Steep learning curve
The 2022 Winter Games will be held at 26 competition and noncompetition venues in three zones: downtown Beijing; Yanqing, a district in the city’s northwestern suburbs; and co-host Zhangjiakou in Hebei province. The clusters will be connected by a new high-speed railway, which is due to be completed by the end of the year.
At the core of Beijing’s venue readiness is the use of existing facilities, which is intended to cut spending while diversifying the venues’ operations.
For the 13 venues required for competition and non-competition functions in the downtown, where the ice sports events will be held, Beijing will repurpose 11 existing venues and other projects left over from the 2008 Games.
For example, the National Aquatics Center — aka “the Water Cube”, which hosted the swimming events in 2008 — will be transformed into an “Ice Cube” for the curling competition by filling the pool with retractable structures and covering them with sheets of ice. Work is already underway.
Being able to shift between swimming and curling will diversify the venue’s business operations, revenue stream and public services, said Yang Qiyong, general manager of the facility.
To the north of the Cube, the National Indoor Stadium — built to host gymnastics in 2008 — is upgrading its temperature-control system and lighting facilities as it is remodeled to hold ice hockey events in 2022.
The transformation of both venues is expected to be finished by 124 124
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Rise in the number of ski resorts and skiers
(indoor and outdoor) (Unit: million) the end of the year, while the remodeling of all existing facilities, including the Bird’s Nest and the National Convention Center, for ceremonies and media operations will be completed in 2021, according to the Beijing Major Projects Construction Headquarters Office, the regulatory body for construction.
“As a key milestone leading up to 2022, venue readiness will take a major step forward in 2019, with construction and renovation going on across all fronts. We are well ahead of schedule to be ready for a series of test events starting in early 2020,” said Wang Gang, director of the office.
According to the official legacy plan released by Beijing 2022 last month, some new, permanent venues, such as the National Speed Skating Oval in the downtown and the National Alpine Ski Center in Yanqing, have developed post-Games business models, not just for sports but also tourism and exhibitions.
Vertical at ski drops resorts (2018)
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“Here, you have the venues from 2008 that are going to be used in 2022 for a complete set of winter sports. This is a wonderful legacy story,” said Juan Antonio Samaranch, vice-president of the International Olympic Committee, during a visit to Beijing in January.
According to construction regulators in Beijing and Hebei, all of the venues for 2022 will be ready by June next year. They include eight in Zhangjiakou, which will be used for six snow sports: snowboarding; freestyle skiing; cross-country skiing; ski jumping; Nordic combined; and biathlon.
China was a late starter in the development of winter sports. That means a lack of expertise in competition organization, event management and technical support in almost two-thirds of Olympic winter sports, especially those on snow, has been a pressing issue.
In response, the organizing committee for 2022 has pulled out all the stops to train staff members, while recruiting, and learning from, international experts.
According to Wang Yanxia, a CPPCC National Committee member and a deputy director of the Sports Department of the Beijing 2022 Organizing Committee, 3,000 technical officials for ice sports alone were trained last year. However, that may not be enough.
“It’s highly technical and demanding for Games’ staff members in certain areas such as alpine medical support, snow making and course grooming,” she said. “We have to train our own people to levels of Olympic proficiency so they can be real assets for us and keep winter sports thriving after the Games.”
Assembled by the 2022 organizing committee, a volunteer skiing team, selected from a pool of more than 3,000 medium-level skiers, has undertaken regular training programs at ski resorts in Zhangjiakou.
The Genting Resort Secret Garden in Zhangjiakou’s Chongli district, where the freestyle skiing and snowboarding events will be held, has hired renowned course shaper Alli Zehetner to lead a Chinese crew that has built and maintains the Olympic half-pipe course at the resort, thus allowing the Austrian’s experience and know-how to be absorbed and shared.
According to the Sports Department of Beijing 2022, event managers have been appointed for all 15 sports disciplines at the 2022 Games. They are being trained by employees of a number of sports federations, and their skills will be tested at upcoming World Cup series events.
“All the facilities and personnel for the 2022 Winter Olympics will be 80 percent ready by the end of 2019,” said Tong Lixin, the department’s director.
Another major task this year will see the Beijing 2022 organizing committee working with local partners, the IOC and respective winter sports federations to refine plans for transportation, catering and accommodations for athletes.
The goal is to offer the athletes an unforgettable experience in 2022 to honor the promise Beijing made in the candidature phase to host an athlete-centered Olympics, according to Yang Yang, a CPPCC National Committee member and two-time Olympic champion in short-track speedskating.
“Meeting the demands of participating athletes plays a big part in the success of hosting the Olympics,” said Yang, who chairs the athletes’ commission for Beijing 2022. “We hope to turn every athlete into our promoter in 2022 by providing them with the best services possible.”
Those services include providing the athletes with clean, gluten-free food to Olympic standards with Chinese characteristics, designing special bullet train cars to facilitate easy transportation of skis and snowboards, and guaranteeing enough tickets for every athlete’s family members.
Reflecting on her experience a year ago, when she returned to Salt Lake City in Utah, where she won China’s first two Winter Olympics gold medals (500 meters and 1,000 meters) at the 2002 Games, Yang suggested that each competition venue for 2022 should leave a space where the names of every participating athlete and the medalists’ handprints could be displayed.
“I felt so sad returning to the former ice sports center in Salt Lake City (now the home arena of the NBA team Utah Jazz) and finding there was nothing there about my performances in 2002,” she said.
“I don’t want to see the athletes in 2022 experience the same disappointment I felt last year. In addition to providing them with best possible conditions for their competitions, I’d like to see more athletes’ stories respected and told here in Beijing.”