Sports are beginning to hum to life in Beijing, even though the opening ceremony remains more than a day away and athletes’ Olympic dreams, their moments in the spotlight and — perhaps most distressingly — their lives continued to be disrupted by brushes with the coronavirus.
Curling’s mixed doubles event quietly opened competition on Wednesday, the arrival of a moment that an increasingly confident China has awaited for seven years. Two more sports — women’s hockey and freestyle skiing — will start Thursday.
Still, no amount of precautions meant to wall off the Games could prevent the coronavirus from clouding the festivities.