(ANSA) – BEIJING, 02 FEB – The Beijing 2022 Olympic torch relay kicked off this morning, reduced to just three days in the midst of the anti-pandemic restrictions of Covid-19.
There are 1,200 torchbearers who will alternate in the strictly defined route within the bubble system, in order to eliminate contacts with the outside world, and which will touch the competition areas in Beijing and in the nearby city of Zhangjiakou, in the neighboring Hebei, where the tracks for cross-country skiing and ski jumping have been created.
The audience for the relay was reduced to a minimum, rigorously subjected to anti-Covid testing and a period of medical observation, as part of efforts to ensure encouragement to follow the Winter Games whose ceremony is scheduled for February 4.
The top three torchbearers were Luo Zhihuan, an 80-year-old former speed skater who won China’s first winter sports world title in 1963, astronaut Jing Haipeng, and satellite designer Chang’e 1 Ye Peijian, ha reported the Beijing Daily. While the name of the last torchbearer remains uncertain, the one who will carry the torch to the Olympic brazier. The route will be very short compared to past editions and will include, among other things, a passage to the Great Wall, the most famous monument in China, as well as to the Olympic parks in central Beijing and the Summer Palace.
The risks of protests have been eliminated, such as what happened in early October when activists unrolled banners accusing China of human rights violations during the traditional flame-lighting ceremony in Greece, before its direct passage to Beijing due to of concerns about the new coronavirus.
Several countries, including the United States, Australia, Great Britain and Canada, have announced a diplomatic boycott of the Games on the human rights situation in China, including the treatment of Muslim minorities in Xinjiang and a crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong.
Beijing condemned the boycott, denouncing the politicization of sport as contrary to the Olympic spirit. (HANDLE).
Source: Ansa
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