OlymPicks: A Look at the Zones Part One, Beijing Zone
In OlymPicks, we highlight news, gossip, and developments regarding the buildup to Beijing's 2022 Winter Olympics.
With the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics' opening ceremony just a few months away on Feb 4, the Games' “zones” are deep in the throes of preparations. For those who don't know, there will be three official zones that host Olympic events including Beijing, Yanqing, and Zhangjiakou.
The zone closest to most of us, if you hadn't already guessed, will be the Beijing Zone. This area will be primarily used for the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as most of the ice sports. Along with a few new faces in the venue lineup, most of the Beijing Zone facilities were actually constructed for and used during the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics. This little rundown looks at all of them.
The Bird's Nest – aka National Stadium
The architectural brilliance of the Beijing Bird’s Nest will again be front and center, and though no sporting events will take place here, the commencement and finale will be celebrated under its roof.
The Ice Cube – aka National Aquatics Center
During the Summer 2008 Games, the National Aquatics Center hosted all of the water sports, however, in the cool of the 2022 Winter Olympics, this venue has been given a chilly transformation, effectively freezing the well-known Water Cube into a veritable Ice Cube for next year's curling events. Such facelifts are part and parcel of the city's mission to reuse venues and keep the historically wasteful Olympics as green and sustainable as possible.
The Fan – aka National Indoor Stadium
Another building that's getting a second life is the National Indoor Stadium – nicknamed the Fan due to its visual similarity with a traditional Chinese collapsible fan – where the world's finest ice hockey players will duke it out. Originally used for rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline, and handball during the previous Summer Games, it became its current iteration in 2015 when it was used for Women’s World Championship Hockey.
Wukesong Sports Center
Aside from the Fan, international ice hockey elites will also be descending on the Wukesong Sports Center which, thanks to its capacity for more than 18,000 spectators, will serve as the main hockey hub for the Winter Games. In 2008, Wukesong hosted basketball competitions, one of the more popular Olympic events, which explains its massive crowd size.
Capital Indoor Stadium
Perhaps the most historic venue of the 2022 Games is the Capital Indoor Stadium. Constructed in 1968, this building has seen some of the greatest sports action in Beijing's history, including the legendary US/China ping-pong diplomacy exchanges of 1971, as well as one of the first-ever NBA matches to grace China's soil.
The Ice Ribbon – aka National Speed Skating Oval
Next is the Games' only newly built venue and it will be where the speed skating competitions take place, hence its name, the National Speed Skating Oval, aka the Ice Ribbon. To be fair though, the site where the building stands is not a complete stranger to Olympic glory, as in 2008 this was the same area where green field hockey and green archery were played.
Big Air Shougang
While Beijing's Olympic architecture is pretty damn iconic, perhaps no competition area is getting more buzz than the Big Air Shougang venue. This is a semi-new build, as it was repurposed from the bones of an old steelworks plant. Here, form meets function, as its extreme nature goes well beyond the mere design of the place, which will see freestyle skiers and snowboarders shred the old cooling towers.
Beijing Winter Olympic Village
Most of the Games' ice sports competitors will call this village home, which is capable of sleeping 2,300 exhausted athletes. After the games, however, Beijing's got big plans. “Following the conclusion of the Winter Olympics and Paralympics, the health and intelligence-themed village will become public housing open for rent.” So who knows, maybe someone reading this will one day call this their pad.
READ: OlymPicks: Snowmaking Underway in Yanqing, Athlete Meals Announced & More
Images: olympic.org.nz, Dianping, China State Construction Engineering, beijing2022.cn, CGTN, China Daily
