Welcome to the Beijing Olympics newsletter from The Globe and Mail. This is our inaugural edition, with a daily missive landing in your inbox as of Feb. 1. (Not signed up yet? Just head on over here.) We’ll be bringing you the best and most interesting stories from the Games, the medal standing for Canada, the schedules for those can’t-miss events and the behind-the-scenes looks from our reporters in Beijing. And of course, the latest on what’s happening with COVID-19 and the pandemic, because that’s sure to have an impact on the athletes and beyond. We look forward to sharing in the excitement with you.
Which event are you waiting for at the Winter Games? Email us at audience@globeandmail.com and let us know.
Illuminated lanterns are pictured in front of the the Beijing Olympic Tower ahead of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China January 26, 2022. REUTERS/Fabrizio BenschFABRIZIO BENSCH/Reuters
How Team Canada is shaping up
The opening ceremony for the Beijing Games starts at 6:30 a.m. ET on Feb. 4, while the first big events for Canada start on Feb. 2. Here’s how Team Canada is looking.
- The full roster for Team Canada is up and running at olympic.ca. You can also check the qualification tracker, which is constantly being updated.
- Gold medal and multiple World Cup winner Mikaël Kingsbury will be leading the 24-member freestyle ski team, saying, “It’s great to have a target on your back.”
- At 21, hockey phenom Sarah Fillier may be Canada’s youngest player, but she’s among its most dangerous in the offensive zone.
- Snowboarder Max Parrot is back after battling cancer in 2018. He won a World Cup gold in 2019, and started off 2020 with another big-air gold at the X Games in Aspen. “[Especially] going through such a big challenge as cancer you get really more mentally tough,” he told a virtual news conference recently.
- Familiar face Charles Hamelin will be leading the short-track speed-skating team in what will likely be his last Olympics.
Events coming up next week
Wednesday, Feb. 2
8:05 p.m. ET Curling, mixed doubles round robin: Canada vs. Britain
11:10 p.m. ET Hockey, women Group A: Canada vs. Switzerland
Thursday, Feb. 3
7:05 a.m. ET Curling, mixed doubles round robin: Canada vs. Norway
7:35 p.m. ET Curling, mixed doubles round robin: Canada vs. Switzerland
Globe on the ground
- Cathal Kelly: If Beijing is looking to gain anything from monitoring sportswriters during the Olympics, the joke’s on China
- Paul Waldie: Norway’s radically different approach to sports helped it climb to the top of the Olympic podium
COVID-19 and the Games
- How is Beijing dealing with coronavirus risks and its international participants? With protective suits at the airport, luggage swabs, and often, food prepared by robot chefs within the athletes’ “locked bubble.”
- China has eased its COVID-19 restrictions for Games-related personnel, changing the threshold for who is identified as being positive and the time period for who is considered a close contact.
- The planned torch relay for the Games has been reduced to three days because of COVID-19 concerns, quite the contrast from the global journey taken by the Olympic icon ahead of the 2008 Summer Games (which still did not make it to Canada).
Looking for more up-to-the-moment COVID-19 news? Check out our coronavirus newsletter, sent weekdays and Sundays.
As seen leading up to the Games:
Inflated Beijing Games mascot, Bing Dwen Dwen, tries to squeeze through the door to enter the main media center at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Monday, Jan. 24, 2022, in Beijing.Jae C. Hong/The Associated Press