Shortened Olympic torch relay starts for Beijing Games amid COVID-19 concerns

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The three-day torch relay for the Beijing Olympics, shortened considerably because of concerns about the coronavirus, started Wednesday with an 80-year-old former speedskater carrying the flame.

The relay opened at the Olympic Forest Park. Luo Zhihuan, the country’s first internationally competitive speedskater, ran the first leg.

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The torch will be carried through the three Olympics zones, starting with downtown Beijing before heading to Yanqing district and finally Zhangjiakou in neighboring Hebei Province.

The Beijing Games have already been impacted on a scale similar to that experienced by Tokyo during last year’s Summer Olympics. China says only selected spectators will be allowed to attend events, and Olympic athletes, officials, staff and journalists are required to stay within a bubble that keeps them from contact with the general public.

Beijing, with its 20 million residents, has experienced only a handful of COVID-19 cases and reported just two new ones on Wednesday. However, in keeping with China's "zero tolerance" approach to the pandemic, strict rules require lockdowns and mass testing when any real or suspected case is discovered.

The truncated program seemed to have little effect on Luo, who after receiving the torch from Vice Premier Han Zheng said it was the realization of decades-long aspiration.

Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng lights the torch before the start of the torch relay for the 2022 Winter Olympics at the Olympic Forest Park in Beijing on Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022.  (AP Photo/Sam McNeil)

"I’ve never participated in the Winter Olympics, so I had hoped our country