2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

Also called: XXIV Olympic Winter Games, 2022 Winter Olympics

Beijing became the first city to host both the Summer (2008) and Winter Olympics; the United States and others staged a diplomatic boycott over human rights in Xinjiang, and the Games were held sealed off from the outside world amid COVID-19.

Ninety-one nations took part from 4 to 20 February at Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, athletes and officials moved only within a “closed loop” cut off from the outside, and only invited spectators were admitted. The region gets little snow, so the snow venues relied almost entirely on artificial snow.

In December 2021 the United States announced a “diplomatic boycott” over human rights in Xinjiang, sending its athletes but no government delegation, and Britain, Canada, Australia, Japan and others followed. South Korea did not join and sent National Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seug. Russian athletes, still under doping sanctions, competed as the “ROC” (Russian Olympic Committee); it emerged during the Games that figure skater Kamila Valieva had tested positive for a banned substance before them, causing an uproar. On 24 February, four days after the closing ceremony, Russia invaded Ukraine.

South Korea won two golds in short track, Hwang Dae-heon in the men’s 1500 m and Choi Min-jeong in the women’s 1500 m. The appearance at the opening ceremony of a performer in hanbok among China’s ethnic minorities provoked a backlash in Korea.