Cuinn Huber
From a 15-year-old Russian skater being pumped full of drugs by her coaches, to the big air jump being next to a power plant, the Beijing Winter Olympics were a mess this year. However, there is one issue that is not being raised nearly as much as it should be: the host city choice. Beijing and the surrounding mountains are clearly not fit to host a Winter Olympic Games—the only snow in the mountains is artificially made. You can tell because all the other mountains are just dirt with a slight bit of vegetation. Because the area does not get enough rain, nor is it usually cool enough to have snow, the fake stuff partially melts, turning the mountainside practically into a long sheet of ice. This not only is bad for the athletes, but also it is incredibly expensive for the area hosting. According to snowbrains.com, it costs roughly 1,000 dollars per acre for the ineffective ‘snow.’
Not only this, but the Chinese government is and has been committing major human rights violations, such as the genocide of the Chinese Uyghur muslism population and just being a communist dictatorship in general. In the bidding process for the 2022 games, Oslo, Norway proved far more fit to host and had a cleaner government, yet, Beijing won instead. Thus, Beijing did not win based on how fit they are to host, they won most likely using bribes. This leads to my point that the IOC should choose host cities for the winter and summer games based on how fit said place is to host, on the money available, and on amount of resources, such as how many venues the city already has. For example, Los Angeles, which will host the 2028 summer games, already has the majority of the venues that they will use for the games, such as the Rose Bowl Stadium and Crypto.com Arena. In the case of the winter games, Oslo has a lot of snow naturally and their government does not commit genocides against its people—this means way less money spent on fake snow and venues being in nice places—not next to power plants. Overall, this would not only be better for the athletes, but also it would make the Olympics more sustainable. A lot of lower income and corrupt countries that host often have venues rot and fall apart while ones held in more fit/clean government countries are repurposed for things such as housing and national team sports.
Long story short, if host cities and countries were chosen based on fitness to host and nothing else, the Olympics will be a far more enjoyable and sustainable experience for athletes and spectators alike.