For athletes at the Beijing Winter Olympics, testing positive for COVID is one of their worst nightmares, and it can begin with a knock on the door in the middle of the night."It was insane, it was a rollercoaster," said Kim Meylemans, a skeleton racer from Belgium.The 25-year-old posted a tearful video on Instagram last week from isolation which highlighted the perils of competing in the middle of a pandemic.Meylemans said she tested positive about a month ago, before arriving in t

On the eve of the Winter Olympics, China promised the world a “streamlined, safe and most splendid” Games. But just two days into the event organisers are facing a litany of complaints from athletes and countries on multiple fronts.The Swedes have suggested that the conditions in the mountains are perilously cold. A Polish skater says she was living in fear in a Beijing isolation ward and has “cried until I have no more tears”.

China’s Winter Olympics may be more of a drag on Beijing’s regional economy than a boost, as virus flare-ups and pollution curbs weigh on consumer and industrial activity.A ban on public spectators means there won’t be the usual bump up in tourism and consumption that a city hopes to gain from hosting the international games. Tighter controls to contain the outbreaks of two virus variants are keeping holidaymakers away.

President Xi Jinping declared the Beijing Winter Olympics open Friday as China tried to turn the page on a build-up overshadowed by human rights concerns, COVID and a United States (US)-led diplomatic boycott.Fireworks exploded over the "Bird's Nest" as the lattice-shaped stadium took centre stage, just as it did at the 2008 Games, as Beijing becomes the first city to host both a Summer and Winter Olympics.Xi, under whose rule China has adopted a more muscular attitude internat

The pandemic prevented Shanghai schoolteacher Chen Hainan from returning to her hometown to reunite with family for the past two Lunar New Year holidays, but not even lingering virus concerns and repeated COVID tests will keep her away this time.Chen, 30, needs to get her nose or throat swabbed a grand total of five times to ensure passage home to eastern Zhejiang province and back."I was not planning to go home this year, either.

Beijing says it's adopting all necessary coronavirus safety measures for the 2022 Winter Olympics, which start next month.So, what is being planned for the Games, and how successful has China's policy of "zero COVID" been?Stricter Measures Than At Tokyo OlympicsChina is going to great lengths to keep the virus out.It has said that foreign spectators will be barred and tickets won't be sold to the general public.Groups of local spectators will be "invited" to

An Omicron case has been detected in Beijing, officials in the Chinese capital said Saturday, as the country battles multiple outbreaks of the highly transmissible coronavirus variant ahead of the Winter Olympics.The announcement comes a day after the southern city of Zhuhai imposed travel restrictions on residents as a mass testing drive uncovered seven infections.Millions of people across the country have been ordered to stay home in recent weeks, with scores of domestic flights cancelled a

The first modern Olympics took place in 1896 in Athens, and featured 280 participants from 12 nations, competing in 43 events. Since 1994, the Summer and Winter Olympic Games have been held separately and have alternated every two years.

Beijing introduced new COVID-19 curbs on Saturday to stamp out a "serious" outbreak as the Chinese capital maintains its strict zero-tolerance policy, with less than 100 days before it hosts the Winter Olympics.China's leading epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan said Saturday that authorities could contain a nationwide outbreak within a month – but also warned the "pandemic cannot be eradicated within a short period of time".The outbreak has hit at least 14 of China's p

China is ramping up a propaganda blitz ahead of the 100th birthday of the ruling Communist Party, with banners and billboards around the country reminding citizens to live a "civilised" life and obey authorities.The world's second-largest economy has been lauding its achievements in the weeks leading up to 1 July, which marks the centenary of the party's founding in Shanghai.Large boards with a red-emblazoned "100" showing the Communist hammer and sickle emblem h