Athletes gear up for Inner Mongolia winter games

North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region will present to the world a spectacular winter games in 100 days' time in Hulunbuir, according to the organizers.

The 14th National Winter Games is the first large-scale comprehensive sports meeting at national level held by Inner Mongolia autonomous region over the past seven decades.

That’s according to Tan Jingfeng, head of the Inner Mongolia Sports Bureau, who added that it would also be the country’s biggest and most professional winter games.

Snow covers parts of Inner Mongolia all year round and this provides great conditions for the area to hold the winter sports games, he added.

As the winter game approaches, all the teams are in full preparation mode.

“Inner Mongolia’s men’s curling team, women’s curling team as well as mixed pairs will all take part in the event,” said Bai Yongsheng, head of the sports training department of Inner Mongolia Sports Vocational College.

“In order to improve our techniques, the team members take part in training every day and night and their training time is no less than eight hours every day,” Bai said. “They want to achieve a success since they are in the host area,” he said.

A group of players discusses tactics at a training session for the sport of curling. [Photo/Inner Mongolia Daily]

Inner Mongolia has in recent years carried out a great variety of winter sports for the masses, including winter nadams, or festivals, as well as snow and ice events.

As early as in 2001, Inner Mongolia established its first professional ice and snow sports team.

Tan Jingfeng, head of the Inner Mongolia Sports Bureau, said his region wanted the 14th national winter games to meet the standards of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

“We will have all the sports events that will be held in the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and there will be 141 sports events in the games,” he said.

There are also some special highlights planned for the 14th National Winter Games. For example, it will be the first time that a winter games sets up competition venues in foreign countries.

Organizers said that for these games, some specialized categories -- including sleigh riding -- will be held in abroad.

They said that, in addition, it will be the first time a national winter games sets up mass sports activities, including boat races on the ice and football matches on the snow.

The 14th National Winter Games kicks off on Feb 16, 2020 in Hulunbuir, in North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region.