OP-ED

Nicholas Bell, Lukas Straumann: Ukraine’s dangerous Winter Olympic obsession

By Nicholas Bell, Lukas Straumann.

Published Nov. 3, 2021 at 1:41 am

Communist Party Secretary of Beijing, Cai Qi, lights the cauldron during the Olympic flame welcoming ceremony ahead of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, in the lobby of the Olympic Tower in Beijing on Oct. 20, 2021.

Photo by AFP

In September 2021, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declared his determination to host the Winter Olympics in Ukraine. This followed on from Zelensky’s earlier comments in 2019 that Ukraine “has the potential to become the Alps of Eastern Europe.”