Cai Qi, secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China and president of the organizing committee for the Beijing 2022 Winter Games, receives a torch lit with the Olympic flame from a staff member on Oct 20 morning. A welcoming ceremony for the flame, which was lit two days earlier in Greece, the home of the Olympics, was held at the Olympic Tower in Beijing. (WEI XIAOHAO / CHINA DAILY)
The Olympic flame, ignited for the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Ancient Olympia in southern Greece, arrived in Beijing on Oct 20.
A welcoming ceremony was held at the Olympic Tower, an iconic landmark from the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The ignition and handover process of the Olympic flame in Greece was reviewed at the ceremony before Cai Qi, secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee and president of the Beijing 2022 Organizing Committee, or BOCOG, took over the flame and lit the cauldron.
Zhang Jiandong, vice mayor of Beijing and executive vice president of BOCOG, said ensuring the health and safety of all participants is the top priority as the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games approach.
A series of torch relay activities, including an Olympic flame display, is scheduled with the slogan “Health, Joy and Energy”.
In accordance with the concept of delivering “a streamlined, safe and splendid Games”, the scale of the torch relay will be reduced to ensure the health and safety of the public.
According to the BOCOG, the Olympic flame will be initially displayed at the Olympic Tower in Beijing, and will then tour China, aiming to spread the Olympic spirit and engage more people to participate in ice and snow sports.
From Feb 2 to 4, 2022, an offline torch relay featuring 1,200 torchbearers will be held in the three competition zones of Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou.
The online torch relay will feature virtual reality, WeChat mini programs and other promotional programs to attract more people to join in.
The Beijing 2022 Olympic flame lantern, torch relay symbol and torchbearer uniform made their public debuts during the ceremony, all of which were designed with inspiration from traditional Chinese culture.
On Oct 18, the flame for the Beijing winter sports event was lit in Greece, kicking off the final countdown to the Chinese capital’s encore as the Games host.
After a series of traditional ceremonies at the site, Greek actress Xanthi Georgiou — portraying a high priestess — knelt before a parabolic mirror and gathered the sun’s rays into a bloom of flame in front of the Temple of Hera in Olympia, the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games.
Greek actress Xanthi Georgiou, playing the role of a high priestess, lights the torch for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics at the Ancient Olympia archaeological site, birthplace of the Olympics in southern Greece, on Oct 18. (ARIS MESSINIS / AFP)
Although skies were cloudy for a dress rehearsal the previous day, sunshine broke out just in time to guarantee a smooth operation of the sacred ritual witnessed by dignitaries, including Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach and IOC Vice-President Yu Zaiqing, who also is a vice-president of the Beijing 2022 organizing committee.
Yu, on behalf of Chinese organizers, sent a warm welcome to the world, inviting international winter sports athletes to visit Beijing in just over 100 days.
“The Olympic flame embodies our unswerving pursuit of excellence … and it sheds light on our journey ahead, to overcome difficulties with greater solidarity and closer cooperation,” Yu said.
“The lighting of the flame today, carried by the torch of the Beijing 2022 Winter Games, will connect two ancient cultures in Greece and China again, and will rekindle Olympic passion and dreams among 1.4 billion Chinese people,” he added.
Bach, citing the significance of the Olympics’ return to China, hailed the Beijing event as a game changer for the international winter sports community.
“The Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 will connect the Chinese people with the world, bringing to life China’s vision to engage 300 million people with sport on snow and ice, changing winter sport forever. The entire world will see this passion when China welcomes the best winter sport athletes,” he said in a speech before the flame was lit.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the ceremony was held without spectators under a plan that also saw the traditional multiday relay in Greece replaced by a brief relay just in Olympia.
After the Olympic flame was lit, Greek skier Ioannis Antoniou, an Olympian who was the first torchbearer for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, revisited the role by carrying the torch while running the first leg of the brief relay.
The flame was then passed to Chinese Olympian Li Jiajun, a winner of five medals (two silver and three bronze) in short-track speed skating at the 1998, 2002 and 2006 Winter Games.
“As a former winter sports athlete, it’s such a great honor and a sacred mission to come to Greece and take part in the ceremony as a torchbearer,” said Li, who retired at 31 after the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy.
The Olympic flame was transported to Panathenaic Stadium in Athens on Oct 19, when the official handover to the Beijing 2022 organizing committee took place before the flame departed for China.
The traditional Olympic torch relay will be held on a much smaller scale, compared with the conventional grand function, under the COVID-19 protocols.
Around 2,900 athletes, representing approximately 85 National Olympic Committees, will compete in what will be the most gender-balanced Winter Games in history in three zones — Beijing’s downtown, its northwest Yanqing district and co-host Zhangjiakou, Hebei province — from Feb 4 to 20.
Xinhua contributed to this story.
