Flame goes out on Beijing 2022 after curlers' golden goodbye

Beijing 2022 20 Feb 22

The Olympic Flame has been extinguished in Beijing as a colourful Closing Ceremony drew the curtain on a thrilling fortnight of sport in the Chinese capital.

Sixteen days of action on ice and snow came to a close as a sprinkling of the 2,871 participating athletes flooded into Bird’s Nest to start the wrap party for the greatest show on earth. 

Team GB were certainly invited and Bruce Mouat was given the honour of carrying the flag to close out the team’s participation in the 24th Olympic Winter Games.

Mouat is the third curler to have carried the flag at a Ceremony and it was fitting that he and Eve Muirhead both performed the task at such a memorable Games for the pair.

We called Tokyo 2020 an Olympics like no other in the hope that it would be, but likewise Beijing’s historic Olympics went ahead smoothly under heavy Covid restrictions.

It was a delight that local crowds could flock to venues and watch the action unfold, a reassuring presence that helped bring the best out in athletes.

At both events, Team GB did not return a positive test in the host country and 49 athletes reached the start line to achieve their Olympic dreams.

Norway topped the medal table with a record 16 gold medals, surpassing the record of 14 held by Germany and Canada.

Host nation China had a great Games with a big all-time record nine medals, four more than they ever have before and three more than predicted.

Four athletes won five medals here - no athlete has ever won six at a Winter Olympics - they were Norwegian biathletes Johannes Thingnes Boe and Marte Olsbu Roiseland and their French rival Quentin Fillon Maillet plus the Russian Olympic Committee’s cross-country skier Alexander Bolshunov.

Iconic panda mascot Bing Dwen Dwen, who continued his habit of falling over at the figure skating gala, nearly has more social media followers than Eileen Gu.

Team GB’s performances reflected the fact that around 60 per cent of the 49-strong team in Beijing had their preparations compromised by the pandemic, which cannot be said of rival nations.

There was much to enthuse - particularly in the early days of competition in the precocious performances of the youngest member of the delegation, Kirsty Muir.

The 17-year-old freeskier reached two Olympic finals on debut, just two years after winning a medal at the Winter Youth Olympic Games. We’ll be seeing more of her, no doubt.

Makayla Gerken-Schofield banked Britain’s best-ever Olympic moguls result with eighth.

Cornelius Kersten finished a few tenths of a second shy of a speed skating medal, Britain’s best performance in the sport since 1964.

His journey to qualify alongside partner Ellia Smeding, the first long trackers to represent Team GB in a generation, was an endearing and enduring storyline.

But what better storyline is there than that of Eve Muirhead, who won her first Olympic title at the fourth attempt on the final day of sporting action.

From the ‘Stone of Destiny’ to the ‘Rock of Redemption’, Muirhead has had more reason than most to stop believing.

She built a new team and campaigned tenaciously to get them to the Games - and when she did, they rode every punch and threw more than their fair share.

A 10-3 final win over Japan - there has been no bigger margin of victory in an Olympic curling final - was the stress-free ride to gold that Muirhead never believed she’d get and an incredible Olympic debut for Vicky Wright, Jennifer Dodds, Hailey Duff and Mili Smith.

Muirhead has been the face of curling in Britain for a decade or more but there are a new boys in town, led by a generational talent in Bruce Mouat.

Mouat has now skipped his team to medals on debut at the sport’s three biggest competitions and they commanded fear and respect in equal measure at the Ice Cube.

All in their mid to late-20s, Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan could well be back for more in four years’ time.

The countdown begins to Milano-Cortina in 2026 with the traditional Olympic Flag handover marking the start of a new Olympiad.