The Hula Report: Milestones in 2022 for Olympics, World Sport

Fully two years since the coronavirus pandemic began its global spread, the dawning of 2022 brings little relief to the world of the Olympics and related sports events. Beginning with the Winter Games in Beijing in just a few weeks, a mask and vaccination proof will be de rigeur at most of the milestones coming up in 2022. The mutating virus known as Omicron the new culprit. What will be the next menace is still not known.

Indeed, the story of the Beijing Olympics so far has been the strict protocols that will govern the athletes, officials and media heading to China, and not so much about the athletes who hope to compete. Coming six months after the postponed 2020 Tokyo Games, there were hopes that the pandemic might be easing in time for Beijing, but Omicron has dashed those expectations.

The NHL players who once were going to Beijing will not go. U.S. ski great Mikaela Shiffrin is in isolation. Overall infections are rising globally as the pandemic takes its latest turn for the worst. While it might seem wise to consider postponing or even cancelling Beijing, that seems unlikely. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is eager to pass this 2022 milestone even if it means wearing a hazmat suit in Beijing.

The IOC’s sojourn to Beijing will include the session a few days prior to opening ceremony. The members will be asked to approve a new Olympic sports program for 2028 in Los Angeles that includes skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing. To be cut: boxing, modern pentathlon and weightlifting. Approval of the change will mark a milestone in the IOC’s journey to a more modern sports program.

Australia will be the location of a milestone for John Coates, stepping down as president of the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) after 32 years. He’s the longest serving president of any of the world’s 206 National Olympic Committees. The AOC will hold its annual meeting April 30 to elect Coates successor. Ian Chesterman, AOC vice president and the chief de mission for the Australian Olympic team is one likely candidate. Coates continues as an IOC member until 2024.

SportAccord, the convention for 100+ international sports federations and organizations, will try to revive the event after a two-year pause forced by the pandemic. Set for May 15 to 20 in Ekatarinburg in Russia, the convention will be a test of recovery, both with the number of exhibitors and delegates.

The meeting may also bring the demise of GAISF, the General Association of International Sports Federations. The GAISF executive board has recommended the dissolution of the association, which some say is no longer needed.

The road to Paris 2024 passes the two-years-to-go milestone on July 15. No details yet on how Paris might mark the occasion, but after the discombobulating past three years of battling COVID-19 it might be comforting to hear about Olympic plans that don’t need to mention social distancing, masks or quarantines.

The first test event of Paris 2024 should take place in July or August. No date on the calendar for the event which would take place in Marseilles, host city for the competition which ordinarily draws hundreds of sailors.

World Athletics will share July 15 as a 2022 milestone with Paris 2024. That Friday evening will bring the opening of the first World Athletics Championships ever to be held in the U.S. The week-long event in Eugene, Oregon has been anticipated for years, postponed from its original date in 2021 due to the move of the Tokyo Olympics from 2020 to 2021.

We do not know when, but the selection of a 2030 Winter Olympic host city is likely to reach the final stages sometime in the coming year. Now in the hands of the IOC Commission for Future Winter Olympic Hosts, the group will reach a consensus on a host for approval at the next IOC Session, still to be scheduled in 2023 for Mumbai, India. Salt Lake City, Vancouver, Sapporo, Barcelona and Ukraine are all in the hunt to win the favor of the IOC panel.

The 2022 FIFA World Cup will break the mold for this event when it opens November 20 in Qatar. This last milestone of 2022 will mark the first time for the World Cup in the Middle East and the first to be held in November and December, an accommodation to the desert heat of the Persian Gulf emirate. This World Cup could also come amid clamor over a proposed every-two-year schedule for the tournament, a decision possible in 2022.

The World Cup is the biggest test for Qatar’s outsized ambitions to hold the world’s largest sports events. Depending on how the World Cup plays out, in the smallest nation to ever hold the tournament, population 2.8 million, Qatar will likely turn its attentions to a new campaign to seek the Olympics after two previous attempts.

December 31, 2022 will mark the end of IOC membership for three members of note. Broadcasting executive Alex Gilady of Israel, diplomat and former President of Hungary Pal Schmitt and lawyer Richard Pound of Canada all turn 80 in the coming year and are subject to retirement. All are nominated to become honorary members beginning January 1, 2023. Pound has served since 1978, Schmitt since 1983 and Gilady from 1994. Together they comprise more than 100 years of IOC experience.

Long before he became the IOC doyen, Pound was perhaps the most frequently quoted IOC member by the press. Who will take over from him for curmudgeonly comments and pithy observations is not immediately apparent. Pound will be succeeded by the first doyenne for the IOC, Princess Nora of Liechtenstein. She’s not known for speaking out of school or to the press. Pound gives his last remarks as doyen as the customary final item of business at the IOC Session in February. Nora begins her stint next year at the session being planned for Mumbai. She was elected to the IOC in 1984 and can remain a member until age 80 in 2030. Following the current order of seniority, Prince Albert of Monaco is next in the pecking order, not turning 80 until 2038.