Hockey star Marie-Philip Poulin carried the Canadian flag together with short track speed skater Charles Hamelin. Find all nine flag bearers from ice hockey in the gallery below the story.
photo: Andrea Cardin / HHOF-IIHF Images
The biggest spectacle of all Olympic Games, Summer or Winter, is the Opening Ceremony. On Friday, Beijing’s National Stadium became the first venue to host the event at both a Summer and Winter Olympics, having previously done the same in 2008.
Designed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, the stadium is colloquially known as the Bird’s Nest due to its exterior appearance. It is also just a stone’s throw from the National Indoor Stadium, which is one of two ice hockey venues for these Games and will host the men’s gold medal game on the final Sunday, 16 days from now, just prior to the Closing Ceremony.
As was the case in 2008, the Opening Ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics was directed by renowned Chinese film director Zhang Yimou. It began with a pre-show titled “Together for a Shared Future”, which is also the slogan for these Games. That was followed by a video message from the Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres, and then the introductions of Xi Jinping, President of the Peoples’ Republic of China and Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee, the raising of the national flag of the host nation and the playing of its national anthem.
As the name suggests, the Opening Ceremony is the ceremonial opening of the Games, although in practice, many events start before. This year, women’s ice hockey began on Thursday with four games, followed by two more on Friday afternoon.
A staple of the Opening Ceremony is the Parade of Athletes, which were initiated here in Beijing by six hockey players in glowing costumes passing and firing a video-mapped puck at the entrance tunnel, with appropriate hockey-rink sound effects.
Designed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, the stadium is colloquially known as the Bird’s Nest due to its exterior appearance. It is also just a stone’s throw from the National Indoor Stadium, which is one of two ice hockey venues for these Games and will host the men’s gold medal game on the final Sunday, 16 days from now, just prior to the Closing Ceremony.
As was the case in 2008, the Opening Ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics was directed by renowned Chinese film director Zhang Yimou. It began with a pre-show titled “Together for a Shared Future”, which is also the slogan for these Games. That was followed by a video message from the Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres, and then the introductions of Xi Jinping, President of the Peoples’ Republic of China and Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee, the raising of the national flag of the host nation and the playing of its national anthem.
As the name suggests, the Opening Ceremony is the ceremonial opening of the Games, although in practice, many events start before. This year, women’s ice hockey began on Thursday with four games, followed by two more on Friday afternoon.
A staple of the Opening Ceremony is the Parade of Athletes, which were initiated here in Beijing by six hockey players in glowing costumes passing and firing a video-mapped puck at the entrance tunnel, with appropriate hockey-rink sound effects.
The delegation of the host country China enters the stage.
photo: Andrea Cardin / HHOF-IIHF Images
A total of 91 countries are participating in these Games, starting as always with Greece, the home of the ancient Olympics, and finishing with the host country, China. Size of national delegations ranged from the 222 athletes from the United States to 18 nations that have each sent only one. Of those 91 nations, 13 contain teams of hockey players – nine both men’s and women’s teams, three with only men’s teams and one – Japan – with just a women’s. Of the 13, one is sending hockey players for the first time and that’s Denmark, whose men’s and women’s teams each qualified for the first time.
All nations were led around the field level of the Bird’s Nest by two flag-bearers, provided they had both male and female athletes present. Amazingly, of the 13 hockey nations involved, a record nine chose hockey players as flag bearers – six men and three women. Among them were Lauris Darzins (Latvia), Valtteri Filppula (Finland), Alena Mills (Czechia), Frans Nielsen (Denmark), Marie-Philip Poulin (Canada), Emma Nordin (Sweden), Andres Ambuhl (Switzerland), Vadim Shipachyov (ROC) and Marek Hrivik (Slovakia).
“I don’t think it’s hit me yet,” Mills said on Thursday, after her Czech team’s opening 3-1 win over host China. “It’s a great honour. I was speechless when I heard about it. I’m just happy to represent all the amazing athletes that are here. I don’t know what else to say. As I said, I don’t think it’s really sunk into me yet.”
Mills only learned of her appointment on Wednesday night, and admittedly hadn’t had time to digest the significance of it all. Whereas Canada’s Poulin knew a fair bit ahead of time but had to keep it a secret.
“It was very difficult,” the Canadian captain said. “As a group we tell ourselves everything and as the day was getting closer, the smile was getting a little bigger. And when I had the chance to tell them, to see the reaction, it made me appreciate them a lot more.”
Said Poulin: “To be honest, I am still trying to figure those words out. It is quite special, it is an honour. There is so much pride, it is unbelievable.”
“It’s a big, big honour. To represent your country on a stage like this is an amazing feeling,” Sweden’s Nordin echoed said after entering the stadium.
“It's exciting. I'm very honoured to do this first of all. It's really cool,” said Finland’s Filppula. “I'm nervous doing something else. It's always easier when you are just on the ice and playing but this other stuff, it's a little more nerve wracking for sure.”
After the Parade, the athletes took their seats in the stadium and were treated to various artistic presentations with themes of winter, sports and peace. As local time approached 22:00 and the early February temperature dipped lower, President Xi declared the Games open and six Chinese former Olympic and world champions of various winter sports presented the Olympic flag to be raised next to the Chinese one.
Finally, seven more Chinese athletes born in six different decades acted as the final torchbearers, lighting the Olympic cauldron a short distance from the stadium.
With the Opening Ceremony finished and the Games officially on, most of the women’s hockey players who were in attendance will be back in action on Saturday, with four games scheduled.
“In hockey it’s all about winning and taking one game at a time and seeing how far it will take us,” said Nordin, whose Swedish team takes on Czechia after losing its opener to Japan. “We want to enjoy the moment, too.”
As for the men, many of whom are also already in Beijing and participated in the Opening Ceremony, their schedule starts on Wednesday.
“Finland has been doing well the last few years and we have a good team, so all the way,” said Filppula. “That's the plan, but obviously we'll see what happens. There are a lot of good teams, so we will see what happens.”
All nations were led around the field level of the Bird’s Nest by two flag-bearers, provided they had both male and female athletes present. Amazingly, of the 13 hockey nations involved, a record nine chose hockey players as flag bearers – six men and three women. Among them were Lauris Darzins (Latvia), Valtteri Filppula (Finland), Alena Mills (Czechia), Frans Nielsen (Denmark), Marie-Philip Poulin (Canada), Emma Nordin (Sweden), Andres Ambuhl (Switzerland), Vadim Shipachyov (ROC) and Marek Hrivik (Slovakia).
“I don’t think it’s hit me yet,” Mills said on Thursday, after her Czech team’s opening 3-1 win over host China. “It’s a great honour. I was speechless when I heard about it. I’m just happy to represent all the amazing athletes that are here. I don’t know what else to say. As I said, I don’t think it’s really sunk into me yet.”
Mills only learned of her appointment on Wednesday night, and admittedly hadn’t had time to digest the significance of it all. Whereas Canada’s Poulin knew a fair bit ahead of time but had to keep it a secret.
“It was very difficult,” the Canadian captain said. “As a group we tell ourselves everything and as the day was getting closer, the smile was getting a little bigger. And when I had the chance to tell them, to see the reaction, it made me appreciate them a lot more.”
Said Poulin: “To be honest, I am still trying to figure those words out. It is quite special, it is an honour. There is so much pride, it is unbelievable.”
“It’s a big, big honour. To represent your country on a stage like this is an amazing feeling,” Sweden’s Nordin echoed said after entering the stadium.
“It's exciting. I'm very honoured to do this first of all. It's really cool,” said Finland’s Filppula. “I'm nervous doing something else. It's always easier when you are just on the ice and playing but this other stuff, it's a little more nerve wracking for sure.”
After the Parade, the athletes took their seats in the stadium and were treated to various artistic presentations with themes of winter, sports and peace. As local time approached 22:00 and the early February temperature dipped lower, President Xi declared the Games open and six Chinese former Olympic and world champions of various winter sports presented the Olympic flag to be raised next to the Chinese one.
Finally, seven more Chinese athletes born in six different decades acted as the final torchbearers, lighting the Olympic cauldron a short distance from the stadium.
With the Opening Ceremony finished and the Games officially on, most of the women’s hockey players who were in attendance will be back in action on Saturday, with four games scheduled.
“In hockey it’s all about winning and taking one game at a time and seeing how far it will take us,” said Nordin, whose Swedish team takes on Czechia after losing its opener to Japan. “We want to enjoy the moment, too.”
As for the men, many of whom are also already in Beijing and participated in the Opening Ceremony, their schedule starts on Wednesday.
“Finland has been doing well the last few years and we have a good team, so all the way,” said Filppula. “That's the plan, but obviously we'll see what happens. There are a lot of good teams, so we will see what happens.”
Opening Ceremony - 2022 Olympic Winter Games
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