Here we answer the main questions about Beijing 2022

Speed ​​skiing: see the adrenaline and danger when descending at 200 km / h 2:48

(CNN) --

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics have begun.

After an opening ceremony filled with fireworks, amazing light shows and some colorful costumes, the competition among the athletes for the medals will really start this Saturday in Beijing.

While many around the world recognize the sports of the Summer Games, the winter edition of the global event introduces new and exciting sports on the biggest stage possible.

The 2022 Beijing Olympics, being held in a safe COVID-19 bubble in the Chinese capital, is unlike any other, for athletes and fans alike.

So here are the answers to some of the most burning questions about the 24th Winter Games.

Team members check the course before a freestyle ski practice session at Genting Snow Park on February 1, 2022 in Zhangjiakou, China.

How many athletes compete in the Winter Olympics?

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Nearly 3,000 athletes from 90 countries will compete in the Beijing Winter Olympics.

See in this gallery 25 of the most important athletes to watch closely when the games start.

Most of these have starred in previous Olympic Games.

Some compete for the first time.

(Credit: Matthias Hangst/Getty Images) →

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Ester Ledecká (Czech Republic) — Four years ago, Ledecká became the first athlete in history to compete in both snowboarding and alpine skiing at the same Olympic Games.

She and her won gold in both, winning the super-gi ski event and then followed it up with a victory in the parallel giant slalom.

It had been 90 years since someone had won gold in two different sports at the same Winter Games.

Now 26 years old, Ledecká will try to make history in what is her third Olympic Games.

(Credit: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images)

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Erin Jackson (United States) — Jackson, the world's top-ranked speed skater in the 500 meters, stumbled at the US trials and failed to qualify for the Olympics.

But the winner of that race, veteran Brittany Bowe, gave her place to Jackson, saying "nobody deserves it more."

Jackson, 29, said she was "grateful and humbled" by Bowe's kindness.

It ended up working for both skaters in the end;

some nations returned their Olympic quota places, opening up an additional spot that would allow both Jackson and Bowe to compete.

Bowe, 33, was already ready to compete in the 1,000 and 1,500 meters.

(Credit: Dean Mouhtaropoulos/International Skating Union/Getty Images)

| Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (Norway) — Norway has dominated cross-country skiing at the Olympics. The most decorated Winter Olympian of all time, Marit Bjørgen, was a Norwegian cross-country skier. But he retired after the 2018 Games, and now Klæbo will try to pick up where he left off. The 25-year-old got off to a great start in 2018, winning three golds on his Olympic debut in South Korea. He also won multiple titles at the most recent World Championships. (Credit: Federico Modica/NordicFocus/Getty Images)

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Yuzuru Hanyu (Japan) — Hanyu, one of the best male figure skaters in history, is seeking his third consecutive Olympic gold in singles.

He was just 19 years old at the 2014 Sochi Games, where he became the youngest Olympic figure skating champion since 1948. He also became the first Asian figure skater to win the men's singles title.

Hanyu's fans throw Winnie the Pooh bears on the ice after Hanyu's performance;

the tradition began after he began carrying around a box of tissues in the shape of the character in 2010. (Credit: Eugene Hoshiko/AP)

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Chloe Kim (United States) — Kim, an American snowboarder, was one of the rising stars of the 2018 Winter Games, winning gold in the half pipe at the age of 17.

Four years later, she is the favorite to defend her title.

Kim has also won gold at the last two world championships.

(Credit: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

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Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) — Shiffrin has been the face of American skiing for years and is still at the peak of her powers.

The 26-year-old, who won Olympic gold twice, leads the overall World Cup standings and recently won her 47th World Cup slalom race, the most World Cup wins in a single discipline.

Shiffrin is also the defending world champion in the combined event, which is slalom plus downhill.

She will be a medal threat in various events.

(Credit: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images)

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Ryōyū Kobayashi (Japan): Ski jumping competitions could be open this year, especially after three-time Olympic champion Kamil Stoch of Poland suffered an ankle injury in training.

Kobayashi, 25, has been in great form, recently winning three of the four events at the prestigious Four Hills Tournament.

He also beware of Germany's Karl Geiger, who recently overtook Kobayashi in World Cup qualifying, and Norway's Robert Johansson, who won three Olympic medals in 2018. (Credit: Daniel Karmann/Picture Alliance/Getty Images)

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Arianna Fontana (Italy) — Fontana, pictured left, has won eight Olympic medals.

That's the most tied ever by a short track speed skater.

Her specialty is the 500 meters, which she won in 2018 and has won medals in the last three Olympic Games.

Fontana was the youngest Italian to win a medal at the Winter Games when she won a bronze at the age of 15 in 2006. (Credit: She is now 31. Yomiuri Shimbun/AP)

| Johannes Thingnes Boe (Norway) — Boe has won the last three World Cup titles in biathlon, a discipline that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. He won three Olympic medals in 2018, including a gold in the 20-kilometer event. The 28-year-old will be among the favorites in China, especially after the retirement of legendary French biathlete Martin Fourcade. (Credit: Kevin Volgt/DeFodi Images/Getty Images)

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Wu Dajing (China) — Wu won China's only gold medal at the 2018 Olympics, breaking the world record in the 500-meter short track race.

He finished with a time of 39.584 seconds, becoming only the second person in history to skid the race under 40 seconds.

Wu, 27, has won four Olympic medals in his career, including a silver in the 500m in 2014. (Credit: Joosep Martinson/International Skating Union/Getty Images)

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Natalie Geisenberger (Germany) — Geisenberger, 34, is the most decorated female luger in Olympic history, winning five medals in three Winter Games.

Four of the five medals are gold;

she has won the individual and team events at each of the last two Olympics.

(Credit: Daniel Kopatsch/Getty Images)

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Nathan Chen (United States) — If anyone is the favorite to end Yuzuru Hanyu's reign in men's figure skating, it's the 22-year-old.

Chen, who has won three consecutive world titles.

Chen, the first skater to perform five quad jumps in a routine, was expected to compete for gold at the 2018 Olympics but stumbled in the short program and finished a disappointing fifth place.

(Credit: Atsushi Tomura/International Skating Union/Getty Images)

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Anna Hasselborg (Sweden): Hasselborg, 32, was the jumper for the gold medal-winning curling team at the 2018 Olympics in South Korea.

She will return to China along with her teammates Sara McManus, Agnes Knochenhauer and Sofia Maberg.

Swedish women have won three curling gold medals at the Olympics, the most of any nation.

(Credit: Vladimir Pesnya/Epsilon/Getty Images)

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Kamila Valieva (Russian Olympic Committee) — Valieva is only 15 years old, but this year she is the favorite in women's figure skating.

She won the Russian national championship in December and followed that up with a European title in January, breaking her own world record in the short program.

She is only the fourth female figure skater to achieve a quadruple jump in competition, and is only the second to achieve a quadruple toe loop.

She will be pushed around by two other Russian teenagers she trains with: Alexandra Trusova and defending world champion Anna Shcherbakova.

(Credit: Vladimir Pesnya/Epsilon/Getty Images)

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Alexis Pinturault (France) — Pinturault, 30, is the reigning alpine skiing champion, and is looking to add an Olympic gold medal to go along with the silver she won in 2018. She finished just 0.23 seconds behind Austrian Marcel Hirscher in the combined event.

Hirscher is now retired.

If Pinturault wins gold, he would be France's first alpine ski champion in 16 years.

(Credit: Maxim Thore/Bildbyran/Reuters)

| Ireen Wüst (Netherlands) — The Dutch are famous for their speed skating program, and Wüst is the best of them all. No female long track speed skater has won more Olympic medals than her (11). Five of those medals are gold, including one from 2018 in the 1,500 meters. He has won a gold medal at every Winter Olympics since 2006. (Credit: Vincent Jannink/ANP/AFP/Getty Images)

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Sui Wenjing and Han Cong (China) — Sui and Han, one of the world's best figure skating pairs, will be among the host nation's best hopes for a gold medal.

They lost by just 0.43 points four years ago, finishing with a silver medal.

They bounced back with gold at the 2019 World Championships. (Credit: Joosep Martinson/International Skating Union/Getty Images)

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Lindsey Jacobellis (United States) — Jacobellis, right, is headed to her fifth Olympics at age 36, and she's still searching for that elusive snowboard cross gold medal.

Jacobellis had the gold medal in the bag in 2006 when she made an exhibition move in a jump and then fell.

She finished with silver and shrugged it off, saying, "Snowboarding is fun. I was having fun."

(Credit: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

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Francesco Friedrich (Germany) — Friedrich, left, piloted two bobsleds to win Olympic gold in 2018, winning the two-man and four-man events.

(The two-man event actually finished tied for first place.)

The 31-year-old Friedrich was the sixth driver in history to win both the two-man and four-man events at the same Olympics.

(Credit: Robert Michael/Picture Alliance/Getty Images)

| Timothy LeDuc (United States) — LeDuc, 31, will become the first openly non-binary athlete to compete in a Winter Olympics. LeDuc will compete in pairs figure skating alongside 26-year-old Ashley Cain-Gribble, and the US champions' outfits defy gender stereotypes. "My hope is that the narrative changes more to queer people being able to be open and successful in sports," LeDuc said recently. "We've always been here, we've always been a part of sports. We just haven't always been able to be open." (Credit: Joosep Martinson/International Skating Union/Getty Images)

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Martins Dukurs (Latvia) — Dukurs, 37, has been a dominant force in the skeleton for years, winning six world championships and 11 World Cup titles, including the last three years.

But the only thing that has eluded him has been Olympic gold.

He won silver in 2010 and 2014 before finishing fourth in 2018. (Credit: Stefan Adeldberger/Expa/AFP/Getty Images)

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Marie-Philip Poulin (Canada) — Poulin, one of the greatest female hockey players of all time, was nicknamed "Captain Clutch" after scoring the game-winning goals in the 2010 and 2014 Olympic finals. She also scored in the 2018 gold medal match, but the Canadians lost to the United States in a dramatic penalty shootout.

Poulin, 30, will once again lead Team Canada in China.

(Credit: Rich Lam/Getty Images)

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Shaun White (United States) — White has been the face of snowboarding since 2006, when he won gold in his Olympic debut and was known as the "flying tomato" for his flowing red hair.

He has won gold in the half pipe event four times, and his most recent victory in 2018 sparked an emotional celebration.

At 35 years old, this is likely to be his last Olympics, and he will be looking to come out on top.

But he will face stiff competition from a talented field that includes Japan's Yuto Totsuka, the defending world champion.

(Credit: Clive Rose/Getty Images)

From fan favorites like ice hockey and snowboarding to new events like women's monobob and freestyle ski stunt skiing, there are plenty of opportunities to impress.

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There are 91 delegations competing for 109 gold medals in seven sports in Beijing.

According to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), there will be approximately 2,900 athletes giving their best in their selected disciplines.

Whether it's going as fast as possible or pulling off the most outrageous maneuver on the ice, it's going to be quite the spectacle.

General view of the interior of the stadium as fireworks are set off during the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics at the Beijing National Stadium on February 4, 2022 in Beijing, China.

Can athletes make political statements?

The Olympic Games have witnessed some shocking moments in which politics, rather than sport, have taken center stage.

At the Tokyo 2020 Summer Games, American shot putter Raven Saunders raised her hands and crossed them in an X shape as she and her fellow medal winners posed for photos, even though it was against the rules of the IOC, telling NBC that it represented "the intersection of where all oppressed people meet."

Whether the athletes competing in Beijing will use their platform to make political statements remains to be seen.

• What does the US diplomatic boycott of Beijing 2022 mean?

In January, a Beijing 2022 official said athletes who display behavior that "goes against the Olympic spirit, especially China's laws and regulations" will face "certain punishment".

Former Olympic cross-country skier Noah Hoffman recently told CNN that he "fears" for the safety of athletes who may contemplate speaking out on human rights issues during the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

Second-ranked Raven Saunders of the United States crosses her arms on the podium with her silver medal after competing in the women's shot put event during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium on August 1, 2021.

What is the skeleton?

One of the most interesting names in the sports lexicon, the skeleton is a fan favorite at the Winter Olympics.

With its roots in bobsled, athletes compete on the same track over two days, running four races each.

The competitor with the fastest combined time wins the event.

After British and American tourists built the first toboggan run in 1882 in Davos, Switzerland, a new steel run was built 10 years later, renamed the skeleton.

The skeleton was out of the Olympic program for several years, until it was reintroduced at the 2002 Salt Lake City

Winter Olympics .

In Beijing 2022 there will only be six medals in two events, the men's and women's singles.

The United Kingdom and the United States are the two main favorites in the skeleton event, with 11 medals between them.

German skeleton athlete Alexander Gassner trains at the National Sliding Center in Yanqing, China, on February 2, 2022.

How many venues does Beijing 2022 have?

The Winter Games will be held at 12 different venues, varying in shape, size and capacity.

There are eight new venues built specifically for the 2022 Games, and four existing ones will also be used.

The competitions will be held in three different groups: Beijing will host indoor events, Yanqing will host sliding sports, and Zhangjiakou Mountains will host freestyle skiing and snowboarding, freestyle skiing, biathlon and cross-country skiing.

Below is the list of all the venues where the athletes will meet.

New facilities:

• The speed skating oval: speed skating, with capacity for 11,950 spectators.

• Big Air Shougang: big air (freestyle skiing), 4,912 spectators

• National Alpine Ski Center: alpine skiing, 4,800 spectators

• National Sliding Center: bobsleigh, skeleton, luge, 7,500 spectators

• Genting Snow Park: Park A, snowboarding, freestyle skiing, cross-country skiing, 1,774 spectators;

  Park B, halfpipe and slopestyle, 2,550 spectators;

  Park C, aerials and moguls, 1,597 spectators

• National Center for Cross-Country Skiing: cross-country skiing, Nordic combined, 6,023 spectators

• Zhangjiakou National Ski Jumping Center: Ski Jumping, Nordic Combined, 6,000 Spectators

• Zhangjiakou National Biathlon Center: Biathlon, 6,024 spectators

Existing facilities

• National Aquatic Center: curling, 3,759 spectators

• Indoor National Stadium: speed skating, 13,289 spectators

• Wukesong Sports Center: ice hockey, 15,384 spectators

• Capital Indoor Stadium: short track speed skating, figure skating, 13,289 spectators

Where will the next Winter Olympics be held?

The next edition of the Winter Olympic Games will be held in the Italian cities of Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo in 2026. It will be the first Olympic Games with two venues.

Elected in 2019, the Italians beat out competition from a joint bid from the Swedish cities of Stockholm and Åre to host the biggest winter sports event.

It will be the fourth Olympic Games organized in Italy, 20 years after the 2006 Turin Winter Games, the last edition held in Italy.

Panoramic view of Milan, Italy.

The opening ceremony is scheduled to take place at the famous San Siro stadium, where Italian soccer giants AC Milan and Inter Milan play their home games, and the closing ceremony is scheduled to take place in Verona.

Olympic Games Beijing 2022