Beijing ends Olympics marked by political tension

After almost three weeks of competitions crossed by political tensions, the Beijing 2022 Winter Games ended this Sunday (20).

Xi Jinping’s China, which used the event as a symbol of its consolidation as a global power, is experiencing a tense moment in its relationship with the United States and other Western countries. Human rights violations, such as the repression of civil liberties in Hong Kong and the oppression of Muslims in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, have prompted criticism from the international community.

In late 2021, censorship imposed on tennis player Peng Shuai after she accused a Chinese leader of sexual assault fueled external pressure before the United States announced a diplomatic boycott of the Games. Shuai watched the Big Air finals alongside Thomas Bach, president of the IOC (International Olympic Committee).

While Joe Biden and other Western leaders boycotted the opening ceremony of the Beijing Games, Vladimir Putin appeared alongside Xi Jinping. It was seen as a show of solidarity from the Russian president and a strengthening of Russian-Chinese ties.

This at a time when Russia is at the center of a serious security crisis with the countries of the NATO military alliance (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), under fears that Putin may order a military invasion of Ukraine.

The tension was carried into the Games. Vladyslav Heraskevych, a Ukrainian skeleton athlete, held up a sign in protest (“No war in Ukraine”) after a race. Also Ukrainian Oleksandr Abramenko, from freestyle skiing, was hugged on the podium by his Russian rival Ilia Burov.

Another Russian athlete, Kamila Valieva, was at the center of the biggest controversy of Beijing-2022. Figure skating great promise, Valieva, 15, debuted at the Games with a memorable performance, which led the Russian Olympic Committee to gold in the team dispute. She became the first woman to perform a quadruple jump in the history of the Winter Olympics.

Then, however, Wada (World Anti-Doping Agency) reported that an examination of the athlete at the end of December had indicated the presence of trimetazidine, a drug with a vasodilating function used to treat angina. As a result, the medal ceremony for the team event was suspended.

On the grounds that she had no responsibility for the substance as a teenager, Kamila Valieva was released to compete in the individual event by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) while the case was investigated, but the IOC (International Olympic Committee) announced that if Valieva won a medal, there would be no podium.

Pressured and visibly shaken, the athlete performed poorly in the individual event, fell twice and cried at the end. She was in fourth place.

Bach, president of the IOC, said he was very upset watching the competition and criticized the treatment of Valieva’s coaches. “I saw how high the pressure must have been on her. You could see it in the body language, that was an immense mental stress,” he said.

At three years older than Valieva, skier Eileen Gu, 18, had a completely different course at the Games than the Russian. The California-born Chinese skier won golds in the halfpipe and Big Air and silver in slopestyle and became the first competitor to climb the podium three times in freestyle skiing in the same edition of the Winter Olympics.

In addition to the sporting consecration, Eileen Gu gained the spotlight with her enormous advertising force. The athlete has contracts with about 30 brands and has worked as a model in campaigns for brands such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Carolina Herrera and Tiffany & Co.

The Games in China were also marked by problems linked to Covid-19. In the days before the competitions began, complaints arose about the conditions that athletes forced to stay in quarantine faced – there were protests about the size and hygiene of the rooms, the internet connection and the meals offered.

According to The New York Times, at least 508 people with Olympic credentials, including 183 athletes and members of delegations, were diagnosed with the coronavirus in China, upon entry into the country or already in the “sanitary bubble” of the Games.

Following China’s “Zero Covid” policy, the Games organization has isolated participants on an unprecedented scale and surveillance. No athlete, coach or professional linked to the Games could step outside the so-called closed circuit: competition venues, Olympic villages, some hotels and a specific transport network.

The measures, which included daily tests, appear to have been successful: in the second half of the Games, fewer than ten cases of Covid-19 were diagnosed per day.

If the Chinese organizers were able to allay fears of the spread of the omicron variant during the Games, they were not able to establish the image of ecological Olympics.

The country repurposed arenas from the 2008 Olympics and promised to use only clean energy at the event, but the production of artificial snow at competition venues has heightened perceptions of the high environmental cost of the Winter Games.

It was in Beijing’s artificial snow that skier Jaqueline Mourão, 46, made a mark in Brazil’s sporting history. She became the Brazilian record holder in Olympic participation – in China, she surpassed Robert Scheidt, Formiga and Rodrigo Pessoa, who were in seven Olympics.

Jaqueline, 82nd in the 10 km classic style and 84th in the free sprint in Beijing, participated in three summer Olympics (2004, 2008 and 2020) and five winter ones (2006, 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022). The miner first excelled in mountain biking before getting to know skiing and splitting between the two modalities – they turned into three when she included biathlon (a ski and shooting union) in her curriculum.

Brazil, however, remains without medals in Winter Games. Norway secured first place in the Beijing 2022 medal rankings with 16 golds, 8 silvers and 13 bronzes (37 in total), followed by Germany (12 golds, 27 in total). The hosts won 9 golds and 15 medals in total.

At the closing ceremony, skier Manex Silva carried the green-yellow flag, who set a record and became the first Brazilian to play in four Olympic tournaments in the same edition of the Games. Silva competed in skiathlon, sprint, 15km and 50km.

The closing ceremony paid tribute to the volunteers who worked on the event, helping tourists and athletes throughout the competitions. A video showed the performance of these people and six university students, outstanding volunteers, were invited to take the podium in the stadium. They received traditional Chinese lanterns in gratitude for their dedication.

In his speech, Bach congratulated China on a safe event and highlighted the infrastructure of the Olympic villages, calling the organization of the Winter Games in the country “excellent” and “extraordinary”.

Beijing has passed the baton to the Italian cities of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, which will host the 2026 Winter Games.