Beijing 2022 announces new competition schedule

The Beijing 2022 organizers released the seventh edition of the competition schedule for the Olympic Winter Games on Tuesday, with curling mixed doubles the first event to start.

The Beijing 2022 organizers released the seventh edition of the competition schedule for the Olympic Winter Games on Tuesday, with curling mixed doubles the first event to start.

BEIJING, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Beijing 2022 organizers released the seventh edition of the competition schedule for the Olympic Winter Games on Tuesday, with curling mixed doubles the first event to start.

The lastest version of the schedule was released following approval by the International Olympic Committee, and is still subject to change.

The Beijing 2022 organizers released the seventh edition of the competition schedule for the Olympic Winter Games on Tuesday, with curling mixed doubles the first event to start.

The Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games are scheduled to take place from February 4 to 20, 2022. The Games program will include seven sports, 15 disciplines and 109 medal events.

Compared with PyeongChang 2018, seven new events have been added to the Beijing 2022 program, namely women's monobob, short track speed skating mixed team relay, ski jumping mixed team, freestyle skiing aerials mixed team, freeski men's big air, freeski women's big air and snowboard cross mixed team.

The Beijing 2022 organizers released the seventh edition of the competition schedule for the Olympic Winter Games on Tuesday, with curling mixed doubles the first event to start.

According to the schedule, curling mixed doubles round robin will be the very first event of the Games, beginning on February 2, two days before opening ceremony. High-profile events of ice hockey, curling, figure skating and ice dance will be staged on the opening ceremony day, while the closing ceremony day features finals of men's ice hockey, women's curling, four-man bobsleigh, cross-country skiing women's 30km mass start as well as the figure skating gala exhibition.

The events of short track speed skating will have six competition days. Five out of 12 competition sessions are arranged at night for figure skating.

Canada won the gold medal of curling mixed doubles at Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in 2018.

With the Big Air Shougang the only snowboarding venue located in the Beijing Zone, with others in the Zhangjiakou Zone, the organizers noted that athletes with simultaneous entries in both Big Air and slopestyle will compete in both zones. 

The difficulty of tracking the death toll from Iran's nationwide protests has been compounded by the government's decision to cut off the internet to the country, but some information has still been getting out.

The Associated Press has been relying on figures provided by the Human Rights Activists News Agency.

The U.S.-based agency, founded 20 years ago, has been accurate throughout multiple years of demonstrations, relying on a network of activists inside Iran that confirms all reported fatalities. That can include speaking with medical officials, family members and community leaders, as well as checking against funeral notices and other official documents.

The agency is a tax-exempt nonprofit registered with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. One of its founders is Keyvan Rafiee, an Iranian political activist who faced repeated imprisonment at home before leaving the Islamic Republic for the United States.

With communications greatly limited in Iran, the AP has been unable to independently confirm the group's toll. The theocratic government of Iran has not provided overall casualty figures for the demonstrations.

Iranian state media has provided little information about the demonstrations, making it difficult to assess the scale of the protests. Videos that have surfaced online offer brief, shaky glimpses of people in the streets or the sound of gunfire.

The AP reporting has relied on some of these videos, which likely have made it out of the country via Starlink satellite dishes. The AP authenticates such footage by checking it against known locations and events, as well as talking to regional experts. The AP also ensures the substance of the video is consistent with its own reporting.

FILE - Protesters hold placards during a rally in support of the nationwide mass demonstrations in Iran against the government in Paris, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)

FILE - Protesters participate in a demonstration in Berlin, Germany, in support of the nationwide mass protests in Iran against the government, Jan. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)

FILE - In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media shows protesters dancing and cheering around a bonfire as they take to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world, in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP, File)

FILE - Protesters march on a bridge in Tehran, Iran, on Dec. 29, 2025. (Fars News Agency via AP, File)