Winter Olympics 2022 China’s date with the world… On July 31, 2015, during the 128th General Assembly of the International Olympic Committee held in Malaysia, Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee announced that Beijing and Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, China, had won the right to host the 24th Winter Olympic Games in 2022. Thus, Beijing became the first city in the world to host the Summer and Winter Olympic Games.
Implementation of the principles of “greenness, inclusion, openness and integrity” in the work of preparing for the Olympics
In March 2016, Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed the importance of “greenness, inclusion, openness, and integrity” in the preparations for the Beijing Winter Olympics and the Paralympic Winter Games, which became the important principles of all work-related to the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Sports venues are among the most important facilities in the Olympic Games. It is well known that the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics left a fertile Olympic heritage for the Chinese community.
To further benefit from this sporting heritage and to meet the International Olympic Committee’s call for moderation and savings in hosting the Olympic Games, the Chinese Organizing Committee has worked to rehabilitate some prefabricated sports venues instead of building new ones.
Relevant data indicated that of the 44 sports venues and facilities for the Beijing Winter Olympics, 25 are renovated, six temporary, six are in Beijing municipal construction projects, and only seven are new sites, accounting for 16% of the total sports venues, which improves the use of the heritage of the Beijing Games.
for Olympic Games and reduces construction costs at once. For example, the National Swimming Center was the site of diving, swimming, skating, and water polo at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games. Rehabilitation work for the center began in December 2018.
According to the rehabilitation project, based on maintaining its former functions For water sports, technicians built a new hull and ice-making system in the center of the arena to serve as a curling site with four standard courses. The rebuilding of the center was completed in November 2020, and it is the first reconstructed sports venue for the 2022 Beijing Games. According to the competition schedule, curling and wheelchair curling will be held there.
Chinese athletes are ready to give their best performance at the 2022 Olympics
China competed in the Lake Placid Winter Olympic Games and the Salt Lake Winter Paralympic Games for the first time in 1980 and 2002 respectively. After that, China has been developing snow and ice sports over the past decades. With the Beijing Winter Olympics approaching, Chinese athletes are doing their best to get better results in competitions.
Short-track speed skating is one of China’s strongest sports at the Winter Olympics, with Chinese athletes winning 10 gold medals at the previous Winter Olympics. To raise the skills of Chinese athletes, the national short track speed skating team has taken new measures and launched a new series of national championships, which has contributed to the emergence of a large number of excellent young athletes.
Moreover, Chinese athletes have participated in international and regional tournaments to improve their mental and physical conditions, gain experience in important competitions, and narrow the gap between them and outstanding foreign athletes.
Thus, the athletes of the Chinese team won 10 gold medals in six sub-champions of the World Cup of Short Track Speed Skating and China finished second in the World Cup Final in the sport in the 2019 and 2020 seasons. With the 2020 World Short Track Speed Skating Championships canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese team has organized extensive training for its athletes throughout the year to effectively improve their competition performance.
Compared with China’s continuous progress and supremacy in short-track speed skating and some snow and ice sports, there is still a gap between China and developed countries in snow sports in general. The Beijing Winter Olympics is an important opportunity for China’s development in these sports. On the one hand, China began to take an interest in sports that were alien to it. For example, in preparation for the Olympics, the Chinese bobsled team was established in 2015 for the first time. Under the guidance of Jeffrey Thomas Payne, a veteran Canadian coach and Chinese coach, Chinese athletes are advancing rapidly in this sport, and they participated in the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics in the Republic of Korea and some international tournaments and achieved good results in several competitions.
On the other hand, China continues to strengthen its efforts in snow sports, in which China has been a major power over the past years. For example, Chinese air-skating athletes won 12 medals at the previous Winter Olympics. Chinese athletes receive structured and special training according to the weaknesses in certain movements to further improve the level.
Snow and ice sports spread in China thanks to the Beijing Winter Olympics
China promised 300 million Chinese people to participate in snow and ice sports during its bid to host the Beijing Winter Olympics. With the progress of preparations and the advancement of Chinese athletes in general, China has been working to popularize snow and snow sports and winter sports among more people in recent years as well.
To promote Chinese interest in snow and ice sports, relevant Chinese departments have issued a series of projects and plans in the past years. In May 2016, the General Administration of Sports of China presented the “Thirteenth Five-Year Plan for the Development of Sports”, which stresses the importance of the spread of winter sports and the development of its industry in China. Furthermore, in November of that year, the General Administration of Sports of China, the National Development and Reform Commission, and some other Chinese organs submitted the “Development Plan for Snow and Snow Sports from 2016 to 2025” and “Plan for Building Facilities and Sites for Snow and Snow Sports in China from 2016 to 2022)), which explains the goals and methods of developing winter sports in China. Also, in September 2018, the General Administration of Sports of China put forward the “Action Plan to Encourage 300 Million Chinese to Play Snow and Snow Sports from 2018 to 2022”, which refers to the role of winter sports in building a “Healthy China”.
In April 2019, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council put forward the “Proposals for the Development of Snow and Ice Sports during the Preparatory Period for the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games”, providing a systematic guarantee for the spread of skating, ice hockey, curling and other sports Winter in China.
Thanks to these policies, China is witnessing a strong development in the spread of winter sports. First, a large number of ice and snow skating rinks and resorts are being built in China in general and in the south in particular, which provides basic conditions for the Chinese to practice skiing, whatever the weather. The “China Skateboarding Sports White Paper 2019” indicated that the number of skating rinks in China reached 770 at the end of 2019, an increase of 124% compared to 2012.
Thus, snow and ice skating is no longer a special sport for northern China in a season. winter. Second, more Chinese people want to enjoy the magic of special winter sports. With the improvement of facilities related to winter sports in recent years, more and more Chinese are striving to practice those sports.
The survey of Chinese participation in winter sports for 2020 released by Renmin University in December 2020 shows that about 150 million Chinese participated in winter sports from 2019 to 2020, and most of them did it for entertainment and enjoyment distinctive charm.
To promote the participation of Chinese juniors in winter sports, the Chinese Ministry of Education has selected batches of schools in different regions of China to conduct winter sports training for students. Therefore, many elementary, middle, or high schools have established teams in ice hockey, curling, ice dancing, and other winter sports, to drive the healthy growth of students and increase their desire for winter sports. Third, the number of popular winter sports competitions and activities in China is increasing. To attract more Chinese to participate in winter sports, the General Administration of National Sports held the first Winter Sports Festival in December 2014, where winter sports enthusiasts and fans participated in various competitions, activities, and exercises.
Over the seven years of development, more than ten million Chinese have participated in various activities, and this festival has become one of the most important and popular public activities in China. In addition to the national festival, many cities and provinces hold a series of public activities to spread winter sports as well. For example, Beijing holds a Winter Sports Festival every year. About 7.13 million people participated in 3,690 activities in the sixth session of the festival from November 2019 to April 2020. Liaoning Province held similar activities, attracting about five hundred thousand people in about three hundred activities from July 2019 to March 2020. Thus, winter sports have become a new trend in China.
China’s hosting of the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games is not only an important opportunity to present its wisdom in innovation, benefit from the Olympic heritage and promote friendship between different countries, but also showcase to the whole world the Olympic spirit of Chinese athletes and the Chinese’s great passion for winter sports. Therefore, we are fully confident that the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games will be special in the history of the Winter Olympics.
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