“They’ve easily canceled plenty of things. “At this point, anything could happen, and it’s such a weird headspace to be in, not being confident going in that this is what’s gonna happen,” the three-time gold medalist snowboarder Shaun White told Rolling Stone in an extended interview this month. Multiple Olympic executives acknowledge to Rolling Stone that on-the-ground organizers and national medical experts have internally discussed the contingency plan of a pause in the action, as the NHL did to take a look in the mirror when Omicron hit the United States in December and the league barred its players from Beijing.
More than 175 cases have already surfaced from delegations arriving in China, including at least one snowboarder on Friday, with mounting concern that a wave of athletes could become infected next. They’ll happen next year.’ That would just be actually devastating.”
“ It would really, really suck if they were just like, a week before: ‘Oh, hey! Just kidding! The Olympics are not happening this year. “Once you get Covid, you’re done - you can’t race, you can’t do anything, and there’s, like, no point in wasting four years,” the 21-year-old American speed-skater Maame Biney tells RS. “China has made their decision, and they’re gonna steamroll this thing.” As potential cracks in the Chinese crackdown emerge, competitors at the Beijing Games will be expected to grin and bear it for the NBC cameras while dreading that one positive test that could wipe them out from competition… and land them in a “medical prison” run by the state. After lifetimes preparing for their moment, the Omicron variant is following these young people around the world, straight into a maze of naked capitalism - of germs and depression and greed - that expects blind faith. The International Olympic Committee, organizers in Beijing, and the $2 billion global advertising machine swear that everything is going to be just fine this February: A “filtering” process of travelers into China’s draconian “zero-Covid” environment, followed by daily testing within a “closed loop” and country-specific precautions, will combine to create a triple-bubble of the 24th Winter Olympiad - pandemic-proofing that would give Joe Rogan nightmares and put the efforts of the NBA, NFL, and NHL to shame.īut listen to actual Olympians, as Rolling Stone did in real talk with a cross-section of 17 prominent athletes this month, and you begin to comprehend a mutating pressure. But, look… that’s gonna give me that sense of security and peace of mind now going into the Games, because a lot of people - a lot of athletes - are really, really scared of getting the virus.” Through a gallows smile of gritted teeth, he equates contagion to competitive advantage: “I now have the immunity to go around licking door knobs when I get to the Olympics if need be. “I would love to say that I was in like a big party or an orgy - it was just training with a bunch of athletes half my age,” Alexander, now 38, tells Rolling Stone following a post-quarantine run in Austria.
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