Controversies, Scandals, and Boycotts: The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games

By: Cassie Diamond

Chances are if you haven’t been living under a rock for your entire life, you probably know exactly what the Olympics are. And how could you not? An international sporting event in which nearly every nation in the world is represented with extensive media coverage would be pretty hard to miss. The Olympics are a big deal, and for good reason. The Games allow athletes who have trained their entire lives to compete against the best of the best for a chance to bring pride to their home country. However, a string of controversies always seems to plague the Olympics wherever it goes, and this year’s Beijing Winter Olympic Games are no exception.

The chosen location of the Olympics in China alone was enough to cause a stir among numerous participating countries. In recent years, China has faced a slew of human rights abuse allegations, leading many to criticize the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for allowing China to host the Games. Some of these violations include China’s anti-Tibetan policies and their handling of the 2019-20 Hong Kong protests. Perhaps the most well-known and egregious of these human rights violations is the Uyghur genocide, in which more than one million Uygher Muslims were detained and sent to “re-eduation camps” in the Xinjiang region. There, the Uyghurs are being used for forced labor, tortured, and forcibly sterilized. With this abuse currently still ongoing, some countries were understandably not happy that China was hosting this year’s Winter Olympics.

Because of this, countries such as the United States, India, the United Kingdom, Canada, Denmark, and five other countries announced diplomatic boycotts of the Winter Games. A diplomatic boycott is different from a regular boycott, as it only prevents government officials from attending. This means athletes from the boycotting countries are still able to compete in the Games. While this may not sound like a big deal on paper, it’s important to note the Olympics are some of the largest international gatherings outside of the United Nations or major summits and high-ranking officials from various countries typically attend (Mather). Their absence at this year’s Games will certainly send a message.

This is far from the only controversy surrounding this year’s Winter Olympics, however. There have been a number of concerns regarding surveillance and censorship surrounding the Games. Athletes competing in the Olympics were warned about potential security weaknesses in an app they have to use for daily Covid monitoring called My2022. A cybersecurity group called Citizen Lab discovered that the app doesn’t have proper encryption and could easily be exploited by hackers (Knockel). Due to this, many countries’ Olympic committees advised athletes to use burner phones for the Games while leaving their personal devices at home. China has been known to conduct mass surveillance of its citizens, leaving many concerned about potential espionage of athletes due to the lack of solid encryption on the app.

Citizen Lab also found that the app contained a list of “censorship keywords” built into the app and a flagging feature for “politically sensitive” statements (Knockel). These keywords include the names of Chinese leaders and government agencies, as well as any references to 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, which the Chinese Communist Party has taken many measures in the past to erase from history books. The Beijing Organizing Committee has even gone so far as to discourage athletes participating in the Olympics to speak out about human rights issues in China or they will face a heavy punishment. Much of this doesn’t come as a shock to many, as China has had a history of censorship and limiting freedom of speech and has banned social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram in the past.

With Covid-19 still being a major part of our everyday lives, it was inevitably going to be a large talking point surrounding the Games. Specifically, how China would handle a sudden influx of foreigners from all around the world while keeping the spread of Covid between athletes to a minimum. There actually weren’t very many Covid cases among the athletes during the Games, mostly due to the strict testing and isolation procedures taken by the organizers. In spite of this, some athletes have taken issue with the conditions of the quarantine facilities they stayed in after testing positive for Covid, and the confusing testing regime they had to follow. Polish speed skater Natalia Maliszewska’s Covid tests kept flip-flopping between positive and negative, causing her to experience much distress and miss out on the qualifying race for the 500 meter, her strongest event (Hjelmgaard). A member of the Finnish men’s ice hockey team, Marko Anttila, was reportedly under mental stress and not getting enough food during his stay, prompting the team’s coach to accuse China of not respecting his human rights (Smith). Various other Olympic competitors have also spoken up about the poor quality of food they received while in quarantine, which is especially important given their status as athletes who require a good diet to perform to their fullest.

This year’s Olympics are far from uncontroversial, with human rights issues, censorship, and Covid-19 all being contributing factors. But, then again, no Olympic Games have ever truly been controversy-free. Just last year, the Tokyo Olympics was criticized for allowing the Games to commence despite Covid-19 still being prevalent in Japan at the time. Or take a look at the 2016 Rio Olympics, where Brazil was called out for spending exorbitant amounts of money on the Games while it continued to allow many of its citizens to live in squalor. As an international sports competition attended by hundreds of countries and their government officials, politics and the heavy baggage it carries with it will always be an aspect of the Olympics. Corruption, hypocrisy, and disputes have unfortunately tarnished the image of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for talented athletes around the world. And until the IOC changes its ways, controversy will remain as a kind of twisted Olympics tradition, whether people like it or not.

Works Cited:

Hjelmgaard, Kim. “'I Cry Every Day': Olympic Athletes Slam Food, COVID Tests and Conditions in Beijing Quarantine Hotels.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 8 Feb. 2022, https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/beijing/2022/02/07/beijing-athletes-rip-covid-quarantine-hotels-food/6687367001/.

Knockel, Jeffrey. “Cross-Country Exposure: Analysis of the MY2022 Olympics App.” The Citizen Lab, 21 Jan. 2022, https://citizenlab.ca/2022/01/cross-country-exposure-analysis-my2022-olympics-app/.

Mather, Victor. “The Diplomatic Boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics, Explained.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 9 Dec. 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/article/diplomatic-boycott-olympics.html.

Smith, Saphora. “Masks, Meals and Medal Hopes Dashed: Covid Stress Pierces Beijing Bubble.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 8 Feb. 2022, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/covid-stress-beijing-winter-olympic-athletes-rcna15113.