BEIJING: Mixed doubles curling opened competition at the Beijing Winter Olympics on Wednesday as China tried to move on from the diplomatic boycotts and Covid fears that have dogged the lead-up to the Games.

China and Britain claimed victories in the “Ice Cube”, where American swimmer Michael Phelps won eight gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics when it was known as the “Water Cube”, opening the action in the Games which will last until Feb 20 in front of crowds made sparse by Covid-19 curbs.

Basketball great Yao Ming and a Chinese soldier wounded in a border clash with India earlier joined in a torch relay set to last just three days and only be viewed by selected members of the public before the Olympic cauldron is lit.

The Olympics do not officially launch until Friday’s opening ceremony but the action began in front of a limited number of masked fans.

China barred overseas fans because of the pandemic but some spectators will be invited to attend and organisers say venues could be up to 50 percent full.

Arenas were mostly empty at last summer’s pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games to stop the spread of infection.

The build-up to the Beijing Olympics, which will unfold within a huge Covid-secure “bubble”, has been overshadowed by controversies ranging from rights concerns to Peng Shuai and warnings about snooping on competitors by the Chinese government.

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

However, there have already been nearly 250 positive Covid cases within the “closed loop” bubble and Dr Brian McCloskey, chairman of the medical expert panel for Beijing 2022, said 11 people had been hospitalised.

“None of those are seriously ill in any way,” he said.

It is not known who they are but nearly 3,000 athletes together with thousands of support staff, volunteers and media are cut off from the outside world in the bubble.

When Beijing hosted the 2008 Games, the torch relay took in swathes of China and other countries — where it met protests in places — but this time it will last just three days, ending at the “Bird’s Nest” stadium for the opening ceremony.

Beijing 2022 official Cai Qi said at the start of the relay on Wednesday — which will involve more than 1,000 torchbearers — that he hoped the Games would help “dispel the gloom of the pandemic”.

China, where Covid-19 emerged towards the end of 2019, has pursued a zero-Covid policy nationwide and is taking the same approach at the Olympics.

The highly infectious Omicron variant presents a new challenge, both to the Games and the country, putting already jittery authorities further on edge.

If the 2008 Olympics were the country’s coming-out party, these Games will take place in a China under President Xi Jinping which is increasingly belligerent on the global stage and boasting the world’s second-largest economy.

When Washington said it would stage a diplomatic boycott because of rights concerns — with Australia, Britain and Canada among those following suit — China warned the United States would “pay the price”.

The Biden administration will not send diplomatic or official representation over what it called China’s “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity” against Muslim Uyghurs in the region of Xinjiang.

Athletes of the boycotting countries will compete at the Games, which run until February 20, but a US rights monitor sounded the alarm over athletes’ safety after the hosts threatened “punishment” for anti-Beijing comments.

There are other controversies. IOC president Thomas Bach says that while in Beijing he will meet Peng, a Grand Slam-winning tennis player who alleged in November that she had been sexually assaulted by a former vice-premier.

Peng was not heard from for nearly three weeks, only to reappear, but there are concerns about how free she really is.

The shadow of war in Ukraine, and the impending arrival of Russian President Vladimir Putin, also looms over the Olympics.

The political showdown between Putin and the West over Ukraine remained the main Olympic act ahead of Friday’s opening ceremony, where Putin will join a number of Beijing-friendly leaders at the Games.

Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman, Pakistan’s Imran Khan and Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyhan of the United Arab Emirates were among several Middle Eastern and Asian leaders expected to attend. From Europe, only Poland and Serbia have said they will send their heads of state.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will also attend the opening ceremony.

Putin, who on Tuesday accused the West of luring Russia into war, has not said whether he will meet other world leaders while in Beijing.

His talks with Xi, however, will be closely watched for signs of increasing cooperation between China and Russia, which have grown closer as both of their ties with the West have soured.

Published in Dawn, February 3rd, 2022