Beijing 2022: US Olympic officials neutral on diplomatic boycott while pushing Salt Lake City for 2030 Winter Games
- ‘The best thing we can do is offer the world outstanding opportunities to have games here in the US,’ committee chair Susanne Lyons says
- The USOPC skirts around the issues surrounding human rights and Peng Shuai as it tries to promote its own city for he 2030 Games
Instead of staking out a hard-line position on the conflicts inherent in sending Olympic athletes to China, the leader of the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) turned questions about the issues in the host country into a marketing pitch of sorts for America’s own aspirations.
“The best thing we can do is offer the world outstanding opportunities to have games here in the US,” USOPC chair Susanne Lyons said on Friday when asked how the federation could use its leverage to resolve current problems in the Olympic world. “In Los Angeles and, hopefully, in Salt Lake City.”
The plug for Salt Lake City, which the USOPC said is officially in the running to host a Winter Olympics as soon as two years after the 2028 Los Angeles Games, was the federation’s not-so-subtle attempt to finesse the questions it faces over what to say about issues dogging the upcoming games in Beijing: alleged human rights abuses, the still-unknown whereabouts of Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai and the diplomatic boycott coming from the US and other governments.
It’s a delicate dance with many moving parts, not the least of which is the safety of the 230 or so American athletes whose dreams of competing in an Olympics, Lyons insisted, should not be subjected to posturing over the political climate in China.
And yet, all this came as the USOPC wrapped up a quarterly meeting that took place the same week as the US$380 million settlement with survivors of former gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar’s sexual abuse. Peng says she also has been subject to abuse. Her whereabouts became a concern after she went on to social media and accused a former senior Chinese government official of sexual assault.
Because of that, the USOPC finds itself perched between the needs to show it listens to abuse victims and condemns what is happening with Peng but that it also appreciates not wanting to squander the chance for this year’s crop of athletes to fulfil an Olympic dream.