The organizing committee for the Beijing Winter Olympics announced on Monday that tickets to the forthcoming XXIV Olympic Winter Games will not be sold to the general public. Instead, spectators will be invited by “authorities,” and guests will “strictly comply with Covid-19 prevention and control requirements before, during, and after watching the Games.” A further statement by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said, “those in attendance will be residents of China’s mainland.”
The announcement was made just days after the first reported cases of COVID-19’s omicron variant in China. In late December, a Hong Kong study showed that the vaccine used in China, Sinovac, is weaker against omicron when compared to the Pfizer vaccine.
Monday’s decision shares some similarities to the one organizers for the Summer Games in Tokyo made last July. Those Games, initially scheduled for 2020, were delayed for an entire year and involved frustrating international refunds and canceled travel plans. Before the latest update, it had already been announced that tickets to the Beijing Games would only be available to spectators on China’s mainland.
Opening ceremonies in Beijing National Stadium (known colloquially as The Bird’s Nest), which was built for the 2008 Summer Olympics, are set for February 4. The Paralympic Games will begin on March 4.
The organizing committee has reportedly created a “closed loop” system for the various venues, hotels, and transportation between three zones across Beijing, the city of Zhangjiakou (two-and-a-half hours away by road), and the district of Yanqing (90 minutes away). Think of it as the world’s biggest airport terminal.
Christophe Dubi, executive director of the IOC, recently boasted of the closed loop’s logistics and “physical boundaries,” and expressed confidence that “it will not be breached.”
Any participants at the Games, including athletes, referees, trainers, and media representatives (also beer vendors, one presumes), will be required to stay within the bubble. Moreover, Chinese residents not involved with the Games are instructed to avoid all contact with Olympic vehicles, “even if they witness a road accident, and instead wait for professionals to arrive on the scene,” according to the South China Morning Post.
CNN reports that fully vaccinated invitees will be able to enter the loop without quarantining. Those who are unvaccinated will need to quarantine for 21 days upon arrival in Beijing. There will be daily health monitoring throughout the Games.
Live television coverage of the Beijing Games will be broadcasted early in the morning on Peacock and NBC in the U.S., with edited primetime coverage each evening.
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