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Former 1941 World Velocity Skating Champion Luo Zhihuan carries the torch as he runs the primary leg in the course of the launch ceremony for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Torch Relay in entrance of the Olympic Tower on February 2, 2022 at Olympic Park in Beijing.
Kevin Frayer | Getty Photos
Beijing kicked off its Winter Olympics torch relay early on Wednesday, with Chinese language basketball nice and Olympian Yao Ming among the many first to hold the flame on a journey that may final simply three days attributable to Covid-19 curbs.
The relay will carry the flame previous landmarks together with the Nice Wall, and is much extra modest than the globe-spanning occasion forward of Beijing’s 2008 Summer season Video games that was disrupted by protests alongside the way in which.
Due to Covid-19, solely chosen members of the general public will witness the torch relay.
The Feb. 4-20 Video games are going down inside a “closed loop” bubble that seals off athletes and different Olympics personnel from the general public, and the occasions will solely be attended by chosen teams of individuals.
“That’s, after all, unhealthy luck however what are you able to do?,” Georgios Iliopoulos, Greece’s ambassador to China and one of many torch-bearers, stated when requested if he was anxious that the 2022 Video games can be remembered because the “corona Olympics.”
“You can’t cease life and we do the most effective we will to proceed with what we have now to cope with. The principle factor is we preserve collectively at this and depart it behind us as quickly as doable,” he advised reporters.
The flame, which was flown from Greece in October, will journey to competitors zones, together with Zhangjiakou in neighboring Hebei province, earlier than ending its journey with the lighting of the Olympic cauldron at Friday’s opening ceremony.
Wednesday’s occasion started below clear blue skies in Beijing when Chinese language Vice Premier Han Zheng lit a torch from a cauldron within the form of conventional ritual vessel often known as a zun, then handed it to 80-year-old Luo Zhihuan, who as a velocity skater was China’s first winter sports activities world champion.
Greater than 1,000 torch-bearers will take part within the relay.
Requested in the course of the sub-freezing morning how he felt as an Olympics torch-bearer, Yao responded: “Fairly chilly, as a result of the earlier two instances had been for the Summer season Olympics. However it’s heat to carry a flame within the winter.”
Disclosure: CNBC dad or mum NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports activities and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics is the U.S. broadcast rights holder to all Summer season and Winter Video games via 2032.
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