Olympic preparations on track despite COVID-19 challenge

Winter sports for all

As China prepares to host the Games, there has been a dramatic increase in winter sports participation in the country.

Once a poor county nestling in mountains and little-known to the rest of China, Chongli district in Zhangjiakou, where most of the snow sports will be held in 2022, is already benefiting from the Games.

Linked to Beijing by a high-speed railway line that began operating in December, Chongli has become one of the country's hottest skiing destinations. The railway has reduced the travel time between the capital and mountain resorts from more than three hours by car to about 50 minutes by train.

During the 2018-19 winter season, a record 1 million-plus skiers and snowboarders visited Chongli, more than double the 480,000 in the 2015-16 season, according to the district's tourism bureau.

By 2022, as part of a national plan to further promote winter sports as a lifestyle choice, China aims to build 650 skating rinks and 800 ski resorts, up from 334 and 770 respectively at the end of last year, paving the way for winter sports and recreational activities to involve 300 million people by 2022.

To expand education about Olympic values, history and winter sports knowledge before the Games, the Beijing 2022 organizing committee and the Ministry of Education last month unveiled three sets of teaching materials featuring translated content from the IOC's educational toolkit and original cartoons. The materials are being distributed to over 1,800 schools across the country as guidance for teachers and extracurricular books for students.

The publication of the books will help diversify physical education programs in schools by including Winter Olympics elements to make them more appealing to students, said Pei Dongguang, a professor of Olympic studies at the Capital University of Physical Education and Sports.

"It's a landmark development in the history of Olympic education in China. Our school PE classes and after-school activities can be carried out with more interesting content about Olympic winter sports," he said.