The Winter Olympics

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary

4.3 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 5 February 2022

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Winter Games are officially underway as Beijing becomes the first city to host both the summer and winter Olympics. Host Karnie Sharp brings us a conversation between two competitors, who are from countries that don’t traditionally send large teams to snow sports.

Manon Ouaiss is the only woman on the three person Lebanon team while Ornella Oettl Reyes is the sole member, and flag bearer, for Peru. Both are alpine skiers and both are aware of the importance of sending a positive message to those who are cheering them on from the countries they represent.

These Games are impacted by the Covid pandemic and by politics. Several countries have declared diplomatic boycotts over China’s alleged human rights abuses. One protest concerns the treatment of the Muslim Uyghur population. While China denies any human rights violations, we hear from three Uyghur exiles and activists living in Germany, Australia and Switzerland. They discuss their objection to these Games.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Karnishap on the BBC World Service, and this is BBC OS Conversations, The Winter Olympics.
0:09.5	In a moment, two athletes discuss the importance of representing nations that are among the
0:14.8	smallest teams. Plus, as China denies alleged human rights violations, we hear the objections of
0:21.8	exiled weger activists to these Olympics, after China hosted the summer games in 2008.
0:28.5	They said they would get their human rights. On track and they wouldn't be
0:32.3	abusing and yet in 2022, it's increased immensely. We will be watching propaganda come out as Beijing.
0:42.9	Beijing is the first city to host both the summer and winter Olympics, and China is nervous about
0:50.1	anything going wrong, especially with the coronavirus pandemic. President Xi Jinping
0:56.5	aware that the world is watching has promised the games will be safe, and it seems Chinese people
1:03.2	are conscious of not saying anything that might cast their country in a bad light. Those that
1:09.6	we contacted were reluctant to talk on the record, although we did get this message from a student.
1:39.7	Around 3,000 athletes are taking part in sports such as figure skating, snowboarding,
1:49.3	ice hockey and curling. Due to Covid, the experience for those athletes is going to be strictly
1:56.4	controlled. Those taking part will live in what's called a bubble. Giant neighborhoods with
2:03.0	private roads, trains and hotels that are strictly segregated from the outside world. And of course,
2:10.7	there are no tickets for the public, but the president of the International Olympic Committee,
2:16.0	Thomas Bach, remains happy saying Beijing 2022 will be the start of a new era for global winter
2:24.4	sport. 91 nations are taking part, and my colleague James Reynolds spoke to two athletes from
2:31.6	countries that are unlikely to be the first to think of when it comes to competing at winter sports,
2:37.7	especially not Alpine skiing. They are Manin Oas, the only women representing Lebanon at the
2:45.1	Games, and Onella Othelres, who is representing Peru. I got so many messages the last weeks, and
2:53.2	it wasn't impressive for me because it's not a typical sport in Peru. I'm so proud to represent
	...

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