After 19 days of intense competition, the Beijing 2022 Games came to a grand finale in the closing ceremony on February 20 at the National Stadium in the capital of China, also the first-ever city to have hosted both the Summer and Winter Olympics. The Olympic baton now has been passed on to the Italian cities of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, hosts of the 2026 Winter Games.
Despite the challenges brought on by the pandemic, the organizing committee was devoted to staging a streamlined, safe and splendid Olympic Winter Games with a green, inclusive, open, and clean approach, in close cooperation with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and other stakeholders, Beijing 2022 Organizing Committee President Cai Qi said.
As the first global multi-sport event to unfold as scheduled since the COVID-19 outbreak, the Beijing 2022 Games executed a range of pandemic countermeasures, Cai said. He further pointed out that the Games will have a lasting effect on local growth and winter sports promotion, ushering in a new era in global winter sports development.
Perspiration and inspiration
China dispatched a 388-member team, including 177 athletes. With its largest-ever presence in the Winter Games, the country achieved its best-ever Winter Olympic track record, ranking third on the medal table with nine gold, four silver and two bronze medals, while Norway topped the medal count with 37 medals, including 16 gold medals.
But there’s more to the Olympics than winning medals.
Although 49-year-old Claudia Pechstein finished last in the women’s 3000m on February 5, the legendary German speed skater still wore a smile on her face. “I am happy and proud of what I’ve achieved. That makes me smile,” she told Xinhua News Agency. She set a different kind of record—becoming the oldest female Winter Olympian as well as the first-ever female to compete in eight Winter Olympics.
American freestyle skier Ashley Caldwell placed fourth in the women’s aerials, on February 14. Despite failing to get a podium spot, the 28-year-old four-time Olympian embraced and congratulated her rival Xu Mengtao, China’s four-time Olympian. “Taotao! Olympic champion! I am so proud of you!” Caldwell said to Xu, affectionately using her nickname.
Xu finally realized her dream of taking home the coveted Olympic gold in the women’s aerials. Ruptured ligaments in her right knee once stopped her from reaching a new high. After winning, Xu burst into tears before receiving a long hug from Caldwell.
Yohan Goutt Goncalves is an alpine skier from Timor-Leste, an island country north of Australia with an average temperature of some 28 degrees Celsius. He was the sole representative of his country at the Beijing Winter Olympics. “I think it’s very interesting to see people discover snow sports. A big part of the world has never even seen snow. So now that we have the chance to broadcast the events on TV at least… maybe we can spark a new passion in younger generations. Every country deserves to be represented in these international events,” he said. This was his third Olympics.
“Capping off this incredibly memorable Olympic experience,” American ice dancer Evan Bates posted on Twitter, tagging the closing ceremony and the Beijing 2022 Games.
“It is very obvious that the athletes are happy and are more than happy. They are extremely satisfied with the venues, with the Villages, with the services having been offered, and with the safety within the closed loop under these very difficult circumstances,” President of the IOC Thomas Bach noted.
Not only did many athletes express they’d had a wonderful time, but viewership data showed the audiences in front of the screen did, too. According to Timo Lumme, managing director of the IOC’s television and marketing services, roughly 2 billion people worldwide had tuned in.
“The IOC-owned Olympic social media accounts have surpassed 2.7 billion engagements for Beijing 2022. There, I’m not speaking of the many other means and platforms,” Bach added, noting the trend toward digital engagement with the Games also proved record-breaking.
Safety first
“The Olympic spirit could only shine so brightly because the Chinese people set the stage in such an excellent way—and in a safe way,” Bach said in his address to the closing ceremony.
With more than 10,000 athletes, journalists and officials from all four corners of the globe descending on Beijing, organizers faced the daunting challenge of hosting a safe Olympic edition by employing a closed-loop management system covering all Olympic venues, including arrival and departure areas, transportation, accommodation, catering, competition zones as well as the opening and closing ceremonies. People involved in the Games were being transported in specially designated vehicles and brought into the closed loop for training, events and work.
Typified by daily nucleic acid testing and shuttle buses connecting the different facilities, the closed loop saw COVID-19 cases decline from a peak of 26 cases on February 2 to zero on February 13, with just one new positive case reported since February 16.
“It was essential; we got to protect each other by knowing who had tested positive—and who had not,” East Timor skier Goutt Goncalves said when speaking about the prevention measures.
Christophe Dubi, the IOC’s Olympic Games Executive Director, spoke highly of China’s efforts to host a virus-free Olympics. “Really no effort was spared, no stone unturned to keep everybody safe. The degree of sophistication of the operation was something unprecedented,” he said.
“In just 12 days, the Paralympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 will open. We will continue to do our utmost to prepare for the Paralympics and ensure that both Games are of equal splendor,” Cai said on February 20.
A snowballing trend
As of last October, around 346 million people—about a quarter of the country’s population—had participated in winter sports since Beijing’s successful 2015 bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
“With over 300 million people now engaged in winter sports and the great successes of Chinese athletes, the positive legacy of these Winter Olympics is ensured,” said Bach, hailing it as an “unparalleled, great achievement.”
The Olympics have propelled an evolution in Beijing, the dual Olympic city. Beijing 2022 has built on the 2008 Summer Games, continuing to focus on being green and sustainable, Xu Yongjun, a professor with the School of Information Resources Management at Renmin University of China, told Beijing Review. He added that all these “heirlooms” need to be accurately recorded, conserved and utilized for the promoting of the spirit of the Olympic Movement as well as the development of China.
The government has already made plans to transform the venues into training facilities for athletes, sports centers or halls for entertainment purposes and public exhibitions.
“Sports venues and infrastructure make up the tangible heritage of the Games, but the human capital is even more impactful. The concept of engaging and educating children and youths in and about the Olympic Games and Olympic values goes well beyond sports,” Dubi said.
Beijing 2022 can be viewed as an opportunity to develop the local winter sports industry, promote healthier lifestyles, improve residents’ sense of responsibility, communicate Chinese culture with the rest of the world and boost the low-carbon economy, Patrick Wing Chung Lau, professor at Hong Kong Baptist University, said during a webinar on February 17.
From 2015 to 2020, the total size of China’s snow and ice industry grew from 270 billion yuan ($42 billion) to 600 billion yuan ($94 billion). This number is expected to grow to 1 trillion yuan ($157 billion) by 2025, according to reports from the General Administration of Sport of China. -The Daily Mail-Beijing Review News Exchange Item
