Some 150 personalities and an equal number of leading institutions in the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Beijing were awarded medals in the Chinese capital.
Among those invited to the ceremony in the “Great Hall of the People” was Chinese-American skier Eileen Gu, winner of two gold medals and one silver.
In his 50-minute speech, Chinese President Xi Jinping mentioned Gu when alluding to the importance of the Games in promoting Chinese culture, including its variety of local snacks popular with athletes.
“Gu Ailing loves to eat Chinese cakes,” Jinping said, according to a video posted on Weibo, a Chinese social networking website similar to Facebook and to a lesser extent Twitter. The mention of the athlete caused applause in the auditorium.
The video showed the ski champion sitting in the audience, wearing her anti-covid mask. Gu Ailing competed for the United States where she was born, until June 2019, to then represent China, her mother’s country of origin, a decision that provoked various reactions in the American Union but was very well received by the official Chinese media.
Xi Jinping urged to take advantage of “the valuable experience” in the process of seven years of preparation and celebration of the two Olympic mega-events.
With China currently struggling to contain its worst COVID-19 outbreaks since the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic in Wuhan in early 2020, the Chinese president praised the health protocols enacted during the Games.
“With a positive rate of COVID-19 of only 0.45 percent in the closed circuit of the Winter Games, China provided a beneficial experience for the response to the pandemic and the organization of international events,” Xi said of the efforts. prevention and control of the terrible disease.
The ceremony and Xi’s speech came a day after a letter of appreciation from IOC President Thomas Bach to the Chinese volunteers. “You can be very proud of the fact that when Beijing made history as the first city in the world to host the summer and winter editions of the Olympic Games, you were an essential part of this great chapter in Olympic history,” Bach wrote.
Xi took the opportunity to insist that the Games were a new test of the leadership of the Communist Party “to overcome all difficulties and obstacles.” “The preparation for the Games was complicated and systematic,” he said. “China’s economic, technological and general strength laid a solid foundation for the success of the Games.”
Despite a US-led diplomatic boycott over alleged human rights violations in China, the Olympics took place in February without a hint of political protest or threatening outbreaks of covid.
But on February 24, in the run-up to the Paralympic Games, the mood was heated by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine. Xi had received Putin hours before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games and signed collaboration agreements.
Three weeks after his trip to Beijing, the Russian ruler would give a coup de grace to the Olympic Truce, which caused a strong reaction from the IOC and International Federations. isolating all Russian sports figures and federations from current competitions. A topic that was not addressed n the speech by the Chinese prime minister.
The Olympic Truce approved by 193 countries in the United Nations, Russia among them, concluded a week after the closing of the Paralympic Games on March 13.
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