The complicated task of covering the Beijing Olympics

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People in protective gear walk past a display at the main press center on January 26 in Beijing. (Photo credit: Carl Court/Getty Images)

When David Culver took the job as CNN’s Beijing correspondent, he admits, part of his excitement was the idea of covering the 2022 Winter Olympics.

“I joined CNN in June of 2019, and when they said we want to consider putting you in Beijing, I immediately thought … ‘That’s great, I’d love to cover an Olympics!’ ” Culver said.

Yet he and the rest of CNN’s Beijing-based team will not be able to get up close and personal to cover the Winter Games, which start on Friday.

CNN is sending a team of reporters and support staff to cover the Games, while Culver — under the direction of Beijing bureau chief Steven Jiang — will focus on the news events outside of the “Olympics bubble.”

It’s all to comply with China’s “closed-loop system” to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. There can be no physical contact between the athletes, journalists and anyone else coming into Beijing for the Olympics and those people already in China.

CNN correspondent David Culver sets up a live shot from Beijing. (Photo credit: Justin Robertson/CNN)

But being outside that loop may put the China-based team at an advantage, Jiang said, because the most pressing news stories tied to the Olympics, such as Covid-19 and the US diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Games,“are better covered outside the venues.”

The news and sports teams going to Beijing — including CNN correspondents Selina Wang and Coy Wire — can’t just fly into the city from anywhere. They must board planes from approved airports. Each individual must have two negative Covid tests before arriving — one within 96 hours and another within 72 hours of the final leg of the flight — and the tests must be from a location approved by the Chinese government.

Once in Beijing, those who are participating in the Olympics or covering the Games are limited to specific locations to keep them away from residents and others outside the Olympics “bubble.” They must download an app to their phones to track their movements and health statuses. Some National Olympic Committees and media organizations have advised travelers to leave their usual phones at home and use burner devices, due to cybersecurity concerns.

Culver and Jiang, like the rest of those inside China — but outside the closed loop — already have their movements and health statuses tracked by the government with several apps.

The Beijing Olympics will be the second Olympic Games to take place during the pandemic. The delayed Tokyo Summer Olympics, originally planned for 2020, wrapped up six months ago and provided a test case for how to cover such a massive worldwide sporting event amid Covid restrictions.

Last year’s Summer Games took place during a nationwide state of emergency in Japan, where authorities required a two-week “soft quarantine” for visiting journalists, explained CNN’s Rebecca Wright, director of coverage for this year’s Olympics. During those 14 days, reporters were allowed to go to local stores once a day and “we could also get … Uber Eats delivered to the hotel.” After the quarantine ended, Wright recalled, “We could go pretty much wherever in the city.”

And while Japan did not allow spectators at the Summer Olympics, “as the Games went on and there wasn’t a massive outbreak, people started to come out to the streets and watch … some of the street-based events like the triathlon and cycling,” Wright explained.

“Even though they really weren’t supposed to be doing that, I think it was their way of seeing one Olympic event in their home city,” Wright said. “But I don’t think that’s going to be possible in Beijing, partly because of the nature of the (winter) sports — you won’t really have anything that’s roadside, obviously — but also from a point of view that it’s going to be more heavily restricted.”

Beijing has hosted the Olympics before — the Summer Olympics in 2008, making it the only city to host both the Summer and Winter Games. A lot has changed in those 14 years, Jiang said.

“(In 2008) they were trying to prove themselves to be the new world power by having that ‘coming out party’ on a global stage,” Jiang said. “This time obviously their attitude is ‘We’ve proven ourselves.’ ”

The Winter Olympics end on February 20, but there’s really no clear end to China’s strict Covid policies. Later this year, China is gearing up for its Communist Party Congress, where President Xi Jinping is expected to be granted a rare third term in office – and the government will not want Covid overshadowing that event.

Culver, who has not been able to travel outside of China since the pandemic started, admits that being unable to attend funerals and other important family events has been “very tough on a personal level.”

“Yet you hope at the end of the day, the sacrifice is worth it and … you trust that this too shall pass,” he said.

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