China takes Beijing Winter Olympics as an opportunity to promote ice and snow sports

As the world is still mired in the COVID-19 pandemic and China tackling sporadic outbreaks, preparations for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics have entered a critical stage.

Less than 400 days from the opening of the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing on February 4, 2022, the construction or reconstruction of all the 12 competition venues have been completed despite the uncertainties and challenges brought by COVID-19. A high-speed railway linking Beijing and co-host Zhangjiakou is now operational, nearly one million volunteer applications have been received and the Games' pictograms have been released.

According to a report by Renmin University of China last December, although the pandemic forced half of those surveyed with winter sports experience to cancel their sporting plans in this past season, 150 million people in China had engaged in winter sports at least once from 2019 to 2020 – half of China's goal to have 300 million participants.

The report also showed that the amount of people keeping a close eye on the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics news updates has increased steadily from 6.2 percent in 2018 to 10.4 percent in 2020. Some 70 percent of the participants had paid attention to the Games over the past three years through different outlets.

The IOC President Thomas Bach said, supports China's concept of hosting a green, inclusive, open and clean Winter Olympics and stands ready to work with China to ensure a successful, splendid and safe Games, which will not only realize the vision of promoting winter sports among the 300 million Chinese people, but also strongly advance the development of international Olympic Movement.

The IOC stays committed to upholding the Olympic spirit and opposing the politicization of sports, Bach said, adding that the organization will continue strengthening long-term strategic cooperation with China.