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A member of safety seems on from the stands within the end space after males’s downhill coaching was delayed as a result of excessive winds on the 2022 Winter Olympics, Friday, Feb. 4, 2022, within the Yanqing district of Beijing. (AP Picture/Luca Bruno)
BEIJING (AP) — The newest on the Beijing Olympics:
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The Olympic flame has now formally arrived on the Beijing Video games.
A gap ceremony on a frosty evening had a fiery conclusion Friday, when the flame was positioned inside an enormous snowflake to provide China’s first Winter Olympics the symbolic opening — adopted by the third main fireworks present of the evening.
The snowflake was composed of placards used to introduce the athletes from the 91 totally different nations that can compete in China by Feb. 20. There was no cauldron to mild, the standard ending to most opening ceremonies.
Competitors in some occasions began Wednesday and Saturday is the primary full day of occasions on the video games, with the primary medals to be awarded.
It took the flame greater than three months to lastly make its option to the video games. It was lit on Oct. 18 in Historic Olympia, Greece, the official begin of its journey to China.
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Worldwide Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach has spoken on the opening ceremony of the Beijing Video games, thanking these across the globe who he says have gone “past the decision of responsibility” to make the occasions occur as a world pandemic continues raging.
These Olympics are the second to happen in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, after the Tokyo Video games final summer season.
Bach talked about how the Olympics spotlight “ambition, braveness and power.” He likened these qualities to what China has executed to develop Olympic winter sports activities to its residents.
Bach additionally addressed the athletes of the Beijing Video games straight, saying: “Expensive fellow Olympians, your Olympic stage is about. You've gotten arrived right here after overcoming so many challenges. … However now your second has come, the second you might have been eager for, the second all of us have been eager for. Now your Olympic dream is coming true.”
Bach’s remarks instantly preceded the video games being formally opened by Chinese language President Xi Jinping, his phrases prompting the setting off of fireworks that lit up the sky over the Hen’s Nest.
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President Xi Jinping stood and waved because the Chinese language delegation entered the Hen’s Nest to finish the parade of athletes on the opening ceremony for the Beijing Video games.
The host nation at all times is the final group introduced within the parade, and there have been loud roars and flag-waving all through the stadium because the Chinese language athletes made their approach into the occasion.
The Chinese language have about 175 athletes anticipated to compete within the Olympics. They're historically not a winter-sports energy, although are anticipated to have alternatives in Beijing so as to add to the nation’s all-time complete of 13 winter golds.
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Saudi Arabia has made its first look on the Winter Olympics opening ceremony after alpine skier Fayik Abdi certified to compete.
Its small delegation hoisted the Center East kingdom’s inexperienced and white flag whereas carrying what seemed to be cold-weather variations of the nation’s conventional ankle-length nationwide gown.
Additionally making its first look is the Caribbean island nation of Haiti. It's being represented by alpine skier Richardson Viano, who was adopted by Italian dad and mom and raised in France.
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It has develop into an Olympic custom: the shirtless athlete within the opening ceremony.
And Tonga’s Pita Taufatofua now has some firm.
Meet Nathan Crumpton. Born in Kenya, resident of Utah, graduate of Princeton, skeleton athlete previously with the U.S. and now competing for American Samoa — and he grabbed consideration Friday evening on the Beijing Video games, by strolling in shirtless and underterred by a temperature of minus 5 C (23 F).
Taufatofua wasn’t at these Olympics, ending his streak of three consecutive video games — each summer season and winter — representing Tonga. He's presently making an attempt to steer aid efforts there after a tsunami triggered catastropic harm.
Crumpton carried the (shirtless) flag. He additionally competed for American Samoa in monitor and subject on the Tokyo Video games final summer season. His mom’s household background allowed him to modify his athletic allegiance to American Samoa in 2019.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin cheered on his nation’s athletes on the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, making the journey to Beijing as tens of hundreds of Russian troops are poised for a doable invasion of Ukraine.
Putin is likely one of the most distinguished world leaders attending Friday’s ceremony. America and Japan, in addition to another nations, staged a diplomatic boycott of the video games.
The Russian chief stood and waved to his nation’s athletes as they entered the stadium. Chinese language President Xi Jinping, who met with Putin earlier Friday in Beijing, additionally clapped for the Russian group.
The athletes from Russia, a winter sports activities powerhouse, have been launched and are competing once more on the Olympics because the “Russian Olympic Committee” — a part of the sanctions levied after quite a few doping scandals. Any Russian athlete who wins a gold medal on the video games will hear the Olympic anthem as an alternative of that of their dwelling nation.
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Not less than two of the ladies who would have been flagbearers on the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics weren't within the parade of athletes on Friday evening due to virus-related points.
U.S. bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor had to surrender her spot to speedskater Brittany Bowe. Meyers Taylor stays in isolation after a optimistic take a look at.
And Friday, U.S. Virgin Islands skeleton athlete Katie Tannenbaum revealed that she, too, has examined optimistic for COVID-19. The Virgin Islands flag was being carried into the stadium by a volunteer.
Tannenbaum is the one athlete representing the Virgin Islands in Beijing at these video games. Her coach, Alex Auer, and the nation’s Chef de Mission, Ansen Siglar, have been strolling to signify the group.
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On the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, no element is neglected.
Each nation is being led into the stadium by somebody carrying a glowing snowflake-shaped placard bearing that nation’s identify. And every of the snowflakes, when put again collectively, would kind a bigger snowflake.
The placard bearers’ costumes has an ice-and-snow sample, and their hats have a tiger motif — as a result of this 12 months is the 12 months of the tiger in China.
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The parade of athletes on the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics has began.
It’s anticipated to take about an hour. Representatives from 91 nations are participating, together with about 80% of the U.S. delegation of athletes.
As at all times at an Olympics, Greece is the primary nation to enter the stadium. From there, it goes alphabetically — however by the language of the host nation.
That’s why Greece will likely be adopted by, so as, Turkey, Malta, Madagascar, Malaysia, Ecuador, Eritrea, Jamaica, Belgium after which Japan.
The U.S. is 56th within the order, which might be complicated to these considering it’ll go in accordance with the English alphabet. The U.S. group will likely be between Bulgaria and American Samoa.
The group of Russian athletes would be the official midpoint of the parade. They’re right here competing beneath the Olympic emblem and never the Russian flag, a part of the sanctions handed right down to that nation’s Olympic committee for doping scandals such because the one which overshadowed the 2014 Sochi Video games.
Custom additionally dictates who the final two groups within the parade are. Italy — the host of the following Winter Video games in 2026 — will enter next-to-last, after which China will shut the parade with its delegation.
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In China, Friday was “Lichun” — which interprets to the start of spring.
And on this case, the beginning of the Winter Olympics.
“Starting of Spring” is the primary of the 24 photo voltaic phrases of the 12 months, and that quantity — 24 — carried significance within the early moments of the opening ceremony of those Beijing Video games. Organizers say it displays “the Chinese language folks’s understanding of time,” additionally noting that these have been the twenty fourth Winter Olympics.
The celebration of the lunar phrases was punctuated by the primary of what's going to be a number of pyrotechnic shows on the Hen’s Nest — together with utilizing fireworks to spell out the phrase “Spring.”
It’s additionally a Chinese language perception that excessive chilly breeds new life. Temperatures fell under the freezing mark because the ceremony went alongside; maybe not excessive chilly, however definitely a cold begin to the Beijing Video games.
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The opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics is about to start, with Chinese language President Xi Jinping and Worldwide Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach now having entered the Hen’s Nest.
The Chinese language formally seek advice from the place as Nationwide Stadium — it’s the ‘Hen’s Nest’ due to its design, the online of metal resembling the best way branches could be changed into a nest. It turns into the primary facility to ever play host to the opening of each a summer season and winter video games, after it additionally was the place the 2008 Olympics started.
Monitor and subject was contested on the Hen’s Nest then, these video games being those the place Usain Bolt’s reign as the best Olympic sprinter started along with his world-record instances in each the 100- and 200-meter dashes.
Athletes from 91 nations are anticipated to march within the ceremony, together with 4 from the island of Taiwan — which, for the Olympics and most worldwide sporting occasions, is known as Chinese language Taipei.
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Nordic mixed famous person Eric Frenzel and teammate Terence Weber have examined optimistic for COVID-19 twice in Beijing, touchdown them in an isolation lodge.
Frenzel received gold on the traditional hill on the 2018 Olympics — as he did on the Sochi Video games — and in addition earned gold within the group competitors in addition to a silver on the big hill, giving him six Olympic medals in his profession.
Frenzel is one medal away from matching the Nordic mixed file of seven set by Felix Gottwald of Austria. He's tied for the all-time lead within the sport with three golds, matching Gottwald, Finland’s Samppa Lajunen and Ulrich Wehling of Germany.
Frenzel is No. 5 in World Cup standings, and Weber is seventh. “Each nonetheless have the possibility to return again!” group spokesman Florian Schwarz wrote in an e-mail Friday evening.
Norway’s Jarl Magnus Riiber, ranked No. 2 on this planet, additionally examined optimistic for COVID-19 and appeared to point he was out for the Beijing Video games. Riiber posted on Instagram “the (gold) is yours guys.”
The primary Nordic mixed occasion on the Beijing Video games is Wednesday.
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Finland girls’s hockey coach Pasi Mustonen is leaving the Beijing Winter Video games to return dwelling and attend to a household emergency.
Basic supervisor Tuula Puputti tells The Related Press that assistant coach Juuso Toivola will assume head-coaching duties. The swap comes a day after Finland opened the event with a 5-2 loss to the USA.
Finland is scheduled to play Canada on Saturday.
Mustonen took over in 2014 and coached the Finns to a bronze medal on the 2018 Winter Video games. The nation then received its first silver medal on the 2019 world championships on dwelling soil following a 2-1 shootout loss to the People.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Beijing for the opening of the Olympic Video games. He’ll additionally maintain talks with Chinese language counterpart Xi Jinping as the 2 leaders look to venture themselves as a counterweight to the U.S. and its allies.
The Russian chief’s go to comes amid rising Chinese language assist for Moscow in its dispute with Ukraine that threatens to interrupt out into armed battle.
Putin’s presence makes him the highest-profile visitor on the occasion following the choice by the U.S., Britain and others to not ship officers in protest over China’s human rights abuses and its therapy of Uyghurs and different Muslim minorities.
The discussions mark the primary in-person assembly between Putin and Xi since 2019.
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The U.S. leads after the opening day of the group determine skating occasion on the Beijing Video games, with successful performances from Nathan Chen and ice dancers Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue serving to them edge the closely favored Russians.
Alexa Knierim and Brandon Fraizer did their half, too. They'd a season-best rating of their pairs quick program, serving to the People amass 28 factors. That leaves them two away from the Russians and 7 forward of third-place China.
The Chinese language have been helped by a file rating within the pairs quick program by Sui Wenjing and Han Cong.
The group occasion resumes Sunday with the ladies’s quick program. The highest 5 nations after that can advance to the spherical of free skates later Saturday and concluding Monday evening.
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U.S. girls’s hockey star Brianna Decker will miss the remainder of the Olympics after injuring her left leg within the People’ tournament-opening victory in opposition to Finland.
Decker is anticipated to stay in Beijing relatively than fly again to the U.S. instantly.
The ahead was damage when she was tripped from behind by Ronja Savolainen halfway by the primary interval Thursday evening. Decker was unable to place any weight on her left leg. She was taken off the ice on a stretcher.
Decker’s harm was the second to a key participant on the primary day of girls’s hockey in Beijing. Canadian ahead Melodie Daoust was injured after being checked arduous into the boards by Switzerland’s Sarah Foster.
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The third spherical of coaching for ladies’s ski jumpers on the Beijing Olympics has been cancelled as a result of windy situations.
Wind gusts have been measured at 7 meters per second (16 mph.) To make the situations much more brutal, it was minus 9 levels Celsius (16 levels Fahrenheit) on the sunny afternoon. The 40 girls within the subject had two jumps every, a day after having three rounds of coaching.
Apply for the lads’s ski jumpers later within the day began on time.
Defending Olympic champion Maren Lundby of Norway and top-ranked Marita Kramer of Austria is not going to vie for medals on Saturday, making a wide-open competitors.
Lundby is taking the season off after gaining weight and refusing to emphasize her physique and thoughts sufficient to leap in a sport tormented by consuming problems. Kramer examined optimistic for COVID-19, knocking her out of the Beijing Video games.
Germany’s Katharina Althaus and Japan’s Sara Takanashi are among the many contenders to win gold after ending second and third behind Lundby on the 2018 Olympics.
Excessive winds delayed the beginning of males’s downhill coaching earlier within the day and about 100 kilometers (60 miles) away.
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The U.S. males’s hockey group has held its first pre-Olympic follow in Beijing with out two high defenseman and a veteran ahead as a result of they examined optimistic for the coronavirus.
Defenseman Jake Sanderson stays in Los Angeles. Defenseman Steven Kampfer and ahead Andy Miele are isolating within the Olympic Village in Beijing.
USA Hockey hopes all three gamers will likely be out there for the event, which begins Wednesday. The U.S. opens in opposition to host China on Thursday.
Gamers and coaches arrived simply after midnight. Three goaltenders and 23 skaters have been on the ice for follow with coach David Quinn and his assistants.
Canada canceled follow for a second consecutive day. No purpose was given.
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Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue have delivered a season-best efficiency in rhythm dance on the Beijing Olympics, giving Group USA a second straight win on the opening day of determine skating.
Nathan Chen received the lads’s quick program with a dynamic, high-flying program that featured a pair of quads. Hubbell and Donohue adopted up with a near-flawless efficiency to music from Janet Jackson at Capital Indoor Stadium.
Within the group occasion, 10 factors are awarded to first place in every self-discipline, which suggests the People have an ideal 20 to this point. The Russian Olympic Committee is second with 17 after Mark Kondratiuk’s third-place end and a shaky second-place efficiency by ice dance world champions Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov.
Italy is in third place with 14 factors heading into the pairs self-discipline later Friday.
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The second males’s downhill ski coaching session is underway on the Beijing Olympics after a delay as a result of robust winds.
General World Cup chief Marco Odermatt of Switzerland was first to set off down the slope an hour after initially scheduled Friday.
The world’s finest skiers solely acquired the possibility to see the Rock course up shut for the primary time on Thursday. There's a third coaching session scheduled Saturday earlier than the lads’s downhill opens the Alpine competitors the next day.
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Three-time males’s determine skating world champion Nathan Chen has delivered a powerful quick program to open the group competitors on the Beijing Video games. That will get the People off to a superb begin of their pursuit of a 3rd straight medal within the occasion.
Chen, who struggled within the group occasion in Pyeongchang, opened with a giant quad flip and hit his tough quad lutz-triple toe loop mixture to ship the best rating among the many males Friday and provides the U.S. the utmost 10 factors.
Reigning Olympic silver medalist Shoma Uno was second to provide Japan 9 factors. Eighteen-year-old Mark Kondratiuk was third for the Russian Olympic Committee, which is favored to win the group occasion.
The quick program for ice dance and pairs are later Friday, then the groups get a day without work earlier than the ladies’s quick program on Sunday. The highest 5 groups after that advance to free skates for the medals Sunday and Monday.
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Organizers say 9 extra athletes and officers examined optimistic for COVID-19 in circumstances confirmed on Thursday, elevating the whole to 111 because the Beijing Olympic interval began on Jan. 23.
Seven circumstances have been detected on the Beijing airport, making it 77 out of 5,255 athletes and officers who arrived by Thursday. The opposite two circumstances got here from each day PCR testing that each one folks contained in the Olympic bubbles should endure.
Organizers say 12 extra optimistic circumstances have been detected amongst “stakeholders” — largely staff on the Video games together with media. Seven of these have been on the airport and 5 in each day exams.
The general complete of optimistic circumstances is 308 by Thursday. Virtually 12,000 folks have arrived in Beijing from outdoors China.
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Organizers have delayed the beginning of the second males’s downhill coaching session on the Beijing Olympics as a result of robust winds.
The session had been scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. Beijing time, however organizers will solely decide then whether or not it could possibly begin on the new scheduled time of midday.
The world’s finest skiers solely acquired the possibility to see the Rock course up shut for the primary time on Thursday. There's a third coaching session scheduled Saturday earlier than the lads’s downhill opens the Alpine competitors the next day.
Climate is yet one more supply of stress for aggressive skiers who can do nothing to regulate altering situations on the slopes.
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Chinese language determine skating decide Huang Feng, who was suspended in 2018 for biased judging on the Pyeongchang Olympics, was among the many three officers on the technical panel for the group occasion to begin the Beijing Video games.
Huang served a one-year suspension after he was accused of biased judging within the pairs occasion in Pyeongchang.
The Worldwide Skating Union, which assigns the judges and technical panel, stated in a press release that Huang was cleared to work the Olympics after serving his suspension supplied he continues to abide by the group’s code of ethics. The technical panel is answerable for figuring out all the weather that skaters execute throughout their applications.
Huang acquired a spherical of applause from the a number of hundred followers, all Chinese language residents, who have been allowed into Capital Indoor Stadium for the beginning of Friday’s program. He stood and gave a quick wave earlier than sitting again down.
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Extra AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports