Experts mightily impressed as test runs lay foundation for Olympic excellence

Smooth test runs on the slopes and tracks at Beijing 2022 venues have impressed international experts and heightened expectations that the world will witness Winter Olympics and Paralympics that are second to none.

A first rehearsal for the Games last month saw a series of competitions staged for 20 skiing, snowboarding and sliding disciplines across six venues in northwest Beijing's Yanqing and co-host Zhangjiakou's Chongli districts. The test runs featured domestic athletes only due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while a total of 4,306 personnel were involved.

Competition courses and venue infrastructures were tested, operational staff and service providers were trained, while epidemic prevention and control protocols were developed.

The rehearsal was part of an "adapted sports testing program "implemented last November by Beijing 2022, the International Olympic Committee and relevant winter sports federations after they were forced to modify their plans in response to the pandemic situation.

Now organizers are aiming to stage 10 larger-scale international test events involving foreign participants, provisionally scheduled for October to December.

"Test runs are fundamental to deliver successful Games. It is through these tests that we figure out potential problems in our operation and make timely adjustments," Yan Cheng, Beijing 2022's human resource director, told Xinhua after the completion of the Feb 16-26 program.

"Based on the general performance, it's fair to say the testing program has yielded good results in line with the goals we set beforehand."

A group of international technical experts invited by Beijing 2022 to monitor the tests heaped praise on the facilities and staff.

Davide Cerato, an International Ski Federation-approved freestyle course designer, hailed the operational team at Chongli's Genting Resort, Beijing 2022's freestyle venue, as "the best team I have ever worked together with".

"For me, these test events have been very successful, everybody here is working very, very hard," said Cerato.

"They are all professional at the maximum level. The result is to see only the happy smiling faces of the athletes at the end of each run. That's the most important thing."

Normunds Kotans, a former Latvian bobsledder turned technical official, was highly impressed by the newly built National Sliding Center in Yanqing after monitoring runs in women's monobob.

"From a number of different perspectives, Yanqing sliding center is the greatest venue I have been to and worked at. There are a lot of advantages here," said Kotans.

"There are very good facilities for athletes. Everything is very thought through for the athletes. So I'm sure that everyone who will come here will really enjoy this venue."

Stringent anti-COVID-19 measures were also practiced at all venues, such as the setup of isolation fences in the mixed zone at Genting resort to separate media from athletes.

"The World Health Organization says we should be two meters apart. And each one of these fences is two meters... so we actually double the WHO (standard)," said former FIS freestyle coordinator Joe Fitzgerald.

Beijing 2022 will organize a series of domestic test events for ice sports, such as hockey and wheelchair curling, at venues in the capital's downtown area in April.