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The closing ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics will mark the end of a two-week competition in which 109 medals were awarded in 15 sports.
Among the controversies surrounding Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva are fights for GB team medals. Currently without a gold medal, they can finish the tournament without finishing on the podium, the first time since Albertville 1992.
After the pandemic is disrupted, the Winter and Summer Olympics will soon return to their traditional biennial schedule with the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics and Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.
How to watch the closing ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics
- Date: Sunday 20 February
- hour: 12:00
- TV channel: BBC One and Eurosport 1
- broadcast live: BBC iPlayer and Eurosport player in the Discover + app (subscription £6.99 per month)
Closing ceremony
The closing ceremony will take place at Beijing’s famous Bird’s Nest Stadium, where a parade of flags of the participating countries will be paraded, starting with the founding country Greece and ending with the current host China.
The Olympic flag will be lowered and handed over to the mayor of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, the host country for the upcoming Winter Olympics, while the Italian flag is raised alongside China.
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach will officially declare the Games over with a speech followed by a fireworks display.
It’s expected to be a memorable occasion directed by Zhang Yimou, the Bafta Award-winning director of the film. Raise the red lantern and the first man to lead the opening and closing ceremonies of the Winter (2022) and Summer (2008) Olympic Games.
Zhang’s wife said that her husband’s role in the Winter Olympics harmed his health.
“I am afraid every day that he will suddenly fall and become helpless,” Chen said, adding that he sleeps and eats little, works while sick and takes medication “just so he can talk.”
His post on Weibo, a Chinese social network, garnered 649,000 likes and 28,000 comments.
When is the next Winter Olympics?
Italy will host the 2026 matches in the two mentioned cities, Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, between February 6 and 22, 2020.
This will be the first time the country will host the Winter Olympics since 2006, when they were held in Turin.
Organizers say there are four priority themes that will be presented by The Power of Games: sport, social, economic and environmental.
Snowboarding will become an Olympic discipline for the first time in 2026 with five different events: men’s speed, individual, women’s speed, and individual and mixed relay.
The sport is growing in popularity in Italy, with the number of participants increasing from 33,000 in 2011 to 94,500 in 2020.
The Italians are likely to be the favourites, having reclaimed 63 medals from 11 world championships held since 2002.
Including the opening and closing ceremonies, there will be 15 venues for the 16 events in two cities and two regions, Lombardy and Veneto, and two autonomous provinces, Trento and Bolzano.
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