BEIJING: A Beijing Wintry weather Olympics which noticed carrying drama and milestones however was once tarnished via a Russian doping scandal ended the day gone by with an uplifting remaining rite. The Video games might be remembered for brand spanking new stars reminiscent of Eileen Gu but additionally for the doping controversy which engulfed 15-year-old determine skater Kamila Valieva and since they came about within an unlimited COVID-secure “bubble”.
The “Fowl’s Nest” stadium, which additionally took centre level when Beijing hosted the 2008 Summer season Video games, was once the scene for a celebratory, snowflake-themed remaining rite attended via President Xi Jinping and a socially distanced crowd seated amongst pink lanterns. Stating the Video games closed and delivering to 2026 hosts Milano-Cortina, Global Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach hailed an “unforgettable Olympic revel in”.
There was once no feared mass outbreak of COVID on the Video games or within the wider neighborhood within the Chinese language capital, however Bach mentioned: “If we need to in any case triumph over this pandemic, we will have to be sooner, we will have to goal upper, we will have to be stronger-we will have to stand in combination. “On this Olympic spirit of unity, we name at the world neighborhood: give equivalent get right of entry to to vaccines for everyone world wide.” Fireworks lit up the night time sky because the rite reached its crescendo, spelling out the phrases “ONE WORLD”.
Doping overshadows Video games
For the reason that opening rite on February 4, a brand new world famous person emerged within the type of 18-year-old freestyle skier Gu, who was once born in California however switched to China in 2019 and changed into the unofficial face of the Video games. There was once a brand new males’s determine skating champion in 22-year-old Nathan Chen of america, who dethroned two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu, in what might be the Jap legend’s ultimate look at a Video games.
Every other iconic determine of wintry weather sports activities, the American snowboarder Shaun White, will undoubtedly now not go back to festival of any type after calling it quits. The 35-year-old’s ultimate tournament ended agonizingly out of the medals and he was once in tears as he bid farewell to snowboarding-“the affection of my lifestyles”. There was once sour sadness for his fellow American, the alpine ski famous person Mikaela Shiffrin, one of the vital greatest names on the Video games however who went house and not using a medal.
There have been tears from Valieva after it emerged that she had failed a medicine take a look at previous to the Video games, catapulting her to the vanguard of but any other Russian doping controversy to mar an Olympics and piling intense drive at the youngster. In what’s going to pass down as a infamous episode within the historical past of the Wintry weather Olympics, the pre-tournament favourite for singles gold fell a number of instances at the ice within the finals, to audible gasps from the socially distanced crowd of hand-picked spectators.
Her doping case seems to be sure to tug on within the coming months, lengthy after the Video games have packed up. She was once allowed to skate within the Chinese language capital however has now not been cleared of doping. In a Video games first, the skating staff medals weren’t awarded after Valieva performed a starring position in propelling the Russians to gold, forward of america and Japan. The American skaters made an Eleventh-hour court docket bid on Saturday to get their fingers on their medals prior to they went house, however the Courtroom of Arbitration for Game rejected it.
Milestones
China and its ruling Communist Birthday celebration will glance again on a soft-power good fortune. Fears a few mass COVID outbreak within the “closed loop” bubble sealing the just about 3,000 athletes and about 65,000 others by no means materialized. Some athletes did even though catch the sickness and the pandemic was once by no means a long way away-Russia and Canada’s girls ice hockey groups performed each and every different dressed in clinical mask after the result of their day by day PCR exams did not arrive in time.
Considerations about human rights had ruled the build-up, with america main a diplomatic boycott via its closest allies over China’s rights file, particularly the destiny of the Muslim Uyghur minority in Xinjiang. Their athletes did alternatively compete. China warned within the fraught lead-up that international athletes criticizing the government may face penalties, however after all, any protests in opposition to the hosts had been extraordinarily muted. There have been a lot of records-among them American bobsleigher Elana Meyers Taylor turning into essentially the most adorned Black athlete within the historical past of the Wintry weather Olympics.
Snowboarder Zoi Sadowski Synnott made historical past for New Zealand, successful her nation’s first Wintry weather Video games gold; with Gu pocketing two golds, the hosts loved an important medal bump and completed 3rd within the medals desk with 9 golds. That was once simply their highest efficiency within the Wintry weather Video games, a spot forward of leader geopolitical rival america, on 8 golds. For the second one Video games in a row, Norway crowned the medals desk, with 16 golds. Germany had been 2nd on 12.- AFP