by Tyler Thompson and Garrison Wester
February 4th marked the start of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China. This Olympics came with many political issues and affairs. This Olympics came with much tension between the United States, Russia, and China with the Russia Ukraine situation (for more on the Russia Ukraine situation, check out this article written by Zach Lozevski and Ethan Carraway ). Many hope that this year's Olympics can help ease these tensions, and everyone hopes that they do not heighten them, as they did in 1936 when Hitler refused to shake Jesse Owens’ hand. We also see a parallel between this situation and the Olympic hockey game between the USA and the USSR during the Cold War. Along with these tensions, the current Covid situation is playing a big role in this year’s Olympics.
In 1981, an underpowered USA men’s hockey team was set off to face the Russian Olympic Hockey team and at the same time they were competing against each other the Cold War was going on. The Cold War was between the USA and USSR, and it took place from 1946 to 1991. The USSR hockey team was much better and they were supposed to win without a doubt. Many saw them as a team who stood no chance, but their coach thought otherwise. Herbert Paul Brooks Jr. was the coach of the USA men’s team, and going into the match he knew they would win. The team’s players were only amateurs, due to USA’s ban on pro athletes in the Olympics, and the NHL All-star team lost to the Soviet Union. This really shows how much of an underdog the USA Olympic team was. Herb Brooks knew this and made sure that his team was well-conditioned and mentally prepared. In fact, after their game against Norway, Brooks made his team run sprints until his players puked. Before the game, their coach gave his team a motivational speech about how they had a great opportunity and they went and took it. The team ended up coming from behind and winning after the Soviet goalie was benched after he allowed 2 goals in the first period. After this, the USA seized their opportunity and held on to a lead throughout the third period. The US team ended up winning 4-3 and their reaction was priceless. They were proud of being seen as the underdogs because they had a chip on their shoulder and that made them want it even more. They wanted to prove themselves right and also prove all the people who doubted them wrong. This relates to a currency event going on now between Russia and Ukraine. Ukraine is seen as the underdog story in this situation so they have a chip on their shoulder and have something to fight for (refer to Zachary and Ethan’s article about the Ukraine and Russia conflict).
The Olympics this year may also look different because of Covid 19. There will be very few fans able to attend the events this year so most of the watching will be done from an electronic device. In Yank King, there was an elderly man who dressed up in a hazmat suit to welcome participants and the few spectators for the events of alpine skiing and sliding. Beijing came out and said that all of the athletes do not have to be vaccinated to compete in their event but there was a downfall for not having it. If you were not vaccinated you would have to stay in quarantine for 21 days before your planned arrival date. The United States and Paralympic Committee came out and made it to where all of the United States athletes had to be fully vaccinated.
If you are vaccinated you don’t have to quarantine at all upon your arrival date. When the participants get to their event's destination they are put into a village and they are not allowed to leave it just to be cautious so they lower their chances of getting in contact with someone who has Covid. These decisions are surrounded by various opinions from the public and the media. Many think that athletes should be required to be fully vaccinated. Others think that no one should be required to be vaccinated to compete and that there should be no restrictions on these athletes. The athletes also have varying opinions on these rules and COVID restrictions. For example, in the women’s hockey game between Canada and ROC, the game was delayed due to ROC not receiving their latest test results. Once the game finally started, both teams wore masks. ROC’s players ended up taking off their masks in the third period, but Canada kept theirs on the whole game. This is a testament to how much COVID has affected us in not only daily life but in sports.
Although our world is currently facing many problems in the wake of COVID-19 and rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine, the show must go on. This is the first Winter Olympics under circumstances such as these, and both of these issues have definitely affected the Olympics thus far. It will be interesting to see what is to come and how the Olympics will come to play in COVID policies and international politics in the future. Now, only time will tell.
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