With one week to go until the start of the 2022 Olympic Games, many people are perplexed by how silent the hype is for what has traditionally been the world’s most popular sporting event.

Despite Covid, millions of people tuned into the Tokyo 2020 game while many commercials constantly advertised the event. Today, some people hardly know that the Beijing games start next week. But there is a reason behind the media’s silence for Beijing 2022.

The United States led the call of western nations to boycott the 2022 Olympic games, citing China’s human rights violations towards Uyghur Muslims. In early December, the Biden administration announced they would not send any diplomatic representatives to Beijing for the Winter Olympics.

The move came after months of cries to boycott the games from many human rights groups. Many human rights organizations have called for a complete boycott of the upcoming games. The Biden administration made clear that they avoided this to spare American athletes who have been training for the games.

With one week to go until the start of the 2022 Olympic Games, many people are perplexed by how silent the hype has been for the world’s most popular sporting event. Despite Covid, millions of people tuned into the Tokyo 2020 game while many commercials constantly advertised the event. Today, some people hardly notice that the Beijing games start next week. But there is a reason behind the media’s silence for Beijing 2022.

After the U.S announced a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Olympics, other countries followed suit.

Australia was the first nation to announce a diplomatic boycott after the U.S. Australian prime minister Scott Morrison highlighted how China’s human rights abuses go against his nation’s values.

The United Kingdom followed soon after. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced to the House of Commons that Britain would not be sending any officials to the Olympics. He called it effectively “a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing.”

Canada was the third country to announce a diplomatic boycott. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated that Canada is “extremely concerned by the repeated human rights violations by the Chinese government.”

New Zealand in October announced that they would not send any diplomatic representatives “mostly due to Covid.” But Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson explained that they are also concerned about China’s human rights record.

With many western nations imposing diplomatic boycotts of the Olympics, many media personalities are protesting the games by not advertising them. Many in the media are also infuriated by the idea of an Olympic host country having such a poor human rights record.

With the start of the Olympics just days away, many seem to be tuning the games out altogether.