Conflicted About the Beijing Olympics? You’re Not Alone.

ESPN Daily

ESPN

Sports

4.6 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 4 February 2022

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Beijing Olympics began this week, and while many will be supporting their country’s athletes from afar, the shadow of China’s complicated human rights record will be dimming the glamour of the games. From the disappearance of tennis star Peng Shaui to the horrific treatment of the Uyghurs in the Xinjiang province to China’s anti-democracy and free speech crackdowns, the moral and ethical complications of placing the games in China have highlighted tensions within the International Olympic Committee. Sam Borden explains the sociopolitical context of the Beijing Olympics, and why these games feel so much more complicated. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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0:00.0	ESPN Daily is presented by supercuts, the smarter, easier way to get a haircut.
0:06.5	It's not just any haircut, it's supercuts.
0:10.8	So Sam Borden, I bring you on here because I'm curious, like, what the mood is around these Winter Olympics, starting in Beijing, because I feel pretty conflicted, to be honest,
0:22.5	about pretty much all of it.
0:24.4	Yeah, Pablo, I would say that it is very much at both ends of the spectrum, right?
0:33.3	Sam Borden is a global sports correspondent for ESPN.
0:38.2	I mean, there's a certain segment of the population that just loves the Olympics.
0:46.0	They just love the athletes and the events, many events that they don't watch except for every
0:52.1	four years, but still love all the same.
0:54.7	They love the international component and, you know, the guy from Tango with grease on his chest
1:00.2	walking in for the opening ceremony.
1:02.6	They love Chloe Kim and Sean White and the stars.
1:07.7	But I think there was also this unignorable component, particularly with this games, that all of this stuff is happening in China.
1:17.6	And China is a complicated place right now.
1:23.5	There are environmental concerns about how we're having a winter Olympics in a place that doesn't have any snow.
1:31.6	There are concerns from people about human rights.
1:35.3	There are concerns about what's happening in Hong Kong.
1:38.3	The Biden administration will not send any diplomatic or official representation to the Beijing 2020 Winter Olympics,
1:45.6	given the ongoing genocide and other human rights abuses.
1:50.4	When I get right down to it, if you say, what's the overarching mood about these winter
1:55.8	games? It's confusion. I think a lot of people just don't know how to feel.
2:03.8	And I think that that's something that a lot of people, myself included, are struggling with.
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