Wednesday, September 29, 2021
Winter games in front of home fans
China locks out foreign audiences
If possible, there should not be empty stands. But when the Olympic Winter Games start in Beijing in February, only local fans will be able to enjoy live sports. The organizers are now announcing correspondingly strict requirements.
Foreign Olympic fans are also denied access to the Winter Games in Beijing. After the exclusion of all viewers from the Summer Games in Tokyo, at least locals are allowed to enter the competitions in China if they meet the strict Corona requirements. The decision of the organizers of the Beijing Games next February was approved by the International Olympic Committee. The same restrictions apply to the Paralympics in March.
Details for the conditions for the ticket allocation are still being negotiated, it said. Empty arenas like those in Tokyo should be avoided. Unvaccinated athletes must therefore go into quarantine for three weeks after entering the country. Exceptions are possible if athletes can provide a medical justification that a vaccination against the coronavirus is not possible.
For all participants in the Winter Games, a closed bubble will be set up around the competition venues from January 23rd, which must not be left. This screened area also includes accommodation and its own Olympic transportation system. Those involved in the Winter Games from February 4th to 20th are only allowed to move within the bubble for training units and competitions as well as for their respective work. All participants and helpers have to take a daily corona test.
Similar measures already applied to the Summer Games in Japan. There, however, foreigners were allowed to move freely in Tokyo 14 days after entering the country. In Beijing, apparently, a work quarantine is planned for the entire period of stay. Officials who are not staying in the Olympic village, as well as media representatives and other parties involved, must stay in specially designated hotels, in which strict corona measures apply.
China has the pandemic largely under control
The organizers urge that incoming delegations be kept as small as possible. One wanted to concentrate on the essentials, it said. Therefore, the IOC canceled its program for sponsored guests again. Further details of the Corona measures for the Winter Games are to be published at the end of October.
The Chinese government is pursuing a “zero covid strategy”. With curfews, mass tests, contact tracing, quarantine and strict entry restrictions, the country has the coronavirus largely under control. Recently, however, despite strict measures, there had been an accumulation of local outbreaks of the delta variant.
And it’s not just the pandemic that is causing uncertainty ahead of the Beijing Games. Politically, too, the games are a minefield. There are calls around the world to boycott the Olympics because of the human rights situation in the People’s Republic. Both the situation in Hong Kong, where the government is cracking down on the pro-democracy movement, and the persecution of the Muslim Uyghur minority in the Xinjiang region have come under fire.