Beijing, China, February 18, 2022: IOC President Thomas Bach described the Olympic Winter Games as “very successful” during a 75-minute press conference at the Main Media Centre in Beijing on Friday morning.
President Bach said there were two criteria on which to base his assessment – the athletes and the venues/Olympic Village.
“The athletes are happy and extremely satisfied with the venues, the villages and the safety under the closed loop. There are very positive comments from the athletes,” he said in his opening address.
“The athletes have responded with outstanding performances and an unprecedented level of Olympic spirit.”
The IOC President gave a few examples of the “fantastic display of Olympic spirit”, including when the Chinese players gave a set of pins to the United States players after a mixed doubles curling game.
“All this shows that the Olympic Games and Olympic athletes are beyond the divisive issues in the world and the high tensions on the political side,” he said.
However, on a darker note, President Bach said he was “very disturbed” while watching the women’s figure skating on TV the previous evening, when Kamila Valieva of the Russian Olympic Committee had a meltdown and dropped from first place after the short programme to fourth place and missed out on the medals.
The 15-year-old Valieva is at the centre of a doping storm following a positive test in December – and only a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport cleared her to compete in the women’s singles after leading ROC to team gold on February 7.
President Bach described it as a “very sad story” and admitted: “This pressure is beyond my imagination, particularly for a girl of 15, to see her struggling on the ice, trying to compose herself and trying to finish her programme. This was immense, immense mental stress.”
He also focused on the “chilling atmosphere” of the skater’s entourage when she came off the ice, and that instead of comforting the skater they displayed “dismissive gestures” that gave the “wrong impression”.
Bach repeated that the IOC did not want Valieva to compete after learning of her positive doping test, but they lost the appeal at CAS and had to obey the rule of law. He also expressed his personal opinion that all athletes must compete under the same rules regarding doping, even if they are a minor as in the case of Valieva, and that the IOC had very limited means to address the athlete’s entourage. He added that he hoped any inquiry would produce appropriate and strong measures for the entourage behind the scenes.
On the subject of athletes testing positive for covid and being isolated, therefore missing their competitions, the IOC President acknowledged this was an “extreme mental and psychological challenge”.
However, the vast majority of athletes had displayed “joy, gratefulness, friendliness, camaraderie and satisfaction” that the Olympic Games had been held in a safe and comfortable environment.
He also touched on the record-breaking digital engagement, with the IOC-owned social media accounts having 2.7 billion views, and that some athlete hashtags on the Chinese Weibo microblogging site had attracted 1 billion hits.
The IOC President said the Chinese people had embraced the Olympic Winter Games with “excitement, warmth, hospitality and friendliness”, and stated that 600 million people in China alone had tuned in to TV broadcasting.
He described the closed loop system as “one of the safest places on the planet, if not the safest place on the planet” with a covid detection rate of 0.01 per cent. “This is a great achievement,” he said.