BEIJING — There will be time to get into why the Winter Olympics should or shouldn't be held here in China. To question if politics should play a role in determining what country should host this showcase of athletic excellence. To argue if China's human rights record, suppression of cultures and other crimes against humanity should have prompted the International Olympic Committee to pick another host.
That subject hovers like a dark cloud over these Games and is not going to go away.
Yet the night of the opening ceremony is about promoting one of sport's great spectacles, focusing on the games people play, and how riveting that can be. For instance, there's some guy from Chisholm, Minn., down there helping hold the American flag while leading Team USA during the parade of nations.
John Shuster, back to defend the curling gold medal his team won four years ago in South Korea, held the flag with speedskater Brittany Bowe as Team USA entered the Beijing National Stadium. This is their month to be stars.
Shuster is an Olympic success story, about to participate in his fifth (!) Winter Games. He's been the best. And he's been the worst. He's kept coming back and, finally, struck gold four years ago.
Bowe represents the challenges the Olympics have faced in recent years working around the pandemic. The Summer Olympics in Tokyo were delayed a year because of the COVID-19. The Beijing Games are taking place with a small number of invited spectators in the stands. Bowe is a replacement flag bearer for her teammate Elana Meyers Taylor. She tested positive for COVID upon arriving in Beijing and is in isolation, hoping to produce negative tests in time to take part in bobsled.
There have been more than 200 cases of the virus among athletes, coaches and stakeholders since teams began arriving in Beijing. Some, like myself, have been caught being in close contact of those who have tested positive and have had their movements restricted. I was not allowed in Beijing National Stadium to cover the ceremony. One everlasting memory of these Games will be staff members dressed up in hazmat-like outfits ready to swab the back of your throat with the longest Q-tip ever.
A handful of events started days before Friday's event. But the games aren't The Games until our senses are overloaded by the thoroughly lavish spectacle of the opening ceremony. Beijing didn't disappoint on Friday, with a presentation that was elegant at times, hip at others and contained more than enough shiny objects.
The day included motorcade after motorcade moving through town as foreign dignitaries arrived for the show. There were no motorcades from the United States, Canada, Australia, India and the U.K., who announced a diplomatic boycott of the Games.
Thousands of media members on hand boarded buses for the Bird's Nest, the appropriate nickname for the National Stadium in Beijing. Designed by Swiss architects, steel beams are arranged to hide the stadium's retractable roof.
The design also made it easy to conceal fireworks, which were used frequently on Friday. The ending was well done, with the lighting of the Olympic flame triggering an eruption of fireworks that included an arrangement in the shape of the Olympic rings.
The Games have really begun now. We have issues with China, but the athletes have earned the spotlight for the next two-plus weeks. There are over 2,800 participants here. Someone is going to do something outrageous.
Can Shuster win gold again? Can Jesse Diggins do it again? Can the U.S. men's and women's hockey teams, both oozing with local contributors, bring back gold? Can Shaun White's possible last hurrah end in glory?
Will Germany dominate in bobsled? Will the women of the Russian Olympic Committee sweep figure skating? Will COVID slow down Norway's elite ski force?
Is there a feel-good story waiting to happen? Jamaica has a bobsled team at the Olympics for the first time in 24 years. Morocco, Madagascar, Nigeria, Ghana and Eritrea are competing in these Games. Chris Chelios' son is playing for China at these Olympics. This is why we pay for satellite TV.
It is time to be entertained by the world's best athletes. To be forced to the edge of our seats, then out of them. As we watch the games people play.
