Beijing 2022 Opening Ceremony/Day One

The Opening Ceremony of the Beijing 2022 created history before it began with the city becoming the first ever to host both a Summer and Winter Olympics. The Ceremony started with the entry of dignitaries including Thomas Bach (IOC President) and Xi Jinping (Chinese President) and a floor show celebrating Chinese New Year.

A countdown featuring a montage of the weather and the four seasons which culminated in a light show of green glowsticks which created beautiful imagery with the theme being of One World, One Family. Next up was a huge firework display including the formation of the word 'Spring'.

The arena floor then focused on the history of the Winter games from its inception in 1924 with each of the 23 cities displayed before the formation of the Olympic Rings in ice. This then lead to the parade of Athletes which began with Greece as it the tradition, Great Britain were led out by Dave Ryding (Skiing) and Eve Muirhead (Curling) both competing in their fourth Winter Games. 

Athletes paraded in with the backdrop of Classical music and the parade closed with the entry of the host nation China. The ceremony moved on to the official opening by Xi Jinping after the flag raisings and this led to a huge firework display before the entry of the Olympic flame into the arena. 

After the procession between a number of representatives, the flame was taken to the huge snowflake cauldron in the centre of the arena which was made up of mini flakes each containing the names of each country competing. The finale saw fireworks in the shape of snowflakes and the Olympic Rings. 

Day One

Although competition began a few days previous, the medalling and official opening day began on the 5th and as with previous editions, each day will have Medals and GB Updates with the opening day seeing six medal events. 

Medals

The first medals of the games came in the Women's 15km Skiathlon as Therese Johaug (NOR) won GOLD as she finished with a time of 44:13.7 ahead of Natalia Nepryaeva (ROC) who took SILVER while Teresa Stadlober (AUT) collected BRONZE. 

In the Mixed Relay 4x6km, Norway (Marte Roeiseland, Tiril Eckhoff, Tarjei Boe, Johannes Thingnes Boe) won GOLD ahead of France (Anais Chevalier-Bouchet, Julia Simon, Emilien Jacquelin, Quentin Fillon Maillet) who scooped SILVER with ROC (Kristina Reztsova, Alexander Loginov, Eduard Latypov, Uliana Nigmatullina) battling for BRONZE. 

GOLD for Walter Wallberg (SWE) in the Men's Moguls as he finished ahead of defending champion Mikael Kingsbury (CAN) who took SILVER while Ikuma Horishima (JPN) collected BRONZE.

In the Mixed Team Relay, China (Chunyu Qu, Kexin Fan, Dajing Wu, Ziwei Ren) won GOLD ahead of Italy (Arianna Fontana, Martina Valcepina, Pietro Sighel, Andrea Cassinelli) who scooped SILVER while Hungary (Petra Jaszpati, Zsofia Konya, Shaoang Liu, Shaolin Sandor Liu) who claimed BRONZE.  

Double success for Slovakia in the Women's Normal Hill Individual as Ursa Bogataj took GOLD and Nika Kriznar claimed BRONZE while Katharina Althaus (GER) sealed SILVER. 

An OLYMPIC RECORD in the Women's 3000m as Irene Schouten (NED) stormed to GOLD in a time of 3:56.93 ahead of Francesca Lollobrigida (ITA) who narrowly took SILVER ahead of Isabelle Weidemann (CAN) who collected BRONZE.

GB Updates

After a good start to their group campaign, the Mixed Doubles Curling pair of Bruce Mouat & Jennifer Dodds won 8-2 against Czech Republic before losing 7-5 to unbeaten Italy.

Katie Ormerod missed out on the Women's Snowboard Slopestyle final as she finished 19th in qualifying. 

Disappointment for the duo of Farrell & Niall Treacy in the Men's Short Track Speed Skating 1000m as they both lost out the heats while Kathryn Thomson missed out in the Women's 500m.

Will Feneley finished 27th in qualifying for the Men's Moguls Freestyle Skiing.