Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games
- Date:
- February 4, 2022 - February 20, 2022
The Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games were an international athletic competition held in Beijing, China, that took place February 4–20, 2022. It was the 24th edition of the Winter Olympic Games. Beijing became the first city to host both the Summer Olympics and the Winter Olympics, having previously hosted the Summer Games in 2008. In the lead-up to the Games, China faced criticism related to its human rights record and calls for a diplomatic boycott of the competition. Most of the events were closed to the public because of health protocols related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Bidding and host selection
In 2013 the International Olympic Committee (IOC) called for bids to host the 2022 Winter Games. Six cities—Stockholm; Kraków, Poland; Oslo; Lviv, Ukraine; Almaty, Kazakhstan; and Beijing—submitted initial bids. By mid-2014 the four European cities had withdrawn their applications, most of them citing the high costs and stringent rules related to hosting the Games; Lviv withdrew because of Russia’s covert invasion of eastern Ukraine in 2014.
- Norway: 37
- Russian Olympic Committee: 32
- Germany: 27
- Canada: 26
- United States: 25
Note: Medal count per the IOC website.
In early 2015 an IOC commission visited both Almaty and Beijing to evaluate their bids and readiness to host the Games. Almaty’s pitch highlighted that city’s favorable climate and proximity to snow-covered mountains, whereas Beijing cited its successful hosting of the 2008 Summer Olympics and ability to use artificial snow to make up for its lack of natural venues for winter sports. In a surprisingly close vote of 44–40 on July 31, 2015, the IOC delegates selected the heavy favorite China as host of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
Venues and organization
The Beijing Games took place across three different “zones.” The opening and closing ceremonies were held at the 80,000-seat capacity Beijing National Stadium, also known as the Bird’s Nest, which had been built for the 2008 Summer Olympics. The Beijing zone made use of several other venues from the 2008 Games, including the National Aquatics Stadium, nicknamed the Water Cube, which was turned into the “Ice Cube” and used for curling. The capital city also hosted ice hockey, speed skating, big air skiing and snowboarding, and figure skating events. A second zone, in Yanqing district, 80 km (50 miles) northwest of Beijing, hosted the Alpine skiing and sliding (bobsled, luge, skeleton) events. A third zone was centered on Zhangjiakou, a popular skiing destination more than 160 km (100 miles) northwest of Beijing, and hosted all the other skiing and snowboarding events. Each zone had its own Olympic village to house athletes. In preparation for the Games, China constructed a new high-speed railway between Beijing and Zhangjiakou that was completed in 2019.
The mascot for the 2022 Games was a giant panda character called Bing Dwen Dwen. The word bing in Mandarin has multiple meanings, including “ice,” and can also connote purity and strength. Dwen Dwen means “robust and lively” and also “children.” The motto of the Games was “Together for a Shared Future.”
The Games took place more than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic. As with the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games (delayed until 2021), stringent safety and health protocols were followed at the Beijing Games. Athletes and Olympics staff were required to undergo daily testing. All the competition venues, stadiums, catering, and accommodations were closed to the public, and participants also used separate transportation. Athletes who were not vaccinated were required to quarantine for 21 days upon arrival. Overseas fans were not allowed, and only a few Chinese spectators, subject to health regulations and processes, were allowed in certain events.
Competition and results
The 2022 Games featured 109 events across fifteen Olympic winter sports. Seven new events were added: women’s monobob, men’s and women’s freestyle skiing big air, and mixed team events in short-track speed skating, ski jumping, freestyle skiing aerials, and snowboard cross. The Beijing Games were the most gender-balanced Olympics to that point, with more than 45 percent of the 2,834 participants being women. Ninety-one Olympic committees sent athletes to the Games, 29 of which won at least one medal. Although Russia was banned from sending athletes because of sanctions related to doping, Russian athletes were allowed to compete under the “Russian Olympic Committee” name.
Standout performers at the Games included Eileen (Ailing) Gu, an American-born skier competing for China who won two gold medals and one silver medal in freestyle skiing events, and Nathan Chen, an American figure skater who set a world record in the individual short program en route to winning an individual gold and also earned a team gold medal. Biathletes Johannes Thingnes Bø (Norway), Quentin Fillon Maillet (France), and Marte Olsbu Røiseland (Norway) and cross-country skier Alexander Bolshunov (ROC) won the most medals at the Games with five each. Bø had the most gold medals with four.
According to research commissioned by the IOC, a global audience of more than two billion people viewed the Games across broadcast and Internet platforms, a 5 percent increase over the previous Winter Games, held in 2018 in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Controversies
Several countries, including the United States, Canada, and India, declared a diplomatic boycott of the Games and did not send any officials or ministers to attend. The United States and others cited China’s alleged atrocities, including forced internment and sterilization, against the Uyghur minority population in the Uyghur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang, as the reason for their boycott. China criticized the move as a politicization of the Olympics, and, in a choice interpreted by skeptical observers in the West as a defiant gesture, it assigned cross-country skier Dinigeer Yilamujiang, a Uyghur from Xinjiang, to light the Olympic flame at the opening ceremonies.
The biggest sports-related controversy at the 2022 Games was doping allegations against Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, who was 15 years old at the time. Valieva helped her team win gold in the team event, but several days later a sample taken from Valieva in December 2021 was revealed to have tested positive for a banned substance. Valieva was permitted to compete in the individual women’s event, in which she was considered the heavy favorite, but she finished in fourth place. In January 2024 a ruling by the Court of Arbitration of Sport retroactively disqualified Valieva from the 2022 Games, stripping the Russian Olympic Committee of its team gold medal.