Qigong in the Olympics

Just as Michael Phelps brought public attention to cupping in the 2026 Olympics, the entire US Halfpipe Snowboarding Team may do the same for qigong.

As reported by NPR, "The U.S. men's halfpipe snowboarders have also been tapping into an ancient Chinese energy practice. "I've been doing a bunch of qigong before riding this whole season," says Chase Blackwell, from Longmont, Colorado. "Qigong is a form of meditation in motion. It gets me in the zone, calms the nerves a little bit and gets me fired up to go send," he says.

[Chase] Josey says the whole team has been practicing qigong. "You're collecting the energy, harnessing that universal power," he says, "Then you can go out there and push your own body to extreme limits in the halfpipe, and ideally do it gracefully and smoothly and land on your feet."

They've even got their coaches doing "cloud hands," Josey says. "It keeps it light, too. In those moments of high pressure, you can block out the noise a little bit, just breathe," he says."

Jake Pates, who was 8th in the Men's Snowboard Halfpipe competition and founded the Happy Healthy Brain Foundation, stated in an AOL interview in answer to the question How do you get yourself warmed up before cold weather for a good run?,

"Usually, I will bring a Theragun with me, but Qigong I'm learning is a new thing. We got a really cool karate master as the US Team PT here and he's been teaching me Qigong, and it's amazing."

The word may be starting to spread and the Olympics may be just the spark that ignites the flame.