Olympics in Beijing: Bad Idea?

(Photo by Jean Catuffe/Getty Images)

The 2022 Winter Olympics kicked off on February 3, and it hasn’t precisely been easy crusing. Athletes have complained concerning the security stage of circumstances in Beijing, the place below-freezing temperatures and icy synthetic snow pose critical hazards. Not solely are individuals prone to getting injured, however they run the danger of dealing with the anger of the Chinese authorities in the event that they misspeak. With no pure snow, harmful climate, and quite a few human rights violations, was Beijing your best option to host the Winter Games?

Artificial Snow

(Photo by Federico Modica/NordicFocus/Getty Images)

Summer Olympics are hosted in a rustic that experiences a heat local weather throughout July and August. Rio, Brazil was chosen in 2016, and Tokyo, Japan hosted the delayed 2020 video games final summer season. Both areas have been appropriately chosen for the required temperatures for rugby, soccer, biking, and different thrilling outside sports activities. Yet the International Olympic Committee (IOC) selected a metropolis that experiences little to no snowfall for the Winter Olympics, one thing obligatory for snowboarding and snowboarding.

Artificial snow was first used in the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. Since then, its use has grown. About 98% of the snow on the 2018 Pyeongchang Games in South Korea was synthetic. In Beijing, 100% of all occasions are lined with faux snow. A machine makes use of air and water to create and distribute completely different sorts of snow depending on every sport’s desire. However, some athletes have complained of the circumstances. Estonia’s Johanna Talihärm says the machine-made stuff is “faster and more dangerous” as a result of it’s “icier.” Natural snow is barely 30% ice and is way softer to fall on and ski by way of than the 70% ice synthetic snow.

Since the opponents arrived on the Olympic Village originally of the month, complaints have poured in. The Swedish delegation demanded cross-country snowboarding occasions be held in the morning to guard athletes from freezing temperatures. Swedish athlete Frida Karlsson collapsed on the finish of her skiathlon and was shaking in the -23.8F wind.

Mikaela Shiffrin, United States Olympic gold medalist and icon, additionally commented about climate circumstances. She stated the structure was “the steepest terrain I’ve ever experienced in my life.” She additionally expressed concern over the robust gusts of wind that may make a run “very dangerous.” In the Giant Slalom, Shiffrin and several other different feminine racers fell throughout the first few seconds of their runs, uncommon for these skilled athletes. They complained of the terrain being icy and that they weren’t allowed to observe and really feel for the circumstances as they often do.

China, the place 21 million residents have lived in a decades-long water shortage disaster, will want greater than 49 million gallons of water to produce sufficient snow. That’s sufficient for 800 Olympic swimming swimming pools. Depending on how the video games go and whether or not they expertise hotter days, extra could also be wanted to switch melting snow.

Slopes With Silos

Photos of the ski soar ramp in Beijing have raised eyebrows and questions of “is that a power plant?” In a district proper exterior the town, one among China’s most important metal and iron mills used to sit down in Shougang. It closed down in 2010 and has been repurposed. The backdrop of the ski jumps occasions is actually unnatural, but it surely makes for distinctive photo-ops.

Stay Quiet

Before the Games kicked off, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) kept away from wishing our athletes the very best of luck and as a substitute warned them. In testimony earlier than the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, the speaker stated: “I would say to our athletes – you are there to compete. Do not risk incurring the anger of the Chinese government because they are ruthless.” President Xi and the Chinese Communist Party are infamous for having no respect or regard for freedom of speech or elementary human rights and displaying unpredictable conduct. However, that raises the query of whether or not we must always have despatched our athletes to a rustic like this to start with.

China is actively enslaving and killing off the Uyghur ethnic neighborhood in the Xinjiang area. President Joe Biden, together with different world leaders, refused to ship any official delegation to the video games as a result of human rights violations by the Chinese authorities. Pelosi additionally said that the IOC had turned a blind eye to China’s human rights document on the fee’s listening to. The speaker doesn’t appear to assume Beijing ever ought to have been chosen to host such an necessary, symbolic worldwide occasion. Perhaps, for as soon as, Pelosi’s is true.

~Read extra from Keelin Ferris.