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Winter Olympics: Beijing 2022. This is what you need to know

The 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing are in full swing. The opening ceremony took place on Friday, February 4, and the closing ceremony is scheduled for Sunday, February 20. Athletes are competing for the gold in three different locations around the city, namely in Central Beijing, Yanqing, and Zhangjiakou.

Beijing is the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics. The Chinese city previously hosted the Olympic Games in 2008. So, there are three locations, each with its own sports. In Central Beijing, the "indoor sports" are taking place, such as ice skating, short track, curling, ice hockey, and figure skating. Snowboard big air and freestyle skiing big air are also on the program there. In Yanqing, which is about 80 kilometers from the city center, you can witness alpine skiing, bobsleigh, skeleton, and luge. And in Zhangjiakou, a bit further away, they are organizing snowboarding, freestyle skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, Nordic combined, and ski jumping.

Team Belgium

The board of directors of the Belgian Olympic and Interfederal Committee (BOIC) has sent a delegation of 19 athletes. Team Belgium is thus active in 9 sports: alpine skiing, biathlon, bobsleigh, figure skating, cross-country skiing, short track, skeleton, speed skating, and snowboarding.

Team Belgium is composed of three alpine skiers (Armand Marchant, Sam Maes, Dries Van den Broecke), five biathletes (Florent Claude, Tom Lahaye-Goffart, César Beauvais, Thierry Langer, Lotte Lie), two bobsledders (An Vannieuwenhuyse, Sara Aerts), a cross-country skier (Thibaut De Marre), a skeleton athlete (Kim Meylemans), and a snowboarder (Evy Poppe). In late December, BOIC had already announced an initial selection of six athletes: figure skater Loena Hendrickx, speed skaters Bart Swings, Sandrine Tas, and Mathias Vosté, and short trackers Hanne and Stijn Desmet.

The most famous Belgian athlete is still Bart Swings. Four years ago, he brought home a Belgian medal at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang after a 20-year hiatus, following Bart Veldkamp in 1998.

Sources: Team Belgium, Sportspromedia, Sporza