One year after the start of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, China faces the sporting event with great expectations and on alert for the latest outbreaks of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that have occurred in the northeast of the Asian country.
In the last two months small outbreaks have been registered in two neighborhoods of Beijing and in the surrounding Hebei province, where the Zhangjiakou Olympic venue is also locatedAlthough these outbreaks have hardly added new cases in recent days and the authorities have adopted strong preventive measures.
In fact, on prevention measures against the spread of the coronavirus spoke last month the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the German Thomas Bach, and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
AP Photo
“Xi informed Bach of the reinforced measures that the Chinese authorities are taking in organizing sporting events,” indicated the IOC in a statement published on its website on January 25.
“The president of the IOC celebrated this rigorous strategy because it will lead to a faster exit from the pandemic and will give even more confidence to the safe organization of the Games,” the note said.
For the top leader of the IOC, a body now pending to fulfill its commitment to organize the postponed Tokyo Summer Games in July, the progress of preparations in Beijing “is almost a miracle, despite the challenges of the pandemic”, which in mainland China currently has 1,516 active infected, according to the latest figures from health authorities.
THE EXPECTATIONS, BY THE CLOUDS
The host city (the first to organize a Summer and Winter Games in history) wants Chinese athletes to be present at the 109 planned events and achieve their “best participation in the history of the Winter Games”, according to the state news agency Xinhua.
Recent notable appearances in various winter sporting events allow Chinese hopefuls to face the competition with optimism, which stand out more in the ice tests than in the snow ones.
Thus, short track speed skating, for example, has been a discipline in which the Chinese have won medals at the Winter Games and will measure their strength at the World Cup to be held next month in the Netherlands (and which was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic).
Pairs figure skating is also one of the medalist options for the Chinese, who have already won gold at Vancouver 2010 and silver at Pieongchang 2018.
The medalists from that last competition, the mixed pair of Sui Wenjing and Han Cong, also claimed the title at the 2019 World Cup and last year’s Four Continents Championships, and they sound like favorites.
His performance will depend in part on Han’s recovery from hip surgery.
THE FACILITIES, READY
According to Xinhua, “Construction of all competition venues and related infrastructures was completed before the end of 2020.”
Yanqing, a district north of Beijing near the Great Wall, It will host the Alpine skiing, bobsleigh, single sled and light sled competitions, while Zhangjiakou, the only one of the three venues in Hebei province, will host the Nordic combined, cross country, ski jumping, biathlon competitions and slalom, among others.
For its part, The Chinese capital will host competitions in ice hockey, curling, short track speed skating and figure skating. the latter two in which it hosted the volleyball competitions in 2008.
Along these lines, the organizers of the Olympic event have boasted that the Wukesong pavilion – where the Spanish men’s basketball team won silver in a tight final against the United States in Beijing 2008, and gold in the 2019 World Cup – it can transform into an ice hockey rink in just 6 hours.
Another transformation (and another connection between the 2008 and 2022 Games) has been that of the center of swimming competitions, known as the “Water Cube” during the 2008 summer competition, and which has become “Cube de Hielo “for the winter games.
This center will host the curling competitions.
The Games will open on February 4 and conclude on the 20th of the same month.
TESTS OF THE SEATS POSTPONED
But despite the fact that the venues are already ready, the ‘test competitions’ prior to the Olympic Games – initially scheduled for the first quarter of 2021 – have been delayed by the pandemic and a staggered test program of the Olympic venues.
“It is very important to reduce the number of coronavirus infections now and as soon as possible,” the IOC president said in an interview with Xinhua published last month.
“We support all measures that reduce the numbers (of infections) as soon as possible, because these will make us trust even more in the success (of the Games),” he said.