AOC President John Coates says Seven’s exceptional Olympic coverage has given Australia’s Olympic winter sports a significant boost. 

“Seven’s coverage of the 2018 Games in PyeongChang set a new benchmark for winter sport in Australia with a cumulative audience of 16 million watching the Games.

“The Beijing Winter Games will offer a similar viewer-friendly time zone for Australian TV audiences to witness the skills and courage of the Australian Winter Olympic Team. 

“Our athletes are really looking forward to these Beijing Games in February 2022 and the chance to represent their country before a huge television audience. 

“Right now, with 15 months to the Winter Games, we have Australian athletes preparing themselves in Europe and North America, while our freestyle skiers are currently training at our new Olympic Winter Training Centre in Brisbane.”   

Mr Coates says Channel Seven has been an exceptional broadcaster of Summer and Winter Olympic sport in Australia and a great supporter of the Olympic movement.

“Seven has been a wonderful and very committed partner. They provide quite amazing coverage of Olympic competition. We will see that on display in Japan next July with the Tokyo 2020 Summer Games on multiple broadcast channels and digital streams. Seven months later we will see the same from Beijing.

Matt Carroll, AOC Chief Executive, said “ Channel Seven’s commitment to Beijing 2022 is a vote of confidence in the value of the Olympic Games and the AOC’s commercial partners, whose investment in the Australian Olympic Team makes it possible for athletes to participate in the Games. 

“In these tough economic times we thank James Warburton and the team at Seven for this commitment,” Mr Carroll said.

Australian Team Chef de Mission for Beijing 2022, Geoff Lipshut also welcomed the announcement.

“This is great news for everyone in winter sport and particularly our Olympic Team. The athletes have all been working through the different challenges of training this year. 

“Qualification for 2022 begins in December this year and continues right up to early 2022. 

“We are expecting a team size of around 45 athletes, including a strong blend of experience in a variety of disciplines on snow and ice, together with exciting newcomers hoping for an Olympic debut in China. 

“We will also have generational change with new leaders stepping up to continue the recent success of Australians in the winter sports. 

“In Beijing there will be new competition opportunities with the introduction of the Monobob event for women and the mixed gender events in Snowboard Cross and Aerial Skiing. 

“I will be following our athletes closely through the winter, and I am looking forward to seeing many of them in action at the official test events in China during February and March next year,” Mr Lipshut concluded.

The Beijing Winter Olympic Games will run from Friday 4 February to Sunday 20 February 2022.