Fireworks convey spectacular finish to Beijing Winter Olympic Video games

A spectacular fireworks show introduced an finish to the Beijing Winter Olympics on Sunday (February 20).

Earlier the Olympic flame had been doused, closing a Video games that can be remembered for the extremes of its anti-COVID-19 measures and outrage over the doping scandal that enveloped 15-year-old Russian skating sensation Kamila Valieva.

Chinese language President Xi Jinping was available for the snowflake-themed ceremony on the Chook’s Nest stadium, the place Worldwide Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach described the Beijing Video games as “actually distinctive” earlier than declaring them closed.

The Beijing Video games, contained inside a “closed loop”, have been the second Olympics in six months to be disadvantaged by COVID-19 of a lot of its festivity.

They have been additionally stalked by politics, with a number of international locations staging a diplomatic boycott over China’s human rights document, and the spectre of invasion of Ukraine by Russia, with President Vladimir Putin attending the opening ceremony in a present of solidarity in opposition to the West with Xi.

Nonetheless, China was spared any embarrassing protests by rivals over its remedy of the Uyghur Muslim minority or anything, and the 1000’s of overseas journalists available have been caught contained in the closed-loop, unable to report extra extensively.

Sunday evening’s ceremony was capped by a 90-second fireworks show that spelled out “one world, one household,” adopted by a rendition of “Auld Lang Syne”.

In the course of the ceremony, Bach praised Beijing’s organisers and made a name for unity in addition to common entry to COVID-19 vaccines.

(Reuters)