Start counting down the days, the 2022 Winter Olympics are right around the corner.
With the surge of covid-19 cases and the contagious omicron variant, concerns have come up on whether or not the 2022 Winter Olympics will actually happen. As of right now, the intention is that they will indeed occur, although there is still quite a bit of uncertainty.
This year’s Winter Olympics are taking place in Beijing, China and are scheduled to officially begin on February 4th and close on February 20th. The Paralympics will then take place on March 4th with ten days of competition concluding on March 14th.
Beijing is the first city to host both the summer and winter Olympics and they will actually be reusing several of the venues from the 2008 Summer Olympics for this year.
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Normally, the Winter Olympics and the Summer Olympics take place every four years but staggered by two years, meaning we get either a summer or winter edition every two years. If you think that it feels like it hasn’t been that long since the last Olympics, you’re not alone. Since the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics were postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has actually only been a six month gap between the 2020 Summer Games and this years, 2022 Winter Games.
There will be seven different sports at this year’s Winter Olympics, and also different disciplines for each. There will be biathlon, bobsleigh (which includes both bobsleigh and skeleton), curling, ice hockey, luge, skating (which includes speed skating, short track speed skating and figure skating) and skiing (which includes cross-country skiing, ski jumping, Nordic combined, alpine skiing, freestyle skiing and snowboard).
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It comes as no surprise; this year’s Winter Olympics will look a little different due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Protocols like quarantining, social distancing, limited contact and limited spectators will be taking place. According to the International Olympic Committee all athletes will be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 at least 14 days before their arrival if they hope to compete.
Check out the full 2022 Winter Olympic schedule here.