An Olympics like no other: Can sports overcome the controversy of Beijing 2022?

Su Yiming of Team China attends the snowboard slopestyle training session ahead of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics on February 3 in Zhangjiakou, a co-host city of the Games.

By Nectar Gan, CNN

Updated 0843 GMT (1643 HKT) February 4, 2022

Beijing (CNN)The ice rinks have been smoothed out, the brown mountain slopes draped with artificial snow. The Olympic flame is on its final journey to the heart of Beijing, ready to light up the night sky.

Defying a raging pandemic and months of international controversy, the 2022 Winter Olympics will officially open as scheduled in the Chinese capital tonight.Sealed off from its host city by a labyrinth of high fences, thermal gates and facial-recognition cameras, this is an Olympics like no other.Politics, protests and Covid protocols have become an unavoidable part of the build-up to these Games, and if anything, events taking place outside the sporting arena during the next two weeks will receive as much attention as actions on the ice and snow.How China responds will be a major test for the country's leader Xi Jinping, who is gearing up for an unprecedented third term in power this fall.Read More«The world is turning its eyes to China, and China is ready,» Xi said Thursday ahead of the opening ceremony.For China's ruling Communist Party, the Games will offer a moment of national triumph, as Beijing becomes the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics. It is also the first major global event inside of China since the country shut its borders two years ago in the wake of the initial coronavirus outbreak.But among the Chinese public, enthusiasm for the Winter Games pales in comparison with 2008, when residents gathered in their thousands across Beijing to watch the Summer