Winter Olympics: IOC leaving ‘no stone unturned’ to ensure safe Beijing Games as Omicron threatens Chinese capital
- Christophe Dubi, the International Olympic Committee’s executive director says he can never relax in the run-up to the Games
- This will be the second Games that Dubi has organised during the pandemic, after the Tokyo Olympics last summer
When the clock counts down the final seconds to the start of the Winter Olympics in 10 days time, amid all the excitement, pomp and ceremony in Beijing, one man will be taking it all in and trying to keep a check on his emotions.
The lighting of the flame will be the culmination of months of hard work for Christophe Dubi, the International Olympic Committee’s executive director, and his team, who are responsible for ensuring the event goes off without a hitch.
In a normal Olympic year that would be hard enough, but they are doing it in the middle of a pandemic, again, and at a time when not only is the Omicron variant surging, but international relations are such that armed conflict between the world’s superpowers seems but a moment away.
“This is in my little world, and nothing revolves around me, no one cares,” Dubi said. “But when you are in that countdown [on February 4] at 7.59:50pm, and you’re sitting in the stadium in Beijing, or watching the television count this down to 10 is incredibly emotional, because you know that the world is watching and you know what it takes to get there.
“So, I can tell you, that is what retains the attention of people there [in Beijing] at night.”
Dubi does himself a disservice in suggesting no one cares. He is the man who will have put together two Games during the coronavirus years, and while the local population in Japan were not entirely thrilled to be hosting the event, in China he is contending with arguably the toughest approach to Covid-19 in the world.
He will, like it or not, be judged on the success of next month’s event. Much as he was in Tokyo last summer.