Beijing was cold. Bitterly cold. When the Olympic Games Winter 2022 kicked off in China’s capital, the atmosphere felt more like a fortress than a festival. COVID-19 was still very much a thing, the "Closed Loop" was in full effect, and the politics were, frankly, exhausting. But once the snow (mostly artificial) started flying, the drama on the ice and slopes took over. It wasn't just about who won gold. It was about how they won it, the scandals that almost broke the sport, and the way a city became the first ever to host both a Summer and Winter Games.
Honestly, looking back at February 2022, it feels like a fever dream. You had Eileen Gu soaring through the air for China while being born in California, a doping scandal involving a 15-year-old that made everyone feel slightly sick, and Nathan Chen finally getting his redemption in the most dominant way possible. It was a lot to process then, and it’s even weirder to look at now with a few years of hindsight.
The Artificial Snow Problem and the Big Air Factory
One of the weirdest visuals from the Olympic Games Winter 2022 was the Big Air Shougang venue. If you saw photos of skiers launching off a massive ramp with cooling towers in the background, you weren't looking at a dystopian movie set. That was a former steel mill. It was actually a pretty brilliant bit of urban renewal, but it looked jarring compared to the usual alpine scenery we expect.
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Then there’s the snow. Or the lack of it.
Beijing and Zhangjiakou are dry. Really dry. To make the Games happen, organizers had to use hundreds of snow guns to create a massive amount of fake snow. Estimates suggest they used around 49 million gallons of water. While the athletes generally liked the consistency of the artificial stuff—it’s grippy and predictable—it raised massive environmental red flags. If we’re holding Winter Games in places that don't naturally have winter weather, what are we even doing? This is a conversation that hasn't gone away; if anything, the 2022 Games proved that the "Winter" part of the Olympics is becoming an endangered species due to climate change.
The Kamila Valieva Saga: A Low Point for Figure Skating
You can't talk about the Olympic Games Winter 2022 without talking about the drama in the skating rink. It was brutal to watch. Kamila Valieva, the 15-year-old Russian sensation, tested positive for a banned heart medication called trimetazidine. The test happened months before, but the result only came out during the Games.
It was a mess.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) let her compete while the investigation continued, citing her status as a "protected person" because of her age. But the pressure was too much. During the women’s free skate, she fell multiple times, finishing off the podium in tears, only to be met with a cold, harsh critique from her coach, Eteri Tutberidze. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach even said it was "chilling" to see.
It changed the sport. Not long after, the International Skating Union (ISU) voted to raise the age limit for senior competitions to 17. The 2022 Games became the catalyst for realizing that pushing children to these extremes under a cloud of doping isn't just a sports issue—it's a human rights issue.
Eileen Gu and the Dual-Identity Tightrope
While the skating world was imploding, Eileen Gu was becoming the face of the Games. She’s a superstar. She won two golds and a silver for China, despite being born and raised in the United States. The "Snow Princess" was everywhere—on billboards, in fashion magazines, and all over Chinese social media.
But man, did it cause a stir.
Western media kept asking about her citizenship. Chinese fans embraced her as a national hero. Gu handled it with a level of poise that most 18-year-olds don't possess, basically saying she was American in the U.S. and Chinese in China. It was a fascinating case study in how sports, national identity, and branding collide in the 21st century. She didn't just win medals; she navigated a geopolitical minefield.
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Nathan Chen’s Redemption Arc
If you want a feel-good story to balance out the Valieva disaster, look at Nathan Chen. After a nightmare performance in Pyeongchang four years earlier, he came to the Olympic Games Winter 2022 with a point to prove.
He didn't just win; he obliterated the competition.
Skating to "Rocket Man," he landed five quadruple jumps in his free skate. It was technical perfection. But more than that, he looked like he was actually enjoying himself. Watching a guy go from a crushing public failure to the absolute peak of his craft is why we watch the Olympics in the first place. He finished with a world-record short program score and a gold medal that felt like the closing of a chapter.
The "Closed Loop" Reality
Living in the Olympic bubble was intense. The "Closed Loop" meant that athletes, journalists, and staff were completely separated from the general public of Beijing. You stayed in the loop, you took a daily PCR test, and you lived behind fences.
There was no "exploring the city."
If you were an athlete who tested positive, you were sent to an isolation hotel. Some athletes described the conditions as "miserable," with bad food and no exercise equipment. It added a layer of psychological stress to an already high-pressure environment. The Olympic Games Winter 2022 weren't just a test of athletic skill; they were a test of who could handle the isolation and the constant fear of a positive test ending their dreams.
Speed Skating and the Icy Dominance of the Dutch
As usual, the Netherlands owned the long track. Irene Schouten was the standout, grabbing three gold medals and a bronze. She’s a powerhouse. But the speed skating events also saw some incredible moments from Nils van der Poel of Sweden, who won the 5,000m and 10,000m.
Van der Poel is an interesting character. After the Games, he gave one of his gold medals to a Swedish activist to protest human rights issues in China. It was a reminder that even when the athletes are focused on their sport, the context of where the Games are held matters. You can't separate the performance from the politics, no matter how hard the IOC tries.
Monobob: The New Kid on the Block
We also got a new event: the Women’s Monobob. Usually, bobsledding is a team sport—two or four people working in perfect sync. Monobob is just one person in the sled. It’s all on you.
Kaillie Humphries, who had recently switched from representing Canada to the U.S., dominated the event. It was a great addition because it took away some of the technological advantage that richer nations have in team bobsledding. In monobob, everyone uses the same standardized sled. It’s more about the driver’s skill and less about who has the most aerodynamic engineering team.
Practical Takeaways from the 2022 Experience
Looking back at the Olympic Games Winter 2022, there are a few things that actually matter for the future of sports and how we watch them.
- Environmental Sustainability is Non-Negotiable: The reliance on 100% artificial snow in Beijing has forced the IOC to rethink future host cities. We’re likely to see more "permanent" hosts or rotations between snowy regions to avoid the massive water waste seen in 2022.
- Athlete Mental Health is Front and Center: From the Valieva breakdown to the stress of the "Closed Loop," 2022 showed that we can't just treat these people like machines. The conversation around mental health that started with Simone Biles in Tokyo continued and intensified in Beijing.
- The Rise of Individual Brand Power: Athletes like Eileen Gu showed that you don't need to be tied to a single national narrative to be successful. You can be a global brand that transcends traditional borders, though that comes with its own set of PR headaches.
- Rule Changes for the Better: The age limit increase in figure skating is a direct result of what happened in Beijing. It’s a rare case of a scandal leading to immediate, systemic change to protect young athletes.
The legacy of the Olympic Games Winter 2022 is complicated. It was a feat of logistics, a showcase of incredible individual talent, and a stark reminder of the problems facing modern sports. If you're looking to dive deeper into the stats or want to see where these athletes are now, checking out the official Olympic replays is a good start. Many of the 2022 stars are already prepping for 2026 in Milan-Cortina, which promises to be a very different, and hopefully much "snowier," experience.
To really understand the impact, keep an eye on the upcoming World Championships in figure skating and freestyle skiing. The power shifts that started in Beijing—like the decline of the Russian skating school's dominance and the rise of multi-national freestyle stars—are still playing out today. Watch how the age-limit rules affect the next generation of skaters; that's the real lasting mark of 2022.