Even though it feels like the Tokyo Summer Olympics just ended, the next Winter Games are just around the corner, with the Opening Ceremony scheduled for February 4th. Here is what you need to know to be ready for February.
These Games are historic in several ways. This will be the first Winter Games held in China, and after hosting the Summer Olympic Games in 2008, Beijing will be the first city to host both in the summer and winter. Several structures that were used in 2008 will be used once again, such as the Beijing National Stadium, where the opening and closing ceremonies will take place. The estimated budget for these games, in American currency, is $3.9 million, significantly smaller than the $43 billion spent on the 2008 games.
The games will be split up into three geographical zones. The first zone is central Beijing, where some snow events and all of the ice events will occur. Yanqing, a suburban district of Beijing, and the Chongli district in Zhangjiakou will host Alpine skiing, sliding, and the rest of the snow events.
The Winter Olympics is an international sporting competition that takes place every four years. The first Winter Olympic Games were played in 1924 in France, and featured 250 athletes from 16 nations who competed in 16 events. The Games have since expanded, and the 2022 Beijing Winter Games in Beijing will be the 24th competition composed of more than 100 events across 15 disciplines.
The United States will send almost 80 athletes to compete in Beijing, including some athletes from previous years. Alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin, who won gold at Sochi and medaled in PyeongChang will be competing at her third Olympics. Curler John Shuster is competing to win his second Olympic gold after representing Team USA at every Winter Games since 2006. Snowboarder Chloe Kim will compete in her second Olympics after making history in 2018 as the youngest athlete to win gold on the halfpipe. Another USA athlete to watch is Jessie Diggins, a cross-country skier. Diggins and teammate Kikkan Randall secured an amazing, nail-biter victory in the women’s team sprint three years ago at Pyeongchang. This past March, she became the first U.S. woman to ever win the overall World Cup Crystal Globe for cross-country skiing. In figure skating, Nathan Chen is the one to watch. Though he didn’t secure gold in 2018, the 22-year-old skater posted the top free skate score and won 14 straight events immediately following the PyeongChang Games, including three world titles. Chen could become the first American to earn men’s singles gold since Evan Lysacek in 2010.
The Olympic Games have long been a world stage for political and social activism and the 2022 Games are no different. There is an international desire to hold China accountable for human rights abuses, like the 2019 – 2020 Hong Kong protests, or the mass detention of Muslims (as confirmed in the leaked Xinjiang papers). The United States, specifically, will stage a diplomatic boycott of the games. Press secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday, December 6, “The Biden administration will not send any diplomatic or official representation to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games, given the PRC’s [People’s Republic of China’s] ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses.”
These historic Winter Games combine athletics with politics and will be fascinating to watch. Additionally, with the National Football League’s season extension, the Super Bowl is set to be played in the middle of the Olympic Games – February 13th. There will certainly be a lot of great competition to cheer on this February. Go Team USA!
