Delivering the need for speed

Wang Beixing, competition director of speed skating for Beijing 2022, echoed those sentiments.

"The gap between high and low rinks has been narrowing over the past decade. It's not impossible for us to make the ice fast enough for new records to be set, especially with the venue facilitated by the new refrigeration system," said Wang, the bronze medalist in women's 500m at the 2010 Vancouver Games.

Dubbed the "Ice Ribbon" due to its slick exterior lighting beams, the Beijing oval is the first Olympic speed skating venue to make ice with an environmentally friendly cooling system that uses carbon dioxide as a refrigerant, instead of the harmful substance Freon.

The new system, which freezes quicker and is more stable than the old technique, helps maintain consistent temperature, density and firmness of ice across the 400-meter track, allowing skaters to push to their limits.

Among the athletes racing at the oval's debut session on Wednesday, Chen Chuang, who finished second in a 500m youth race, left the track mightily impressed.

"For me, this ice feels already perfect," he said. "The thickness is just right, the flatness is superb and the smoothness makes it easy to push for speed. I don't really see anything that can be improved upon."

Despite the positive feedback, Messer and his Chinese assistants are certainly not about to rest on their laurels.

"This is a very valuable competition for us," said Messer. "We can see the effect of the changes that we make to the ice with temperature and different factors that we can control now that we couldn't before.