Alpine acclaim for Games' ski 'paradise'

With perfectly manicured artificial snow covering challenging yet fun terrain, designers and athletes have hailed Beijing 2022's National Alpine Skiing Center as a "paradise "for elite racers.

Built on Xiaohaituo Mountain in Beijing's Yanqing district, and featuring a vertical drop of over 900 meters, the center has earned positive reviews from Olympians for its sophisticated design and high-quality man-made snow, despite limited access to the courses in the build-up to the Games due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Designer Bernhard Russi, a former downhill Olympic champion (1972), is confident the snow quality will allow the world's top daredevils to push their limits.

"What I can tell you is that the snow we have right now on the courses is absolutely perfect. You can not have it better," Russi, chairman of the International Ski Federation's Alpine committee, said at a news briefing at the Main Media Center on Saturday.

"I think for the ski racers, it's just like paradise. They can do whatever they want. It's beautiful for skiing," said the Swiss expert, who has designed nine out of the 10 Alpine courses for the Winter Olympics since the 1988 Games in Calgary, Canada.

"The feedback from the athletes is that the snow, the course, is quite easy to ski... you can make the turn wherever you want. That means compliments to the snowmakers."

Although having part of their pre-race training sessions canceled due to strong winds on Saturday, most skiers heaped praise on the course after going for a trial run.

"I really enjoyed skiing today. The snow here is fantastic, you can do whatever you want to do. You can just ski clean," said Norwegian skier Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, a three-time Olympian, after two training runs.

"It's a downhill with good flow and jumps and what we like. The overall picture of it is cool, different but fun to ski."

Ever since Beijing was awarded hosting rights for the 2022 Winter Olympics in 2015, concerns have been raised by some media and observers over China's lack of expertise in building and managing Alpine venues.

With the first official race－men's downhill－presenting the course to an international audience on Monday, the efforts of Russi and a dedicated team of Chinese organizers over the past seven years are also deserving of a gold medal to silence the skeptics.

"Coming into it, I think we were a little bit concerned, we were like 'Oh, it doesn't snow here often, it's all man-made snow'. But it's great, the snow surface is perfect really. There were probably 12 of us training like six runs and there wasn't a dent in the track," said American skier AJ Hurt.

Having first visited China in 2014 before Beijing officially submitted its bid, Russi has spent seven years analyzing the terrain in Yanqing in order to sculpt the slopes in the northwestern Beijing suburbs into a world-class course worthy of Alpine skiing's best and to deliver a visual thrill for millions of viewers.