The most armored Olympics ever.
This is how the Beijing Winter Olympics can be defined, which will begin in a month, on February 4th.
Covid is not yet a bad memory, but a sad reality and the capital of the country where it all began is adapting.
These 2022 Games, in a city that will become the first ever to have hosted both the summer (2008) and the winter edition, will have an unusual exposure, against the backdrop of the diplomatic boycott, the coronavirus and questions about the fate of tennis player Peng Shuai.
But in Beijing these days they are careful to avoid controversy, even though Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned that "the political manipulation of some countries and Western politicians will not damage the enthusiasm of this Olympics, but will only underline their nullity. . And, inevitably, some countries will pay the price of their equivocal shares: sport has nothing to do with politics. "
However, it is to the pandemic that we must devote the greatest energy, given the situation and the fears of many athletes, such as the blue flag-bearer Sofia Goggia who confessed to having "a terrible fear of catching the virus" and therefore not being able to compete after all sacrifices made to be there. Thus China is implementing a strategy of total eradication of Covid-19 in the country, and for this reason it has established a "health bubble" for the approximately three thousand athletes and all people, including the Olympic family, involved in the event. There will be no exceptions or 'discounts', it will be a sort of Olympic lockdown almost as rigid as the one that, in recent days, has involved the city of Xi'An (13 million inhabitants) in the name of the "Covid Zero" strategyadopted by the central government at the slightest symptom of the emergence of an outbreak.
Every means must therefore be used, Olympics or not, to suppress any spread of the virus through severe border restrictions, long quarantines and targeted blockades.
"We are worried" - admitted David Shoemaker, general secretary of the Canadian Olympic Committee -. Omicron should not be at the origin of this latest outbreak, which is relatively small compared to other countries, but this highly contagious variant presents a new challenge for the organizers of the Games. But we believe that Beijing 2022 can still take place safely ".
Meanwhile, one of the consequences of Omicron was that the ice hockey stars, the hockey players of the North American NHL championship, decided not to take part in the Games. If they had gone, they too would have had to undergo the drastic protocol established by the organizers: all the athletes of this Olympics must be vaccinated, otherwise they must have spent two weeks in quarantine before entering China. They must then, before and during the competition period, undergo daily tests and no one will be able to get out of the 'Olympic bubble'.
On the competition fields there will be spectators, and it is a novelty compared to Tokyo, but they will have to be exclusively Chinese, and all wear masks.
From a sporting point of view, China is not one of the main nations of the Winter Olympics (62 medals so far, including 17 gold), but she expects a lot from a Californian-born, Eileen Gu, 18, who has chosen to represent China, his mother's country.
The two-time freestyle world champion is unrivaled in halfpipe and slopestyle and can aim for a golden hat-trick if she lines up in Big Air.
If so, she will become the heroine of these Games for the local fans.