Olympic record

Veteran DJ recalls his experience of playing music at the 2022 Winter Games, Chen Nan reports.

When Su Yiming, 17, won a silver medal for snowboard slopestyle on Feb 7, during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, with his stellar performance of a triple cork 1800, he soared into the sky over the Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou, Hebei province, to the hearty Chinese song Flying Higher.

When well-known athlete Gu Ailing was enjoying jiucai hezi (pan-fried dumplings stuffed with chives) while she waited for her score in the women's freeski slopestyle qualifying round at the same venue on Feb 14, she was shown on camera as the Chinese song Your Smile Is So Beautiful played in the background.

The man who played the songs is Li Honglei, one of the 30 DJs working at the Winter Games. Li was in charge of music for two courses-halfpipe and slopestyle-held at the venue.

"It's not like being a DJ to make people dance. It's totally different from playing music in a nightclub. It's more like you're there to create a vibe, an atmosphere and a musical experience for the athletes and everybody else, both for the spectators at the events and those watching on TV at home," Li says.

A week before the 2022 Winter Games, Li, who lives and works in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, arrived in Beijing to prepare. He got up at 6 am and worked at the venue till midnight.

During the Games, he played up to 5,000 songs, which were selected from more than 16,000 songs in different languages.

Sometimes that meant choosing songs to ramp up or relax the competitive tension or to cheer up athletes who failed, or to build up an atmosphere when some important moments were about to take place, such as the award ceremonies and the appearance of the mascot Bing Dwen Dwen.

"The right music was as important as the Games. The second the music was heard, the atmosphere was bursting with energy to the songs," says the 38-year-old DJ.

Like thousands of people working behind the scenes at the Games, DJs did jobs that are often invisible yet important. Li says he felt happy about sharing great moments in sports with people by contributing with music.