The Olympics in Beijing 2022

Features of the 2022 Olympics

Unlike the recent Summer Games, the Winter Games remain more conservative and do not change dramatically. The list of 15 sports remained the same, but the program was expanded to include seven disciplines. These are mixed team competitions in short track, ski jumping, snowboard cross and freestyle aerials, and women's singles in bobsleigh and men's and women's freestyle competitions in big air.

The announced budget for the Olympics is less than $4 billion - more than ten times less than Beijing spent on the 2008 Summer Games. Many of the sports facilities built for them (including the national stadium) and infrastructure were already ready or have been converted for the Winter Olympics, which made it possible to save a lot of money.

As in Tokyo, in Beijing, participants of the Olympics will be required to be in a bubble and strictly comply with regulations against coronavirus. Foreign fans will not be allowed to attend the Games, but it is still possible that residents of China will be able to visit the competition. In Japan, the Olympics were overwhelmingly held with empty tribunes.

As for the officials, the United States and Australia have announced a diplomatic boycott of Beijing and will send only athletes without a delegation to the Games as a protest against the violation of Uyghur Human Rights. Vladimir Putin, on the contrary, plans to attend the Opening Ceremony, despite the CAS ban. The ban will not apply because the Russian president has a personal invitation from the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping.

Winter Olympics favorites

According to betting analysts, the favorite of the Beijing Olympics team rankings is Norway, the winner of the previous Games. The odds on their superiority in gold medals is 1.35, and the total number of awards - only 1.18. The biggest hopes of the Norwegians are connected with skiing and biathlon, where 12 and 11 sets of medals are awarded, respectively.

Since the representatives of these sports will have 5-6 medal chances (more than others), we should expect Johannes Bø, Sturla Lægreid, Johannes Klæbo and Therese Johaug to be among the most decorated athletes of the Beijing Olympics.

The Germans are listed second in the overall team rankings with odds of 3.50 for gold and 5.00 for all medals, while the Canadians are third with 5.00 and 6.00.

You can bet on a Russian victory in both versions of the scoring for big odds of 15.00. No great sensation is expected from the ROC team. Still, in any case, it should perform much more successfully than in Pyeongchang, where it was deprived of many favorites because of doping scandals, and even those who were not accused of doping. In 2018, the Russians took only two gold medals, and because of that, they ranked 13th in the team standings, although with six silver and seven bronze medals in total, they were in the top 6.

The analytics company, Gracenote, predicts that Russia will win 33 medals (11 gold, 12 silver and 10 bronze) in Beijing, losing only to Norway (22-12-12, 46 total). But that's true that Germany is ahead in gold (12-9-7, 28 total), and Canada and the U.S. are significantly behind.

Main events of the Beijing Olympics

Since the Chinese Olympics, unlike the Korean, will be attended by the world's strongest hockey players. A lot of attention will be on the men's hockey tournament, which will begin with a match between Russia and Switzerland on February 9 and end with the final on the last day of the Olympics, the 20th. The ROC team is going to the tournament as the reigning champion. But, there were no NHL players in Pyeongchang, so there is no point in comparing the two tournaments.

Only figure skating can compete with hockey in terms of viewership. The team tournament begins on the opening day, February 4, and ends on the 7th. Then the individual events begin, and the women's singles program will draw special attention. On February 15, the short program will take place, and on February 17, we will see the free skating program.

Kamila Valieva

The program is also equally divided between biathlon and cross-country skiing. Russia expects gold from Alexander Bolshunov in any of the three individual races: the skiathlon on February 6, the cross-country skiing on February 11 and the marathon on February 19. The women's and men's relay races will occur on February 12-13. The mixed relay will take place on the 5th, with men on the 15th and women on the 16th.

Freestyle skier Maxim Burov stands out in the less popular events. He won two gold medals in air acrobatics at the 2021 World Championships and went on to win the next season. On February 10, he will lead the ROC team, and on the 16th, he will go for a personal Olympic gold. Also, on February 8, parallel slalom specialists, world champions Dmitry Loginov and Sofia Nadirshina, will fight for the medals in snowboarding.