The ceremony is now a ritual. On the first evening of its General Assembly, Wednesday 19 October in Seoul, the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) distributed its trophies for the year 2022. They rewarded the best athletes, teams and national committees of the Beijing Winter Games. For the class of 2022, ANOC honoured the Swedish men’s curling team, the Canadian women’s ice hockey team, the American mixed snowboarding duo Nick Baumgartner and Lindsay Jacobellis, South Korean short-track skater Daeheon Hwang, Chinese freestyle skier Eileen Gu (pictured above), and Dutch speed skater Sven Kramer (Outstanding Performance of the Year). Unsurprisingly, the trophy for best National Olympic Committee went to China. Finally, Craig Reedie of Scotland, former President of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), was honoured for his contribution to the Olympic movement. The ANOC jury was composed of representatives from each of the continental associations, the president of the ANOC Athletes’ Commission, the president of AIOWF and the ANOC secretary general.
