Beijing Winter Olympics 2022

This month the 2022 Winter Olympics is being held in China and I read this is the first time they have hosted the Winter Olympics. The Beijing Winter Olympics will run for two weeks from Friday 4th February to Sunday 20^th February 2022, with preliminary events beginning on 2 February. The Games Opening was held at Beijing National Stadium, on Friday 4^th February 2022. The Closing Ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics will be also held at Beijing National Stadium, also known as the Bird’s Nest, on 20^th February 2022.

The 2022 Winter Olympics are scheduled to include a record 109 events over 15 disciplines in seven sports. The 2022 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Beijing 2022, is an ongoing international winter multi-sport event taking place in Beijing, China and in the surrounding regions of the Yanqing District and Chongli District. 2,871 Athletes will be attending the Winter Olympics along with coaches and managers, from about 91 countries from around the world.

The medals for the Winter Olympics are based on a traditional Chinese astronomy and astrology as the games will be held coinciding with the Chinese New Year festivities.

The game’s mascot is Bing Dwen Dwen. Bing mean “Ice” in Chinese and is meant to suggest purity and strength. Dwen Dwen is meant to suggest robustness, liveliness and youth. Bing Dwen Dwen’s astronaut -like clothes imply that the Winter Olympics embraces new technologies and create possibilities.

The Official slogan for the 2022 Winter Olympics is “Together for a Shared Future”, the slogan is intended to reflect “the power of the games to overcome global challenges as a community.”

It is interesting that an estimated 49 million US gallons (190,000,000 litres; 41,000,000 imp gal) of water is expected to be used to create snow at the various venues. Artificial snow forms a harder piste compared to real snow. It is often favoured by professionals for being fast and "hyper-grippy" but also raises their fear of falling on it.

Australia television Channel Seven is covering the games and viewers are invited to tune in to follow the winter sports from ice skating, sledging, snowboard jumping and so many other exhilarating sports. I think you would agree with me that these athletes are so fit and skilled.

The excitement during the first ten days, Australia is 16^th on the medal board with 1 Gold, 2 Silver and 1 Bronze. The Gold was won by Jakora Anthony in Freestyle Skiing Women’s Moguls, Silver won by Jaclyn Naracolt in Women’s Skeleton and the other Silver medallist is Scotty James winning his medal in the Men’s Snowboarding Halfpipe. The Bronze medal winner is Tess Coady in Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle.

New Zealand is 20^th on the medal board with 1 Gold, won by Zoi Sandowski Synnolt in Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle.

Check out the link below for live updates and information about the Winter Olympics

https://olympics.com/en/beijing-2022/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Winter_Olympics

Covid has impacted on international travel and sporting events, the Summer and Winter Olympics have both adjusted to running these events with many safety regulations. Below are details of the some of the rules for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics

On 29 September 2021, the IOC announced biosecurity protocols for the Games; all athletes will be required to remain within the bio-secure bubble for the duration of their participation, which includes daily COVID-19 testing, and only being allowed to travel to and from Games-related venues. Unless they are fully-vaccinated or have a valid medical exemption, all athletes will be required to quarantine for 21 days upon arrival. Mirroring a protocol adopted for the 2020 Summer Olympics before they were moved behind closed doors, the IOC also announced that only residents of the People's Republic of China would be permitted to attend the Games as spectators.

Because of the strict COVID-19 protocol, some top athletes, considered to be medal contenders, were not able to travel to China after having tested positive, even though they were feeling well and had no symptoms. They had to miss the Olympics. The cases include Austrian ski jumper Marita Kramer, the leader of the World Cup ranking, and Russian skeletonist Nikita Tregubov, silver medallist of the 2018 Olympics.

Congratulations to all for the athletes and sporting teams who have travelled to China for the games, to reach this level of skills takes many years of dedication and commitments to be selected for the Olympics. A big congratulations to the medal winners, making family, friends and everyone back home proud of your achievements.

Thank you to the organisers for making the games possible and I always appreciate the TV crew, photographers and behind the scenes workers who broadcaster the events to the world audience.

I have written this article early in the second week of the games, I hope everyone enjoy the final week of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

Betty Matthews

February 2022