OlymPicks: 2022 Venues Go Green; Star Korean Coach to Helm Chinese Speed Skaters
In OlymPicks, we highlight news, gossip, and developments regarding the buildup to Beijing's 2022 Winter Olympics.
Olympic Venues Go Green
The need for hosts of the Olympic Games to not only dazzle the world with their production value, but to also make the spectacle environmentally sustainable is a requirement that is becoming increasingly important these days.
For the Winter Olympics, the hosts must specifically contend with the need to pump vast amounts of electricity into sports facilities to keep ice frozen and snow soft. Beijing 2022 Olympic officials have been quick to reassure the public that their efforts to create a successful Games align with a recent ecological pledge that isn’t just prudent, but downright ambitious.
The secret? The use of a new, cleaner natural CO2 refrigeration system to keep their winter Olympic venues for speed skating, figure skating and short track nice and frosty. Swapping in this greener, cutting-edge method should reduce carbon emissions to the equivalent of planting over 1,200,000 trees.
READ: Will Beijing's 2022 Sporting Venues Go to Waste?
A press release for the initiative re-outlines that “The IOC’s involvement in this development stems from its strong commitment to sustainability, which is a key pillar of Olympic Agenda 2020 – the strategic roadmap for the future of the Olympic Movement.” Indeed, last year Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic officials made headlines by forgoing glitz and grandeur and instead promising a more modest approach to venue usage. Where prior Olympics lead to ambitiously constructed complexes that have since fallen into disrepair or converted into oddball tourist attractions, Beijing officials instead touted plans to reuse existing structures from its 2008 Summer Games for 2022, the most significant example being the Water Cube where star swimmer Michael Phelps made a name for himself becoming an “ice cube” for winter sports like curling.
Korean Star Coach Joins Chinese Olympic Squad
Although Team China recently made headlines by recruiting American star skier Eileen Gu to its roster, she’s by no means the only foreign talent flocking to the Middle Kingdom ahead of 2022. A slew of expat coaches have also been enlisted to train Chinese athletes in recent months, the latest being Korean speed skating coach Kim Sun-Tae.
He’ll have plenty to offer Chinese speed skaters once he begins the job. After all, under Kim’s guidance, South Korea won an impressive six Olympic medals at Pyeongchang 2018 – two bronze, one silver, and a whopping three gold.
What’s more: star coach Kim will be overseeing an already stacked short track speed skating team deemed to be “among China's best hopes for medals at Beijing 2022,” according to Inside the Games.
Indeed, Chinese short track speed skaters have snagged a staggering 33 of the 62 Winter Olympics medals that their nation has won since China’s debut at Lake Placid in 1980. The current Chinese big name in this sport is, of course, Wu Dajing (pictured above, right), who clinched the men's 500m short track Olympic gold medal at Pyeongchang 2018.
Kim recently told Chinese state media: “I am very happy to come here to help more Chinese skaters get better,” adding, “Everything is very good, all we need to do is try our best in the training.”
UK Paralympians Poised for Success in Beijing 2022
Although there will be plenty of exciting matchups during the primary winter sports events at Beijing 2022, fans should also keep their eyes on the UK's Paralympic athletes for exciting Olympic feats.
Those athletes' potential ahead of Beijing 2022 is highlighted by UK Sport (the government agency that heads up investment in Olympic and Paralympic sport in the UK) which last week offered GBP 2.978 million (RMB 25.90 million) for a number of events in China.
Impressive as that funding is, where that money will go is all the more laudable: not only glamorous primary Olympic sports like skiing and snowboarding, but also disciplines in need like Para-ski and snowboard, and wheelchair curling.
The investment comes on the heels of British athletes’ successes at the 2019 World Para-Alpine Skiing Championships. At its completion in the Slovenian town Kranjska Gora, those athletes had won nine medals across ski and snowboard events.
"Following some notable successes across several sports during the winter season, which demonstrates increasing potential as we move towards Beijing, there were some compelling cases for additional investment," Chelsea Warr, director of performance at UK Sport, told Inside the Games. She added: “We are delighted to be strengthening our support for ski and snowboard and Para-ski and snowboard, and are really excited about the potential of the team following some strong individual performances at their respective World Championships.”
Keep abreast of all the Beijing Winter Olympics news here as we count down to 2022.
Photo: Inside the Games
