By Ji Peijuan, Liu Shuoyang, People’s Daily
The ongoing Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, as a window into China, has been widely applauded for its advanced competition venues and considerate arrangements.
Over the past days, athletes and coaches of delegations to the Games have been full of praise for the facilities, venues, as well as personnel of the event. In fact, many athletes started to post videos of them trying facilities of the Olympic Villages for the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games on social media platforms before the opening of the Games.
In these videos, American luge athlete Summer Britcher pressed a button on the remote control and then the mattress of her bed in the Olympic Village was lifted to a proper height to better support the spine; Finnish ice hockey player Petra Nieminen opened a throw pillow with a pattern of Bing Dwen Dwen, the Games’ official mascot, and it turned into a blanket.
Other thoughtful designs and arrangements for the rooms in the Olympic Village, such as a backpack with the emblem of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Bing Dwen Dwen dolls, have all shown China’s sincerity in creating a comfortable living environment for athletes and pleasantly surprised them.
“I am convinced all the athletes will deliver their best performance,” said Masahiko Harada, general manager of the Japanese delegation to the Beijing 2022, at a recent press conference. He told reporters that the Beijing 2022 Olympic Village offers a comfortable environment.
Olympics-related personnel and staff in the “closed-loop” management system for Beijing 2022 are required to take the nucleic acid test for COVID-19 every day.
China has done a good job in epidemic prevention and control and shown tenacity and the ability to pool the wisdom and strength of the entire society, said American freestyle skier Darian Stevens, adding that she believes the host country is able to cope with various situations and deliver safe Olympic Winter Games.
The snow at the National Alpine Skiing Center for the Beijing 2022 is “absolutely perfect”, according to Bernhard Russi, chairman of the Alpine ski committee of the International Ski Federation (FIS).
“I think for the ski racers, it’s just like paradise,” he said at a press conference held on Feb. 5, referring to the venue.
On Feb. 3, athletes from various countries took part in training at the National Alpine Skiing Center located in the Yanqing District of Beijing for the first time. Many of them exclaimed that the competition venue is amazing and that the snow and the courses are quite easy to ski.
Russi, who has participated in the designing of alpine ski courses for nine consecutive Winter Olympic Games, attributed the positive feedback from alpine skiers to the high quality of man-made snow at the venue.
Well-known Austrian alpine ski racer Vincent Kriechmayr said the ski courses at the National Alpine Skiing Center are marvelous and that they provide one of the best environments he has ever seen.
In the Genting Snow Park, a venue in the Zhangjiakou competition zone of the Games, a special “Great Wall” made of snow and ice at the starting point of the slopestyle course can protect athletes from strong winds.
American snowboarder Shaun White, a three-time Olympic champion, is very satisfied with the ski course for halfpipe at the venue. The snow here is of high quality, which gives skiers better grip, according to him.
With the perfect shape and huge windbreak walls, the ski course for halfpipe is among the best of its kind in the world, said White.
In an effort to host green Olympic Winter Games, China has made use of the venues for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing to the greatest possible extent, achieved 100 percent green electricity supply for all the venues for the first time in the history of the Olympics, developed a working system and relevant technologies to convert a basketball court into an ice hockey rink within six hours at the Wukesong Sports Centre in Beijing, and adopted ice-making technology with near-zero carbon emissions at the National Speed Skating Oval.
Many athletes have been impressed by how China has endeavored to promote in-depth integration of scientific and technological achievements with sports for the goal of the green Olympic Winter Games.
Motivating more people to take part in winter sports is more meaningful than winning a gold medal, said American freestyle skier Alexander Hall.
While snow sports may seem too far from the life of most people, the Beijing 2022 has provided athletes with an opportunity to demonstrate their skills before a large audience, Hall said, adding that it’s like the Games has opened another door to winter sports for people.
The success of the Beijing Winter Olympics will have a profound impact on the development of winter sports around the world, according to 36-year-old Norwegian veteran alpine skier Kjetil Jansrud.
Alpine skiing competitions often take place at time-honored ski resorts, but the sport needs to take new roots in Asia in order to maintain its vitality, Jansrud said, adding that China’s National Alpine Skiing Center is a venue that represents the future of the sport.
Everyone lives in the same global village and shares a common destiny, said American freestyle skier Maggie Voisin.
Against the backdrop of the raging COVID-19 pandemic, the Beijing 2022 brings together people’s passion for ice and snow sports and enables them to move forward side by side toward a better future, she said.
