The Beijing 2022 winter Olympics Opening Ceremony will begin on Friday, February 4 and be held at the Bird’s Nest, which played host to the summer games back in 2008.
Australian viewers can watch the opening formalities live and free on Channel Seven, as well as streaming on 7plus.
Coverage in Sydney and Melbourne begins at 11pm, in Brisbane at 10pm, Adelaide at 10:30pm and Perth at 8pm – in line with Beijing’s time zone – and will go on for approximately two hours.
Hosting the event will be Hamish McLachlan, Abbey Gelmi, Matt Shirvington, Alister Nicholson and retired freestyle skier Jacqui Cooper.
Leading the Australian athletes into the stadium as flag-bearers are freestyle skier Laura Peel and figure skater Brendan Kerry.
This is the first time two flag-bearers will represent the nation together, but it follows the Tokyo summer games in which swimmer Cate Campbell and Boomers star Patty Mills lead the athletes.
Unlike Tokyo’s opening ceremony, the stadium will have spectators – who must undergo strict Covid prevention precautions – attend with organisers aiming for 30% capacity.
For those who miss out on watching the Opening Ceremony festivities, Seven will play an encore of the event on Saturday, February 5 at 10am AEDT.
There will be up to 20 dedicated Olympic channels across Seven and 7plus, all live, free and in HD, broadcasting more than 1600 hours of live content. Daily coverage will begin from midday AEDT on weekdays and 10.00am AEDT on weekends, until approximately 2.00am AEDT.
Headlining Australia’s Winter Team are global sporting superstar and Olympic Bronze medallist Scotty James (snowboard halfpipe), world champion Danielle Scott (women’s aerial) and Jakara Anthony (women’s moguls), with eight World Cup podiums this season alone, creating a perfect blizzard during the Australian summer.
The games will run from February 4 to February 20, with the closing ceremony at the Bird’s Nest stadium and expected to run for three hours.
This will be followed by the Winter Paralympics from March 4 to 13.
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