China's efforts to build a sporting powerhouse will last after the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Legacies from the two Games should continue to boost sporting development in China, according to national legislators and political advisors who are currently gathered in Beijing for China's annual "Two Sessions" Parliament season.
BROADER PARTICIPATION
When Beijing was awarded the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics in 2015, China set a goal of engaging 300 million people in winter sports.
By October 2021, over 346 million Chinese people have participated in winter sports or related leisure activities since 2015, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
"This has written a new chapter in China's winter sports and mass sports," said Bian Zhiliang, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee.
Among the 346 million people, 300 million are aged 18 and above and 37 percent of Chinese people aged between 18 and 30 have engaged in winter sports, the most active among all age groups, said the NBS report.
10-year-old Peng Junda has already practiced ice hockey for over four years. "One day when I was looking at an ice rink, I felt that playing ice hockey was so cool, so I made up my mind to learn it," he said.
The athletic feats of star Olympians like Gu Ailing and Su Yiming have further ignited the younger generations' passion for winter sports, said CPPCC member Du Li.
"My son is fond of skateboarding. He practiced skiing in the past, but after witnessing Su Yiming's performance at the Winter Olympics, he decided to switch to snowboarding," said Du, a former Olympic shooting champion.
CPPCC member Yang Yang believes that a larger base of youth participants and their regular participation will be the cornerstone of the sustainable development of winter sports.
"China presented to the world a truly exceptional Winter Olympics, which helped in engaging 300 million people in winter sports and spurring the development of China's winter sports industry," said Yang, China's first Winter Olympic gold medalist.
CPPCC member Guan Jianmin also underscored the huge contributions that widespread participation in winter sports has made to China's endeavor to build a sporting powerhouse.
"Engaging 300 million people in winter sports has laid a solid foundation for China's drive of building a sporting powerhouse and serves an important way to promote winter sports' role in achieving an all-round development of people and economy and society," Guan noted.
GREATER ACCESS TO WINTER SPORTS FACILITIES
Driven by the growing enthusiasm of the general public in winter sports, there has been a boom in the construction of ski and skating facilities in China since 2015.
As of early 2021, China has a total of 654 standard ice rinks, an increase of 317 percent over 2015 and the number of ski resorts has risen from 568 in 2015 to 803 at present.
Thanks to high-tech facilities such as portable artificial ice rinks, artificial intelligence skiing simulators, and dry-land roller ski training methods, winter sports have reached China's southern provinces where snow and ice are rarely seen.
Guan has called for continuing construction of winter sports venues and opening the facilities to the public for free or at low prices.
"Different regions should meticulously plan their winter sports facilities construction on the basis of local ice and snow resources and economic development," said Guan, adding that government departments should coordinate all sectors in promoting winter sports.
Bian advised the government to purchase services, cooperate with sports companies to revitalize the idle resources and step up in building, renovating and upgrading sports venues and fields in an orderly fashion.
National People's Congress (NPC) deputy Li Wei echoed this idea. "Policies should be formulated to better introduce private capital to the construction of winter sports infrastructures," he said.
