NOnly six months after the Olympic Games in Tokyo in the summer of 2021, the Winter Games will follow. This is due to the pandemic, which caused the summer games to be postponed by a year. All subsequent major events will remain in the planned rhythm, so that the XXIV Winter Olympic Games will be held in Beijing from February 4 to 20, 2022.
For the first time, two consecutive Winter Games will be held in Asian cities – Pyeongchang in South Korea was awarded the contract for 2018. If you add Tokyo 2021, the Olympic Games will take place three times in a row on the Asian continent.
Olympia 2022: time difference and schedule
In winter the time difference is seven hours. So if it is 12 noon in Germany, it is already 7 pm in Japan. The competitions take place between 9 a.m. and 11.30 p.m. local time, i.e. between 2 a.m. and 4.30 p.m. in this country.
The decisions of the first day of the competition (curling and the women’s ice hockey tournament start on Wednesday, February 2, 2022):
- 8.45 a.m .: Cross-country skiing, skiathlon / women
- 9.30 a.m .: Speed skating, 3000 m / women
- 10.00 a.m .: biathlon, mixed relay
- 11.45 a.m.: Ski jumping / women (normal hill)
- 12 noon: short track, mixed relay
- 12.30 p.m .: ski freestyle, moguls / men
You can find a detailed schedule here.
Medals and new sports
In Beijing, the athletes will fight for a total of 109 gold medals in 15 sports. Seven disciplines are new to the Olympic winter program:
- Mixed competitions in ski jumping, snowboard cross, ski freestyle (big aerials) and short track (as a team relay)
- Big air events in ski freestyle for women and men
- Women’s monobob
Award of the Winter Games 2022
In the summer of 2015, the IOC chose Beijing as the favorite to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. It was a duel between two controversial applicants – the only remaining competitor was Almaty in Kazakhstan. Wolfgang Büttner from the human rights organization Human Rights Watch said shortly before the election: “We are not ranking between China and Kazakhstan. It is a difficult decision because there are massive human rights violations in both countries. “
The result was tight: Beijing won with 44:40 votes. Munich’s application had previously failed due to the resistance of the Bavarian population.
Beaten in ice: a sculpture of the mascot, Panda “Bing Dwen Dwen”
Those: pa / dpa / kyodo /.
Probably the two decisive advantages of the Beijing application were the experience from the 2008 Games and, above all, the fact that China wants to introduce millions of compatriots to winter sports with the Winter Games in the country – a gigantic market.
While the competition venues in Beijing are sometimes 160 kilometers apart and the organizers have to resort to a large proportion of artificially produced snow, Almaty would have offered compact games within 30 kilometers, significantly more natural snow and the tradition as a former winter sports stronghold.
In its test report, the IOC evaluation commission speaks of “complete dependence on artificial snow” in the case of Beijing and indicated that the organizers had probably underestimated the vast amounts of water required for snow production – with consequences for the environment that were not yet foreseeable. In addition, “due to the lack of natural snow, the ‘look’ of the venue to the side of the slopes may not be aesthetically pleasing”.
Diplomatic boycott?
Nancy Pelosi, spokeswoman for the US House of Representatives, has suggested a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Games in Beijing and has received a lot of support. SPD politician Dagmar Freitag also considers a boycott of these games by top international politicians to be a desirable protest against human rights violations in China. “Personally, I have great sympathy for the so-called diplomatic boycott,” said the outgoing chairwoman of the sports committee in the Bundestag.
“At least the leading representatives of democratic states could show by their absence IOC President Thomas Bach and his entourage what they think of the awards of the games in states in which the values of sport and a free society are trampled on,” Friday said who withdraws from federal politics after 27 years. “Of course, games cannot be carefree games under the conditions mentioned.”
But Freitag also says: Despite all the criticism, one shouldn’t forget how long athletes had worked towards these Olympic and Paralympic Games. “In this respect, there will always be different perspectives on the implementation under Corona conditions, but also with a view to the restricted freedom of the press or the unspeakable disregard for human rights.”
Competition venues for Beijing 2022
There will be games far away. On the one hand, Beijing can fall back on many sports facilities that were already used in 2008 and that have now been converted for the winter events, but the three regions in which the competitions take place are far apart. Sometimes up to 160 kilometers. A billion-dollar high-speed train runs from Beijing to the two more distant regions.
The furthest away is the Zhangliakou Zone, where biathletes, ski jumpers, cross-country skiers and combiners hold their competitions. Most of the snowboard and ski freestyle events also take place there.
In der Yanqing Zone, The alpine ski races as well as the bobsleigh, luge and skeleton decisions are held 75 kilometers north-west of Beijing’s center.
Finally, in Beijing it’s all about medals in ice hockey, figure skating, speed skating, short track, curling and big air.
No foreign fans at the 2022 Olympics
After the Summer Games in Tokyo took place completely without spectators, locals are at least allowed to buy tickets in Beijing. Foreign visitors, it became known at the end of September, are not allowed to enter China due to the strict Corona guidelines. This plan by the organizers of the Beijing Games was approved by the International Olympic Committee.
Olympia in the bladder
Whether athletes, trainers, supervisors, officials or the media – a closed bubble will be set up around the competition venues for all participants in the Winter Games. With its own accommodation (Olympic village for the athletes, designated hotels for the media and officials), an Olympic transport system, training and competition facilities and press centers. Daily corona tests are planned.
.
