Recently, the 2022 Winter Olympics have started, and there have been questions about the athletes speaking out politically and freely in China.

The 2022 Olympic Winter Games are taking place in Beijing, China this year. The country is known for its recent attacks on human rights and for its restrictive Communist Party rule. Recently, this authoritarianism has also bled into the Winter Olympics. The New York Times says that “China’s Communist Party has also warned that athletes are subject not only to the Olympic rules but also to the Chinese law.” This news organization also interviewed Yang Yang, a senior official of the Beijing Organizing Committee and Olympic Champion. He ominously said, “Athletes need to be responsible for what they say.”

These warnings prevent the athletes from talking about political issues in their countries and prevent talk about the genocide taking place in China against the Uyghur people. Many people around the world look up to Olympic athletes, not only because they compete and are all well-accomplished, but because these athletes have the ability to speak out. Athletes are finding it hard to balance the Olympic rules this year with free speech. As Hilary Knight from the New York Times said, “I think it’s important to be able to place value on things that you hold dearest to you, it’s something that is important to me.”

Ever since the backlash about the rules that have been put in place by China, the Beijing Winter Olympics organizers have promised to honor the Olympic spirit to allow freedom of speech. Ms. Yang, a Beijing Olympic official, says, “Athletes are role models for the world and there is a lot of attention on them. They have their opinions and if they want to share that, that is important.”

Even with this reassurance, many athletes and coaches are reluctant to freely express their opinions. For example, the Head Coach of Team USA Hockey Joel Johnson mentioned “certainly, we’re not ignoring anything that goes on in the world, but our narrow approach is just to focus on what we can control, and right now, that’s coming to the rock every day and preparing to play.”