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. #2022winterolympics