Beijing (dpa) – Germany is competing within the twenty fourth Winter Olympic Video games in Beijing with virtually 150 athletes. Following the official opening on Friday, medals can be awarded in a document 109 occasions till 20 February. Regardless of the restrictions as a result of coronavirus pandemic, round 2,900 athletes from 91 nations can be taking part. The German flag can be carried on the opening ceremony by pace skater Claudia Pechstein and bobsleigh pilot Francesco Friedrich. A complete of 149 athletes have been nominated for the Video games, a lot of whom anticipate to win medals.
Beijing already hosted the Summer time Olympics in 2008 and is the primary metropolis to additionally host the Winter Video games. Nonetheless, political tensions and criticism of human rights violations within the host nation are weighing on the sporting occasion. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had introduced in an interview that he wouldn’t be travelling to the Olympic Video games. The 100-minute opening ceremony has once more been organized by Chinese language star director Zhang Yimou, as was the case on the 2008 Summer time Olympics. Because of the coronavirus pandemic and the chilly climate, the ceremony with 3,000 performers can be smaller than the spectacular opening of the 2008 Summer time Olympics in China’s capital, when 15,000 performers took half.