Beijing will deliver ‘safe and splendid’ Games-Chinese President Xi

Beijing: The Beijing Olympics, which officially opens on Friday, will be streamlined, safe and splendid, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Thursday.

Addressing the International Olympic Committee (IOC) session in the capital via a brief video message, Xi said China had played an active part in the Olympic movement since staging the 2008 summer Olympics.

For these Winter Games the country had engaged 300 million Chinese in winter sports as promised, he said.

“From ‘One World-One Dream’ in 2008 to ‘Together for a Shared Future’ in 2022, China has taken an active part in the Olympic movement and consistently championed the Olympic spirit,” he said.

“The Olympic Winter Games will open tomorrow evening. The world is turning its eyes to China and China is ready. We will do our best to deliver to the world a streamlined, safe and splendid Games.”

The Chinese capital will become the first city to host both summer and winter editions.

IOC President Thomas Bach noted the major commercial opportunities created by these Games, which he expected would transform the global winter sports industry.

“Today we can say China is a winter sport country. This is why Beijing 2022 will be the start of a new era for global winter sport,” Bach said.

He estimated China’s winter sports industry to be worth some $150 billion by 2025.

“From this tremendous growth the winter sports industry around the world will benefit,” Bach said.

Jackie Chan carries torch atop Great Wall

Meanwhile, the Olympic torch relay began its second day on Thursday atop the Great Wall, with actor Jackie Chan and Chinese Olympic medallists among those taking turns carrying the flame along a route shortened to three days because of Covid-19.

Table tennis Olympic gold medallist Ma Long and Wu Jingyu, a two-time gold medallist in taekwondo, were among those carrying the red-and-silver spiral torch along the Badaling section of the Great Wall, where the Thursday morning temperature was a bracing -11 Celsius (12 Fahrenheit).

“I woke up at 4am This is my fourth Olympics. I’m very happy. I’m also cold!”, Chan, 67, told reporters after his run along the wall.

Badaling, the section of the wall most often visited by tourists, is 70km (45 miles) northwest of central Beijing in the Yanqing district, near the Olympics sliding and Alpine skiing venues.

It was built around 1500AD during the Ming dynasty.

Later on Thursday, the torch will be taken to Zhangjiakou in neighbouring Hebei province, where most of Olympic snow events will take place. The relay will end with the lighting of the Olympic cauldron at Friday’s opening ceremony.

Because of Covid-19, the Games are taking place inside a “closed loop” keeping competitors and other Olympics personnel away from the public, and will be attended only by small, selected audiences.