On July 31, 2015, the International Olympic Committee announced that Beijing had been chosen to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, beating out Almaty, Kazakhstan. Since then, the world has been in anticipation for the grand opening. Let’s dive into some of the most important and interesting facts that you should know about the Beijing Winter Olympics.

Where Are The Winter Olympics 2022?

1. The last time Beijing hosted the Olympics was during the 2008 Summer Olympics. Beijing is the first city ever to host both the summer and winter Olympic Games.

2. Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games will officially open on 4 February 2022 and come to an end at the Closing Ceremony, scheduled for 20 February 2022.

3. For the Winter Olympics 2022, there are 26 venues (including training venues) in total and they would be running on entirely renewable energy.

4. More than 346 million Chinese people have participated in winter sports activities since Beijing’s successful bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics in 2015.

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5. The event will be held in three zones: Beijing, Yanqing, and Zhangjiakou. The ice sports will be held in central Beijing, China’s capital along with four snow events (snowboard big air and freestyle skiing big air, men’s and women’s). 

6. Since Beijing suffers from a lack of snow and air pollution could pose a problem, some events will be hosted at Zhangjiakou which is about 125 miles from the capital.

7. Zhangjiakou is located approximately 180 kilometers northwest of Beijing. It will host the majority of the ski and snowboarding events including freestyle, cross-country, ski jumping, Nordic combined, and biathlon.

8. The Chinese leg of Torch Relay will have only three days. The relay will start on 2 February, on the morning of the first day of the Chinese New Year. 

9. The Torch Relay for Winter Olympics for 2022 will only visit two cities: Beijing and Zhangjiakou, making this event the shortest relay ever.

10. The Olympic torch, called “Flying,” has a curled ribbon design, and is similar to the design of the 2008 torch.

The Impact of Covid-19 On Winter Olympics

11. After the first Omicron variant was detected in Beijing, an announcement 17 January 2022 declared that the tickets sales to the general public will be canceled. These are the second Olympics in a row to remain closed to the public due to COVID-19.

12. To prevent the virus from leaking into the community, all the participants, including coaches, journalists and around 2,900 athletes will enter a Covid-19 bubble that China calls a “closed-loop system”.

13. Anyone entering the “closed-loop system” must be fully vaccinated or face a 21-day quarantine when they touch down. Inside, each person will be tested daily and must wear face masks at all times.

14. As of 24 January 2022, 91 National Olympic Committees have qualified for the Winter Olympics 2022. Among those, Haiti and Saudi Arabia are scheduled to make their Winter Olympic debut.

Budget Of Beijing Winter Olympics 2022

15. The estimated budget for the games is US$3.9 billion. This is less than one-tenth of the $43 billion spent on the 2008 Summer Olympics. 

16. Beijing has planned to lower the cost of staging the Games through marketing well and arranging the venues properly. It also plans to make the most of its investment in the infrastructure for the 2008 Olympics.

17. The most expensive Winter Olympics was conducted in Sochi 2014 at USD 21.9 billion. Despite the fact that cost for the Winter Games is typically much lower than for the Summer Games, it surpassed the record by the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games.

Official Mascot and Medal Designs For Winter Olympics 2022

18. The official mascot of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games is a giant panda named Bing Dwen Dwen (冰墩墩). “Bing” means ice and symbolizes purity and strength.  “Dwen Dwen” represents children. Overall, the mascot represents the strength and willpower of athletes and the idea behind it is to promote the Olympic spirit.

19. The medals for the event – named “Tong Xin”, meaning “together as one” – are composed of five rings and a center. The medal design is based on Chinese ancient jade concentric circle pendants. The five rings on the medal represent the Olympic spirit to bring people together and the grandeur of the Olympic Winter Games being shared all over the world. The design concept is also based on traditional Chinese astronomy and astrology as the games will be held coinciding with the Chinese New Year festivities.
    
20. Skater Gao Tingyu and skeleton athlete Zhao Dan the Chinese delegation’s flag-bearers for the opening of the Winter Olympics.

Which Sports Events Will Take Place In Winter Olympics 2022?

21. The event will include a record 109 events. More than 2,600 athletes are going to participate. There will be seven sports with the following 15 disciplines. 

• Alpine Skiing
• Biathlon
• Bobsled
• Cross-Country Skiing
• Curling
• Figure Skating
• Freestyle Skiing
• Hockey
• Luge
• Nordic Combined
• Short Track
• Skeleton
• Ski Jumping
• Snowboarding
• Speed Skating

Other Beijing Winter Olympics Facts & Trivia

22. The use of artificial snow at the Winter Olympics has drawn concerns. The Loughborough University report stated that by 2050, only 10 of the 20 venues that have hosted the Winter Olympics since 1924 will be capable of producing the amount of snow required to hold an international-level competition like the Winter Olympics. 

23. High volumes of water and energy will be required to create the slopes of artificial snow. However, Beijing has reported that only 2% of the local water supply has been used for the Olympics. At Zhangjiakou, this figure is 9.8%.

24. 109 sets of medals will be awarded in the Winter Olympics 2022. These are seven more than the medals awarded at the last Winter Olympics at PyeongChang 2018. 

25. New events that will be contested are – 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.

26. The streaming home for the Beijing Winter Games is Peacock. It will be offering live stream coverage of every single event–that’s over 2,800 hours of Olympic action. Viewers can also tune to NBC, USA, and CNBC to watch the Games. Streaming will also be hosted via NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app. 
    
27. Almaty 2022 was an unsuccessful bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics by the National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the city of Almaty.

References –

1. https://olympics.com/en/beijing-2022/
2. https://olympics.nbcsports.com/2022/01/27/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-2022-winter-olympics/
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Winter_Olympics