Olympic Winter Games 2022- A Bird Eye View

XXIV Olympic Winter Games 2022

Motto: Together for a Shared Future (Chinese: 一起向未来)
Host city: Beijing, China
Opening: 4 February
Closing: 20 February

It’s time to warm up in the winter during Covid Pandemic by switching on the TV channels and enjoying the sizzling Winter Olympics 2022. The details of the enthusiastic event are unfolded in this feature.

The 2022 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games 2022 and commonly called Beijing 2022, is an international winter multi-sport event. This event is scheduled to take place from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Beijing, Yanqing, and Chongli in China.
The decision of Beijing to be the host city was taken in the 128th session of the ‘International Olympics Committee’ (IOC) at Kuala Lumpur on 31st July 2015. This decision was taken after the IOC Executive Board reviewed the bids from final candidates including Oslo (Norway), Almaty (Kazakhstan) and Beijing (China) on 7th July 2014 and China won by four votes.

It is the first time that China is hosting a Winter Olympics after hosting an Olympics in 2008. Thus making Beijing the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics.

Sports Venue Zones

The Beijing National Stadium will host the opening and closing ceremonies. The Opening ceremony will be opened by President Xi Jinping. The other 109 events in 7 sports will be held in the four indoor venues where about 2,871 Athletes, including 1,581 men and 1290 women, from 91 nations will participate. The venue zones are distributed as follows:

Beijing Zone

• Beijing National Stadium – opening, awarding, and closing ceremonies
• Beijing National Aquatics Center – curling
• Beijing National Indoor Stadium – ice hockey
• National Speed Skating Oval – speed skating
• Capital Indoor Stadium – figure skating, short track speed skating
• Wukesong Sports Centre – ice hockey
• Big Air Shougang – snowboarding (Big Air), freestyle skiing (Big Air)
• Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Village – new

Yanqing Zone

• National Alpine Ski Centre – alpine skiing
• National Sliding Centre – bobsleigh, luge, skeleton
• Yanqing Olympic Village

Zhangjiakou Zone

• National Ski Jumping Centre – ski jumping, Nordic combined (ski jumping)
• National Biathlon Centre – biathlon
• Genting Snow Park – snowboarding (slopestyle, halfpipe), freestyle skiing
• National Cross-Country Centre – Nordic combined (cross-country), cross-country
• Zhangjiakou Olympic Village
• Zhangjiakou Medals Plaza

Opening Ceremony

The 2022 Winter Olympics will begin with an Opening Ceremony on 4th February 2022, at the Beijing National Stadium, also famous as the Bird’s Nest.

Closing Ceremony

The 2022 Winter Olympics will end with a closing ceremony on 20 February 2022 at Beijing National Stadium including closing speeches and the Antwerp Ceremony, a tradition that has been held at every closing ceremony since 1920, when the flags of Greece (Spiritual home of the Olympics), China (current host nation) and Italy (next to host nation) will be hoisted.

It will also include the parade of athletes and the handover of the Olympic flag. A segment will showcase the culture and history of the next host cities, Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo where the next 2026 Winter Olympics will be scheduled.

Slogan

The official slogan of the Winter Olympics 2022 is, “Together for a Shared Future, ” announced on 17 September 2021. This slogan reflects “the power of the Games to overcome global challenges together as a community”.

Official Song   

Chinese pop star Yi Yangqianxi has recorded the official song for Beijing 2022 based on the motto of the year Winter Olympics.

Here is a video if you want to enjoy brilliant Chinese music! 

Medals

The design for the Winter Olympics 2022 medals was unveiled on 26 October 2021. The concept is related to traditional Chinese astrology and astronomy because the games and the Chinese New Year festivities are happening at the same time.

Torch

The torch relay began on 18 October 2021 in Greece. On 20 October 2021, the local leg will begin on 2 February and end on 4 February 2022 during the Opening Ceremonies by visiting only Beijing and Zhangjiakou.

Sports

The 2022 Winter Olympics includes 109 events over 15 disciplines in 7 sports. The detail is given in the table below where the numbers in parentheses indicate the number of medal events contested in each discipline.

Countries Participating

The following 91 Nations have qualified for Winter Olympics.

Calendar

All dates are Beijing Time (UTC+8)

The competition is scheduled to start on 2 February and conclude on 20 February 2022.

Broadcasting

The 2022 Winter Olympics will be broadcasted throughout the world. The main Broadcast rights holder is the ‘EuroSport’ Television Network while the BBC will sub-license a limited coverage on free-to-air television.

In China, domestic rights are given to China Central Television (CCTV), while rights being sublicensed are given to China Mobile’s Migu streaming service. In the United States, these Games will be broadcast by NBC Universal properties.

IOC Principles

The International Olympics Committee (IOC) supports every Olympic Movement stakeholder, committed to promoting core values, gender equality in sport, and strengthening the integrity of sport through healthy athletes and the fight against doping.

Gender Equality in Sport

As the leader of the Olympic Movement, the IOC is taking all actions to support and promote gender equality. It is ensuring the equal participation of women at the Winter Games, however, there are many other challenges and gaps that remain which are considered for solutions.

Fight against Doping

The IOC is committed to a zero-tolerance policy for cheating and holds accountable anyone for using or providing doping products. IOC’s focuses on prevention through detection and deterrence. The IOC has instructed all International Federations to follow the laws and fully delegate testing programs to the ITA and sanction the CAS Anti-Doping Division.

Winter Olympics and COVID-19 pandemic

The IOC announced biosecurity protocols for the Games on 29 September 2021. These protocols include all athletes to remain within the bio-secure bubble. All athletes are required to quarantine for 21 days upon arrival and are instructed for daily COVID-19 testing.

They are allowed to travel only to and from the venues of Olympics 2022. If they are fully vaccinated or have a valid medical exemption, they can move without restrictions.

With the increasing lockdowns in China and the first detected case of the Omicron variant in Beijing, it was announced on 17 January 2022, that the general public participation as the audience will be canceled, and only limited numbers of spectators will be admitted by invitation.

These are the second Olympics in a row that are closed to the public. It was also announced by IOC that only residents of China would be permitted as the audience to watch the games.

Everyone present at Olympics, including athletes, staff, and attendees, is required to use the ‘My2022’ mobile app as the biosecurity protocol.

The ‘My2022’ mobile app is used for customs declarations and health records for travel to the Olympics, daily health self-reports, and COVID-19 vaccination and testing records. It also provides news and information relating to the Winter Olympics 2022, and messaging functions.

For more information on Winter Olympics 2022, you can always visit the official website here.