By Xue Yuan, People’s Daily
“In just over a month, the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games will open. Greater public involvement in winter sports also contributes to the Olympic Movement. We will spare no effort to present a great Games to the world. The world is turning its eyes to China, and China is ready,” said Chinese President in his 2022 New Year address.
The Beijing 2022, accompanied by people’s wishes for and expectations of the new year, will soon kick off. Looking back on China’s over six years of preparations for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, the country, guided by the vision of hosting “green, inclusive, open and clean” Olympic Winter Games, has made continuous efforts and steady progress with every passing day, which makes it more confident and better prepared during the sprint for the sports event.
All 12 competition venues for the Beijing 2022 filled with sci-tech elements are completed, and operation teams of the venues are already in the Games-time state.
The finishing touches to and improvements on non-competition venues are gathering pace, and the three Olympic Villages for the Beijing 2022 are well dressed. Besides, the renovation of venues for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing 2022 has been successfully completed.
The Beijing, Yanqing, and Zhangjiakou competition zones of the Beijing 2022, which are located in Beijing and Zhangjiakou, the co-host city in north China’s Hebei province, are all ready to welcome guests from across the world.
From Oct. 5 to the end of December last year, eight of the 12 competition venues hosted 10 international competitions, three training weeks and two domestic trials in an orderly manner, with the aim of testing all factors of the Games. These competitions and activities were joined by over 2,000 overseas athletes, team officials, and other personnel.
Such all-factor tests, which featured closed-loop management throughout the process for safety amid COVID-19 and accorded with the operation standards in actual competitions, are believed to lay a solid underpinning for ensuring the safe and smooth hosting of the Beijing 2022 as scheduled.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has received “unanimously positive” feedback from athletes in the Beijing 2022 test series, according to IOC sports director Kit McConnell.
The venues they were experiencing in Beijing are absolutely outstanding, noted McConnell. “There is a lot of excitement from them, not only regarding the participation at these events but looking forward to their participation in Beijing in just a few months. It is great to see their feedback both on the technical side and their personal excitement,” he said.
China is stretching out its arms to greet outstanding winter sports athletes from various countries. These athletes, who have superb athletic skills gained through repeated practice and are pursuing beautiful dreams with perseverance, will gather together in China under the Olympic flag.
Athletes are both opponents in competitions and messengers of the Olympic values of excellence, friendship, respect, and solidarity. They inspire each other and help each other improve their performance.
Olympic Games are like a miniature version of the global village, where athletes, while trying their best for dreams and honor, live under the same roof in Olympic Villages. By communicating with each other, they get to know the distinctive charms of different cultures and sow the seeds of peace, friendship and progress in all directions, turning the world into a united team.
Aiming to link countries more closely via sports, the Beijing 2022 serves as a grand stage where numerous good stories will take place.
In 2021, the IOC amended the Olympic motto for the first time in over a century, adding into which the word “together”. The new motto now reads “Faster, Higher, Stronger-Together”.
The revision represents a clear message sent by the Olympic Movement to the world, and harmonizes with the idea of building a community with a shared future for mankind.
By holding a simple, safe and excellent Winter Olympic Games, China will inject impetus into the irresistible trend of the times characterized by peace, development and win-win cooperation.
Chinese wisdom, Chinese solutions and Chinese strength, together with the Olympic Movement, will add strong momentum to the construction of a better world.
Engaging more people in ice and snow sports is an inherent purpose of the Olympic Movement.
The 2022 Winter Olympic Games will connect the Chinese people with the world, and the country’s vision of involving 300 million people in ice and snow sports will change the history of winter sports forever, pointed out Thomas Bach, President of the IOC.
As a firm promoter and practitioner of the Olympic spirit and the Olympic Movement, China is unfolding a splendid scroll painting depicting winter sports in front of the world.
As the COVID-19 epidemic rages across the world, the Olympic spirit and the power of sports play unique and crucial roles in countries’ joint response to the challenge. People in various countries are looking forward to the opening of the Beijing 2022, which will be an occasion when the value of passion and dreams, courage and strength, as well as teamwork and solidarity will be applauded by the whole world.
Let us all expect the moment when the Olympic torch lights up the sky in Beijing and makes the flame of hope shine in everyone’s heart.
Let us all work together for a shared future!
