With less than a year before the 2022 Beijing Olympics, there is a growing chorus of voices calling for a boycott of the next Winter Games. Will it happen?

Canada has two citizens in Chinese custody on trumped up charges. They have been in custody for over two years. Many raised eyes have been looking at China over its human rights abuses, in particular of the Igyhur Muslims and Tibetans. Maybe Xi Jinping is feeling the heat about some countries possibly boycotting because he’s promised sanctions for any country that does boycott. That sounds like extortion.

Boycotts aren’t new when it comes to the Olympiad. Western nation’s boycotted the 1980 Moscow Games. The ’76 Games in Montreal were also boycotted. The collateral damage in a boycott are the athletes who have spent the last four years training for the Games.