Veteran Sportscaster Scott Russell Gives an Interview on Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games

London, United Kingdom--(Newsfile Corp. - February 11, 2022) - On Friday, Beijing became the first city to host both the summer and winter Olympic Games with a grand opening ceremony set to launch the fortnight-long event. Veteran CBC Network sportscaster, Scott Russell took a few moments to speak about staging of the Games in the middle of a pandemic and how both athletes and organizers are going to deal with the pandemic in Beijing. Scott Russell has been a prime-time host of the Winter Olympics in Sochi and Pyeongchang and the Summer Games in Rio and Beijing. He has covered 15 Olympic Games, including the Tokyo 2020 Summer Games.

Russell defines attending an Olympic Games as being 'like visiting one of the great spectacles of the world', and 'being able to see history on the run, and in the making'. "Every time I go into an Olympic Stadium, and I see the gathering of all those people from around the world in a time of peace, in an effort to bring the world together, it brings tears to my eyes."

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Scott Russell on Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games

When asked about the 2008 Beijing Summer Games, Russell described it as the most colossal Games he'd ever seen, and an 'over the top spectacle'. "I visited Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City. I've been to Shanghai for the World Championships in figure skating and aquatics and every experience that I have had in China has been exceptional."

Russell pointed out that, "To become an Olympic athlete is a 1-in-10 million chance. There are very few Olympians who have ever been. And to achieve that goal requires commitment. It requires an obsession. It requires a life's work. And so, they put so much into getting to the Olympic Games. That goal cannot be questioned. That's what they are about."

A diplomatic boycott of the Winter Games is also being closely monitored by some media outlets. When asked what will a boycott really achieve? Who will benefit from it? And who will have to sacrifice for it?

Russell said, "Many people in the international sporting community would agree that the people that pay the price for a boycott are the athletes themselves. This is their life's work to get to the Olympic Games and to compete, and boycotts are never driven by the athletes. They're always driven by politicians or by external interests."

"That's very understandable, and certainly this is one of the controversies that affects these Games," he commented.

He further added, "The boycott didn't work in 1980 for the Games in Moscow. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was not curtailed because of the boycott. I don't think the boycott of the Soviet Union that spilled into the 1984 Games in Los Angeles did much of anything to reduce the grandeur of those Games."

According to him, an athlete's main purpose in life is to compete in sport and demonstrate what is humanly possible on the field of play. "That's what Olympians are about," he concluded.

About Scott Russel

Scott Russell is a Canadian sports writer and sportscaster. He is a winner of the Gemini Award, the Canadian Screen Award and the CBC President's Award.

Contact:

Janet Yang
yangweiwei@bon-cloud.com

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