For Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. there will be “zero effect” if politicians want to be at the 2022 Beijing Olympics or not

The president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Coordination Commission for Beijing 2022, the Spaniard Juan Antonio Samaranch Salisachs, described as “zero effect” if politicians decide to attend the Winter Olympics that open this Friday, February 4 in the Chinese capital or not.

For Samaranch Jr., his role as head of this Commission is possibly the most important and complicated in his more than 20 years at the IOC, during which time he has been a member of numerous commissions. He joined the IOC in the summer of 2001 at the same time that his father, Juan Antonio Samaranch Torelló, who passed in 2010, was retiring after a historic 21-year presidency.

Samaranch Jr., 62, took over the Beijing 2022 Coordination Commission initially on an interim basis at the end of 2017, replacing Russian Alexander Zhukov, who was suspended by the IOC. Currently serving as the Vice President of the International Union of Modern Pentathlon (UIPM), he holds a role active in the reforms of this federation and their discussion of a new fifth discipline to preserve the Olympic spot for this sport created by Baron Pierre de Coubertin.

In an interview with the Spanish sports newspaper MARCA, Samaranch anticipated “the opening ceremony will be spectacular.”

Asked about the most complex thing to resolve in these five years in charge of this Commission, the Spaniard said it was to develop and maintain an important level of mutual trust with the Chinese organizers.

Second, he mentioned the coronavirus pandemic. “Our reference is the organizing committee and the COVID-19 issue was beyond them. It is not a sports problem. It is something that falls to the Ministry of Public Health with which we do not have such a close relationship. We have had to work hand in hand to make the rules more flexible.”

In this sense, he said the first thing that should have been done was to resize the Games from an original plan of having 60,000 people between athletes, technical personnel and other workers, in the end it was reduced to a very essential staff.

“The second it was not feasible to quarantine for three weeks. A closed circuit system was designed in which those of us who come from outside, and those who provide service, live within a hermetic system that is alien to the rest of the city. In this way, our athletes cannot be infected and, in addition, our hosts and their zero tolerance with COVID are respected,” he added.

“This creates discomfort, obviously. Here, for example, there is no public transport for the Olympic delegation. No buses, no metro, no taxis. You can only be moved by the Organization. And this multiplied by everything. It is a puzzle of 40,000 pieces: the 20,000 from abroad and the 20,000 from China”

Beijing will be the first city in Olympic history to host a Summer and Winter Games.

Samaranch rejects comments that China could invent false positives in rivals’ doping controls to take advantage

“I am going to attribute them to the fact that in the run-up to the Games there is little to talk about... In Rio 2016 there was a mosquito, Zika, that was going to kill us all and nobody thought it was winter. In Russia there was talk that there were homophobic laws... Something happens in all the editions of the Games. In addition, this came from two specific sources, two national federations, which their own internationals denied "

On the warnings of data theft on mobile phones when implementing a tracking application as in Tokyo, the Olympic leader responded:

“It is more of the same. In addition to being validated by Google and the Apple Store, which is a guarantee, it is not mandatory to install it. You can record the data from your computer. It has been checked with two specialist cybersecurity companies and everything is in order.”

When asked about the diplomatic boycott from the United States and other countries, Samaranch stated:

“From the IOC we defend the respect of the world of politics to sport and our neutrality. In the same way that we respect the political world. They are very free to go or not to some Games to which, by the way, they are not invited. The invitation is made to the Olympic committees and both they and their athletes will attend without exception.

“With all due respect, whether politicians want to visit or not has zero effect on the Games. The important thing is that the best athletes will compete in the best facilities in history. And the Olympic ideals have been endorsed by various organizations, including the U.N.”

In the run-up to the opening of the Games, in the midst of accusations of alleged human rights violations in China - a similar context when the Summer Games in 2008 - and tensions between states such as Russia and Ukraine, the possibility of political demonstrations of athletes is not ruled out.

“We have done in-depth work on the right of athletes to respect their actions. And they have it protected. Through social networks, interviews...Only respecting the limits of freedom of expression,” Samaranch clarified.

“Another thing is the podium, where my sensitivity can hurt a third party. We have taken it to a wide consultation through the national sports commissions, whose results have elevated them to ours from the IOC. Most of the athletes elected by athletes have said that they want to maintain political neutrality on the podium and on the pitch.

“We are trying to educate everyone so that they know it and what rewards is the Olympic ideal that we are all different, but all one. And rarely in today’s world can it be shown that what unites us is more than what separates us”.

Asked about the moral legacy of these Games, he said that “after two years of suffering and some great Games like Tokyo, it will be a song of optimism. There will be an audience. Contacts with COVID-19 are under control. We are facing the possibility, beyond the impeccable facilities, that humanity demonstrates that together we can get out”.