The world is coming together again; this time, it is for the 2022 Winter Olympics, which are being held from Friday, Feb. 4 to Sunday, Feb. 20. These winter games, held in Beijing, are the first Winter Olympics since the pandemic began and the second Olympic games of the pandemic. COVID-19 protocols were put into place to ensure the safety of athletes and coaches traveling from all over the world to participate in the games.

Since the spread of the Omicron variant, stricter measures have been established for athletes and coaches. The Olympics are utilizing a “closed-loop system,” meaning only participants in the games can attend. The bubble includes the buildings for the events, official hotels, and a transportation service, according to CNN. Unvaccinated participants were required to quarantine for 21 days in Beijing prior to entering the bubble. The players and coaches are tested often and can have no contact with the outside world.

Pierre Ducrey, Olympic Games operations director for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), told CNN on Jan. 12, “The loop is very safe. It’s a place that I would say is very difficult to compare with any other place in the world at this point in time because we have here a fully vaccinated, often boosted population that is being tested daily with a PCR and living in a closed loop.” These measures were designed to allow for the games to occur as safely as possible in the midst of the pandemic.

Due to these strict measures, spectators are not able to purchase tickets for the games. Instead, tickets are distributed by officials to keep the athletes as safe as possible. The games are still being broadcasted for the world to watch.  

The Winter Olympic Games have two mascots this year: Bing Dwen Dwen, a panda dressed in a full-body “shell” made out of ice; and Shuey Rhon Rhon for the Paralympics, a Chinese lantern child. 

This year’s Winter Olympics includes all of the usual events: alpine skiing, biathlon, bobsleighing, cross-country skiing, curling, figure skating, freestyle skiing, ice hockey, luge, Nordic combined, short track speed skating, skeleton, ski jumping, snowboarding, and speed skating. New events have also been added to this year’s games: freeski big air, a ski-jump competition that has been previously seen in the Winter X Games; women’s monobob, a one-person bobsled competition; mixed-team snowboard cross, an event in which a male and female snowboarder from each country compete together; mixed-team aerials, which will include teams of three players, one male, one female, and either another male or female, and it is part of the freestyle skiing program; mixed-team short track relay, a combined male and female skating event; and, mixed-team ski jumping, a four person event that has been adapted from the normal ski jumping event.

Due to COVID-19, the NHL did now allow its players to compete in the games. Instead, younger players or players from other leagues are competing. This rule has led to the U.S. Men’s Hockey team being the youngest team since 1994, with the average age of each player being 25 years old. This rule does not only affect the U.S. team, since hockey players from all over the world are in the NHL. 

“I think that banning athletes who do their sport for a living from the Olympics does not make much sense,” said junior Alyssa Inserra, “especially with a sport like hockey that gets a lot of attention at the Winter Olympics.”

There are many athletes to continue to watch in the 2022 Olympics, including Japanese figure skater Yuzuru Hanya, Japanese ski jumper Sara Takanashi, Canadian freestyle skier Mikaël Kingsbury, American alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin, and German bobsledder Francesco Friedrich.

“I’m super stoked to see skiers take to the slopes again after so many years being set back,” Inserra said. “I’m also looking forward to seeing the ice skaters because I’m fascinated by their routines and how they execute them flawlessly. I really love the Winter Olympics because it gets to showcase sports that go unsung for most of the year.”

Senior Collin Lung shared his excitement: “I am most excited to watch the sports that involve skiing because I just learned to ski, and I was humbled by the experience. It is amazing to watch these athletes perfect their craft.”