Matt Slocum/AP
BEIJING — Every Olympics is disorienting, like being inside a foreign country inside another foreign country. The Olympics give you no sense that anything is happening outside of the Olympics. There is a giant slalom over here and bobsled not far away and halfpipe on another mountain and figure skating down in the city, and all of it feels esoteric but extremely important, and it’s all dipped in an unfamiliar culture. Food you would never otherwise eat ends up on your plate. You somehow communicate with people without either of you speaking. It can be exhausting and bewildering—but usually, it’s also a whole bunch of fun.
This has not been fun, at least not like an Olympics normally is. The Chinese government’s COVID-19 protocols do not leave much room for joy. We are all in China but would never know it. The “closed loop” means the only sights most people see are through a bus or train window, and even then, we don’t see much. There is no here here. The Bird’s Nest and Water Cube are a short walk from the Main Press Center, but walking to either is strictly prohibited. The entire experience is: food and water; transportation and work. The only restaurants where we can eat are in select hotels. I am not being sarcastic when I say the coolest indoor sights I have seen are the lobby at the Crowne Plaza Sun Palace and the lounge at the Zhangjiakou train station. Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris called it “sports prison” for a reason.
