Have the Chinese already succeeded in their bet? Possible. Just one month after the end of the Beijing 2022 Winter Games (February 4 to 20 for the Olympic event, March 4 to 13 for the Paralympic version), the Chinese regime's ambition to transform the country into a sports giant winter already seems a reality.
The health crisis and the virtual absence of spectators at the competition sites have not changed anything: the impact of the 2022 Winter Games on public interest and the practice of snow and ice sports in China is already measurable. He imposes it.
First clue: the numbers. According to data from Chinese tax authorities, the winter sports industry experienced a historically unprecedented growth spurt in the first quarter of 2022. In March alone, the first after the Olympics, ski and skating sales increased by 65% in Chongli district, where the Zhangjiakou cluster, site of the Nordic ski events, is located. , snowboarding and freestyle skiing.
For the first quarter of 2022, the revenue of the winter sports industry recorded a growth of 35,2% in the same Chongli district. In Yanqing, the site of alpine ski competitions, the increase reached 68,9%.
Same growth spurt in the accommodation and catering sectors. In Chongli, the results reveal an increase in turnover of 350% compared to the same period in 2021.
Another sign: practice. The Chinese organizers had assured, before the Beijing Games, that the equipment dedicated to the Olympic and Paralympic competitions would be left behind to encourage the development of winter sports. They keep their word.
Our Agency Xinhua announces that the Beijing National Aquatics Center, transformed into an ice rink for the 2022 Winter Games, will be open to the public from April 16. It will stay that way for a month.
Visitors will be able to explore the Ice cube from the inside, including the athletes' locker rooms, the mixed zone and the podium. They will also have the opportunity to try their hand at curling. In exchange for an entry ticket of 90 yuan (13 euros), they will even be able to put on special shoes, get on the ice and throw six stones, all under the supervision of a professional coach.
The same pilot experiment initiated by the site promoter offers collective sessions, intended for companies wishing to motivate their employees. Cost: 3500 yuan per hour (500 euros) for the entire rink. The service includes curling equipment, a team of coaches and logistical support.
Since the end of the Winter Games, Chinese Olympic medalists have been called upon to contribute their voices and experience to the effort to promote winter sports. On Wednesday April 13, there were a handful of people flocking to the Shougang site in Beijing, used a few weeks earlier for the Big Air events.
Among them, Su Yiming (photo above), China's first Olympic gold medalist in the freestyle skiing discipline. Perfectly prepared for the exercise, the young athlete played his part without a false note. “ For a long time, Chinese male snowboarders were not among the world's elite, he explained to the young fans gathered on the site, encouraging them to try their luck. But, thanks to my hard work, I want to show that Chinese snowboarding has now reached the best level in the world."
Comment by Liu Haitao, an official from Shijingshan district, quoted by the China Daily : " Thanks to the Beijing Winter Olympics, participating in winter sports has become a new trend among our citizens. Each year, approximately 50% of our population participates in winter sports"
Even before the opening of the Beijing 2022 Games, Chinese authorities had assured that more than 346 million Chinese had tried winter sports, in one form or another, since the attribution in 2015 to the Chinese capital of the 2022 Winter Games. The figure seemed unreal. It has probably not finished increasing.
