The Olympic flame notably passed over the Great Wall before the start of the festivities which will take place this Friday.
The Olympic flame climbed the Great Wall, the Chinese symbol par excellence, on Thursday, on the eve of the official opening of the Beijing Winter Games, marked by the threat of an epidemic and diplomatic tensions. The opening ceremony does not take place until Friday at 8:00 p.m. local (12:00 GMT) but the first events – curling – began on Wednesday evening in these second Olympic Games of the Covid era, after those of Tokyo last summer. . Competition continues Thursday with the debut of the women’s ice hockey tournament and qualifying in mogul skiing.
Read alsoMartin Fourcade: “Going to Beijing is not the same as applauding Chinese policy”
On Thursday morning, in fine weather but freezing cold, the torchbearers climbed the steps of the Great Wall at the historical site of Badaling, in the snowless mountains 75 km northwest of Beijing.
Hong Kong kungfu actor Jackie Chan was among the torchbearers, saying he was “very proud” to represent China on the occasion. But the controversies do not subside on the eve of kick-off. The start of the torch relay on Wednesday was the subject of controversy in India, when the press revealed that one of the torchbearers was a Chinese soldier involved in a 2020 skirmish with the Indian army in the Himalayas. The bare-knuckle clash had caused the death of at least 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese soldiers, seriously deteriorating relations between the two great neighbors.
Read also“Like the impression of being a dangerous criminal”: in Beijing, the incredible story of our reporter on his arrival at the Olympics
Forbidden to fraternize
Beijing continues to denounce the mixture of sport and politics in response to the “diplomatic boycott” observed by several Western countries, the United States in the lead, in order to denounce human rights violations in China. These countries send many athletes to Beijing but no official delegation.
In response, the communist regime last week published a list of 20 world leaders who will attend the Games, chief among them President Vladimir Putin, the center of global attention due to fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. Coincidence or not, Russia had waged war on Georgia, another pro-Western ex-Soviet republic, during the previous Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008. The Kremlin on Wednesday claimed China’s support for its demands vis-à-vis live in the West, before a meeting between Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Olympics.
In late January, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi backed Moscow’s “reasonable concerns” about Ukraine. In this tense context, the Ukrainian government asked its athletes not to fraternize with the Russians during the Games. “We held a videoconference on patriotism and gave recommendations on how to behave: do not stand next to Russian sportsmen, do not take pictures with them,” said Ukrainian Sports Minister Vadym Guttsait. , in an interview published on Wednesday.
300 positive cases
The Beijing Olympics welcome 92 delegations and exactly 2,892 participants. Due to the epidemic, they are confined to a health bubble which includes competition sites, hotels and press centers. No contact is allowed with the general population outside the bubble, with Beijing observing a zero Covid strategy. Participants are screened daily. As of Thursday, nearly 300 positive cases had been counted since the entry into force of the device on January 23.
In tears, a Belgian skeleton champion, Kim Meylemans, reacted on social networks and sports bodies by announcing Tuesday that she was placed in solitary confinement after a positive test.
Read alsoOlympic Games 2022: the tears and disarray of a Belgian sportswoman with a dream crushed by the health protocol
“It’s very hard for me, I’m not sure I can manage the 14 days of the Olympics in solitary confinement,” she said. Despite the epidemic context, the Beijing Games “will forever change the scale of winter sports”, assured Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). “China has already made history by exceeding the goal of introducing 300 million of its citizens to snow and ice sports,” he said, opening the 139th session of the Olympic body on Thursday.
If the image of the Olympic alpine skiing site, built from scratch in the middle of arid mountains with 100% artificial snow, leaves many foreign observers perplexed, “today we can say it: China is a country winter sports,” Bach said. In a message to the participants, Xi Jinping promised that “China will do its best to provide the world with simple, safe and splendid Games”.