ST. PETERSBURG, September 23. /TASS/. The 2022 Winter Olympic Games in China's Beijing are likely to be held without spectators in attendance, President of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Rene Fasel said on Thursday.
Speaking at the IIHF Congress in Russia’s second largest city of Saint Petersburg, Fasel said that a decision on the spectators’ presence at the Olympic venues is expected to be made in October.
The IIHF president said he believed that the situation in Beijing would be similar to the one at the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo this year.
The 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Japan’s capital of Tokyo were held this year between July 23 and August 8. On July 12, a state of emergency over the deteriorating coronavirus situation was declared in Tokyo, which manifested as a ban on alcohol at eating facilities and limited the number of spectators at mass events. This is why the Olympic Games were held without fans.
The 2020 Summer Paralympic Games in Japan’s Tokyo were held between August 24 and September 5 without spectators in attendance. In March 2020, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) announced their decision to postpone the 2020 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in Japan for one year due to the continuous COVID-19 spread.
2022 Winter Olympics
The 2022 Winter Olympic Games in the Chinese capital of Beijing are scheduled to be held between February 4 and 20.
During the 128th IOC session in Kuala Lumpur on July 31, 2015, Beijing was elected the host city for the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games making the Chinese capital the first city ever to host both Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games (in 2008) as well as Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games (in 2022).
Beijing won the right to host the 2022 Olympics and Paralympics in a tight race over Kazakhstan’s Almaty in 2015, eventually securing 44 votes against 40 in support of the largest city in Kazakhstan.