Tag Archives: IOC

40 Weeks To Go: Cotton Socks, Robotaxis & Tchaikovsky

May 1, 2021 Mark Dreyer Leave a comment

It’s really quite extraordinary that there are only 40 weeks to go until the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and yet we still have no idea what it’s going to look like, or even who will be there. Ticketing has yet to start, sponsors have little idea what they can do – and we won’t have answers to any of these questions (and more) for several more months at least.

But that is the COVID reality. For one of the most meticulously planned events in the world, flexibility has become a necessary. It’s unsettling, but in the context of the rest of the global headlines, it’s still fairly inconsequential.

The IOC has its hands overflowing with Tokyo logistics right now, but it’s already taking center stage for Beijing, with allegations of suppliers sourcing from Xinjiang and suppressions of freedom over the Rule 50 refresh. The fun continues…

Weekly Roundup

IOC in cotton debate over Anta uniforms
Chinese athletes skew IOC protest poll on Rule 50
FIS Presidential candidate pumps China’s tires
Russian anthem to be replaced by Tchaikovsky
More boycott news from around the world
Other features and stories in the build-up to Beijing 2022

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Olympics

45 Weeks To Go: To Watch or Not To Watch?

March 27, 2021 Mark Dreyer 1 Comment

Lots happening this week: Tokyo confirmed that overseas spectators would not be allowed to enter Japan for the Olympics this summer, leading to immediate questions over fans at the Beijing Olympics. Then, a number of brands put out statements on Xinjiang, angering Chinese consumers, and widening the discussion about activities in China in the build up to the Games.

Weekly Roundup

Will overseas spectators be allowed at the Beijing Olympics?
Global brands put out statements on Xinjiang – and face the backlash
Boycott threats from around the world
Other features and stories in the build-up to Beijing 2022

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Olympics

46 Weeks To Go: Romney Speaks Out & Vaccine Spin

March 20, 2021 Mark Dreyer Leave a comment

Senator Mitt Romney this week joined a long line of people with a public opinion on whether the Winter Olympics should go ahead in Beijing, concluding that they should, but coupled with an economic and diplomatic boycott. Elsewhere, China has stepped up its vaccine game, but – so far, at least – it’s a lot of spin over substance.

Weekly Roundup

Mitt Romney calls for “economic and diplomatic boycott”
Latest vaccine developments and implications for 2022
Boycott threats from around the world
Further fallout from IOC Session
Other features and stories in the build-up to Beijing 2022

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Olympics

47 Weeks To Go: Vaccine Diplomacy & Fading Medal Hopes

March 12, 2021 Mark Dreyer Leave a comment

China’s vaccine diplomacy took a twist this week with news emerging after this week’s virtual IOC Session that China has offered its vaccines to all participants of the next two Olympics – this summer in Tokyo and next February in Beijing. Well, “offered” is perhaps a touch generous, since IOC President Thomas Bach says the IOC will cover the costs. But already there has been some opposition…

Weekly Roundup

China roles out its vaccine diplomacy playbook
How well will China actually perform in 2022?
Boycott threats from around the world
Other features and stories in the build-up to Beijing 2022

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Olympics

48 Weeks To Go: Counter-Attacks & Paralympic Prep

March 6, 2021 Mark Dreyer Leave a comment

I usually try and start with something other than the boycott news, but there’s been a marked change in the conversation this week – namely that the counter narrative from Beijing has begun. Global Times editor Hu Xijin tested the waters a week ago, with the threat that foreign countries would be punished if they boycotted the Games. He’s no longer the sole voice, with plenty of opportunities for interviews provided by the ongoing Two Sessions, China’s most important annual political meetings – the NPC and CPPCC.

Weekly Roundup

Counter attacks from Beijing
Boycott threats from around the world
Paralympics 1 year to go
Chengdu Olympic hopes dashed
Other features and stories in the build-up to 2022

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Olympics

50 Weeks To Go: Corporate Conundrums & Olympic Agendas

February 18, 2021 Mark Dreyer Leave a comment

Erich Swatzerl from The Wall Street Journal wrote a piece this week entitled “2022 Beijing Olympic Games Loom as Test for Corporate Sponsors“, which neatly encapsulates not just the looming headaches for Olympic sponsors, but the current landscape for doing business in China. In fact, while the whole piece is worth a read, the sub-header pretty much says it all:

“Silence on human-rights issues risks alienating U.S. consumers; speaking up could earn the host nation’s ire.”

You could swap out “human-rights issues” for a host of other controversial topics du jour and the sentiment would remain, although increasingly this applies to global consumers, not just those in the US.

Nowhere has this been illustrated better than in the case of the NBA, with the “Morey Tweet” incident still dogging the league in China. That situation was particularly notable because it brought an international brand’s dealings in China into the mainstream consciousness for really the first time – and put the league in an impossible situation. Previously, if western brands had fallen afoul of Chinese keyboard warriors for using an incorrect map or making a geographical typo, they could issue a groveling apology – in Chinese only – and wait out the storm until another brand slipped up and took their place in the hot seat. Most people elsewhere in the world would have been none the wiser.

But’s that no longer the case.

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Olympics

51 Weeks To Go: Boycotts & Hockey Fights

February 12, 2021 Mark Dreyer Leave a comment

With 51 weeks to go until the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, we’re on the eve of the Lunar New Year here in China, which means we’re about to enter the Year of the Ox, but – perhaps more importantly – we are leaving the Year of the Rat behind. That’s because Rat years are often associated with disaster and bad luck – with the massive Sichuan earthquake in 2008 and COVID-19 being the two most obvious examples from the past two Rat years.

While Beijing has been marking the one-year countdown (see more below and last week’s recap), given that there’s been little sporting action to discuss, talk of a boycott has been gathering pace overseas. I’m not going to offer any thoughts on whether or not a boycott should happen – there are plenty of far more qualified people on both sides of the equation already doing that – but my own analysis of the evidence today is that a Beijing Olympics boycott won’t happen.

Quite simply, the Europeans, which includes a sizable number of major winter sports nations, don’t seem to be interested in a boycott, and, while opinion of China in the US – both among the public and government – appears to be at, or near, an historic low, a solo boycott could easily backfire on Washington and come across as a toothless protest from a petulant nation. Canada could conceivably join, though the situation there is complicated by the respective detentions of Meng Wanzhou and the two Michaels, but there seems to be more excitement there about the prospective return of NHL players to the Olympics (see more below) than there is talk of a Beijing Olympics boycott.

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Olympics

Safe and simple: Beijing 2022’s message with 1 year to go

February 4, 2021 Mark Dreyer 5 Comments

The countdown on the official Olympic site for the Beijing 2022 Winter Games shows 365 days to go, but, in Beijing itself, there’s little sign – or feeling – that the Olympics are coming into view.

That will all change, of course, but, for now, it’s all quiet on the eastern front. The reasons for that are obvious: Tokyo and COVID-19. The world’s Olympic focus is very much on Japan right now, with newly released pandemic guides just the latest in the PR campaign to insist that The Games Must Go On.

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