Hill spokesman Adams admits that British bookies don’t really have a clue about who the 36-year-old American will invite.

“The simple reality is … we have been focusing on Harry over here,” Adams said.
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Ziad Doueiri’s film ‘The Insult’ is one of this year’s Oscar nominees in the Foreign Film category. The film, largely a courtroom drama, tackles the cultural, religious and political rifts that exist in Lebanon since 1948. Doueiri spoke with VOA’s Penelope Poulou about the film’s hard-hitting elements and its message of reconciliation between Moslems and Christians.
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Ziad Doueiri’s film The Insult is one of this year’s Oscar nominees in the Foreign Film category. The film, largely a courtroom drama, tackles the cultural, religious and political rifts that have existed in Lebanon since 1948. Doueiri told VOA about the film’s hard-hitting elements and its message of reconciliation between Muslims and Christians.

Ziad Doueiri is very passionate about his work. His story about the verbal dispute between two men from two different ethnic and religious backgrounds in Beirut, Lebanon, reveals his anxiety about his country, which he feels is fragmented and has not reconciled with its past.

“Lebanon is still a volatile place. Lebanon is so dynamic. But also, we had a past. Beirut, Lebanon had a rough past. We had a lot of conflict with the Syrians, the Palestinians, the Lebanese, the Left, the Right, the Conservatives, the Liberals. The pro-West, the pro-East. Lebanon is such a tiny place, but it really absorbs all those kinds of things,” he said.

“So, whenever you have that many conflicts and such a tiny place surrounded by so many countries we are on a hot bed of problems. Things can get out of hand because since the end of the civil war the Lebanese never sat down with each other to say, ‘ok the war is over, let’s talk about it.’ There is stability, but it can explode any time.”

His film The Insult conveys this combustible political climate. In the middle of a heated political campaign in Beirut, a small dispute about a drainpipe between Tony, a Christian Lebanese car mechanic and Yasser, a Palestinian construction foreman, takes on monstrous proportions. After Tony’s faulty drainpipe gets him wet, Yasser fixes it, only to see it destroyed by Tony, who does not want a Palestinian close to his property. Yasser loses his temper and curses Tony out.

Despite his pregnant wife’s advice to avoid a confrontation, Tony goes to Yasser’s boss and demands Yasser apologize and be fined for his behavior. Like most Palestinian refugees who’ve lived in Lebanon since 1948, Yasser does not have a work permit. His boss pressures him to apologize or lose his job. When he goes to meet Tony, instead of a reconciliation, the argument escalates. This time it is Tony who insults Yasser. Yasser punches Tony and breaks two of his ribs. Tony takes Yasser to court.

 

Filmmaker Doueiri said the idea for his film came from personal experience. “Just like the film starts, I was watering my plants. It’s an old apartment so the water leaked and fell on one of the construction workers and he yelled because the water fell on him and we had a heated exchange of words and we ended up yelling at each other,” he said.

Doueiri said, thankfully, the argument was settled. “Couple of days later, it started dawning on me, ‘What if I start a story where there is such a silly insignificant incident, but it does not get resolved. And actually, becomes more complicated.’ And I start asking myself the questions, ‘could such an insignificant problem in Lebanon develop into a national crisis?’ It can.”

The Insult escalates into a serious courtroom drama, as the two men, looking for justice, take the dispute all the way up to the country’s Supreme Court and the Lebanese government.

“When the film came out, it split the country in a way, because the Christian population flooded the movie and it became number one, [at the box office] but certain part, a big part of the Muslim community boycotted the movie.”

As a filmmaker, Doueiri is no stranger to controversy. His previous film, The Attack, was banned in 22 countries, including Lebanon, because he had shot it in Israel. He said The Insult has also been boycotted in some Arab countries, including Jordan and the Palestinian territories.

“It is very unfortunate that the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah banned the movie. Even though one of the main actors who plays the Palestinian got a huge award at the Venice film festival, for Best Male Performance,” he said.

Doueiri, who was raised by an intellectual leftist pro-Palestinian Lebanese family, said his film offers a balanced study between Christian Lebanese and Muslim Palestinians. His script, part character drama, part courtroom drama, was co-written with his Christian Lebanese partner Joelle Touma.

“She wrote all the scenes of the Palestinian, she grew up hating those Palestinians, but all the scenes where they had the lawyer defending the Palestinian, she wrote them. And all the scenes, the Christian lawyer defending the Christian, I wrote them. So, we crossed,” he said.

The Insult is an elegantly told story that peers into the psychological makeup of Lebanon and its inhabitants. Despite the controversy it has created, the Lebanese government chose it to represent the country at the Oscars.
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A teenager has won the first U.S. medal at the Pyeongchang Olympics, and it’s gold.

Seventeen-year-old Red Gerard, from Silverthorne, Colorado, in his debut Olympics, won the men’s slopestyle snowboarding competition.

“My emotions are crazy,” he said after winning. “I was just so happy to land the run and to make it to the podium … I’m so excited.”

In his final run Sunday, Gerard triumphed over Canadians Max Parrot, who won the silver and Mark McMorris, who won a second bronze after Sochi four years ago.

When asked how the Canadians felt about the youngster’s win, Gerard said, “They were all so excited. It was awesome. We are all friends … they were just happy that we all landed runs.”

In the men’s luge, Austria’s David Gleirscher took the gold while Chris Mazder won the silver to give the U.S. its first men’s singles medal in the event.  Germany’s Johannes Ludwig took the bronze.  His countryman Felix Loch looked set to win his fourth gold in the luge but he made an error late in his final run and was left out of the top three.

High winds have led Pyeongchang Olympic officials to postpone the men’s downhill skiing event planned for Sunday.

Winds were gusting to 72 kph at the Jeongseon Alpine Center. The event has been rescheduled for Thursday. The men’s super-G and other speed racing events will be moved back a day, to Friday, the International Ski Federation (FIS) said.

“We kind of expected this downhill to be postponed due to wind, but at the same time the guys were charged up and ready to go,” said Sasha Rearick, the U.S. men’s alpine head coach. “With this being an outdoor sport, it is not abnormal.”

On Saturday, Norway’s Marit Bjoergen entered the history books at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. She became the most decorated female winter Olympian of all time when she won a silver medal in the 15 K skiathlon. It was her 11th medal — six gold, four silver and a bronze.

Charlotte Kalla of Sweden won this year’s first gold medal when she won the skiathlon. She won the race by more than 7 seconds, breaking away from the pack in the final two kilometers to avenge her loss to Bjoergen in the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Krista Parmakoski of Finland won the bronze. U.S. skier Jessie Diggens finished fifth, the best-ever cross-country finish by an American woman.

The winter games run through Feb. 25.

Rafael Saakov of VOA’s Russian Service contributed to this report.
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High winds have led Pyeongchang Olympic officials to postpone the men’s downhill skiing event planned for Sunday.

Winds were gusting to 72 kph (45 mph) at the Jeongseon Alpine Center. The event will now be held Thursday. The men’s super-G and other speed racing events will be moved back a day, to Friday, the International Ski Federation (FIS) said.

Sasha Rearick, the U.S. men’s alpine head coach, said, “We kind of expected this downhill to be postponed due to wind, but at the same time the guys were charged up and ready to go. With this being an outdoor sport, it is not abnormal.”

On Saturday, Norway’s Marit Bjoergen entered the history books at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. She became the most decorated female winter Olympian of all time when she won a silver medal in the 15K skiathlon. It was her 11th medal — six gold, four silver and a bronze. 

Charlotte Kalla of Sweden won this year’s first gold medal when she took top honors in the skiathlon. She won the race by more than 7 seconds, breaking away from the pack in the final two kilometers to avenge her loss to Bjoergen in the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Krista Parmakoski of Finland won the bronze. U.S. skier Jessie Diggens finished fifth, the best cross-country finish ever by an American woman.

Medals will also be awarded Sunday in the women’s giant slalom, men’s 10K sprint biathlon, men’s skiathlon, team figure skating, women’s freestyle skiing, men’s luge, men’s and women’s snowboarding, and men’s speedskating. 

The winter games run through February 25.
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“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” — an old saying that often elicits groans — is just what organizers of an exhibition of 20th and 21st century photographic masterpieces at the Musée de l’Élysée in Lausanne believe and are promoting.

The exhibit, “The Beauty of Lines,” exposes 160 photographs from the extensive, New York-based Sondra Gilman and Celso Gonzalez-Falla collection, considered one of the top five private collections in the world.

“The exhibition is a journey throughout the beauty of photography,” said Tatyana Franck, director of the internationally renowned Swiss photographic museum.

“The show is intended to have visitors experience beauty by how they feel,” she said. “You cannot explain beauty. It is something you feel, depending on your own history.”

Photo Gallery: ​’The Beauty of Lines’ Exhibit at the Musée de l’Élysée

First time in Europe

This is the first time selected works of the 1,500 original prints from the collection of the husband and wife team are being presented in Europe.

The collection includes the works of 73 master photographers from the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe and Japan, such as Berenice Abbott, Robert Adams, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Imogen Cunningham, Rineke Dijkstra, Robert Mapplethorpe, Man Ray and Hiroshi Sugimoto.

When she first met the two prominent collectors three years ago, Franck said she was “amazed by their enthusiasm and passion for photography” and their desire “to share their passion with the world.”

Celso Gonzalez-Falla told VOA he saw nothing unusual in that. 

“The reason why we buy the photographs and are creating our collection is to share it with the rest of the world,” he said.

Sondra Gilman affirmed that “our philosophy is that no one should or could own art. It belongs to the world. To have wonderful art and have it limited to one family or a small group of people is outrageous.”

​Show follows themes

The exhibit itself is not chronological. It is a thematic show that conveys the universality of artistic expression through photographs that explore ideas and concepts of humanity, society and nature without being constrained by time and nationality.

The show is divided into three sections: Lines, Abstractions and Curves.

“Lines, especially straight and parallel lines are used by photographers who want to depict reality,” Franck said. “Straight, vertical and parallel lines are being used by artists not only to document reality, but also to give some sociological messages.”

A noteworthy example of this is a 1933 print, “View of Exchange Place from Broadway,” by American photographer Berenice Abbott. The photo presents an image of a modern town in which tall buildings lean into each other, creating a sense of loneliness and powerlessness among the almost microscopically small people below.

This somewhat claustrophobic image is offset by an expansive view of “The George Washington Bridge,” a photograph by Margaret Bourke-White, the first U.S. female war correspondent and one of the world’s first female photojournalists.

Franck said Bourke-White wanted to glorify the modernity of New York by shooting the bridge within a vertical and short frame. Although the picture was made in 1933, she said, “Today, 100 years later, that print seems and continues to seem modern.”

​Unknown artists, too

In a departure from the exhibit’s focus on the works of famous photographers, the photo chosen for the cover of the catalogue is by an unknown Italian artist, Augusto Cantamessa.

The picture, “Breve Orizzonte” (Short Horizon), stands out for its poetic and graceful beauty. It captures a row of pencil thin trees swaying and seemingly straining to leave the frame that confines them. The trees tower over two miniature bikers peddling slowly through this strange forest.

“He was a true discovery for us. We never heard of this photographer,” Franck said. “What makes this collection extremely interesting is Sondra Gilman and Celso Gonzales-Falla … do not have a criterion of names. They have the criteria of quality” when buying a print.

Gilman agreed that she and her husband were not affected by fame. 

“We are only affected by the image, by our judgment and emotional reaction,” she said.

​Abstractions and Curves

One of the finest examples in the second section, Abstractions, which presents the line in its purest form, is a 1960 picture by U.S. photographer Ray K. Metzker, called “Venice.”

In this photo, as in others in this section, the real world disappears behind abstract lines, creating a different kind of reality. The Metzker picture depicts two black doors split by a large vertical crack through which a sharp, dazzlingly bright light shines. Franck said she was certain that behind the doors she would find “true light and a huge welcoming sun.”

“It is perfection in terms of composition,” she said. “It is like a spiritual experience.”

Curved Lines are represented in the show with works by Edward Weston, Andre Kertesz and Robert Mapplethorpe among others. Curves capture life as it is. They are a symbol of sensuality. Curves show human beings in motion, moving from one situation to another.

The exhibition, which runs through May 6, is beautifully mounted and easily relatable within the intimate setting of the museum. From conversations with visitors, the collection seems to have changed the lens through which some now view photography.

‘Pictures talk to each other’

It even has added a new dimension to the way Gilman and Gonzalez-Falla see their collection.

“It has totally changed the way I look at my own photographs because we never ever analyzed them so distinctly as to isolate line,” Gilman said. “It has opened up a new world to us.”

Gonzalez-Falla had a similar reaction. “We always looked at our photographs because we loved them,” he told VOA. “The show now makes me look at the collection in a different light.”

Calling it a “marvelous installation,” Gonzalez-Falla said that he was particularly impressed with the way the photographs have been hung. “They have the pictures talk to each other.”
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The exhibit features 160 photographs from the New York-based Sondra Gilman and Celso Gonzalez-Falla collection
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We’re soaring with the five most popular songs in the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles chart, for the week ending February 10, 2018.

This is a rare week. Not only do we get a new No. 1 single, it’s also the Hot Shot Debut.

Number 5: Bruno Mars Featuring Cardi B “Finesse”

Number 5: Let’s open in fifth place, where Bruno Mars and Cardi B slip a slot with “Finesse.”

Bruno has a message for the National Football League: Pick a hip-hop artist to be the halftime entertainer at the 2019 Super Bowl. Justin Timberlake was the headliner at the February 4 game. Bruno’s opinion carries a lot of weight: He performed at the 2014 Super Bowl with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and again in 2016 with Beyonce and Coldplay.

Number 4: Post Malone Featuring 21 Savage “Rockstar”

Post Malone and 21 Savage also dip a notch in fourth place with their former champ “Rockstar.” 

Post still hasn’t set a release date for his Beerbongs & Bentleys album, but when it arrives, it should be interesting. Post says he’s been listening to the blues, Nirvana, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Fleet Foxes for inspiration, and Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee reportedly appears on one track.

Number 3: Camila Cabello Featuring Young Thug “Havana”

Camila Cabello and Young Thug lose their Hot 100 crown this week, as “Havana” sinks to third place. 

Camila has been confirmed as a guest performer on an upcoming episode of the popular UK TV series “Dancing On Ice.” The big night happens on February 18. We’re guessing that Camila will not actually sing on the ice.

Number 2: Ed Sheeran “Perfect”

Ed Sheeran holds in the runner-up slot with “Perfect.” Ed wrote this song for his then-girlfriend, Cherry Seaborn. The pair are now engaged. Ed is friends with footballer Wayne Rooney — who says he will sing at Ed’s wedding … whether he likes it or not.

Number 1: Drake “God’s Plan”

We always like a new singles champion, and this one’s huge: Drake debuts in the top slot with “God’s Plan.” It’s a record-breaker, too.

The song broke an on-demand streaming record, with 68 million streams coming out of the gate. Drake has two debuts in this week’s Top 10, with “Diplomatic Immunity” opening in seventh place. This is the second time he’s done this …”Passionfruit” and “Portland” both debuted in the Top 10 last April. Drake is the only artist to accomplish this chart feat.

What will happen next week? Join us in seven days to find out!

 
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The 2018 Winter Olympic Games have officially begun in Pyeongchang, South Korea, with a spectacular light show and the traditional parade of athletes entering the Olympic stadium.

This year, Nigeria has its first team in the Winter Games — a women’s bobsled team. They’ll be hurtling down the ice at speeds of 150 kilometers an hour.

Other athletes originally from Africa will be making history at the games.

Akwasi Frimpong will represent Ghana on the skeleton, a small sled that rockets down the icy course. Simidele Adeagbo will be Nigeria’s first female skeleton competitor. Eritrea has its first competitor, skier Shannon Ogbani Abeda, who was born in Canada to Eritrean immigrants.

And Maame Biney, who was born in Ghana, has become a darling of the U.S. speed skating team.

The Winter Games run through February 25.
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World champion and Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles has 19 medals to her name, but there’s one accolade that’s been out of her reach. Until now. VOA’s Tina Trinh met with the all-star gymnast to discuss her next big goal.
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Salt Lake City, Utah, which hosted the Winter Olympics in 2002, is considering making a bid for the Winter Games in 2026 or 2030. Rafael Saakov from VOA’s Russian Service recently visited the Salt Lake City venues to see what they look like 16 years after the Olympics.
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