The elite and the damned: Beijing 2022 begins with dose of realpolitik

On the eve of these Olympics, which have been scarred by more controversy and tone-deafness than any since Moscow in 1980, Thomas Bach was asked a simple question. What was his message to the Uyghur population of China, who believe they are being repressed?

Say what you want about the president of the International Olympic Committee. But 46 years after he won a fencing gold medal, he retains an uncanny ability to parry and evade.

Bach was aiming for realpolitik, and also not to upset his hosts. The problem with his strategy, though, was that it was bound to upset everyone else.

To claim an equivalence between the Chinese Communist party and the Uyghur Muslims, the powerful and the powerless, the elite and the damned, was damning enough. But when set against the backdrop of harrowing stories of millions of Uyghurs being forced into re-education camps, where some claim they have been raped or sterilised, his comments felt as cold as the tip of his old foil blade.

Others are in a government isolation facility, hoping they will be out in time. So far no British athlete is among them.

To protest or not to protest, that is the question. Meanwhile there was also good news for domestic fans, with organisers confirming that 150,000 spectators would be invited to attend events in the coming fortnight. No international supporters have been allowed into China, however.

Elsewhere the Jamaican four-man bobsleigh team will bring nostalgia and diversity to a Games that remains overwhelmingly white. But the battle to be the star of these Olympics is likely to be between Eileen Gu, a Chinese athlete born in California, who is gunning for three gold medals in the big air, slopestyle and halfpipe, and the American skier Mikaela Shiffrin.

Speaking of history, when the Games are declared open on Friday, Beijing will become the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics. History, of course, is different from legacy. While that legacy is yet to be fully written, the early chapters are not exactly encouraging.