But the Olympics were really only a staging post in a much more
fundamental reshaping of the Chinese capital.
On blog.esllibrary.com, I found "Olympics" is a singular:
Decision time:
We at ESL Library decided to go with “the Olympics” + singular verb and “the Olympic Games” + plural verb. Basically, “the Olympics” is a collective noun like team or United States, and usually takes a singular verb. “Games,” on the other hand, is a plural noun that should take a plural verb. It’s possible to consider “the Olympic Games” as a collective noun, but “the Olympic Games is…” just doesn’t sound right to me. “The Olympic Games are…” sounds much better!
Best Answer
The word Olympics is plural. It's also a shortened expression of the Olympic Games.
The history of the games is discussed on the official website:
The authors of the article you referenced are free to use whatever style they choose, but I would argue that they are in the minority.