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Renowned Chinese winter sports figures hailed the joint bid of Beijing and Zhangjiakou for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games as a strong boost to sports in China, especially in the southern region.
From the first Winter Olympics gold medal claimed by short-track speed skater Yang Yang in 2002 to the three-gold haul at the Sochi Games, Chinese winter sports have been getting stronger, but they still lag behind world powers on ice and snow.
The bid for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games will put winter sports development on the fast track in China with more public interest and government support, said Yang, now a member of the International Olympic Committee.
"It is a great chance for winter sports to draw more attention and engage more people in larger areas across the country," Yang told China Daily recently.
"Winter sports have traditionally been popular in North China, and the potential of hosting the Olympics will definitely spur more enthusiasm for the sports, especially ice events, in South China," said Yang, a five-time short-track speedskating world champion from 1998 to 2002.
To engage more fans from south of the Yangtze River, China's winter sports administrative center launched a long-term program of "moving ice sports from north to south", and the 2022 bid will speed that up, said Zhao Yinggang, director of the center.
"It's been anticipated that more social funding and private investment will be attracted to build commercial rinks and indoor facilities, which offer greater accessibility for winter sports to the public in South China," said Zhao.
Skating on frozen ponds has long been a tradition in North China, but not until recently has skating emerged as fashionable winter recreation for southern urban youths as well.
During the Sochi Winter Olympics, the two rinks at Shanghai's Feiyang Skating Center, which Yang established last year, were fully booked almost every weekend, with parents sending their tottering young children onto the ice.
"It's easy to find a rink inside a shopping mall in big cities like Shanghai, so why not give children another choice for exercise?" said Zhu Yumin, the mother of a 9-year-old amateur figure skater in Shanghai.
Century Star, China's first commercial ice sports club, currently operates 13 rinks across the country and plans to open at least 10 more this year, most of them in southern China.
Another club in Beijing, Champion Rink, which manages 12 facilities, envisions a five-city expansion that will cover more southern provinces.
Yang urged the winter sports governing body to reform its talent development system by getting more commercial clubs to ride the momentum.
"The growing number of social-funded skating clubs are great additions to the State-run system, so more teenage talent should be tapped from commercial clubs," said Yang.
sunxiaochen@chinadaily.com.cn
(China Daily 07/08/2014 page6)
