Beijing Winter Olympics: Athletes prepare to leave the ‘closed loop’ after fireworks wrap up eventful Games

Beijing Olympics: Latest updates

Olympic events for Feb. 20, 2022

• Closing ceremony: That’s a wrap! The Beijing Winter Olympics, pulled off inside a tightly-restricted closed loop, is now officially over, punctuated with an elaborate round of Sunday night fireworks. Isabelle Weidemann – a triple-medal winner in long track speed skating at the Beijing Olympics – lead Canada as flag-bearer at the closing ceremony this morning. Chinese President Xi Jinping was on hand for the snowflake-themed ceremony at the Bird’s Nest stadium, which was capped by a 90-second fireworks display that spelled out “one world, one family,” followed by a rendition of “Auld Lang Syne.”
• Ice hockey: The Finns knocked off the favoured Russians 2-1 Sunday to win the men’s hockey tournament, capturing an Olympic gold medal for the first time in the nation’s history. Finland had never won in hockey at the Olympics on the men’s or women’s side. It last reached the final in 2006 and lost to Sweden, matching the silver from 1988.
• Bobsled: Pilot Justin Kripps and his crew won bronze in the four-man bobsleigh event, finishing the four-heat race in three minutes 55.09 seconds. The difference between the podium and fourth place was just six-hundredths of a second. “The pressure and the buildup at the Games is so intense,” said Kripps. “When you cross that finish line it’s just this moment where you don’t know for sure and then it all just explodes into a celebration.”
• Curling: Eve Muirhead led Britain to the Olympic women’s curling gold medal – the first for the sport’s homeland since 2002 – pulling away with a four-ender in the seventh on Sunday for a record-setting 10-3 victory over Japan. The Swedish women won bronze on Saturday night, beating Switzerland.
• Alpine skiing: Austria won gold in the alpine skiing mixed team parallel event on Sunday, beating Germany in the final, while Mikaela Shiffrin and the United States missed out on a medal.

Off the field

• Medal count: Canada capped off the Olympics with 26 medals – four gold, eight silver and 14 bronze – ranked fourth in the medal table behind Norway (37), Russia (32) and Germany (27) and ahead of the United States (24). Canada’s performance in Beijing matched its output in Vancouver and Whistler B.C. in 2010 for the second-highest in Winter Olympic history, although the host team won 14 gold there.

The day in pictures

Golden moments from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics: Team Canada finished with 26 medals medals, four of them gold, at a Winter Games where COVID-19 restrictions made the atmosphere unlike any Olympics before it. Here are the highlights.

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What to expect at the Paralympics

The opening ceremony for the Winter Paralympic Games is on March 4. The event, which runs until March 13, features five sports: wheelchair curling, snowboarding, hockey, alpine skiing and nordic skiing (which includes biathlon and cross-country). About 600 athletes are expected to compete, 50 or so from Canada.

What time is it in Beijing right now?

Olympic highlights and medal count for Feb. 20

Latest Olympic medal count

At Olympics, cybersecurity worries lingered in background

Warnings to use disposable “burner” phones and laptops. Privacy-protecting software. Concerns about a security flaw in an official Games smartphone app. Such precautions fuelled unease about data privacy for competitors and attendees at the Winter Olympics in Beijing. Not everyone heeded them.

How we can start caring about the Olympics again

Canada won 26 medals. Team Canada did its part. Unfortunately, getting this country whipped up about the Games isn’t the sweet breeze it used to be. Cracking 20 medals and 10 golds was a cause for national celebration in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. It was a source of pride in Sochi 2014. It was proof of our place in the world in Pyeongchang. But in Beijing, gold became bronze and the thrill was gone, Cathal Kelly writes.

Essential reads on the Beijing Olympics

Sports columnist Cathal Kelly

How we can start caring about the Olympics again

Some of Canada’s Olympic stars are showing us how to lose with dignity

As our world views splinter, the Canada-U.S. sports rivalry is something that can still bond us together

Big air a big part of any bright future the Olympics may have

Team Canada in depth

For Canadian women’s hockey team, 3-2 victory over U.S. shows how ‘creating a culture’ pays off

Olympic speed skaters Weidemann, Blondin and Maltais take gold for Canada with record finish in Beijing

Now cancer-free, Canada’s Max Parrot takes Olympic gold with run of a lifetime in snowboard slopestyle

Gallery: Canada’s medal moments