When and where?
On Friday the 2022 Winter Olympics begins, with Beijing set to become the first city to ever host both the summer (2008) and winter editions of the Games.
The opening ceremony begins at noon Irish time, with Brendan Newby and Elsa Desmond the flag bearers for the six-person Team Ireland at the National Stadium, commonly referred as the Bird's Nest.
The Games will run through until 20 February and will coincide with China's most important holiday, the Chinese New Year, which began on 1 February.
The Beijing Olympics will feature 109 events across 15 disciplines in seven winter sports. Around 3,000 athletes from 90 nations will compete, while a handful of countries, including the US, Canada, Britain and Australia, are diplomatically boycotting the Games.
Venues
All the action will take place in Beijing, but will be split into three zones.
Central Beijing will host the opening and closing ceremonies, along with four snow events - men's and women’s snowboard big air and freestyle skiing big air - and all the ice events, curling, ice hockey and skating.
Yanqing, a suburban district of Beijing, will host all alpine skiing and sliding - bobsleigh, skeleton and luge - events, while the Chongli district in Zhangjiakou will host the rest of the snow events such as snowboard, freestyle skiing, cross country skiing, ski jumping, Nordic combined and biathlon.
How can I follow it?
It begins on Friday with the opening ceremony live on the RTÉ News Channel at 11.30am.
For the duration of the games the RTÉ News Channel will have a daily highlights programme at 3pm. The closing ceremony on Sunday 20 February will also be live on the RTÉ News Channel.
RTÉ Sport online as well as RTÉ News and RTÉ Radio will keep fans up to date with news of the Irish athletes in action in Beijing.
Controversial build-up
Human rights groups have used the build-up to the Games to highlight the detention of up to a million mainly Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang province.
In December, an independent people’s tribunal in London concluded that the People’s Republic of China has committed genocide against the Uyghurs, leading some to describe the 2022 Games as the "genocide Olympics".
China says they are re-education camps, designed to stamp out terrorism and a separatist movement in the region, with foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin warning boycotting nations that they would "pay the price" for such a move.
International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said he was staying politically neutral on the matter, while insisting the important point was "the participation of the athletes in the Olympic Games".
Team Ireland
In what is Team Ireland’s eighth time to compete at the Winter Olympics, the six athletes selected to represent the country contrast in experience.
Jack Gower (alpine skiing), the first Irish athlete in action when he competes early on Sunday morning and Elsa Desmond (luge) are first-time Olympians. Desmond, who set up the Irish Luge Federation herself in order to compete for Ireland, has secured her name in history as Ireland’s first luge athlete.
Tess Arbez (alpine skiing) is set to compete in the giant slalom, slalom and Super G events, while Thomas Maloney Westgaard (cross country skiing) and freestyle skier Brendan 'Bubba’ Newby all competed in the Pyeongchang Games four years ago.
At 24 years of age, Seamus O’Connor (snowboard halfpipe) will become the first Irish athlete to compete in three Winter Olympic Games.
Who will top the medal chart?
For a country with a population of five million, Norway has a remarkable record at the Winter Olympics. It has won more gold medals, more medals overall and finished on top of the medal tally more often than any other nation.
Using data from Olympics, world championships and World Cups to feed its statistical model, sports data company Nielsen Gracenote – who accurately predicted the top-10 nations at the 2020 Summer Games – has suggested that Norway will again lead the way, forecast to claim 21 gold and 44 overall.
Germany and the Russian Olympic Committee are predicted to finish second and third, with the United States to pip rivals Canada for fourth spot.
Host China is predicted to finish in 12th place with six gold and 13 medals overall, which would be their most successful Winter Olympics.
Five to watch
Ester Ledecka (Czech Republic) Alpine Skiing and Snowboard
After 90 years without an athlete winning gold in two different sports in the same Winter Games, Ester Ledecka broke new ground in 2018 by taking top honours in both snowboarding and alpine skiing.
Competing at her third Olympics, the Czech will be out to stamp her authority once more in both events.
Timothy LeDuc (United States) Figure Skating
The American athlete will become the first openly non-binary athlete to complete in the Winter Olympics, competing in pairs figure skating with their partner, Ashley Cain-Gribble.
"I hope when people see my story, they aren’t saying, ‘Timothy is the first non-binary person to achieve this level of success in sports," LeDuc told the Chicago Tribune. "It’s that queer people can be open and be in sports. We’ve always been here, we have always been a part of sports. We just haven’t always been able to be open."
Eileen Gu (China) Freestyle Skiing
In 2019, fresh off her first World Cup win as a 15-year-old, the San Francisco native ruffled feathers by announcing that she was switching international allegiance from the United States to China "to help inspire millions of young people where my mom was born, during the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help promote the sport I love".
The teenager has a high profile away from the snow given her modelling career, but has built a steady reputation in competition. In halfpipe, she is unbeaten in World Cup events and has Big Air and slopestyle victories to her name also this season.
Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (Norway) Men’s Cross Country Skiing
Being a Norwegian Winter Olympian brings its own pressures given their record in the Games, and one of their finest competitors in their current number one cross country skier.
Klaebo took home three gold medals four years as well as several titles at the World Championships. The record of Marit Bjorgen, Norway’s most decorated cross country skier who retired in 2018, will be in his sights at the current rate of progress.
Sui Wenjing and Han Cong (China) Figure Skating
Hosts China aren’t expected to compete at the business end at the medal table, but they are eyeing a best-ever Winter Olympic haul in 2022. Should that happen, a gold from figure skaters Sui Wenjing and Han Cong is likely to be required.
The pair started out together in 2007 and are the favorites to win gold in figure skating pairs. Four years they were edged out for gold, taking home silver with just .43 points less, but did manage to win gold at the World Championships in 2019.
When are the Irish athletes in action?
Sunday 6 February
Jack Gower 0245–0645 (Irish time)
Thomas Westgaard 0645–1130
Monday 7 February
Tess Arbez (first run) 0215–0400 (second run) 0540–0800
Else Desmond (first run) 1130–1315 (second run) 1330–1500
Tuesday 8 February
Jack Gower 0230–0600
Thomas Westgaard 0715–1300
Esla Desmond (third run) 1115–1315 (fourth run) 1330–1500
Wednesday 9 February
Tess Arbez 0145–0845
Seamus O'Connor 0415–0700
Thursday 10 February
Jack Gower 0200–0900
Friday 11 February
Seamus O’Connor 0115-0330
Tess Arbez 0240-0600
Thomas Westgaard 0645-1130
Sunday 13 February
Jack Gower 0200-0830
Thursday 17 February
Brendan Newby (Freestyle ski halfpipe qualify) 0400-0700
Saturday 19 February
Brendan Newby (Freestyle ski halfpipe FINAL) 0100-0400
Thomas Westgaard 0530-0930
Sunday 20 February
CLOSING CEREMONY 1200-1400
