By: AVA WOFFORD
Staff Writer
The Winter Olympics have been around since 1924 first starting off in Chamonix, France with the first event being that of the ski jump followed by 12 other events and 6 sports in total. The Winter Olympics is a tradition and allows for snow and ice-related sports to take center stage and is considered the sister to The Olympics. This year the Winter Olympics will include 90 different nations and will be hosted in Beijing, China. However, this alone serves as a challenge.
China has been accused of violations of humans’ rights. It was recently clear to the world the horrible conditions, torture, and mass imprisonment of minorities that have been going on in China. Because of this, the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia officials have decided they are “diplomatically boycotting” the games. This means that officials from said countries will not be attending the games while athletes will still be participating. This has obviously caused tensions to rise and has caused China to attempt to sweep this under the rug in hopes of having a smooth sailing Winter Olympics.
Another obstacle the Winter Olympics faces is COVID-19. The new variant Omicron, while less deadly, is extremely distributable. The host, China, has some of the strictest COVID regulations in the world and plans on keeping them during the games. Athletes are to take a COVID test 96 hours and 72 hours before the flight to China. When they land they will immediately take another COVID test and be quarantined. Athletes will only be allowed three places: the games, the shuttles, and their hotel rooms. They will also be expected to take a COVID test every day. For these athletes, one COVID test could be the end of their
Olympic careers and dreams.
