2022 Winter Olympics closing ceremony

The 2022 Winter Olympics closing ceremony was held at the Beijing National Stadium in Beijing on 20 February 2022. As mandated by the Olympic Charter, the proceedings are expected to combine the formal ceremonial closing of this international sporting event (including closing speeches, hoisting of the flags, the parade of athletes, and the handover of the Olympic flag) with an artistic spectacle to showcase the culture and history of the current and next host nation (Italy) for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo.[1]

2022 Winter Olympics
closing ceremony
Date20 February 2022 (2022-02-20)
Time20:00 - 21:40 (UTC+8)
VenueBeijing National Stadium
LocationBeijing, China
Coordinates39°59′30″N 116°23′26″E
ThemeOne World, One Family
Filmed byOBS on behalf of CCTV
Footage2022 Winter Games Closing Ceremony in Olympic Channel on YouTube

The closing ceremony was directed by film director and producer Zhang Yimou, who also directed the opening ceremonies of the 2022 Winter Olympics and previously directed and produced the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics.[2][3]

Theme and Concept

According to Zhao Weidong head of the 2022 Olympic organising committee's media department the theme of the closing ceremony will be:

  • Together For A Shared Future
  • Beijing as the city to have hosted both the Summer and Winter Olympics
  • Celebrations of athletes' achievements at those Games

As stated by Zhang Yimou, somewhere during the closing ceremony will re-create a moment from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics, as for the Beijing National Stadium being the venue for the ceremonies of both Summer and Winter Olympics.

Ceremony key team

  • Closing Ceremony Director – Zhang Yimou[4]
  • Chief Lighting Designer – Sha Xiaolan
Announcers

Proceedings

Source:[5]

Entrance of the President of China and the President of the IOC

At 8:00pm China Standard Time, Chinese President Xi Jinping and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach entered the stadium.

Lighting the Emblem

As the closing ceremony takes place five days after the Lantern Festival, which is the final day of the Chinese New Year celebrations, a performance was held to celebrate and promote the culture of the Chinese New Year through lanterns. Children danced and played with lanterns while interacting with the large snowflake cauldron in the center of the stadium. Their movement formed the emblem of the 2022 Winter Olympics. The lanterns were shaped like snowflakes to commemorate the overlap of both the Winter Olympics and the Chinese New Year celebration as well as to highlight the tradition of playing with lanterns during the Lantern Festival.

Entry of countries' and regions' flags & Parade of nations

Continuing from the lantern performance, twelve sleds shaped in the form of Chinese zodiac animals, namely the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig, carved out a Chinese knot on the floor, joining the children with lanterns in continuing the celebration of the Chinese New Year. The zodiac animals represent the interlinkage of the Chinese calendar and its solar terms. Animations performed by ribbons wrapped around the giant snowflake cauldron to form a hybrid combination of the Chinese knot and the lantern. The flags of the 91 competing nations entered the stadium first, followed by all the athletes who were still in Beijing marching in together as one group accompanied by an arrangement of Beethoven's Ode to Joy. The athletes gathered on the knot, symbolizing the Chinese culture of family reunion for the Chinese New Year.

Victory Ceremonies

Greek National Anthem and handover of the Olympic flag

First, the Greek flag was raised while the Greek national anthem is played. The Olympic flag was then lowered and folded while the Olympic Hymn was sung in Greek. Afterwards, the flag was passed from the mayor of Beijing, Chen Jining, to IOC president Thomas Bach, who then hand it over to the mayors of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Gianpietro Ghedina. This was followed by the raising of the flag of Italy and the playing of its anthem sing by the know italian singer Malika Ayane.During the Italian national anthem, a projection of stars (representing the 7,904 comuni of the country) formed the outline of Italy. The Olympic flag will be raised again on January 19, 2024 for the opening ceremonies of the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics in Gangwon Province, South Korea

Milan-Cortina 2026: "Duality, together"

As Olympic tradition dictates,but now with an innovation, because for the first time in history, an edition of the Olympic Games will officially have two host cities. Since the italian cities of Milan and Cortina D'Ampezzo will host the next edition of the Winter Olympic Games scheduled for 2026.The two host cities took a shortcut on some concepts that Beijing based the organization and management of the edition that was ending and presented a 10-minute show called "Duality, Together". Unlike the pompous and exuberant shows traditionally presented by the world-know Italian producer Marco Balich, this time the COVID-19 pandemics led a elaboration of a more simple and sincere act that only needed 6 people and approximately 90% was produced in the city of Beijing itself based in a idea called "the less, is the better"[6]

This segment presented by Milan-Cortina coincided with duality, one of the pillars of Far Eastern culture and the Beijing 2022 slogan "Together for a shared future", the slogan of the 2022 Winter Olympics. According to Christian Milici (MCO2026 Head of Events), they aimed to celebrate the harmony which links two cities (Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo) that are very seemingly different, but are in constant dialogue with each other.[7] Because of this concept, the segment was focused on the harmony between humanity and nature as the main life duality. The segment started with two children with the names of the host cities on each of their backs rolling and hugging a inflated vinyl plastic globe, representing the two next host cities inviting the world for the 2026 games and a historical link between Beijing and Milan, the Silk Road (a historical important trading route traced by Marco Polo which was the first registered link between Europe and Asia). After this walk, the first film depicted two dancer trekking across the host cities: the man was running in the urban landscape of Milan and a woman was running in the snowy mountains of Cortina d'Ampezzo. After the first film, the two then the two met on the LED stage set up in the center of the Beijing National Stadium. They presented a joint modern dance routine to represent the history and the cultural aspects of Italy. After the segment, a second film was shown depicting various athletes holding several Italian flags and flags with the 2026 Winter Olympics logo. It then shows several open-aired meetings across the country as Frecce Tricolori flies over Venice (main hotspot from Veneto, the region where Cortina is located) and the Italian Alps and introduced the two host regions, Lombardy and Veneto.[8]

Production team

  • Head of events: Christian Milici
  • Creative director: Marco Balich
  • Artistic director: Lidia Castelli

Performers

Closing Speeches

Along the final speech and remarks made by Cai Qi, president and chairman of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, the IOC President Thomas Bach formally declared the games closed, praising them as excellent and unforgettable, as per the Olympic Charter he invited in French the youth of the world to meet again in Milan and Cortina D'Ampezzo in four years time.[9]

Video: Farewell! Together for a shared future!

Following the declaration of the closing of the Games, a video was shown of Beijing citizens and Winter Games volunteers bidding farewell to their international guests. It concluded with Olympic mascot Bing Dwen Dwen waving to a snowflake as it flies toward the sky.

Extinguishing of the Olympic flame and Final last closing events

The Olympic flame, burning in torch docked at its base during the opening ceremony in the middle of a giant snowflake-shaped cauldron,was descending while one of the most striking scenes from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics was being reproduced (when the Olympic rings were formed on a carpet of LEDs that was suspended) gradually extinguished while "You and Me", the theme song of the 2008 Summer Olympics, was sampled when the snow flame was near to touch the ground and and was it slowly faded away extinguished,after the last after the last sparks burn out and it goes out for good,"Snowflakes", the theme song of the 2022 Winter Olympics, which was sung by the Beijing Philharmonic Choir (北京愛樂合唱團) started to play. This segmenr was written to highlight the fact that the city made the historical achievement of being the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, to end the ceremony as the Olympic Charter determines and a large display of fireworks started.As the fireworks exploded, the cast of the show began to sing "Auld Lang Syne".The song ended exactly at 21:40 CST and was the last moment of the ceremonies.

Dignitaries in attendance

Host nation dignitaries

International dignitaries

Heads of international organizations

Anthems

Victory ceremonies

Notes

  1. Anthem played as part of the Women's 30km mass start free victory ceremony.
  2. Anthem played as part of the Men's 50km mass start free victory ceremony. This event was shortened to 30km due to high winds and freezing temperature.

See also

References

  1. "Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 - Updates on Spectators, Vaccination And COVID-19 Countermeasures - Olympic News". International Olympic Committee. 2021-09-30. Retrieved 2021-10-10.
  2. "Everything You Need To Know About The Closing Ceremonies Of The Beijing Olympics". WashingtonPost.com. February 17, 2022. Retrieved February 17, 2022.
  3. "Winter Olympics day 16: GB win women's curling gold before closing ceremony – as it happened". Guardian. 20 February 2022. Retrieved 21 February 2022.
  4. Buckley, Chris (4 February 2022). "A familiar face will again direct the opening ceremony in Beijing". New York Times. Archived from the original on 5 February 2022. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
  5. "Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games Closing Ceremony Programme List". Twitter. CGTN Sports scene. Retrieved 20 February 2022.
  6. Ip, Cyrus; Lau, Jack (20 February 2022). "Winter Olympics: 5 things to watch out for at the Beijing 2022 closing ceremony". South China Morning Post. Asian One. Retrieved 20 February 2022.
  7. Elbaba, Julia (20 February 2022). "Italy Introduces 'Duality, Together' in Milano Cortina 2026 at Handover Ceremony". Yahoo Sports. NBC. Archived from the original on 6 April 2022. Retrieved 20 February 2022.
  8. Michael Houston (2022-02-20). "Bach calls on leaders to find peace as Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics close". Inside the games. Retrieved 20 February 2022.
  9. "IOC President Thomas Bach Declares Beijing Winter Olympic Games Closed". Yahoo.com. 20 February 2022. Retrieved 20 February 2022.
  10. Lyu, Jia Rong (18 February 2022). "TAO: New Party Chairman Wu Chengdian arrived in Beijing to participate in the closing of the Winter Olympics 國台辦:新黨主席吳成典等人抵達北京 將參加冬奧閉幕". United Daily News. Retrieved 18 February 2022.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.