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- Bob Costas is not happy with the IOC or the fact that the Olympics are being held in China yet again.
- Costas made it a point to mention China monitoring and stealing personal information from athletes.
- Be sure to check out more sports stories at BroBible here.
When it comes to American broadcasters and the Olympics it’s tough not to immediately think of Bob Costas. The 69-year-old has been a huge part of Olympic coverage since 1988.
He’s witnessed a thing or two having traveled the world to cover the Games and has dealt with the International Olympics Committee for many years, which makes his latest comments about the upcoming Winter Olympics in China extremely noteworthy.
Costas is far from happy about the IOC allowing China to host the Olympics for what will be the second time in 14 years. Asia has played host to each of the last three editions of the Olympics.
For Costas, the biggest red flag here is the Chinese government monitoring everyone involved with the Olympics and the very real possibility of them stealing personal information.
“The IOC deserves all of the disdain and disgust that comes their way for going back to China yet again,” Costas told CNN. They were in Beijing in 2008. They go to Sochi in 2014. They’re shameless about this stuff. And so, this takes place not only amid COVID, as did the Tokyo Games of a year ago.”
“But as you mention, the restrictions on press freedom and the sense that everyone there is being monitored in some way.”
China Will Be Collecting Personal Data At The Olympics
Costas’ remarks come just a few days after the United States and other countries urged their athletes not to bring personal devices to China and instead use burner phones.
The Olympic Organizing Committee blatantly admitted that the Chinese government will be collecting people’s data.
“Personal information collected by Beijing 2022 will not be disclosed unless the disclosure is necessary. Information of accredited media representatives will only be used for purposes related to the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.”
NBC has already announced that it won’t be sending its actual sports broadcasting teams to Beijing, instead, the majority of Olympic coverage will be done remotely.
Beijing 2022 should be interesting, to say the least.