Published by
Reuters
Reuters
By Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber and Yew Lun Tian BEIJING (Reuters) – Mixed doubles curling opened competition at the Beijing Winter Olympics on Wednesday as the shadow of war in Ukraine, and the impending arrival of Russian President Vladimir Putin, loomed over an event already transformed by the coronavirus pandemic. Curling teams from Sweden and Britain clashed inside Beijing’s “closed loop”, where the world’s athletes will compete until Feb. 20 in front of crowds made sparse by COVID-19 curbs. Basketball great Yao Ming and a Chinese soldier wounded in a border clash with India joined in a torc…