Originally, the NHL was expected to have their players participate in the Olympics. That is no longer the case.
On December 21st, the NHL and the NHL Players’ Association came to an agreement to not participate in the 2022 Winter Olympic men’s hockey tournament in Beijing.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman released this statement:
The National Hockey League respects and admires the desire of NHL players to represent their countries and participate in a ‘best on best’ tournament. Accordingly, we have waited as long as possible to make this decision while exploring every available option to enable our Players to participate in the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
Unfortunately, given the profound disruption to the NHL’s regular-season schedule caused by recent COVID-related events—50 games already have been postponed through Dec. 23—Olympic participation is no longer feasible. We certainly acknowledge and appreciate the efforts made by the International Olympic Committee, the International Ice Hockey Federation and the Beijing Organizing Committee to host NHL Players but current circumstances have made it impossible for us to proceed despite everyone’s best efforts. We look forward to Olympic participation in 2026.
The NHL and NHLPA were negotiating in participating in the Winter Olympics in 2022 and 2026 in their newest collective bargaining agreement after their players did not participate in the 2018 Olympics. The only clause in which players could not participate in the 2022 Olympics was if the 2022 regular season was “materially impacted” by COVID.
“We continue to look forward to the participation of the world’s best hockey players from the other elite ice hockey leagues around the world in Beijing,” the IOC said in a statement. “Their performances in Pyeongchang achieved a large international broadcast audience and demonstrated the exciting, passionate ice hockey that we can expect, which, as in 2018, will be followed by fans from all around the world.”
Because the NHL backed out of participation in the 2022 Olympics, the Olympic rosters will now be filled by amateur players and professionals playing in league outside of the NHL, which can include North American minor leagues and overseas professional leagues, like the KHL. This is what was done for the Pyeongchang Olympics.
“Although we are disappointed to receive this decision by the NHL and NHLPA, we nevertheless fully understand the circumstances that forced this action to be taken,” IIHF president Luc Tardif said in a statement. “It was a shock to see how COVID-19 affected the NHL schedule almost overnight, and we understand the NHL’s decision is in the best interest of the health and safety of its players.”
What the NHL will do over the originally scheduled Olympic break—February 6th to February 22nd—is to reschedule postponed games caused by COVID outbreaks or moving up games that are scheduled later for the season. The NHL All-Star Game is still in place for February 5th.
“Our focus and goal have been and must remain to responsibly and safely compete the entirety of the NHL regular season and Stanley Cup Playoffs in a timely manner,” Bettman continued in his statement. “Therefore, with stringent health protocols once again in place, we will begin utilizing available dates during the Feb. 6-22 window (originally contemplated to accommodate Olympic participation) to reschedule games that have been, or may yet be, postponed.”
While the NHL has not asked arenas not to book events during the break in the case players didn’t participate in the Olympics, many building have booked concerts and other events, looking to make up for lost revenue caused by the pandemic.
And the news of the Olympic decision was met with frustration and sadness from those who were wanting to play in the Olympics.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to be part of two [Olympics],” said Penguins captain Sidney Crosby. “I definitely feel for the guys who have missed numerous opportunities. It’s not something where it’s the next year or you push it a couple of months. These are experiences of a lifetime that you don’t get very many of as an athlete.”
“The whole thing is so disappointing,” said Oilers captain Connor McDavid. “It’s hard to really put into words what I think a lot of guys are feeling, especially the guys that haven’t gotten to go before. Now, we’re missing it for the second time in a row. We can’t dwell on it.”
The NHL acknowledging the players’ desire to represent their countries in a “best-on-best” tournament is a sentiment central to what McDavid said:
We do have to find a way to get a best-on-best tournament at some point here. We can’t go six, seven, eight years without playing best-on-best. You want to play at the Olympics. For me, it’s the biggest stage in sport. Every league in sport does a version of the World Cup. The Olympics is a stage that’s such a global scale. I think everybody wants to play on that stage. The World Cup would still be a great second option. We just want to see best-on-best. That’s what everyone wants.
Among the players opposed to making the trip to Beijing, the biggest point of concern was the reported three-to-five-week quarantine in China should there be a positive test in the Olympics. McDavid said he would be willing to go despite the rule, and that the quarantine would be concerning for all Olympic athletes and not just NHL players:
I think it was a concern for everyone going whether you were a curler, a skier—whatever. It’s obviously a huge concern. It’s something that’s not looking like it’s going to get sorted out. I was certainly willing to go and represent my country.
However, nobody had a more scornful reaction than Brad Marchand. He was slated to represent Canada for the first time, and from what he said, it felt as if the NHL was using COVID as an excuse to pull out of the Olympics:
Very disappointing. That’s something that was promised as part of the CBA when we last signed a deal. Almost felt like they were trying to get out of it for a while, and they didn’t want us to go.
I know that at the end of the day, they don’t care about the Olympics; they don’t make money on it. And that’s ultimately what this is—it’s a business. And we’re an asset. Let’s just call a spade and spade.
Keep in mind that entering the 2022 season, the vaccination rate among players was close to 100%. Now, only one unvaccinated player remains: Tyler Bertuzzi, who has not changed his mind about getting the vaccine.
The NHL and NHLPA announced enhanced protocols on December 18th as COVID cases were soaring through the league. The protocols included mandatory mask wearing inside team facilities and during travel, prohibitions on players dining at indoor restaurants while on the road, locker room access limited to players and club traveling personnel, daily testing, and virtual team meetings.
Additionally, the NHL shut down the Avalanche, Panthers, Bruins, Predators, Flames, Red Wings, Maple Leafs, Blue Jackets, and Canadiens through the holiday break. A total of 65 games between December 13th, 2021, and December 31st, 2021, were postponed because of the outbreaks.
The league even issued a memorandum on November 29th encouraging 32 teams to cancel team-organized holiday parties and to refrain from participating in public autograph sessions, charity events, and speaking engagements.
The first time a major sports league in North America postponed games this fall was then the NHL rescheduled three Ottawa Senators games on November 15th because of a COVID outbreak within the team.
Less than two weeks later, the Islanders saw an increase of players landing in protocol and had two games pushed back, but despite having those games back, they had to play with reinforcements coming from the AHL.
The Penguins, Sharks, Kraken, and Capitals also experienced clusters of cases without missing games, but the league shut down the Flames because of a rise in cases.
Canadian teams later limited capacity to 50%, and even the Canadiens played a game without fans in the stands.
The NHL published a 27-page memo about COVID protocols for this season before it began. In the memo, the league recommended all personnel become fully vaccinated, as the new rules were adopted in recognition of the widespread availability of the vaccine.
COVID vaccines are highly effective, but not 100% effective in preventing sickness. However, vaccinated people who have breakthrough infections are a lot less likely to get the worst of COVID or die from COVID. That means a small percentage of people who are fully vaccinated can still contract the virus if they are exposed to it, per the CDC.
The enhanced protocols say that daily testing must be done. But restrictions regarding social gathering and face covering are much stricter for unvaccinated players compared to vaccinated ones.
One main point of concern was people who test positive for COVID but have no symptoms of the virus itself. The CDC reduced the isolation period from 10 days to five days. In addition, the CDC said that for people who are asymptomatic, an additional five days of wearing a mask around others is recommended.
But if one thinks about the NHL not going to the Olympics, it’s for the best. The reported three-to-five-week quarantine period is too long.
Even China admitted that the Olympics could bring “COVID-19 cases or small clusters of infections” as “a large number of overseas personnel will gather, causing a very high risk of transmission,” said an official at the State Council on December 23rd.
Huang Chun, the Deputy Director of Epidemic Prevention and Control Office of Beijing Winter Olympic Organizing Committee, explained that infected staff and athletes will not be able to work or compete, and will be sent to a designated hospital or isolation facility depending on if they have symptoms.
Symptomatic patients would be discharged after their body temperature returns to normal, respiratory symptoms disappear, lung inflammation is absorbed and have two consecutive negative tests within 24 hours. By the time they’ve recovered, they will then choose whether or not they would want to participate in the Olympics.
Asymptomatic patients, however, will be tested every 24 hours in the isolation facility and released if they present negative tests within that span. This includes one negative test within six hours of a game, when they will be able to return to the Olympics “with some restrictions.”
Huang added that the Committee and Chinese people were “very concerned about the impact of COVID cases inside the Olympic bubble in China’s society.
“Our line of defense will prevent infections from spreading into the city, and we should hold this line especially regarding the highly contagious Omicron,” said Huang.
But COVID is not the only issue in China.
China is using the Winter Olympics to drive their efforts to improving the environment. However, the capital, Beijing, is smog-prone, and the city is preparing for the worst.
Beijing may have improved their air quality since China won its bid to host the Olympics, but the Ministry of Ecology and Environment said that winter smog risks are still “severe.” However, Ministry spokesman Liu Youbin said that contingency plans were in place.
“When the time comes, Beijing and Heibei will be guided to adopt reasonable environmental protection measures in accordance with the law,” he said.
Rumors that polluting heavy industries in the area would be around from January 1st were “not true,” however, as he said.
There were critics warning back in 2015, when China won its bid, that the Olympics could be overshadowed by hazardous smog in a region dominated by heavy industry. China’s President, Xi Jinping, vowed to run a “green” Olympics, and Heibei promised to “transform and upgrade” the industrial economy.
There has also been a diplomatic boycott of the Olympics as well.
Several countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Lithuania, have announced a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
These boycotts are a response to China’s human rights abuses, especially in Xinjiang, where at least one million Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities have been held in involuntary detention in concentration camps.
Countries have very limited leverage over the Chinese human rights practices, and some argue that the Olympics are making a rare opportunity to voice concerns that can put a spotlight on China’s human rights abuses.
An August 2021 survey says that under half of American said that they believe that China’s human rights abuses should automatically disqualify them from hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics, while 33% were uncertain.
The United States, in particular, even though they will not protest the Chinese campaign against Uyghur ethnic minorities by refusing to send US athletes to the Olympics, they will, however, keep government officials away from the Olympics, as said by President Joe Biden.
It’s not the strongest gesture from the Biden Administration, but at least it’s better than nothing. However, boycotting this year’s Olympics should be something everyone in the United States can do.
It’s easy: When the Olympics are showing on NBC, don’t watch. That also goes for streaming services.
That should teach a lesson in the costs of collaboration with China—to the network and the corporate sponsors who pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for 30 seconds of advertising for the Olympics.
Boycotting the Olympics is a way to protest the broader corruption of the Olympic “movement,” where one holds a country guilty of human rights abuses, the military bullying its neighbors, and even as far as site selection and construction.
One example of the latter was in the 2016 Olympics at Rio de Janeiro, where Brazil’s former Olympic committee president was sentenced to 30 years in prison for bribing IOC officials to support Rio de Janeiro’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.
While China overtook the United States as the world’s largest manufacturer in 2016, that same year, Chinese authorities started the forcible detention of thousands of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities, even including entire families, into what they refer to as “political education” centers, which would be the start of an authoritarian brainwashing aimed to repress the Uyghur language, identity, and religious expression.
Many would say that an absence of several countries at the 2022 Winter Olympics would have a more profound affect on showing displeasure with China as there are many fewer countries that compete in the Winter Olympics compared to the Summer Olympics, so any absences from the 2022 Winter Olympics would be noticeable.
This was not the first time the location of an upcoming Olympic Games sparked controversy.
There was the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, where China’s horrendous human rights record, as well as the genocidal Sudanese regime and their policies in Tibet, that caused the Games to be protested broadly. The United States boycotted the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. And before the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics in Nazi Germany, teams from a number of countries, including the United States, considered staying away.
China, which was angered by pro-Tibet protests before the 2008 Olympics, said they are taking threats of the 2022 Olympic boycotts seriously.
“It is very irresponsible for anyone to attempt to interfere with, obstruct or disrupt the organization and operation of the [Winter] Olympics, out of political motives,” said foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin in response to calls for an international boycott. “We believe such moves would not be supported by the international community, and are doomed to failure.”
The IOC tried to stave off of politics, saying that they remain “neutral” on all global political issues, but this is a position that they are getting themselves between a rock and a hard place. Jules Boykoff, a professor at Pacific University who wrote extensively on the Olympics, accused the IOC of hypocrisy.
“The IOC has shown an unfortunate propensity for turning away from human rights atrocities in order to make sure that the games go on,” said Boykoff. “The Olympic Charter is full of powerful ideas about equality and anti-discrimination, but the IOC ignores its own Charter when it is convenient for them to do so.”
And it’s the IOC’s hypocrisy that caused competitors at the Olympics to be put in a difficult position, and Rob Koehler, from Global Athlete, an athlete-led sports movement, said that Olympic competitors were essentially “being used as pawns.”
“The IOC and IPC first and foremost are to blame for putting athletes in this position,” said Koehler. “It is the IOC and IPC who decided to award the games to a country with an abysmal human rights record.”
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