Attention has shifted from antigen testing to the diplomatic boycott decreed by several countries, including the United States.
In the midst of a pandemic, with athletes punctually at the starting blocks but without the fuss typical of previous occasions, the Olympic Games made a double break to the virus in 2021 by celebrating in Tokyo, and without prejudice to the health of the participants, the pending edition of 2020 and also finalizing the preparations for the winter event in Beijing 2022 that will open on February 4.
With no possibility of the Beijing Games being suspended, “no matter what happens” with COVID-19 according to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), attention has shifted from antigen testing to the diplomatic boycott decreed by several countries , including the United States, protesting the human rights situation in the Asian giant.
The mystery surrounding the Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai, who denounced having suffered sexual abuse by a former deputy prime minister and later turned back, will also plan on the Winter Games. Between one thing and another he disappeared from the map, held a videoconference with the president of the IOC, Thomas Bach, and starred in some public reappearance suspected of being a compromise.
Nothing new. Few Olympics have been untouched by political meddling, as was seen in August in Tokyo during the incident involving Belarusian athlete Krystina Tsimanouskaya.
After competing with no luck in the qualifying series of the 100-meter sprint, the sprinter sought protection from the Tokyo Haneda airport police claiming that officials from her delegation were trying to force her back to her country.
Criticizing the regime of Alexandr Lukashenko, whose son Viktor chairs the Belarusian Olympic Committee, Tsimanouskaya feared reprisals and ended up in exile in Poland.
This was one of the few shocks that was experienced during the Tokyo Games, postponed for a year due to the pandemic and which were disputed with 90% of the participants immunized thanks to the sending by the IOC of tens of thousands of vaccines to all national committees.
During the Games about 600,000 tests were carried out and only 0.02% were positive. The bubble drawn around the Games, played for the first time without an audience, took effect and turned the Olympic family into “the most tested community, most vaccinated and subjected to the strictest preventive measures in the world,” said Thomas Bach.
With few exceptions, the athletes restrained their desire to celebrate their successes or console themselves for their failures and complied with the prohibition of wandering the streets of Tokyo and organizing parties in the Olympic Village. The few known offenses, such as the two Georgian judokas who went sightseeing in Tokyo Tower, were punished by expulsion.
The formula will be replicated in Beijing 2022, with slight variations. The local public will be able to enter the stadiums, but the bubble will be even more strict and will include workers and service personnel, who in Tokyo were responsible for most of the cases detected.
Foreign participants will be under surveillance from the moment they set foot on the plane to Tokyo: Paris, Singapore, Tokyo and Hong Kong are the only cities where their flights will be able to make a stopover.
Behind the golden curtain of the Games, the Olympic gear continues to roll with its eyes set on the future.
During this 2021 that is ending, the first details of the majestic inauguration ceremony along the Seine river that Paris plans for the 2024 Games were unveiled; the basic sports program for Los Angeles 2028 was agreed, in which surfing, climbing and skateboarding will continue; and the 2032 Games were awarded to the Australian city of Brisbane, after direct negotiation with the IOC, without a bidding war with other applicants.
Three sports end the year with their Olympic future in question. Boxing, due to the lack of financial and administrative transparency of its federation (AIBA) and the low reliability of its refereeing system. Weightlifting, for the eternal interim situation in the presidency of the IWF and for doping. And the modern pentathlon, due to the lack of definition of its sports program (horse riding will be suppressed in favor of another discipline) and due to its difficulties in attracting a young and universal audience.
FIFA added one more concern to the IOC with its plans for a biannual World Cup. The Lausanne-based body will continue to “monitor” the movements of its Zurich neighbor and Thomas Bach has assured that they would consider “the consequences” that the new calendar would have on the Games. The other federations have already asked the football federation to consult with all the parties that would be affected. (D)
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