Related video above: Russian skater Kamila Valieva finishes fourth

The U.S. figure skaters whose Olympic silver medals are being withheld have filed an appeal to have them awarded before the end of the Beijing Games, with a decision expected as soon as Saturday night.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport confirmed to The Associated Press that it was hearing the case Saturday evening in Beijing and expected a rapid ruling.

In a letter sent to IOC president Thomas Bach, a copy of which was obtained by AP, attorneys for the skaters said they sought a ruling before Sunday's closing ceremony.

Kamila Valieva led the Russian team to a victory in last week’s team event, and the U.S. finished second. Soon after, a positive doping test for the 15-year-old skater was disclosed. CAS allowed her to continue skating at the women's event, but the International Olympic Committee said it would not award medals in any events in which she finished among the top three.

She finished fourth in the women's event — crying as she left the ice, then criticized by her coach after a mistake-filled long program.

This case involves the team event held the previous week. The Russians won the event by a large margin. Japan was third and Canada finished fourth.

The letter sent on behalf of the American runners-up says the IOC's “own rules mandate that a victory ceremony ‘to present medals to the athletes shall follow the conclusion of each sports event.’"

In a meeting earlier this week with the skaters, Bach offered them Olympic torches as something of a holdover memento while the doping case, which could take months, or even years, plays out.

In their letter to Bach, the attorneys said they hoped the IOC would reconsider but that because of the urgency, they were filing the appeal.

U.S. Figure Skating executive director Ramsey Baker sent the AP a statement standing in support of the skaters.

“Having a medal ceremony at an Olympic Games is not something that can be replicated anywhere else, and they should be celebrated in front of the world before leaving Beijing,” Baker said.

The letter to Bach, sent by attorney Paul Greene, who represents athletes in doping and other cases against Olympic authorities, said the IOC president had asked the athletes for their input.

“A dignified medal ceremony from our clients’ vantage point is one in the Medals Plaza as originally planned and afforded to all other medalists,” he wrote.

After Valieva's test became public, Russia's anti-doping agency at first put her on provisional suspension, then lifted the suspension. That triggered the IOC and World Anti-Doping Agency to lead an appeal to CAS, which acted swiftly and said Valieva could still compete.

That did not resolve the larger question about the result from the team competition.

Nine Americans stand to get some sort of medal out of that — either the second-place prize they're aiming to receive this weekend, or a gold that could become theirs if the Russian's are disqualified because of Valieva's doping case.

Because she is 15, Valieva is considered a “protected person” under anti-doping rules, and is not expected to receive a harsh penalty. Her coaches and doctors are being investigated by Russian and world anti-doping authorities.

___

AP Sports Writer Graham Dunbar contributed to this report.

Here's what to watch for on Day 15 of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games:

Alpine skiing

The last Alpine skiing race of the Beijing Olympics was moved from Saturday to Sunday because of too-strong wind, making Mikaela Shiffrin wait to get one last chance to bring home a medal from China.

Gusts at up to about 40 mph led to the announcement of two one-hour delays for the mixed team parallel event, before the International Ski Federation eventually said it would not be possible to hold the competition at all on Saturday.

About 75 minutes later, after what the ski federation called a meeting “to discuss the potential rescheduling of the event,” the race was shifted to Sunday at 9 a.m.

Freestyle halfpipe

Figure skating

Pairs free skate is set for early Saturday morning and will feature Americans Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc along with Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier.

LeDuc became Team USA's first openly nonbinary Winter Olympian when they took the ice the night before. Their score of 74.13 points was a season best and put them squarely in the top 10 entering Saturday’s free skate.

Sui Wenjing and Han Cong of China set a world record with their short program, and they lead Russians Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov heading into the pairs' free skate.

Bobsled

Kaillie Humphries and Elana Meyers Taylor finished 1-2 for the U.S. in the monobob — the first time Americans had done that at the Olympics since 1932.

They'll each have a teammate now in the two-woman event. Humphries will be pushed by Kaysha Love and Meyers Taylor by Sylvia Hoffman.

Humphries won the world title in this event last year, competing with Lolo Jones.

Here's what to expect on Day 14 of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games:

Halfpipe

Even when Eileen Gu's simply taking a celebratory stroll through the halfpipe, she's still so stylish and makes it look so effortless.

The 18-year-old American-born freestyle skier who represents China captured Olympic gold in the women's halfpipe on a breezy and cold Friday morning to become the first action-sports athlete to pick up three medals at the same Winter Games.

With hands on her hips, Gu visualized her first two runs at the top of the Secret Garden halfpipe course. Then, she flawlessly executed her plan. She warmed up with a 93.25 on her first pass before going even higher and bigger to post a 95.25 on her second.

But this was the sort of run Gu visualized all along — a nice relaxed jaunt as the last competitor and with the contest sealed. She had fun with her victory run, too, going big off the walls one last time and bending back her skis — a high-flying, picture-perfect moment to culminate another successful day at her office.

"I feel at peace. I feel grateful. I feel proud," Gu said.

Figure skating

The fallout from Kamila Valieva's nightmarish free skate will likely reverberate through the figure skating world for a while, but there's one more competition left at the Beijing Games — the pairs short program Americans Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc along with Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier are competing.

Curling

The U.S. men had their Olympic title defense end with a semifinal loss to Britain. They still have a chance to win the bronze medal when they face Canada.

Speedskating

The men's 1,000-meter speedskating event kicks off early Friday morning.

Here's what to expect on Day 13 of the Beijing Olympic Games:

Hockey

American assistant captain Hilary Knight calls it “a beautiful rivalry.” Canadian captain Marie-Philip Poulin sums it up as “very fun.”

Don’t be fooled by the pleasantries.

One of international sports’ fiercest and longest-running grudge matches will play out for the second time at the Beijing Olympics, with the next meeting between the United States and Canada determining who goes home with gold.

"These are the the games that we live for," U.S. captain Kendall Coyne Schofield said following a 4-1 semifinal win over Finland. "Everyone’s been so resilient through the pandemic with the ups and downs, the cancellations, postponements and finding ways to train, and it’s for this moment. We’re going to empty the tanks, and this is what we came here to do.”

The U.S. is the defending Olympic champion after rallying to beat Canada 3-2 in a shootout at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.

The Canadians are considered the favorites this time after steamrolling to a 6-0 record and outscoring opponents 54-8, including a 4-2 win over the U.S. in group play.

Canada also had the edge over its cross-border rivals since Poulin scored the gold-medal-winning goal in a 3-2 overtime win over the U.S. at the world championships in August to end the Americans’ streak of five tournament titles. Canada is 5-1-1 in the past seven meetings against the U.S. since.

Overall at the Olympics, which added women’s hockey in 1998, Canada is 6-3 against the U.S., with four gold medals to the Americans’ two.

Figure skating

The women's figure skating event ends early Thursday — the competition portion, at least.

It remains to be seen how much longer it will be adjudicated.

Kamila Valieva is in first place after the short program. That part isn't a surprise — but the 15-year-old Russian's path to this point has been anything but smooth. And there's no indication that will change anytime soon.

Valieva's positive drug test from an event in December put her participation in doubt, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that she could compete while officials conduct a full investigation.

If Valieva finishes in the top three, the International Olympic Committee has said there will be no medals ceremony. The Russians have a chance to sweep the top three spots, with Anna Shcherbakova second and Alexandra Trusova fourth after the short program.

Valieva's free skate is to Maurice Ravel's “Bolero” — a popular skating tune that ice dancers Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean famously performed to at the Sarajevo Games in 1984.

Alpine skiing

Mikaela Shiffrin geared up for the Olympic Alpine combined by setting the fastest time in a downhill training session on Wednesday.

The two-time Olympic champion so far has failed to win a medal at the Beijing Games, skiing out in the giant slalom and the slalom — the two events she has gold medals in — and finishing ninth in the super-G and 18th in Tuesday’s downhill.

Next up is the combined race, which adds the times from one downhill run and one slalom run.

Shiffrin is the world champion in combined and also won silver in the event at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.

The 26-year-old Shiffrin is far less experienced in the downhill but finished Wednesday’s training session 0.93 seconds ahead of Wendy Holdener of Switzerland.

Curling

American John Shuster and the defending Olympic curling champions won a last-chance match to qualify for the playoffs at the Beijing Olympics. They beat Denmark 7-5 to keep their hopes of a repeat gold medal alive.

The Americans will play Britain in the semifinals later Thursday night. Reigning silver medalist Sweden will meet Canada, which finished fourth a year ago.

Four years after winning five straight elimination games to take gold -- just the second Olympic curling medal in U.S. history -- Shuster’s foursome was again in a desperate position.

This time there was a twist, though: Even with a loss, they could have made the playoffs if Italy beat Norway. (The Americans beat Norway 7-6 in the round-robin to claim the tiebreaker.)

In the end, Italy lost. The Americans needed to win, and they did.

Speedskating

Brittany Bowe already made a big contribution to the U.S. medal haul when she gave up her spot in the 500 meters so teammate Erin Jackson could compete. Jackson then won the event.

Bowe, a fine skater in her own right, finished 10th in the 1,500 and 16th in the 500. She is the world record holder in the 1,000, which she'll compete in early Thursday morning.

Also of note

Eileen Gu of China, one of the stars of these Olympics, competes in qualifying for the freestyle halfpipe. The men's aerials final is also set for Wednesday night.

Here's what happened during Day 12 at the Beijing Olympic Games:

Hockey

The United States is out of the men's hockey tournament at the Olympics in stunning fashion after blowing a late lead.

Marek Hrivik scored with 43.7 seconds left in regulation, Peter Cehlarik had the winner and Slovakia beat the U.S. 3-2 in a shootout Wednesday to knock the top-seeded Americans out in the quarterfinals. The U.S. led for almost half the game before the tying goal when Slovakia pulled its goaltender for an extra attacker to play 6-on-5.

The U.S. had gotten accustomed to playing tight games in the tournament, beating Canada by two goals and Germany by one. But blown coverage in front allowed Hrivik to knock a loose puck past goalie Strauss Mann, who was impressive until that point.

Coming up empty on four power plays, including three in the third period, came back to bite the Americans. Matty Beniers hit the post on one of the best scoring chances the U.S. had in the third, but the team could not crack Patrik Rybar, who was playing a second consecutive day in net for Slovakia.

Freestyle Skiing

Freestyler skier Alex Hall led a 1-2 American finish in the men’s Olympic slopestyle competition on Wednesday with a trick on his first run where he stopped his rotation midair and turned in the other direction before softly landing.

Hall’s opening run drew a score of 90.01, which no one could match in three runs. His teammate Nick Goepper turned in a creative run on his second pass to earn silver. Jesper Tjader of Sweden took home bronze.

The American men have captured six of nine Olympic medals since the event made its debut in 2014. Goepper has three of them, adding Wednesday to his silver from the 2018 Pyeongchang Games and bronze from the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

“So proud of the boys and so proud of how they skied,” said Skogen Sprang, the head coach of the U.S. freeski slopestyle pro team. “They've put in a ton of work and they stayed true to the way they want to ski and that’s what we’re all about in this sport. ... Landing it when it counts is huge."

Erin Jackson has become the first Black woman to win a speedskating medal at the Winter Olympics. And a gold one, at that.

Jackson won the 500 meters Sunday with a time of 37.04 seconds, giving the American speedskating program its first medal of the Beijing Games and first individual medal since 2010.

This one carried much more than national pride. The 29-year-old Jackson joins fellow American Shani Davis as the only Black athletes to win speedskating medals at the Olympics. Davis won gold in the men's 1,000 meters and silver in the 1,500 meters at the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy.

The silver went to Miho Takagi of Japan, while Angelina Golikova of the Russian team took the bronze.

Jackson's gold came after the native of balmy Ocala, Florida, slipped at the U.S. trials and shockingly finished third, putting her spot on the Olympic team in jeopardy.

But teammate Brittany Bowe, who finished first at the trials, gave up her spot on the team to ensure Jackson would get to skate in Beijing.

As it turned out, the Americans received a third slot in the 500 when the final allocations were made, so Bowe got to skate as well. She finished 16th.

Jackson skated in the next-to-last of 15 pairs with Takagi's time of 37.12 — set about a half-hour earlier in the fourth pairing — in her sights.

If she was still thinking about that slip at the U.S. trials, it sure didn't show.

Jackson bolted off the line and was under Takagi's time as she veered into the first turn. She kept up her speed through the crossing straight and into the final turn, swinging both arms furiously as she came to the finish of speedskating's shortest race.

As soon as her skates crossed the line, Jackson's head turned toward the scoreboard.

She broke into a big smile when she saw the “1” beside her name. Her coach, Ryan Shimabukuro, pumped his arms and slapped hands with her as she glided by.

There was still one pairing left, but Jackson knew she could do no worse than bronze.

A few minutes later, the gold was hers.

Jackson sat on the padding along the infield, appearing to shed a few tears with her head bowed.

She was no doubt reflecting, too, on her remarkable journey.

The inline and roller derby skater knew she would have to trade her wheels for blades if she wanted to go for Olympic glory.

Making the switch just months before the Pyeongchang Games, she was such a fast study that she earned a spot on the U.S. team. She finished 24th in the 500, but it was clear that she had barely tapped into her potential.

During the current World Cup season, Jackson suddenly emerged as one of the world's best sprinters. She won four of eight 500 races — the first Black woman to earn one of those titles, as well — and came to the Olympics as one the favorites.

She lived up to the billing in Beijing, becoming the first American woman to win an individual Olympic medal since 2002.

She grabbed an American flag and did a victory lap around the Ice Ribbon oval, the stars and stripes fluttering above her head.

ZHANGJIAKOU, China —

The snow squeaks under their skis as Olympic athletes spin their arms in a wind-milling motion and hop up and down in place to keep warm, their noses and cheeks covered in strips of colored tape as mist rises from their buff-covered faces.

When the temperature dips to minus-16 degrees C (3.2 degrees F) and the wind blows clouds of snow in the air, like it did at the cross-country and biathlon courses at the start of the Beijing Olympics, the athletes have to do something to keep from freezing.

Related video above: Climate change threatens future of Winter Olympics

"When you factor in wind speeds of over 20 kilometers per hour as well as their ski speeds, the wind chill may be minus-30 C (minus-22 F) or colder," said Brett Toresdahl, the U.S. biathlon team physician.

Skiers got a bit of a respite from those bitter conditions in the middle of the week as winds calmed and temperatures hovered around minus-7 degrees C (19 degrees F). But that's expected to change this weekend when a cold front moves through. Even snow is in the forecast.

The frosty conditions are hard on the athletes.

"My cross-country teammate froze his finger in the skiathlon so that it's still a little swollen and doesn't have quite all the feeling back yet," Estonian biathlete Johanna Talihärm said. "It was his 'trigger finger' but luckily he is not a biathlete."

Talihärm's lips froze during the individual biathlon race because she was unable to cover them up and still breath hard. Extra applications of lip balm helped, she said.

"You just need to be super proactive about the cold and plan all the layers and extra measures," she said. "Never leave a moment to just stand around before the start."

Biathlete Hanna Sola of Belarus said they're putting on as many layers as possible, "but still everything is freezing."

"You can see everyone waving their hands, jumping on the spot," Sola said. "It would be great if the starts were a bit earlier because when the sun goes down, the chill amplifies so much that it is unbearable even to ski."

Austrian women's biathlon team coach Gerald Hönig said the sport's rules state that races can't be held if temperatures dip below minus-20 C (minus-4 degrees F), but they don't take wind chill into consideration. It would be up to the race jury to decide if conditions are unsafe before a race would be postponed or canceled.

"Athletes are every day in these conditions training and racing the competitions," Hönig said. "This is very hard for the body, for the energy, for the health. It's difficult here in this three weeks."

Biathletes must be able to feel their trigger finger to shoot accurately, but that's a challenge in the cold, Marketa Davidova of the Czech Republic said.

"That was really difficult for us; to stay warm and keep the fingers working," she said. "That was the tricky part."

The cold is also affecting the snow itself — bitter cold makes the skis glide more slowly over the trails, which means the athletes must work harder to go fast.

Therese Johaug of Norway said she loves the tracks in China, but the snow is a factor.

"They are different from the cross-country tracks in the World Cup, especially because the snow is so slow," said Johaug, who won the opening gold medal of the Beijing Olympics.

Chris Hecker, a wax technician with the U.S. ski team, said the cold temperatures create higher levels of friction between the base of the ski and the snow, slowing them down and making that squeaky noise.

"The static from that dry snow is slowing down the skis tremendously and we're having to put in different hand structures and putting in different waxes to try and reduce the amount of friction on the ski base," he said.

Another factor is blowing snow.

"Mostly it's the really dry wind-blown snow that keeps filling into the classic tracks and keeps covering the skate lanes," Hecker said. "So it ends up being a really slow race for most racers."

Talihärm said the conditions require more power to get the skis to glide and more endurance climb the hills.

One consolation is that Mother Nature doesn't discriminate; everyone is suffering equally.

"It's the same for everyone," Swedish biathlete Sebastian Samuelsson said, "and we just have to fight with the snow."

BEIJING — Mexico’s one and only figure skater in the Winter Olympics is making history.

22-year-old Donovan Carrillo is Mexico’s male first figure skater since 1992 and only the fourth ever in the country’s Olympic history.

Carrillo is also the first-ever Mexican figure skater to advance to the free skate final.

He performed to a medley of “Black Magic Woman” and “Shake It”, by Santana on Monday.

The figure skater completed a short program with a personal best score of 79.69.

Carrillo told Reuters that this accomplishment is “like a dream come true.”

His journey to the Olympic games hasn’t been easy.

For one, there are no Olympic-sized rinks in Mexico and his local rink in Guadalajara closed when he was 13.

So, he and his coach moved three hours away to León, Guanajuato, where he could train at a miniature rink at a mall.

That means he’s had to maneuver and skate around amateurs and children.

Carrillo also wasn’t allowed to play his own music because he was in a public space.

The Olympian has also struggled financially.

He and his family have crowdfunded about $2,400 so he could continue training.

Eventually, the Mexican government began funding him as an elite athlete.

Carrillo will compete again Wednesday to perform his longer free skate.

He said his goal is to improve and look ahead to the future.

“I think this Olympics – thinking more in the future – are going to be key to prepare myself for the next Olympic cycle, with the main focus on Milan 2026,” he said.

Dry Beijing barely gets any winter precipitation, making this year's Winter Games the first to rely almost entirely on artificial snow. Organizers are touting the event's green credentials, but experts do worry about the environmental impact of such a massive snowmaking operation given the huge amounts of water and electricity it takes.

At Yanqing north of Beijing, where organizers built the alpine ski venue from scratch, the slopes stand out as ribbons of white contrasting starkly against the surrounding brown hillsides. Snowmakers have also been deployed farther north in Zhangjiakou, which is hosting freestyle skiing, ski jumping and biathlon.

All of it is the product of months of snowmaking using sophisticated European equipment.

Here's a closer look at the Olympic snowmaking operation:

HOW IT WORKS

Natural snow is formed high up in the clouds when water vapor molecules cling to tiny particles like pollen or dust. In scientific lingo, these specks are dubbed nucleators. They create a snow nucleus that then attracts more water molecules to form snowflakes.

Snowmaking equipment tries to duplicate this process, artificially, by spraying atomized water into the air along with mechanically created nucleators -- tiny ice crystals — that act as seeds for the manufactured snowflakes. This process has been around for decades: simulated snow was first used at the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid, New York.

SNOW GUNS

TechnoAlpin won the bid to supply the Beijing games with snowmaking equipment, a contract worth $22 million.

The Italian company has blanketed the slopes with 272 snowmaking fan guns and another 82 stick “lances” to produce “technical snow” for the Winter Olympics skiing and snowboarding venues. They're all hooked up to a system of high pressure pumps and pipes that carry water chilled by cooling towers up the slopes.

TechnoAlpin's fan guns resemble small jet engines or oversized hair dryers, with nozzles spraying either atomized water or ice crystals mounted around the edge of a turbine. The guns, which can be aimed remotely using Bluetooth, blast the mixture dozens of meters into the air to cover broad downhill slopes.

“And while it’s falling to the ground, snow is created,” said Michael Mayr, TechnoAlpin's China sales manager.

Snow lances, meanwhile, are up to 10 meters tall and don't have fans, instead using gravity to carry the snowmaking mixture to the ground, making it a bit more like natural snowfall.

WATER WORRIES

Beijing and Zhanghiakou are both not far from the Gobi Desert and are “highly water stressed," China Water Risk, a Hong Kong-based consultancy, said in a 2019 report.

The International Olympic Committee even noted the issue in its own 2015 evaluation of Beijing’s bid, saying the two districts “have minimal annual snowfall” and that the Winter Games would have to rely completely on fake snow.

The “Beijing – Zhangjiakou area is becoming increasingly arid” because of climate change and other factors, the IOC said, adding that Beijing's bid “underestimated the amount of water" needed for snowmaking.

The Winter Games are expected to use 49 million gallons of water, the equivalent of 74 Olympic swimming pools, to make snow.

SUSTAINABILITY

The IOC now says snowmaking in Beijing was developed “to high technical and environmental standards."

“The regions where the snow sport events will be held are constantly very cold," the IOC said in a statement. “This allows a very efficient snow production and does not require the constant reproduction of snow," like ski resorts elsewhere with fluctuating temperatures that cause snowmelt.

Snowmaking can raise other environmental concerns, including over the chemicals sometimes used to help water freeze at higher temperatures, and the electricity needed to power the systems, which could mean a bigger carbon footprint. The IOC says all venues and facilities are powered by wind and solar energy and that no chemicals are used because of the region's cold temperatures.

“Of course we are using a lot of energy of making snow,” Bernhard Russi, chairman of the International Ski Federation's alpine committee, said at a press briefing Saturday. But he added that the challenge is how to store the snow over the summer for the next season - something already being done in Europe, allowing resorts to save up to half of it.

WHAT THE ATHLETES SAY

Athletes have voiced their concerns about competing on fake snow, saying it brings new risks.

Skiers and experts say manmade snow has more moisture, which means it ices up faster. Estonian Olympic biathlete Johanna Taliharm told the AP last month that artificial snow is “faster and more dangerous" because of the icing.

Russi, the 1972 downhill gold medalist in Japan, acknowledged that “of course ski racers and we organizers, we prefer to have natural snow,” but added that using machines to make snow allows them to get it to the right “hardness” for each discipline.

The IOC said artificial snow is used regularly at World Cup ski competitions and denied that it makes courses more dangerous,. "To the contrary, it creates a more consistent surface from the top to bottom, or start to finish, of a course. "

As the Winter Games begin, Russi said “the snow we find right now on the courses is absolutely perfect, you cannot have it better."

In recent years, the Olympic games have become a target for cyber espionage, surveillance and other financially-motivated attacks. 

The NTT Corporation, which provided network security for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, said there were more than 450 million cyberattacks launched during the 16 days of competition.

That's 2.5 times more than the number of attacks on the 2012 London Olympics.

Beijing won’t be much different.

A report from cybersecurity analysis firm Recorded Future found ransomware groups may try to encrypt machines used at the games, in part because it could lead to a significant profit, given that teams or officials might need to pay ransom to regain access to those systems as soon as possible. 

But experts think the biggest threat is possible cyber espionage and surveillance of athletes and visitors by the Chinese government.

The United States, Team Great Britain, Australia, Germany and Netherlands all urged their athletes and visitors to leave their personal phones and laptops back at home out of fear that they will be monitored by the government at the games and thereafter. 

"China's national security laws create a really different environment for privacy than what people are used to when they're in other countries, where privacy legislation places significant constraints on the government's ability to collect and use data," Robert Potter, CEO and co-founder of Internet 2.0 said.

"The identifiers for your phone are automatically collected, so that information is gone the moment you hit a mobile phone tower in China."

Potter's cybersecurity company Internet 2.0 examined some of the software being provided by official sponsors to the game and found that the Virtual Private Network service offered to athletes, which lets users hide and protect their internet traffic from being accessed by third parties, collected a "significant amount of user data" beyond what was needed to run the app. 

Newsy's research showed the camera and photo libraries were required to be accessed by the app, and they just didn't seem to be a particularly good reason or justifiable reason to think that that was normal for a VPN application.  

A separate report from Citizen Lab found serious privacy issues with the MY2022 Olympics app, which is required to be used by all attendees at the Beijing games.

For example, it contained an encryption flaw that could expose passport details and medical information of users. 

Both the IOC and Beijing Olympic Committee have rejected claims that there are security concerns with the MY2022 Olympics App. 

Experts told Newsy the only sure-fire way that visitors to the Olympics can protect themselves is by using new devices and accounts only while inside China in order to protect their personal information, then throw the devices away after the games are over.

China is committed to having open and accessible internet available to athletes that are within the "COVID bubble," but there is a line between open internet access and unmonitored internet access — and China is making no guarantees around the latter. 

This story was first reported by Tyler Adkisson at Newsy.

Video above: Olympics give boost to winter sports in China

Not even "The Great Wall” could stave off a piercing, bone-chilling wind.

The snow replica of China’s iconic monument lined the top of the Olympic slopestyle course to cut down on the blustery conditions. All it really did Saturday was provide an eye-catching backdrop.

In gusty conditions that led to arctic-feeling wind chills, two-time defending Olympic champion Jamie Anderson and the rest of the women's snowboarders glided through the rails and jumps — albeit a little chilled — during the qualifying round in the mountains above Beijing.

Some riders wore hand and feet warmers to protect against the elements. Others donned facemasks or neck sleeves to keep the whipping wind at bay.

Nothing fully worked. Not even the protection of “The Great Wall.”

“I like the Great Wall. I do think it's helping a little bit, for sure,” said Anderson, who finished fifth in qualifying to make Sunday's 12-woman final.

Then, she jokingly added: "They need a bigger wall.”

The temperature hovered around 5 degrees F and felt like minus-12 F during the competition. The wind was listed at 13 mph, but the more telling sight may have been a wind sleeve next to the final jump: It was blowing straight out, then sideways, then straight out again.

“It's cold,” Anderson said. “It’s hard to, like, keep your core temperature warm and then doing tricks feels a little bit more intimidating.”

Zoi Sadowski Synnott of New Zealand navigated the extreme conditions to turn in qualifying's top score of 86.75. Synnott might just be the biggest challenger to Anderson. She beat Anderson last month at the Winter X Games.

Then again, the wind could play a big role, too. It did four years ago at the Pyeongchang Olympics, when Anderson won her second straight title. It was held in windy, subpar conditions while across the mountain the Alpine race was called off.

Of the elements Saturday, Synnott said: "The wind is a bit tricky. You can feel it sometimes when you’re on the course, but not enough to throw you off your game. You just have to really adapt.”

That's what Hailey Langland did after wiping out on her first run. With hand warmers stuffed in her gloves and feet warmers in her boots, Langland blocked the wind out of her mind and just went for it.

“It's gnarly because the wind gusts, they’re no longer coming straight downhill. They’re now starting to swirl in between the jumps and in the rails and starting to come uphill,” said Langland, who finished ninth in qualifying. “That can really deter your gauge of what speed you should be taking into these features, which can cause, obviously, some really bad consequences.”

Another challenge were some of the jumps with approaches that were angled into the kickers instead of straight-on. They’re unlike most jumps riders spring off in other contests, but this style was featured four years ago in South Korea.

“I’m starting to get used to it more," said Julia Marino, who was sixth to advance.

Not so much the snow under their snowboards, though. The machine-made snow had a different feel, especially on a fall. Anderson said she had a bruise to show for the snow that felt — as Marino described — like concrete.

“I’m impressed that they did it,” Anderson said of the manmade snow. “But, damn, it’s like not that enjoyable to ride on.”

To keep warm before her run, Langland also bundled up in a giant parka. As for those warmers she just started to use, she had a description for them: “Life-changing,” she joked.

Tess Coady of Australia wore a dark facemask under her helmet, along with dark lenses in her goggles.

“Intimidation,” cracked Coady, who finished eighth. “It’s so cold. My nose is like dying.”

For Enni Rukajarvi, this felt almost balmy compared to what it's like back home in Finland.

“Somehow it feels warmer here than in Finland,” Rukajarvi said after taking third in qualifying. “When it's minus-20 in Finland, it’s way colder.”

Marino didn't even feel the cold on her final run, she said, simply because she was so focused after a mistake on her first attempt.

“I just wanted to make it to the end of the course,” said Marino, who hung out in the athletes' lounge at the top to stay warm before her run. “I did not look at the flags at all. I was just like, ‘I’m going to go for my run no matter what. I don’t care about the wind. I’m going throw down what I came here to throw down.’”

Adrenaline fueled that second run. Then, a blast of reality hit in the finish area.

“I’m starting to feel (the cold)," Marino said.

ZHANGJIAKOU, China —

This really is it for Shaun White.

The three-time gold medalist made it clear that not only will the Beijing Games be his last Olympics, they'll mark his final contest, too.

During a reflective, sometimes emotional news conference Saturday, not far from the halfpipe where he'll take his last competitive ride, the 35-year-old said that, yes, he'll be hanging 'em up for good after the medal round next week.

"In my mind, I've decided this will be my last competition," he said.

It's a decision that's been building since a soul-sucking training stop in Austria in November. He was dealing with nagging remnants from injuries to his knee ... and back ... and ankle. He got lost on the mountain with the sun going down. It was one of those rare times when snowboarding didn't feel fun anymore.

"A sad and surreal moment," he called it. "But joyous, as well. I kind of reflected on things I've done and looked at the sun going down and went, 'Wow, next time I'm here, I won't be stressed about learning tricks or worried about some competition thing.'"

He is soaking in every moment on this fifth trip to the Olympics, and over his 45-minute session with the media, he fielded an equal number of questions about his past as about what's to come over the next seven days and beyond.

"I have some runs in my head that I'd like to do," he said. "And it's all about visualizing and making that happen the 'day of.'"

Though he refused to take it off the table, those runs probably will not include a triple cork — the three-flip trick that Ayumu Hirano of Japan has landed twice in competition this season, but has not won with, because he could not link another trick to it.

Back in 2013, White worked on that trick for a time. Then, a different jump — the double cork 1440 — became the hottest thing in the halfpipe, so he abandoned the triple to work on that. The rest is history: The 1440 was not enough for him to win in Sochi, but four years ago in Pyeongchang, he linked two of them back to back and took his third gold medal.

"I'd never done that combination of tricks before and just put it down to win," White said. "I mean, it's a legacy performance."

His legacy goes well beyond that.

By making a choice that was unpopular in many circles — embracing competition, and embracing the Olympics — he took the entire sport with him and made the whole endeavor more mass-marketable, in large part because every sport needs a star.

He also set the bar in a game that treasures progression above all else. In 2006, he was the first man to land back-to-back 1080s. In 2010, it was the Double McTwist 1260 — "The Tomahawk," he calls it; it's a trick that's still relevant today.

Though others started landing the 1440 and linking two together before him, White did it best, and when the stakes were the highest.

But when asked what would suffice as a "good" Olympics this time around, he wasn't talking about 1440s or triple corks or gold medals.

This has been a rough season for him — including an ankle injury, a bout with COVID-19, a late unscheduled trip to Switzerland to secure his Olympic spot and, most recently, a training plan that got thrown off schedule during his stay in Colorado in January.

"I approach every competition as, you've got to be content with your own riding," White said. "And as long as you can go out there and put down your best, and lay it out there, then you can walk away, and in your mind, be good with that."

White says he's toggling between trying to enjoy every moment of the last big contest week of his life and knowing there is work to do when the halfpipe opens for training Sunday.

"I'm sort of pinching myself, with how lucky I am to still be here at this age," he said.

But it's hard not to look back. He told about how when he was a kid, everything he did, day in and day out, was wrapped around snowboarding. "I don't know how many kids out there aspire to be a cowboy and then really get to be a cowboy," he said.

Asked what headline he would put on his career, he said he looks back at the kid he was and thinks the perfect line would be: "We did it!'"

Curler John Shuster and speed skater Brittany Bowe will be flagbearers for the U.S. Olympic team during the opening ceremony at this year's Beijing Games.

Bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor was initially chosen to carry the American flag. But, according to the Associated Press, since she's currently in isolation after testing positive for COVID-19, three-time Olympian Bowe will walk in her place.

The news outlet reported that the defending gold medalist and five-time Olympian would be the first curler to carry the American flag during the Winter Games opening ceremony.

Shuster and Bowe will lead the American athletes into the Bird’s Nest on Friday when the Olympics kick-off.

The opening ceremony is slated to begin in Beijing at 6:30 a.m. ET.

Primetime coverage will be aired on NBC beginning at 8 p.m. ET.

The Olympic flame has arrived in Beijing amid calls from critics for a boycott of the Winter Games, which are set to be staged in February.

The flame was received by Beijing's Communist Party Secretary Cai Qi, the top official in the Chinese capital.

Beijing is the first city to be awarded hosting rights to both the Summer and Winter Games.

The flame arrived in China Tuesday, a day after protesters interrupted the flame lighting ceremony in Greece. Those protesters were carrying a banner that read "No genocide games."

"How can Beijing be allowed to host the Olympics given that they are committing a genocide against the Uyghurs?" one protester said.

Local police later detained the protesters.

Human rights critics say China's oppression of political critics, minority groups including Tibetans and Uyghurs and a crackdown in Hong Kong should prompt athletes and politicians to shun the event.

According to The Associated Press, the International Olympic Committee has shied away from criticism about China's reported human rights abuses. IOC President Thomas Bach has said the Games must be "respected as politically neutral ground."

The Beijing Winter Olympics will run from Feb. 4-20. Only spectators from mainland China will be allowed to attend the Games due to the COVID-19 pandemic.