Winter Olympics 2022 officially declared open in Beijing

All eyes were on the Winter Olympic opening ceremony in Beijing as the parade of athletes started on Friday.

The XXIV Olympic Winter Games have been officially declared open.

During the ceremony, Team GB’s flag bearers Eve Muirhead and Dave Ryding made quite the impression when they carried their flag during the Opening Ceremony.

The locked-down Winter Olympics began in spectacular fashion at the same lattice-encased National Stadium which famously hosted the inaugural event at the 2008 Olympics.

The venue is famously known as the Bird's Nest because of its design, the web of steel resembling the way branches would be turned into a nest.

Many world leaders planned to attend the opening ceremony, despite some staying away amid the Covid pandemic.

Russian President Vladimir Putin made an appearance to cheer on his nation’s athletes at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.

He made the trip to Beijing as tens of thousands of Russian troops are poised for a possible invasion of Ukraine.

The opening ceremony started shortly after the arrival of Chinese President Xi Jinping and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach.

There were representatives from 91 nations taking part.

As always at an Olympics, Greece were the first nation to enter the stadium.

From there, it was in alphabetical order but by the language of the host country.

Greece were followed by Turkey, Malta, Madagascar, Malaysia, Ecuador, Eritrea, Jamaica, Belgium and then Japan.

The US was 56th in the order.

The team of Russian athletes marked the official midpoint of the parade.

Tradition named the two last teams in the parade - Italy, who will host the next Winter Games in 2026, and then China will close the parade.

Beijing made history as