smooth Games for China despite a “difficult” context

A pinch of Covid, a hint of politics, a thin layer of snow, a meager public but also a large dose of Valieva and sporting exploits galore, like Quentin Fillon Maillet and Eileen Gu: the Olympic Games of Beijing ended on Sunday, February 20, with the usual cocktail.

In Beijing’s National Stadium, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach declared the 2022 Winter Olympics “closed”.

The next meeting of the Winter Olympics will take place in Italy, jointly in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, in 2026, while the Olympic flame will light the next time for the Summer Olympics 2024 in Paris.

In Beijing, the closing ceremony began, as planned, at 8 p.m. (1 p.m. French time), lowering the curtain on this very special fortnight, under the regime of a very strict health bubble which greatly ruined the Olympic party.

Just as regrettable but more common in Olympic history, doping also came to Beijing with a name: Kamila Valieva.

At 15, the Russian skater finds herself at the center of a resounding affair that will continue well beyond the Chinese meeting.

>> To read: Anorexia, requirement and doping: behind the skater Kamila Valieva, the shadow of Eteri Tutberidze

Arriving as the big favorite in the individual event, thanks in particular to her quadruple jumps, Valieva began by winning the team event, ahead of the Americans and Japan, on 7 February. Doom! The next day, she was notified of a positive doping control for a test carried out on December 25.

With calls and procedures, Valieva, the IOC and the World Anti-Doping Agency are trying to unravel the imbroglio.

On the eve of the individual event, the skater is finally allowed to participate. But the IOC warns it will take the results as provisional and will not award medals until the case is resolved – which could take months. Finally, after dominating the short program, she literally broke down in the freestyle and finished… at the foot of the podium, worn out by the pressure.

Quickly returned home, the teenager must now recover and wait, just like the Americans, furious at not having received their medal, and the Japanese.

Biathlon in great shape

Medals, some have drunk it. Quentin Fillon Maillet has accumulated five, a feat that no Frenchman had ever achieved during the same Winter Olympics.

The Jurassian leaves these Olympics with two titles (individual and pursuit) and three silver medals (mixed relay and men, sprint), more than any other athlete at these Olympics, tied with his great Norwegian rival Johannes Boe, also Norwegian biathlete Marte Olsbu Roeiseland and Russian cross-country skier Alexander Bolshunov.

“QFM” will therefore have been the main provider of French medals. With its five podiums, plus the title of Justine Braisaz-Bouchet in mass-start and the silver of Anaïs Chevalier-Bouchet in individual, the biathlon is even worth half of the fourteen medals of the French camp.

After the failure in the quarter-finals of the alpine skiers during the team event on Sunday, the French count stopped at one unit of the 2018 Olympics record.

The Blues can however console themselves with so many gold medals, since to those of Fillon Maillet and Braisaz-Bouchet, are added Clément Noël in slalom and the duo Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron in ice dancing.

Unfortunately, these exploits could not be as festive as they deserved.

A discreet audience

The public invited by officials was present – unlike last summer in Tokyo – but, with less than 100,000 spectators announced by the organizers – against 1 million four years ago in Pyeongchang – spread over thirteen sites and 109 events , these Olympic Games were gloomy and often silent.

The health bubble has indeed spoiled a large part of the pleasure, with the wearing of the compulsory mask, the daily tests and above all the travel restrictions, the impossibility for the athletes to stay a few days once their events are over to go and encourage their compatriots. , to escape this bubble to meet the local population…

But, in the end, the organisers’ zero Covid policy worked. Certainly, some athletes, affected by the Covid-19, had to give up their Olympic dream. But, in view of the more than 60,000 daily tests, i.e. more than 1.8 million in total, there was no cluster or slaughter, since the Olympic population had no more than three positive cases out of the ten. last days. And even those placed in solitary confinement did not seem to have suffered, like the Norwegian Johannes Boe, quadruple Olympic champion in biathlon.

The fortnight had also started with controversies over human rights or the lack of natural snow, made with snow cannons.

Games without scandal

The debate on human rights has come neither from athletes, nor from countries like the United States which have decided on a diplomatic boycott, nor from organizations opposed to the holding of these Olympics in China, accused of violating for human rights in the Xinjiang region against the Uyghur minority.

>> Beijing 2022: Olympic Games under close digital surveillance

To the few questions asked on this subject, the spokesperson for the Organizing Committee, Yan Jiarong, spoke of “lies”, before being called to order by the IOC, which does not want to mix sport and politics, and organizers pulled Uyghur cross-country skier Dinigeer Yilamujiang out of their hats to light the Olympic cauldron during the opening ceremony on February 4.

Heaven also extinguished the snow controversy as, after a week spent lamenting the dry, arid, and white-free landscapes of the mountain venues of Zhangjiakou and Yanqing, the Holy Snow finally fell in the middle of the Olympics, whitening the backgrounds.

Now it’s time for the next Olympics with a return to Europe, after Rio, Pyeongchang, Tokyo and Beijing.

In four years, the next winter edition will be in Italy with a unique Milan/Cortina duo, who will recover the Olympic flag at the end of the evening from the hands of the IOC President, Thomas Bach, just before the traditional extinguishing of the Olympic flame.

And in two years, it will be in Paris that it will shine! The next Olympic meeting in 2024 will take place in the French capital, where the organizers promise festive summer Olympics.

The Olympic world needs it.

With AFP