Winter Olympics medal ceremonies will allow athletes to temporarily remove masks for photos

When medal winners at the 2022 Winter Beijing Olympics make their way to the awards podium, they will have gotten marching orders regarding face masks.

Athletes are allowed to remove their masks for photos capturing the gold, silver and bronze medal recipients on their respective podiums. Then, they are required to put their masks back on and depart the platform. Later they can take quick maskless photos with their own teams.

Whether all Olympians will follow those rules, set by the International Olympic Committee as part of its COVID-19 prevention protocols, remains to be seen. There's precedent for rule-breaking.

During last year's Tokyo Summer Olympics, the first wave of athletes to make it to the awards podium were told to follow the IOC's rule to keep their masks on during the entire ceremony.

Some athletes removed their masks – or were told they could remove them – to take photographs with their fellow medal winners, as several media outlets including NBC News, Reuters and Yahoo News reported at the time. Others removed their masks for interviews.

Seeing confusion with the rule, the IOC eased its regulations at the Summer Games to "allow athletes to have an image for the media that captures their faces and their emotions during a unique moment in their sporting career,” the committee said at the time.

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Mask rules for 2022 Olympic medals

For the Winter Olympics, the IOC has told athletes to wear masks to the victory ceremony. Before they step onto the podium, officials will signal them to remove their masks. Athletes will receive their medals maskless, allowing for media photos to document the ceremony.

Then, before the athletes leave the podium, they will be signaled to put their masks back on. "The victory ceremony protocol has been adapted to allow athletes to share their emotions with the world during this unique experience in their sporting career, while also helping media to fully capture the moment," writes the IOC.

After the ceremony is over, the IOC said, athletes can take off their masks to take "individual or team photos maintaining social distances from media and other medalists/teams."

Masks, no hugs, but condoms in Beijing?

Athletes at the Winter Olympics face even stricter COVID-19 precautions than those at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo last year.

All Games participants – athletes and Chinese volunteers – must remain within Beijing's closed-loop system, which has its own transportation, and are subject to daily COVID-19 tests.

During a training session on the ice Tuesday, U.S. figure skater Nathan Chen wore a mask for its entirety. "Just better safe than sorry, I suppose," he told USA TODAY. "It’s comfortable enough, so why not?"

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Even though the IOC asks athletes and those within the bubble to limit contact with others and avoid "physical interactions such as hugs, high-fives and handshakes," condoms are being handed out to attendees as they arrived in the loop. Historically, sex has been an unsanctioned but popular event at the Olympic Village where athletes are housed.

Confusion, possible defiance of Olympic medal ceremony

Such mixed messages could lead to mix-ups, and some athletes, as in Tokyo, might simply disregard the rules.

"There's going to be confusion, because they're trying to be in the moment and not having to worry about protocols and celebrate," said Lisa Delpy Neirotti, an associate professor and director of sports management programs at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. "But the organizers are trying the best they can to do what's right for everybody."

The goal is to limit any cross-contamination between athletes of different countries, she said. Let's say three competitors are on the medal stand, maskless and hugging, and the next day one of them has to compete and tests positive.

"I'm pretty sure that's what they are worried about," Neirotti told USA TODAY from Istanbul, Turkey, while on the way to Beijing. She has attended every Olympics since the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Games. "So if you're going to put some restriction on, this is the one that makes sense. You're already pretty close with your own teammates on a regular basis, but not so close to others."

Ideally, athletes could have some say in the situation, said Mark Aoyagi, a professor and co-director of sport and performance psychology in the University of Denver's Graduate School of Professional Psychology.

"I think we could all agree that we would want the Olympic athletes that have sacrificed so much of their lives for this moment to be able to experience it in the way that they choose," Aoyagi told USA TODAY. "At a minimum, it would be nice if the three podium athletes could collectively decide if they wanted to unmask. I suppose if I were making the rules it would have to be a unanimous decision to unmask. If one athlete wanted to mask then the group shot could be all masked and then the other two athletes could take an unmasked photo or something like that."

However, he agrees that it's important to consider athletes competing in subsequent events, as well as all those in the Olympic bubble.

"From this perspective, it makes sense to be as careful as possible and take all precautions to ensure that athletes stay healthy and are able to compete," Aoyagi said. "I would argue that it is even more important every athlete be given the best chance to compete than individual athletes being given the individual freedom to enjoy the podium moment in the manner that they prefer.

Follow Mike Snider on Twitter: @mikesnider.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Winter Olympics: COVID concerns mean new mask rules for medal ceremony