THIRD WORLD USA
National Guard deploys for new emergency: Teacher shortages

SEE;ANYONE CAN TEACH
By CEDAR ATTANASIO

1 of 4

New Mexico Army National Guard specialist Michael Stockwell kneels while helping Alamogordo High School freshman Aiden Cruz with a geology assignment, at Alamogordo High School,Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022, in Alamogordo, N.M. Dozens of National Guard Army and Air Force troops in New Mexico have been stepping in for an emergency unlike others they have responded to before: the shortage of teachers and school staff members that have tested the ability of schools nationwide to continue operating during the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)


ALAMOGORDO, N.M. (AP) — On past deployments Army National Guard Spc. Michael Stockwell surveilled a desolate section of the U.S.-Mexico border during a migrant surge, and guarded a ring of checkpoints and fences around New Mexico’s state Capitol after the January 2021 insurrection in Washington.

On his current mission, Stockwell helps students with assignments as a substitute science teacher at Alamogordo High School.

“You can’t act Army with these kids. You can’t speak the same way you would with another soldier with these kids. You can’t treat them the same way. You have to be careful with corrective actions,” he said with a laugh.

Dozens of National Guard Army and Air Force troops in New Mexico have been stepping in for an emergency unlike others they have responded to before: the shortage of teachers and school staff members that has tested the ability of schools nationwide to continue operating during the coronavirus pandemic.

While many other states and school districts issued pleas for substitute teachers amid omicron-driven surges in infections, New Mexico has been alone in calling out its National Guard members. In 36 of the state’s 89 school districts, guard members have traded in mission briefs for lesson plans to work for school systems.

When Stockwell first walked into the freshman science class, wearing camouflage fatigues and combat boots, some students thought he was just visiting, like a recruiter. Then he took a seat in the teacher’s chair.

“When he started taking attendance, I was like, ‘whoa,’” said Lilli Terrazas, 15, of Alamogordo. “I was kind of nervous because, like, you know — a man in a uniform. But it was cool. He helped me.”

Roughly 80 service members have volunteered to work in schools. The troops have gone through background checks and taken brief courses required for substitute teachers. As substitutes, they don’t have to learn much about curriculum, but they need to be attentive to students.

Stockwell has been filling in since late January when his students’ teacher moved to an administrative role in another school. One recent day, he shuffled through the rows of school desks, kneeling to meet students eye-to-eye as he helped them with assignments calculating the depth of the earth’s crust, and other layers of the planet.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, called out the guard to help with the acute shortages in a state that like several others has struggled to find enough educators. At least 100 schools had reported closing down for at least one day this school year.

New Mexico saw a surge of teacher retirements last fall, and there are currently around 1,000 open teaching positions in a state with about 20,000 teachers. Grisham stressed the guard deployment is a temporary measure and state officials are working to bolster the teaching force and school staff through increased pay and other strategies.

At Alamogordo High School, the teacher shortage peaked on Jan. 13, when 30 teachers, about a third of the teaching staff, were out due to illness, professional training, or family emergencies.

“Everybody was enjoying their holiday and things like that, and then they came back and were sick,” said Raeh Burns, one of two Alamogordo High School secretaries tasked with filling teaching slots each morning. “I know I’m going to have Mr. Stockwell every morning and that he’s OK to go where I need him to go.”

In some communities, there have been concerns raised about soldiers going in classrooms. In Santa Fe, the school district was asked if soldiers would wear uniforms and carry guns, school district spokesperson Cody Dynarski said. Guns were always out of the question. The district decided that soldiers would wear civilian clothing.

Ultimately, Santa Fe and Albuquerque, two of the largest urban school districts, did not receive any soldiers despite their requests as the deployments have prioritized smaller and more rural school districts.

Elsewhere, when given the choice, some soldiers have opted for military fatigues over civilian clothes to command respect in the classroom, particularly if they’re not much older than their students.

“I think I look like an 18-year-old out of uniform,” said Cassandra Sierra, 22, of Roswell, N.M., who has served as a substitute teacher in a high school in Hobbs.

Sierra already works with kids in her day job as a student coordinator at a military boarding school in Roswell, which has given her an edge as a substitute.

“Kids just need patience,” she said. “I think I just have a lot of patience.”

At a middle school on Alamogordo’s Holloman Air Force Base, students are used to seeing people in uniform, but not in classrooms.

“I was like, ‘Oh, we have somebody in the uniform that’s going to teach us. That’s kinda awkward.’ It was weird,” said Andrew George, 12, of his computer classes led by a woman trained in combat and with experience leading a platoon overseas. “Once she introduced herself I was like ‘Oh yeah, this is going to be fun.’”

The substitute, Lt. Amanda Zollo, works in the 911 dispatch center in Albuquerque when she’s not training or serving with the guard. She kept students on task during a lesson about cybersecurity, as they created and then attempted to break each other’s passwords.

She was subbing for a teacher who was having trouble finding childcare. The principal, Whitney Anderson, said that having Zollo’s services meant that for the first time that week she didn’t have to take over a classroom herself.

Zollo doesn’t talk about her work as an infantry officer with her students, which, after a nervous laugh, she describes as “engaging with and destroying the enemies of the U.S. in close-quarter combat.”

___

This story has been corrected to reflect that it was the high school missing a third of teachers, not the entire district.

___

Attanasio is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. Follow Attanasio on Twitter.

On the slopes, a struggle for Black skiers’ Olympic dreams

By AARON MORRISON

1 of 6

Richardson Viano, of Haiti, celebrates after finishing the men's slalom run 2 at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022, in the Yanqing district of Beijing. Haiti sent skier Richardson Viano to China as its first winter Olympian ever. Like Viano, who learned to ski in France after he was adopted by a French family, most of the African and Caribbean participants in the Games either trained or lived in countries with ski slopes and training facilities. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

BEIJING (AP) — Take an informal survey of elite American Alpine skiers and snowboarders, and most can name an organization that exposes Black and Hispanic children from urban areas to winter sports.

Whether it’s on indoor halfpipes in New Jersey, or the Rocky Mountain slopes of Colorado and Wyoming, there seem to be plenty of programs aimed at developing a diverse new generation of skiers and snowboarders.

So where are the Black and Hispanic American athletes at the Winter Olympics?

The U.S. Alpine skiing team in Beijing is entirely white. The U.S. snowboarders and freestyle skiers include Asian American riders, but none who are Black or Hispanic.

“It’s incredibly unfortunate,” said Ryan Cochran-Siegle, an American silver medalist in super-G at Beijing. “We all want to figure out ways to close those gaps between different minorities and their access to skiing.”

The past and present of the alpine sports are both working against that goal. White and elitist, they were born in the mountains of Europe, and are flourishing for the most part in mountain communities without a lot of racial or ethnic diversity.

Then there is the cost: A single day of skiing can cost $100 or more, not including travel and equipment rental; owning your own gear costs even more. Wealth and easy access to resorts make a significant difference in one’s ability to progress from recreation-level participation to an Olympic path.

It’s one reason why few who make it to the Olympics are first-generation skiers, said Bode Miller, whose six Olympic Alpine medals are the most for any American skier.

“If your family didn’t ski, or you weren’t exposed to it through your upbringing, it’s just very unusual,” Miller said. “Your friends have to kind of push you into it.”

The solution to the lack of diversity in skiing and snowboarding, according to Miller and others, is creating access to the slopes for underserved communities.

“Accessibility (splits into) subcategories of financial accessibility, geographic accessibility and cultural accessibility,” said Miller, who is part of a group working to build indoor skiing facilities across the United States.

Advocates say the kind of two-day-a-week programs that create space on the snow for Black and Hispanic children are making a difference. But not enough so yet to be seen at the Olympics.

A young athlete’s chances of making an Olympic team increase significantly with intensive training at elite boarding schools or academies that can cost of tens of thousands of dollars.

But Schone Malliet, a Black CEO and founder of Winter4Kids, a nonprofit that makes winter sports accessible to New York-area schoolkids, says programs like his are about much more than training elite athletes.

“When you see these kids out here, and they’re in awe of what they see on a mountain and when they fall and get up and they keep going? That’s the deal,” Malliet said. “They change their whole perspective on their lives. Forget about skiing, snowboarding or cross-country, but just building the idea that, ’I can fall down and get up.’”

Kenya's Sabrina Simader speeds down the course during the women's super-G, at the alpine ski World Championships, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021. Seba Johnson broke barriers during the 1988 Calgary Games, becoming the first Black woman to ski in a Winter Games, and at 14, the youngest. The next Black woman in an Olympic Alpine ski was Simader who skied in the 2018 Games at Pyeongchang, South Korea. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati, File)

Racial diversity is still a novelty across most winter sports, not just skiing and snowboarding.

In Beijing, there is only one Black figure skater competing for any nation. On Sunday, American Erin Jackson became the first Black woman to win a gold medal in speedskating. In other events, a small number of Black and Hispanic athletes compete with longshot chances at medals.

There are, in fact, some people of color competing in ski events at the Beijing Olympics. They are from African and Caribbean nations -- Ghana, Nigeria, Eritrea, Jamaica. Haiti sent skier Richardson Viano to China as its first winter Olympian ever.

Jean-Pierre Roy, president of the Haiti Ski Federation, who was on hand Sunday to watch Viano ski in the giant slalom, skied in world championship races but said Haitians’ interest in the sport has taken off with Viano’s pioneering participation.

“There have to be dreams,” he said. “Without dreams there is no progress.”

Like Viano, who learned to ski in France after he was adopted by a French family, most of the African and Caribbean participants in the Games either trained or lived in countries with ski slopes and training facilities.

Sophie Goldschmidt, head of U.S. Skiing, said inclusion is a core value for her organization, but acknowledges the barriers to progress on skier diversity.

“Whether it’s sort of being cost prohibitive or just exclusive for other reasons, it’s something that I’m keen to change,” she said.

A 2021 audit of diversity, equity and inclusion of U.S. Skiing revealed the organization is almost entirely white. Just 1% of the organization’s staff identified as people of color, while all of its coaches and board members were white.

Seba Johnson first saw skiing on a tiny black and white TV in the housing project where she lived in Fredericksted, on the island of St Croix. She was awed. Seeing it in person at the age of 5 convinced her she wanted to be a ski racer.

Nine years later, Johnson broke barriers during the 1988 Calgary Games, becoming the first Black woman to ski in a Winter Games, and at 14, the youngest. She relied on support from ski equipment companies, celebrities and other donors, and even then was able to spend far less time training than her competitors.

“No one should have to beg for an opportunity to do what their heart desires,” Johnson, 48, said in an interview.

Although she competed at subsequent Olympics, representing the U.S. Virgin Islands, there wasn’t another Black woman in an Olympic Alpine ski event until 30 years later, when Kenya’s Sabrina Simader skied in the 2018 Games at Pyeongchang.

She called it “heartbreaking” that Black representation in skiing hasn’t improved.

 Erin Jackson of the United States skates during a speedskating practice session at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022, in Beijing. Jackson became the first Black woman to win a gold medal in speedskating. In other events, a small number of Black and Hispanic athletes compete with longshot chances at medals.(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

Alaska-born Andre Horton became the first Black man on the U.S. ski team in 2001, although he never competed at an Olympics.

Another Black skier introduced Horton to the National Brotherhood of Skiers, a Black-led organization advocating for greater representation in winter sports. The group’s convention in Aspen, Colorado, was the first time Horton saw large numbers of other skiers who looked like him. He said other attendees were awed by the sight of him in his national ski team uniform.

Horton recalls sharing a chairlift ride that day with a 70-year-old Black woman, who drove home how important Black representation is for the sport.

“She said, ‘When I was your age, I wasn’t allowed to ski.’”

That’s exactly why the National Brotherhood of Skiers exists, says its president, Henri Rivers. It aims to clear racial and social barriers for Black athletes so they can focus on excelling in winter sports.

Even then, the Black and Hispanic skiers coming through the pipeline aren’t ready to compete for spots on an Olympic team. They’d do better if the greater ski community embraced them and saw them as the future of the sport, Rivers said.

“They don’t even realize how many different obstacles are being put in their way to slow their progress.”

__

Associated Press writers Howard Fendrich, Pat Graham and John Leicester contributed. New York-based journalist Aaron Morrison is a member of the AP’s Race and Ethnicity team on assignment at the Beijing Olympics. Follow him on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/aaronlmorrison.

___

More AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

2022 Beijing Olympics: Inspired by 'Cool Runnings,' four-man Jamaican bob makes Olympic return

Jamaica has a four-man bobsled team in the Olympics for the first time since 1998. Too young to witness the famous 1988 team but big fans of "Cool Runnings," this year's team wants to add to Jamaica's bobsled legacy.

    

Shanwayne Stephens is the first Jamaican to qualify for the Olympics in two-man 

and four-men bobsled since Dudley Stokes

Rolando Reid, Shanwayne Stephens, Ashley Watson and Matthew Wekpe weren't alive to witness Jamaica's bobsledding debut in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.

But they all grew up watching "Cool Runnings," the 1993 comedy starring Leon Robinson, Doug E. Doug, Rawle D. Lewis, Malik Yoba and John Candy, and all of them were at least partly inspired by the film to take up bobsledding themselves.

"It was definitely something I would just look at and say 'oh, this is funny.' It's a hilarious movie," Reid told DW. "After understanding what it is and what the guys went through, I wanted to be a part of that and to carry on that legacy."

While all four love the film, they know that know that even if they didn't, they would still be associated with it anyway. But they don't see it as a bad thing.

"The movie is a part of Jamaican bobsled, part of Jamaica. We're never going to get away from it," Stephens, who pilots the two- and four-man bobs, told DW. "It's a movie everybody loves, and I think it's one of those movies that never gets old."

Today's Jamaica Bobled team was inspired by the 1993 film 'Cool Runnings'

They also recognize the lasting messages of "Cool Runnings" – the value of hard work, chasing dreams and being true to oneself: "The best I can be is Jamaican," says Sanka Coffie, who is played by Doug E. Doug, at one point in the film.

Given the trials the current team had to face getting to Beijing, inspiration was something they sorely needed.

Difficult path to qualification

Reid, Stephens, Watson and Wekpe entered bobsledding in different ways.

Reid, Watson and Wekpe all have track-and-field backgrounds, though Watson is also a power lifter and Wekpe also plays rugby sevens. Stephens is a gunner pilot in the British Royal Air Force (RAF). Reid, like Stephens' brakeman in the two-man bobsled, Nimroy Turgott, lives in Jamaica, while Stephens, Watson and Wekpe live in the UK. But they have one thing in common; there is no snow where they live.

"Even though we're in a colder country, we are still in the same situation, so we have to be creative with our training," Stephens said. "We do as much of that stuff outside of sliding as we can."

The UK's coronavirus-induced lockdown didn't help, either. A video featuring Stephens and two-man partner Turgott pushing Stephens' mini went viral last year and drew a chuckle from Queen Elizabeth II.

"Well, I suppose that's one way to train," Her Majesty told Stephens during an RAF video call.

Jamaica Bobsleigh pilot Shanwayne Stephens had the easy part as Nimroy Turgott pushed him in his mini

Due to the pandemic, Jamaica's four-man team came together for the first time on September 18, 2021, in Lake Placid, New York. They prepared for qualification on an old four-man sled which broke halfway through a competition, but Canada was "kind enough" to lend them one, Stephens said.

"The challenges we've been through this season have been unbelievable," the bobsled pilot added. "We can't even express how hard it's been for us to qualify."

But qualify they did, taking the final spot in the 24-sled field based on their performances in the North American Cup in Lake Placid, which they said had become their home track.

Building on Jamaica's legacy

Reid was proud to point out that Stephens was just the second Jamaican pilot after Dudley Stokes to qualify two sleds for the Olympics – the two-man with brakeman Turgott and the four-man with Reid, Watson and Wekpe.

"That in itself is something for the history books," Reid said. "In the modern era, he's the man."

To Wekpe, the two sleds, plus Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian qualifying in the women's monobob, show how far Jamaica has come as a bobsled nation.

"It just shows that we might be a small nation, but if we put our minds to it, and we work hard, we can qualify for the Games," Wekpe said.

For the Jamaicans, that embodies the main takeaway from "Cool Runnings." 

This year's four-man sled has a different name: "Rude Gal Angelica," which honors Fenlator-Victorian's sister who died shortly before the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics – "Rude Gal Angelica" was her Instagram name.

The best finish for Jamaica in the four-man bobsled is 14th, which Dudley Stokes, Winston Watts, Chris Stokes and Wayne Thomas achieved at the 1994 Games in Lillehammer, Norway. But this year's team isn't too concerned about trying to improve on that standard; for them, it's all about being part of the Jamaican bobsled legacy.

"The sport has moved on so far. The equipment has moved on so far. There are a lot more countries in the sport now," Stephens said.

"We're here to do the best that we can and put our best in every single run that we do, and then the result will be what it will be. As long as we are setting a precedent for the next generation to want to come into the sport, I think we've done ourselves proud."

Given how far they've come, and how hard it was to get to Beijing, rest assured that Reid, Stephens, Watson and Wekpe will "feel the rhythm," "feel the rhyme" and "get on up" for "bobsled time."

Edited by: Chuck Penfold.

THINGS FALL APART

Russian trio of skaters face uncertain futures after drama

By JAMES ELLINGWORTH

1 of 13

Kamila Valieva, of the Russian Olympic Committee, reacts after competing in the women's free skate program during the figure skating competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)


BEIJING (AP) — The gold medalist said she felt empty. The silver medalist pledged never to skate again. The favorite left in tears without saying a word.

After one of the most dramatic nights in their sport’s history, Russia’s trio of teenage figure skating stars each enter an uncertain future.

Her Olympics and life turned upside down by a doping case, world record holder Kamila Valieva faces a possible ban and a coach whose first response to her disastrous skate Thursday was criticism.

“Why did you let it go? Why did you stop fighting?” cameras caught Eteri Tutberidze — the notoriously strict coach who will be investigated over Valieva’s failed drug test — telling the 15-year-old after she fell twice and dropped out of medal contention.

WINTER OLYMPICS

Shcherbakova wins figure skating gold as Valieva collapses

Olympics Live: Kamila Valieva's falls leave her in 4th place

Poulin leads Canada women to Olympic gold in 3-2 win over US

As Valieva placed fourth and left in tears, she received a message of support from 2018 silver medalist Evgenia Medvedeva.

“I am so happy that this hell is over for you,” Medvedeva posted on Instagram. “I really value you and love you and I’m happy that you can relax now, little kitten. I congratulate you on the end of the Olympics and I hope that you can live calmly and breathe.”

Unfortunately for Valieva, she can’t relax just yet. The failed drug test which turned her life upside down still hangs over her head.

While she was allowed to keep skating in Beijing by the Court of Arbitration for Sport to avoid “irreparable harm,” that ruling is valid only until a full investigation of her Dec. 25 test for the banned substance trimetazidine is resolved. The case could take months and still cost Valieva and her Russian teammates the gold medal they won in last week’s team event.

Runner-up Alexandra Trusova was also in despair after her history-making five quadruple jumps proved not enough to beat teammate Anna Shcherbakova to the gold medal. “I hate this sport,” she shouted at the side of the rink. “I won’t go onto the ice again.”

Trusova said she was happy with the skate but not with the result, an apparent jab at he judging that gave Shcherbakova enough extra points for artistry to keep her ahead.

Trusova could be heard crying that she was the only one without a gold medal. The Russians won the team event using Valieva twice instead of allowing Shcherbakova or Trusova to skate one of the women’s programs. That win could be stripped because of Valieva’s doping case.

Trusova later said her comments about not skating again had been “emotional”, the result of missing her family and her dogs, but didn’t commit to compete at next month’s world championships.

Shcherbakova seemed unsure how to react the drama unfolding around her, and said she felt sorry for Valieva. “I still don’t comprehend what has happened. On the one hand I feel happy, on the other I feel this emptiness inside.”

Shcherbakova arrived in Beijing as the world champion from 2021, but Valieva’s record-breaking scores and Trusova’s all-or-nothing quads turned her into an underdog to her younger teammates. Being called an Olympic champion was “unreal,” Shcherbakova said. “I don’t feel like it’s me they’re talking about.”

Russian skaters’ careers are typically so short that at the age of 17, Shcherbakova almost immediately faced questions over whether she would retire.

“I have the desire to skate, and I can’t even imagine being without figure skating,” she said. The 2026 Olympics are a long way off, and no Tutberidze-trained woman has ever stayed in elite skating long enough to become a two-time Olympian. The last woman to retain the gold was Katarina Witt of East Germany in 1988.

What happens next for Shcherbakova and her teammates-turned-rivals depends on many factors — the eventual doping verdict, any further punishment for Tutberidze and the rest of her entourage and the myriad of injuries which can plague young skaters performing quads.

As she tries to recover from a failure on the sport’s biggest stage, Valieva remains at the center of a confrontation between Russia and international institutions. About six hours before she took to the ice, Russian Olympic Committee president Stanislav Pozdnyakov said he would not give up the team event gold medal “under any circumstances, regardless of the results of the disciplinary investigation into the athlete.”

Just one of many unresolved questions for the three young Russian skaters.

___

More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

'Throwaway society': Valieva saga puts spotlight on teen skaters' age

Rebecca BAILEY
Wed, 16 February 2022

Russia's Kamila Valieva is at the centre of a doping controversy at the Beijing Olympics 

Teenage skater Anna Shcherbakova next to her coach Eteri Tutberidze in Beijing (AFP/Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV)

On the ice, the 15-year-old Russian Kamila Valieva exudes composure and emotional maturity.

But as a Beijing Olympic doping scandal exposes the teenager's vulnerability, debate has reopened over age in women's figure skating and whether young athletes are adequately protected.

Female skaters have always skewed young, with six of the last seven Olympic golds won by teenagers.

This year is likely to be no exception, with Valieva and her 17-year-old teammates Alexandra Trusova and Anna Shcherbakova tipped to sweep the podium.

All three train with coach Eteri Tutberidze, who has led a revolution in women's figure skating over the last eight years, producing teenage Russian star after star capable of athletic feats of ever-increasing complexity.

But concerns have been raised over whether the technical brilliance they display withers away with puberty, leaving them prone to burn-out, injury and, ultimately, the figure-skating scrapheap.

Former figure skater Katarina Witt, who won gold in 1984 and 1988 for East Germany, used the term "throwaway society".

"For years I have asked why 15 and 16-year-old Russian talents win the Olympic Games with exceptional performances and then leave the world stage of competitive sports forever, too often with health issues," she wrote on Facebook.

Witt called for the minimum competition age for senior skaters to be raised from 15, an idea which has been floated before in the sport but has never borne fruit.

In Tuesday's short programme in Beijing -- which Valieva won -- Karen Chen, considered a veteran at 22, said that when she was young she wasn't afraid of anything.

"I was just kind -- I don’t know if robot was the right word -- but my coach would tell me to go do something and I would just go do it," said the American.

Her teammate Mariah Bell, at 25 the oldest US woman to compete in Olympic figure skating since 1928, said she "absolutely" believed the age limit should be changed.

Switzerland's Alexia Paganini agreed that it would provide more "motivation to create a skater who has longevity", while Natasha McKay of Britain said that injuries might be reduced.

- 'Quad Squad' -

Tutberidze's school of skating sensations exemplify these concerns -- so far, none have seen more than one Olympics.

Her breakout star, Yulia Lipnitskaya, was 15 when she won Olympic gold at the 2014 Sochi Games in the team event.

Her mesmerising "Schindler's List" routine dazzled observers, who predicted a glittering career. Three years later, Lipnitskaya retired.

In 2016, she had suffered a serious leg injury and never again reached top form.

She finished last in her final competition, later telling Russian media that afterwards she "came home, put (her) skates in the closet, and not seen them since".

She also revealed she had undergone treatment for anorexia.

At the 2018 Olympics, two different teenage Russians -- again, both Tutberidze's students -- were on the podium.

Alina Zagitova and Evgenia Medvedeva took gold and silver respectively -- but this Olympics, they too have been eclipsed.

Both say they cannot match the "quad squad" of Valieva, Trusova and Shcherbakova -- a reference to the trio's ability to perform quadruple jumps, where the skater rotates four times in the air.

Experts say quads are easier for younger women who have not yet gone through puberty, and are lighter and more aerodynamic.

- 'Too dangerous' -

Now 19, Zagitova told the Olympic news site that quads were "too dangerous" for her to do and that she would need to lose weight to be able to attempt one.

Medvedeva has been plagued by injuries, including one to her back that she says left her only able to jump in one direction at the age of 22.

Zagitova, who is working as a broadcaster at the Beijing Games, said it was hard for her to watch figure skating.

"You still get the same feelings in your soul," she said. "There's a feeling of euphoria, as if you yourself were out on the ice."

Shcherbakova and Trusova have been dogged by speculation they are skating through injuries this season.

But after Tuesday's short programme, asked whether her coach's methods were too harsh, second-placed Shcherbakova was defiant.

"I've been in her group since I was nine," she scowled.

"If I’m not changing the coach, it means that I like this coach. We are very fruitful together, we are achieving a lot, as you see."

reb/pst

EXPLAINER: Robots and Olympics

 — a potent photo combination

By MALLIKA SEN

BEIJING (AP) — A figure skater framed only by ragged ice gazes up, almost beseechingly. A goaltender sprawls inside a net, defeat written all over his limbs, even with his face obscured.

These Renaissance painting-like images capture the barrage of emotions evoked during Winter Olympics competition. The key behind them? Robots.

The images don’t read “(AP Photo/Robot),” though. Good old-fashioned photography skills and instinct are integral to making them.

The five members of the International Olympic Photo Pool — Reuters, Getty Images, Agence France-Presse, Xinhua and, of course, The Associated Press — all employ robotics to augment their wire offerings.

How do they get it done?

Associated Press photographer David J. Phillip sets up a robotic camera for figure skating ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Associated Press photographer Chris Carlson installs a robotic camera on a truss at figure skating ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

AN EVOLVING PROCESS

The method is scarcely a decade old — no one was using robotics, at least at the Olympics, before the 2012 Summer Games. There were to be no catwalks at the London venues, so heavy rigs wired with clunky microphone cable were deployed. After that experience, the first change on the list: figuring out how to do the whole operation over a network connection.

The main man behind the AP’s mechanics is photographer David J. Phillip. The rigs spend the off-season in Houston, where Phillip is based.

Just before London, Phillip was tasked with devising an underwater camera system — an assignment that mushroomed. He’s a scuba diver and generally interested in tinkering around, having taught himself programming from scratch.

A system born of necessity just keeps getting better, Phillip says, adding that keeping up with the software changes is a “moving target.” The robotics are periodically trotted out for other special events: this week’s Super Bowl, the World Series, even presidential debates.

Planning for each Olympics typically begins a couple years before, but the usual site visit 18 months in advance had to be substituted with pandemic-induced Zoom conference calls and studying schematics. Everything — we’re talking 10 cargo containers here — has to ship two to three months before the Games begin. It took so long getting the rigs back from Tokyo, that by the time they arrived home to Houston in the fall, it was nearly time for them to make the journey back to Asia.

Associated Press photographer Chris Carlson poses for a photo while installing a remote camera on the roof of the National Stadium, known as the Bird's Nest, in Beijing on Jan. 28, 2022. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Associated Press photographer Jeff Roberson's screens display four different robotic camera views while he works at figure skating on Feb. 8, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Associated Press photographer Jeff Roberson triggers robotic cameras at figure skating on Feb. 8, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)


USING THE TECH

Only a handful of AP photographers are trained on how to use the tech. Photographers Chris Carlson and Jeff Roberson — based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and St. Louis, respectively — join Phillip in Houston a week before the equipment is to ship. They help him build the rigs, program them ... and then take them apart, so they can be shipped.

On the other end, only Phillip is there to attend their homecoming, slowly unpacking the containers over the course of a week — a contrast that reflects the protracted preparation and sudden denouement that defines the Olympics for athletes, organizers and media.

While the major camera suppliers have consultants in Beijing’s closed-loop “bubble,” there are no hardware stores along the closed loop. Accordingly, a duplicate of any component that could break got a ticket to the Olympics. The lumbering ones from London even made the trip, just in case. The A-team was intact and all those extra parts were still riding the bench, though, more more than halfway through the Olympics.

Although AP’s Telemetrics rigs are nimbler than most — each weighs about 26 pounds (12 kilograms), standard Sony A1 mirrorless camera included — installation and disassembly the rigs is a matter of pure manual labor. The photographers even need to get certified in heights every two years to do it.

There are four trusses at the Capital Indoor Stadium, home to figure skating and short track speedskating. They’re pre-programmed for certain spots — including above the “Kiss & Cry” station — but are maneuverable, offering glimpses into holding areas otherwise walled off from eye level. At the Bird’s Nest, four static, remote-operated cameras captured the opening ceremony and remain in place for the closing.

Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov, of the Russian Olympic Committee, compete in the team ice dance program during the figure skating competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Monday, Feb. 7, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Vanessa James and Eric Radford, of Canada, compete in the pairs team free skate program during the figure skating competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Monday, Feb. 7, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

CONTROLLING THE CAMERAS

While a photographer is usually dedicated to piloting the operation over at the Capital Indoor Stadium, the hockey photographers are shooting and firing the remote-operated cameras at the same time. Because those cameras are over the goals, it’s fairly obvious when to fire.

The AP brought fewer remote setups to Beijing than in summer, so the photography staff had to choose the sports where the tech would “pay the most dividends,” Phillip says. There’s at least $100,000 worth of equipment among the rigs. Whatever the cost, he says, “the reward — what we’ve able to do with them — has been worth it 10 times over.”

Full Coverage: Photography

The ability to control the cameras from multiple venues was piloted in in 2016 in Rio. That means that photographers technically don’t have to be on site to make the photos. Roberson shot a pairs skating session from the AP office in the Main Media Center so he could make it to the opening ceremony. But being in the venue is definitely preferred, affording a broader perspective.

At the Capital Indoor Stadium, Roberson is nearly totally screened in — literally. At his station atop the press tribune, there’s a control panel on one monitor with the robotics software. A joystick enables zoom, and photos can be made by clicking a small keypad. A second monitor with Sony software displays the view from each camera and allows him to adjust camera settings like shutter speed and aperture.

He’s watching the multi-view display, ice action and editing photos on his laptop all at the same time — a process that vacillates between being balletic and frenetic.

“It’s like playing a video game, and I’m not good at video games,” Roberson quipped. “This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done.” (The simile is not totally figurative: at one point, another robotics maker wanted $5,000 for a controller, so Phillip figured out how to map it onto an old PlayStation 2 joystick instead.)

China goalkeeper Jieruimi Shimisi (Jeremy Smith) (45) reaches for a goal by United States' Brian O'Neill during a preliminary round men's hockey game at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Canada's players huddle prior a women's quarterfinal hockey game between Canada and Sweden at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Friday, Feb. 11, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

‘LIKE LEARNING PHOTOGRAPHY AGAIN’

Roberson estimates that four-fifths of the robotics-assisted images are unusable. Sometimes, because athletes are so fast, he has to resort to smashing all the keypad buttons at once, producing many photos of nothing but the dingy, scarred Olympic ice.

Despite the stress, Roberson says he loves it all the same: “When I just started doing this, it was like learning photography again.”

Phillip says there’s one major thing on his wish list as the technology continues to evolve. There’s already spin, tilt and zoom, but he’d like the ability to roll to add a fourth axis.

Despite that, there’s only one major impediment in the robotics’ way: the Spidercam, a video camera suspending by wires that sags down, following the dancers’ every move like an eager puppy. Sighs Phillip: “It’s always a battle with the Spidercam.”

Dancers perform during the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Friday, Feb. 4, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

___

New York-based AP journalist Mallika Sen is on assignment at the Beijing Olympics. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mallikavsen.

___

More AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Beijing Olympics get political with Taiwan, Uyghur questions

By STEPHEN WADE and GRAHAM DUNBAR

China's He Binghan competes during the men's halfpipe qualification at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022, in Zhangjiakou, China. 

(AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)


BEIJING (AP) — For two weeks and more, China’s stance on questions about its politics and policies has been straightforward: It’s the Olympics, and we’re not talking about these things.

That changed Thursday at the Beijing organizing committee’s last regularly scheduled daily news conference, three days before the end of the Games. The persistent and polite refusal to answer such questions gave way to the usual state of affairs at news conferences with Chinese officials — emphatic, calibrated answers about the country’s most sensitive situations.

Taiwan? An indivisible part of China. The Uyghur population of the Xinjiang region? Not being pushed into forced labor. China’s sovereignty? Completely unassailable under international norms.

“What I want to say is that there is only one China in the world,” organizing committee spokeswoman Yan Jiarong said, calling it “a solemn position” for China. She referred to other assertions about China’s treatment of Uyghurs and living conditions in the northwestern region of Xinjiang as “based on lies.”

It was only a matter of time before these topics burst at the seams. The run-up to the Games was overshadowed by a diplomatic boycott led by the United States, which centered on China’s human rights record; China was determined to keep the focus only on sports but is also very committed to vigorously defending its stances publicly.

In the final regularly scheduled briefing before the Games close on Sunday, Yan and IOC spokesman Mark Adams were peppered with questions about Taiwan, Xinjiang, and the safety of Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai.

Following up on a question about Taiwan’s reported attempt to skip the opening ceremony, Yan asked for extra time to address the status of the self-governing island, which China views as its sovereign territory.

She often opened in English but switched to Chinese to make key points, rendered in English by an interpreter.

“Mark, could I just make some supplementary remarks?” Yan said in English. Then, shifting to Chinese: “Taiwan is an indivisible part of China and this is a well recognized international principle and well recognized in the international community. We are always against the idea of politicizing the Olympic Games.”

Adams was immediately questioned by a non-Chinese reporter who suggested that Yan, herself, had “politicized” the Games by raising China’s stance on Taiwan. Adams dodged the question.

“There are views on all sorts of things around the world, but our job is to make sure that the Games take place,” Adams said.

A Games volunteer, a young Chinese graduate student, got a question she did not expect when a reporter asked if she knew who Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai was and, further, did she believe Peng was safe.

Peng, once the world’s top-ranked doubles player, three months ago accused a former high-ranking politician of sexual assault. Peng’s comments were immediately scrubbed from China’s censored internet.

“Well, I am sorry,” the young woman replied. “I don’t really know that.”

One reporter asked Adams directly about the IOC’s position on the reported existence of “concentration camps” in Xinjiang, and whether China was using forced labor there. Adams suggested the question was not “particularly relevant’ to the briefing, and then went on to praise the power of the Olympics to unite people.

Yan again made sure China’s view was heard.

“I think these questions are very much based on lies,” she said. “Some authorities have already disputed this false information. There is a lot of solid evidence. You are very welcome to refer to all that evidence and the facts.”

Yan had a similar response when a reporter asked Adams if IOC uniforms and other IOC garments were produced by Uyghur labor — or from Xinjiang cotton.

“None of the production took place in Xinjiang, nor any of the input of raw materials comes from that region,” Adams said.

Yan added: “I think the so- called forced labor in Xinjiang are lies made up by deliberate groups. And the relevant organizations have provided a large amount of facts to dispute that. And we are against the politicization of sports.”

For the second straight day, details were also sought and not given about a Japanese reporter’s assertion that she was prevented by an organizing committee staffer from asking questions to an Alpine skier from Hong Kong.

China is actively suppressing pro-democracy groups in Hong Kong.

The Olympic Charter ensures athletes’ right to express opinions in venue interview areas. Yan maintained that Beijing organizers would “protect the freedom of speech of all participants.”

___

More AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Poulin leads Canada women to Olympic gold in 3-2 win over US
By JOHN WAWROW

1 of 16

Canada players celebrate with their gold medals after the women's gold medal hockey game at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

BEIJING (AP) — Marie-Philip Poulin reminded everyone of her Captain Clutch reputation. And Canada regained its place atop the women’s hockey world.

It was only fitting that Poulin delivered at a time her team needed it most by scoring twice, including her third Olympic gold-medal clinching goal, in Canada’s 3-2 win over the defending champion United States at the Beijing Games on Thursday.

After winning gold in her first two Olympics, Poulin learned to appreciate how significant capturing her third was, coming four years after losing it to the Americans at the Pyeongchang Games.

“I just got shivers,” she said.

“That 2018 was very hard, very, very hard. And I think when you take some time to reflect on what you need to do better as a team and personally,” Poulin added. “We did that and I’m very happy that we’re resilient and we’re able to put that back in the past and win that gold today.”

Ann-Renee Desbiens stopped 38 shots and Sarah Nurse had a goal and assist in a game where the Canadians built a 3-0 lead and hung on for the win. Nurse set the single Olympic tournament record with 18 points.

The Canadians finished 7-0 by showcasing a dynamic, deep and relentless offensive attack to capture their fifth Olympic title in seven tournaments, with four coming against the Americans in what has been one of sports’ fiercest and longest-running rivalries.

Canada can now boast holding both the Olympic and world championship titles at the same time, and for the first time since 2012. The win at Beijing comes nearly six months after Poulin’s overtime goal sealed Canada’s 3-2 victory over the U.S. at worlds, which ended the Americans’ run of winning five consecutive tournament titles.

“It was a long haul of silvers and a lot of soul-searching in the program,” said Brianne Jenner, named the tournament MVP for tying a single Olympic record with nine goals. “I think this group didn’t really shy away from it. We were like, ‘Let’s be bold, let’s be brave, let’s go out and see what we can do.’”

Hilary Knight, the Americans’ only consistent threat in the tournament, scored her team-leading sixth goal on a shorthanded rush to cut the deficit to 3-1. Amanda Kessel scored with 13 seconds remaining during a mad scramble in front for a power-play goal and with the U.S. net empty for an extra attacker.

“We can’t get down that many goals. It’s really tough to bounce back,” Knight said. “It’s devastating. It’s heartbreaking. ... It feels like we let our country down.”

Alex Cavallini stopped 18 shots in her fourth tournament start.

United States poses after receiving their silver medals after being defeated by Canada in women's gold medal hockey game at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

The Americans, who have two Olympic golds, settled for their fourth silver medal, with all losses coming against Canada.

Poulin gained her nickname by scoring decisive goals in big games and especially against the Americans. She scored both goals in Canada’s 2-0 gold-medal win over the U.S. at the 2010 Vancouver Games. Four years later at Sochi, Poulin scored in overtime to seal the gold versus the Americans again.

On Thursday, Poulin staked the Canadians to a 2-0 lead with 4:34 left in the first period, and then made it 3-0 off an odd-man rush 9:08 into the second period. Nurse drove up the right wing and fed Jenner, whose slapper was stopped by Cavallini. The rebound caromed to Poulin, who immediately fired a shot from the left of the net and banked it in off Cavallini’s skate.

“Woo, I don’t know. I don’t know what’s happening,” Poulin said of her knack for clutch goals. “There’s some angel there or something.”

And yet, Poulin had her anxious moments before she could celebrate. She was in the penalty box for tripping when Kessel scored in the closing seconds — but only after Desbiens stopped the first five shots she faced during the power play.

Fitting for Poulin was standing next to Desbiens in the medal line and having the honor of draping the gold around the goalie’s neck.

“She showed up in those big moments,” Poulin said of Desbiens, who quit hockey after 2018 before being coaxed into rejoining the team. “She kept us in the game and to be honest, being able to give (the medal) to her, it was very special.”

No problem, Desbiens said, noting she had an inkling the game was over while glancing at the clock and seeing only 13 seconds left after Kessel scored.

“I said, ‘Oh, we got this,’” Desbiens said.

Though Knight’s goal provided the Americans life, they were unable to cash in on their chances in the third period. Alex Carpenter had two chances five minutes in, only to have her one-timer from the left circle hit the crossbar, and then getting stopped by Desbiens on a partial breakaway.

Kessel lamented how her goal came far too late.

“We hold ourselves to a high standard, and personally myself, I think my line we wanted to score more goals,” she said. “We knew that we were counted on to probably score earlier and get one or two for our team.”

The U.S. didn’t have enough defense to contain the Canadians’ aggressive forechecking attack, nor the offense to match them, especially without top center Brianna Decker, who broke her left leg in the tournament opener.

The Americans finished seventh out of 10 teams in scoring efficiency with just 30 goals on a tournament-leading 374 shots.

It’s been a long and bumpy road back for the Canadians, who were forced to reinvent themselves in three years under coach Troy Ryan. The low point followed Canada settling for bronze at the 2019 world championships, which marked the first time in tournament history the country failed to reach the title game.

At Beijing, the Canadians out-classed the field by outscoring opponents by a combined margin of 57-10, including a 4-2 win over the U.S. in group play last week.

“Just being able to prove ourselves again and being able to fight adversity and come back on top,” Rebecca Johnston said. “It’s great to know that this team has gone through a lot and we’re able to pull out a win.”

___

More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Online harassment, real harm: Fixing the web’s biggest bug

By DAVID KLEPPER

Tina Meier, founder of the Megan Meier Foundation, poses for a photo in the foundation's office Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021, in St. Charles, Mo. Meier's daughter, Megan, committed suicide in 2007 at the age of 13 after being harassed by a "friend" on MySpace who later turned out to be the mother of a classmate who was using the fake account to bully the unsuspecting teen. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

LONG READ

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — It should have been a time of celebration: Brittan Heller would soon graduate from college and head to one of the nation’s top law programs.

But when a classmate with unrequited feelings for Heller wasn’t admitted to that same school, he turned his rage on her. He wrote a manifesto titled “A Stupid B---h to Attend Yale Law School” and posted it on a site popular with anonymous trolls. The man urged them to do their worst.

Soon strangers were making derogatory, sexualized comments and posting her pictures online. They made threats. Posted her personal information. At one point, FBI agents escorted Heller to class for her protection.

“People say, ‘Oh, just log off. Don’t read it. Turn off the computer,’” said Heller, who turned her personal experience from 15 years ago into a legal specialty as a leading expert on online harassment. “This the 21st century, and people have a right to use the internet for work, for pleasure or to express themselves. Telling people not to read the comments is no longer enough. We don’t talk enough about this problem, and we need to.”

Online harassment has become such a familiar part of the internet that it can be hard to imagine the web without it. From teen cyberbullying to authoritarian governments silencing dissent, online toxicity is a fact of life for everyone, with women, teens and religious and racial minorities the most likely to be targeted

And there is evidence the problem is getting worse.

In 2014, 15% of Americans said they had faced severe or significant online abuse, defined as stalking, physical threats, sustained harassment or sexual harassment. In 2021 the number was 25%, according to studies by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Health care workers, journalists, teachers, police and government workers have all reported increases in online harassment in recent years, as the pandemic and political polarization led many people to release their anger and fear online.

Nearly three in four female journalists reported receiving threats or other forms of online harassment, according to a survey by UNESCO and the International Center for Journalists that polled more than 700 journalists in more than 100 countries. One in five of those said the harassment escalated to offline abuse or even assault.

The growth of the internet has also expanded the ways that people can be targeted beyond merely email to social media posts, direct messages, texts and streaming video. And with the rise of smartphones and cheap, ubiquitous internet, harassment can now be a 24-7 problem for victims.

“We’ve made so many strides — there’s more awareness now — but it’s easy to get frustrated and to feel like we’ve gotten nowhere,” said Tina Meier, who started a foundation to teach kids and parents about online harassment after her daughter’s suicide in 2006.

Thirteen-year-old Megan Meier had been bullied by someone she met online who she thought was a teenage boy named Josh. The two had flirted until the person suddenly turned against Megan. “Everybody hates you,” “Josh” wrote. “The world would be a better place without you.”

Police later determined that “Josh” was actually an adult woman, the mother of one of Megan’s classmates.

While polls show all types of people are susceptible to online harassment, extensive research has shown that women and people of color are far more likely to be targeted. That’s also true for people with disabilities, people who belong to religious minorities and members of the LGBTQ community.

Women are more likely than men to say online harassment is a serious problem, Pew found. They’re also more likely to report being the victims of online sexual harassment and more serious abuse such as threats of physical harm.

The difference is so great that many men may not understand the severity of the demeaning language, sexualized insults and unwanted attention that women frequently face online. A coordinated harassment campaign against female video game designers that began in 2014, known as Gamergate, became so pervasive — including threats of rape, torture and murder — that some women hired security or went into hiding.

Online harassment has also been used globally to attack journalists, dissidents and others in the public arena.

Political consultant Maria Cardona began receiving nasty emails and direct messages once she began presenting her opinions on national news shows. She’s noticed that many of her critics seem focused on the idea that an outspoken Latina woman could be considered an authority on politics.

One typical message read: “I hope you get raped and have your throat slit.”

“They want to shut us up, they want to scare us, they want to intimidate us,” said Cardona, who now keeps her office locked after someone showed up to accost her in person.

Anonymity can make it easier to be cruel without fear of offline repercussions. It’s a phenomenon called the online disinhibition effect, and it’s one reason why trolls feel comfortable saying things they would never say to someone in person.

As part of a 2009 settlement of Heller’s lawsuit against her harassers, she asked to meet them face to face. One was a 17-year-old boy who had posted that he’d like to gouge Heller’s eyes out and have sex with her corpse.

“They all essentially said the same thing: that they didn’t realize their actions were impacting a person in that way, that they didn’t realize there was a person on the other side of the screen,” Heller recalled. “And they all said, ‘I am so sorry.’”

California enacted the nation’s first law against cyberbullying in 1999, and most states have since followed suit. Enforcement can be difficult, however, as the lines between harassment and free speech can be blurry. Police and prosecutors often lack sufficient training or resources.

Tech companies say they are getting better at identifying and stopping harassment. For example, Instagram, which is owned by Facebook parent company Meta, made several changes designed to reduce harassment, including putting warning labels on potentially abusive language and making it easier to block or report harassers.

Yet those moves haven’t been enough. Internal Facebook documents leaked by former employee Frances Haugen show that executives are aware of the potential for their products to be used to harass people. One internal study cited 13.5% of teen girls saying Instagram exacerbates suicidal thoughts and 17% saying it worsens eating disorders.

“Online harassment is a problem for everybody, but I think it’s especially problematic for kids,” said Natalie Bazarova, a professor at Cornell University who studies social media.

She said a multifaceted approach is required to address the problem: legislation to require minimum safeguards from tech companies, technical innovations and extensive educational efforts such as simulations that teach teens to spot cyberbullying and use social media safely.

Technical solutions include automated systems that flag posts for signs of harassing language — all-capital letters, repetitive phrases, certain key words — or instituting a short delay before users can respond to posts, giving them a chance to cool off.

Now in its “awkward adolescence,” the internet is not the first invention to change how humans communicate, Heller said.

“People said similar things about the telegraph, the telephone and the television — that they were somehow going to ruin society,” she said. “They were all regulated about 25 years into their life cycle. Those regulations didn’t kill the telephone, the television or the radio.”

Mexico’s avocados face fallout from violence, deforestation AND US RACIST TRADE RULES

By MARK STEVENSON

1 of 7

A worker selects avocados at a packing plant in Uruapan, Mexico, Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022. Mexico has acknowledged that the U.S. government has suspended all imports of Mexican avocados after a U.S. plant safety inspector in Mexico received a threat. (AP Photo/Armando Solis)

LONG READ 

MEXICO CITY (AP) — With clever Super Bowl ads, an irresistible fruit and apparently insatiable appetite from U.S. consumers, Mexico’s avocado producers have so far been able to separate avocados from the conflictive landscape that produces them — at least until a threat to a U.S. agricultural inspector essentially shut down their exports last week.

But as producers continue to suffer extortion from organized crime, and loggers continue to chop down pine forests to clear land for avocado orchards, another threat looms: Campaigns for greener competition and perhaps even a boycott.

Most advocates for more sustainable avocados stop short of calling for an outright boycott.

– US suspends Mexican avocado imports on eve of Super Bowl

– Mexico says conspiracy behind avocado ban; US cites violence

“They (avocados) are a very large portion of either their country or regional economy and, you know, banning them entirely would not be advantageous” for already struggling local farmers, said Gareth Elliott, a New Jersey restaurant manager who runs the Facebook page “Blood Avocados.” “But if there were more environmental studies and they were grown in a responsible manner, we could solve this together.

So far, the association of Mexican avocado producers and packers has taken little action to solve the problems, nor has its U.S. promotional arm, Avocados from Mexico, even as growers in Mexico report having to pay thousands of dollars in protection payments to drug gangs for each acre of orchard.

Those who don’t pay are threatened with having their families kidnapped, murdered and returned in pieces.

The producers’ associations have bought multimillion-dollar Super Bowl commercials, but they have never bothered to come up with a serious certification program to assure consumers the avocado they buy has not involved protection money to drug cartels — the same cartels flooding the United States with deadly fentanyl pills counterfeited to look like Xanax, Adderall or Oxycodone.

Nor have they come up with a plan to certify that the avocado sold at a U.S. supermarket wasn’t planted on illegally logged mountainsides that used to hold pine forests, threatening local water supplies.

Neither group responded to requests for comment on the issue. Mexico’s president has suggested the suspension of avocado imports was part of a conspiracy against his country.

That kind of certification and information program is what many activists want.

“I think it could also help bring up awareness,” said Elliott, who said many people now may not be conscious of the issue. “Bringing it out to the consumer that how they purchase things speaks a lot louder to American policy or even global policy, than sometimes protests will.”

But Elliott’s reluctance to boycott might vanish if illegal logging and planting of avocados reaches into the core of the monarch butterfly reserves in the western state of Michoacan.

So far planters have only ni bbled around the buffer zones of the mountaintop pine forests where the butterflies spend the winter before heading back to the United States and Canada. At present, the mountaintops are too cold and too high for avocados, but with climate change that, as everything else, may change.

“The Monarch butterflies … they don’t have another option to hibernate elsewhere,” Gareth said. “I don’t think the Americans are going to want to say goodbye to monarch butterflies.

“I think that would be the likely be the line they’ll draw, or at least they’ll say, ‘I’ll have more expensive avocados.’”

Chef J.P. McMahon, who runs the Aniar, Cava and Tartare restaurants in Ireland, has already started advocating avoiding avocados.

Avocados are “perceived as something healthy, and the contrast to what it is actually doing” to the environment and society, “you couldn’t get further, it’s poles apart, it’s absolutely not,” McMahon said.

McMahon has tried to promote more sustainable, locally produced guacamole recipes based on kale or mashed-up sunchokes. It has been an uphill struggle: He has received angry messages from growers in Mexico saying they need the income and diners and chefs who want avocados at brunch. “Still, I hold to my guns,” he said.

“The environmental disaster, the deforestation caused, to feed the avo-on-toast craze made me feel so disgusted that I decided to stop eating them altogether,” McMahon wrote in November. “Almost five years later I do miss avocados, but I won’t be part of the exploitation of land and people to satisfy a crave.”

And there are other countries without Mexico’s land disputes, water shortages, drug cartel extortion, sensitive species and illegal logging problems that might try to supplant Mexico’s now-dominant 80% share of U.S. imports by offering more sustainable avocados. Peru, Colombia and Chile all have their own problems, but drug cartel extortion of growers isn’t one of them.

“Colombian exporters see the United States as a market with great potential,” said Juliana Villegas, vice president of exports for the trade promotion agency ProColombia. “There are some enormous opportunities and advantages for avocado production in Colombia.”

“We are in the privileged position, given our agricultural land” Villegas said. “It is very large. Right now we have millions of acres available without deforestation. I think that is an advantage we have to seize on.”

Any sustained ban on avocado exports might actually benefit the Mexican families who can no longer afford the fruit because of international demand.

But the loss of income would be devastating for Mexican farmers, who — like those in most countries in Latin America — have spent almost five centuries looking for a miracle crop that would pull them out of poverty.

Sugar, rubber, bananas, natural dyes, coffee, cacao — the stuff of which chocolate is made — all came and went, but never really fulfilled that promise. Either they were only practical on large plantations with slave labor, or they could be grown more cheaply elsewhere or plant diseases and synthetic substitutes spelled disaster for the crops.

For Mexico, the avocado has been that miracle crop for almost 25 years. A farmer with only a few acres of avocado trees can send his children to college, or buy a new pickup truck to get his product to market and avoid middlemen, something no other crop has been able to offer.

But it’s not consumers in the United States who are on the front lines: Many lonely, threatened activists in Mexican villages are fighting illegal logging and the expansion of avocado orchards on former forest land.

Activist Guillermo Saucedo tried to institute farmers’ patrols to detect illegal logging and unauthorized avocado orchards in Villa Madero, Michoacan, last year. He got as many as 60 or 70 people to participate in the patrols, starting in May. But on Dec. 6, Saucedo was kidnapped, beaten and threatened by drug cartel gunmen who either protect or invest in avocado orchards.

This week, Saucedo said he detected a huge water retention pond of the kind dug by avocado growers in a hamlet near Villa Madero, but he doesn’t believe the government will stop them.

“The National Guard don’t do anything,” Saucedo said. “The only thing that can stop them is the people themselves, by protesting.”