In this week’s look at all the latest news in the build-up to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics:
- Nancy Pelosi wheels out some old China material
- China Daily slams Olympic ice hockey team’s “poor preparations”
- An insider’s guide to the Nordic Skiing events at Beijing 2022
- The latest boycott threats from around the world
- All the other features and stories of interest
Pelosi Leans on Some Old China material
The biggest Beijing Olympic story this week comes out of the US where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called for a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics, making her the highest ranking US official yet to do so. Here’s what Pelosi had to say:
“The Olympic Charter states that the Olympics should seek to foster ‘respect for universal and fundamental ethical principles.’ Sadly, the Chinese government has not lived up to its commitments to improve the human rights situation in China. I believe the International Olympic Committee made a mistake in awarding the Games to China.
“However, I believe a boycott of the Beijing Olympics would unfairly harm our athletes who have worked so hard to prepare for the competition. The Olympics should provide for more opportunity for free expression, not less. I support the rights of individuals and groups to make their views known about the actions of the Chinese government. I think boycotting the opening ceremony [by the president], which really gives respect to the Chinese government, is something that should be kept on the table.
Actually, that’s what Pelosi said in 2008 about the first Beijing Olympics (very lightly edited above so as not to give the game away). There’s nothing wrong with Pelosi keeping a consistent position – in fact, it’s almost admirable given how much flip-flopping politicians tend to do these days. But I do think that this context of her essentially saying the same thing in 2008 – omitted by Reuters, The Guardian, ABC, BBC and so on – is both important and relevant.
OK, here are Pelosi’s comments from this week:
“What I propose is a diplomatic boycott, in which lead countries of the world withhold their attendance at the Olympics. Let’s not honor the Chinese government by having heads of state go to China. For heads of state to go to China in light of a genocide that is ongoing – while you’re sitting there in your seat – really begs the question, what moral authority do you have to speak again about human rights any place in the world?”
Where I think 2022 might differ from last time is this: in 2008, George Bush did attend the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics despite calls from Nancy Pelosi and others not to do so. But, given the current climate and the downturn in US-China relations we’ve seen since then, it would be bordering on impossible for Biden to attend the 2022 Olympic Opening Ceremony next February, unless things change dramatically for the better. Additionally – as I’ve written before – a “diplomatic boycott” isn’t a “boycott” and China won’t care a bit if Biden attends or not, even if the western press will make a big deal of it.
China Daily Takes Ice Hockey To Task
The Chinese media have been extremely quiet on the Chinese ice hockey fiasco, which I wrote about here, prompting The Economist to do a story. But the English-language, state-run China Daily has now published a piece, which is – shall we say – less than favorable. Until this story reaches Chinese-language media, its unlikely to reach the ears of those at the very top, but it’s good to see that some movement may be happening behind the scenes, as detailed below.
With phrases like “bleak prospects”, “blowout defeats” and “poor preparations” liberally sprinkled throughout the piece, it’s a surprisingly candid overview of the current state of things. Having said that, the author tries to take the more positive angle of focusing on ice hockey’s horizons beyond 2022, but is fairly scathing about preparations for the Games next year:
In a shocking decision revealed on Tuesday, China’s national team players will skip the upcoming national championship, which could have acted as an important tuneup for the Olympics, and instead remain at their base in Shenyang, Liaoning province, to continue a training camp which has already lasted 10 months.
With no international warm-ups scheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the national team’s development, currently overseen by the General Administration of Sport of China, remains something of a mystery, with barely any details of its progress or plans released to the public.
Having begun as a “two-month” training camp last July, I’ve heard one person close to the camp describe it as a “hostage situation”, with players unable to leave between now and the Olympics – by which point it will have lasted for around 19 months. How the team is supposed to develop based on intra-squad scrimmages alone beggars belief, but the whole situation strains credibility, so I guess we should no longer be surprised.
I have one minor quibble on accuracy in the China Daily story. It says that:
“In 2017, the Chinese Ice Hockey Association (CIHA) launched a talent recruitment process, aiming to draft foreign-born－mostly North America-based－players with Chinese heritage to bolster the Olympic program.
In fact, as regular readers will be aware, it was the Kunlun Red Star organization who drove that recruitment process, not the CIHA, with the two sides later falling out completely. However, I’m hearing word that there may be some sort of reconciliation happening, so at least some of the so-called “heritage players” may yet be getting their passports.
On a more negative point, though, it also sounds as if newly-appointed coach Curt Fraser will now not be joining up with the Chinese men’s Olympic squad due to personal reasons. He was already facing an impossible task, but whoever is now left to pick up the pieces has an even harder job, with even less time remaining.
How To Prepare for the Nordic Skiing Events at Beijing 2022
I’m going to come clean up front and say that I am in no way an expert in the Nordic Skiing disciplines – cross-country skiing, biathlon and Nordic Combined events – but I found this piece in Faster Skier “Preparing for Beijing 2022: The Science” fascinating. Linking to a paper by a quartet of experts in the Journal of Science in Sport and Exercise, it details everything you need to know about elevation, time zone changes, cold weather, and the possibility of race format changes during a pandemic for athletes preparing for the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
Among the recommendation are that athletes should train for at least 60 days per year at an altitude of 1700m (or higher) to prepare for Beijing’s conditions, with the Nordic events held at the Zhangjiakou cluster, an hour away from Beijing on the high-speed train. With temperatures there expected to be close to minus 20C – the lower limit permitted by the sport’s governing body – plus low humidity and the aforementioned higher elevation, a training program that ensures good lung function at the end of the races is essential. The paper also outlines three possible pre-race strategies in order to acclimatize successfully.
It’s primarily tailored towards the specific events, but many of the points about jet lag and staying flexible due to pandemic-related uncertainties are applicable to athletes in the other sports, so if you’re hoping to leave Beijing with a medal next year, give it a read.
Boycott Watch
Global sentiment towards China is not exactly at an all-time high at the moment, which is partly the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Winter Olympics held a briefing for 120 diplomats from 70+ countries this week (pictured above) – part informational, part charm offensive. But it’s clear that some countries aren’t buying the pitch, including Sweden.
The Swedish Olympic Committee (SOK) has said it supports criticism of China as the host country, with Olympic champion biathlete Sebastian Samuelsson and world champion speed skater Nils van der Poel piling on. Samuelsson reportedly said “that type of country should not host championships and above all, not the Olympics”, with SOK operations manager Peter Reinebo adding that he thinks “a lot of people think that,” even if they don’t say it. Ouch. It’s worth pointing out that Sweden is a major Winter Olympic stakeholder, having finished sixth overall at the last Games in Pyeongchang. Could some podium protests be in the pipeline?
The South China Morning Post’s As Xi offers vaccines to Tokyo Olympics, China hopes to avoid a boycott of Beijing’s 2022 Winter Games features a few salient quotes from some guy called Mark Dreyer, shamefully buried in paragraphs 29-34. The point, essentially, is that there’s is a lot of noise about athletic boycotts, but it doesn’t look like it will translate into much action.
On a similar note, the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee has again urged the US not to prevent athletes from attending, sending a two-page letter to Congress this week to that effect, saying that it won’t solve geopolitical issues.
See also: NBCUniversal Upfront Doubles Down On Olympics Going Ahead Despite Pandemic & Political Worries About Tokyo & Beijing [Deadline], Human rights activists urge athletes to boycott Beijing Games [Reuters], Congress urges IOC to remove 2022 Olympics from Beijing [Los Angeles Daily News]
Other Stories and Links
- Tencent officially becomes the rights-holding broadcaster for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics [Tencent via Google Translate]
- Postponed 2021 World University Games rescheduled for June 26-July 7, 2022 [Swim Swam]
- Five Olympians selected as Team Canada’s Beijing 2022 Athlete Mentors [Around The Rings]
- IPC president: Beijing will change the way we deliver the Paralympics [Xinhua]
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