Beijing Winter Olympics: Torch relay gets under way ahead of Friday’s opening ceremony

BESTPIX - Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Torch Relay
Former world speed skating champion Luo Zhihuan carries the torch as he runs by supporters on the first leg
Getty Images
Michael Howie2 February 2022

The Beijing Winter Olympic torch relay got underway on Wednesday with an 80-year-old former speedskater among the first to carry the flame.

The Covid-shortened relay will see more than 1,000 torchbearers carry the flame to competition zones and past landmarks including the Great Wall, before ending its journey with the lighting of the Olympic cauldron at Friday’s opening ceremony.

Because of Covid-19, only selected members of the public will witness this week's relay, as will be the case during the sporting events at the Olympics, which are taking place inside a “closed loop” that seals off athletes and other Olympics personnel from the public.

“That is, of course, bad luck but what can you do?”, Georgios Iliopoulos, Greece's ambassador to China and a torchbearer, said when asked if he was worried that the 2022 Games would be remembered as the “corona Olympics”.

Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Torch Relay
China's Vice Premier Han Zheng lights the torch
Getty Images

“You cannot stop life and we do the best we can to continue with what we have to deal with. The main thing is we keep together at this and leave it behind us as soon as possible,” he told reporters.

Wednesday’s event began under clear blue skies in Beijing when Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng lit a torch from a cauldron in the shape of traditional ritual vessel known as a zun. He then handed it to 80-year-old Luo Zhihuan, who as a speed skater was China’s first winter sports world champion.

CORRECTED VERSION - Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Torch Relay
Luo Zhihuan, left, lights the torch of Chinese astronaut Jing Haipeng after running the first leg
Getty Images

Other torchbearers included basketball great Yao Ming and a Chinese soldier wounded in a bloody 2020 border clash with India.

While the Games officially get underway on Friday, competition began on Wednesday with mixed-doubles curling.

A view from near the summit of the alpine skiing course
AP

The Olympics are relying heavily on artificial snow as very little of the real stuff falls on the mountains in Yanqing, where the downhill skiing events are being staged, and Zhangjiakou, where snowboarding, cross-country skiing and ski-jumping events will take place.

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