Test events augur well for stellar Beijing Winter Games

Organizers of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics say ongoing test events suggest the city will deliver safe and stellar Games next year, despite the lingering pandemic.

After having staged six test events, including figure skating and short-track speedskating, the busy testing program will continue on the snow later this month with snowboarding and freestyle skiing cross competitions held from Nov 27-28 at Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou, Beijing's co-host city in Hebei province. Continental Cup events for ski jumping and Nordic combined competitions will also take place from Dec 4-5 at the National Ski Jumping Center and National Cross-Country Skiing Center in Zhangjiakou.

The organizing committee will discuss the Games with the International Olympic Committee, the International Paralympic Committee and relevant international winter sports governing bodies at brainstorming sessions after all the test events to streamline venues and facilities, scheduling, timing and scoring, COVID-19 protocols, services and media operations, said Yao Hui, venue management director of the Beijing 2022 organizing committee.

Citing the early readiness of Chinese organizers and the venues, Juan Antonio Samaranch, chairman of the IOC's Beijing 2022 Coordination Commission, has spoken highly of the Chinese capital's preparatory work to be the world's first city to host both the summer and winter editions of the Olympics.

"We have received overwhelming positive feedback from athletes and international organizations on the venues hosting the test events," Samaranch said during a teleconference after a virtual Coordination Commission meeting last week.

With a week to go before the International Luge Federation World Cup takes place at the National Sliding Center in northwest Beijing's Yanqing district, the Beijing 2022 organizing committee confirmed on Friday that two foreign athletes preparing for the event have tested positive for COVID-19 in recent nucleic acid tests and have been immediately transferred to a quarantine hotel for further treatment.

The first case was reported on Nov 4 when the athlete tested positive upon landing at Beijing Capital International Airport, where all inbound participants for the ongoing test events and the Games next year will enter closed-loop management, also known as biosecure bubbles, with their movement restricted only between their accommodation facilities, training and competition venues within the bubble separated from the local community during their stay.

Classified as a close contact of the first case, another luge athlete from the same delegation tested positive on Thursday, officials said at a news briefing on Friday.

Both were diagnosed as asymptomatic carriers, and the two athletes have been taken good care of at a designated hotel isolated from each other and the rest of the Cup participants under close health monitoring with necessary treatment provided, according to the Beijing 2022 organizing committee's epidemic prevention and control office.

Other athletes and officials preparing for the Yanqing race, should their twice-a-day COVID-19 tests keep returning negative results, will be allowed to continue training on the Olympic track even if having had close contact with the two positive cases, said Huang Chun, deputy director of the office.

"We have to guarantee the safety of all participants, more importantly the health of the general public, while at the same time making sure that the training and competition won't be affected," Huang said.

Since the beginning of the "Experience Beijing" international test event series in early October, over 2,600 overseas participants have entered China for training and competition, while no other positive cases, except for these two new cases, have been reported, according to the organizing committee.

The timely and effective handling of the two positive cases has set an example for the organizers to deal with potentially more challenging scenarios during the Games themselves, while proving that Beijing 2022's COVID-19 countermeasures－highlighted by daily testing, bubble management and quick responses－are working well, Huang said.

As part of the test event series, the luge World Cup meet will see the top speedsters in the sliding sport push their limits from Nov 19-21 at the challenging 1.9-kilometer Yanqing track, which has earned resounding international acclaim by hosting smooth test runs for bobsled and skeleton races last month.

"We've encountered enormous challenges running these test events for the Olympics amid the ongoing pandemic. Yet the rewards and feedback for us to further improve our operations and services based on reviews of these events have been quite valuable," Yao said.