2022 Winter Olympics gathering talent

To help facilitate the hosting of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Beijing's organizing committee will expand its international recruitment and training process after launching a new talent program on Tuesday.

The program outlines the requirements, recruiting principles and training arrangements for seven types of positions directly related to the organization of the 2022 Winter Olympics, as well as four categories involving urban services and logistics support for the Games.

Without enough know-how in organizing winter sports, especially snow events, Beijing will continue searching for foreign experts in key technical positions, such as course design and snow-making, to ensure the Games meet international and professional standards, said Yan Cheng, human resources director of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics organizing committee.

"Our talent program will be carried out with a global vision, with equal emphasis on training our own staff and importing experienced foreign experts," Yan said on Tuesday.

The current Winter Olympics program consists of about 100 events with one-third entirely new to China, where competition and venue operation specialists are needed from advanced winter sports countries, said Ding Dong, executive deputy director of the National Winter Sports Administrative Center.

Alpine skiing is among the events demanding sophisticated service and support. A qualified first-aid worker needs to be able to ski down steep mountain slopes as fast as 140 kilometers an hour carrying medical equipment to reach an injured athlete within four minutes, according to International Ski Federation requirements.

Beijing 2022 will need at least 40 medical workers of this kind at each of its snow-event zones in Yanqing district and Zhangjiakou, Hebei province, according to the organizing committee's Games service department.

"The time is pressing so we are going to go both ways by training our own medics with skiing abilities while inviting international alpine support teams," said department head Yu Debin.

Beijing 2022 already has 14 senior foreign consultants to lead local staff in venue management, course design and competition organization. Thirty-one organizers, including employees of previous Winter Games, were hired during the first international recruitment drive last year.

A larger second round of international recruitment is expected this year. Contract negotiations are also underway with seven Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics organizers, who are expected to join their Beijing counterparts soon, human resource officials said.

Some 1,100 Chinese staff members will be trained in 18 subjects including winter sports skills, event management and logistical services through October 2019 to be ready for test events leading up to 2022.

Volunteer recruitment for Beijing 2022 will be launched in the second half of 2019 based on 70 existing core volunteers who served at February's Pyeongchang Games in South Korea. A five-day debriefing of those who helped run the 2018 Games will be held next week at the headquarters of the Beijing 2022 organizing committee.