Winter Olympics end with record gold haul for China

[BEIJING] A glittering closing ceremony brought the curtain down on the first Winter Olympics to be hosted by China, with authorities claiming the Games a success after the nation bagged a record number of gold medals and the threat of Covid-19 was contained.

Celebrated film director Zhang Yimou orchestrated another visually dazzling spectacle for Sunday's (Feb 20) event in Beijing National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest, returning with thousands of volunteers and special effects seen in an opening ceremony that drew criticism from the US for its political overtones.

Chinese President Xi Jinping was seen standing next to International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach, wearing a dark coat and red mask with the Olympics logo and waving to the audience in near freezing temperatures at the packed stadium. Xi didn't speak, while Bach called the Games "truly exceptional" in his closing remarks.

China won 15 medals, including 9 gold, ranking third behind Norway and Germany, and one place ahead of the US. The host's tally was helped by star skier Eileen Gu, who was born in America but chose to represent China. One of the highest-profile athletes at the Games, the Stanford-bound teenager won 2 golds and a silver.

While the Games attracted a huge number of television viewers domestically, they could still be the least-watched Olympics in the event's history due to a drop off in the international audience. Diplomatic boycotts and mounting criticism of China's treatment of the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang and other issues, from Taiwan to tennis star Peng Shuai, overshadowed the lead up to the Games. But those almost became a side note amid a Russian doping case involving a figure skater and concern about possible conflict in Ukraine.

Heading into an Olympics that Xi pledged would be "simple, safe and splendid", one big question was how China was going to check the spread of Covid during the 16-day event.

In line with a Covid Zero strategy that has kept the virus largely at bay, the government implemented a so-called closed-loop that kept athletes and other stakeholders away from the general population.

"There was no spread of the disease," Cai Qi, president of the Beijing Organizing Committee, said at a briefing Sunday. Just over 500 people involved in the Games tested positive for Covid-19, many of which were detected prior to the opening ceremony.

Still, with so many athletes unable to compete or in isolation until shortly before their events, "these Olympics will be remembered as the Covid Games," said Heather Dichter, an associate professor of sport management and history at De Montfort University in the UK. BLOOMBERG