Before the Olympic Winter Games: seal off and rehearse

The Olympic Winter Games in Beijing begin in a month. There will be games in a bubble – for fear of the pandemic. But the virus is not under control in China either. But the preparations continue.

Medal awards also need to be rehearsed and played through. On Monday, employees of the organizing committee climb onto the podium, hang on medals and wave from the podium. “Beijing 2022” is written in large letters above the Olympic rings. The Chinese capital wants to show that it is ready to hold the Winter Games after the 2008 Summer Games. Never in history has a city staged both summer and winter games.

In his New Year’s address, the head of state and party leader Xi Jinping promised that China would spare no effort and present great games to the world. The world turns its eyes to China and the country is ready.

It should be superlative games. China has spared no expense and effort, has built brand new competition venues and Olympic villages, hospitals, isolation wards, highways and high-speed rail lines at three locations around the capital.

Promise of sustainability

During an organized tour for journalists to Yanqing in mid-December, one of the three competition venues, the organizers presented the alpine skiing slope and the bobsled run. Everything green, everything sustainable, they promised.

This is difficult for journalists and non-governmental organizations to verify. The information policy of the Chinese organizers is more than poor. There is no freedom of the press in the authoritarian ruled People’s Republic. Open criticism of the games is not welcome and therefore does not exist. Foreign athletes have already been able to test the bobsled run. Many were enthusiastic about the train.

Hard reaction to suspected cases

But there was a lot of criticism about the execution of the test runs. Because of China’s zero-covid policy, the tests took place in bubbles, completely isolated from the rest of the country. Several athletes complained about how the authorities treated them – for example when there were suspected Covid cases. China and the International Olympic Committee promised improvement.

The games should also take place completely in a bubble. Foreign viewers are not admitted, it is still unclear whether people who live in China can buy tickets.

Fear of omicron

China definitely wants to prevent the athletes from carrying the corona virus into the country and spreading it. The state and party leadership is likely to fear the more contagious Omicron variant, as it is now clear that the Chinese vaccines do not protect against infection. There is also hardly any natural immunity from infections in China.

The virologist Christian Drosten from the Berlin Charité said last week on Deutschlandfunk that he was not sure whether it would take the Olympic Games to bring Omikron to China. “The virus is already there,” said Drosten – the Olympic Games would then “not put that much on top”. Rather, I have to “worry about this constellation as a whole”.

China has been fighting the corona virus since the end of 2019. Xi’an, a city with 13 million residents, is currently under a strict lockdown, and has been for almost two weeks. But this is probably about the delta variant of the virus. The east China city of Yuzhou, Henan Province, was also locked down late on Monday. After three identified corona infections, residents are only allowed to leave their homes in exceptional cases. In addition, mass tests were ordered for the entire population. Here, too, there is still no indication of which variant it is.

IOC speaks of confidence

Canceling or postponing the games doesn’t seem like an option for China. The International Olympic Committee is also sticking to the Games. IOC boss Thomas Bach said they were looking forward to successful winter games on January 1st. They were “very confident” that Beijing would “make history” as the first city to host both games.

Any criticism rebounds against the IOC, as well as against the Chinese state and party leadership. Internationally, the People’s Republic has been criticized primarily for its human rights violations, including against the Uyghurs in the west of the country.

Several countries have announced a political boycott of the Games, including the UK, the US and Australia. As expected, the Chinese government reacted with indignation: Please don’t politicize sport. In Germany and the European Union, people are still undecided about a political boycott. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock from the Greens has already announced that she will not be driving.

Many athletes stay at home

Regardless of this, a number of athletes have already canceled. The American ice hockey association NHL also does not want to send players because of the pandemic. Then there are the people who will be infected with the corona virus in the coming weeks and will not be allowed to fly.

One month before the start of the Winter Olympics in China, it threatens to become an event in which mainly Chinese athletes take part – without spectators and with only a few state guests from abroad.