Public warms to ice and snow activities
A dream was born 10 years ago when speedskater Yang Yang stopped by the Rockefeller Center in New York, fascinated by people of all ages enjoying skating at the famous outdoor rink.
A decade later, the Chinese winter sports champion fulfilled her dream of making outdoor skating an urban attraction in the country’s largest metropolis, when a 600square-meter ice rink was installed at the foot of Shanghai’s landmark Oriental Pearl Tower in January.
From watching elite athletes such as Yang competing on TV to strapping on skates and having fun on ice, residents of Shanghai, a city once considered a winter sports wilderness, have embraced the chilly action in the buildup to the 2022 Winter Olympics, which will be co-hosted by Beijing and Zhangjiakou, Hebei province.
“I have full confidence in the future of winter sports in our country because I’ve noticed the change in public perception of them,” said Yang, China’s first Winter Olympics gold medalist and a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
“Winter sports have become more accessible to the public. It has become a lifestyle choice and an outdoor recreation activity,” said Yang, who won two short track speedskating golds (500 meters and 1,000 meters) at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The temporary rink at the tower in Shanghai attracted 20,000 visits from Jan 6 to Feb 24, becoming a major attraction during Spring Festival, when random passers-by had to wait as long as two hours to get access, according to Yang.
As an avid promoter of winter sports, she runs a two-rink commercial club in Shanghai’s Pudong New District. The growing interest in such sports, especially among young people, is impressive, she said.
“I remember the day after we won the bid for the 2022 Olympics, the number of skaters showing up at my club tripled from the day before,” said the skater, who retired after the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics.
The rise in participation in Shanghai highlights the boom at commercial rinks in major cities and ski resorts at hot tourism spots, as the nation strives to involve 300 million people in winter sports activities.
According to the General Administration of Sport of China, there were 334 indoor rinks in operation by June, representing a rise of 29 percent year-on-year. Meanwhile, by the end of last year, the number of ski resorts had risen to 742.
China’s ski resorts, both indoor and outdoor, welcomed 13.2 million visitors last year, up from 8.05 million in 2014 when Beijing announced its bid for the 2022 Games, according to the China Ski Industry White Paper (2018), published in January by industry analyst Carving Ski.
Skiers’ total consumption reached 72 billion yuan ($10.7 billion) in 2017, up by 78.4 percent from 2016. About 20 million people visited skating rinks in 2017, boosting revenue from training, facility rental and equipment manufacturing and sales to 61 billion yuan.
That growth is encouraging for a country that has just started promoting the winter sports culture, but is still not enough compared with world leaders in the sector, said Li Yingchuan, a vice-minister at the General Administration of Sport of China.
“The number seems quite large already, but it pales a little when compared with our large population and the untapped potential,” Li said.
Li urged the regulatory bodies of the sports and construction sectors, and property developers, to make facilities more accessible to urbanites with a view to converting onetime consumers into diehard fans.