Beijing starts low-key torch relay for Winter Olympics | Winter Olympics News

Events leading to the 2022 Games are taking place inside a ‘closed loop’ sealing off athletes, Olympics personnel and selected spectators.

The Winter Olympics torch relay has kicked off in Beijing as China’s capital gears up to host the global sporting event against a backdrop of diplomatic boycotts and the coronavirus pandemic.

Starting Wednesday, more than 1,000 torchbearers will carry the flame through competition areas in Beijing and the neighbouring city of Zhangjiakou – hosting events such as cross-country skiing and ski jumping – before the opening ceremony on Friday evening.

Audiences for the torch relay will be strictly limited, with China encouraging people to follow the event online rather than try to catch a glimpse of the procession in person.

The first three runners in the relay were Luo Zhihuan, an 80-year-old former speed skater who won China’s first winter sports world championship title in 1963, astronaut Jing Haipeng, as well as Chang’e 1 satellite designer Ye Peijian, according to Beijing Daily.

Former NBA star and Olympian Yao Ming also joined the relay, but not top tennis player Peng Shuai, whose whereabouts and safety remain a global concern after she made sexual assault allegations against a former vice premier.

The torch’s journey to Beijing began in October with activists unfurling banners accusing China of human rights abuses at the flame-lighting ceremony in the Olympic spiritual homeland of Greece.

Multiple countries, including the United States, Australia, Britain and Canada have announced diplomatic boycotts of the Games over China’s human rights record including its treatment of Muslim minorities in Xinjiang and a crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong.

Beijing has condemned the boycott and is determined to pull off a Games that will burnish its international reputation.

As the only remaining major world economy to still be pursuing a zero-COVID strategy, China is taking no chances with the Olympics.

The flame arrived in Beijing in October after it skipped the traditional torch relay on Greek soil due to coronavirus concerns.

The Games, which open on February 4, are taking place inside a “closed-loop” bubble that seals off athletes and other Olympics personnel from the public, and only select groups of people will be allowed to attend events.

“That is, of course, bad luck but what can you do?” Georgios Iliopoulos, Greece’s ambassador to China and one of the torch-bearers, said when asked if he was worried that the 2022 Games would be remembered as the “Corona Olympics”.

“You cannot stop life and we do the best we can to continue with what we have to deal with. The main thing is we keep together at this and leave it behind us as soon as possible,” he told reporters.