The Winter Games will provide President Xi Jinping with an opportunity to present his vision of China to the world. The team figure skating competition begins shortly after the ceremony.
Current time in Beijing: Feb.4,7:41 a.m. The Winter Games will provide President Xi Jinping with an opportunity to present his vision of China to the world. The team figure skating competition begins shortly after the ceremony. For Xi Jinping, the Olympics is a moment to declare, ‘China is ready.’ U.S. broadcast coverage on Thursday includes figure skating, hockey and curling. Brianna Decker, a U.S. hockey star, is out for the rest of the Beijing Games. The coronavirus continues to sideline athletes as they gear up for competition. Who will light the cauldron at the opening ceremony? For China’s leader, Xi Jinping, the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics on Friday is a moment to burnish China’s international standing. The carefully choreographed spectacle in Beijing will help project an image of a mature global power that can hold a successful Games on time even in a pandemic — and unbowed by Western condemnation. And for Xi personally, the Olympics are a showcase event in a year that is likely to culminate in his securing a new term in power, entrenching his status as China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. A Communist Party congress later this year is expected to give Xi five more years as general secretary, breaking the past assumption that China’s leaders were settling into 10-year reigns. The opening of the Games is, in effect, “a celebration of his decade in power, almost like a National Day celebration, but in the guise of an international event,” said Geremie R. Barmé, a fellow at the Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations. “It’s Xi Jinping celebrating the superiority of the Chinese system.” Hosting the Olympics is a big deal for any country. And Xi has left little to chance. Since 2017, he has inspected competition venues at least five times, and he has regularly issued instructions to the officials preparing for the influx of athletes, according to the state news media. “The world is looking to China, and China is ready,” Xi told the International Olympic Committee on Thursday. The Olympics are part of a pageant of events that could help smooth Xi’s path to a new term in office, promoting him as a powerful, respected statesman who brushes off criticism from Western leaders. Another will be the planned completion of China’s first space station. “It’s making part of this the message that inside China, people are safe, and people act fast when they see there’s going to be an outbreak, and that means we can hold a big event like the Olympics,” said Rana Mitter, a professor of Chinese history and politics at Oxford University. “There is also a much stronger message saying: ‘We’re no longer supplicants seeking to enter the room. We are defining the rules of what happens in the room.’” — Chris Buckley The U.S. broadcast coverage of the 2022 Winter Games continues on Thursday with figure skating, skiing and hockey. All times are in Eastern. HOCKEY The U.S. women’s team, the reigning champions, takes on Finland at 5 p.m. on USA Network on a tape delay. At 11:10 p.m., the Russian Olympic Committee will play Switzerland, aired live on USA Network. MIXED DOUBLES CURLING USA Network will carry live coverage of Italy’s match against Norway at 7:35 p.m. NBC will also have a live broadcast of the United States versus Sweden at 12:35 a.m. FIGURE SKATING Nathan Chen of the United States, the three-time world champion and a 2018 Olympian, will compete in the men’s short program portion of the team event, with live coverage beginning at 8:55 p.m. on NBC. Live coverage of the rhythm dance component of the team competition, featuring Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue of the United States, begins at 10:35 p.m. At 12:15 a.m., Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier of the United States will compete in the pairs short program team event. — Alexandra E. Petri Brianna Decker was screaming, her agony audible to most everyone in an arena that was nearly empty on Thursday. The cries kept coming after the tangling collision, the first period’s clock stopped at 10:58. American hockey officials later confirmed what most had immediately assumed: that Decker, one of the most formidable and experienced players for the U.S. women’s team, would not be able to play for the remainder of the Games, a harsh blow to the team’s ambitions to repeat as Olympic champions.
