Four years have passed since the latest Winter Olympic Games were held in Pyeongchang, South Korea, which means the time has now come for the next rendition of the Games. This edition of the Winter Olympics is being held in Beijing, China, and officially opened on the 4th of February. At the time of this article's publication, there are two days left until the closing ceremony on the 20th of February. Between these two dates, over 2800 athletes will have competed in a total of 109 events across seven sports, which are further divided into fifteen different disciplines. This year's Winter Olympics will be the 24th since the first edition was held in Chamonix, France back in 1924. This is the second time in just 14 years that China has hosted the Olympics, the previous time being the Summer Olympics in 2008. This makes Beijing the first city ever to have hosted both a Summer and Winter Olympics. As you are likely aware, the decision to let China host the Winter Olympics has not been without controversy. Critics have cited the Chinese government's grave human rights violations against the minority Uyghur population in Xinjiang as the main reason not to allow the country to host the Games. Still, one can hardly fault China for wanting to host the Games; after all, sportswashing, a term used to denote the use of sporting events to improve a country's reputation, is by now an established concept. Instead, it must be the responsibility of the international community, in this case headed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), to avoid awarding large sporting events to countries with a questionable reputation when it comes to human rights. The IOC has however not been willing to put any human rights requisites into the criteria for selecting locations to host the Games, instead simply stating that it remains politically neutral and does not take responsibility for the governments in the countries in question. As part of an effort to demonstrate their opposition towards China, a number of countries are diplomatically boycotting the Games, meaning that they are not sending any delegations of officials to Beijing. Nevertheless, the Winter Olympics are taking place, and will once again give athletes from all over the world the opportunity to compete for the coveted Olympic gold medals.
As mentioned earlier, the athletes compete in fifteen different disciplines. These are alpine skiing, biathlon, bobsleigh, cross-country skiing, curling, figure skating, freestyle skiing, ice hockey, luge, Nordic combined, short track speed skating, skeleton, ski jumping, snowboarding, and speed skating. Alpine skiing consists of five different events: downhill, slalom, giant slalom, super-G (short for super giant slalom), and combined (downhill + slalom). While the downhill events emphasise speed, the other events are more technical, as they require a lot of turning to ski between all the poles/gates on the way down. Biathlon combines skiing with shooting, and comes in a number of variations where the distance to be skied, as well as the number of targets needed to be shot, differs. Bobsleigh is a type of sledding race held on narrow, twisting, and banked ice tracks using a covered, gravity-powered sleigh. Traditionally, bobsleigh has been a team sport, involving either four-man or two-wo/man crews, but now also features individual events, known as monobob. Cross-country skiing is a term used for longer-distance ski races, and consists of several events which all vary in length, from 5 to 50 km, and also includes relay events. Curling, which you can read more about here, is a team sport which involves sliding granite stones down a sheet of ice to a circular target area known as the house, as well as sweeping in front of the stones with a broom to make the stones go further and/or straighter. Figure skating is comprised of a number of events, including the short programme, free skating, rhythm dance, and free dance, which can be competed in either individually, in pairs, or as teams. While the short programme and free skating events emphasise jumps, spins, and lifts (pairs), the two ice dance events focus on the dance element, such as step sequences and the skaters' ability to follow the beat and character of the music chosen.
Freestyle skiing comprises six events: aerials, big air, halfpipe, slopestyle, moguls, and ski cross, where the four first focus on jumps and tricks, while the latter two are timed races performed on a track with terrain that also requires jumping. As you probably know, ice hockey is team sport played on ice where skaters use designated sticks to control a rubber disc known as a puck into the opposing teams' goal to score. Luge is another type of sledding race which uses the same kind of ice track as in bobsleigh, and features both single and two-person events. Instead of a covered sleigh, a luge is uncovered, and has the athlete/s sled with their face up and feet first. Nordic combined is the only event in which only men compete, and combines cross-country skiing with ski jumping. As the name suggests, short track speed skating involves racing on a short track, with a length of 111.111 metres, and includes distances from 500 to 5000 metres. Skeleton is the third type of sledding, also using the same kind of ice track as bobsleigh and luge, but in contrast, has the athlete sledding face down and head first. Unlike the two others, skeleton only has single events. Ski jumping involves sliding down a curved ramp on skis and then taking off, with the aim to achieve the farthest jump. Snowboarding comprises events similar to those featured in freestyle skiing, including big air, slope style, halfpipe, and snowboard cross, but also includes the parallel giant slalom, where two athletes go head to head down two identical tracks with gates that they need to pass between. Finally, speed skating involves racing on a longer track, 400 metres in length, and includes distances from 500 to 10000 metres.
A total of 91 nations are represented at this year's Winter Olympics, with Haiti and Saudi Arabia both making their debuts at the Games, sending one athlete each. The United States, Canada, and the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) have the highest numbers of competing athletes (224, 215, and 212 respectively), while as many as a third (31) of the participating countries are only represented by one or two athletes each. Just as with the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games held last year, the still ongoing coronavirus pandemic has demanded many special measures to be taken in this year's Winter Olympic Games. All athletes are tested on a daily basis, and if found positive, are forced to isolate. Reports of questionable conditions for the athletes in quarantine, including bad food, dirty rooms, and no training equipment, have come from a number of delegations, raising concerns about the organisers' ability to provide a proper setup for those forced to isolate. The strict requirements have also crushed many athletes' dreams, with positive test results standing in the way of their participation in the Games. Furthermore, members of the public have not been allowed to buy tickets for the events; instead, only a smaller number of selected people have been allowed to serve as audience during the Games. While significant, the coronavirus has not been the only concern in the run-up to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. As mentioned above, human rights, and more particularly the safety and freedom of speech of competing athletes, have been called into question. You might have heard of the Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai, who accused a former high-ranking official of sexual assault on social media, before seemingly disappearing, only to resurface weeks later to withdraw the allegation. A number of incidents involving Olympic athletes have taken place, and concerns about espionage on part of the Chinese government have been raised, due to the requirement of both athletes, media, and audience members to download an app called My2022, which is used to monitor the covid-situation.
Another main cause of concern has otherwise been the environment. Beijing and its surroundings, where the Games are hosted, admittedly has a cold climate, but is also arid, meaning that loads of artificial snow has had to be created in order for the outdoor events to take place. Still, the Beijing 2022 Games have made large commitments to sustainability, and taken many measures to reduce carbon emissions with the aim of reaching carbon neutrality. For example, venues from the Summer Olympics have been repurposed and thus reused, and all venues are powered with renewable energy. While China claims that this year's Winter Olympics will be the first that are carbon neutral, critics have noted that a large amount of Beijing's electricity comes from coal, which offsets the potential benefits that using renewable energy has. Nevertheless, the IOC has obliged all upcoming Olympic Games to be carbon neutral, and from 2030 onwards, they have to be “climate positive” by compensating emissions. Speaking of the environment, research has made clear that future Winter Olympics are threatened by climate change, which makes winter shorter in many places, including cities that have previously hosted the Games. With continued greenhouse gas emissions, it will become increasingly difficult to find locations to host sporting events that require cold temperatures. Creating artificial snow requires both a lot of water and energy, which further increases environmental impact. And without sufficiently cold temperatures, the snow, artificial or not, quickly softens and forms ruts, creating conditions that can impair visibility and lead to accidents.
Since all this is very serious, it is now perhaps time to move on to something more lighthearted. The motto of this year's Winter Olympics is “Together for a Shared Future”, and is meant to embody a spirit of community, where the world works together to overcome challenges and achieve a better tomorrow. It further expresses the core values and vision of the Olympic Movement, as well as the goal of pursuing world unity. The official emblem of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics is called Winter Dream, and is a version of the Chinese character for winter (冬) stylised as a ribbon, where the top part is meant to represent an ice skater, and the bottom part a skier. The blue colour represents “dreams, the future and the purity of ice and snow”, while the red and yellow symbolise “passion, youth and vitality”. As has been the case since 1976, this year's Games also have a mascot, which, unsurprisingly, comes in the form of a panda. Its name is Bing Dwen Dwen, which it meant to embody purity and strength, as well as health, vitality, and cuteness, and is further meant to represent the tenacity and Olympic spirit of the athletes. While I am sure many athletes are happy to receive the mascot in the form of a plush toy when finishing first, second, or third in their respective disciplines, the gold, silver, and bronze winners of course also get their hands on a shiny medal. This year's medal design is inspired by ancient Chinese jade pendants, and features both the five Olympic rings on the front and this year's official emblem on the back. The concentric rings that go around the centre are meant to represent the Chinese philosophy of harmony as well as the Olympic spirit, while their name, Tong Xin, meaning “together as one”, further emphasises the spirit of the Games.
While arguably, sports are not just about winning medals, after all, the Olympics constitute a competition, where results matter. Over the course of the games, history has been made, and records have been broken. Speed skating has been particularly full of record-breaking performances, including Swedish speed skater Nils van der Poel's 10000-metre world record, and Dutch short track speed skater Suzanne Schulting's world record in the 1000-metre category. A further fourteen Olympic records have been broken, while figure skating has seen three new world records (called high scores) in the individual men's short programme (Nathan Chen, USA), the pairs short program (Sui Wenjing and Han Cong, China), and the rhythm dance category of ice dance (Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, France). In snowboarding, Americans Lindsey Jacobellis and Nick Baumgartner, who happened to be the oldest duo in the competition (aged 36 and 40), won the gold in the first ever mixed team snowboard cross event. Another American, Chloe Kim, became the first woman to win back-to-back Olympic gold in the halfpipe event. American-born freestyle skier Eileen Gu, who competes for China, has become a major star in the country, winning both the big air and halfpipe events, and finishing second in the slopestyle event. In that same slopestyle event, Zoi Sadowski-Synnott gave New Zealand its first ever Winter Olympic gold medal. In an impressive display of athletic skill and focus, the Italian curling mixed doubles team, consisting of Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner, remained unbeaten throughout the whole tournament, not only bringing home the gold medals, but also giving Italy its first ever Olympic medals in curling. Currently, Norway is topping the medal table with 34 medals, out of which 15 are gold medals, followed by Germany (total: 22, gold: 10) and the United States (total 21, gold: 8). This falls in line with the all-time medal table of the Winter Olympics, where Norway, the United States, and Germany have been the most successful nations throughout the Games' almost century-old history.
As we reach the end of this article, you have hopefully gotten more of an insight into the fascinating world of the Winter Olympics. If the upcoming end of this year's Games is leaving you with withdrawal symptoms, fret not, because the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympic Games are just around the corner! Make sure to tune in from the 4th of March to see more world-class sports performances by amazing Paralympic athletes, who, just as the Olympic athletes, are competing together – for a shared future.
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