It hardly seems a moment has passed since the end of the last Olympic games in Tokyo, owing to the unconventional arrangement that has seen two events in two years for the first time since the modern games first began. It’s an Olympics full of firsts, too, actually – Beijing will be taking the honor of being the first ever city to host both a Summer and Winter games.
This is actually a very strange situation – the Winter games are traditionally held in .. well, colder countries, whilst the summer games take the opposite role.
But How?
Most people can tell you that it never snows in Beijing, and furthermore, much of the games are to take place in Zhangjiakou, a city that lies between Beijing and Inner Mongolia. This area is located right on the edge of the Gobi Desert, one of the least snowy spots in the whole of Asia, which is testament to the fact that bidding for the Olympic Games can be a strange process indeed.
As ever then, hundreds of millions of dollars will be spent building out new infrastructure to support these games, most of which will take place in artificial environments constructed indoors. China hopes that these venues will be used for ski tourism when the games are finished.
How Will it Compare to the 2008 Summer Games?
China will no doubt spend as much as it needs to ensure these games are a success of epic proportions, just like they did 13 years ago, and considering they reportedly spent $40 billion last time around, it won’t be a surprise if this is a showpiece of a Winter Olympics on a scale that we have never seen before. The Winter games typically aren’t quite the international phenomenon that the Summer games are, but perhaps one positive of this could be to change this in the future, potentially interesting more cities to bid for the Winter games.
The Winter Olympics will take place between February 4th, 2022, and February 20th, 2022 – just six months after the Tokyo games. Even if the Olympics will take place 2 months from now, the major bookmakers such as Unibet NJ already provide odds on the most important events. In addition to the previously mentioned city of Zhangjiakou, Yanqing is also slated to host several Winter events, with ice sports, which tend to be the most popular of the Winter sports, reserved for the Capital Beijing.
Which Sports Will be Contested?
There are a total of 109 medal events across 15 sports this time around, including:
- Alpine Skiing
- Biathlon
- Bobsled
- Cross-Country Skiing
- Curling
- Figure Skating
- Freestyle Skiing
- Hockey
- Luge
- Nordic Combined
- Short Track
- Skeleton
- Ski Jumping
- Snowboarding
- Speed Skating
It’s easy to see why the Winter games don’t have quite the prestige of the summer games – some of these sports are relatively unknown in some parts of the world, leading fewer countries to field teams for the Winter games than for the summer ones. There are seven new events this year, however – Women’s Monobob, Men’s and Women’s Big Air (Freestyle Skiing), Mixed Team Snowboard Cross, Mixed Team Aerials, Mixed Team Short Track Relay, and Mixed Team Ski Jumping.
How are the United States Expected to Perform?
At the last Winter Games, the United States collected 23 medals – nine gold, eight silver, and six bronze, and whilst they will no doubt be hoping to do a little better this time around, the likelihood is that the American haul is likely to be similar, if not lower, than at PyeongChang. Expect China to put on an awesome showing, as they did in 2008.