FOG BLOG BEIJING WINTER OLYMPICS LOG: CHINESE PRESIDENT DECLARES GAMES OPEN:

Chinese president declares Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games open.......Subdued opening ceremony came less than 6 months after close of pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games.....Chinese President Xi Jinping declared the Olympic Winter Games open on Friday, during a subdued opening ceremony that followed less than six months after the end of the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Summer Games.

Before Xi declared the Games open, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach wished those in attendance and those watching at home a happy new year, as those celebrating the Lunar New Year are in the midst of that celebration, which began earlier this week, ushering in the Year of the Tiger.

"This Year of the Tiger is also an Olympic year," Bach said. "Both the Year of the Tiger and the Olympic year stand for ambition, courage and strength. Today, thanks to this ambition, China is a winter sport country."...Indeed, Bach noted that some 300 million Chinese residents are now participating in winter sports, at more than 2,000 ice rinks and ski resorts.

"Now your moment has come: the moment you have been longing for, the moment we all have been longing for," Bach told the more than 2,400 athletes who will be competing at these Games. "Now your Olympic dream is coming true in magnificent venues supported by hundreds of millions of new Chinese winter sport fans."

Bach noted that athletes living together in the Olympic Athlete's Village show the world how rivals can live together in harmony.

"There, there will be no discrimination for any reason whatsoever. In our fragile world, where division, conflict and mistrust are on the rise, we show the world that yes it is possible to be fierce rivals, while at the same time living peacefully and respectfully together."........After the Games were declared open, six former Olympic medallists from China carried the Olympic flag into the National Stadium as a children's choir sang the Olympic anthem in Greek, having practiced for three months.

To close the opening ceremony, seven torch-bearers — winter-sport athletes who were born sequentially in the 1950s, '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s and 2000s — carried the Olympic flame in a final relay into the stadium. One male and one female torch-bearer shared the last torch in a display of gender equality.

The torch was then placed inside a giant snowflake that hung over the stadium, before a massive fireworks display erupted to mark the end of the ceremony.Athletes from more than 90 countries marched into Beijing's National Stadium, a.k.a. the "Bird's Nest," for the opening ceremony of these Games — a familiar scene as the city is the first to host both a Summer and Winter Olympics, with many venues repurposed for winter use after the 2008 Summer Games.

• Hockey captain Poulin, speed skater Hamelin to carry Canadian flag into Beijing Olympics

Canada's flag-bearers, veteran short track speed skater Charles Hamelin and hockey star Marie-Philip Poulin, led Team Canada into the 80,000-seat National Stadium 27th out of more than 90 countries that have sent teams to these Games.

Hamelin said he had "chills" when he received the flag, and while athletes are following COVID-19 protocols, Team Canada is still banding together to support one another.

"We are limited in our contact, but we are cheering for everyone," he said right before marching into the stadium.