View Q&A about the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics is just around the corner, and there are questions of all kinds – about international politics, public health and, yes, even sports – waiting to be answered.

Here’s what we know so far.

When do the Olympics take place? The opening ceremony is scheduled for the 4th of February, a Friday, although some preliminary tests must take place before that. The closing ceremony takes place on February 20, a Sunday. In total, there will be 19 days of competition, in 15 sports.

This year’s Winter Paralympics, also in Beijing, will take place between March 4th and 13th.

Is there any possibility that the Games will be postponed or even canceled because of the pandemic? Anything is possible, but the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and the organizers of the Beijing Games were keen to emphasize that the event will go ahead as planned.

Asked in early December if he could imagine any situation in which the Olympics would have to be postponed, Juan Antonio Saramanch, an important Olympic leader, was very direct. “The answer is no,” he said.

“In the world of Covid, you have to be flexible, and you have to adapt quickly to any change in conditions. We will have that in Beijing,” he added.

How will organizers deal with the coronavirus? The protocols will be similar to those adopted at the Tokyo Olympics last year, but more stringent.

Organizers are creating what they define as “a closed loop system” – also known as a bubble – in which thousands of athletes, coaches, team officials, members of Olympic organizations, contract workers, volunteers and journalists will be confined throughout duration of the Games.

The bubble will encompass competition venues, hotels and other athlete accommodation, media facilities and the transport network serving the Olympic venues. No one else will be allowed to enter; and whoever is inside cannot get out.

All those attending the Olympics must be vaccinated. Medical exemptions are available, but those who receive them will have to quarantine for an impractical 21-day period before being able to compete. And when they arrive in Beijing, they will all be tested for coronavirus every day.

Didn’t the Summer Olympics take place in Beijing in 2008? Why is China hosting the Games again? Many countries had expressed an interest in hosting the 2022 Games. But over time they dropped out, one by one – countries such as Norway, Sweden, Poland, Ukraine, Switzerland and Germany – in many cases invoking the very high cost of organizing the event and the lack of popular support for it among its citizens.

Finally, only the candidacies of China and Kazakhstan remained. Beijing won by four votes. The headquarters selection process was considered so disastrous that the IOC decided to abandon it. Now, host cities are chosen through a confidential process.

Will any country boycott the Games? China’s human rights record, which includes abuses against ethnic Uighurs, Muslims, and a crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong, has prompted activists around the world to urge countries and sponsors to boycott the Beijing Games.

The calls intensified in November with the disappearance of Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai, who represented the country at three Olympics, from public life after she accused a top Chinese government official of sexual assault.

But the possibility that any country will boycott the Beijing Olympics directly — that is, refuse to send its athletes to compete — seems minimal. Instead, several countries, such as the United States, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, have announced a “diplomatic boycott” of the Olympics, which means that official representatives of their governments will not participate in the ceremonies and events related to the Games.

“We will not contribute to the Games fanfare,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said of the decision.

What happens if athletes stage protests – over human rights or anything else – during the Olympics? “This is a hypothetical question,” said Mark Adams, an IOC spokesman, when asked about it in early December, noting that athletes can express personal opinions in interviews and on social media during the Games.

The IOC loosened its rules on protests and political gestures ahead of the Tokyo Olympics last year, allowing athletes to make symbolic gestures — like raising a fist or kneeling, for example — in arenas before competitions. But protesting at medal ceremonies remains prohibited.

However, it remains to be determined what could happen if an athlete were, for example, to criticize the Chinese government explicitly during the Games. “I think we have to wait for concrete examples,” Adams said.

Will fans be able to watch the competitions? Most likely yes, but in limited numbers. Although spectators have been excluded from competition venues at the 2021 Tokyo Games, organizers hope to allow at least some Chinese spectators to watch competitions in Beijing.

Chinese authorities have adopted strict rules to limit the spread of the virus, including one that allows fans in attendance to applaud but prohibits them from shouting.

Foreign spectators will not be able to enter the country.

Will professional NHL ice hockey players participate in the Games? No. This is a reversal of plans announced in September, which would have allowed the league’s stars to go to Beijing, while the NHL would stall its calendar for three weeks.

But with concerns growing over the coronavirus’s omicron variant, the league and players’ union have decided to stay out of the Games, and can use the period this leaves open in the February calendar to hold postponed NHL games.

The men’s ice hockey tournament will now likely only include minor league players and those who play for organizations other than the NHL.

Will there be any new modality in competition? There have been seven additions to the program for the 2022 Olympics. The most interesting of these has to be the monobob, a women’s solo bobsled event.

The other sports that will debut at the Beijing Games are:

– Freestyle skiing: “aerials”, mixed teams

– Freestyle skiing: men’s “big air”

– Freestyle skiing: women’s “big air”

– Short track speed skating: mixed relay

– Ski jumping: mixed event

– Snowboard: mixed test

What is the complete list of Winter Olympics sports? The number of sports is lower than at the Summer Games. The Winter Olympics include biathlon, bobsled, Nordic combined, curling, alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, freestyle skiing, ice hockey, luge, figure skating, speed, short track skating, ski jumping, skeleton and snowboarding.

How much is an Olympic medal worth? The IOC does not distribute cash prizes to the winners. But many national federations offer cash prizes to athletes who win medals.

Some of these awards are substantial. Singapore offers one million Singapore dollars (equivalent to US$740,000) for a gold medal, the highest known reward. Some awards are more modest.

An American athlete receives US$37,500 for a gold medal, US$22,500 for a silver medal and US$15,000 for a silver medal. for a bronze medal. Other countries do not offer cash prizes, such as Norway, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Many athletes end up selling their medals to collectors later, some citing financial hardship and others seeking to raise money for charity. The prices of Olympic medals at auctions vary considerably.

Who are the mascots of the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022? After a worldwide call for ideas that attracted more than 5,800 entries, Games organizers announced Bing Dwen Dwen, a cute panda who wears a uniform made of ice, like the Olympic mascot. The Paralympic mascot is Shuey Rhon Rhon, a lantern in human form.

Perhaps they have a bigger presence than the mascots of the Tokyo Games last year, who seemed to be absent from many events.

What do the Olympic rings mean? The five rings, blue, yellow, black, green and red, date back to 1912 and were designed by the creator of the modern Olympic Games, Pierre de Coubertin. The colors were chosen so that all flags on the planet were represented by at least one color.

The reason the rings are five is difficult to determine. It may be that they represent the five continents, or the five Olympics held up to the time they came into being. There is no specific meaning for each individual ring.

Where will the next Olympics take place? The Summer Games will take place in Paris in 2024. The next Winter Olympics will take place in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy in 2026. Then the Summer Games will take place in Los Angeles in 2028 and Brisbane, Australia in 2032. . The host of the 2030 Winter Olympics will be chosen in 2023.