Curler Eve Muirhead poses with the Union Jack flag during the Great Britain 2022 Winter Olympics flagbearer announcement
(Picture: Getty Images)The 2022 Winter Olympics were kicking off in Beijing on Friday with a glittering opening ceremony officially raising the curtain on one of the world’s biggest sporting spectacles.
Around 4,000 performers were set to take part in the event at the Beijing National Stadium, better known as the Bird’s Nest - as the Chinese capital became the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Games.
Curler Eve Muirhead and alpine skier Dave Ryding were set to lead Team GB into the arena for the ceremony at midday on Friday, UK time, directed by the Oscar-nominated film maker Zhang Yimou.
Almost 3,000 athletes from 91 countries are competing, with Haiti and Saudi Arabia being represented for the first time. They will compete in a record 109 events across seven sports: Biathalon, Bobsledding, Curling, Ice Hockey, Luge, Skating and Skiing.
Like last year’s Summer Games in Tokyo, the shadow of Covid looms large over the event. Foreign spectators are barred and tickets are not on sale to the general public, with groups of local people being “invited” to individual competitions. Overseas participants will be confined to strict “bubbles”, as will local support workers, including volunteers, cooks and drivers.
The build-up to the Games has also been fraught with political tensions over allegations of human rights abuses and boycotts.
Senior officials from the US, the UK and more than a dozen other governments have refused to attend in protest over China’s human rights record.
Team GB has sent 50 athletes and reserves to the Games - and is hoping to match or even beat the record five medals set at Sochi in 2014 and equalled in PyeongChang in 2018.
Among them is bobsledder Montell Douglas, who will make history as Great Britain’s first woman to compete at both a Summer and Winter Games.
The 36-year-old from Lewisham broke the British women’s 100m record the day before she graduated from Brunel University, and went on to take part in the Bejing Games in 2008 before switching to bobsleigh in 2016.
Professor Costas Karageorghis first met her when she was a teenager running with the Blackheath and Bromley Harriers atheletics club, where she was already a rising star.
He then taught her sports science at Brunel in west London, where she scored a 2:1 in sports science despite the demands placed on her by her athletic success.
Prof Karageorghis told the Standard: “I knew her from a young age at out athletics club when I was still competing. It was immediately obvious that she was amazingly talented.
“She had all the physical attributes to be a top athlete but also the mental strength. I’ve never seen an athlete take care of business on the track like she does.
“She came to Brunel where I was the athletic team manager and was teaching. She achieved so many amazing things at Brunel, the best way I can describe her is ‘talismanic’ she has those rare qualities, she is a role model for every team she represents.”
He recalled how she was almost late for her graduation after having the previous day broken the 100m British women’s record, which had previously been held by Kathy Cook for 27 years.
She clocked 11.05 seconds and was mobbed by the media and athletics fans.
“She cut it fine to get to her graduation but it’s not every day you break the British Women’s record,” Prof Karageorghis said.
“Fittingly the guest of honour at the graduation ceremony was Sir Roger Bannister the first person to break the four-minute mile. He is one of her heroes so it couldn’t be more fitting that he was there. At university she won so much, she is an incredible athlete.”
Douglas’ sprinting career saw her compete at two World Championships and the Commonwealth Games, as well as the European Indoor and Outdoor Championships.
Highlights in the bobsleigh so far included a top 10 finish in her World Cup debut, finishing seventh in St Moritz and winning GB’s first Europa Cup gold in seven years alongside Mica McNeill.
She told Athletics Weekly she was “overwhelmed and honoured” to ne the first British woman to compete in both summer and Winter Olympics.
Given her remarkable sporting journey, it is perhaps fitting that she once appeared in the TV game show Who Dares Wins - and scooped £12,500.
