Five things to watch at Beijing Winter Olympics on Friday

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This article was published 02/02/2022 (1575 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics officially kick off Friday, with the Games’ opening ceremony. Additionally, a slew of events are taking place, including figure skating’s team competition.

Here are five things to watch at the Beijing Games on Friday, Feb. 4.

Opening ceremony gets things underway

The Beijing Olympics begin with the pomp and circumstance of the opening ceremonies. Given the spectacle that Beijing delivered 14 years ago at the 2008 Summer Games, expectations are high for the winter show. Short-track speedskater Charles Hamelin and hockey player Marie-Philip Poulin were named Canada’s flag-bearers on Wednesday. Hamelin is entering his fifth and final Games, looking to add to the five Olympic medals he’s already earned. For Poulin, these will be her fourth Games. She’s medalled in every Olympics she’s been a part of.

Canadian figure skating team begins Olympic title defence

Figure skating’s team competition starts Friday with the men’s and pairs short programs. and the ice dancer’s rhythm dance event. Canada took home gold at Pyeongchang 2018 and will be looking to defend its Olympic title. The 2022 team will be different from four years ago with six of the 13 Canadian figure skaters making their Olympic debuts. The team is headlined by ice dance world championship bronze medallists Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, who will be heading to their second Olympics as a pair.

Homan, Morris continue mixed doubles round robin campaign

Canadian mixed doubles partners Rachel Homan and John Morris will play two more matches as part of round-robin competition, squaring off against Switzerland and host China. Morris is a two-time Olympic gold medallist, winning with skip Kevin Martin at the men’s competition in 2010 and capturing the inaugural mixed doubles gold in 2018 with partner Kaitlyn Lawes. This is Homan’s second Olympic appearance. She previously participated in Pyeongchang, as Canada’s women’s curling team skip. Her squad didn’t make it out of the round robin of that tournament.

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Host-nation China begins its women’s hockey competition

China’s women’s hockey team will begin its Olympic tournament with an encounter with Denmark. Currently ranked No. 20 in the world, China looks to be an emerging nation in women’s hockey with professional team Shenzhen KRS Vanke Rays playing out of the Zhenskaya Hockey League, a league mostly based in Russia. The Vanke Rays were originally founded as part of the now defunct Canadian Women’s Hockey League as Kunlun Red Star WIH.

More pre-competition training

Similarly to Thursday, pre-competition training for men’s downhill skiing, men’s singles luge and men’s and women’s normal hill ski jumping will take place on Friday. Medals will begin to be awarded in ski jumping on Saturday, while Sunday will see the first batch of hardware awarded in downhill skiing and luge.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 2, 2022.