SHANGHAI: The Beijing Winter Olympics had loomed as one of the most politically contentious in memory and with fears about Covid, but most of that receded once the skis and skates were put on.
The Chinese capital on Sunday wraps up its second Olympics, pulled off with a cold precision and authoritarian muscle that puts it tentatively on the map of winter sports nations and gives its ruling Communist Party plenty to celebrate.
“These were the most politically charged Games coming into them with so many controversies,” said Richard Baka, co-director of the Olympic Research Network at Victoria University in Melbourne.
“But we come out of them without much fanfare, partly because China controlled everything quite well.”
The United States…
