2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

The International Paralympic Committee president says he is still waiting for China's state broadcaster to explain the apparent censorship of his forceful anti-war speech at the opening of the Beijing Winter Games, nearly a week on.

CCTV has not responded to the IPC's questions or made any guarantees that it won't happen again at this Sunday's closing ceremony of the Beijing Paralympics.

"Not yet. We asked about it. We are still waiting for their position or explanation," IPC president Andrew Parsons tells AFP.

Sport's top court dismisses an appeal from American skaters to get their Beijing Olympics team silver medals after they were held back because of the Kamila Valieva doping scandal.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport says a panel "decided to dismiss the application" after deliberating by video conference. — AFP

Beijing Olympics organizers say that there were no new COVID-19 cases in the "closed-loop" bubble for the first time, hailing the success of China's strict approach.

There were fears ahead of the Olympics that COVID-19 could badly impact the Games, especially with the more contagious Omicron variant.

The nearly 3,000 athletes and more than 60,000 support staff, volunteers, journalists and others are cocooned inside a vast bubble where they must be tested every day and wear a mask at all times. — AFP

Russia's Olympic Committee on Monday welcomed the announcement that figure skater Kamila Valieva has been cleared to continue competing in the Beijing Olympics despite failing a doping test.

"Tomorrow the whole country will support her and all our wonderful female skaters in the individuals competition," the committee said on Telegram, calling it the "best news of the day". — AFP

The Philippines' sole 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics bet Asa Miller a DNF (did not finish) after skiing off the course.

All skiers who finish in Run 1 will compete in Run 2. However, with Miller's DNF, he will not be seeing action any more today

Miller has a chance to bounce back on Slalom later this week. — report from Luisa Morales

New Olympic snowboard halfpipe champion Ayumu Hirano says that riders are "putting their lives on the line" but not being scored "accurately", calling for better judging.

The dreadlocked Japanese beat retiring legend Shaun White and a host of others to win gold in the men's halfpipe on Friday, but he had to come from behind on his final run to do it.

Hirano says he is "angry" and "didn't understand" why his jaw-dropping second run did not put him into first place, and on Saturday he called for wholesale changes to the judging system.

"We want to have sound standards and I think we should look into exactly what the judges were looking at," says the 23-year-old. — AFP

US-born Chinese figure skater Beverly Zhu breaks down on the ice after she fell twice at the Beijing Olympics on Monday, having been widely abused on Chinese social media for another poor performance the previous day.

Zhu, who was born and raised in the United States but competes for China under the name Zhu Yi, also took a tumble on Sunday in another section of the team event, coming last and almost costing the hosts a place in the final. 

"I wanted to cry during the competition and I couldn't hold back the tears in the end," Beijing Youth Daily reports her as saying after her latest Olympic heartbreak. — AFP

Snowboarder Zoi Sadowski Synnott produces the "best run of my life" to win New Zealand's first Winter Olympics gold medal ever at the Beijing Games on Sunday.

"Honestly it's absolute disbelief but it probably means more to me to win New Zealand's first Winter Olympic gold," said Sadowski Synnott, who was born in Sydney but moved to New Zealand aged six.

"It makes me super proud to be a Kiwi." — AFP

 The Beijing Olympics men's downhill, one of the signature events of the Games, is postponed because of high winds.

"The jury together with the organisers have decided in the best interest of safety and fairness for the racers to delay," organisers say.

The downhill will now be held at midday (0400 GMT) on Monday with the two legs of the women's giant slalom to be held either side of that, at 9:30 am and 2:30pm. — AFP

The first gold medals of the Beijing Winter Olympics will be awarded as hosts China hope that the sport will roar to the fore after a troubled build-up dominated by coronavirus and rights concerns.

The first medals come in cross-country skiing, in the women's 7.5-plus-7.5-kilometre skiathlon.

Among the competitors in that event will be Dinigeer Yilamujiang, a 20-year-old Uyghur athlete chosen by China as one of two athletes to light the cauldron in Friday's opening ceremony. — AFP

State broadcaster CCTV reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing on Friday afternoon for the opening of the 2022 Winter Olympics in the Chinese capital.

The visit is Putin's "first overseas visit of the year", according to CCTV, with the Russian leader set to meet China's President Xi Jinping in Xi's first face-to-face meeting with a world leader in nearly two years. — AFP

The Beijing Winter Olympics torch relay begins its truncated journey to Friday's opening ceremony as China tries to move on from the diplomatic boycotts and COVID-19 fears that have dogged the build-up to the Games.

The sport starts later Wednesday with curling, two days before the official opening of an Olympics overshadowed by controversies ranging from rights concerns to Peng Shuai and warnings about snooping by the Chinese government.

Adopting the catchphrase "Together for a shared future", China, its ruling Communist Party and the International Olympic Committee hope all the rancour will be forgotten once the Games get into full swing. — AFP

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

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 its people to follow the event online rather than try to catch a glimpse of the procession in person. — AFP

A US rights monitor sounds the alarm over athletes' safety at China's upcoming Winter Olympics, after the host threatened "punishment" for anti-Beijing comments.

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China — a group of Washington lawmakers and White House officials — asks US Olympics authorities for an "urgent effort" to protect their sports stars' free speech rights at the February 4-20 event.

The commission speaks out after Yang Shu, a senior official in the Beijing Games organizing committee, told an online briefing on January 18 that "any behavior or speech that is against the Olympic spirit, especially against the Chinese laws and regulations, are also subject to certain punishment."

"Given Yang Shu's statement and the Chinese government's documented behavior, we urge the USOPC to be vigilant and prepared to defend any Olympians who speak out," the commission says in a letter to the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee seen by AFP. — AFP

Defending Olympic women's halfpipe champion Chloe Kim, one of the standout stars of the last Winter Olympics, travels to Beijing with a new perspective and triumphs in all five events since ending a layoff of nearly two years.

"I have a very clear picture what I need to do as an athlete and going into the Olympics I'm very well prepared," Kim told the Olympic Channel.

"I'm going to go in with the same mindset as the last one, just no pressure. I'm going to do the best I can and we'll see what happens." — AFP

Olympic organisers are confident that their measures will stop these Games adding to the rising infection numbers.

A similar system was in operation for last year's pandemic-delayed Tokyo Summer Olympics, but the measures in Beijing are more stringent.

"We believe the closed-loop system will be effective in stopping transmission from spreading inside to outside or vice versa because we've seen it work," said Dr Brian McCloskey, chair of the International Olympic Committee's Medical Expert Panel.

"We've seen it work not just in Tokyo, we've seen it work in sporting events around the world, although I would say that no sporting event has had such a comprehensive closed-loop system as the Olympic Games." — AFP

Beijing records its highest number of new Covid-19 cases for a year and a half on Sunday, as the Chinese capital gears up to host the Winter Olympics in five days.

China will hold the Games in a strict "closed-loop" bubble as part of its zero-Covid strategy of targeted lockdowns, border restrictions and lengthy quarantines.

The approach has helped the world's second-largest economy keep the number of new infections far lower than many other countries, but it is battling local outbreaks in several cities as well as in the Olympic bubble. — AFP

China reveals a list of visiting dignitaries for next week's Winter Olympics that includes the leaders of Russia, Saudi Arabia and Egypt for an event that is being diplomatically shunned by some Western nations.

Beijing is keen to shore up international support for the Games, which are the most politicised in recent memory.

Multiple Western nations have announced a diplomatic boycott citing China's human rights record, in particular its crackdown on Muslim Uyghurs in the western region of Xinjiang that the United States has labelled "genocide". — AFP

State media reports that China's President Xi Jinping will host a banquet for heads of state and international organizations coming to the Winter Olympics, as some Western nations choose to diplomatically boycott the Games.

State broadcaster CCTV releases an updated list of dignitaries for next Friday's opening ceremony which included many of China's neighbours, a host of royals and leaders from key autocratic nations.

Among the more than 20 foreign visitors on the list were Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. — AFP

The foreign ministry says Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi told his US counterpart that Washington must "stop interfering" in the upcoming Winter Olympics in a Thursday call.

"The most urgent priority right now is that the US should stop interfering in the Beijing Winter Olympics," said Wang, adding that Washington must also "stop playing with fire" on the Taiwan issue. — AFP

South Korean champion Cha Jun-hwan warms up for the Winter Olympics in two weeks time with his first gold at the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Tallinn on Sunday.

"I'm really happy with how I fought through and gave my everything," says Cha, who trains in Toronto with Canadian two-time Olympic medallist Brian Orser.

"Today's performance will be a great step for the Olympics and the rest of the season.

"When I came to this competition I was thinking this will be helpful for the Olympics and the season, not about medalling." — AFP

Jamaica have qualified for three Olympic bobsleigh events for the first time ever, their team says, setting the stage for a "Cool Runnings"-style underdog drama to unfold at the Beijing Games.

For the first time in 24 years, Team Jamaica will send a four-man sled, the event which inspired the popular film about the Caribbean country's first unlikely foray into the winter sport.

"It will be fire on ice," Team Jamaica says Monday on their official Twitter account. "This will be the 1st time JAM has qualified in 3 Olympic bobsled events: four-man, two-man and women's monobob". — AFP

China cancels plans to sell tickets to the public for the Winter Olympics in Beijing, as the number of Covid-19 cases in the country reached its highest since March 2020.

Organisers said last year there would be no international spectators at the Games — partly due to China's weeks-long quarantine requirements — but they had promised to allow domestic audiences.

But those plans were scrapped on Monday as China reported 223 new infections just three weeks before the Winter Olympics are set to open.

"In order to protect the health and safety of Olympic-related personnel and spectators, it was decided to adjust the original plan to sell tickets to the public and (instead) organise spectators to watch the Games on-site," the Beijing Olympic organising committee says in a statement. — AFP

Acclaimed Chinese film director Zhang Yimou, who masterminded the spectacular opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, will reprise that role for next month's Winter Games in the capital, organizers announce.

Zhang, 71, promised a "totally innovative" unveiling, while conceding that the global pandemic and colder weather will limit its scale compared to 14 years ago, when 15,000 performers took part.

"Being simple, just as in martial arts films, is like a master's sword," Zhang tells state-run Xinhua news agency in an interview. — AFP

Two-time Olympic figure skating champion Yuzuru Hanyu has booked his place at the Beijing Games, laying down a marker with a commanding win at Japan's national championships on Sunday.

"To be honest, this wasn't an Olympics that I had been thinking about," said 27-year-old Hanyu, who only confirmed this week that he intended to compete in Beijing.

"But the road I have taken to get here, and my feelings towards the people who have supported me, made me decide to compete." — AFP

Japan does not plan to send government officials to February's Beijing Olympics, Tokyo says Friday, after the US and other countries announced diplomatic boycotts over rights concerns.

Top government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno did not call the decision a boycott but said there were "no plans" to send political representatives to the Games.

"Japan believes it is important that common values shared by the international community such as freedom, human rights, and the rule of law are also respected in China," he says. — AFP

Chinese officials say they were ready for coronavirus outbreaks inside the Winter Olympics bubble, with plans in place to send symptomatic athletes to designated Beijing hospitals.

February's Olympics are set to be the most restrictive mass sporting event since the pandemic began, with international spectators banned and all participants required to stay inside a closed-loop system. 

"There will definitely be infections and there could be a chance of a small-scale cluster outbreak happening," says Beijing Olympics virus control official Huang Chun at a briefing, adding that the large number of people involved will have a "very high risk of transmission". — AFP

China is on high alert as it fights local outbreaks in several cities with Beijing preparing to host the 2022 Winter Olympics in February.

But cases have been bubbling up in recent weeks. 

Xi'an reported another 63 cases on Thursday, days after authorities began mass testing all 13 million residents. — AFP

The US Olympic and Paralympic Committee says that it is preparing athletes and officials for a 2022 Beijing Winter Games "unlike any other" amid continuing coronavirus concerns and criticism of China's human rights record.

Acknowledging "logistical complexities" and "political discussions that we know will continue," USPOC chief executive Sarah Hirshland said the United States will send some 230 athletes to the Olympics and another 65 to the Paralympic Games in Beijing in February.

"We know these games will be unlike any other," Hirshland says on a conference call after a USOPC board meeting in Salt Lake City. — AFP

South Korea's president rules out joining a US diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, citing the need to work with China.

Visiting Canberra, Moon Jae-in says he was "not considering" snubbing the Olympics to protest China's human rights abuses as several Western nations have done.

"We have not received a request from any other country including the United States to participate in the diplomatic boycott," he says. — AFP

France will not boycott the upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing, Education and Sports Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said Thursday, but the decision was not confirmed by Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.

Asked about a boycott by other Western countries, Blanquer told RMC radio and BFM television that France "won't do it", although Le Drian told a press conference at around the same time that Paris was still seeking a common EU stance on the issue. — AFP

China on Thursday warns four Western nations that they would come to regret launching a joint diplomatic boycott of the upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing. 

"The US, Australia, Britain and Canada's use of the Olympic platform for political manipulation is unpopular and self-isolating, and they will inevitably pay the price for their wrongdoing," foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin says. — AFP

China on Wednesday accuses Australia of "political posturing and selfish games" after Canberra announced a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics over human rights concerns.

Foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin slams Australia for "blindly following" the US in announcing a boycott, adding that "whether they come or not, nobody cares." — AFP

France says Tuesday it would seek a coordinated EU response after the United States announced a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. 

France says it is examining the issue after the announcement. 

"We have taken note of the American decision," an official in President Emmanuel Macron's office tells AFP. 

"We will coordinate at the European level." — AFP

China says it was firmly opposed to a United States diplomatic boycott of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, threatening countermeasures and slamming the announcement as violating "political neutrality in sport".

"The US attempt to interfere with the Beijing Winter Olympics out of ideological prejudice, based on lies and rumours, will only expose (its) sinister intentions," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian tells reporters. — AFP

Adverts for a sex toy company plastered over the ice at qualifiers for the Beijing Olympics curling competition have prompted Japan's national broadcaster to pull matches off the air.

NHK had planned to show all of the Japanese mixed-doubles team's matches at the qualifying tournament in Leeuwarden, in the Netherlands.

But a red on-ice advert for Dutch sex toy company EasyToys prompted a hasty rethink, with NHK pulling the plug on Japan's opener against the United States on Sunday.

Broadcasts of subsequent matches, including against Latvia and Estonia, were also scrapped, along with Tuesday's scheduled clash with New Zealand. — AFP

Spectators attending a major venue for the Beijing Olympics must be vaccinated but fans could be barred from the arena entirely if the coronavirus worsens in China, state media says.

Unlike the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics, which took place last summer in mostly empty stadiums, organisers of February's Winter Games have vowed to allow spectators, although only people living in China.

There has been no official announcement about how full venues will be so the rules at the 18,000-capacity National Indoor Stadium -- which will host ice hockey -- hint at what could lie ahead for the Games. — AFP

Twenty Russian athletes will be allowed to compete as neutrals in 2022, doubling the number who were cleared to take part this year, World Athletics announced on Wednesday.

Track and field's governing body acknowledged earlier this week that Russia had made "steady progress" in meeting the requirements to return to international competition but not yet enough to lift the ban imposed in 2015 for systematic state doping.

"Based on the progress being made and conformity with the reinstatement plan, the taskforce recommended an increase in the ANA (Authorised Neutral Athletes) quota for major competition for 2022 to 20 athletes," Rune Andersen, the head of the taskforce charged with monitoring the ban, said after a meeting of World Athletics' Council. — AFP

China warns Tuesday that the fast-spreading Omicron Covid-19 variant would cause challenges in hosting next February's Winter Olympics in Beijing. 

Although China has largely quashed the coronavirus within its borders through travel restrictions and snap lockdowns, recurrent domestic outbreaks linked to the Delta variant have put the authorities on high alert. 

"I think it will definitely lead to challenges linked to prevention and control," foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian says, adding that Beijing "appreciates the efforts by South Africa in offering timely information" on the variant. — AFP

Three athletes attending training events for the Beijing Winter Olympics have tested positive for Covid-19, Chinese officials say, with the country on high alert against the coronavirus ahead of the Games.

Beijing 2022 organisers have left nothing to chance with the games set to start in February, restricting entry to the capital and insisting on daily virus tests for thousands of athletes who will be kept within a "closed-loop" bubble.

One of the athletes, a foreign luger, tested positive at the airport when entering the country and was sent to a quarantine hotel along with another infected teammate as they had no symptoms, officials said last week. — AFP

Strict new COVID-19 restrictions come into force in Beijing on Wednesday for visitors to the Chinese capital, requiring negative tests and dramatically cutting domestic flights as the city raises the drawbridge against the coronavirus ahead of the Winter Olympics.

With less than 100 days to go to the games in February, China is bracing for a challenge to its zero-Covid strategy when thousands of international athletes descend on Beijing after months of strict border controls.

All visitors to the capital must now show a negative Covid test result from the past 48 hours, while flights from higher risk areas within China will be cancelled or limited to one a day at reduced capacity. — AFP

The idea of a "diplomatic boycott" by the United States of the winter Olympic Games in Beijing in February — to protest human rights violations by China — is gaining traction among some lawmakers in Washington. 

According to a report by The Washington Post Tuesday, citing sources close to the situation, the White House will soon announce that neither President Joe Biden nor any other US government official will attend the Games.

Such a diplomatic boycott would let the United States make a statement about repression of the Muslim Uyghur minority in Xinjiang, which Washington has called  genocide, while still allowing American athletes to compete. — AFP

Sara Takanashi is one of the most decorated ski jumpers of all time, but Olympic gold has eluded her and she admits being "swallowed up" at past Winter Games.

Now the 25-year-old Japanese star hopes it will be third time lucky at Beijing in February, where she can finally lay her Olympic demons to rest.

"I already have an Olympic medal, but my aim is to win gold," Takanashi told AFP, saying that she has rebuilt her jumping technique from scratch since settling for bronze at the 2018 Games. — AFP

The International Olympic Committee says Tuesday Beijing Winter Olympic organisers were investigating the luge track for next year's Games after a Polish athlete was seriously injured in training.

Mateusz Sochowicz requires knee surgery after the incident on the Yanqing track and says he could have been killed.

The 25-year-old struck a barrier at the point where the longer men's track joins the start of the women's track during a training session to allow competitors to familiarise themselves with the track. — AFP

Austrian skier Roland Leitinger will miss next year's Winter Olympics in Beijing after suffering a season-ending knee injury, the Austrian Ski Federation announces on Tuesday. 

The 30-year-old, who took silver in the giant slalom at the World Championships in St Moritz in 2017, tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee during training for the parallel in Lech while preparing for this weekend's World Cup meeting.

"History is repeating itself," says Leitinger in the federation's statement. "I missed the 2018 season because of a rupture of a cruciate ligament." — AFP

China's men's ice hockey team will not be kicked out of their home Winter Olympics at Beijing 2022, the sport's governing body says, having threatened exclusion over the hosts' "insufficient sporting standard".

China have an automatic place at February's Games as hosts, but there are fears that they could face embarrassment with matches in their group against NHL-packed rosters from the United States and Canada.

Speaking to AFP in September, Luc Tardif, the new president of the International Ice Hockey Federation, says: "Watching a team being beaten 15-0 is not good for anyone, not for China or for ice hockey."

Beijing Winter Olympics organizers say that protecting the Games from the coronavirus is the "biggest challenge", as China races to stamp out an outbreak 100 days before the event starts.

The Chinese capital will in February become the first host of a Summer and Winter Games, and last week welcomed the Olympic flame with a low-key ceremony.

But with just a few months until it kicks off, China is battling a virus outbreak that has seen millions told to stay at home, mass testing across at least 11 provinces and brought many flights and trains to a standstill. — AFP

The Olympic flame arrives in China early Wednesday for the Beijing 2022 Winter Games, state media reported, following a ceremony in Athens overshadowed by protests over China's human rights record.

The flame was expected to go on display at a ceremony at the Beijing Olympic Tower before going on an exhibition tour, state media and the International Olympic Committee said.

Around 2,900 athletes, representing approximately 85 National Olympic Committees, will compete in the Winter Games between 4 and 20 February 2022. — AFP

The Olympic flame will once again be lit in an empty stadium on Monday as it starts its truncated journey to Beijing for the Winter Games in February.

Like the ceremony in March 2020 to light the flame for Tokyo, and like those Games, which were put back a year, Monday's ceremony is a victim of coronavirus restrictions.  

"Due to the situation created by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Lighting Ceremony will be held in strict compliance with local health protocols," the Hellenic Olympic Committee announced in September. — AFP

Next year's Winter Olympics in Beijing will be held without spectators from overseas with tickets restricted to fans living in China because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the International Olympic Committee said Wednesday.

The IOC said only fully vaccinated participants would be exempt from a 21-day quarantine. Athletes who can provide a "justified medical exemption" will have their cases considered.

All attendees will enter a strict bubble upon arrival that covers Games-related areas and stadiums as well as accommodation, catering and the opening and closing ceremonies. — AFP | Main photo by FRED DUFOUR / AFP