Another 100-day countdown

The countdowns seem to be pretty prevalent the last few years. There was the original one-year countdown to Tokyo 2020 that turned into a second one-year countdown when the Olympics were postponed. There were celebrations for six months out for Tokyo (twice) and another for the upcoming Beijing Games. 

Today, the countdown clock toward Beijing turns to 100 days. That doesn't seem like a short period of time, but in the overall perspective, it is not a long period of time. The process for Beijing began well over a year ago and amped up before Tokyo even happened this summer, as I was sending money to China before I left for Japan. So 100 days is a relatively short period of time.

Yesterday also saw the release of the first edition of the playbooks, which are the documents that detail the processes that the press (and other Olympic family members) have to go through before leaving for China, once they are there and as they prepare to leave. These playbooks were implemented for the Tokyo Games and serve as the basic guidelines for dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Since I had no games yesterday, I sat in the office and read through this first version of the playbook.

It does seem like there are a lot of things that Beijing took from Tokyo's plan to attack COVID, as we will be tested regularly (it appears they will be daily tests in Beijing), we have to test before we leave and we will be working in a 'closed loop' system while we are there, meaning there shouldn't be any contact with people outside of the Olympic bubble. We will be allowed to move between venues, the media hotels, the media centers and the Olympic village using the media transport system. This is essentially what we were allowed to do in Tokyo as well.

A difference here is that any media member who is not vaccinated will have to spend 21 days in quarantine upon arrival. Obviously, this would be detrimental to anyone who wants to cover the Olympics, since you would have to be in quarantine the entire games unless you arrive three weeks early, which I imagine could get expensive. 

There were also some unusual notes in the playbooks, noting that all flights must arrive at a certain airport and must not go through any other city in China before arriving in Beijing. I have already filed a question with Beijing 2022, since the flight I already booked goes through Hong Kong. I am not terribly interested in rebooking my flight. Additionally, getting COVID tests before we leave is a concern, since we are supposed to only use a list of providers that the Chinese consulate provides, but that seems like a difficult list to find. Tokyo provided us with a list of approved providers well in advance of the Summer Olympics, so here's hoping Beijing comes through with the same thing.

There was plenty of apprehension heading to Tokyo back in July and I will say, there's a little apprehension heading to Beijing in February, but I feel that organizers are doing a good job working to keep everyone safe, so assuming everything goes as planned the next 100 days or so, it should be another unique experience.

There are 100 days to go until the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.