OlymPicks: Winter Games Get Yummy w/ KFC, Pizza Hut as Sponsors

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In OlymPicks, we highlight news, gossip, and developments regarding the buildup to Beijing's 2022 Winter Olympics.

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Last Tuesday, August 4, makred 18 months before the Beijing 2022 Games get underway, with opening ceremonies set for Feb 4, 2022. Not long now.

Yum! China, the parent company of fast-food brands KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, joined the Olympics as a sponsor of the Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in one of the stranger promotional packages in Games history.

After supporting the Olympic Games since 1968, McDonald's backed out rather abruptly in 2017 as part of a company-wide reassessment of its sponsorship commitments. The Golden Arches still appeared at the 2018 Winter Olympics, but has no further plans to serve Big Macs at Games going forward.

This will be the first time in a long time that McDonald's won't support the games, but buckets of chicken are ready to replace the Big Macs that Olympians used to pose with

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Yum! China is the innovative company that has localized KFC's menu, de-emphasized Pizza Hut's titular product, and is about to make a second run at popularizing Taco Bell here. Their deal to become the Official Retail Food Services Sponsor of the Beijing 2022 Games sees them as the folks who will sell you food at the Olympics, and then remain as a sponsor of the Official Sponsor of the Chinese Olympic Committee until the end of 2024 – and then that's it.

All of this means that you can expect the aforementioned outlets from Yum! restaurants (plus maybe 小肥羊 Little Sheep, which they also own) at Olympic venues, and a whole lot of related commercials of people eating fried chicken while skiing or skating. No, the deal does not include or require any athlete to eat Yum! products as part of the training regimen, although who knows — Usain Bolt confirmed that he ate about 100 Chicken McNuggets per day during the Beijing Olympics in 2008, where he won gold and set world records.

Images: RSZ Beijing, Wikimedia

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