The Beijing Winter Olympics have closed with IOC chief Thomas Bach hailing a smoothly run event and a “safe Games” in the midst of the Covid pandemic, but the gold medals were overshadowed by a doping controversy.
The Games ended on Sunday in the “Bird’s Nest” stadium, just as they had when the Chinese capital hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics, in a snowflake-themed closing ceremony attended by President Xi Jinping and a socially-distanced crowd.
As he declared the Games over and handed over to 2026 hosts Milano-Cortina, the International Olympic Committee president Bach hailed an “unforgettable Olympic experience”.
The Games produced bright new stars including China’s Californian-born freestyle skier Eileen Gu, who won two gold medals to cement her huge popularity in the host nation.
The future of 15-year-old Russian figure skating prodigy Kamila Valieva is less certain after she failed a drugs test but was allowed to continue competing.
Then, after a week of intense pressure, she fell apart in an error-strewn performance that will go down as one of the saddest in Olympic history.
Chinese organisers will be quick to hail the success of the vast Covid-secure “bubble” that enveloped the Games, with up to 70,000 people sealed off.
There was no mass outbreak of Covid at the Games or in the wider Chinese capital, but Bach said: “If we want to finally overcome this pandemic, we must be faster, we must aim higher, we must be stronger – we must stand together.
“In this Olympic spirit of solidarity, we call on the international community: give equal access to vaccines for everybody around the world.”
With tensions rising between Russia and Ukraine, Bach said the athletes had “given peace a chance”.
“May the political leaders around the world be inspired by your example of solidarity and peace,” he said.
The Global Times, a Chinese nationalist state-run tabloid, said yesterday that the Olympics had shown the ‘true nature’ of China.
“The unexpected global popularity of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games declared the complete failure of the so-called diplomatic boycott, smashed the malicious slander of some Western media, and demonstrated the enduring charm of human resilience and unity,” it said.
Echoing that theme, fireworks lit up the night sky at the ceremony, spelling out “ONE WORLD”.