Which countries will not participate in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics?

The Beijing Olympics are ready to kick off, but the number of participating countries will be much smaller than that seen at the Summer Games in Tokyo.

There are 91 delegations who will be joining the competition in China, as compared to 206 in Japan.

Other Winter Olympics stories:

Cold-country competition

The discrepancy is to be expected, as many countries simply do not have the weather conditions that would be conducive to excelling in the events at the Winter Games. Few warm-weather and tropical countries send representatives to the competition.

The Olympic Charter defines winter sports as those which are practiced on snow or ice, and countries which find these in short supply would find it very hard to train for them. Although some tropical countries have sent athletes to the Games, none of them have ever won a medal.

Around half of the countries that will not be at the Winter Olympics come from Africa. Out of 54 nations in the continent, only Eritrea, Ghana, Madagascar, Morocco, and Nigeria are sending competitors to the event. Kenya had qualified one athlete for Beijing, but later on withdrew.

Aside from climate considerations, the pandemic is another factor that is hindering participation in the competition. North Korea has cited covid-19 as a reason for not joining the Games.

Diplomatic boycott

The diplomatic boycott announced by the US and joined by other nations however, will not affect the participation of their countries’ sportsmen and women. Countries that will not send government officials such as Australia, Britain, Canada, Japan, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, and Estonia, will still be sending athletes to the Games.

Bermuda, Kenya, North Korea, Singapore, South Africa, Togo, and Tonga all participated in the 2018 PyeongChang Games in South Korea, but they are not joining this year.

Here is a list of countries that will be missing the 2022 Winter Games.

Countries without a delegation to the Beijing Winter Olympics