The Beijing 2022 Winter Games will take place. And they will be held on the scheduled dates (February 4 to 20). 30 days before opening, the question should no longer be asked. However, it was mentioned, discussed and debated on Wednesday January 5 during a long online exchange between the IOC and the organizing committee, the international winter sports federations, the national Olympic committees and the athletes' representatives.
The videoconference meeting was not open to the media. But the IOC detailed its content at the end of the day in a press release. The Swiss National Olympic Committee (Swiss Olympic) also provided its version, via the same press release.
Unsurprisingly, the official discourse of the IOC and the organizers does not change, despite the surge in COVID-19 cases around the world. Juan Antonio Samaranch, the president of the coordination commission for the Beijing 2022 Games, repeated it once again, without weariness: everything is ready in Beijing, the Games are on track, everything is going as planned. Cool.
Same story with Christophe Dubi, the director of the Olympic Games at the IOC, and Pierre Ducrey, the director of operations for the Olympic Games. The two men joined the online meeting from Beijing, where they arrived on Wednesday January 5 with their team. The first of the two speakers provided supporting evidence: the closed-loop management system has started to work, the arrival procedures are taking place very smoothly.
Obviously, the IOC's clarification regarding the holding of the Games on the scheduled dates was not superfluous. Swiss Olympic underlined this through its head of mission, Ralph Stöckli: “ The question of a postponement is no longer relevant for all of us. We can now concentrate on our task: creating the best possible conditions for the Swiss delegation during the four weeks that separate us from the opening ceremony."
The same Ralph Stöckli had not hidden his doubts the day before during an interview with the Swiss channel RTS : " We really need to discuss the possibility of postponing the Olympics. If our best athletes are absent, then it will be very, very difficult to digest. »
No more talk of a postponement, therefore, even in the corridors. But it will undoubtedly take much more to calm the fears and concerns of future participants.
Swiss Olympic notes this in its press release: “ However, the situation remains very demanding for Swiss Olympic and the other national Olympic committees. It is very important that the conditions for qualification for the Winter Olympics and the trip to Beijing are as fair as possible, even in the current difficult circumstances. This aspect concerns, for example, the time that participants must wait after recovering from a coronavirus infection before being allowed to travel to China. For the moment, this delay can be up to twelve days"
Less than a month before the opening ceremony, such a prospect frightens more than one within the delegations. But the IOC medical and scientific director, Dr. Richard Budgett, also wanted to be reassuring. Certainly, the rules will remain as they are set out in the “playbooks”, but the IOC and the organizers promise case-by-case management of athletes and participants affected by the virus.
Richard Budgett explained that athletes could take part in the Olympic Games even if they were contacts of someone who tested positive. A special protocol is in place for contact cases, namely twice-daily testing and special arrangements for travel and meals.
Athletes and Games participants who test positive for COVID-19, but are asymptomatic, will be exempt from quarantine once they present two negative PCR test results 24 hours apart. They will then be integrated into the contact case management system, that is to say tested twice a day, but authorized “ to carry out their essential activities related to the Games without being placed in isolation“. Athletes will thus be able to continue training and participating in competitions. Each case will be examined by a group of medical experts composed of Chinese and foreign specialists.
For Thomas Bach, the Beijing 2022 Games start today. “ We must do everything so that athletes are not deprived of their Olympic dream a few days before their departure, insisted the IOC President. The “playbooks” do not just list rules, they already determine a way of life"
