The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics officially began today with the opening ceremony.
Although the competitions started two days ago, with the mixed double curling competition, today’s ceremony marks the official debut of the 24th edition of the Winter Olympics.
Beijing, the host of the Olympics, is the first city to host both a summer edition of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and a winter one, the Beijing 2022.
Nearly 3,000 athletes from 91 countries will compete in the 7 winter sports, which total 15 sports, in a total of 109 competitions, to win the coveted Olympic medals.
The sports competitions will take place in three places, namely Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou. Beijing will host indoor events such as curling, figure skating, speed skating and ice hockey, as well as the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games. Yanqing, which is an administrative district of Beijing and located 75 km away, will host bobsleigh, skeleton, sled and alpine skiing competitions. Freestyle skiing, snowboarding, ski jumping, cross-country skiing and biathlon will be held in the mountains surrounding the city of Zhangjiakou, 180 km from the Chinese capital.
The official slogan of the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022, “Together for a Common Future” was chosen to show that humanity is mobilizing and finding solutions to overcome difficulties and create a better future. This is the interpretation that the Chinese hosts gave to the new Olympic motto Citius, Altius, Fortius – Communis (Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together).
The gold, silver and bronze medals, called “Tong Xin” (“Together We Are One”), consist of the five Olympic rings engraved in the center on the front of the medals.
At the opening ceremony, the Romanian delegation will have Raluca Strămăturaru (sledge) with Paul Pepene (cross-country skiing) as its flag bearer.
The Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee announced, for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, that Romania is represented by 22 athletes (8 women and 14 men) who will compete in 8 sports, namely sledding, bobsled, skeleton, alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, ski jumping, biathlon and speed skating.
The Romanian delegation will be distributed in all three Olympic villages where the competitions will take place, in Yanqing, Zhangjiakou and Beijing.
Romania’s first participation in the Olympic Games took place in 1900, while the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee was established in 1914. Starting in 1924, it participated with a complete team and since then it has been absent from only two editions of Summer Olympics in 1932 in Los Angeles and London in 1948, as well as an edition of the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, USA.
The Romanian athletes won a total of 309 Olympic medals, of which 308 at the Summer Olympics (90 gold, 97 silver and 121 bronze) and a bronze medal at the Winter Olympics.
Good luck Romania!
