The OCA said it had not picked new dates but said they would
be announced “in the near future” after talks with local organizers and the
Chinese Olympic Committee.
The OCA statement said local organizers were “very well
prepared to deliver the games on time despite the global challenges. However,
the decision was taken by all the stakeholders after carefully considering the
pandemic situation and the size of the games.”
The postponement reflects a growing concern among the
Chinese leadership about rapidly spreading outbreaks from Shanghai to Beijing
in an important political year. The ruling Communist Party is holding a major
meeting this fall and doesn’t want any signs of instability, pandemic-related
or not.
China is staying with a “zero-COVID” strategy of lockdowns
and other restrictions despite the economic costs and the fact that many other
countries around the world are loosening up and trying to live with the virus.
China’s state-run television also reported the Asian Games
postponement in a brief statement, but did not specify anything about
rescheduling.
The Asian Games were to take place from Sept. 10-25 in the
eastern city of Hangzhou and would involve more than 11,000 athletes — more
than the typical Summer Olympics. The last edition was in 2018 in Jakarta,
Indonesia.
The World University Games, another major multi-sport event,
have also been postponed, organizers said Friday. They were scheduled for last
year but were postponed until 2022. They were to take place this year from June
26-July 7 in the western city of Chengdu. About 6,000 athletes were believed to
be involved.
The Switzerland-based International University Sports
Federation, which runs the games, said they would be held in 2023 but gave no
date or details.
“Continued uncertainty over conditions has made rescheduling
the sensible choice,” FISU president Leonz Eder said in a statement.
Both events were expected to take place using the
“closed-loop” system that was in place for the Beijing Olympics and
Paralympics. It kept athletes and media isolated from the general population of
Beijing and required daily tests and frequent temperature checks for everyone
involved.
The Winter Olympics were a relatively small event with only
2,900 athletes. The Winter Paralympics had about 700.
The spread of the omicron variant in Shanghai and Beijing
seems to have made holding both events impossible, even though just a few weeks
ago organizers said both events would go ahead. Much of Shanghai — a finance,
manufacturing and shipping hub — has been locked down, disrupting people’s
lives and dealing a blow to the economy.
The OCA also announced that the Asian Youth Games, which
were scheduled for Dec. 20-28 in Shantou, China, would be canceled. The youth
games, which had already been postponed once, will next be held in 2025 in
Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Two international track meets scheduled to be held in China
this year were also called off.
The Diamond League meets in Shanghai and Shenzhen were taken
off the calendar “due to travel restrictions and strict quarantine requirements
currently in place for entry into China,” organizers said in a statement.
Organizers said a substitute event will be held in Chorzow,
Poland, on Aug. 6.
The strict “zero-COVID” policy has been closely identified
with President Xi Jinping, the head of the ruling Communist Party, and was
strongly reaffirmed at a meeting of the party’s all-powerful Politburo Standing
Committee on Thursday.
“Relaxation will undoubtedly lead to massive numbers of
infections, critical cases and deaths, seriously impacting economic and social
development and people’s lives and health,” the the official Xinhua News Agency
said in its summary of the meeting’s conclusions.
The meeting “stressed the importance of unswervingly
adhering to the dynamic zero-COVID policy and resolutely fighting any attempts
to distort, question or dismiss China’s anti-COVID policy.”
China on Friday reported a total of 4,628 new COVID-19
cases, the vast majority of them asymptomatic and detected in Shanghai, China’s
largest city which lies about 177 kilometers (110 miles) east of Hangzhou. -AP
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