Beijing all set for Olympic encore

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Gold, silver and bronze medals for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics (top row) and Paralympics are unveiled on Oct 26 in Beijing (ZHANG WEI / CHINA DAILY)

With the torch relit, venues being tested and operational drills underway, Beijing is all set for its encore as an Olympic host after the 100-day countdown to the opening of the Winter Olympics began.

Thirteen years after the curtain was lowered on the 2008 Summer Games, the Olympic flame returned to the Chinese capital as Beijing’s preparations for the Winter Olympics entered the home stretch, with operational details, legacy and, most importantly, safety amid the pandemic given priority.

As part of the 100-day countdown celebrations, organisers unveiled designs of the Olympic and Paralympic medals on 26 October, just a week after welcoming the torch back from Greece, the birthplace of the ancient Games, where it was lit, triggering worldwide anticipation for the opening ceremony on February 4.

The medals for the 2022 Winter Olympics, inspired by yu bi, a circular Chinese jade artefact dating back 5,000 years, each have carvings of the Olympic rings on one side and are inscribed with “XXIV Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022”. Engravings of cloud patterns, an element used on the torch of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, snowflakes and ice markings fill the outer rings. The other side of the medals has the Beijing 2022 emblem at the centre. The outer rings are dotted with 24 stars strung together by circles, representing the 24th edition of the Winter Olympics.

Athletes compete in an international test event for next year’s Beijing Winter Olympics at the newly opened National Skating Oval in October (WEI XIAOHAO / CHINA DAILY)

Sharing the same design, but with slight changes, the 2022 Paralympic Winter Games medals were also unveiled the same day, with the International Paralympic Committee’s logo carved on one side and the Beijing 2022 Paralympic emblem on the other.

The International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said in a video message played at the ceremony: “With all these great efforts and the outstanding preparations we can already see now, we can really say ‘together for a shared future’, and this shared future will be a bright one for winter sports worldwide.”

To ensure that operations at all the 12 competition venues meet Olympic standards, the Beijing 2022 organising committee began evaluating facilities, organisation and services across three zones –­ downtown Beijing, the Yanqing district in the city’s northwest and the co-host city Zhangjiakou, Hebei province – through a series of international test events beginning on 8 October.

From 21 to 24 October, the Capital Indoor Stadium, a 53-year-old arena that has been renovated for Beijing 2022, impressed athletes and officials alike when it staged a spectator-less leg of the International Skating Union short-track speed skating World Cup.

The Canadian skater Courtney Sarault heaped praise on the venue’s readiness, citing ideal ice conditions during the test event. “I love this rink. I really love the ice,” said Sarault, a silver medallist in the women’s 1,500m at the world championships in March. “It’s really grippy. I feel like I can hold my corners. I’m excited that the Olympic Games are here.”

About 145 miles northwest of downtown, an international testing programme for bobsled and skeleton is in full swing at Yanqing National Sliding Centre, with foreign athletes experiencing the 1.18-mile Olympic track for the first time since its completion this summer.

“The first responses we have from the athletes taking part in these test events are extremely positive,” Thomas Bach told China Central Television in Greece after the flame was lit on 18 October.

However, Games organisers reiterated that was not time to relax.

“Even having received a lot of positive feedback, we still need to stay clear-headed in our review of the test events and make quick fixes wherever needed as carefully as we can,” said Yao Hui, venue management director of the organising committee.

Previously published on Chinadaily.com.cn