At the debriefing press conference for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics held on June 5 in Beijing, Chen Jining, deputy secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China and mayor of Beijing, announced that the sports venues for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games will be completed and cleared for tests and rehearsals by the end of 2019, and all the newly built and renovated venues will be finished and put into service by September 2021.

Chen, who is also the executive president of the Beijing Winter Olympic Organizing Committee, addressed concerns for construction progress of the Winter Olympic venues and infrastructures during the Q&A session. Altogether 26 venues in the three competition areas of Beijing, Yanqing, and Zhangjiakou will be serving the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. All the ice sports, big air snowboarding, and opening and closing ceremonies will be staged in the 13 venues in Beijing; events such as alpine skiing, bobsleigh, and tobogganing will take place in the five venues in Yanqing; events such as freestyle skiing, snowboarding, biathlon, ski jumping, and cross-country skiing will be held in the eight venues in Zhangjiakou, the mayor said.

Among the sports venues, the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing, the National Alpine Skiing Center and the National Bobsleigh and Tobogganing Center in Yanqing, and the main competition venues in Zhangjiakou are all under construction. While most renovation projects will kick off this year, the Wukesong Sports Center will undergo renovation after the Basketball World Cup next year, and the National Convention Center will be renovated in 2021.

Chen said that key transportation infrastructures such as the Beijing-Zhangjiakou high-speed railway and the Yanqing-Chongli highway, water supply facilities, electric power facilities, weather equipment, and communication devices are being constructed and will complete by 2019 to ensure smooth test runs.

Chen said that Beijing will draw upon past experiences and good ideas of other host cities, implement “the new norm” of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and guarantee satisfactory preparatory work for the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics. Thomas Bach, president of the IOC, said that the preparatory stage of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics has manifested China’s vitality and resolve, and that once made, the decisions will fuel cooperation between China and its partners.

The IOC has given approval to the Beijing Winter Olympic Organizing Committee for its use of legacy venues. Bach said that Beijing will be offering the best opportunity for the athletes from all over the world, leading millions of Chinese people to start enjoying winter sports, and creating its own legacy in the field of winter sports.

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