MADRID, 20 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The turning off of the cauldron has marked this Sunday the end of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, a closing ceremony in which a large part of the participants of this event have paraded, with Adrián Díaz as Spanish flag bearer, and with which has kicked off the Olympiad that will lead to the 2026 Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo Games.
The track of the Olympic Stadium, known as the Bird’s Nest, was filled with light, with hundreds of lanterns carried by children and a large giant snowflake, to receive the 91 countries that have participated in these 17 days of competition. A Chinese knot, a symbol of the union of all the nations of the world, gave way to the protagonists of the event.
At the head of the Spanish delegation, the skater Adrián Díaz, Olympic diploma along with Olivia Smart in ice dance, carried the red flag in the long parade of flags in the Chinese compound, where the local athletes were the most numerous.
There was also time for the delivery of the last medals, those of the women’s 30-kilometre freestyle mass start, with Norway’s Therese Johaug receiving gold, and the men’s 50-kilometre, with Russian Alexander Bolshunov receiving his medal as new Olympic champion.
Among tributes to the volunteers and the new members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) elected on Saturday, the mayor of Beijing gave the Olympic flag to the president of the IOC, the German Thomas Bach, who in turn gave it to the mayor of Milan as the culmination of the start of the 2026 Milan-Cortina D’Ampezzo Olympiad.
“We share the Olympic spirit with all the athletes who, due to the pandemic, could not achieve their dream,” said the IOC chief executive, who called for “unity” in the face of the pandemic and who wished that his wishes could be fulfilled in four years. With the extinguishing of the snowflake that served as a cauldron, Beijing said goodbye. The road to Milan begins.