By Akiko Kashiwagi

Beijing Winter Olympics started last week from 4thFebruary but, before the games even began, the event taking place in MainlandChina has been in highlight for all the wrong reasons.

There have been several reports from the country ofthe ill-treatment of the athletes by the unsympathetic Chinese authorities.

The most recent horrifying account of a Polish shorttrack speed skater affirms the inhospitable environment theseinternational players are managing with. 26-year-old Natalia Maliszewskadescribes her traumatic experience to Reuters where she was thrown in and outof the game several times because of imprecise and flawed covid-19 testresults.

Natalia tested positive but was informed by theauthorities that she is allowed to train, but just 30 minutes before herscheduled warm-up, the authorities refrained her saying that the organizationwas mistaken and she is not allowed to compete. Then on next Saturday morning,she was stormed out of her isolation room at 3 am to get tested again. Natalianarrated her ordeal as how the authorities made her feel confused and unsafe ina foreign land.

This is not an isolated event. There have been severalreported incidents coming from China about the mistreatment of athletesvisiting there for the Winter Olympics 2022.

Jukka Jalonen, men’s ice hockey team coach of Finland,accused the Chinese administration of not respecting the human rights of one ofhis players. He said that his player is suffering in quarantine and not beingprovided with enough food. The player, Antilla was being kept in isolation for18 days even when he was no longer considered infectious.

Kim Meylemans, Belgian Skeleton racer, uploaded ateary-eyed video on Instagram citing her ordeal of being in strict longquarantine while there’s mounting Olympic pressure.

Valeria Vasnetsova, a Russia's biathlon player alsotook to her Instagram slamming the organisers for providing inedible meals inquarantine centres. She shared a picture of the little food served to her andsaid that the same meal is being served for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Shecries every night and wants this ordeal to end.

China is imposing unreasonable isolation rules andunexplained media suppression. Deputy -director general of Beijing 2022’sInternational Relations Department, Yang Shu, said in a virtual briefing thatany behaviour or speech criticising Chinese laws and regulations will be dealtwith appropriate punishment.

Before travelling to Beijing, Human Rights Watchwarned the Olympic athletes not to speak anything ill about China for theduration of the games as there is a looming personal safety issue for theparticipants. The laws in China are very vague about what can be used as thebasis to prosecute people’s free speech,”

Upon entry, the athletes were mandated to download anapp, MY2022 and it was later discovered that this app has a major security flawwhich renders the personal sensitive data like email address, health status,passport and travel details etc., vulnerable.

Sports Director Kit McConnell of the InternationalOlympics Committee (IOC) has said that the condition of the players is a toppriority and they are looking in individual instances.

These abysmal conditions speak a lot about China’slack of hospitability and in general, disregard for basic human rights andliving conditions. Olympics is a dream for all athletes for which they train tothe bone for years. The plight of these athletes just when they are about tocompete is disappointing. Instead of making sure the best of the treatment to theseplayers, the Chinese authorities have made the whole experience petrifying andinhumane.

Canada, the UK and the US had declared a diplomaticboycott of the Beijing Olympics 2022. While the players from these countriesare still competing, the governments have not sent any officials or ministersto China.

This is all in protest of human rights violations ofUyghurs in the Xinjiang region, Taiwan and Tibet by China. There have beenlongstanding accusations against China for forcing people from these areas intolabour and sterilization in the garb of re-education camps. The Communist Partyof China received a huge backlash for ongoing crimes against humanity andgenocide.

Many people and organizations have indicated that thecurrent Beijing Winter Olympics is a sports-washing opportunity and apropaganda exercise for China to deter the attention of the public from thehuman rights violations.