Hebei snow park provides exciting glimpse of new Olympic sport

The new Olympic sport of flag football was given a run out at Yunding Snow Park on Saturday.

One of Beijing's 2022 Winter Olympics venues was given a taste of the college invitational variety of the sport, which will make its debut in Los Angeles in 2028.

At an altitude of over 1,600 meters, flag football, a less-contact version of American football, made a strong impression on fans, media and tourists alike at Yunding, formerly known as the Genting resort, in Zhangjiakou's Chongli district, Hebei province, where some of Beijing 2022's snow sports were staged.

The non-tackling version of football has been added to the program for LA28, where it is expected to draw greater fan following to the sporting extravaganza from the North American market, dominated as it is by the big four of American football, baseball, ice hockey and basketball.

Hosting the inaugural edition of the World University Flag Football Open at Yunding's newly-renovated football field was part of China's effort to increase the sport's mass appeal and help more people understand the rules in advance of LA28.

The invitational tournament, or "Yunding Bowl", attracted 11 top-notch Chinese university clubs and an inter-school team consisting of student players from four North American universities — UC Santa Barbara, California Lutheran University, UC Davis and CSU Long Beach.