Here's Where to Watch, Stream the Winter Games
In OlymPicks, we highlight news, gossip, and developments regarding the buildup to Beijing's 2022 Winter Olympics.
After months of waiting and guessing and rumor-dodging, the answer is finally here, and it’s a bummer: Due to recent Covid concerns, tickets for the Beijing 2022 Olympics will not be available to the general public.
So how can the rest of us watch the Games? We’d recommend streaming them from the comfort of your own home – or office, or wherever you may be.
That’s because, if venues start to shut down on a whim – likely considering how lightly the city is approaching Covid developments and the Games themselves – or, worse yet, your apartment or office gets locked down, you’ll still be able to watch.
Australian site 7Plus is offering streaming services in English
If you're in China, it's easy to think, "Hey, I'll just turn on CCTV-5 and watch", but you won't be able to do this without a TV subscription, so if you'd rather skip that, you can stream on a number of apps like 电视家 diànshì jiā and 央视频 yāng shìpín, which stream Chinese channels like CCTV-1 and 5. There's also Migu Video (咪咕视频 mīgū shìpín), which has its own dedicated Beijing 2022 streaming page.
This isn't a full list of Chinese video apps that can be used to watch the Games, and streaming can be subject to change based on regulations, so we will keep you updated in case of changes.
Find Migu Video's dedicated Olympics streaming here by clicking 冬奥专区 (dōng ào zhuānqū)
Conversely, if you're looking for English-language coverage, your best bet is the Australian streaming service 7Plus (7plus.com.au), with which you can stream up to 16 events without paying, according to a nifty piece from Tom's Guide (read more via QR code below).
Other free coverage can be watched via the BBC iPlayer (bbc.co.uk/iplayer), the CBC website (cbc.ca) or you can pay a little more to watch full coverage on CBC Gem (gem.cbc.ca), as well as NBC's streaming platform Peacock (peacocktv.com) and NZTV (tvnz.co.nz) – most of these will need VPN to watch, though.
For a comprehensive list of where to watch the Games in more than just English, scan QR code below to visit the official IOC Olympics website.
In news that isn't such a bummer – as far as blue skies and clean air are concerned – this Olympics is set to be the greenest and cleanest ever, according to organizers.
Besides a low-carbon transportation system – not least of which is an entire railway network servicing Beijing and Zhangjiakou – the Beijing 2022 Organizing Committee announced at a press conference last week that all venues are powered by renewable energy.
The Fengning Pumped Power Station will be providing all sorts of clean energy to the Games
This renewable energy is thanks to the Fengning Pumped Power Station – basically a hydropower plant with two water sources instead of one that constantly pumps water from one to the other for power – which entered operation in December last year.
In keeping with this green theme, bouquets given to athletes are all artificial – each flower sewn by hand from wool, by a woman in Shanghai.
Does a rose by any other name not smell as sweet?
Li Meili and her team have been working around the clock from October 2021 to Jan 14, knitting more than 1,200 bouquets that will be given during medals ceremonies this February. Featured flower varieties included roses, lilies, osmanthus, and green olives. Check out her story on CCTV English via QR code below.
Keep in the loop (the Games loop, not the closed loop) on all things Olympics on WeChat and web. We're listing all the events we find on our website — the daily competition schedules as well as watching parties and the like, via the QR code below.
Though the opening ceremony starts on the evening of the fourth, the competitions begin today during the day, Feb 3 and Feb 4, daytime.
As always, keep up to date on WeChat via our Beijing 2022 WeChat groups — just add TBJButler (QR code above) and ask to be added in!
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Images: 7Plus, CGTN, CCTV English
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