Sonia Oxley
BBC Sport in Beijing

Don’t mention warm sunshine (13:13) - more and more people putting their blankets on or getting their hand warmers in their gloves…it’s cold!

BBC Radio 1 presenters Mollie King and Matt Edmondson have been taking on a series of Winter Olympic-related challenges all week.

Who came out on top?

Oh my.

Timor-Leste are upping the fashion game!

Image source, @Olympics

Portugal now out with a team of three.

For a country that normally basks in warm sunshine, they are unsurprisingly yet to medal at the Winter Olympics and this is their biggest team since 1988.

BBC presenter and Olympic rowing legend Sir Matthew Pinsent talks us through why the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics are so controversial.

10/10 for colour from debutants Haiti.

Image source, BBC Sport

Image source, Getty Images

Elsa Desmond is leading Ireland's team as their flag bearer. The English-born luger decided to race for Ireland in 2018 albeit there was a problem - the country did not have a luge federation at the time.

So Desmond, 24, who qualifies for Ireland through her grandparents, founded one.

"We had to start a company in Ireland, so we are a registered corporation there, it was a lot of work - I had no idea what it was going to be like and 90% of the work has been me, it has been a steep learning curve," she said.

"I don't regret it for a second, because my career changed once I had the ability to control where I wanted to race."

The rules prevent her becoming federation president, so her father Brendan has the honorary role. She estimates that over the last six seasons she has spent around £50,000 on the sport from her own funds, subsidies and donations from her family.

And as you can imagine, this is by no means her day job. Desmond, who graduated as a doctor last year, works in general surgery at Southend hospital in Essex and has been given "four months leave" to prepare for the Games.

"We work a lot of hours. I get up early and stay up late, I use my days off and I don't have much social life," she added.

Benjamin Alexander is one of the two flagbearers for Jamaica.

Alexander will be the first alpine skier to represent Jamaica at a Winter Games.

He clipped on a pair of skis for the first time after DJing at a resort in Canada, went to Pyeongchang in 2018 as a fan and will now be bidding for a medal in China.

Find out more about his remarkable story.

US Olympic team officials have said they hope to keep any political burdens off their athletes in Beijing.

The US are one of a number of countries who have announced a diplomatic boycott of the Olympics but will have around 80% of their athletes present at the opening ceremony.

That is a pretty good turn out given attendance at the opening ceremony is not compulsory for athletes, who often skip it for a variety of reasons including a desire to rest or believe it or not, to avoid the cold.

Sonia Oxley
BBC Sport in Beijing

And here come the Americans – they have the biggest team here with 224 athletes.

One of their flag bearers was supposed to be bobsleigh favourite Elana Meyers Taylor but she is isolating after a positive Covid test.

Instead speed skater Brittany Bowe has taken her place.

Image source, BBC Sport

BBC Sport

GB Snowsport CEO Vicky Gosling spoke to The Sports Desk podcast about their goal for Great Britain to become a top-5 snowsport nation by 2030.

As an overall team, Great Britain finished 19th in both the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, but are hoping for more medals after a significant increase in funding from £5.2m in the Pyeongyang cycle, to £11.1m, external leading up to Beijing.

“The reality is we've got a long way to go, genuinely, when you look at the bigger sports such as rowing and cycling,” said Gosling.

“Look at what has happened by increasing the investment, we’ve produced the results.”

According to UK Sport, £27m has been invested, external into winter sports all together for the Beijing cycle, which includes the Paralympics which take place in March.

Sonia Oxley
BBC Sport in Beijing

They may not have a flag or anthem here but the Russian Olympic Committee seemed to have had the loudest cheer so far.

In fact cheers have been in short supply, polite applause generally so far.

Image source, BBC Sport

The Canadian's are one of the most successful nations at the Winter Olympics ever.

Can Team GB improve on the gold and four bronze medals won in 2018?

Sonia Oxley
BBC Sport in Beijing

Here they are!

Image source, BBC Sport

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing on Friday afternoon for the opening of the 2022 Winter Olympics in the Chinese capital.

The visit is Putin's first overseas visit of the year and he has apparently met China's President Xi Jinping in Xi's first face-to-face meeting with a world leader in nearly two years.

China's state news agency heralded the visit with video celebrating the two countries' "shared future" while President Putin penned nearly 1,500 words.

He wrote of future projects including nuclear power plants and of "centuries old traditions of friendship and trust".

Historians might disagree on that, but for the present this meeting comes at a vital moment, as relations between the West and Russia hit a new low., external

Once again Russian athletes are unable to fly their national flag due to doping sanctions.

The sanctions bar Russia from hosting, bidding or being awarded hosting rights for major international sporting events, including the Olympic and world championships.

They also bar the country from flying its flag and having its anthem played at such events.