the 2022 winter olympics

the 2022 winter olympics are underway after the opening ceremony ceremony kicked off early this morning 2 900 athletes from 90 different nations are set to go for the gold in beijing but diplomatic delegations from the u.s and several other countries are boycotting the games over china's human rights abuses the games are also putting china's zero tolerance covid policy to the test no international spectators will be allowed and participants are staying in what's being called a closed loop foreign correspondent maggie rooley has the latest from beijing this morning the opening ceremony already underway taking place at the famed bird's nest in beijing the same location is the 2008 opening ceremony for the summer games but this year will be very different between three and four thousand performers a huge drop from the 15 000 in 2008 and this time most of them will be teams the length also much shorter a whopping four hours in 2008 cut way down to just 100 minutes because it's so cold and because of covid the event's not open to the public instead tickets have been given to a pre-selected group who must all follow strict covet protocols not in attendance any u.s government officials 10 countries announcing a diplomatic boycott of the games over china's human rights abuses team usa will be marching in the parade of nations carrying the flag five-time olympic curler john shuster and three-time olympic speed skater brittany beau taking over duties from bob's letter alana myers taylor who's still in isolation following a positive covet test earlier this week there is no one i am more proud to hand over that opportunity to than brittany because she is just such an amazing person but the games are already underway and the drama is full on u.s hockey star brighanna decker taken off the ice on a stretcher she'll be out for the rest of the games after getting injured during the women's opening game against finland team usa is hoping to defend their gold again this year and 22 year old figure skater nathan chen making a triumphant return to the ice getting his highest short program score ever giving team usa an early boost in the figure skating team competition bit of a redemption after struggling in the 2018 games other olympians to keep an eye on in the coming days snowboarder chloe kim looking for her second gold in the halfpipe makayla shifrim who's hoping to break the record for most alpine skiing medals in one single olympics one of my biggest dreams is to compete in every race at the olympics and of course shawn white who's competing in his fifth and what he told us a couple weeks ago will be his final olympic games this will be my last run i'm pretty excited about it because everything's got this you know uh this last dance sort of glow to it to be on top of a sport like this that's ever changing for this long i mean i just feel so honored to be doing that and foreign correspondent maggie rouley joins us live now from beijing maggie i know the games were taking place right behind you i know that you were there for the opening ceremony and and i also heard that you were super chill when that was going on let's take a look at that rob really quickly okay can we just take a look at maggie's reaction [Laughter] [Music] maggie playing it cool as always am i supposed to act like i've been here before diane because i haven't i was so excited so what stood out to you most about that opening ceremony behind me i had to say the fireworks i mean come on you know it really was so exciting it reminds you of the energy and the fun of the olympics the whole world coming together it's why i also love the parade of nations every single year i mean just seeing as you said dozens and dozens of countries athletes coming over from every corner of the globe marching together it just reminds you that the olympics are really this one chance for us all to collect and be together and it was cool because they put them in the stands this year as well so even though the stands are much more limited who could go to these events is limited it did still feel like it was a full venue and oh the one other thing i did really love from the opening ceremony is diane being dwinduin did you notice the mascot he has been my obsession here on the ground you're to start seeing him everywhere for these games he's like a panda in an ice suit it is the cutest thing that i've ever seen something tells me maggie's going to land an exclusive interview with the mascot here um i'm crying maggie on on kind of the more serious note in the background of all this the u.s is leading a diplomatic boycott of these olympic games over china's human rights record including its treatment of the uyghurs and other muslim minorities so what kind of an impact is that having yeah it's interesting dan you know right from the beginning the ioc has faced heavy criticism over even choosing china as a location for these games and so many countries were struggling with what to do the u.s has joined a group of 10 countries implementing this diplomatic boycott which means that no high-ranking us government officials will be here at the opening ceremonies they're not going to be at any of the venues or events and it was kind of you know a tough decision to make do they boycott entirely and not send any athletes really make a statement but they decided that that would jeopardize the athletes future careers it would jeopardize people who have been training for much of their lives for this moment so instead many countries are taking this approach this diplomatic boycott a way to send a message get people talking about ongoing human rights abuses here in the country it'll be interesting to see how this plays out and if any athletes speak out as well diane over the next two weeks and maggie really quickly what should we events should we look out for as we watch the games tonight definitely nathan chen coming up you saw that performance we were lucky enough to see it in person it was nearly flawless he's going to potentially be a gold medal contender also i'm really excited for sean white he's telling people it's his last olympics i grew up with him on the slopes i mean he just made snowboarding a sport for me so i'm super pumped also my grandma kayla schifrin we interviewed her she is so likable so enthusiastic loves the sport going potentially for every event the first time ever in recent memory at the olympics so three big ones to watch diane all right looking forward to it maggie rooley in beijing for us thanks maggie thanks hi everyone george stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the abc news youtube channel if you'd like to get more videos show highlights and watch live event coverage click on the right over here to subscribe to our channel and don't forget to download the abc news app for breaking news alerts thanks for watching