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Beijing Winter Olympics 2022
SportChina

Beijing 2022 opening ceremony serves up dazzling night of tech, light and colour as Xi Jinping opens Winter Olympics amid backdrop of Covid-19 concerns and political tension

  • Xi declares the Games ‘open’ after a scaled back ceremony as Beijing becomes the first city to host the Summer and Winter Olympics
  • IOC president Thomas Bach calls for world peace while hailing the Beijing Games as the start of a new global movement in winter sports

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The Bird’s Nest National Stadium is awash in dazzling blue during the Beijing Winter Olympics opening ceremony. Photo: SF&OC
Nazvi Careem

Beijing put on a spectacular and stirring show of technology and artistry at the opening of the Winter Olympics on Friday as President Xi Jinping presided over a ceremony attended by world leaders and an invite-only crowd on a below-freezing evening in the Chinese capital.

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If the breathtaking 2008 Games ceremony was China’s coming out party, Friday’s 2022 gala, both designed by creative muse Zhang Yimou, served to magnify Beijing’s achievement of becoming the only city to host the Summer and Winter Olympics despite the gargantuan challenges posed by an unrelenting coronavirus pandemic.

Although it was a scaled-back affair because of Covid-19, the “Bird’s Nest” National Stadium was awash with light and symbolism as 3,000 performers enacted the theme of China’s quest for world peace and its Games motto of “together for a shared future”. Among those in the stands was Russia President Vladimir Putin, showing his support for Xi and the Games as many Western leaders staged a diplomatic boycott of the event.

The ceremony reflected the “simple, safe and spectacular” ambitions of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Beijing organisers, who have spent around US$4 billion on staging the event amid a rise in Covid-19 cases, with the Olympic family sealed off from the rest of China by a “closed loop” system.

Flag bearer Sidney Chu carries the Hong Kong flag during the athletes’ parade at the opening ceremony. Photo: Reuters/Annegret Hilse
Flag bearer Sidney Chu carries the Hong Kong flag during the athletes’ parade at the opening ceremony. Photo: Reuters/Annegret Hilse

Speed skater Sidney Chu was Hong Kong’s flag-bearer at the opening ceremony and was joined by three officials, with Xi seen applauding as the four made their way into the stadium.

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Organisers are hoping for 30-50 per cent capacity at venues with only fans living inside the closed loop allowed to attend by invitation, with IOC President Thomas Bach espousing the message of peace and understanding around the world and praising China’s role in making “sporting history”.
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