Sports News Roundup: Online sales of Winter Olympics souvenirs up 21 times over Lunar New Year; Olympics-In quest for winter gold, China taps summer sports talent and more

The 15-year-old, who helped the Russian Olympic Committee(ROC) to gold in the team event at the Beijing Olympics on Monday, now finds herself embroiled in turmoil after Russian media reported she had tested positive for a banned substance prior to the Games. Fate of Belarusian skier banned over political views in hands of ski body, IOC says The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Thursday it was up to the International Ski Federation (FIS) to decide whether to take action in the case of a Belarusian cross-country skier who was barred from competition over what her family said were its political views.

Following is a summary of current sports news briefs.

Online sales of Winter Olympics souvenirs up 21 times over Lunar New Year

Online sales of Winter Olympics souvenirs were up 21.2 times during the Lunar New Year holiday, China's commerce ministry said on Thursday, while sales of snow sports equipment and clothing increased 62.9% and 61.2% respectively. Some online catering platforms saw sales during the holiday increase almost a tenth from a year ago, ministry spokesman Gao Feng told a news conference.

Olympics-In quest for winter gold, China taps summer sports talent

Four years after she was discovered by national team scouts as a junior provincial champion in the long jump and triple jump, 19-year-old Zhao Dan will this week launch herself head-first down a serpentine frozen track as a skeleton slider.

The native of Hohhot in Inner Mongolia, who was one of China's opening ceremony flagbearers for the Beijing Winter Games, is one of dozens of Olympians plucked by China from other disciplines to build a winter sports powerhouse to match its Summer Games prowess.

Olympics-Figure skating-American "Rocket Man" Chen soars to gold in Beijing

American Nathan Chen achieved a spectacular redemption when he claimed the men's figure skating title in dazzling fashion at the Beijing Olympics, completing a four-year journey to the exhilarating tunes of Elton John on Thursday. The 22-year-old, who left empty-handed after a meltdown in Pyeongchang in 2018, stood by the edge of the rink to soak up the atmosphere during warm-up and then skated carefreely to "Rocket Man" to add to his world record in the short program for a total of 332.60.

Olympics-Figure skating-All eyes on Valieva as she appears at Olympic practice rink

Kamila Valieva is accustomed to the attention that comes with being an Olympic gold medal favorite, but she never faced quite as much scrutiny as she did on Thursday morning at a practice rink adjacent to Beijing's Capital Indoor Stadium. The 15-year-old, who helped the Russian Olympic Committee(ROC) to gold in the team event at the Beijing Olympics on Monday, now finds herself embroiled in turmoil after Russian media reported she had tested positive for a banned substance prior to the Games.

Fate of Belarusian skier banned over political views in hands of ski body, IOC says

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Thursday it was up to the International Ski Federation (FIS) to decide whether to take action in the case of a Belarusian cross-country skier who was barred from competition over what her family said were its political views. Belarusian cross-country skier Darya Dolidovich told Reuters on Tuesday that she and her family had left Belarus because of fears of reprisals by authorities after she was banned from competition, a move her family saw as retribution for their support of the political opposition.

Olympics-Alpine skiing Switzerland's Chabloz suffers heavy crash in men's combined

Swiss skier Yannick Chabloz suffered a heavy crash during the downhill race of the men's combined at the Yanqing Alpine Centre on Thursday. The 22-year-old, who was making his Olympic debut in China, veered off the course, nicknamed "The Rock", and fell before smashing into the safety fencing and continuing to slide down the hill.

Soccer-Southampton stun Tottenham with comeback win

Southampton twice came from a goal behind to put a huge dent in Tottenham Hotspur's top-four ambitions with a 3-2 away win in a compelling Premier League clash on Wednesday. Son Heung-min appeared to have secured a vital win for a ragged Tottenham with a superb finish 20 minutes from time.

Olympics-Snowboarding-American 'golden girl' Kim blows away rivals to retain halfpipe title

American Chloe Kim cemented her position as one of the greats of women's snowboarding with a commanding performance on Thursday to win halfpipe gold at the Winter Games and successfully defend her 2018 Olympic title. The 21-year-old set herself apart from rivals in the very first run, earning a top score of 94 by breezily landing 1080s. Spain's Queralt Castellet could never catch up with Kim and had to settle for silver, while Sena Tomita of Japan won the bronze medal.

U.S. agency warns that truckers' protest could disrupt Super Bowl - CNN

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has warned law enforcement agencies that a convoy of truckers protesting against COVID-19 vaccine mandates could affect this weekend's Super Bowl in Los Angeles, CNN reported. The DHS had issued a bulletin to authorities across the United States saying it "has received reports of truck drivers planning to potentially block roads in major metropolitan cities in the U.S. in protest of, among other things, vaccine mandates for truck drivers", CNN said on Wednesday.

Olympics-China's Weibo, Douyin delete thousands of posts over abuse of athletes

China's largest social media platforms including Weibo and Douyin said they have deleted tens of thousands of posts for abusing athletes and spreading rumors on the Winter Olympics, in an effort to clean up "illegal" chatter around the Games, Chinese authorities stringently censor any content that they believe violates "core socialist values" and in recent months have ordered its tech companies to further crack down on online chatter or content pertaining to rumors or what could be considered vulgar.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)