Park City athletes attend the Olympic Opening Ceremony

Some of China's state media reporters are identifying as travel bloggers and lifestyle influencers on U.S.-owned social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, racking up millions of followers from around the globe. The Associated Press has identified dozens of these accounts, which are part of a network of profiles that allow China to easily peddle propaganda to unsuspecting social media users. Photo: Michele Roepke

BEIJING — Today was the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games. The 24th Winter Olympics Ceremony took place in the Birdsnest Stadium, the same one that held the 2008 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony, as Beijing is the only city to ever host a Summer and a Winter Games.

The pandemic made for a scaled-down version of what China had planned for this event. NBC and Peacock will provide extended coverage and re-broadcasting of the ceremony throughout the day.

Nearly everybody inside the Birdsnest wore a face mask. The stadium was essentially void of spectators, except for invited guests, athletes, and dignitaries.

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Xi Jinping, the president of China, sat socially distanced next to the president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach.

The traditional Parade of Nations walked into the venue, as always led by Greece, and proceeded in the Chinese language alphabetical order. Second, to last was Italy as the upcoming Host Nation. Park City athletes Jared Shumate, Ben Loomis, and Jasper Good were walking right behind the Team USA Flag Bearers. Loomis and Good serve in the Utah National Guard.

Bach spoke, welcoming athletes, addressing the pandemic, thanked volunteers and Olympic organizers and with that, the Beijing 2022 Olympic Games were declared open.

The Olympic Flag was raised and the nontraditional Olympic Cauldron was lit in heretofore unseen, dramatic fashion. A Chinese male Nordic Combined Olympian and a female member of the Uighur Muslim Chinese minority population lit the cauldron with the Olympic Flame embodying the Olympic Spirit.