Winter Olympics 2022 - Spectacular opening ceremony officially kicks off Beijing Games

The 2022 Winter Olympics are officially underway in Beijing after a stunning opening ceremony which showcased spectacular light shows, fireworks and cutting edge technology. Just like at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Covid once again dominated much of the build-up to the Games, and although the Bird’s Nest stadium was nowhere near full, a small «selected» group of spectators were inside — unlike in Japan last year.

Ad/> The ceremony, directed by film director Zhang Yimou — who oversaw the stunning Beijing 2008 opening — started with a spectacular light display featuring long green LED rods, which was designed to represent the beginning of spring. Beijing 2022Jealous rivals eye Team GB's appliance of science, bickering curling couple – Beijing diary3 HOURS AGO The use of technology was spectacular — an 11,600 square metre LCD screen displayed the history of the Winter Games, going right back to the first in 1924, inside a virtual block of ice.

Ice hockey players then shot their imaginary pucks at the block, which «melted» — the cascading water revealing the iconic Olympic rings — which themselves looked like they had been carved from ice. The parade of nations followed, with Team GB led out by Sochi 2014 curling bronze medallist Eve Muirhead and Britain's first Alpine skiing World Cup winner Dave Ryding, who are both competing at their fourth Games.

Also among the contingent was bobsledder Montell Douglas, almost 14 years after she competed in the same stadium as a sprinter at Beijing 2008. Each National Olympic Committee was led out with a placard in the shape of a snowflake, and all 91 of those would later be assembled to form an impressive larger snowflake — a theme throughout the ceremony — which would later form