2022 Paralympic Winter Games: Athletes, Stars to watch at the Beijing Winter Paralympics

By Mary OmatigaMar 8, 2022, 7:00 AM EST

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The 2022 Paralympic Winter Games begin on Friday, March 4 through Sunday, March 13 in Beijing, China. The competition will feature approximately 564 athletes battling it out across a total of 78 medal events (39 for men, 35 for women, and 4 mixed events). See below for just a few of the talented U.S. stars to watch at the Beijing Winter Paralympics. Click here for the daily TV schedule.

U.S. Stars to watch at the 2022 Paralympic Winter Games

Oksana Masters (Louisville, KY) – Cross-Country Skiing and Biathlon: Masters, a five-time Paralympian and 10-time Paralympic medalist is the most decorated athlete on the U.S. roster. She returns to Beijing to compete in cross-country skiing and biathlon. For Masters, it’s been just six months since she competed at the Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, taking home road cycling gold medals in time trial and road race.

Laurie Stephens (Wenham, MA) – Alpine Skiing: Stephens is the second most decorated winter sport athlete on the team with seven Paralympic medals in alpine skiing: two golds, two silvers, and three bronzes. Beijing marks the fifth Paralympic appearance for the Massachusetts native.

Mike Schultz (St. Cloud, MN) – Snowboarding: Schultz made his Paralympic debut in 2018 where he won the gold medal in snowboard cross and the silver in banked slalom. The Minnesota native is also a self-taught engineer. In July 2010, he founded his own prosthetics company (BioDapt) and he has since outfitted over 100 people with prosthetics (including some of his competitors).

Brittani Coury (Durango, CO) – Snowboarding: Brittani Coury will be making her second Paralympic appearance in Beijing. She previously won a Paralympic silver medal in banked slalom back in 2018. Coury, who became the first member of her family to receive a Bachelor’s degree when she graduated from nursing school in 2020, volunteered to help with the COVID-19 wards at the University of Utah Health in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Josh Pauls (Greenbrook, NJ) – Sled Hockey: Josh Pauls is a three-time Paralympic gold medalist (2010, 2014, 2018) and five-time world champion (2021, 2019, 2015, 2012, 2009). He served as captain for the gold medal-winning 2018 Paralympic and 2019 world championship teams and helped lead the team to a world title win against Canada at the 2021 Para World Ice Hockey Championships in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

Andrew Kurka (Palmer, AK) – Alpine Skiing: Beijing marks the second competitive Paralympic appearance for two-time Paralympic medalist Andrew Kurka. The Alaska native earned a spot on the Paralympic team at the 2014 Games in Sochi but crashed during a training run and injured his back, leaving him unable to partake in the Opening Ceremony or compete for a medal. He returned to the Paralympic stage in 2018 in PyeongChang where he became the first Alaskan Paralympic medalist when he won a gold medal in downhill and a silver medal in super-G.

Who are the U.S. flagbearers for the Beijing Paralympics?

Alpine skiers Danelle Umstead and Tyler Carter will be the U.S. flagbearers for the Paralympic Opening Ceremony on Friday. Umstead, 50, is a three-time bronze medalist competing in the visually impaired classification. Carter, 28, is making his third Paralympic appearance. He finished 27th in the giant slalom in 2014 and 19th in the slalom in 2018. Beijing will be the final Games for both skiers.

How can I watch the Winter Paralympic Games?

NBC Universal will provide over 230 hours of Paralympic programming across NBC, Peacock, USA Network, Olympic Channel, NBCOlympics.com, and the NBC Sports App. Click here for the day-by-day TV viewing guide with how to watch information and more.

In its most ambitious effort ever for a Winter Paralympics, NBCU’s coverage, which will once again be presented by Toyota, will feature a record 120 hours of television coverage; seven total hours on the NBC broadcast network, including three in primetime, a first for a Winter Paralympics; similar to the Beijing Olympics, coverage of all events and competition on Peacock; live coverage of the Opening Ceremony and Closing Ceremony on USA Network; and comprehensive live streaming coverage on NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app via authentication, including all television coverage as well as exclusive coverage of alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, sled hockey, snowboarding, and wheelchair curling.

RELATED: 2022 Winter Paralympics – Meet the 15 women representing Team USA

Be sure to follow NBCOlympics.com and OlympicTalk for the latest on the 2022 Paralympic Winter Games!

Football takes significant step in Olympic push

By OlympicTalkMar 29, 2023, 2:18 PM EDT

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Football took another step toward possible Olympic inclusion with the IOC executive board proposing that the sport’s international federation — the IFAF — be granted full IOC recognition at a meeting in October.

IOC recognition does not equate to eventual Olympic inclusion, but it is a necessary early marker if a sport is to join the Olympics down the line. The IOC gave the IFAF provisional recognition in 2013.

Specific measures are required for IOC recognition, including having an anti-doping policy compliant with the World Anti-Doping Agency and having 50 affiliated national federations from at least three continents. The IFAF has 74 national federations over five continents with almost 4.8 million registered athletes, according to the IOC.

The NFL has helped lead the push for flag football to be added for the 2028 Los Angeles Games. Flag football had medal events for men and women at last year’s World Games, a multi-sport competition including Olympic and non-Olympic sports, in Birmingham, Alabama.

Football is one of nine sports that have been reported to be in the running to be proposed by LA 2028 to the IOC to be added for the 2028 Games only. LA 2028 has not announced which, if any sports, it plans to propose.

Under rules instituted before the Tokyo Games, Olympic hosts have successfully proposed to the IOC adding sports solely for their edition of the Games.

For Tokyo, baseball-softball, karate, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing were added. For Paris, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing were approved again, and breaking will make its Olympic debut. Those sports were added four years out from the Games.

For 2028, the other sports reportedly in the running for proposal are baseball and softball, breaking, cricket, karate, kickboxing, lacrosse, motorsports and squash.

All of the other eight sports reportedly in the running for 2028 proposal already have a federation with full IOC recognition (if one counts the international motorcycle racing federation for motorsports).

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Helen Maroulis stars in wrestling documentary, with help from Chris Pratt

By Nick ZaccardiMar 29, 2023, 10:05 AM EDT

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One of the remarkable recent Olympic comeback stories is the subject of a film that will be shown nationwide in theaters for one day only on Thursday.

“Helen | Believe” is a documentary about Helen Maroulis, the first U.S. Olympic women’s wrestling champion. It is produced by Religion of Sports, the venture founded by Gotham Chopra, Michael Strahan and Tom Brady. Showing details are here.

After taking gold at the 2016 Rio Games, Maroulis briefly retired in 2019 during a two-year stretch in which she dealt with concussions and post-traumatic stress disorder. The film focuses on that period and her successful bid to return and qualify for the Tokyo Games, where she took bronze.

In a poignant moment in the film, Maroulis described her “rock bottom” — being hospitalized for suicidal ideations.

In an interview, Maroulis said she was first approached about the project in 2018, the same year she had her first life-changing concussion that January. A wrestling partner’s mother was connected to director Dylan Mulick.

Maroulis agreed to the film in part to help spread mental health awareness in sports. Later, she cried while watching the 2020 HBO film, “The Weight of Gold,” on the mental health challenges that other Olympians faced, because it resonated with her so much.

“When you’re going through something, it sometimes gives you an anchor of hope to know that someone’s been through it before, and they’ve overcome it,” she said.

Maroulis’ comeback story hit a crossroads at the Olympic trials in April 2021, where the winner of a best-of-three finals series in each weight class made Team USA.

Maroulis won the opening match against Jenna Burkert, but then lost the second match. Statistically, a wrestler who loses the second match in a best-of-three series usually loses the third. But Maroulis pinned Burkert just 22 seconds into the rubber match to clinch the Olympic spot.

Shen then revealed that she tore an MCL two weeks earlier.

“They told me I would have to be in a brace for six weeks,” she said then. “I said, ‘I don’t have that. I have two and a half.’”

Maroulis said she later asked the director what would have happened if she didn’t make the team for Tokyo. She was told the film still have been done.

“He had mentioned this isn’t about a sports story or sports comeback story,” Maroulis said. “This is about a human story. And we’re using wrestling as the vehicle to tell this story of overcoming and healing and rediscovering oneself.”

Maroulis said she was told that, during filming, the project was pitched to the production company of actor Chris Pratt, who wrestled in high school in Washington. Pratt signed on as a producer.

“Wrestling has made an impact on his life, and so he wants to support these kinds of stories,” said Maroulis, who appeared at last month’s Santa Barbara Film Festival with Pratt.

Pratt said he knew about Maroulis before learning about the film, which he said “needed a little help to get it over the finish line,” according to a public relations company promoting the film.

The film also highlights the rest of the six-woman U.S. Olympic wrestling team in Tokyo. Four of the six won a medal, including Tamyra Mensah-Stock‘s gold.

“I was excited to be part of, not just (Maroulis’) incredible story, but also helping to further advance wrestling and, in particular, female wrestling,” Pratt said, according to responses provided by the PR company from submitted questions. “To me, the most compelling part of Helen’s story is the example of what life looks like after a person wins a gold medal. The inevitable comedown, the trauma around her injuries, the PTSD, the drive to continue that is what makes her who she is.”

Maroulis, who now trains in Arizona, hopes to qualify for this year’s world championships and next year’s Olympics.

“I try to treat every Games as my last,” she said. “Now I’m leaning toward being done [after 2024], but never say never.”

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U.S. Stars to watch at the 2022 Paralympic Winter Games

Who are the U.S. flagbearers for the Beijing Paralympics?

How can I watch the Winter Paralympic Games?

More: Olympics

More: Olympics