On October 28, 2021, the "Bird's Nest", a witness to the Summer Olympic Games, was completed, and the flame of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games will be lit at the "Bird's Nest" that has been transformed, and this "Double Olympic Stadium" will once again become the focus of the world.
Not only the "Bird's Nest", the rich legacy left by the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in the past 14 years has laid a solid foundation for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. The renovation of 4 Summer Olympic competition venues has been completed, ski jumps have been erected in the industrial heritage, and the post-race utilization plan has been carried through the construction of the venues...
▲As the finale of the construction of the Beijing Winter Olympics Project, the renovation project of the "Bird's Nest" of the National Stadium, which undertakes the task of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, took one and a half years to complete.
The Summer Olympic Heritage applies to the Winter Olympics
The Beijing Winter Olympics will be prepared by Beijing Municipality for a total of 24 venues, of which 20 will be held in Beijing.
More than ten years ago, in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Huang Hui participated in the whole process of the construction of the central area of the Beijing Olympic Park as the person in charge. More than a decade later, when he returned to the "Bird's Nest" to carry out the transformation task, he saw the magnificent steel structure and the wave-like seats, just like seeing an old friend who had been reunited for a long time.
As the director of the venue construction department of the major project office of Beijing Municipality, Huang Hui talked about the Beijing Olympic Games, and the "double Olympic builder" gushed endlessly.
"People often criticize the low utilization of foreign Olympic venues, or even abandoned." Huang Hui introduced that in accordance with the requirements of "adhering to the principle of conservation, not engaging in extravagance and luxury, and not engaging in duplicate construction", the preparations for the Beijing Winter Olympics insisted on the shared utilization, comprehensive utilization and sustainable use of venues, and used 14 2008 Olympic heritages.
This includes 10 venue heritages. In addition to the National Speed Skating Hall and the Shougang Ski Jump, all the competition venues in Beijing used the venues of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games: the National Aquatics Center, the National Gymnasium, the Wukesong Sports Center, the National Stadium, etc. These new landmarks left by the Beijing Olympic Games have become a paradise for public fitness, and will soon become a stage for the athletes of the Winter Olympics.
There are also 4 land heritages. The National Speed Skating Hall used two temporary venues for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games: the hockey field and the archery range; the second phase of the National Convention Center and the Beijing Winter Olympic Village used the reserved land of the Olympic Park.
"The builders of the Winter Olympics have formed a world-leading system and standard in various aspects such as sustainable concepts, green buildings, and smart construction." Huang Hui said.
All venues winter and summer "amphibious"
"Water Cube" transformed into "Ice Cube", Wukesong Sports Center completed the conversion of ice hockey and basketball in 6 hours... Athletes compete on the field, and Winter Olympic builders also "break records" on the construction site.
In 2008, the azure "Water Cube" stunned the world, and a world record was born here.
After the Beijing Olympics, the "Water Cube" became a water playground for citizens; at the 2014 APEC meeting, it became the stage for great power diplomacy.
At the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, the "Water Cube" will be transformed into the "Ice Cube", becoming the world's first Olympic venue to set up a curling track on the pool.
Water, ice, a word difference, the challenge is unprecedented -
Compared with the high temperature and high humidity environment of the swimming pool, the curling field needs low temperature and low humidity - the humidity of the curling competition venue is below 30%, the ice surface temperature is about -8 °C, the air temperature of 1 meter above the ice surface is 10 °C, and the temperature in the hall is within 16 °C.
The curling hall is full of lights and cameras, and the large amount of heat generated will affect the quality of the ice surface. At the end of 2015, the International Olympic Committee and the World Curling Federation visited China and gave 29 technical requirements and standards for curling venues, covering four aspects: ice stability, hot and humid environment, lighting system and sound field environment.
In April 2017, the support system of "thin-walled light steel structure + concrete slab" was recognized by the World Jug Federation.
In July 2019, the first "water ice conversion" took a full 45 days. In December 2020, the second "water ice conversion" structure construction was accelerated, and it took only ten days to successfully complete. In mid-October 2021, the venue completed the third "water ice conversion" and accepted the test of the "Meet in Beijing" domestic curling test event and the World Wheelchair Curling Championship.
It's not just "water ice conversion".
Wukesong Sports Center, which undertook basketball competitions during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, has now completed the conversion of ice hockey and basketball competition modes within 6 hours after the transformation of the venue's ice making and dehumidification systems.
After the Beijing Winter Olympics, all competition venues in Beijing will have the ability to "amphibious" in winter and summer.
New landmarks added to the old campus
Beijing is the only "City of The Two Olympics" in the world. "Borrowing" venues, serving the Winter Olympics during the games, and continuing to serve the people's livelihood and development of the city after the games is another innovation in Beijing's practice of "sharing the Olympic Games".
The main media center of the Beijing Winter Olympics "borrowed" the second phase of the National Convention Center, which served the media of the world during the game and returned to the original exhibition function after the game.
The construction of winter Olympic venues also revitalizes the old factory buildings and drives the overall rejuvenation of the surrounding areas.
Shougang, which has a century-old history, has driven the overall development of the park with the settlement of the office area of the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee and the completion of the ski jump.
Today, Shougang Park has changed from an abandoned industrial park to a new landmark based on the protection and reuse of industrial heritage, integrating sports, culture and commercial tourism, and has become a model of the integration of the Olympic Games and urban development.
The legacy of the Winter Olympics benefits the public
Availability, operability and sustainability are the new issues facing the international Olympic Movement today. At the beginning of the construction of the Beijing Winter Olympic venues, the post-game utilization was taken into account.
During the Beijing Winter Olympics, the Shougang Ski Jumping Competition was all held during the day, but considering that after the competition, most of the related competitions were held in the evening, the project team built a detachable lighting system for the "Big Jumping Platform".
Considering that the time spent on curling competitions every year after the race is only two or three months, the ice system of the National Aquatics Center is all temporary, and the ice making system and the support system on the bottom floor can be continuously converted and reused. After the game, the three seasons of spring, summer and autumn are "water cubes", and in winter, they become "ice cubes" to achieve "ice water two-wheel drive".
The newly built underground ice rink in the south square of "Water Cube" has 2 ice surfaces, one is a standard ice rink and the other is a curling field, after the game, ordinary citizens can experience on the ice.
After the renovation, in addition to ensuring the needs of the Winter Olympic Games, the transformed Capital Gymnasium can not only undertake various international and domestic high-level ice sports events after the games, but also seamlessly switch with summer projects. The newly built Winter Sports Management Center Comprehensive Training Hall "Ice Arena" can be used by professional athletes for training after the game, and will also become a shared facility for promoting the popularization of ice sports to young people. In the future, the Capital Skating Hall will be regularly opened to the public as a popularization and promotion base for the whole people's ice and snow sports, and the entire park has achieved full coverage of competitions, scientific research training and mass fitness, and has become a new place for public fitness.
In a few days, the City of the Two Olympics will turn a new page, and the rich legacy of the Double Olympic Games will paint a beautiful picture of "going to the future together" in Beijing.
Photo by Pan Zhiwang, a reporter for the Winter Olympics
Source Client The Winter Olympics | Journalist Ren Shan
Editing by Ma Nan (female)
Process Editor Liu Weili