Lifestyle
19 Winter Olympic storylines we’re watching (they’re not just about sports)
The un-retirement of Alpine skier Lindsey Vonn, Olympic debut of NHL players including like Connor Hellebuyck and return of halfpipe snowboarder Chloe Kim are among some of the biggest storylines at these Winter Games.
Hans Bezard/Agence Zoom, Jonathan Kozub/NHLI , Maddie Meyer via Getty Images
hide caption
toggle caption
Hans Bezard/Agence Zoom, Jonathan Kozub/NHLI , Maddie Meyer via Getty Images
Want more Olympics updates? Get our behind-the-scenes newsletter for what it’s like to be at these Games.
There’s no shortage of Winter Olympics storylines to watch — and we’re not just talking about sports.
Hundreds of athletes will vie for medals in 16 different sports over the course of a jam-packed 2 1/2 weeks in the Milan Cortina Games. They will compete at venues spanning a nearly 9,000-square-mile swath of northern Italy, in front of in-person spectators (a welcome return after the COVID-19 restrictions in Beijing in 2022) and on an even bigger world stage.
Rising stars — and one new sport — are making their Olympic debuts, while familiar fan favorites are returning, some in pursuit of a comeback after many years away. Lifelong dreams are on the line, but there are also geopolitical tensions, environmental questions and so much more.
Here are some of the threads we’re following:
1. Iconic American women are chasing comebacks
Lindsey Vonn grimaces after crashing in a women’s downhill race in Switzerland on Friday.
Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images
hide caption
toggle caption
Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images
Legendary American athletes — many of them women — across multiple sports are returning to the Olympic stage after years away. They may include Lindsey Vonn, who retired as the winningest female skier in history in 2019 but returned to competition after a partial knee replacement in 2024. She qualified for the Games at age 41 amid a triumphant World Cup season, but hurt her knee in a crash just a week before the opening ceremony. Figure skater Alysa Liu reversed her teenage retirement and now brings a 2025 world title and renewed love of the sport to her second Olympics. Another former teenage phenom, halfpipe snowboarder Maddy Schaffrick, clinched a spot in her first Olympics at age 31, over a decade after retiring from burnout in 2015. And Alpine skier Breezy Johnson is aiming for redemption on the same Cortina slopes that destroyed her knee and her last Olympic dreams just weeks before she was set to compete in Beijing in 2022.
-Rachel Treisman
2. International tensions may be uniquely high for U.S. athletes
There’s always a political dimension to the Olympic Games, but this year, U.S. athletes could face a uniquely tense atmosphere. The Trump administration has sparred with European athletes over a wide range of issues, including repeated threats against Denmark’s sovereign territory in Greenland. (The U.S. and Denmark men’s hockey teams are scheduled to face off on the ice on Feb. 14.) Some Italian politicians have also voiced concern about the role of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who plan to help with security at the Winter Games. Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala told local media that after the violence in Minneapolis, ICE agents are “not welcome” in his city. Vice President Vance, a frequent critic of European leaders, is expected to attend the opening ceremony at the Games on Feb. 6.
-Brian Mann
3. NHL players return to the Olympics
Brothers Brady and Matthew Tkachuk are among the NHL players set to make their Olympic debut for Team USA.
Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
hide caption
toggle caption
Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
Olympic hockey hasn’t included players from the world’s top professional league for more than a decade. Finally, that era is over, and we get to see some incredible teams play in a best-on-best format (although the tournament won’t include a Russian team, due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022). Some of the league’s biggest stars, like Edmonton’s Connor McDavid, Toronto’s Auston Matthews and Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon, are well into their careers without having had the chance to play for Olympic gold, and that changes next month. The star power on Team Canada alone runs from MacKinnon and McDavid to the legend Sidney Crosby and the San Jose Sharks’ 19-year-old phenom Macklin Celebrini. The Americans are no slouches either, with Matthews, the Tkachuk brothers and a trio of talented goaltenders led by Connor Hellebuyck, last year’s NHL MVP — and they’ll have their eyes set on the first Team USA gold since the “Miracle on Ice” in 1980.
-Becky Sullivan
4. Ski mountaineering makes its Olympic debut
A 2025 Ski Mountaineering World Cup women’s mixed relay event in Bormio, Italy, where the sport will make its Olympic debut.
Antonio Calanni/AP
hide caption
toggle caption
Antonio Calanni/AP
These Games feature several new medal events and one entirely new sport: ski mountaineering. In “skimo,” as it’s called, athletes race both up and downhill, alternately wearing and carrying their skis in backpacks. Alpine countries like Italy, France and Switzerland tend to dominate in skimo (after all, that’s where the sport has its roots), but there will be a pair of rising American stars to root for: Anna Gibson and Cameron Smith, who earned the U.S. its inaugural Olympic skimo spot with a historic World Cup mixed-relay win in December in Utah.
– Rachel Treisman
5. A new generation of U.S. curlers takes the rink
For the first time in 20 years, the U.S. will not be represented by curling legend John Shuster at the Olympics. Shuster competed in every winter Olympics from 2006 to 2022, and led the U.S. men’s team to a surprise gold medal at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. At the 2025 U.S. Olympic Trials, Shuster’s team was defeated by a crew of Gen-Z curlers led by 24-year-old Danny Casper, whose team is currently ranked sixth in the world. On the women’s side, Team Peterson — led by sisters Tabitha and Tara Peterson — heads to the Olympics a second time. And Olympics newbies Korey Dropkin and Cory Thiesse, world champions in 2023, will represent the U.S. in mixed doubles.
-Pien Huang
6. Mikaela Shiffrin wants to put her 2022 Olympic disappointment behind her
Mikaela Shiffrin smiles after placing first in the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Women’s Slalom in late January, just days before the start of the Olympics.
Millo Moravski/Agence Zoom/Getty Images
hide caption
toggle caption
Millo Moravski/Agence Zoom/Getty Images
Mikaela Shiffrin is the most decorated skier ever, full stop. Nobody, man or woman, has won more races than Shiffrin, who has 108 World Cup wins, 12 season titles (in three different disciplines) and five overall titles to her name. But Olympic success has proved more elusive for Shiffrin. She has won just three medals in her three Olympic appearances — including a stunning shutout in 2022 when she missed the podium in all five of her events. Then, in 2024, Shiffrin sustained a freak injury that could have derailed her career. In a race that fall, she crashed and sustained a mysterious but severe puncture wound that sidelined her for months. Now, though, Shiffrin has returned to top form in her signature event, the slalom. She has competed in eight World Cup slalom races so far this winter and won all but one (in which she finished second). You’ll have to be patient, though: The women’s slalom is one of the very last alpine skiing events of the entire Olympics.
-Becky Sullivan
7. The logistical feat of a widespread winter Games
Organizers are calling these the most geographically widespread winter Games in history, spanning an area of roughly 8,495 square miles. They are co-hosted by metropolitan Milan and the Alpine resort town of Cortina d’Ampezzo, dispersed across four main competition clusters and six Olympic villages. Even the opening ceremony is spread out, hosted primarily at Milan’s historic San Siro Stadium with simultaneous athlete processions at venues in Predazzo, Livigno and Cortina. And, in a historic first, two Olympic cauldrons will ignite the action: one in Milan and one in Cortina. The Feb. 22 closing ceremony will take place between the host cities, at a Roman amphitheater in Verona.
-Rachel Treisman
8. Could the U.S. win its first-ever biathlon medal?
Deedra Irwin, pictured warming up before an event in 2023, could be Team USA’s best hope for its first ever medal in biathlon, which combines cross-country skiing with precision rifle shooting.
Anders Wiklund/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images
hide caption
toggle caption
Anders Wiklund/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images
Biathlon is the only winter Olympic sport in which the U.S. has never won a medal. Brutal! The sport is way bigger in Europe, and athletes from countries like Norway and France have traditionally dominated. Then, at the 2022 Games in Beijing, Deedra Irwin came closer than any American before her when she finished in seventh place in the women’s individual event. Now, she’s back for a second try. Like many American biathletes, Irwin took a winding path to the sport. She didn’t even grow up around guns — her first memory of firing a gun was at a ladies’ night at her college’s shooting range — and she didn’t attempt the sport until she was in her mid-20s, after pursuing a career as a Nordic skier (and living out of her car). Meanwhile, the 23-year-old Campbell Wright just scored his first ever podium finish in a World Cup race. (“Not gonna lie, I’ve been wanting a podium pretty bad. Maybe too much … but today it worked out!” he wrote on his Instagram after.) It’s the second Olympic appearance for Wright, who’s ranked No. 10 in the world, but his first for the U.S. after the dual national switched his national allegiance from New Zealand.
-Becky Sullivan
9. In-person spectators are back
The COVID-19 pandemic restricted in-person spectators and required masks (with some exceptions) at the last Winter Olympics, in Beijing in 2022. Many athletes have shared that they’re looking forward to competing in front of crowds, feeding off the energy of a packed arena and getting to take in the moment with their loved ones by their side. Figure skater Alysa Liu, who competed in Beijing, told reporters: “I had a lot of fun at that one. Everyone’s saying, ‘Listen, that one’s nothing compared to what a real Olympics is like.’”
-Rachel Treisman
10. Environmentalists say the Games are damaging a delicate ecosystem
Clouds hang over the ‘Seceda’ Dolomites mountain in the northern Italian province of South Tyrol, which is hosting Olympic biathlon events.
Matthias Schrader/AP
hide caption
toggle caption
Matthias Schrader/AP
The Italian Dolomites are a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site, and organizers promised to use the Games to “showcase the importance of protecting sensitive mountain ecosystems.” But environmentalists say water resources are being strained, and construction projects have further contributed to the “urbanization” of a mountain system already stressed by overtourism. As the region faces warmer and shorter winters due to climate change, most sporting events will take place on artificial snow and ice. The organising committee estimates it will require 250 million gallons of water — the equivalent of nearly 380 Olympic swimming pools — taken from local rivers, streams and lakes, which environmental groups say could strain the local ecosystem. Eight key environmental organizations in a joint statement denounced the Games’ sustainability claims as “greenwashing” and pointed out that the organizing committee has failed to conduct in-depth environmental surveys of the impact of these changes on the Dolomite region.
-Ruth Sherlock
11. After doping scandals in Beijing and Paris, will Milan have clean competition?
The Milan Olympics open at a time of deep division among international agencies that police athletes to prevent the use of performance-enhancing drugs. The World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) has long served as the global leader protecting clean sport. But critics say WADA failed to properly investigate doping scandals ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics, involving a Russian figure skater, and at the Paris Summer Games, involving a group of Chinese swimmers. “It necessarily and unfortunately clouds the confidence heading into these [Milan] Games,” said Travis Tygart, head of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, in an interview with NPR. In a statement this month, WADA President Witold Bańka called for unity. “We hope that, like us, you are feeling revitalized and eager to work together to advance clean sport in 2026,” he said. But trust remains at a minimum, with the U.S. government withholding its WADA dues in an effort to press for reform.
-Brian Mann
12. U.S. figure skaters are poised to make the podium — and history
The recently nicknamed “Blade Angels” — Alysa Liu, Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito — will represent Team USA in women’s figure skating.
Jamie Squire/Getty Images North America
hide caption
toggle caption
Jamie Squire/Getty Images North America
This is arguably the strongest figure skating team the U.S. has sent to an Olympics in years. The stacked roster of Alysa Liu, Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito could win the U.S. its first women’s singles gold since 2002. On the men’s side, Ilia “Quad God” Malinin is favored for gold — and poised to become the first person to land a quadruple axel (a jump that only he can do) at an Olympics. In ice dance, seven-time reigning national champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates are looking for redemption after finishing just off the podium in Beijing in 2022. The U.S. is also seeking to defend its 2022 gold medal in the team event, with Japan now its main rival in light of Russia’s effective exclusion from the Olympics.
-Rachel Treisman
13. Can the U.S. work its way up the medal count?
The U.S. won 25 medals in 2022, placing fifth in the overall medal count behind Norway, the Russian Olympic Committee, Germany and Canada. Norway has long dominated the Winter Olympics medal count, going into this year with a total of 405 and a record 148 gold. The U.S. is hoping some of that special sauce might rub off on its ski jumping team, which has won only one medal ever, at the inaugural 1924 Olympics. After 2022, the ski jumping federations of the U.S. and Norway officially partnered to share coaches, training facilities and sports scientists. That has given the U.S. a boost and at least one Olympic medal contender: 20-year-old Lake Placid, N.Y., native Tate Frantz, who moved to Norway to train and work with Norwegian coaches and jumpers. “I’d say it was extremely important,” Frantz told NPR. “It pushes you astronomically.” The U.S. is also hoping the return of NHL men’s hockey players to Team USA will give the men a shot at a gold medal for the first time since 1980.
-Rachel Treisman
14. Team USA bobsled moms could medal
Bobsledder Kaillie Humphries holds her son, Aulden Armbruster, during the 2025 IBSF World Championships. She went through IVF treatments while competing.
Al Bello/Getty Images
hide caption
toggle caption
Al Bello/Getty Images
Several elite athletes are back at the top of their sport after giving birth. Kaillie Humphries is back on competing in her fifth Olympic Games (her second for Team USA; she represented Canada for her first three competitions — or four, if you count the year she served as an alternate). She has a 1-year-old son, born after several IVF attempts. “I got back in the bobsled 4 1/2 months postpartum, so it wasn’t the ideal timeline,” Humphries says, “I’m not a spring chicken anymore.” Still, Humphries is a top contender in monobob, for which she won a gold medal at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, and won again at the IBSF World Cup in January. She’s joined by Elana Meyers-Taylor, the most decorated Black athlete in Winter Olympics history, and a fellow mom who’s also back for her fifth Olympics. Meyers-Taylor returned to competitive bobsledding after the birth of each of her children, now 3 and 6. “It’s been quite a bit on my body,” she says, citing years of breastfeeding, lack of sleep, back pain, and getting older, “I might not win every race and every day might look crazy and chaotic…But I wouldn’t trade it for the world, clearly,” she says.
-Pien Huang
15. U.S. men look to end a 46-year medal drought in cross-country skiing
Gus Schumacher, pictured at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships Trondheim in 2025, could earn U.S. men their first cross-country ski medal in almost half a century.
Lars Baron/Getty Images
hide caption
toggle caption
Lars Baron/Getty Images
Alaskan Gus Schumacher is the strongest medal contender for U.S. men, who have won only a single Olympic cross-country medal, Bill Koch’s silver in the 30K in 1976 in Innsbruck. American women Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall took the first-ever U.S. gold in cross country in the team sprint in Pyeongchang 2018. Diggins won a silver and bronze in Beijing in 2022. On the World Cup tour, Schumacher has shown he can beat the world’s best in middle-distance events in the skate skiing discipline. He’s having his best World Cup season ever, with two sprint podiums on successive days in the last races before the Olympics. Vermonter Ben Ogden is another to watch. He has turned heads with bold tactics in the more traditional classic technique and has had good results in skate skiing races, too. A hard truth, though, is the dominance of the Norwegian team and a strong field of Europeans. But don’t count the U.S. out for a medal in the four-man relay, it’s a notoriously unpredictable event and Schumacher, Ogden and John Hagenbuch were on the team that won the event in the 2019 Junior World Championship.
-Eric Whitney
16. Multiple snowboarders could land a historic three-peat
U.S. snowboarder Chloe Kim became the first woman ever to win two Olympic gold medals in halfpipe in 2022. Since then, she’s added jaw-dropping new tricks to her repertoire, including landing a cab 1260 (3 1/2 revolutions) in competition — another female first — and a 1440 in practice. She’s aiming for gold again, even after a last-minute shoulder injury kept her from training in the weeks leading up to the Games. Two other women are also hoping to become the first snowboarders to three-peat in consecutive Winter Games: The Czech Republic’s Ester Ledecka in parallel giant slalom and Austria’s Anna Gasser in big air.
-Rachel Treisman
17. The U.S. sends its strongest long track speedskating team in decades
U.S. speedskater Erin Jackson, pictured in January, is the defending Olympic gold medalist in the women’s 500-meter event.
Matthias Schrader/AP
hide caption
toggle caption
Matthias Schrader/AP
The prolific Jordan Stolz — a favorite in the 500, 1000, 1500 meters and the mass start event — is poised to make speedskating history unseen since U.S. speedskater Eric Heiden won five gold medals in the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics. After a strong finish at the World Cup, Erin Jackson now heads to Milano Cortina to get ready to defend her Olympic title at her third Games, skating fast and turning left in the Women’s 500 and 1000. Four-time Olympian Brittany Bowe brings her decades of inline speedskating experience, explosive power and technique to the Women’s Team Pursuit. The Women’s and Men’s Team Pursuit — which involves two teams of three people racing in tandem — is going to be hot at these games. Team USA has dominated this event over the past four years, mastering the precision, technique and grace that consistently yields top results. Skaters are a mirror image of one another during every lap of the race. It’ll be much like watching synchronized swimming. Any slight misstep may be the difference between coming in first or 10th.
-Rolando Arrieta
18. Some Russian athletes can compete, but not under their own flag
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) suspended Russia and its ally Belarus after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. But it did allow a small number of heavily vetted athletes from those countries to compete as “Individual Neutral Athletes” (AIN) in Paris in 2024, without any national anthems, flags or colors (instead represented by a turquoise logo). Similar rules apply to these Games, with neutral athletes’ participation at the discretion of each international sports federation. Russian athletes — even top NHL players like Alex Ovechkin and Nikita Kucherov — will be noticeably absent from the hockey rink, while a select handful will compete in sports including figure skating, cross-country skiing and short-track speedskating.
-Rachel Treisman
19. Women cross-country skiers will race on equal footing with men for the first time
Women have long struggled to achieve parity at the Winter Olympics, and the 2026 Games mark another milestone. Female cross-country ski racers were first allowed to compete in a single short-track event at the 1952 Winter Games in Oslo. This year, women will compete in the same number of events — a total of six — as their male counterparts. They’ll also ski the same distances, including the grueling 50k endurance race. “I’m really really excited to have equal distance for men and women at the Olympics,” three-time U.S. Olympic medal-winner Jessie Diggins told NPR. Diggins plans to compete in all six events at Milan-Cortina. “I think it’s really cool and an important way to show, especially young women in sport, hey, you got this,” she said.
-Brian Mann
Various species of sharks — some of which are endangered, while others are listed as vulnerable — are hauled on shore at dawn at the Tanjung Luar port on June 9, 2025, in East Lombok, Indonesia. Tanjung Luar is one of the largest shark markets in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, from where shark fins are exported to other Asian markets — primarily Hong Kong and China — and their bones are used in cosmetic products also sold to China.
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
hide caption
toggle caption
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
“We were fighting over who had caught more fish, and then I saw my crewmate pushed overboard by the captain,” Akbar Fitrian, 29, an Indonesian crewmember says as he recounts an incident aboard a Chinese-owned fishing vessel in 2022. “The ship then started to drive away as my crewmate tried to swim towards us. And then I don’t know what happened. The captain never reported the incident.”
The seas of Southeast Asia — home to some of the richest in biodiversity in the world — have long been in decline. Since the 1950s, the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates that 70-95% of fish stocks have been depleted and are at risk of collapse, perpetuated by the rise of industrial-scale fishing, much of which is illegal. Legal overfishing is another factor, and both are propped up by weak regulations, insufficient monitoring and insatiable demand. Approximately half of the world’s global marine fish catch comes from the seas of Southeast Asia, according to the U.N., and it comes at a calamitous cost.
In the United States, approximately 50% of the imported seafood comes from Asia, with nearly $6.3 billion in trade coming from China, Vietnam, Indonesia and India alone, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Behind the illicit seafood trade is an opaque world standing at the crossroads of intertwining issues. There is the legacy of brutal human rights violations that have enabled sea slavery to become the norm. Those involved in the efforts of organizations like the international Freedom Fund and Thailand’s Labour Protection Network, which work to end modern-day slavery in the region, say many workers are murdered at sea, abused and often brought into a cycle of debt bondage.
There is the lawless nature of the seas, which has emboldened traffickers to exploit desperate fishermen and impoverished casual laborers. Then there are the geopolitical factors at play: In a race to dominate the seas, China and, to a lesser extent, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan and Malaysia have all built outposts and bases on shoals, reefs and atolls. Fishing fleets — of which China has the largest in the world — are fast becoming more militarized as a result.
All of this has imposed a heavy cost on unique ecosystems and led to devastating socioeconomic impacts on artisanal and small-scale fishers.
Three countries illustrate the intersectional nature of overfishing:
Thailand
Fishing vessels are seen docked together at a landing site in Chumphon, Thailand, on Jan. 22, 2025.
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
hide caption
toggle caption
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
“Fish were in abundance before,” says Mimit Hantele, 53, a member of the Urak Lawoi tribe on the island of Koh Lipe in Thailand. “But now, the fishing season is a lot shorter, the variety of fish is far fewer, and I sell less. So I take tourists out on scuba expeditions to earn money.”
For generations, the Urak Lawoi plied the rich waters around them for sustenance. Sea gypsies in a time past, the villagers evolved to rely only on what they could catch and used simple fishing equipment cast from small wooden boats.
Then, in the 1970s, came the big Thai and Malaysian fishing boats. Fishermen on Koh Lipe say the boats fish illegally around the island, appearing only at night to escape detection and in a protected national forest area. The ships use purse seiner nets and demersal trawlers, destroying the coral underneath and, consequently, the habitat for fish. Such overexploitation has led the Indigenous group to turn to tourism to make up for lost income and declining fish stocks. “Fishing is in our blood,” Hantele said, but “our way of life has changed. We can’t rely only on the fish.”
Frozen Spanish mackerel and other species of fish in cold storage in Samut Sakhon, Thailand, on Jan. 15, 2025.
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
hide caption
toggle caption
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
Fishermen mend nets in Samut Sakhon, Thailand, on Jan. 15, 2025.
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
hide caption
toggle caption
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
Small-scale artisanal fishermen shake sardines from nets to gather them en masse after returning to shore with their catch, in the Gulf of Thailand, off the coast of Prachuap, Thailand, on Jan. 20, 2025.
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
hide caption
toggle caption
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
According to a 2001 report from the U.N., roughly 80% of fishers in Southeast Asia at the time were small-scale or artisanal, relying on traditional practices. However, declining nearshore fish stocks have forced many artisanal fishers to venture farther from shore in search of commercially valuable species. Added to that are government subsidies for fuel and tax breaks for commercial fishing vessels, which have propped up the seafood industry. Rapid advancement in maritime technology has made fleets far more effective at finding rich hunting grounds while avoiding detection by switching off their monitoring systems.
Oranee Jongkolpath, 30, a veterinarian at Thailand’s Department of Marine and Coastal Resources’ research and development center in the Rayong province, prepares to clean a hawksbill turtle in Prasae, Thailand, on Jan. 18, 2025. The turtle was found by fishermen in a garbage patch and was likely entangled in ghost nets — fishing nets that are lost or discarded by fishermen — that had caused severe damage to its two front flippers.
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
hide caption
toggle caption
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
A seafood merchant displays dried seahorses for sale in Chumphon, Thailand, on Jan. 22, 2025. Dozens of countries around the world are involved in the dried seahorse trade, with Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam and India being the largest exporters. As the trade of seahorses, which are typically used for traditional medicines, has sharply increased, the seahorse catch has declined over time. Seahorses are among the species protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
hide caption
toggle caption
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
Lax regulations on the most destructive types of fishing, particularly demersal trawling and cyanide fishing, the capture of juvenile fish that prevents the replenishment of stocks, the poor oversight of labor laws and the exploitation of workers desperate to earn a living have all contributed to the devastating knock-on effects for communities along coastlines and the potentially irreversible environmental consequences.
Members of a crew working on a Thai fishing vessel, most of whom are from Myanmar, prepare to show their documents to Port In Port Out (PIPO) inspectors in Chumphon, Thailand, on Jan. 22, 2025. PIPO inspection centers were set up in 2018, following an outcry in the international community over Thailand’s gross human rights abuses in its fishing industry.
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
hide caption
toggle caption
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
A Burmese dock worker sorts fish after a catch from a Thai vessel was unloaded in Ranong, Thailand, on Jan. 23, 2025.
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
hide caption
toggle caption
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
In Thailand last year, artisanal fishermen held protests over the rollback of major fisheries reforms implemented a decade ago that had helped to rebuild fish stocks in Thai waters. Thai corporations, which own a significant share of commercial fishing vessels, pushed the government to deregulate the fishing industry to increase their profits. Protestors focused on their concerns that relaxing the rules would revive illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and lead to increased overfishing. The rollbacks, they argued, would reduce transparency and accountability across the industry and reduce checks on gear and labor. Less transparency would lead to less knowledge about what is left in the sea. In turn, sustainability decreases, hurting artisanal fishers who depend on the sea for sustenance and livelihoods.
The Philippines
Filipino fishermen unload Yellowfin tuna, Bigeye tuna and blue marlin at a fish port in General Santos, the Philippines, on May 21, 2025.
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
hide caption
toggle caption
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
The first time Donald Carmen was harassed by Chinese boats off the coast of Palawan was in December 2024. The following February, they harassed him and another fisherman again, getting close enough to hit their outriggers. “They forced us to move away and recorded us with cell phones and cameras. I have been fishing in this area since 2016, and back then, everyone was free to fish. I would catch 400-500 kilograms of fish in a night, about 60 nautical miles offshore. Now, because I don’t dare venture out as far, I’m lucky if I catch 200-300 kilograms over three days,” Carmen said as he steered his banca just weeks later, on the lookout for Chinese fishing boats and militia.
A drone shot of the shoreline in Rizal, Palawan, the Philippines, on May 28, 2025. Many fishermen here have lost more than half their incomes because of harassment by Chinese ships, limiting the distances they can go out to sea to fish for specific species.
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
hide caption
toggle caption
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
Vincent Gehisan, 36, enjoys a meal at his home in Quezon, Palawan, the Philippines, on May 24, 2025. Gehisan was hassled and detained for nearly a day at sea by Chinese Coast Guard and navy ships while out on a resupply mission the year before and now says he’s afraid to venture far from Filipino shores to fish.
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
hide caption
toggle caption
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
People sing karaoke on May 21, 2025, at a local bar near the main fish port complex in General Santos, the Philippines, where the clientele are mainly fishermen on their days off.
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
hide caption
toggle caption
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing is inextricably linked to the geopolitical struggle for maritime dominance in the South China Sea. Over the past two decades, China has rapidly scaled up its fishing militias in a race to assert control over a vast area while trying to meet the country’s insatiable demand for seafood. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Taiwan have followed suit on a much smaller scale.
The South China Sea — or the East Sea, as Vietnam calls it, and the West Philippine Sea, as it’s known in the Philippines — is one of the world’s most strategic waterways. China’s use of its fishing fleet to control trade routes and dominate territory to create maritime buffer zones threatens the food security and livelihoods of fishers in the region.
Family members of Filipino fishermen place bait on fishing lines in Quezon, Palawan, the Philippines, on May 24, 2025.
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
hide caption
toggle caption
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
Small-scale Filipino fishermen unload their catch a fish port in General Santos, the Philippines, on May 22, 2025. The city is known as the Philippines’ tuna capital and hub for tuna fishing and products exports.
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
hide caption
toggle caption
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
While Chinese aggression has persisted for years in areas off Zambales, a province of the Philippines, it has only recently affected waters off the coast of Rizal in Palawan, as China is believed to be building up its presence in the Sabina and Bombay shoals, much closer to the Filipino coast — encroaching on the Philippines’ claim to the Kalayaan Island Group — from its original areas of claim like the Spratly Islands and the Scarborough Shoal. Among some of the tactics used by Chinese fishing militias to deter fishermen are water cannons, using swarming and encircling techniques, military-grade lasers and ramming fishing boats to intimidate and drive them from fishing grounds.
As countries in the region militarize their fishing fleets, the cost will ultimately be detrimental to ecological sustainability and geopolitical stability.
Indonesia
Indonesian fishermen unload various species, including sharks and wedgefish, which are one of the most threatened, in Tegal, Indonesia, on June 13, 2025.
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
hide caption
toggle caption
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
In Indonesia, poverty, lack of opportunities and desperation have pushed thousands of Indonesian men into trafficking circles, while others are lured by the promises of a well-paid job in the construction or service industries before being put aboard a fishing vessel unbeknownst to them. Patima Tungpuchayakul, the founder of Thailand’s Labour Protection Network, says hundreds of fishermen go missing from commercial vessels each year, and many more are brutalized while facing appalling conditions and inhumane, unsanitary conditions on board, often at the mercy of the captain or the ship’s owners.
Labor rights activists at the Migrant Resource Center in Pemalang, Indonesia, fishermen and a widow of a woman still fighting for compensation after her husband’s death say agencies in central Java are adept at recruiting Indonesian crew to work primarily on Chinese fishing vessels, entrapping them in a cycle of debt bondage and, in many cases, effectively enslaving them at sea. Workers are not offered compensation for death or injuries unless they or their families were aware of what kind of insurance the vessel owner had for them. In the worst circumstances, they face brutal working conditions and 16- to 22-hour workdays and are often subject to physical violence.
Fishmongers gather to sell the catch brought in at dawn by fishermen at the Tanjung Luar port on June 9, 2025, in East Lombok, Indonesia.
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
hide caption
toggle caption
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
A drone image of the largest commercial fish port in Indonesia, Muara Angke, where hundreds of commercial fishing vessels are docked, in Jakarta, Indonesia, on June 15, 2025.
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
hide caption
toggle caption
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
A fisherman poses for a photo in Pemalang, Indonesia, on June 13, 2025. Both Tegal and Pemalang are known as hubs for recruiting laborers who then work on commercial fishing vessels for Chinese, Taiwanese and Korean companies.
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
hide caption
toggle caption
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
Southeast Asia is still a hub for slave labor, primarily in Thailand and Indonesia, where the seafood trade contributes much of the tuna, shrimp and trash fish used for fishmeal to the supply chains of major retailers and pet food brands in the U.S. and Europe.
“There is now less physical violence and coercion — but coercion is now more debt-based,” says Rosia Wongsuban, a program advisor at the Freedom Fund, a nonprofit working to end modern-day slavery. “Working conditions are the same. Because of a labor shortage, there aren’t enough workers to operate on vessels, and then the crew needs to take the extra burden.”
“In order to work on the fishing vessel, which was Chinese-owned, I was given a loan of 4 million Rupiah,” Akbar Fitrian, 29, a fisherman interviewed in Jakarta, explains. “1 million went to paying for fishing equipment, and then I had to work until I paid back the other 3 million. Sometimes, I had to keep borrowing more to continue working to pay off the initial loan. Sometimes I would only end up with enough salary to buy cigarettes. Sometimes I went into the red.”
Anis Khuprotin, 28, rests her head on the gravesite of her husband, Muhamad Nur, in Tegal, Indonesia, on June 13, 2025. Anis’ husband died on board a commercial fishing vessel after a piece of equipment came loose and struck him in the head. Staff from the recruiting agency the hired her husband told her he died of a heart attack instead of admitting the truth in an attempt to avoid paying insurance fees to the family.
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
hide caption
toggle caption
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
Indra, 28, who declined to provide his last name out of fear for his safety, dresses as a clown and plays music to earn some extra money in his neighborhood in Jakarta, Indonesia, on June 14, 2025. Indra, who previously worked on a commercial fishing vessel, recounted harrowing experiences at sea, where he said he witnessed abuses of his fellow cremates. Since returning home, he’s refused to sign up for another job on a commercial fishing vessel, but says he has limited opportunities owing to the lack of a school degree. He currently works in a warehouse, packing boxes, and dresses as a clown to earn extra income.
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
hide caption
toggle caption
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
Fishermen play a card game on June 10, 2025, on Maringkik Island, off the caost of East Lombok, Indonesia.
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
hide caption
toggle caption
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
For the nearly 10 million people who rely on these fisheries for their livelihoods and source of protein, the future of Southeast Asia’s fisheries hangs in the balance, at the mercy of consumer demand and political will to enforce laws. The region faces not just ecological collapse, but deepening poverty, food insecurity and social instability if illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing continues unchecked. Overfishing occurs because high demand and global overconsumption for seafood far exceed the ocean’s ability to replenish itself. Growing markets — especially in China, the European Union and North America — have transformed fish and fish products into a highly profitable global commodity. Exports from Southeast Asia alone amount to over $5 billion worth of fish products to the United States each year, illustrating the scale of international trade. This demand fuels industrial-scale fishing operations such as bottom trawlers and purse seiners, which sweep through vast areas of ocean indiscriminately. Supported by government subsidies, these fleets prioritize maximum yield, even when fish stocks are already severely depleted.
But decline is not inevitable. With stronger regional cooperation, transparent supply chains, corporate accountability and informed consumer choices, Southeast Asia can reclaim stewardship over its waters. The survival of its fisheries — and of the communities that depend on them — hinges on decisions being made now, far from shore.
Various species of sharks — some of which are endangered while others are listed as vulnerable — are hauled on shore at dawn by commercial fishermen at the Tanjung Luar port on June 10, 2025, in East Lombok, Indonesia.
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
hide caption
toggle caption
Nicole Tung/Fondation Carmignac
This body of work, based on a nine-month-long investigation supported by the Fondation Carmignac, is on exhibit at the Bronx Documentary Center through April 26.
Nicole Tung is a photojournalist working primarily in the Middle East and Asia. You can see more of her work on her website, NicoleTung.com, or on Instagram, at @nicoletung.
This story is part of Image’s April’s Thresholds issue, a tour of L.A. architecture as it’s actually experienced.
If you buy a product linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission. See all our Coveted lists of mandatory items here.
Yont Studio, Brutalist Pink Vinyl Listening Station, price upon request
(Serdar Ayvaz / Yont Studio)
In the best version of my dreams, I am listening to my favorite records out of the Brutalist Pink Vinyl Listening Station from Berlin-based Yont Studio. The structure — built of foam that’s been reinforced with epoxy layers and finished in a gloss — hugs a Technics SL-1200 MK7 turntable while featuring a dedicated space for records and headphones, with an integrated amplifier and wheels. The baby pink colorway gives it a hard-soft quality that’s hard to match. yontstudio.com
Waka Waka, Double Cylinder Rocker, $3,600
Designer Shin Okuda has described his design principle as such: “Minimum design. Conscious proportion.” The furniture from Okuda’s Los Angeles studio Waka Waka injects something deeply cool into the everyday. This rocking chair is equal parts dramatic and functional, featuring a stacked cylinder back, rocker frame and arm rests in a black glossy finish. (Other finishes include natural oil, white, pompeii red, indigo, grey, purple and forest green.) wakawaka.world
Gambol Studio X Dusty Ansell, knives, $230
Every item in your home being beautiful and well-designed is a flex, down to your cheese knives. Designed by L.A. studio Gambol and handmade by folk artist Dusty Ansell in a set of three, these knives are made of curly maple and stainless steel, featuring etched artwork depicting a hand, arm and fish. gambol.studio
Schiaparelli, Pierced Mouth Bijoux Minaudière, $13,300
Every design-meets-fashion head’s dream is having a pierced mouth clutch molded out of a rigid wood, no? This minaudière from Schiaparelli features a gold-plated metal chain and rhinestone piercing, bringing the idea of a statement bag to levels unheard of. schiaparelli.com
Hannah Lim X Hugo Harris, Bat Shelf, price upon request
(Hannah Lim and Hugo Harris)
Operating as a functional sculpture, the Bat Shelf is a collaboration between London artists Hannah Lim and Hugo Harris. The piece takes inspiration from Chinese fretwork patterns, Art Noveau designs and German sculptor Hugo Leven’s iconic pewter bat candelabras. Cut and welded from 5mm aluminum, the Bat Shelf comes in a raw aluminum finish or a powder-coated red. hannah-lim.co.uk ; hugoharris.co.uk
Formas, Clear Special Vase by Gaetano Pesce, $650
L.A. is so lucky to have Formas, a curated vintage and contemporary design store in the Arts District founded by Natalia Luna and Josh Terris. Formas’ collection is deep and well-researched, filled with rare furniture and design objects like this Clear Special Vase from iconic Italian architect and designer Gaetano Pesce. Handmade of flexible resin, each vase made in this series is a unique creation. formas.la
Estudio Persona, Luna Table Lamp, $2,500
Estudio Persona, the L.A. studio run by Uruguayan design duo Emiliana Gonzalez and Jessie Young, is a living, breathing wishlist. Made of metal and hand-blown glass, this lamp is the place where angles meet curves — a timeless piece with a healthy dose of edge. estudiopersona.com
Alaïa, nylon Maxi Petticoat, $5,030
When we think of an Alaïa piece we’re essentially thinking about shapes — of the body, of the clothes, of the shape made by the clothes on the body. This nylon Maxi Petticoat from the spring/summer 2026 collection, with its asymmetrical hemline and voluminous fit, is a kind of architecture, a way to build yourself into the world around you. maison-alaia.com
Loewe, Aire Sutileza Elixir Eau de Parfum 50Ml, $210
Image April 2026 Coveted
(Loewe Perfumes)
Loewe has added another perfume to its scent directory, and the sixth Elixir in a collection of fragrances that boast an intense concentration of essential oils created by the brand’s perfumer Núria Cruelles with the Spanish Rockrose in mind. The Aire Sutileza Elixir is floral, fresh and earthy, featuring notes of pear, lemon, jasmine sambac, vetiver, sandalwood and musk. perfumesloewe.com
Sunday Puzzle
NPR
hide caption
toggle caption
NPR
This week’s challenge
Today’s puzzle is a tribute to Mimi. Every answer is a familiar two word phrase or name in which each word starts with the letters MI-.
Ex. Assignment for soldiers –> MILITARY MISSION
1. Pageant title for a contestant from Detroit
2. One of the Twin Cities
3. Nickname for the river through New Orleans
4. Super short skirt
5. Neighborhood in Los Angeles that contains Museum Row
6. Just over four times the distance from the earth to the moon
7. Goateed sing-along conductor of old TV
8. American financier who pioneered so-called “junk bonds”
9. Little accident
10. Land-based weapon in America’s nuclear arsenal
11. In “Snow White,” the evil queen’s words before “on the wall”
Last week’s challenge
Last week’s challenge comes from Benita Rice, of Salem, Ore. Name a famous foreign landmark (5,4). Change the eighth letter to a V and rearrange the result to make an adjective that describes this landmark. What landmark is it?
Answer
Notre Dame –> Renovated
Winner
Chee Sing Lee of Bangor, Maine
This week’s challenge
This week’s challenge comes from James Ellison, of Jefferson City, Mo. Think of a popular movie of the past decade. Change the last letter in its title. The result will suggest a lawsuit between two politicians of the late 20th century — one Republican and one Democrat. What’s the movie and who are the people?
If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it below by Thursday, April 23 at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle.
-
Iowa4 minutes agoFormer Iowa State star, All-American Audi Crooks announces transfer destination
-
Kansas10 minutes agoTyler Reddick needs OT at Kansas to claim fifth win of NASCAR season
-
Kentucky16 minutes agoVanderbilt baseball’s series win vs Kentucky revelatory
-
Louisiana22 minutes agoLouisiana shooter Shamar Elkins made chilling remarks about ‘demons’ weeks before killing his 7 kids and their cousin
-
Maine28 minutes agoA remote Maine town is ready to close its 5-student school
-
Maryland34 minutes agoMaryland Lottery Pick 3, Pick 4 results for April 19, 2026
-
Michigan40 minutes agoMichigan Democrats seek to mend old divides at contentious convention
-
Minnesota52 minutes agoUCLA baseball remains perfect in Big Ten by beating Minnesota