Sights and sounds of Beijing.

The theme of everything her today, on multiple levels, is to reflect on the good and the bad of what we’ve been seeing, and hearing, in different ways, these past few days.

What we’ve seen – Overall Summary

We’re 4 days into the 16 that make up the primary dates of these Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games. It’s obviously been mad fun so far, like always. I find it slightly frustrating sometimes, though each sport is scheduled considering only itself and its own priorities so fair enough, that there appears to at times be strangely empty windows of nothing, then everything at once. In the Summer Games it’s all the things all the time. But here, there’s been a certain pattern so far. Nothing really starts until 12pm, and things don’t get going until 1pm. Then its sometimes a busier earlier or later afternoon but there tends to be a quieter window again somewhere, usually in the 5-6 block. Then your early evening features like Cross-Country, Biathlon and Speed Skating take over at 6 or 7, and the late night is crazy busy.

But get ready for it to change! The next few days, dominated by mid-afternoon Alpine, Freestyle and Snowboard action, see super busy afternoons, then what will be a bizarre feeling primetime blip, where virtually nothing happens for a couple of hours around 8-10pm. The late night period is always the busiest though, which suits me best, and has seen the greatest drama and excitement so far, particularly in Moguls, Short-Track and Luge.

Jakara Anthony is a beast. Not only is her Women’s Moguls triumph our first Winter Gold in 12 years, but it is probably the first ever where you can clearly and decisively say, she’s easily the best in the world right now. We’ve had dominant favourites fall flat, and we’ve had semi-major or unlikely chances pull of spectacular triumphs. But Anthony came in the probable favourite, was well clear in qualifying, then proceeded to top all three final runs too. Only 5 or 6 runs crossed 80 points throughout the whole competition. All of Anthony’s were 4 of them. What a devastating triumph.

The days have been dominated by the increasing proliferation of X-Games events, with high quality and high drama finals in Big Air Freestyle Skiing and Slopestyle Snowboarding. But the traditional stuff I love the most is starting to take over, with a wind-delay induced mighty double-treat of Alpine action yesterday, where both the Men’s Downhill and Women’s Giant Slalom were total carnage.

Carnage has kind of been the name of the Games to some extent. One of the sights of Beijing 2022 has been people on the deck. So many Winter events are crazy, high speed, dangerous tightrope walks, and there’s not been too many scary moments in the extreme sport stuff I’m still getting used to. But in years of watching Alpine Skiing, Luge and Short Track in particular, favourites of mine I’ve long paid attention to, I can’t remember such a consistent recurrence of dramatic incidents. Last night’s Short Track featured virtually no race (none at all until about a dozen into the night) without crashes and referee penalties. 15-20% of every Alpine event so far hasn’t made the finish, including a few proper hair-raising tumbles that appeared to damage the athlete. The Beijing Luge track features a nasty immediate corner-exist crest called the Dragon’s Tail which keeps spitting everybody up the side walls and over, including the then leader of the Women’s event last night and a couple of would be Men’s Singles medal candidates.

What we’ve heard – The good and the bad

There’s still a fair bit of chatter about the merits and vibe of an Olympics in China. This is obviously fair enough, as China’s humans rights record is appalling and I applaud all those willing to take a stand on the issue. As ever, my perhaps naive policy is that none of this (be it China’s actions, or the IOC’s conduct both generally and in choosing Beijing) is the fault of or in any control of the athletes and this platform is a career-defining vital one for so many to showcase their hard work. I love watching sport, the sport is what it’s about, and I just wish so much of the behind the scenes could find a way to match the positive impact that individuals and performances have (but no matter where any Olympics will ever, that is impossible, it’s just the sorry nature of the world).

But what has been particularly concerning is the inevitable western double standards at play. I don’t mean this in an edgy ‘Australia/America are just as evil’ way. That China’s regime is a special kind of evil is not in question. But the problem is that whatever valid criticism might exist has been harnessed into inappropriate inconsistent assumptions and broad brushstrokes that wouldn’t (and don’t) apply to equal circumstances in western countries. Here are some main examples:

1. There has been rightful controversy surrounding some referee/judge decisions in various events appearing to systemically benefit Chinese athletes, particularly in Short Track Speed Skating. I keep seeing narratives spreading everywhere about ‘systemic cheating culture’ in China and how there must be deep and somehow government involved corruption. Firstly, Short Track is complete chaos and always divisive, that has always been the case. But more to the point, who has ever watched any volume of sport and not observed sincerely poor/incorrect refereeing decisions as questions of competence not propriety? Who has ever seen watched ANY sporting contest ever and not always witnessed host nations/home teams get the rub of the green with officials sometime due to unconscious pressures and biases? None of these things are optimal, but there is nothing occurring at these Olympics which is any different from how things just happen to go sometimes go in the luck-dependent field of sport. There’s no evidence of deeper conspiratorial impropriety and there wouldn’t be anywhere near as much suggestion of it were these Olympics in a western nation.
2. Eileen Gu. A lot of somewhat shady over-zealous focus on her as a ‘glamour girl’, but in the end, what a legit spectacular performance. Surprise surprise though. Upon learning her story it turns out that her defection from the US to China spiraled a great many random Americans into utter apoplexy. Seeing her then win for China, while the US have yet to win a Gold Medal (see No.3 has only accelerated this contempt. Not only is it a typically disgusting western/American trait to seem totally perplexed and offended by someone of mixed parentage traveling apparently ‘downstream’, instead of the considered ‘normality’ of someone ‘becoming American’. But I would very much like to know why so many middle aged American men seem to have become so invested in their own apparently ownership and agency over an attractive, glamorous girl who is 18 years old (a reminder, this is a two year old controversy…).
3. No.2 is being amplified by a whole bunch of panicking some American media and certain individuals seem to be doing over what has been a bit of a nightmare Games for them so far. Gu winning seems to be the final icing on the cake, for her triumph awards the hosts another Gold Medal, not her ‘rightful’ American team, who remain on exactly 0 gold through 4 days full of injuries, setbacks and dramatic underperformance from many of their bigger stars. These things happen and its a shame for the individual athletes. But what a coincidence that I seem to be seeing more than ever, a sense of ‘pff I don’t care anyway, these games are in China, I’m boycotting’ now they aren’t doing well. The sentiment has a clear sense of raw emotion and awareness of event news to suggest that many such people have been watching but are just very sore losers and have decided to jump on the bandwagon of cheap virtue at this convenient opportunity

After all that negativity, now something left field and positive on what we’ve been ‘hearing’ Don’t winter sports just sound the best? I tend to feel this every Olympics but I’m more attuned it it these days. Maybe I’m an old man and appreciate such simple aesthetic pleasures. There are few sports that seem to fit so well as many skiing and skating ones for something full on approaching legitimate soothing ASMR. Perhaps I should watch more winter sports outside the Olympic cycle as a sleep aid.

Alpine Skiing has always been the best. That sound of skis carving through firm (inauthentic) snow is so satisfying. Snowboards produce a slightly more coarse sound on occasion but the effect is generally similar. But there’s also the signature squeak of cross-country skis, and the tinkle of long thin speed skates on perfectly manicured visually satisfying ice? Curling can be a bit hit and miss with all the screaming voices, but the stones on the ice slide in that beautiful way only materials like granite can provide. Ice Hockey is always one of the great sounding sports, with its constant chorus of sticks and skates on pucks, ice and more. Settle in and just relax, doing nothing else, and quietly watch and listen to some of this stuff and in a strange way it might help you seem some of the appeal if you don’t quite yet.

After talking about what we’ve seen and heard, on and off the arena of competition, I was going to talk more about HOW it’s been seen and heard (as in, the broadcast). But this is already quite long and the Channel 7 report card is always its own fun little thing so I’ll save that for later.