At the time of writing, Canada has 12 medals so far and they are predominantly bronze medals.
2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games Week One
By Jerrison Oracion, Senior Columnist
Just a few months after the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, another city that last hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 2008 is attempting to do the impossible hosting the Winter Olympic Games. When Beijing won the right to host them seven years ago, many people were wondering how it was going to work in a city that barely receives snow during this time. Most of the venues that were used during the Summer Olympic Games are reused and retrofitted for winter sports while machine-made snow is produced and put on top of a ski slope nearby for ski and snowboard events.
The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games are happening while other major historic events are happening including the Coronavirus Pandemic where fans still cannot watch the events in person and a possible Russian invasion in Ukraine. Also, many government officials boycotted going to the games as a response to China’s human rights record and the cultural genocide of Uyghur Muslims. Just like the opening ceremony in Tokyo 2020, this opening ceremony was also simple with a different type of high-tech technology and musical presentations that showed the patriotism of the host country.
The Captain of the Canadian Women’s Hockey Team Marie-Phillip Poulin and short track speed skater Charles Hamelin in his fifth and potentially final Winter Olympic Games were appointed flag bears. They carried the Canadian flag and led the rest of the Canadian Olympic Team into the Birds Nest Stadium. After President Xi Jinping declared the games open, two Chinese athletes including one of Uyghur descent lighted the Olympic flame which is the Olympic torch in the middle of a snowflake.
At the time of writing, Canada has 12 medals so far and they are predominantly bronze medals. Maxence Parrot got the country’s first gold medal in men’s slopestyle snowboarding after a long battle with cancer that he was able to beat. His fellow snowboarder Mark McMorris got his third bronze medal in the same event as well. In snowboard cross, Canada was awarded a silver and bronze medal for Eliot Grondin and Meryeta Odine’s respective performances. Canada won medals in skiing events including alpine skiing, ski jumping, and freestyle skiing where Mikael Kingsbury won a silver medal.
So far, speed skater Isabelle Wiedemann got a silver medal and a bronze medal in the 5000m and 3000m events respectively. While in short track speed skating, Kim Boutin who previously won a bronze medal in Pyeongchang four years ago after a South Korean short track speed skater was disqualified got another bronze medal in the 500m and Steven Dubois got a silver medal in the 1500m. The Canadian Women’s Hockey Team won every game that they played so far including against the United States and the men’s team just began their tournament which will get more exciting in week 2.
Although, the women’s tournament is probably going to be more exciting than the men’s tournament. Despite the uncertainty of what is happening around the world right now, the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games are so far doing well and maybe Canada could get the most medals when the games are done.
