China launched a season of winter sport and cultural events The program is designed to foster the practice of winter sports in China and to enhance public support for the Beijing 2022 Bid. The Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games Bid Committee kicked off this week a season-long program of winter sport activities that will take place from December 2014 to July 2015 with the goal to promote winter sports, further spread Olympic values and encourage three hundred million people living in China to participate in winter sports. Sport activities will be supplemented by cultural events designed to
warm up the atmosphere, raise excitement for China’s bid for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games and bring the China’s Winter Olympic dream to life.
Zhao Yinggang, Deputy Secretary General and Head of the Sports Department of the Beijing 2022 Bid Committee and Director for Winter Sports under the General Administration of Sport of China, commented on the development on the occasion of a media briefing that was held on December 18 at Beijing’s MasterCard Center (formerly known as the Wukesong Arena). He said that promoting the development of winter sports in China and encouraging more people to practice winter sports is an important part of the Beijing 2022 Bid.
Chinese authorities, including the Bid Committee and the General Administration of Sport, have confirmed a working plan to bring this goal to life short-term (this winter and coming spring), in addition to existing middle- and long-term winter sport programs that all aim to inspire more people to participate in winter sports.
Activities such as “Three Entrances”, “Six Events” and “15 Highlights” are all part of the upcoming winter and spring season’s program.
In the long run, the authorities will implement the strategy entitled “Developing Ice Sports from China’s North to South and West”, promoting a paralleled and balanced development of mass high-performance winter sport. Just earlier this week a kick-off event was held outside the Beijing Capital Stadium to mark the start of the season.
Famous athletes, such as Wang Jinyu, Ye Qiaobo and Li Nina attended the ceremony. Li Nina, double Olympic silver medalist in aerials, said that snow sports would largely benefit from the bid, with more support on the existing and new sports programs. Zhang Hong, Olympic gold medalist in speed skating, said that he was looking forward to see more people joining Winter sports.
More details about the program:
“Three Entrances”: the program is designed to promote winter sports in schools, in public places (in particular parks and green areas) and in companies.
“Six Events”: the program is designed to encourage young people to experience six major sports events held in China over the next months. The six high-level international sports events are Air&Style, Freestyle Skiing World Cup, World Women’s Curling Championship, as well as the Grand Prix of Figure Skating and the Short Track Speed Skating World Cup to be held in Shanghai, and the World Figure Skating Championships to be held in March next year.
In addition, the International Skiing Festival kicked off on December 6 with activities in Chongli, Zhangjiakou. It was followed by an event promoting winter sports and encouraging people of Beijing to support China’s Dream to host Winter
Olympic Games which was held by the General Administration of Sport in Beijing on December 16. The Festival will continue with a New Year countdown event entitled “Bejing 2022 Bid’s New Year Greetings”, to be held on December 31, the River Gui Snow & Ice Carnival, to be held in Yanqing County early next year, a national skiing-for-fitness event to be held on January 18, the World Snow Day, and finally, a series of snow & ice events taking place in northern China to help China’s
bid for the Winter Olympics throughout the season.
“15 Highlights”: the program includes 8 events to be held in Beijing: Beijing Youth Hockey League, Beijing Youth Figure Skating Winter Camp, Curling for the General Public in Beijing, the Bird’s Nest Snow & Ice Season for Youth, The Beijing University’s “Ice Carnival on Weiming Lake”, a series of speed skating and long-distance skating events on River Gui in Yanqing District, the National Youth Winter Camp, and a series of outdoor ice events in Beijing’s MasterCard Center on December 18.
It also includes 7 events to be held in Zhangjiakou: the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Alpine Skiing Tournament, the Chongli International Skiing Competitions (including the FIS Alpine Skiing Points Race and FIS Alpine Skiing Far East Cup), the Chongli National Skiing Competitions (including the National Snowboarding Championships and the National Slalom Friendly), the Chongli International Skiing Festival, the “Snow & Ice to Ten Thousand Homes” event, the “Future Star” Sunshine Sports Event and Skating Competition, and the “Qingshuihe” Ice Carnival.
This article was republished with permission from the original author and publisher, the Sport Intern.