The 2022 Winter Olympics, hosted in Beijing, ended with a bang this past Sunday. This Olympics, however, took place less than a year after the last Olympic games, which were postponed due to COVID. In past years there has been much more hype surrounding the Olympic Games. It was an event to sit down with friends or family and choose the games that you wanted to watch. This year, however, it seems that there is very little excitement for the games. 

This is the first major event that has been hosted in China since COVID began, and it is very controversial that they are hosting the games because the virus originated there. There are a lot of precautions that have been taken due to this, yet there have been over 300 cases due to the Olympics so far. 

These are not the only reasons that this year’s Olympics are controversial; many people have boycotted the Olympics because of the slave labor that China uses, especially when it comes to creating cotton, as well the environmental damage that China causes. Not only this, but since 2017 over one million Uyghurs have been forced into concentration camps. The Chinese Government has not come out and given a reason behind the treatment of the Uyghur people, but there are many assumptions. 

“Well I think…there is a lack of interest and usually the winter Olympics, in my opinion, is less interesting than the summer Olympics, just because the sports are a little bit more European like the skiing and some of those events, but I think you throw COVID in the mix and then you throw the human rights issues in China, I mean I think the athlete interest as well as the public interest is just waning,” history teacher Stephen Van Nuys said. “To me it’s a very bizarre year with the Olympics and it seems like there is a general lack of interest. Now you’re hearing these reports of the conditions of the athletes and it’s just very weird.”

President Biden stated that he would not officially be sending an official delegate to the Olympic games this year, but he would be watching them. This year many people have decided that they will not be watching the games due to a slew of reasons. It seems like this year there is a lack of attention being put on the Games and many people don’t even know that they are happening right now. 

“This year I am going to boycott watching the Olympics because I do not agree with what is going on in China,” senior Julia Mendelson said. “I probably would not have watched the Olympics either way, but after learning what is going on, I have made the decision to skip the Olympics this year.” 

On the other hand there are many Americans that have decided that they will watch the games regardless because they want to support the athletes that have been training for these games.  

“I will be watching the Olympics this year. I want to support my country and all the athletes that represent my country,” senior Sophie Huddleston said. “Just because China has been making mistakes it does change the fact that all of these athletes have trained for so many years, and have given everything to their sport and I don’t think that we should boycott the Olympics because of cancel culture.”

While it is understandable why people would not want to watch the games in hope to send a message to China, many also find it important to support the athletes that have spent their whole lives training in hopes to make the games. For some athletes, including Shaun White, this is their last Olympics and many want to support him during this time.

“I have loved watching Shaun White in the Winter Olympics for many years and because it’s his last Olympics I really want to be there to witness it,” senior Ava Graf said. “I understand why people are not watching this year, but I will continue to watch to support the athletes who have worked so hard for this opportunity.”

All of this talk about boycotting the Olympics also begs the question, is this a meaningful way to send a message that what is going on in China is unacceptable. Many people think that there must be better ways to prove a point. 

“I think that it’s important to respect the choice of the athletes, if people are being told that they are boycotting for a reason, it is not as powerful as people choosing to boycott for that reason. I think that in our culture it’s easy to post your opinion on social media and then think about something else, but that never really makes a change. If a person is willing to sacrifice for what they believe in, that’s the first step to helping people see how meaningful the issue is,” social studies teacher Joe DeRosa said.

Now that the Olympics are officially over, it was reported that 10.7 million people still watched and supported the athletes; this number is down from 15.5 million viewers during the Tokyo summer Olympics in 2018. Whether or not the intentions were political, this year’s Olympics were definitely less publicized than previous years.