OlymPicks: With Public Ticketing Closed, Here’s How to Watch the Games

In OlymPicks, we highlight news, gossip, and developments regarding the buildup to Beijing's 2022 Winter Olympics.

Ticketing is invite-only, so how can you watch the Games?

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.

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 Dianshi Jia and 央视频 Yangshipin, which stream Chinese channels like CCTV-1 and 5. There's also  咪咕视频 Migushipin, which has its own dedicated Beijing 2022 streaming page.

Conversely, if you’re looking for English-language coverage, your best bet is the Australian streaming service 7Plus, with which you can stream up to 16 events without paying, according to this nifty piece from Tom’s Guide.

Other free coverage can be watched via the BBC iPlayer (UK), the CBC website or you can pay a little more to watch full coverage on CBC Gem (Canada), as well as NBC’s streaming platform Peacock (US) and NZTV (New Zealand) – most of these will need VPN to watch, though.

For a comprehensive list of where to watch the Games in more than just English, click here to visit the official IOC Olympics website.

Organizers say Games will be carbon-zero

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.

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.

Olympian medalists to receive hand-knit bouquets

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.

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.

Stay Up to Date with All Things Beijing 2022 with the Beijinger

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 link here.

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 day on WeChat via our Beijing 2022 WeChat groups — just add TBJButler (QR code above) and ask to be added in!

READ: OlymPicks: Vehicle Restrictions Come Into Play Ahead of Games, Zhang Yimou Promises 'Different' Opening & Closing Ceremonies

Images: 7Plus, CGTN, CCTV English