OlymPicks: Chinese Official Calls Out COVID "Inaction and Irresponsibility," Everyone Else Excited About Coins and Ice Cube

In OlymPicks, we highlight news, gossip, and developments regarding the buildup to Beijing's 2022 Winter Olympics.

Shade throwing becomes newest Olympic sport

During a press conference this past Thursday, Dec 3, Vice President of the Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies, Sun Ming, spoke passionately about the “Olympic spirit,” and its larger themes and lessons for healthy, friendly competition between nations. More than just a two-week celebration of seasonal sports, Sun suggested, every Olympic Games provides an opportunity to step back, tone down the rhetoric, and focus on common global goals such as unity and progress, adding, “we need to show the world that China cannot develop without the world and that the world needs China for prosperity.” 

A magnanimous message to be sure, however, one that was slightly undercut by another speaker, Wang Fan, the Vice President of China Institute of International Relations, who lambasted the “inaction and irresponsibility of a few countries that have made the pandemic prevention and control difficult.” He didn’t name any names, but let’s be real, he didn’t have to. The numbers in places like the US, India, and Brazil speak for themselves. To be fair, Wang is not at all wrong, and shade’s given where shade’s due. Frankly, if the Major League Baseball organization couldn’t even keep Dodgers’ third baseman Justin Turner from contracting the coronavirus during the World Series, things don’t bode too well for the Olympics which, unlike the MLB’s World Series, is actually a world series. 

Beijing makes good on green promises

Meanwhile, at the same press conference, Renmin University’s Deputy Dean of the National Institute of Development and Strategy, Xu Qinhua, explained that “the idea of a green sporting event is of even greater importance at a time when climate change, environmental issues, and other factors affect our daily life,” adding that the Beijing Winter Olympic Games should be met with a global commitment to carbon neutrality.

For what it’s worth, Beijing is in fact taking steps to practice what they preach, and on Wednesday, Dec 2, it was announced that the repurposed Water Cube was the first Beijing 2022 venue to be completed. Originally used for aquatics events during the 2008 Summer Olympics, the site will now host curling events and has appropriately been re-christened the Ice Cube. Many of the structure’s existing materials were able to be reused thanks to a water ice conversion system, which further reduced redevelopment costs. Likewise, all ice rinks are using a new technology that will reduce energy consumption by more than 40 percent. All told, of the 12 venues to feature at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, eight of them are “legacy venues,” or those that were built for the 2008 Games. 

People’s Bank of China mints Olympic collectible 

Last month, stamp aficionados had their day when China Post and the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee released the first set of official Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics commemorative stamps. Well, a little over a week ago, coin collectors got the news they had been waiting for as the People’s Bank of China unveiled their set of nine commemorative coins. Each coin bears an image of the Great Wall, snowflakes, and Beijing 2022’s official emblem. We’re assuming that’s the “tails” side, as the opposite has different pictures, denominations, and hanzi for “The 24th Winter Olympics” – definitely “heads” side material. 

The most valuable of the coins – limited to a run of 1,000 – contains a whopping 150 grams of pure gold and is worth RMB 2,000. Second place obviously goes to the hefty silver coins, which boast 150 grams of silver, with 20,000 in circulation. There are also 20,000 five gram and 80,000 15 gram versions of the gold and silver, respectively, as well as a run of 10,000 bimetallic coins made from 30 grams of gold and 12 grams of silver. Incidentally, all of the coins are legal tender. 

Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games schedule announced

Lastly, organizers for the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games recently revealed the competition schedule for the games, set to take place Feb 4-Feb 20, 2022. But guess what… this is not the seventh version of the schedule they’ve released, so we’re not even going to bother telling you about it. Want to waste your own time reading about something that’s probably going to change again? Be our guest. We’ll check back in once the schedule has been finalized. 

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Images: Tommy Wong via Flickr, Johns Hopkins via the Guardian, arup, People's Bank of China