Strong vote of confidence given to winter games

Representatives from European destinations say Beijing well equipped to host successful event

Winter sports destinations across Europe have voiced strong confidence in China's ability to ensure the ongoing Winter Olympics are stable and successful, despite challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

They also firmly believe that the Games must remain free from politics.

Christoph Eisinger, managing director of Ski Amade, a partner of the Thaiwoo Ski Resort in Chongli, Hebei province, which hosts most of the Games skiing events, said, "I am convinced that Beijing will host a perfect Olympics.

"As CEO of one of the biggest European ski areas, I have visited Chinese ski resorts many times. I know how well skiing and all winter sports in China are organized. The transportation system is perfect."

Jakob Falkner, managing director of the Solden ski resort in the Oetztal Alps in the Austrian Tyrol, where the mountain chase sequence for the 2015 James Bond movie Spectre was shot, said, "Beijing has the ability and capability to host the Olympic Games."

Falkner, who three years ago visited Zhangjiakou, where Chongli is located and where the freestyle and Alpine events are being staged, said, "I was very impressed by how fast people worked and how quickly they completed everything."

Reto Gurtner, president of the Laax ski resort in Switzerland, who has formed a strategic partnership with Genting Resort Secret Garden in Chongli, said, "I am convinced China will have the best Olympics we have ever seen, because they have the technology, they have the capacity, and are very fast to learn."

Anna Griesser, chief representative of the Pitztal Glacier and Rifflsee ski resort in Austria, said: "I think Beijing will host a successful and safe Winter Olympics, because it knows the eyes of the world are on the city. The Chinese people also offer perfect hospitality."

Luigi Alvera, vice-mayor of the Italian Alps skiing resort of Cortina, who has been heavily involved in the organization and bidding process for the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, due to be held in 2026, said, "We are sure Beijing is capable of organizing a successful and safe Olympics in these difficult times of the pandemic.

"Cortina experienced a similar situation with the World Ski Championships in February last year, and yet they were a great success. Sports, and in particular the Olympic Games, are moments of union between people and of creating bonds between nations. A common effort is needed to achieve this."

Barbara Izlakar, a tour guide at the Maribor-Pohorje tourist destination in Slovenia, which boasts the country's largest ski resort, believes Beijing is well capable of hosting the Winter Olympics, partly due to the experience gained in staging the Summer Olympics in 2008.

"Because the city is so big, you have the infrastructure, the accommodations, the transportation and the catering. You can organize everything so that competitors and visitors feel welcome in the city."

At the end of last year, the United States announced a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, deciding not to send officials to the Games. Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada followed suit.

Eisinger said: "Sports and politics should be separated. The focus of the Olympic Games－any sports event－should be on the athletes, the competition and the spectators."

Gurtner said: "I absolutely believe that politics and sports should be completely separated. We should not use sports as a slave of politics."

Karin Seiler, head of the tourism board in Innsbruck, Austria, a city that has twice hosted the Winter Olympics, said: "There is great significance in Beijing hosting the Olympics … What happens there is that people with the same mindset, the same spirit and the same passion come together for sports and for a challenge, and this creates good energy, which then goes out to the whole world."

She said politics has nothing to do with the Games and should be kept separate from them.