[ad_1]
There are simply weeks till the beginning of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, the second Video games to be held in the course of the pandemic after final yr’s Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Beijing will grow to be the primary metropolis to host each the Summer time and Winter Video games following its Olympic debut in 2008, and final month, organizers stated preparation was “very a lot on observe” for the Video games to be delivered as deliberate.
However it hasn’t been simple. As with final yr’s Summer time Olympics, a raft of Covid-19 countermeasures have been put in place forward of the Video games, which is able to once more happen in a Covid-safe “bubble” system.
When the Video games do lastly get underway with the opening ceremony on February 4 — lasting till the closing ceremony on February 20 — shut to three,000 athletes will compete in 15 disciplines throughout 109 occasions.
Beijing will then additionally host the Paralympic Video games, which run from March 4-13.
How will the Video games be staged amid the pandemic?
Organizers intend to carry Beijing 2022 in a closed loop system which is able to solely be accessible for Video games contributors — a plan that has remained in place amid the fast unfold of the Omicron variant.
As outlined in a Video games playbook printed in December, the closed loop system will embody venues, official motels and the occasion’s personal transport service.
Absolutely vaccinated contributors will be capable to enter the closed loop with out quarantining, whereas those that aren’t vaccinated might want to quarantine for 21 days upon arrival in Beijing.
Medical exemptions, thought-about on a case-by-case foundation, could also be granted to those that are unvaccinated. Some nations, such because the US and Canada, have mandated that every one crew members be vaccinated.
In the course of the Video games, contributors will probably be topic to every day well being monitoring and testing and could have no contact with most of the people.
“The loop may be very protected. It is a spot that I might say may be very tough to match with some other place on this planet at this cut-off date, as a result of we’ve got right here a completely vaccinated, typically boosted inhabitants that’s being examined every day with a PCR and dwelling in a closed loop,” Pierre Ducrey, Olympic Video games operations director for the Worldwide Olympic Committee (IOC), instructed reporters on January 12.
Ducrey added: “It’s referred to as a closed loop for that very cause. It means there will probably be no contact between folks outdoors the loop and contained in the loop. It has been constructed to guard the inhabitants inside, and likewise the inhabitants outdoors.”
Returning a confirmed optimistic check will imply contributors can not compete or proceed their function within the Video games; those that are symptomatic will keep at a delegated hospital for therapy, whereas those that are asymptomatic will probably be transferred to an isolation facility.
Final month, Huang Chun, a member of the native organizing committee, accepted that the Video games might convey “Covid-19 circumstances or small clusters of infections” into China provided that “numerous abroad personnel will collect, inflicting a really excessive threat of transmission.”
Over the course of the pandemic, the nation has applied a zero-Covid policy of mass testing, in depth quarantines and snap lockdowns to eradicate any emergence of the virus.
Will followers attend?
Tickets for the Video games is not going to be offered to most of the people in response to the pandemic, however as an alternative distributed by authorities, the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee introduced on January 17.
“When it comes to the grim and complicated scenario of epidemic prevention and management [and] with the intention to shield the well being and security of Olympic personnel and spectators, we’ve got determined to vary the unique plan of public ticket gross sales,” the committee stated.
Audiences will nonetheless be required to “strictly adjust to Covid-19 prevention and management necessities earlier than, throughout and after watching the Video games,” the committee continued.
The announcement comes after Beijing reported its first case of the extremely transmissible Omicron variant on January 15.
The place are the venues?
Whereas the Chinese language capital of Beijing is the official host metropolis of the Video games, venues are unfold throughout three areas: Beijing, Yanqing — a mountainous district 75 kilometers (about 46.6 miles) northwest of Beijing — and Zhangjiakou, a snowboarding and snowboarding vacation spot an additional 100 kilometers (about 62.1 miles) past Yanqing.
Of the 13 venues internet hosting occasions, one — the Nationwide Pace Skating Oval — has been newly in-built Beijing, whereas present venues have additionally been renovated for the Video games.
The Beijing Nationwide Stadium, generally known as The Fowl’s Nest, will host the opening and shutting ceremonies.
Every of the three zones has its personal Olympic Village, whereas all three are related by a newly constructed, intercity railway.
Who’re the Olympic and Paralympic mascots?
The mascot for the Winter Olympics is Bing Dwen Dwen — a panda wearing a full-body “shell” made out of ice — and Shuey Rhon Rhon for the Paralympics, a Chinese language lantern youngster.
Bing Dwen Dwen (Bing means ‘ice’ in Mandarin Chinese language, whereas Dwen Dwen means ‘youngster’) was chosen from over 5,800 submissions from world wide.
The “shell” design permits the panda — China’s nationwide animal — to skate, snowboard and ski.
Based on the Paralympic website, Shuey is similar pronunciation because the Chinese language character for ‘snow,’ the primary Rhon means ‘to incorporate, to tolerate,’ and the second means ‘to soften, fuse and heat.’
What’s the political controversy surrounding Beijing 2022?
The US, Canada, Australia and the UK are among the many nations to have introduced diplomatic boycotts of the Winter Olympics.
That implies that athletes from these nations will nonetheless be capable to compete in Beijing, however no authorities officers will probably be in attendance.
In December, White Home press secretary Jen Psaki stated that the boycott would function a “clear message” towards China’s “ongoing genocide and crimes towards humanity in Xinjiang.”
According to the US State Department, as much as two million Uyghurs and different Muslim minorities are believed to have handed by detention facilities in Xinjiang, which the Chinese language authorities insists are “vocational coaching facilities” aimed toward poverty alleviation and combating spiritual extremism.
Following the announcement of the US diplomatic boycott, Chinese language Overseas Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian stated that the US ought to “cease politicizing sports activities and hyping up the so-called ‘diplomatic boycott’ in order to not have an effect on China-US dialogue and cooperation in necessary areas.”
As for athletes, the controversies across the Video games can current an ethical dilemma. Final yr, US snowboarding star Mikaela Shiffrin, a three-time Olympic medalist, told CNN that “you actually do not need to be put within the place of getting to decide on between human rights, morality versus with the ability to do your job.”
Who’re the athletes to observe?
Shiffrin, who has not too long ago returned to alpine snowboarding’s World Cup circuit after contracting Covid-19, is ready to be one of the crucial high-profile athletes in Beijing. On the final Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, she gained gold within the big slalom and silver within the alpine mixed.
Different acquainted faces on the US crew will embrace snowboarder Shaun White, who anticipates that this will be his last Olympics, 2018 halfpipe gold medalist Chloe Kim — the youngest lady to win an Olympic gold in snowboarding — and in style determine skater Nathan Chen.
Two-time determine skating gold medalist Yuzuru Hanyu from Japan will go up towards Chen in his bid to win a 3rd consecutive gold medal within the males’s singles occasion.
Mikael Kingsbury, essentially the most adorned mogul skier of all time, may even be heading to Beijing to attempt to defend his title from 2018.
China, not as dominant on the Winter Olympics in comparison with the Summer time Video games, gained 9 medals in 2018.
Among the many host nation’s greatest prospects of successful gold this time is American-born freestyle skier Eileen Gu, who gained world championship titles in halfpipe and slopestyle final yr.
Based on sports activities information firm Gracenote, Norway — whose athletes typically excel in cross nation snowboarding and biathlon — is predicted to prime the medal desk with 45 medals forward of the Russian Olympic Committee with 32, Germany with 25, and the USA and Canada with 22.
Why is North Korea going to overlook the Video games?
One nation to have introduced that it’ll not be sending athletes to Beijing is North Korea.
Based on state-run information company KCNA, a letter despatched from North Korea’s Olympic Committee and Ministry of Bodily Tradition and Sports activities to its Chinese language counterpart cited “hostile forces” and the worldwide pandemic as the explanations for its non-participation, accusing america and its allies of making an attempt to stop the profitable opening of the Olympics.
The US and its allies are getting “evermore undisguised of their strikes towards China aimed toward stopping the profitable opening of the Olympics,” the letter, which didn’t explicitly cite diplomatic boycotts, stated.
Final yr, the IOC suspended the North Korean Olympic Committee until the end of 2022 as a part of its punishment for its “unilateral determination” to drop out of the Tokyo Olympics, successfully barring the nation from formally competing in Beijing.
The IOC stated on the time that if any North Korean athletes have been to qualify for the Winter Olympics by processes already going down, it “will take an acceptable determination sooner or later for the athlete(s) involved.”
North Korean athletes did compete on the 2018 Video games, with athletes from the North and South marching collectively underneath one flag on the Opening Ceremony. A North Korean delegation was additionally despatched to South Korea throughout the Video games.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2022 Cable Information Community, Inc., a WarnerMedia Firm. All rights reserved.
[ad_2]
Source link
