As U.S. Athletes Face Mounting Dangers in Beijing, Blinken Wastes Time in Kyiv

Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with officials in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Wednesday, ignoring the mounting dangers facing American athletes at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, which President Joe Biden refused to boycott.

Beijing officials have admitted to surging cases of both the omicron and delta variants of Chinese coronavirus, threatening the health of residents in the capital. Technology experts warned this week that the privacy of athletes and other sports personnel at the Winter Olympics is in significant risk due to the poor security features of a mobile phone application the Chinese Communist Party is forcing all Olympics participants to download; countries have advised athletes to purchase “burner” phones to take to China and keep their real phones at home.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) warned athletes this week that meat consumed in China may yield a positive test for performance-enhancing drugs due to the copious use of steroids on animals there, while Human Rights Watch suggested that athletes keep their opinions to themselves in the country about its atrocious human rights record lest they face forced disappearances or formal arrests.

Despite all the threats that American athletes will be facing at the Games – scheduled to begin on February 4 – the South China Morning Post reported on Wednesday that the White House will be supporting the communist Olympics event by sending 46 diplomats to Beijing. Biden’s administration had promised in December that it would engage in a “diplomatic boycott” of the Olympics. A “diplomatic boycott” is not a boycott, as diplomats play no meaningful role in the Olympics, but rather the retirement of diplomats from participating in Opening Ceremonies and other prestigious events.