Beijing - The Winter Olympic Games came to a close on Sunday night, one that will be remembered for the extremes of its anti-COVID-19 measures, scandals and politics rather than sports. Almost 3,000 athletes competed in 109 events across 15 disciplines during the past two weeks.
On Sunday night, Xi and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach stood together as Beijing handed off to Milan-Cortina, site of the 2026 Winter Games. “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” kicked off a notably Western-flavored show with Chinese characteristics as dancers with tiny, fiery snowflakes glided across the stadium in a ceremony that, like the opening, was headed by Chinese director Zhang Yimou.
Norway topped the medal count with a total of 37, including 16 gold, 8 silver and 13 bronze. Germany came second with a total of 27, ie 12 gold, 10 silver and 5 bronze. They were followed by the host nation, China, with a total of 15 medals, out of which the country won 9 gold, 4 silver and 2 bronze. The US and Sweden settled for the fourth and fifth positions respectively.
Sunday night's ceremony was capped by a 90-second fireworks display that spelled out "one world, one family," followed by a rendition of "Auld Lang Syne".
On one side of the stadium, which was roughly half full, red Chinese lanterns projected a glow as Olympic athletes entered en masse to "Ode to Joy", dancing and taking selfies.
The Chinese team drew cheers that grew louder when San Francisco-born freestyle skier Eileen Gu, who won two golds and a silver for China, was shown on-screen.
Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, joined in the applause, and Xi was later shown looking through binoculars at the spectacle of athletes walking across the illuminated LED-screen floor of the vast stadium.
Later, a group of 365 people bade farewell with a glowing green willow twig, enacting a traditional Chinese gesture of regret over parting.
Covid, Scandals, Politics
The Beijing Games, contained inside a "closed loop", were the second Olympics in six months to be deprived by COVID-19 of much of its festivity.
They were also stalked by politics, with several countries staging a diplomatic boycott over China's human rights record, and the spectre of invasion of Ukraine by Russia, with President Vladimir Putin attending the opening ceremony in a show of solidarity against the West with Xi.
A pile of figure-skating rubble created by Russian misbehavior. A new Chinese champion — from California. An ace American skier who faltered and went home empty-handed. The end of the Olympic line for the world’s most renowned snowboarder. All inside an anti-COVID “closed loop” enforced by China’s authoritarian government.
TV ratings were down, but streaming viewership was up: By Saturday, NBC had streamed 3.5 billion minutes from Beijing, compared to 2.2 billion in South Korea in 2018 as reported by AP.
Sunday witnessed the close of the third straight Games in Asia, after Pyeongchang in 2018 and the delayed Tokyo Summer Games six months ago, also the second pandemic Games.
-Reuters/AP