This Sunday, the biggest stars of figure skating at these Games gathered in Beijing to end the fortnight with a bang with the closing gala.
Dazzling as usual, Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron were on the ice, as was Nathan Chen, the individual gold medalist.
But in the last moments of the show, everyone was overshadowed by the arrival on the ice of the biggest star of the Games, acclaimed by all the athletes: Bing Dwen Dwen, the mascot that has become a must in China.
Person:
The alarm clock that rings on Sunday morning to follow the end of the Olympics: pic.twitter.com/uddOi37bzG
– Eurosport France (@Eurosport_FR) February 20, 2022
It must be said that, when we followed these Games, the panda in the ice costume was impossible to miss.
After the tests, each medalist was given, during a very official ceremony, his stuffed animal as the first reward.
On Chinese television, he had also become ubiquitous in commercials.
Sold for gold on the black market
But in China, impossible to get your hands on the stuffed panda.
On social networks, taking a photo with yours has even become an Olympic sport: since the start of the Games, mini Bing Dwen Dwen have sold like hot cakes in official stores and are minted at exorbitant prices on the black market. , sometimes for several hundred euros.
So cute you want to put it in your pocket! The star of #Beijing2022: Bing Dwen Dwen.
🐼❄️@RyoKoba8118 |
@GloriaKotnik |
@ChloeKim pic.twitter.com/hYPmRhJ6U9
— Olympics (@Olympics) February 13, 2022
“It's a limited edition so you have to queue for a long time.
Even people who arrived at 2 or 3 a.m. couldn't get one,” explained a fan at the start of the Games, after managing to obtain a copy.
Aware of the strong demand, China has restarted production to have some stock again before the end of the Games.
Designed to be sold
The popularity of the panda, the emblem of China, also owes much to the fact that the public has had only limited access to competitions.
Coronavirus obliges, only 97,000 spectators were able to attend events during the Olympic fortnight.
To keep a souvenir of the event despite everything, many locals fell back on the goodies, going so far as to queue to get key rings.
From the start, Bing Dwen Dwen was designed to be a hit.
The chubby, smiling panda was chosen by the Games Organizing Committee from among 5,800 drawings sent to it, after being examined by teams from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts.
Its success is such that it somewhat eclipsed the other winner of the competition, Shuey Rhon Rhon, a Chinese lantern, who will serve as the mascot for the Paralympic Games.