Winter Olympic News | Bach: The message of the Olympic torch is unity and recovery

At 10:30 a.m. on February 4, the Beijing Winter Olympic Torch Relay was held in the South Park of Beijing Olympic Forest Park under closed-loop conditions. There are a total of 46 torchbearers in the closed-loop torch relay, with a relay distance of 5.1 kilometers, and the average passing distance of the torchbearer is about 110 meters. The overall relay route is from the south gate of the South Park of the Olympic Forest Park, in a counterclockwise direction, through the east gate and north gate of the South Park of the Olympic Forest Park, and finally to the Olympic Declaration Square to collect the fire.

IOC President Bach, former UN Secretary-General and IOC Ethics Committee Chairman Ban Ki-moon, 76th UN General Assembly President Abdullah Shahid, IOC Vice President and Vice President of the Beijing Winter Olympic Organizing Committee Yu Zaiqing, China's first speed skating Olympic champion and IOC Athletes Committee member Zhang Hong and other members from the "Olympic Family" participated in the torch relay.

Zhang Hong won the women's 1000m speed skating competition at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and won the first gold medal at the Chinese Winter Olympics. During Beijing's bid to host the Winter Olympics, Zhang Hong served as the image ambassador for the bid. In February 2018, Zhang Hong was elected to the IOC Athletes' Committee.

At about 11:48, as the 44th stick torchbearer, Zhang Hong lit the torch in the hands of the 45th stick torchbearer Bach, and the two waved to the audience and reporters together. Participating in the torch relay with Bach made Zhang Hong very excited, and the latter also made a move that imitated speed skating when passing the torch.

Bach said at the scene that the feeling of passing the Olympic torch is always great, especially participating in the relay before the opening ceremony, which also makes him more confident about the success of the Beijing Winter Olympics. "The message of the Olympic torch is unity and recovery," Bach said. It shows that even in the current situation of the epidemic, we can unite and seek common ground while reserving differences. ”

After completing his own baton relay, Bach lit Abdullah Shahid's torch. A few days ago, abdullah Shahid arrived in Beijing to wish Chinese people a "good year of the tiger" and praised the Chinese government's preparations for the Winter Olympics.

The design of the Olympic Declaration Square is inspired by the concept of "heavenly circle place" in traditional Chinese culture, and the shape is five concentric circles, forming a pattern of centripetal condensation in the five rings. The northern radius of the outer circle is composed of three curved bronze tablets with a total length of 29 meters, which constitute the carrier of the Olympic Declaration in French, Chinese and English. Chinese the curved monument of the Olympic Declaration is centered on it, and the main monument is erected on it. On both sides of the front, there are reliefs of Coubertin, the father of the Olympic Games, and Logue, the former president of the International Olympic Committee. The lakeside green space is gradually introduced into the sunken structure square with the gradual progression of five concentric circles, and the gradual change of the declaration carrier due to the difference in land shows the solemnity and sublimity of the declaration carrier. The stele uses the bronze "inscription" and carving method of Chinese goldstone culture to highlight the thickness of the Olympic Games, and also uses reliefs to express the beautiful form of traditional Chinese cloud patterns, forming an atmospheric and dynamic Olympic cultural environment atmosphere and landmark landscape.

(Beijing Daily)