A common phrase heard, when the contingent of 75 Island or Island-based athletes competed in the delayed Tokyo Summer Olympics and Paralympics, was “an Olympics like no other.”
The hope was that description would be dropped by the time the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics rolled around. But no such luck. These Winter Games, which include five Island athletes, will still be affected by the pandemic with a layer of politics added.
The Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics was conducted this morning beginning at 4 a.m. PT with competition having already begun the day before.
“We’re always thinking about the virus, we were locked down and staying safe in Calgary,” said defenceman Micah Zandee-Hart, before departing.
The blue-liner from Saanichton made her Olympic debut in Canada’s opening 12-1 women’s hockey victory over Switzerland.
“I’ve been to China many times and have no concerns about being in China,” said Comox Valley freestyle snowboarder Darcy Sharpe, also making his Olympic debut.
“Testing positive [for COVID] is our biggest concern and we are being very careful.”
When Darcy’s sister and Comox freestyle-skiing star Cassie Sharpe won 2018 Olympic gold at Pyeongchang, family and friends from the Island were able to be there and hug her slopeside on the mountain. But no foreign fans are allowed in-country to watch the Beijing Games in person.
“That’s the only sad thing because I know how much it would have meant to my parents to be there to see both of us compete in the Olympics,” said Darcy Sharpe.
“They even tried volunteering for the Games but that proved not possible. So they will watch on TV from home. But I’m still going to have a hoot.”
Cassie Sharpe knows Beijing will be a different experience than Pyeongchang.
“It’s a sign of the times,” she said.
“It is what it is. Our family will still get together for TV viewing parties back home. I will still feel their love. Other than that, we were bubbled up and isolated as a team before leaving and testing regularly. We are very cautious.”
If not for the pandemic playing havoc with the NHL season, and COVID concerns keeping NHL players at home, hockey player Adam Cracknell of Victoria would not even be in Beijing to make his unlikely Olympic debut at age 36.
“It’s all so surreal, but what an amazing opportunity it opened up for me and what a thrill,” he said.
“Everything happens for a reason. I’m just going to be in the moment.”
Some have called for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics because of China’s hostage diplomacy and treatment of the Hong Kong protesters and the Uyghur minority. Others counter why should it be the athletes, who have worked their entire lives for this moment, be the ones made to sacrifice?
Elaine Dagg-Jackson of Victoria, who will be coaching the Canadian women’s curling team in her seventh Winter Olympics, echoed the latter sentiment.
“We are going to China for one reason — to participate in the pinnacle of sport,” she said, when asked about the political issues.
The boycotts of the 1980 Moscow and 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics accomplished so little that the notion of not going has largely fallen out of favour. Many argue it’s better to be inside the five-ring circus tent than outside looking in.
“Sport and the Olympics brings the world together,” said Cassie Sharpe.
“It means a lot to a lot of people.”
Joining Cassie and Darcy Sharpe, Zandee-Hart and Cracknell in the Beijing Games is freestyle skier Teal Harle of Campbell River. Canada has 215 athletes — 109 men and 106 women — competing in 14 sports for its third-largest Winter Olympics contingent behind the 225 athletes at Pyeongchang in 2018 and 222 at Sochi in 2014.
Cassie Sharpe is among 45 former Canadian medallists in Beijing and she and Harle, who was fifth in 2018, are among 91 Canadian team returnees from Pyeongchang. Darcy Sharpe, Zandee-Hart and Cracknell are among the 117 Canadian athletes making their Olympic debuts.
