Friday's Opening Ceremony Marked the Start of 2022's Winter Olympics

Published Sunday, 6th February 2022
By Keira Edwards

Credit: Getty Images

Held in Beijing, the Winter Olympics returns after the four year wait.

On Friday at 12pm UK time, the opening ceremony for 2022's Winter Olympics was held. It was a smaller, more quieter opening ceremony with only 3000 people participating because of Covid restrictions.


Nevertheless, the performances were beautiful to watch. The ceremony was themed around the beginning of Spring, peace and togetherness with two dances, a song and laser effects, it made for a much shorter performance.

The teams procession was very early on in the ceremony, starting with Greece and ending with China. Great Britain was seen in the middle of the procession with 50 Olympians in this year's team.

Which of the team are the ones to watch for medals?

With curling having started two days ahead of the opening ceremony, mixed doubles pair Bruce Mouat and Jennifer Dodds are making good progress towards a medal. Skeleton competitors Laura Deas and Matt Weston have their sights set on gold after Laura's bronze in Pyeongchang and Matt's gold in this seasons world cup. Slalom skier Dave Ryding was the first ever person to win a GB world cup medal in apline skiing. But can he win the first Olympic GB alpine skiing medal?

Snowboarder and world champion Charlotte Bankes is another strong competitor for gold this year.

Zoe Atkin is chasing her bronze medal winning sister in the halfpipe.

Kirsty Muir, 17, steps into her first Olympics with massive potential from the Youth Olympics.

Team Hall are going for gold in the two and four man bobsleigh as well as James Woods who's competing in freestyle skiing.

Unfortunately for Katie Ormerod, she was knocked out of the slopestyle qualifiers this morning. However, it was amazing to see her back in the Winter Olympics after she broke her heel just before Pyeongchang.

She was happy with her best run and all those watching her are impressed by what she still managed to achieve.

William Feneley and Makayla Gerken Schofield didn't manage to make the top 10 to qualify for the moguls final. Makayla's sister Leonie Gerken Schofield sadly didn't manage to get to the bottom of the course.

All three of them do have one last chance to make the finals in the second round of qualifiers on Saturday.

The current standing for the medals after day 1 and half of day 2 are as followed:

Norway are at number one with two golds in the mixed relay biathlon and the womens 7.5km + 7.5km skiathlon.

Slovenia are at number two with one gold and bronze in women's ski jumping.

China, The Netherlands and Sweden all share third place with one gold each.

The Winter Olympics coverage can be followed on BBC and iPlayer, Eurosport and Discovery+.


Live Now

Non-Stop Music

Listen Live Now


Weather

GATESHEAD WEATHER Disable Animation

Advertisement




Our Partners


Ellis Signs

Penny Print