Going for Gold

Cheer on these athletes with Texas ties at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics

Ashley Caldwell soars as a four-time Olympian.

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Texas isn't exactly a winter sports powerhouse, but there'll still be some star athletes at the 2022 Winter Olympics with big cheering sections back home in the Lone Star State.

The XXIV Olympic Winter Games (or "Beijing 2022") officially runs February 4-20, with some preliminary competitions starting as early as February 2. It will feature 15 sports and 109 medal events contested, including seven all-new events, like "women's monobob."

All coverage will be carried by NBC and its affiliate networks, websites, and apps, such as Peacock — and even with Beijing 14 hours ahead of Texas, watching much of the action live is possible. (Here's a primer on how to watch.)

Of the roughly 3,000 athletes competing, 222 will be wearing the red, white, and blue of Team USA. Here are the athletes with Texas ties — and when to cheer them on (local time) for gold.

Ashley Caldwell, 28
Sport: Freestyle skiing (Aerials)
Texas tie: While she calls Park City, Utah home, her parents reportedly live in Houston.
The road to Beijing: She's making her fourth Olympic appearance in the Aerials event.
Fun fact: Ashley started practicing gymnastics at age 4; after watching the freestyle competitions at the 2006 Olympics in Torino, her mother suggested she try combining her love of skiing with gymnastics, NBC says. She is the only woman to ever land a quadruple-twisting triple backflip in competition.
When to watch: Qualification rounds begin February 13.

Mariah Bell, 25
Sport: Figure skating
Texas tie: Her parents live in the Dallas area, and her sister is a skating coach in North Richland Hills.
The road to Beijing: She just won the U.S. National Championships in Nashville last month. This is her first Olympics.
Fun fact: Mariah says her earliest memory of figure skating is watching Tara Lipinski win gold in the 1998 Nagano Olympics. During the early months of the pandemic, when ice rinks were shuttered, she lived with her family in an RV and stayed fit with outdoor activities, such as paddleboard and swimming.
When to watch: As of press time, the women's selections for team event haven't been announced, but she could be picked for the free skate February 6. The women's singles competition gets under way February 15.

Ashley Cain-Gribble, 26 and Timothy LeDuc, 31
Sport: Pairs figure skating
Texas tie: Ashley was born in Carollton, and she and Timothy (who hails from Cedar Rapids, Iowa) train with their coaches — Ashley's parents, Darlene and Peter Cain — in Euless.
The road to Beijing: The pair just won their second U.S. national championship in Nashville last month, and this is their first Olympic Games.
Fun facts: Ashley's dad was an Australian pairs skater, and her mom was a Canadian ice dancer; she has an aunt and a cousin who were competitive skaters from Australia, as well. Timothy (they/them) have made headlines as the first openly nonbinary athlete to compete in an Olympic Winter Games.
When to watch: The figure skating "team event" starts at 7:55 pm Thursday, February 3 and includes the pairs short program; pairs "team event" free skate will be 7:30 pm Saturday, February 5. The pairs competition takes place February 18-19.

Sylvia Hoffman, 32
Sport: Bobsled
Texas tie: She is an Arlington native.
The road to Beijing: She is making her Olympics debut, competing with two-time Olympic champion Kaillie Humphries as a two-woman bobsled team.
Fun fact: Sylvia played basketball for Louisiana State University, then took up weightlifting and competed internationally, but her athletic dreams "really rocketed," NBC says, after participating in reality TV show Scouting Camp: Next Olympic Hopeful.
When to watch: The two-woman event kicks off February 18.

Katie Uhlaender, 37
Sport: Skeleton
Texas tie: She was raised in Central Texas and has family in the Austin, Waco, and Hill Country areas. Her dad, Ted Uhleander, was a Major League Baseball outfielder who played for Baylor University.
The road to Beijing: She is headed to a record-breaking fifth Olympics, becoming the only U.S. woman in any sliding sport to make that many Olympic appearances, says NBC5. She placed sixth at Torino 2006 and fourth at Sochi 2014.
Fun fact: She once worked on a ranch, tagging cattle. She also worked on the reality TV show Survivor, first testing the challenges, then as a camera assistant.
When to watch: The first women's skeleton event takes place February 10.

Pairs skaters Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc are competing in their first Olympics.

Ashley Cain-Gribble, Timothy LeDuc, Olympic figure skating

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Pairs skaters Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc are competing in their first Olympics.

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Movie Review

George Clooney shines in Jay Kelly, a sharp and heartfelt look at fame

Photo by Peter Mountain/Netflix

George Clooney in Jay Kelly.

The life of a celebrity is paradoxical in that your life is lived in the public eye, yet who you really are is almost unknowable. Movie history is littered with films that try to dig into the private lives of real and fictional actors, with varying results. The latest film to try to unearth what it means to be famous is Jay Kelly.

In a perfect bit of casting, George Clooney stars in the title role as an actor who’s still world famous even if he’s edging toward the downside of his career. His coterie of helpers, including manager Ron (Adam Sandler) and publicist Liz (Laura Dern), make sure he is taken care of at every turn, often anticipating his needs before he realizes it.

A run-in with an old friend, Timothy (Billy Crudup), sends Jay spiraling, questioning not just the meaning of his 35-plus year career, but also his relationships with his two daughters, Jessica (Riley Keough) and Daisy (Grace Edwards). Jay’s attempt to manage the crisis pits his identity as a celebrity and as a father and friend against each other.

Written and directed by Noah Baumbach, and co-written by Emily Mortimer (who has a small role), the film has to walk the tightrope of making the audience like Jay even as he does and says things that might make him unlikable. There’s a very thin line between the character of Jay Kelly and the real life George Clooney; each is seemingly infinitely charming when dealing with the public, but they lead very different private lives.

Baumbach takes a light approach to the story, occasionally dipping into more serious territory but never going too deep. For some, this may seem like a copout, as if he’s merely pretending to want to explore what celebrity truly is. But as you see Jay navigate his way between his work, his family, and being out among the public, little details emerge that make him increasingly complex.

A lot of the film’s pleasure comes from the strong actors cast in relatively minor roles. There are not enough words to express what it means to have actors like Jim Broadbent as Jay’s mentor, or Greta Gerwig as Ron’s wife, or Stacy Keach as Jay’s father, or Patrick Wilson as a fellow longtime actor. Each of them and more lend an instant air of excellence to the film that elevates the story beyond its simple premise.

Clooney may be playing a version of himself, but as the film notes on multiple occasions, playing yourself is more difficult than it seems. He is deserving of an Oscar nomination, as is Sandler, who doesn’t give off even a whiff of insincerity as a man who has given perhaps a bit too much of himself in aid of another man’s career.

Jay Kelly is not a world-changing film, and some may accuse it of being another navel-gazing Hollywood story. But the forcefulness of Clooney’s performance, the long line of strong supporting actors, and the subtly effective storytelling by Baumbach and Mortimer (making her feature screenwriting debut) help it become much more than might be expected.

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Jay Kelly is now playing in select theaters. It debuts on Netflix on December 5.

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