The Olympic cauldron has been lit marking the official start of the 2022 Winter Games

Torch bearers Dinigeer Yilamujiang and Jiawen Zhao of Team China hold the Olympic flame during the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics at the Beijing National Stadium on February 04 in Beijing, China. (Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

Seven torchbearers carried six torches in the final torch relay inside the Bird's Nest.

All the torchbearers are Chinese winter sport athletes born in sequential decades – the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and the last two torchbearers from the 2000s. The sequential order is meant to show the continuity of winter sports across generations.

Here are the athletes who served as torchbearers:

• 1980 Olympian Zhao Weichang, speed skating
• 1992 Olympic silver medalist Li Yan, short track
• Two-time Olympic gold medalist Yang Yang, short track
• 2020 Olympian Su Bingtian, track and field
• Three-time Olympic gold medalist Zhou Yang, short track

The last torch was shared by two 2022 Olympians —Yilamujiang Dinigeer, a cross-country skier from Xinjiang, and Zhao Jiawen, a Nordic Combined athlete — to celebrate gender equality. They lit the Olympic cauldron together.

The lighting of the Olympic cauldron marks the official beginning of the Winter Games and the end of Friday's Opening Ceremony.