The 2022 Winter Olympics have kicked off and run through Sunday, February 20th. It’s being held in Beijing, China and is their first time hosting the Winter Olympics.

With all that said, we are here to give you a quick rundown on everything you need to know about the 2022 Winter Olympics!

It will be held in three different zones in China.

The winter Olympics will take place across Beijing, Zhangjiakou, and Yanqing. The host city of Beijing was announced back in 2015, and it is the first time China is hosting the Winter Olympics.

Government officials from the U.S. will not be attending.

President Biden issued a diplomatic boycott of the winter Olympics, meaning government representatives will not be in the country. He said he would support the participating athletes as the United States sends 222 athletes to compete. The U.S. is not the only one participating in the diplomatic boycott. Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and India have also joined in the protest.

Olympic ice sports are broken down into three categories.

Athletes will compete for gold in alpine, skiing and snowboarding, and ice sports. There will be a total of 109 medals to win across the following 15 sports::

• Alpine Skiing
• Biathlon
• Bobsled
• Cross-Country Skiing
• Curling
• Figure Skating
• Freestyle Skiing
• Hockey
• Luge
• Nordic Combined
• Short Track
• Skeleton
• Ski Jumping
• Snowboarding
• Speed Skating

The winter Olympics are introducing seven new events.

This year’s newest games include:

• Women’s monobob.
• Freestyle skiing.
• Mixed team aerials.
• Mixed team ski jumping.
• Mixed team snowboard cross.
• Mixed team short track relay.

The freestyle skiing will have both a women’s and men’s event.

NHL players will not be competing.

The hockey league announced in late 2021 that due to a surge in COVID-19 cases, they would not be attending the Winter Olympics. They had been initially set to compete after they missed the 2018 Olympics, their first absence since 1994.

Fans will not be allowed to attend the Olympics.

In early 2022, the International Olympic Committee announced that fans would not be allowed to attend the events over the pandemic. There will be spectators in the stands that the committee specially selected. Organizers announced in the months beforehand that tickets would only be sold to citizens living on China’s mainland.

“Given the current situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, in order to ensure the safety of all participants and spectators, it has been decided that tickets should not be sold anymore but be part of an adapted program that will invite groups of spectators to be present on-site during the Games,” the policy read. “The organizers expect that these spectators will strictly abide by the COVID-19 countermeasures before, during and after each event so as to help create an absolutely safe environment for the athletes.”

There is a colossal time-zone difference.

You will find yourself watching many of the events much later at night. Beijing is ahead of the Eastern time zone by 13 hours. If you’re watching an event that starts at 9:00 a.m. on a Tuesday in Beijing, it will be 8:00 p.m. on Monday EDT back in the states. If you’re on the west coast, the event would be at 5:00 p.m.

Closing ceremonies will occur in Beijing on February 20th at 8:00 p.m. local time. We wish all of the athletes participating good luck and look forward to seeing team USA bring home the gold.