As the finale of the "Meet in Beijing" series of winter sports event test activities, the 2021/2022 2022 Biathlon International Training Week began on December 28 at the Zhangjiakou National Biathlon Center. The training week, which will be held from December 28 to 31, will test the track, range, waxing room and other related facilities, and test 17 areas in the venue, including technology, medical treatment, and volunteers. It is understood that at present, a total of 26 participants from the Olympic Committees of 8 countries and regions, as well as 1 foreign expert, participate. The testers will conduct 8 hours of testing every day to comprehensively test the competition work in all aspects of the athletes' comprehensive area, track, waxing room and other venues.
In response to the specific needs of the training week, the National Biathlon Center has made snow on December 25 to make all the tracks needed for the stadium, and complete the safety protection of the surrounding area. Among them, the snowmaking thickness in the core area such as the starting and ending areas has reached 1 meter, and the track area has also reached 80 centimeters.
According to Wei Qinghua, manager of the mountain operation site of the ancient poplar tree venue in Zhangjiakou Racing Area, the snowmaking work of the National Biathlon Center involves cross-country skiing tracks, shooting range areas, penalty circles, and also carried out slotting work. Cross-country skiing is divided into freestyle and traditional, with traditional skiing requiring skiing within the snow trough. Cross-country skiing in 2nd winter is carried out in freestyle, "because the winter biathlon of the Winter Paralympic Games has a seated shooting, so it needs to be slotted." Wei Qinghua explained that the ski track slotting work was also carried out at the request of foreign participants who came to China to participate in the International Training Week, "This training week did not involve athletes to participate in the test, and the waxer needs to fully understand the snow quality and snow temperature of the venue." ”
The snowmaking work of the National Biathlon Center lasted for six weeks, and in terms of basic snowmaking, the snowmaking of the competition venue and the main environmental settings has been completed, "there are nearly 125,000 square meters of snow, including race tracks, warm-up tracks, and winter Paralympic tracks." Wei Qinghua said. In addition to snowmaking on the track, there is also snowmaking in the landscape. According to him, the National Biathlon Center has a wide track at the starting and finishing points and the range area, and the basic width of the track in other areas is 6 meters; in the snowmaking process, if it encounters snow sprayed in the air by the wind, it will fall to the perimeter of the track, which will not cause waste to the snowmaking work, "About 60% of the snowmaking falls on the periphery of the track, so that there is a cover in some bare places to avoid wind and sand erosion, thus protecting the track." On the other hand, the overall landscape environment of the venue has also been improved. Wei Qinghua said.
Another important task after snowmaking is completed is snow storage. The National Biathlon Centre has a longer schedule, with biathlon events held at the Winter Olympics, as well as biathlon and cross-country skiing competitions at the Winter Paralympic Games. According to Wei Qinghua, more than 60% of the field is yang, and the snow storage of the yang and yin sides can reach a month's difference, "how to overcome the situation of high temperature and sun, it is necessary to increase the amount of snowmaking." "Unlike the National Cross-Country SkiIng Centre track, which is 60 cm thicker, the snowmaking on the latter track has been increased to 80 cm, taking into account the length of the national biathlon centre schedule and the need to ensure snow quality.
"Even in this case we made an emergency reserve, which is the reserve snowmaking that will be carried out later. By then, about 30,000 tons of water will be needed for 56,000 cubic meters of reserve snowmaking. Wei Qinghua also showed that the water used for the competition does not conflict with the water used by local residents, and the water problem has been planned since the beginning of the bid for the Winter Olympics.
Zhao Weidong, director of the Information and Propaganda Department of the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee, once said that the water demand in Zhangjiakou during the games accounted for 9.8 percent of the total water used in Chongli District and 2.8 percent of the water resources in Chongli District. The above data shows that the domestic water of Zhangjiakou residents will not be affected by snowmaking. Zhangjiakou City has implemented the Yunzhou Reservoir Water Transfer Project, which has transferred a total of 5.216 million cubic meters of water to Chongli District since its completion, effectively reducing the amount of groundwater extracted in Chongli District and preventing the groundwater level from decreasing.
Secondly, through the formulation of measures such as water supply safety guarantee, sewage treatment, and water conservation in the competition area, the carrying capacity of water resources and water environment in the competition area will be improved. Ski resorts give priority to the collection and storage of natural precipitation, surface runoff, etc. as artificial snowmaking water sources. The artificial snowmaking system adopts the world's most advanced high-efficiency water-saving artificial snowmaking equipment and intelligent snowmaking system, which can dynamically maintain the best snowmaking efficiency and save water according to the external environment. Through real-time monitoring of meteorological conditions, select the most suitable conditions to start the snow machine to avoid snowmaking and waste of water resources.
Image from Xinhua News Agency