The Road to Beijing
Yes, we just had the Olympics last summer
I know what you’re thinking.
How can it be time for another Games? Didn’t we just have the Olympics last summer in Tokyo? And didn't Beijing host the Summer Olympics not that long ago?
The short answers are because COVID-19, Yes, and Yes.
As we all know, COVID-19 cancelled 2020 so the Tokyo 2020 Games were postponed a year until 2021. As a result, we are having a second Olympiad in less than 12 months for the first time since the Summer and Winter Games’ schedules were separated in 1992. Following Beijing 2022, the next Olympics will be the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics (July 26-Aug 11) and the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics (Feb 6-22) in Italy.
As for Beijing hosting the Winter Games so soon after hosting the 2008 Summer Games, there are several factors at play, but two biggest are money and politics. Hosting the Olympics is extremely expensive - from $5 billion to over $50 billion. The sharp rise in the cost of hosting in recent decades, and the difficult-to-calculate economic benefits, have caused many countries to choose not to bid. China, the world’s second largest economy, has the financial resources to host that many nations do not.
Politically, China is also uniquely positioned. After the 2014 Sochi Games doping scandal many potential European host cities to dropped out. The communist Chinese government doesn’t have the same political concerns as Western democracies, amd views the Games as an opportunity to promote China to the world, without potential backlash from voters. In the end the IOC was left with only two potential hosts, and chose Beijing over Almaty, Kazakhstan.
These games also represent the third consecutive Asian Olympics (Pyeongchang 2018, Tokyo 2020), reflecting the globalization of world sport, the rising economic importance of Asia, and the acknowledgement that most of the world’s population lives there:
If you can put aside geopolitics, COVID-19, and Beijing’s lack of natural snow; China’s incredibly successful 2008 Summer Games leaves plenty of optimism for a fantastic 19 days of sport this month!
What To Watch Today
The Games don’t officially start until the Opening Ceremonies on Friday night in Beijing, but some team sports begin competition a few days early.
(Note: China is 13 hours ahead of the East Coast of the US. That means most competitions will take place overnight in the US.)
The first competitions, in mixed double curling and women’s hockey, start Wednesday.
What You Missed Last Night
Assuming most of you aren’t fully switching over to live on Beijing-time (no judgement), you’ll be catching a lot of the Games on replay.
NBC will put together a prime-time show every night of the best action from the previous day and whatever live events are happening (it will be morning in Beijing when NBC airs evening coverage in America). Unfortunately, NBC is notorious for spoiling their own coverage by sharing results before they air the replay. Fortunately, they know this infuriates fans so NBC also streams all events on-demand.
In order to enjoy the best spoiler-free experience, I recommend booking marking this site to easily jump right to what you want to watch without the NBC Olympics homepage already telling you who won: https://www.nbcolympics.com/schedule
Since the Games haven’t started yet, there is nothing to replay today, but you should check out this incredible moment from Tokyo 2020 when two athletes shared the gold for high jump:
In Other Olympic News…
Every media outlet in the world will have some sort of Olympics coverage, and I am not going to link to all of it. Instead, I will use this space to share Olympics-related stories that fall outside the mainstream and/or otherwise pique my interest.
Please tell me what aspects of the games you want to know more about, and pass long any great links you’d like to me share with our readers.
NY Times: At the ‘Logistics Games,’ Just Arriving Is a Victory
NBC: What are the new events for the 2022 Winter Olympics?
The New Yorker: How Beijing Is Playing the Olympics
Photo of the Day
Medics watch hockey practice in full protective equipment. The impact of COVID-19 will be a major storyline throughout the Games.