Beijing Youth Daily:
My question is about the Paralympic Winter Games. China participated in the Paralympic Winter Games for the first time in 2002. Nowadays, the number of Paralympic Winter Games athletes in China has increased from less than 50 to more than 1,000, and we have won many international championships on many events. How can the Paralympic Winter Games promote the participation of people with disabilities in snow and ice sports in China?How to mobilize more people with disabilities to answer the call of "engaging 300 million Chinese people with sport on snow and ice?" Thank you.
Wang Meimei:
Thank you for your attention to the development of snow and ice sports for persons with disabilities. This is a very good question and I'll be happy to answer it. Well, with the popularity and development of the Paralympic Winter Games events in China, snow and ice sports for people with disabilities have made great progress since Beijing won the bid for Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. After winning the bid, China held snow and ice sports season activities for people with disabilities for five consecutive years, beginning 2016. The number of places for organizing such activities increased from 14 to 31, constantly expanding the coverage regarding both places and participants. Advanced by diverse parties and drawing much social attention, such activities have enjoyed a higher level, more scientific structure, and richer content with innovative and interesting events. With the popularization of winter sports for persons with disabilities, overall, the ice and snow sports for this group of people are developing very fast. Every year, more than 300,000 people with disabilities participate in snow and ice sports season activities, contributing to the vision proposed by General Secretary Xi Jinping of "engaging 300 million Chinese people with sport on snow and ice."
During the snow and ice season activities, we undertook leading national activities in Beijing and Hebei province, taking Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, and Inner Mongolia as the main sites to conduct activities. We have also expanded to eastern and southern China, including provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Guangdong to host events. At the same time, we also mobilized Shaanxi province, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and other western regions to participate. We relied on the five special associations (the China Association for Sight-Impaired Persons; China Association for Hearing-Impaired Persons; China Association for Persons with Physical Disabilities; China Association for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities and Their Relatives; China Association for Mentally Disabled Persons and Their Relatives) of China Disabled Persons Federation to actively carry out the snow and ice sports activities for the people with disabilities.
With joint participation and promotion, many activities featuring snow and ice were held according to local conditions. For example, we carried out experience activities for the Paralympic Winter Games and conducted mass snow and ice competitions, including those on synthetic ice and snow. We also organized snow and ice carnivals and summer camps. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have carried out many online winter sports rehabilitation and fitness programs to guide people with disabilities and engage them with diversified activities. Meanwhile, we created and promoted many activities popular among persons with disabilities, such as mini-skiing, floor curling, and floor hockey. In order to further popularize and develop snow and ice sports for people with disabilities, we have compiled some guidance manuals on winter fitness programs for disabled persons and made relevant videos, and then distributed them to the communities and grassroots units. In this way, we can drive and promote more disabled people to participate in the whole winter sports activities and enjoy the joy brought by snow and ice.
The Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games are approaching, and we will hold the sixth snow and ice event for people with disabilities, which is expected to further promote the participation of disabled persons in the Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games and create a favorable atmosphere for making the two games a big success. Thank you.
