in
Berlin against the Olympic Games in Beijing 2022 During the bidding process, critics questioned the Beijing bid, arguing that the proposed outdoor venue sites do not have reliable snowfall in winter for snow sports. Concerns have been raised that snow may need to be transported to the venues at great cost and with uncertain environmental consequences. Additional concerns about weather conditions were raised during certain events. Swedish athlete
Frida Karlsson nearly collapsed after the
women's skiathlon due to low temperatures. As in 2008, activists, human rights groups, and diplomats made calls to boycott the Olympic Games when hosted by China. In the aftermath of the 2019 leak of the
Xinjiang papers, the
2019–2020 Hong Kong protests, and the
persecution of Uyghurs in China, calls were made for a boycott of the 2022 Games. Because of these issues, the selection of an athlete from Xinjiang as part of the final torchbearers received a mixed reaction. In March 2021, Chinese spokesperson Guo Weimin stated that any attempt to boycott the Olympics would be doomed to fail. China's Foreign Minister
Wang Yi also told the
EU's foreign policy chief
Josep Borrell that they should attend the games to "enhance exchanges on winter sport", and to "foster new highlights" in bilateral cooperation. The IOC stated that it remains neutral in all global political issues and that the award of hosting the games does not signal agreement with the host country's political or social situation or its human rights standards. The committee's response to
Agence France-Presse read: "We've repeatedly said it: the IOC isn't responsible for the government. It only gives the rights and opportunity for the staging of the Olympic Games. That doesn't mean we agree with all the politics, all the social or human rights issues in the country. And it doesn't mean we approve of all the human rights violations of a person or people." The statement attracted criticism, with
Pacific University professor
Jules Boykoff accusing the IOC of "hypocrisy". On 3 December 2021, Lithuania was the first nation to announce a diplomatic boycott of the games. After the
Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022,
The New York Times published a report alleging that China requested Russia to delay the invasion until after the Olympics to avoid damaging the Games' public image. Russia invaded
Ukraine just four days after the Games' Closing Ceremony. Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the
Chinese Embassy in Washington, has rejected the claims as "speculations without any basis, and intended to blame-shift and smear China".
American diplomatic boycott The United States boycott of China's
Winter Olympics was predominantly due to
China's human rights issues on topics such as the systematic oppression of the Uyghurs,
Tibetans and the
protests in Hong Kong in 2019. The Chinese government implemented many coercive activities in those regions, such as the
reeducation camps, mass detention camps of allegedly over a million Uyghurs, and
restricted access to social media.
Key event timeline In October 2018, American senator
Marco Rubio,
Senator Jeff Merkley, and Congressmen
Jim McGovern and
Chris Smith sent a letter, on behalf of the
Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), to the
International Olympic Committee (IOC) requesting the revocation of China's host right on the 2022 Winter Olympics. The letter stated that "no Olympics should be held in a country whose government is committing genocide and crimes against humanity." In November 2021,
President Biden proposed "a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics." The United States was aware of the prospective harsh punishment of being suspended by the National Olympic Committee and was careful regarding the scale and severity of the boycott. The attendance of
Team USA athletes was not affected by the diplomatic boycott.
Reactions The IOC remained relatively neutral regarding the letter from CECC or the boycott. The IOC negotiated with the Chinese government on specific protocols to ensure the Olympic Games ran smoothly, such as providing unrestricted internet access to foreign journalists. The
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson,
Zhao Lijian, accused the United States of violating the spirit of political neutrality endorsed in the
Olympic Charter, emphasising that an Olympic game should not be a place for political posturing and manipulation. China announced that the United States was not yet officially invited by the host committee; thus, the United States should not have initiated the boycott in the first place. Following the United States' announcement of a diplomatic boycott, a number of countries, including Britain, Australia, Canada, Belgium, Denmark, Lithuania, India, Estonia, and Kosovo, also participated. Meanwhile, Austria, Latvia, Slovenia, Sweden, and the Netherlands opted not to send government officials to the event but did not explicitly cite human rights concerns. Instead, they attributed their decisions to factors such as COVID-19 precautions. However, several U.S. allies, including South Korea, Germany, Italy, and France, did not join the boycott. Unlike the US and other boycotting countries, the Japanese government did not use the term "diplomatic boycott" but announced it would not send any senior officials or Cabinet ministers. Japanese Olympic and Paralympic Committee leaders, along with senior lawmaker
Seiko Hashimoto, however attended in non-governmental capacities. China welcomed the representatives, and Tokyo's decision was seen as a compromise to balance domestic and international considerations, including appeasing conservative lawmakers and allies in Washington.
Environmental impact An estimated of water was expected to be used to
create snow at the various venues.
Pyeongchang, South Korea, which held the
previous Winter Olympics, also had a cold but similarly arid climate that required vast quantities of
artificial snow. Professor Carmen de Jong, a geographer at the
University of Strasbourg, argued that these would be the "most unsustainable" Winter Olympics in history. The IOC stated that "a series of water-conserving and recycling designs have been put into place to optimise water usage for snowmaking, human consumption, and other purposes. 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. American snowboarder
Jamie Anderson compared it to "pretty bulletproof ice" while her teammate Courtney Rummel compared it to the man-made snow in
Wisconsin.
Sporting controversies There were concerns about decisions and disqualification in several events during the games. These issues included the following: • An official appeal to the
Court of Arbitration for Sport over the disqualification of two South Korean athletes from the men's 1000 metres short track speed skating event was filed by the
Korean Sport & Olympic Committee after having their protests rejected by the
International Skating Union. • Controversy surrounding a ruling of an obstruction in the
5000 metres relay event. • A potential missed call by judges during the
men's snowboard slopestyle and
men's half pipe event events. • A ruling of a false start in the men's
500 metres speed skating event. • The disqualification of racers for their uniforms during the
mixed team normal hill event of ski jumping. • The continued participation of the figure skater
Kamila Valieva in the
women's singles competition after a preliminary positive drug test from a sample 2 months prior. • Three athletes failed the doping test during the Olympics and were suspended: Iranian alpine skier
Hossein Saveh-Shemshaki, Ukrainian cross-country skier
Valiantsina Kaminskaya, and Ukrainian bobsledder
Lidiia Hunko. The positive test of the Spanish figure skater
Laura Barquero was announced after the Olympics. • U.S. skater
Joey Mantia alleged that South Korean skater
Lee Seung-hoon made contact with him and pulled him back, preventing him from winning a bronze medal in the
Mass Start final. Mantia lost by a 0.002-second margin. Team USA challenged the result, but Lee was awarded the bronze medal.
Athlete and officials complaints The food and overall conditions in
quarantine hotels given to athletes testing positive for COVID-19 were criticised early on. Team officials from delegations including Belgium, Germany, Poland, Finland and the Russian Olympic Committee all brought up issues their athletes faced in quarantine hotels, among them were the lack of internet connections, low-quality food, insufficient facilities and no training equipment. With China's
Zero-COVID policy, there were issues raised about the process of quarantine at the games. According to
Newsweek and
Time, the hotels' conditions appeared to have improved after the athletes' complaints were made public. There were some complaints about the food served outside of quarantine. Germany's
alpine coach Christian Schweiger called the catering "extremely questionable" for not having hot meals but he echoed athletes from several nations that the food at the nearby Athletes' Village was great. Austrian skier
Matthias Mayer said that
Kitzbuehel would have offered "the best of the best" but also that a hot meal right before a race might not bring out top performances. Other complaints included low temperatures and related safety concerns. Sweden's
Frida Karlsson nearly collapsed at the conclusion of the
women's skiathlon cross-country race. Afterwards, her team considered requesting that races held in afternoons and evenings for European TV audiences be moved to earlier during the day. Some athletes resorted to putting tape on their faces and noses to protect them from the bitter cold. Heavy snowfall disrupted a number of competition and training events on 13 February. Thirty-three skiers did not finish their first run of the
men's giant slalom.
Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway said that he "couldn't see shit." Switzerland's
Loic Meillard said, "It's not what I was hoping for but it's part of the game ... we've raced in conditions like that before." == See also ==