Starting Friday, February 4th, 2022 the Beijing Winter Olympics will take place with teams all over the world competing for big wins. Both Summer and Winter Olympics take place every four years in different locations around the world.  In preparation for the games coming up in just a few weeks, people are concerned about COVID and the protocols that are going to take place.

As of now only visitors can come locally and must have an invitation. Vaccinations are not required to participate in the games but a 21-day quarantine before is in full effect. Many events such as figure skating have been canceled or relocated because of travel and too many protocols in Beijing. “With COVID’s changing conditions and China’s zero-tolerance policy, it’s just added a layer of complexity to all of this so we need to make sure we can provide the same quality experience to the American viewers. That’s why we are split between the two cities,” said the NBC reporter.

Are the Winter Olympics now being split? It’s almost unclear. With that being said, the reasoning is China has too strict of a policy, and the competitors, coaches, family members are scared of catching COVID or Omicron and having to be put in a Chinese quarantine for weeks so very far from home. NBC has also officially decided they will NOT be sending announcers to the games because of all the chaos that could be in effect. Could all of this have negative impacts on the competition and games themselves? It’s ‘to be determined’ because we will never know until the actual events start and someone tests positive or an outbreak spreads within the two weeks.