When Matt and Becca Hamilton are on the ice together, it’s pure chemistry. The brother and sister compete in curling, the “roaring game” where players take turns lunging down a sheet of ice, pushing a 44-pound rock.

They sweep the ice with a special broom to help glide the rock to a target, known as the house. The team that ends up with rocks closest to the center of the house gets the points. It’s similar to shuffleboard or even bocce ball.

“It’s almost poetic,” Matt, 27, says. “All you can hear is your broom sliding on the ice, and the rock sliding, the occasional sound of rocks hitting each other. It’s kind of serene. It was very Zen.”

Now, the Hamilton siblings are heading to PyeongChang next month to represent Team USA at the 2018 Olympics.

Matt and Becca Hamilton grew up watching their family curl at the Madison Curling Club in Wisconsin. Matt was not always impressed with the sport, he says.

“I remember in eighth grade, I watched my dad do it,” he says. “And, I did not think it was cool when dad was doing it.”

Matt eventually found an interest in the sport. He got hooked on curling and then taught his younger sister.

“Once I was drug out on the ice, I didn’t look back,” 26-year-old Becca says. “I was down [at the curling club] every single day before school and after school, playing in multiple leagues at night. I was hooked.”

Matt is competing with the men’s team, and Becca is playing with the women’s team. But it’s their mixed doubles that’s getting all the attention.

The mixed doubles event is new to the 2018 Olympics, and the Hamiltons will be on the ice competing against seven of the best curling duos from around the world. The siblings are hoping to make it to the podium, taking home the first gold medal in mixed doubles curling.

The duo praise one another for their talent on the ice. Matt says he thinks Becca is the best female sweeper in the United States, and Becca says Matt can make almost any shot.

Their ability to communicate also drives their success, says their mixed doubles coach Jake Higgs.

“I would say it’s a better vibe than you get from spouses or significant others playing together,” Higgs says. “Typically when things blow up for spouses it can take a number of ends or games to talk to each other again or like each other again whereas with Matt and Becca, it’s a quick transition.”

Becca says her dynamic with Matt on the ice is different than with teammates on the women’s squad.

“Matt and I feed off each other and we ground each other at the same time,” Becca says. “So he’s pretty involved with the crowd and he’s got an upbeat personality and I’m kind of the calm out there that reels him back in when you need to.”

And because they’re related, Matt says they can be more open with each other.

“If someone’s struggling or something like that, we can tell each other with absolute honesty what we’re seeing and know that that’s not going to offend her,” Matt says. “I’m not telling her what she’s doing wrong to be mean. She knows I’m doing it to help her get better and play better.”

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott requested on Tuesday that the Texas Rangers launch an investigation into the allegations of sexual abuse at the Karolyi Ranch.

Multiple athletes have come forward with allegations of abuse by former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar while they were training at the famed facility, located in East Texas near Huntsville. Nassar was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison last week.

Two weeks ago, Olympic gold medal-winner Simone Biles posted on Twitter, “It breaks my heart even more to think that as I work toward my dream of competing in Tokyo 2020, I will have to continually return to the same training facility where I was abused.”

Three days later, USA Gymnastics announced it was cutting ties with the Karolyi ranch. “It will no longer serve as the USA Gymnastics National Team Training Center,” USA Gymnastics president and CEO Kerry Perry said in a statement.

A website for the Karolyi summer camp has only this statement:

“After nearly four decades of spiriting young gymnasts towards greatness in sport, our yearly tradition of the Karolyi’s Gymnastics Camp has come to an end. Bela, Martha, and the rest of the camp staff wish to sincerely thank all participants, USA Gymnastics, and everyone who has been a part of our extended family for 35 years of unforgettable memories.”

The Walker County Sheriff’s Office said last week that it had an open investigation into the ranch, and Abbott commended the office for its diligence. He said he was bringing the Rangers into the matter because the “criminal action has been implicated across multiple jurisdictions and states.”

“The public statements made by athletes who previously trained at the Karolyi Ranch are gut-wrenching,” Abbott said in a statement. “Those athletes, as well as all Texans, deserve to know that no stone is left unturned to ensure that the allegations are thoroughly vetted and the perpetrators and enablers of any such misconduct are brought to justice. The people of Texas demand, and the victims deserve, nothing less.”

Bela Karolyi coached the U.S. women’s team at the Olympics in 1988 and 1992. Martha Karolyi coached the team in 1996 and was assistant coach in 2008.

As Dvora Meyers reported on Deadspin in May, USA Gymnastics brought Bela Karolyi out of retirement in late 1999 to fill the new role of national team coordinator, and grueling training camps at the ranch became part of the Olympic team selection process.

He remained in the coordinator role until 2000; Martha Karolyi held the role from 2001 to 2016.

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The Cleveland Indians will be removing “Chief Wahoo,” the bright red caricature of a Native American the team uses as a logo, from players’ caps and uniforms starting in 2019.

The divisive logo, which has been publicly protested as a racist and offensive image for decades, will remain on official merchandise available for purchase by fans.

“The team must maintain a retail presence so that MLB and the Indians can keep ownership of the trademark,” The Associated Press reports.

The Indians announced the change on Monday. The team name — which has also been criticized as offensive — will not be changing.

“Major League Baseball is committed to building a culture of diversity and inclusion throughout the game,” MLB’s commissioner, Rob Manfred, said in a statement. “Over the past year, we encouraged dialogue with the Indians organization about the Club’s use of the Chief Wahoo logo. During our constructive conversations, [Indians CEO] Paul Dolan made clear that there are fans who have a longstanding attachment to the logo and its place in the history of the team.

“Nonetheless, the club ultimately agreed with my position that the logo is no longer appropriate for on-field use in Major League Baseball, and I appreciate Mr. Dolan’s acknowledgement that removing it from the on-field uniform by the start of the 2019 season is the right course,” Manfred said.

Ray Halbritter, a member of Oneida Nation and the leader of the “Change the Mascot” protest campaign, celebrated the change.

“The Cleveland baseball team has rightly recognized that Native Americans do not deserve to be denigrated as cartoon mascots, and the team’s move is a reflection of a grassroots movement that has pressed sports franchises to respect Native people,” Halbritter said in a statement.

Other Native activists expressed more skepticism.

“It’s a small step in the right direction, but it is just that — a small step,” Cleveland activist Sundance told NPR.

Sundance, a member of the Muskogee Creek Nation and the executive director of the Cleveland American Indian Movement, has been a long-standing critic of Chief Wahoo.

“The team is still going to be able to license Wahoo and make money off of that racist image,” he says. “The environment down at the stadium is not going to change for the better. … People are still going to wear Wahoo to the stadium, they are still going to dress in red face, they are still going to give war whoops, all under the rubric of being Indian.”

Sundance was involved in a lawsuit back in 1972, attempting to force the team to drop the logo.

As Indian Country Todayreports, Native resistance to the logo has continued ever since, including at annual opening day protests:

“Those Native American protesters who gather at the ironically named Progressive Field—some of them members of the Cleveland American Indian Movement (AIM) and the Committee of 500 Years of Dignity and Resistance—have not been met with open arms or friendly words. Cleveland’s baseball fans have hurled beer cans and spat on them. The protesters have been called stupid and ‘Custer-killers.’ Cleveland AIM calls the use of the Chief Wahoo mascot ‘bigoted, racist and shameful,’ and the Committee of 500 complains that the logo is a negative stereotype against indigenous people.”

Protesters have objected to the Cleveland Indians’ name as well as to the Chief Wahoo image.

And those protests will continue, Sundance says. “We’re still going to be out there on opening day, until that name is changed,” he says.

The National Congress of American Indians praised MLB for “setting the example for how professional sports leagues can and should respect Native peoples.”

Other sports teams — most conspicuously, Washington’s football team — have also faced decades of protest and criticism for their use of offensive racial stereotypes, caricatures or slurs as official names or mascots. But notably, the debate over the Cleveland Indians logo has resulted in visible changes, as The Associated Press notes:

“Under growing pressure to eliminate Chief Wahoo, the club has been transitioning away from the logo in recent years. The Indians introduced a block ‘C’ insignia on some of their caps and have removed signs with the Wahoo logo in and around Progressive Field, the team’s downtown ballpark.

“National criticism and scrutiny about the Indians’ allegiance to Chief Wahoo grew in 2016, when the Indians made the World Series and Manfred expressed his desire to have the team eradicate the symbol. Earlier in that postseason, a lawsuit was filed while the club was playing in Toronto to have the logo and team name banned from appearing on Canadian TV. That court case was dismissed by a judge.

“The Indians’ bid to host the 2019 All-Star Game, which it was ultimately awarded, further heightened debate over Wahoo.”

Supporters of the logo have expressed frustration and sorrow to see it go — and promised that it’s not disappearing from stands.

“Sadly, the Indians caved to the politically correct society that we are now all forced to live in,” Zach Sharon of Cleveland Sports Talk wrote. He said the logo is a representation of the team — one that reminds fans of the glory years of the ’90s, when “those great teams all sported the Chief Wahoo on their jerseys and those memories give myself and other fans goosebumps.”

“Thankfully, fans will continue to wear their Chief Wahoo apparel, probably even more now,” Sharon wrote. “I know I will. You’ll see it in the stands and around the city every Indians game. It’ll never truly go away.”

Cleveland lawyer and sportswriter Peter Pattakos, who opposes the logo, also predicted that the change will lead to more Chief Wahoo in stands, not less. For him, that was a cause for frustration, not celebration.

Pattakos spoke to NPR in 2014, after he tweeted out a viral photo of a Native man confronting an Indians fan in red face. He described how he grew from a kid who “didn’t think of a Native American at all” when he saw the logo to an adult fan who says “the impact is so obviously racist and demeaning.”

Now he is frustrated with how MLB decided to implement this change.

“If they acknowledge that ‘the logo is no longer appropriate for on-field use in Major League Baseball,’ what’s the excuse for waiting until 2019?” he tweeted. And the name hasn’t changed, he noted, writing, “Cowardly half-measures won’t do.”

Adrienne King, a Cherokee writer who runs a blog about the appropriation of Native cultures, met the news with a celebratory word — “FINALLY!!!”

She celebrated the fact that instead of just quietly changing the logo, MLB said it was inappropriate to use.

“Important to note: Even with this decision, you can still buy Chief Wahoo merch in Ohio and at the stadium, and the name is still the Indians,” she wrote on Twitter. “Not done fighting, but BIG step.”

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The International Paralympic Committee won’t allow Russia to compete in the upcoming PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games, maintaining a ban that punished a widespread system of doping. Citing anti-doping reforms, the committee said some Russian athletes will be able to compete in a handful of sports — but they’ll do so under a neutral flag, as their national committee remains suspended.

IPC President Andrew Parsons said that the move to allow “eligible neutral Para athletes to compete at PyeongChang 2018” was made in response to progress in Russia since it was hit with a total ban before the Rio Summer Games in 2016.

“In the summer of 2016 the anti-doping system in Russia was found to be totally compromised, corrupted and open to abuse. This made it impossible to determine which Russian Para athletes were clean and which were not,” Parsons said.

In winter of 2018, there is “a different picture in Russia,” Parsons said. Citing progress such as testing, training and other anti-doping efforts — and requiring Russian Paralympians to pass additional scrutiny to compete in South Korea — Parsons said that the IPC’s decision is “proportionate to what is in front of us.”

Russia’s athletes will be allowed to compete in five sports at the PyeongChang Paralympics: alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, snowboard and wheelchair curling. The country’s Para ice hockey team missed the deadline to qualify.

The decision will make the upcoming Paralympic Games, which start on March 8, look very different from the 2014 version. Hosting those games in Sochi, Russia led all nations with 80 Paralympic medals, 30 of them gold. No other country won more than 25 medals, of any type.

In many ways, the IPC’s decision, made over the weekend and announced on Monday morning, mirrors the International Olympic Committee’s handling of Russia, where a system of cheating and masking athletes’ use of performance-enhancing drugs has been detailed by independent investigations.

When the Winter Olympics begin in early February, Russia will be sending a reduced team of 169 athletes who will compete under a neutral flag and a generic label: “Olympic Athlete from Russia.”

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