Winter Olympics 2022: Is Russia competing in Beijing? 

Beijing 2022 games are officially running. The world's best snow athletes are ready to write more brilliant chapters of this twenty-four-chapter tale so far. Norway, the United States, Canada, and Germany are willing to climb up to the top of the medal table. However, any Russian symbol can be found in competition: is Russia competing in this Winter Olympics?

The history of Russia in the Winter Olympics must be divided into three episodes. The first one was from Cortina d'Ampezzo 1956 to Calgary 1988. During this time, the Soviet Union won 194 medals (78 gold, 57 silver, and 79 bronze) thanks to the contribution of nowadays Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania athletes.

After the political dissolution of that entity, in 1992, a second, brief, episode started with the appearance of the Unified Team, being represented by the latter countries, in the Albertville Winter Olympics. Finally, in Lillehammer 1994, Russia made its presentation as a country in the snow games. Since then, it has conquered 121 medals (47 gold, 39 silver, and 35 bronze).

Why is Russia banned from the Winter Olympics?

After an astonishing performance in Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, being the top nation, Russia entered a dark tunnel from which it has not been able to get out yet. In 2016, a whistleblower exposed a Russian state-sponsored program to enhance its athletes' performance by covering up positive tests.

So, in 2017, the International Olympic Committee has decided to suspend Russia after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) investigated the fact. Russian athletes could not use their country's name or symbols since then. That is why in Pyeong Chang Winter Olympics the athletes from the punished land competed as members of the Olympic Athletes of Russia (OAR) delegation.

Then, in 2019, the WADA finally instated a 4-year ban from international sports competitions for Russia. The penalty was half-reduced after a successful Russian appellation to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2020. The ban concludes by the end of 2022 at has affected Russian representation in Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, but also in the current Winter Olympics.

So, yes, Russia is competing in Beijing 2022 but under the name of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC). There are 212 members of the latter group in the ongoing games in China, the ones who will not see its flag waving in case of winning a medal, nor will they listen to their National Anthem. Instead, the Olympic symbol will be flown and Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No 1 will be played.

This kind of story and all the ones that will emerge in the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics are fully available for you on Peacock: if you are located in the United States you can watch the live stream coverage of every event of this exciting competition.