BEIJING — Chinese athletes Zhao Jiawen and Dinigeer Yilamujiang stepped into the centre of a newly formed snowflake and slid the Olympic torch into place — transforming the intricate crystal into a most unique cauldron.
Lights. Cheers. Fireworks.
And now, the Winter Games.
Beijing opened its second Olympics in 14 years at the lattice-encased National Stadium on Friday, bringing an official start to the two-week sporting competition held despite challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic and a diplomatic boycott from several governments over the way China treats millions of its own people.
Chinese President Xi Jinping declared the Games open before a limited crowd that included Russian President Vladimir Putin, who met privately with Xi earlier in the day as a dangerous standoff unfolds at Russia’s border with Ukraine.
Aided by a dazzling series of digital displays on a massive HD LED floor, hundreds of Chinese students and ordinary citizens ushered in the Olympics with an homage to winter heavy on references to local folklore. Children raised lighted doves toward the sky and performed songs wearing traditional tiger-head shoes just days after ringing in the Year of the Tiger. Older performers helped reveal the Olympic motto: Faster, higher, stronger — together.
The athletes were led into the arena by placard carriers in tiger-head hats. Each placard was designed to look like a glowing snowflake, and after the Parade of Nations, they were connected together into a larger flake that formed the Olympic cauldron.
Canadian women's hockey captain Marie-Philip Poulin and short-track speedskater Charles Hamelin waved the Maple Leaf together as they entered the National Stadium on a clear but cold evening.
Bundled up in thick winter gear, they proudly held the flagpole as they led in the 100-strong contingent of Canadian athletes, team officials and support staff.
Sandwiched between Ghana and San Marino, Canada was 27th out of 91 countries to enter the stadium.
Canada didn't send any official representatives to the Games as part of a diplomatic boycott over China's record of human rights abuses. Canadian Olympic Committee president Tricia Smith waved to the athletes from the stands.
The ceremony had a more celebratory feel than the rather sombre opening ceremony at the Tokyo Games last summer, the first Olympics to be held during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This was the first ceremony since the Canadian Olympic Committee switched to Lululemon as its outfitter after a 16-year run with Hudson's Bay.
Canada won 29 medals at the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, the most by a Canadian team at a single Winter Olympics.
The honour of lighting the cauldron went to Zhao and Yilamujiang. The latter was born in Xinjiang, the western China region where human rights groups say China oppresses many in the ethnic Uyghur population.
The third major fireworks show of the night followed, a blindingly bright spectacle floating above the stadium known as the Bird's Nest, signalling to the city and the world that these Games have begun.
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach addressed the athletes of the Beijing Games directly, saying: “Dear fellow Olympians, your Olympic stage is set. You have arrived here after overcoming so many challenges. … But now your moment has come, the moment you have been longing for, the moment we all have been longing for. Now your Olympic dream is coming true.”
Competition in some events started Wednesday and Saturday is the first full day of events at the games, with the first medals to be awarded.
It took the flame more than three months to finally make its way to the games. It was lit on Oct. 18 in Ancient Olympia, Greece, the official start of its journey to China.
With files from Gregory Strong, Canadian Press
The Associated Press
