Winter Olympics begin with opening ceremony light show as Team GB stars wrap up warm in freezing Beijing temperatures

THE Beijing Olympics got off to a bang today with a brilliant light show that lit up the sky above the iconic Bird’s Nest.

In the week that China celebrated its New Year – 2022 is the Year of the Tiger – these controversial Games were officially opened to a fanfare of fireworks.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, considered by many to be the most powerful man on the planet, and IOC President Thomas Bach were side-by-side as Beijing became the first city in 126 years to host both Summer and Winter Games.

Russian president Vladimir Putin and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman were on the VIP guest list.

A delegation of Team GB athletes and staff marched into the stadium as temperatures dipped below zero degrees in the venue where Jamaican sprinting superstar Usain Bolt once broke the men’s 100m world record.

Alpine skier Dave Ryding and curling skipper Eve Muirhead, both competing at a fourth Olympics, carried the GB flag together as there were male and female flagbearers for the second time – just like at last summer’s Tokyo Olympics.

Team GB had a grand total of 56 people walking into the stadium, of which 30 were athletes competing in the fortnight ahead.

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However the UK government was not present in the Chinese capital, joining countries such as the United States, Canada, India, Australia and Holland by refusing to send its top politicians in a sign of a political boycott.

Those nations have taken this stand in light of alleged Genocide of Uyghurs and other mainly Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang province – with claims of forced labour, rape, sexual abuse and sterilisation.

There will now be 16 days of live action spread across three clusters – though the snow will be artificial, having been produced by more than 290 snow cannons.

The event is being held in a tight self-contained Covid bubble with daily testing and temperature checks to ensure that if anyone contracts coronavirus it does not spread to the local Beijing community.