The Olympics are suffocating under the bubbles meant to protect them from COVID-19.
After Tokyo in 2021 and now Beijing in 2022, the bubble has become the salvation of the Games, preventing cancellations that would be catastrophic to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and local organizers.
The bubbles are making for a Winter Olympics that may only be remembers as the final chapter in the IOC’s battle against COVID-19. Save the Games they might. But the air supply that keeps the Olympic heart pumping is running low in Beijing.
Days before the Games, the IOC itself was gasping for members to fill the seats at the customary pre-Games IOC Session. Just a fraction of the 100 members have made it to Beijing. The slim attendance was another reason to truncate the two-day meeting into a single day. The IOC was able to sustain a quorum with virtual connections to members not in Beijing.
Sponsors - among the most fervent supporters of the Games - are now enduring their second flop in less than a year. The color and showmanship of sponsor promotions that help bring life to the Olympic City is deemed too dangerous to penetrate the protection of the Bubble Games.
Sponsors aside, the biggest single punch to the gut for the atmosphere of Beijing 2022 is the ban on spectators from abroad, and the invitation-only approach for limited seating for people from China.
In this first weekend of competition, the silence of the venues is particularly apparent. The USA v. Russia National Olympic Committee women’s hockey match was shrouded in tomb-like silence as the American women demolished their opponents. Up in the mountains, the first luge runs include the normal roar and clatter of the sled, but the soundtrack is missing the roar of the crowd and their cowbells that have been a must at every Winter Olympics. Until now.
No doubt the athletes of the world are about to get their share of attention now that sports are underway in Beijing. But while Olympians are the world’s best at what they do, these Winter Games offer few story lines or drama. Russian women may sweep figure skating. Austria will wing gold on the slopes and the U.S. and Canada will vie for curling supremacy.
But we crave the joy of the unexpected.
And in this bubble-covered world, that surprise may be delivered by an untimely positive COVID-19 test, not a powerful athletic performance. Finishing the Games in quarantine, instead of on the podium, may be the biggest reason to hope Beijing is the last of the Bubble Olympics.
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