BEIJING — Curling
got the
Beijing Winter Olympics underway on Wednesday in front of a smattering
of spectators as China tried to move on from the diplomatic boycotts and COVID-19
fears that have dogged the lead-up to the Games.
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The Olympics do not officially launch until
Friday's opening ceremony but the action began with mixed doubles curling at
the "Ice Cube" — known as the "Water Cube" when the Chinese
capital hosted the 2008 Summer Games — in front of a limited number of masked
fans.
China barred overseas fans because of the
pandemic but some spectators will be invited to attend and organizers say
venues could be up to 50 percent full. Arenas were mostly empty at last
summer's pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games to stop the spread of infection.
The build-up to the Beijing Olympics, which
will unfold within a huge COVID-secure "bubble", has been
overshadowed by controversies ranging from rights concerns to Peng Shuai and
warnings about snooping on competitors by the Chinese government.
Adopting the catchphrase "Together for
a shared future",
China, its ruling Communist Party, and the International
Olympic Committee hope the rancor will be forgotten once the Games get into
full swing.
However, there have already been nearly 250
positive COVID-19 cases within the "closed loop" bubble and Dr Brian
McCloskey, chairman of the medical expert panel for Beijing 2022, said 11
people had been hospitalized.
"None of those are seriously ill in any
way," he said. It is not known who they are but nearly 3,000 athletes
together with thousands of support staff, volunteers and media are cut off from
the outside world in the bubble.
When Beijing hosted the 2008 Games, the
torch relay took in swathes of China and other countries — where it met
protests in places — but this time it will last just three days, ending at the
"Bird's Nest" stadium for the opening ceremony.
Beijing 2022 official Cai Qi said at the
start of the relay Wednesday — which will involve more than 1,000 torchbearers
and included former NBA star Yao Ming — that he hoped the Games would help
"dispel the gloom of the pandemic".
China, where COVID-19 emerged towards the
end of 2019, has pursued a zero-COVID policy nationwide and is taking the same
approach at the Olympics.
The highly infectious
Omicron variant
presents a new challenge, both to the Games and the country, putting already
jittery authorities further on edge. Cases in Beijing have been ticking
upwards, albeit from a low base number.
Human rights
If the 2008 Olympics were the country's
coming-out party, these Games will take place in a China under
President Xi Jinping which is increasingly belligerent on the global stage and boasting the
world's second-largest economy.
When Washington said it would stage a
diplomatic boycott because of rights concerns — with Australia, Britain and
Canada among those following suit — China warned the US would "pay the
price".
The Biden administration will not send
diplomatic or official representation over what it called China's "ongoing
genocide and crimes against humanity" against Muslim Uyghurs in the region
of Xinjiang.
Athletes of the boycotting countries will
compete at the Games, which run until February 20, but a US rights monitor
sounded the alarm over athletes' safety after the hosts threatened
"punishment" for anti-Beijing comments.
There are other controversies. IOC president
Thomas Bach says that while in
Beijing he will meet Peng, a Grand Slam-winning
tennis player who alleged in November that she had been sexually assaulted by a
former vice-premier.
Peng was not heard from for nearly three
weeks, only to reappear, but there are concerns about how free she really is.
Fearing surveillance, some Western nations
have told their athletes to leave their personal devices at home and use
temporary burner phones.
There are signs that China is tightening the
noose on anyone daring to spoil the party, with human rights activists and some
academics having their WeChat messaging app accounts restricted in recent
weeks.
Face of the Games
The Games will be held in three zones. In
addition to downtown Beijing, the two other areas are outside the capital and
will rely on artificial snow to cover what would otherwise be brown
mountainsides. Environmentalists have voiced concern.
American ski ace Mikaela Shiffrin is chasing
a third slalom gold, while Japan's Yuzuru Hanyu is looking to make it a
hat-trick of figure-skating Olympic titles.
There will be huge interest in Chloe Kim,
the American snowboarder who melted hearts when she won gold aged 17 at the
Pyeongchang Olympics in 2018, while Eileen Gu could become the face of the
Games.
The 18-year-old grade-A student, born and
raised in California, switched from the US to represent China and is hot favorite
in freestyle skiing.
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