![]() The IOC has long known that, while it professes to keep the Olympics politically neutral, the mere act of coming to China at a time when it has difficult relations with the West for a host of reasons is a political act in itself. Those human stories took place, though, in a Games hosted by a country that has been credibly accused of terrible human-rights violations, even if its spokespeople call such things lies. On Team Canada alone, there was Max Parrot winning two snowboard medals after a bout with leukemia, Cassie Sharpe getting back to the freestyle ski podium after reconstructive knee surgery, and Marielle Thompson winning a silver medal in ski cross after wrecking her knee in 2017. There were, of course, the usual array of fabulous performances and wonderful stories. Photo by MANAN VATSYAYANA / AFP/Getty Imagesīut, as much as the IOC would be rubbing its hands at all that, the events of Beijing 2022 won’t entirely be past it for some time. ![]() Russia’s Kamila Valieva reacts after competing in the women’s single skating free skating of the figure skating event during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games. The US$50-billion that Russia poured into Sochi 2014 scared away many of the European and North American cities (hello, Calgary) that would normally have fought to be Olympic hosts, but after the estimated US$40-billion cost of Beijing 2022, these next quadrennials are supposed to kick off a new era of Games that prize sustainability and avoid the problem of costly venues that fall into disuse and disrepair not long after the Olympics rolls out of town. Assuming the pandemic finally recedes - an assumption that cannot be made with supreme confidence - that is a Summer Olympics in one of the world’s great cities, a Winter Olympics that, finally, brings the event back to a true alpine playground, and then a Summer Olympics in a place that will thrill NBC, the IOC’s chief benefactors, and have the added benefit of using facilities that are already in place. Article contentįrom here, it’s comparatively clear sailing: Paris 2024, the Italian region of Milan-Cortina for 2026, and Los Angeles in 2028. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
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