Google Doodle celebrates opening of 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics with a cartoon animation

The tech giant Google on Friday marked the beginning of the Winter Olympics 2022 being held in China's capital Beijing from today. Beijing also hosted the Summer Olympics in 2008, and is the first city in the world to have held both versions of the Games.

Google on Friday displayed an animated doodle on its homepage to celebrate the beginning of the event.

The adorable doodle shows cartoon animals taking part in fun activities such as ice-hockey, skiing, team Bobsleigh, singles figure skating and more.


The Winter Olympics will be held from February 4 to 20 and will be followed by the winter Paralympics from March 4 to 13.

To mark the beginning of the Winter Olympics, an opening ceremony will be held at Beijing's National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest on February 4.

"The competitive critters featured in today’s Doodle have gathered from all over the world under the winter sky to keep their cool and put their opponents on ice. Who will be pouncing on victory and scurrying home an international legend?" Google wrote in a blog post.

The Winter Olympics will feature 109 events this year, seven more than the one held in 2018.

The Games are taking place in China inside a "closed loop" because of Covid-19 outbreak, keeping competitors and other Olympics personnel away from the public.

And only small, selected audiences will be allowed to attended it in person.