Quaker2001

I know. It's just perpetuating the dumb idea that the Olympics might not happen. There were people less than a week before Tokyo thinking they might pull the plug. But they didn't, and they pulled it off. To that end... I would absolutely use the word success to describe what Tokyo did this summer. They were forced into an absolutely unprecedented situation and managed to complete every event, award every medal, and somehow put talks of COVID largely on the backburner throughout the games. Sure, it would have been better if they could have postponed it another year, but that was never going to be an option. Given the circumstances they were up against, they couldn't have been expected to do much better. As for Omicron.. maybe it's because I'm in the United States and I'm seeing different reports than you are, but where'd you get the 0-20% numbers? Of course there's reason for concern, especially so far as international travel is concerned. But that was the case with Delta over the summer. It sounds like this is going to be worse, but we're further ahead on the timeline of vaccinations than we were 6 months ago. Chances are, Beijing will be a lot like Tokyo.. some athletes will test positive and not be able to compete. Some may decline the opportunity to compete in the first place. But I think when we're looking back at this in March or April, it'll be the same sentiment. That it was foolish to go ahead with the Olympics, but they did it anyway as best they could. Because we know darn well that the IOC and the Chinese organizers won't spend more than 5 seconds considering a postponement and creating another year of anti-China backlash. At this point, I'm sure there's sentiment from almost everyone to just get this over with and move on to Paris and Milan-Cortina

You should be sure. Tokyo was held during a surge in the pandemic and they completed every event. What chaos at the short course worlds? Yes, a number of athletes couldn't compete. Yet, every event was held. If that's "how bad it could get," then the Olympics should be a lot easier with all the safety protocols they're likely to have in place. Please stop fear-mongering. We all know COVID is a serious issue, but it's not going to get the IOC or China to say "you know what, let's postpone the Olympics, we can't have them now"

Makes it an easier sell that they just extended the holiday pause to say now they can't send players to Beijing. Why wait if the decision has already been made?

You know that's not happening. So if you still think that, you're nuts.

According to reports, we should get a formal announcement within the next 24 hours. No real surprise. The NHL owners are likely more than happy to use COVID as an excuse to not send players to Beijing since they'll want to use the February break to make up games

You got that right. The NHLPA wants the Olympics on behalf of their players. The owners hate it. So they will absolutely use COVID and the postponements to say they need the February break to make up all of those games. That plus the prospect of being quarantined in China for weeks on end. It's all unfortunate for the players and especially the fans who were hoping for NHL participation, but it seems like it's not meant to be

To borrow an obscure movie reference, but it works perfectly here.. Tahiti is not in Europe

Wonder if he'd think that if the next Olympics wasn't in France.

Only 92 countries competed in Korea in 2018, so less than half the countries that normally show up at a Summer Olympics will likely be in China. So far, the list of diplomatic boycotts are largely confined to the Anglosphere.. USA, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand. Only European country that has committed to a boycott is Lithuania. We'll see if other dominoes fall there.

Can't speak for other countries, but in this one, the Olympic committee is not tied to the government. So the government can't force the athletes to boycott here. The USOPC changed their bylaws to stop outside influences from affecting their ability to compete. And needless to say, athletes don't want to be told they can't compete.

They were invited. And you can be darn sure that the Chinese are upset they won't attend, even if they don't say so public. Would have been great PR for them to have President Biden or other dignitaries in their country. Now that's not going to happen What NearPup said. This isn't a formal process where foreign dignitaries can only attend an Olympics if there's an invitation. Countries can generally send whoever they want. In this case, the US government is sending no one. And LOL at the politically neutral comment.

I doubt the people have that much influence. They can demand all they want, but I doubt most countries will flinch. Diplomatic boycotts may happen, but I'd be surprised if we saw any major organized athlete boycotts.

This is closer to becoming a thing.. U.S. expected to announce diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing

Fucks given by the IOC or the Chinese organizers continue to remain steady at 0. Much like Tokyo, these Olympics are going to happen no matter how loud the screaming is to cancel them

Costs a lot of money to earn that money. Especially for a Winter Olympics which require a lot of specialized venues that many cities or countries don't necessarily have ready to go. Not so easy to find that city/country, particularly considering how awful the IOC is these days. Of course we won't see a boycott. But we did see Norway show interest in hosting the 2022 Olympics, only for public support to drop and for their bid committee to scoff at the IOC's miles long list of demands. I'm still surprised they managed to find 2 European bids for 2026 after all of them dropped out of the running for 2022. LOL that you buy into the "NBC hardly shows anything not involving the US" narrative because that is a giant heaping pile of bullshit. Yea, they'll promote the hell out of the biggest stars and occasionally shove certain sports to cable, but the American public is really dumb. All the people who said "I can't find what I want to watch" probably spent about 14 seconds and then gave up. Didn't take a masters degree to know when things are on and if you factor in cable, there were tons of sports that didn't involve the United States. As for soccer, speaking of NBC, that's an awful lot of money for a sport Americans don't care about.. Premier League, NBC Sports Extend TV Rights Contract in Deal Reportedly Worth $2.7B

Salt Lake City is ready to jump all over 2030. So the IOC has absolutely nothing to worry about. They have the United States and maybe if Sapporo can get public support (much easier said than done), they're an option as well. Different this time around though. A lot of the political strife they dealt with in the 70s wasn't of their own making. These days, there's a lot of animosity towards the IOC that isn't going away any time soon. Cities and countries are flat out rejecting them. For well over a decade, we've seen the field of interested cities slowly dwindle, especially when it comes to the Winter Olympics. As long as they have 1 willing partner each time, that's all that matters, so they'll probably be fine.

You don't need to wonder that. It won't. Diplomatic boycotts will happen (as is starting to come together in the United States), but not by the athletes. As horrible as this saga is with Peng Shuai, it won't lead to athlete boycotts IMO

2-0 Dos a cero!

Toronto has lost their first 2 against Minnesota, so clearly that's not helping them. Right now the Yankees are 2 games ahead of the Blue Jays, so that's a bad starting point for Toronto. The head to head will probably determine who gets the 2nd wild card. And remember that the Rays, but that last series of the season, may have very little left to play for when they're facing the Yankees. It's far from over, but huge upper hand to the Yankees based on the past few days, especially if they can get 1 of these next 2 in Boston

From the IIHF... Olympic schedule announced Men's field is all set. Women's field still has 3 teams to qualify. And remember the women's tournament has expanded to 10 teams, so they'll start play the day before the opening ceremony. Men's format is identical to the last 3 Olympics

I agree with this. I don't think it would be sensible to have a policy that said "you have to be vaccinated, unless you had COVID" because then you might have athletes who claim they had COVID to avoid getting the jab. Especially since this seems to be a thing.. Are some NFL players using fake vaccination cards?

That's a big if. There's only 5 months til the games, so I don't think their efforts will get organized in time to have a serious effect

Probably around a 9. Might have been an 8, but given the circumstances to get here and all the uncertainty that lead up to it, hard to expect for more than we got. A massive thank you to everyone involved for pulling it all off

Actual substantiated rumors? Or more like the buzz we heard the week leading up to the Olympics where it was like "we're monitoring the situation closely" and some media outlets were like "they might cancel the Olympics"

USA - 39 golds China - 38 golds