As mentioned last week, I’ll still be looking at whatever Winter Olympic action crops up, plus all the developments on the road to Beijing 2022, but as we head into the summer months, other sports will also get a look in, with star swimmer Sun Yang and his retrial in a doping case getting top billing this week, along with China’s last-minute switch to play its upcoming World Cup qualifying games in the UAE, which could have significant implications for China’s 2022 World Cup hopes.
In this week’s look at all the latest news in the build-up to the Olympics and elsewhere:
- Swimming world waits for Sun Yang retrial verdict
- China’s World Cup qualifiers switched to UAE
- Beijing 2022 “Bound to Happen”
- New Chinese involvement in International Ski Federation
- Mixed news for Olympic sponsors
- The latest boycott threats from around the world
- All the other features and stories of interest
Swimming World Waits for Sun Yang Retrial Verdict
This has been a long, long saga, but here’s the summary: Chinese swimmer Sun Yang – undoubtedly one of the best freestyle swimmers in history and a hugely polarizing figure – was given an eight-year ban for a doping last year. But it later came to light that Franco Frattini, one of the presiding judges for the trial at the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS), had made some fairly strong anti-Chinese remarks on social media, which, under Swiss law, was enough to throw out the decision due to claims of prejudice. As a result, Sun Yang had a retrial, which has just finished. We now await the results, which have been promised by the end of this month, but could come at any time.
If – and this is a big if – Sun Yang’s team has new evidence that could impact the result, he may still have a chance of competing at the Tokyo Olympics, where he would be a contender purely based on his historical performances (6 Olympic medals, including 3 golds; 11 World Championships titles), even though his current condition is unclear, because he hasn’t competed for a while. After Sun missed China’s Olympic trials, swimming officials said anyone who had won a title at the 2019 World Championships could make the team for Tokyo – thought to be a way to include Sun, should his doping ban be overturned.
There’s a huge amount of emotion surrounding this case – historical claims of Chinese doping dating back decades, Sun’s own disputed first doping suspension, and public rows between Sun and fellow competitors (backed up by keyboard warriors), with the Frattini affair only the latest issue to stir the pot. But, when all the emotion is stripped away from the case, the existing legal evidence doesn’t look like going Sun’s way.
Note this comment from a Chinese sports lawyer, who has been closely following this case and told me this week:
“I feel very strongly that any battle should be won fairly and squarely… but should the second tribunal [rule] in his favor, anyone in [Sun’s] position needs to think about what the impact on CAS and the world’s anti-doping regime would be. The debate is not entirely a legal one here.”
In other words, legal cases should be solely about the evidence, stripped of all emotion. But it was an appeal to emotion that saw Sun’s team earn a retrial in the first place. Meanwhile, the wider impact on the global fight against doping if Sun is now declared innocent – and all the emotions that this will inevitably provoke (whatever the result) – may yet weigh on the final decision.
China’s World Cup Qualifiers Switched to UAE
While not technically Olympic-related news, China’s sports lens has been focused on football this week. The second round of AFC qualifying for the 2022 FIFA World Cup will finish on June 15, with China originally set to host all the remaining games for Group A in the city of Suzhou. But shortly after China defeated Guam 7-0 last Sunday, the rest of the games were all switched to the UAE. The Chinese Football Association said that COVID-19 outbreaks in the Maldives and Syria meant both national teams would have to undergo quarantine after arriving in China, and couldn’t play as scheduled. Meanwhile, the UAE has no quarantine restrictions on entry.
It’s still too early to tell how the second qualifying round will shake out – I’ll write more on that in the next couple of weeks – but it’s notable that star Chinese striker Wu Lei didn’t have to quarantine on his return to China for these games from Spain, where he spent the season playing with Espanyol, despite Spain have thousands of new cases daily. Wu, though, did get COVID last year, so it’s possible that means he has the required antibodies, even though China has previously stopped those who have recovered from COVID from entering China.
It’s another reminder, if one were needed, that China is “managing to zero” i.e. trying to keep COVID-19 out of the country entirely, rather than re-opening its borders and aiming for an acceptable or manageable level of risk. See also this report from the Economist Intelligence Unit, which predicts that China will not relax its quarantine requirements until late 2022 – first for those coming from Hong Kong and Macau, followed in 2023 by other countries (depending on risk level) – and that outbound tourism will only return to pre-pandemic levels by early 2024. It’s pretty bleak.
Beijing 2022 “Bound To Happen”
When I saw a quote from well-known Chinese winter Olympian Yang Yang, who chairs the Athletes’ Committee for Beijing 2022 and is a vice president of WADA, saying “the greatest thing about Beijing 2022 is that it will happen”, my first thought was that it was a subtle dig at Tokyo, given all the “Will the Games happen?” we’ve seen over the past few months. But on reading the interview she gave to Spanish news agency EFE, it feels more like a feeling of relief given the pandemic. However, as I’ve written before, don’t underestimate the desire of Beijing to outshine its regional rivals, for which they will be helped in two main ways – hindsight (i.e. seeing what does and doesn’t work in Tokyo, and adapting accordingly) and time, as Beijing will happen six months further into the pandemic recovery. Here’s the context:
EFE: What do you think will be the highlight of these Games?
Yang Yang: At this special time with the pandemic, I think the greatest thing for the athletes is that the Olympics are going to happen (at all). For the organizing committee I know it’s very hard, but everybody’s working hard and we want to provide the best Games for the athletes.
Yang Yang was also asked how the preparations for Beijing 2022 are coming along, and while I wouldn’t expect her to be anything less than positive, this felt a little over the top:
Everything is going as planned. The International Olympic Committee is happy with our preparations. We just had the testing activities for snow and ice over the past month. We learned a lot and I believe the team is ready for hosting the Games.
For a start, nothing is going as planned due to COVID-19. The snow and ice test events were largely empty affairs and an exercise in testing “the air conditioners, electric doors and lights in the bathrooms”, according to one person, who will be involved next year. No one expects Beijing 2022 to be “ready” today, given all the remaining uncertainty, so to say that the team is ready just sounds a little silly.
New Chinese Involvement in International Ski Federation
Chinese-backed British candidate Sarah Lewis has failed in her bid to be the new President of the International Ski Federation (FIS). Chinese state media had been pumping her tires again in the build-up, with Xinhua running the following quote – a reference to China’s claim that it will have 300 million winter sports participants, which is, of course, nonsense:
“When you consider the global snow sports market is 150 million participants, tripling it will have a major impact on the winter sports industry not only in China but around the world.
Meanwhile, Moses Zheng Liangcheng has been elected as one of 16 FIS Council Members, polling 98 out of 116 valid votes. Zheng established Topsun Outdoor Tech company in cooperation with the SWIX group in 2013, which became known as SWIX China. He has also active in marketing winter sports goods and promoting skiing in China. Zheng replaces China’s Steve Yang, who has termed out. Both are vice presidents of the Chinese Ski Association.
Mixed News for Olympic Sponsors
The Good News: Companies purchasing goods and services for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics next February will be eligible for value-added tax rebates, according to China’s state tax authority. The State Administration of Taxation said that the rebates for goods and services can be applied for between July 1, 2021, through March 31, 2023, with a list of qualifying goods and services to be supplied later by the Ministry of Finance.
The Bad News: Meanwhile, two US lawmakers are proposing a ban on companies who sponsor or do business with the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Republican Representative Mike Waltz from Florida, a former Green Beret, has introduced the bipartisan bill jointly with Representative Tom Malinowski, a Democrat from New Jersey and a former State Department official. Waltz sits on the Armed Services Committee and Malinowski sits on the Foreign Affairs Committee.
It’s the latest salvo against companies and Olympic sponsors from groups back in Washington, even though – as of now – the most likely scenario from the US and elsewhere is that certain heads of states may skip the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. That said, once the Tokyo Olympics wrap up at the end of August, expect the verbal attacks on the Beijing Olympics – and anyone associated with them – to increase.
Boycott Watch
Apolo Ohno, the most decorated American Winter Olympian, who won gold medals in 2002 and 2006, says the US should compete in the Beijing Winter Olympics, despite growing calls to skip it, arguing that Team USA should focus on the “purity of sport.” Here’s his quote to Fox Business:
“I believe that America as a team should go and represent the absolute best that we can. We try to win in every single circumstance and situation. My passion for sport to go beyond the borders and the politicized beliefs is something that I hold dearly to my heart and I just want to see the purity of sport again. We want to see and celebrate and cheer for our country men and women who go and compete, regardless of where the Olympic Games are being held.”
Meanwhile, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said this week that Beijing’s hosting of the 2022 Winter Olympics offers concerned nations the chance to press China on its human rights record. He said China would only change its behavior if faced with a united front, adding he would raise the matter at a Group of Seven leaders’ summit next week. Expect to hear more on this following the summit…
Finally, a former Hong Kong lawmaker has promised to campaign for a boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics from his new home in Washington. Sixtus Baggio Leung Chung left Hong Kong last year and set up the Washington-based Hong Kong Liberation Coalition.
According to the South China Morning Post, Leung is one of about 30 activists currently overseas who are wanted in Hong Kong on suspicion of violating the national security law imposed on the city by Beijing last June. His new group is the second organization in Washington dedicated to advancing democracy in Hong Kong.
See also: The complicated politics of a Beijing 2022 boycott [Vox], Boycott of 2022 Winter Olympics would hurt athletes, not China [The Tennessean], IOC Faces a Test Ahead of 2022 Beijing Olympics [Newsweek]
Other Stories and Links
- Skating siblings: Hungary’s Liu brothers are going for gold in Beijing [CGTN]
- Taiwan pulls out of Olympic baseball qualifying tournament over COVID-19 fears [Reuters]
- Beijing expands digital yuan trial with eye on 2022 Winter Olympics [Global Times]
- BOCOG makes breakthroughs in carbon neutrality [Beijing 2022]
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