“It’s going a lot smoother than I would have expected,” Michael Payne reflects on Beijing

BEIJING — If Michael Payne had waited for Beijing 2022 to conclude before finishing his book, ”Toon In!” it could have been quite a few pages longer.

Payne compiled and edited Olympic editorial cartoons across the decades for the coffee table tome, adding his commentary as an Olympic insider.

What would have been the cartoon candidates for Payne’s 21st straight Olympic Games? “It probably would have something to do with staging winter sports in a desert,” Payne said in an interview with Around the Rings. “And it’s a cold desert.”

But he added, “They have done it.”

The Kamila Valieva doping case would have also featured prominently, Payne said, building “on all the doping cartoons that came out of Sochi and the continued breaking news story as to where that’s going to end up.”

Payne started working in the Olympic marketing department in the 1980s and is now a strategic advisor to a number of partners and broadcasters.

He said he never had any doubt that the Chinese organizers would produce incredible venues and infrastructure, what he calls “the hardware.” But he had concerns about “the software,” given China’s inexperience in staging snow events.

“To be honest, it’s going a lot smoother than I would have expected,” Payne said. “I think most people I’ve met who come here have all been surprised. They were nervous coming in as to how was this going to work and clearly with all the COVID protocols it was never going to be simple. But once everybody found the lay of the land, it’s working.”

And, Payne added, “You have to honestly ask yourself which other country could have pulled this off in the current COVID environment?”

Payne said that feat is even more impressive given that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the international federations have been unable to visit China for two years due to the pandemic.

“All of this has been delivered on the back of Zoom calls,” he said, noting that personal relationships suffered with such an impersonal way of conducting business.

“I would say in Asia, at times, they are even more important,” Payne said, “because of what gets done in the formal meeting vs. what gets done after dinner with maotai, (the national liquor). There’s been no maotai. That is a very important part of the communication and the delivery. And it hasn’t taken place, so it’s all the more remarkable when you think how little face time, real interaction, the stakeholders have had to deliver.”

The athletes have delivered as well. “When you look at the breadth and quality of the sport, it’s stunning,” Payne said. “I think the athletes and everybody are just relieved to be here, that it wasn’t cancelled.” It was the same situation in Tokyo that they were so scared that everything they had trained for was suddenly going to be taken away from them. They’re here and the field of play competition is probably as good as it gets.

“Would they like to have a lot more spectators? Of course, everybody would. But that’s just not possible. It’s definitely an improvement over Tokyo. There is atmosphere in the stadium. And you’re no longer feeling as if you’re in a complete isolated vacuum.”

Payne’s first Olympics were Sarajevo in 1984 when there were 39 events at the Winter Games compared to 109 now. The number of athletes has increased from 1,272 from 49 countries to 2,900 from 91 countries.

“It’s been a remarkable evolution,” Payne said, “and in particular when you look at some of the sports that are increasingly the most popular, particularly with the younger generation — the whole freestyle portfolio from snowboard to freestyle skiing to Big Air, and short track speedskating.”

The number of women’s sports have also increased dramatically, including the addition of bobsled, hockey and ski jumping.

Payne recalled when the decision was made to split the Games so that Summer and Winter Olympics were two years apart, starting in 1994.

“As the Winter Games just grew, the pressure on all the different stakeholders within the Olympic Family, through to the broadcasters and the partners, just became too much to have it all in the same year,” he said, “Albeit, this is what we’re now doing as a one-off. I’m not sure that anybody has the physical and mental strength to maintain that momentum. "

While Payne said the broadcasting images are “out of this world” and praised Yiannis Exarchos, CEO of Olympic Broadcasting Services, he said the coverage has suffered from the lack of cultural stories due to COVID-19 restrictions and the necessity of staying within the “closed loop.”

“No question, that’s a miss,” Payne said. “I’ve lost count how many times I’ve been to China, probably 50 or more since 1989, and a key part of the Olympic experience when you go to any country is that whole cultural adventure. I feel sorry for all the people who are on their first trip to China and not being able to experience that. But that’s the price that had to be paid.”

Sponsors are also missing out as hospitality programs and showcases were cancelled.

“That’s tough for a lot of the partners who have been working years to build up to this,” Payne said. “For the TOP partners, they have a great roster of future cities, and hopefully it will get back to normal. The Olympics isn’t the only thing in their marketing roster that’s been walloped by COVID. It was something beyond everybody’s control and you’ve just go to deal with it.”

However, these Games have opened up the winter sports industry to a massive new market, with BOCOG saying there are now 346 million winter sports participants.

“You’re dealing with a participation that’s bigger than Europe and North America put together as a new winter sports market,” Payne said.

And the venues from 2022 will continue to be fully utilized, just as they were after the 2008 Olympics with the Water Cube repurposed as the Ice Cube and the Bird’s Nest hosting ceremonies for the Winter Games. The industrial area at Shougang now includes the first permanent big air venue in the world.

“One thing that China could never be accused of is not having a proper legacy strategy for its venues,” Payne said. “They don’t build white elephants.”

No matter how the Valieva saga plays out, Payne said he didn’t think that story would distract from the image and legacy of Beijing 2022.

“There are major doping stories every Olympics,” Payne said. “The only one that perhaps really defined the Games for me would have been Ben Johnson in Seoul.”

The reports about Russia’s systemic doping program, which came out after Sochi Games, have also been permanently affixed to that event.

“But I think you’ve got so many incredible sporting stories (in Beijing),” Payne said. “In the end, that will be the memory of these Games.”