OlymPicks: What If Tokyo is Cancelled?
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In OlymPicks, we highlight news, gossip, and developments regarding the buildup to Beijing's 2022 Winter Olympics.
Recent news about the Olympics hasn't been great. The postponed Tokyo Summer Games are still a year away and already people – and by people, we mean representatives from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) – are saying the event is still tentative, and that if Tokyo doesn't happen, then Beijing probably won't either.
The logic is that since the two events are roughly six months apart, if conditions aren't favorable for Tokyo to go ahead, then the same will apply to the Winter Olympics. "Say there is a COVID problem in July and August next year in Tokyo, it is hard to imagine there is not going to be a knock-on effect in the same area five months later," said IOC member Dick Pound of Canada, in an interview with Reuters (via cbc.ca).
Well, maybe. We're optimists here at the Beijinger, and we look at it this way: The Tokyo decision should be made around February or March of 2021, like it was this year. That means any decision about Beijing will be roughly six months later, and as we've learned during the first half of this year, six months is a really long time. There's another factor at work that Pound does not appear to be considering: this is Beijing we're talking about. If anyone is going to be willing and able to host an Olympics in the face of a global pandemic, it's going to be China. Our prediction: long quarantines for athletes before travel and after arrival in Beijing/Zhangjiakou, quarantine dormitories for thousands of domestic spectators. The only question is whether or not international athletes will show up.
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The Beijing Organising Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (Beijing 2022) is still moving ahead at Olympic speed, and until the IOC or Beijing 2022 tells us that something has changed, we're going to assume that the 2022 Games will take place. As such, the Games are recruiting a large number of volunteers necessary for an event of that size, and you can be one of them.
Anyone who was in Beijing for the 2008 Games will remember the squads of aqua or red-clad volunteers all over the city, most of whom were young and enthusiastic or older and friendly. According to the Beijing 2022 website, 27,000 volunteers will be needed for the Olympic Games, and 12,000 for the Paralympic Games. Volunteer requirements can be found here: vol.beijing2022.cn. They include: being at least 18 years old as of Jan 1, 2022; able to communicate in Chinese and/or English; and can participate in volunteer training and test events. Volunteer recruitment is open until Jun 30, 2021, so there's no particular rush. For more information, check the link above or email volunteer@beijing2022.cn.
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Photo: olympic.org
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