Beijing Olympics closes after drama, doping and golden Gu

BEIJING: A Beijing Winter Olympics which saw sporting drama and milestones but was tarnished by a Russian doping scandal ended on Sunday with an uplifting closing ceremony.

The Games will be remembered for new stars such as Eileen Gu but also for the doping controversy which engulfed 15-year-old figure skater Kamila Valieva and because they took place inside a vast COVID-secure “bubble.”

The “Bird’s Nest” stadium, which also took center stage when Beijing hosted the 2008 Summer Games, was the scene for a celebratory, snowflake-themed closing ceremony attended by President Xi Jinping and a socially distanced crowd seated among red lanterns.

Declaring the Games closed and handing over to 2026 hosts Milano-Cortina, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach hailed an “unforgettable Olympic experience.”

There was no feared mass outbreak of COVID at the Games or in the wider community in the Chinese capital, but Bach said: “If we want to finally overcome this pandemic, we must be faster, we must aim higher, we must be stronger — we must stand together.

“In this Olympic spirit of solidarity, we call on the international community: Give equal access to vaccines for everybody around the world.”

Fireworks lit up the night sky as the ceremony reached its crescendo, spelling out the words “ONE WORLD.”

Since the opening ceremony on February 4, a new global star emerged in the form of 18-year-old freestyle skier Gu, who was born in California but switched to China in 2019 and became the unofficial face of the Games.

There was a new men’s figure skating champion in 22-year-old Nathan Chen of the United States, who dethroned two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu, in what could be the Japanese legend’s final