Last summer’s Games in Tokyo were a challenge, but these have been exponentially harder, with the Chinese government’s COVID-19 protocols and the “closed loop” system presenting an extra layer of difficulty for athletes.
Matt Slocum/AP
BEIJING — Every Olympics is disorienting, like being inside a foreign country inside another foreign country. The Olympics give you no sense that anything is happening outside of the Olympics. There is a giant slalom over here and bobsled not far away and halfpipe on another mountain and figure skating down in the city, and all of it feels esoteric but extremely important, and it’s all dipped in an unfamiliar culture.