The International Olympic Committee (IOC) can rely on his pictures.

They say what they want to hear.

You show what it wants to see.

The images are the last tool that the IOC can use.

And always the first.

Christopher Meltzer

Sports correspondent in Munich.

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This Friday, the IOC and its event partner, the People's Republic of China, opened the 24th Olympic Winter Games in the National Stadium in Beijing - and sent its images to a (Western) world that is increasingly unable to understand that these games are taking place at this location be discharged.

A Uygur woman lights the fire

But at this point, olympic after olympic, the power of images is revealed.

They manage that this world, which can no longer understand, suddenly pushes itself in large parts in front of the screens and wants to watch how people light up, dance, wave and finally ignite the fire.

And they also manage to keep this world crowded in front of the screens for the next two weeks and want to watch athletes jump and fall, win and lose, laugh and cry.

The IOC can rely on his pictures.

One image most often stands out from the rest: the moment the Olympic flame is lit.

This evening Uyghur cross-country skier Dinigeer Yilamujiang and Nordic combined athlete Zhao Jiawen do it.

This is also an image that can be interpreted: She comes from Xinjiang, the region in which the Muslim Uyghur minority is oppressed.

At the Beijing stadium, Dinigeer Yilamujiang and Zhao Jiawen are now sticking the torch with fire into a large stand that looks like a snowflake.

Then this is pulled up in the stadium.

It wasn't the most spectacular show the organizers in Beijing had come up with for the opening ceremony.

But they didn't have to prove to anyone that they could do a spectacle.

They showed that almost 14 years ago when they presented the Summer Games in this national stadium, when the drummers took the audience's breath away with their precision.

A stadium in unison.

A state on the rise.

Now, in the second winter of the Corona pandemic, China, world and sports power, has sent a new message to the international audience - and also to the national one: The world is a guest - and it is celebrating its largest sports festival according to our rules.

On the way to the stadium, eight soldiers can be seen through the window of the bus, patrolling in step.

Eight minders out of so many in Beijing.

If you're in town for the Olympic Games, you can't actually take a step that shouldn't be taken.

The rules are strict.

And can get stricter.

On the day before the opening ceremony, it was announced that, in addition to a ticket, a so-called Yellow Card is required for a visit as a reporter or photographer.

One hears that the organization department of the IOC in the press center was also taken by surprise.

She does what she has to do: obey.

At the beginning of the opening ceremony, the screens in the national stadium show Thomas Bach, President of the IOC, and Xi Jinping, the head of state and party of China, coming onto the stands.

They stop in front of their seats and look at each other.

Bach bows to Xi.

But Xi does not bow to Bach.

Also such a picture.

No criticism of Bach's China

Later, Bach speaks into a microphone downstairs in the stadium.

He also says what he always says in China, an autocratic one-party state that not only the United States accuses of genocide in its own country.

Respect for the same rules.

Peaceful togetherness.

And so forth.

He does not have to address criticism of China in his speech.

The day before, when he had to address this in a press conference, he said: "The position of the IOC, given its neutrality, must be: we do not comment on political matters.

If we take a political stance, caught between tensions, disputes and confrontation of political powers, then we endanger the games.”

But on Friday you only have to look at the VIP box at the National Stadium in Beijing to see how political these Olympic Games are. You can tell by who came from world politics – and who didn't. Present: Russian President Vladimir Putin. Absent: the democratically elected representatives from the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia or Japan. There is no lack of political messages. And also not in political pictures. It shouldn't be considered a coincidence that the moment the Hong Kong team enters the National Stadium, Xi Jinping appears on the screen. He claps.

And what about the diplomats from Germany?

Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Minister of the Interior and Sports Nancy Faeser had already canceled their participation in advance.

But they don't want that to be understood as a boycott message.

This Friday, at best, they watched from home as the German athletes ran in behind the speed skater Claudia Pechstein and the bobsledder Francesco Friedrich, who were allowed to carry the flag.

Many of them took pictures with their smartphones.

And you could say: That's what an opening ceremony is for.