At the foot of the Great Wall, 130 kilometers from Tiananmen Square, on the shore of the Yushui River, sits on the second highest peak in Beijing, Haituo Mountain, on the south side of the mountain, on the small Haituo Mountain, and the National Alpine Ski Center is built on the mountain. From site selection to construction to snowmaking, in this "four noes" mountainous area that once had no roads, no water, no electricity and no communication, as the first elevation of the three major competition areas of the entire Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, the "Snow Flying Swallow" is about to "flapp its wings and fly high".
Rare "Real Combat Training"
On February 21, 2021, the National Alpine Ski Center "Xuefeiyan", the core area of the Yanqing Competition Area of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, held the first official competition certified by the venue inspection - the Men's and Women's All-Around Competition of the National Alpine Ski Invitational Competition.
In November 2020, the National Alpine Ski Center passed the site inspection certification of the International Snow Federation, including the peak departure area, the intermediate platform, the competition end area, the distribution square and other supporting facilities, and the various areas are connected by ropeways. During the testing activities, the transition drill from the end of the race zone to the end zone of the race was also carried out at the same time. Athletes and relevant personnel in various fields quickly and orderly transferred from the end of the race area to the end of the competition area within 50 minutes according to the transfer plan, and conducted a valuable "actual combat training" for the operation of the race.
Due to the very high level of athletes at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, under the premise that there are no test matches, the National Alpine Ski Center has started from snowmaking and building temporary buildings, and has gone all out to gradually become a real "snow flying swallow" in accordance with the highest standards of the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.
At present, the National Alpine Ski Center has built a total of 9 aerial ropeways and 2 tow ropeways, with a total length of 10.3 kilometers, connecting the Yanqing Winter Olympic Village and the alpine ski center areas, of which the mainstream trails include A1, A2, B1 ropeways and C ropeways, with a total length of more than 4,000 meters, a height difference of more than 1,000 meters, and a total of 206 gondolas, allowing athletes to reach their respective tracks in 30 minutes.
Snowmaking is a no-brainer
On November 15, 2021, the National Alpine Ski Center in the Yanqing Division of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics officially launched the snowmaking work of the alpine skiing project during the Winter Olympic Games, which has been basically completed.
During the entire snowmaking period, 170 sets of snowmaking equipment were put into operation, with a snowmaking area of about 800,000 square meters and a snowmaking volume of about 1.2 million cubic meters. In order to ensure that the top speed of the competitors can reach a glide speed of 130 to 140 kilometers per hour, the International Snow Federation has strict requirements for the hardness of the slopes, so snowmaking has become the most critical link. According to the requirements of the competition, the National Alpine Ski Center circuit will use an ice-like snow track, which is different from the pistes of the Volkswagen Snow Park, which is similar to the ice surface and has a very high hardness, which needs to be filled with water and a long period of slabing, and then manually cleared over and over again until a smooth ski track is formed. Ice-like snow can reduce the friction between the snowboard and the snow track, making the snow track less difficult to be damaged, and ensuring that the surface of the slope is smooth and smooth in the case of high-speed turning by the athletes, ensuring that the state of the slope is in a relatively perfect state regardless of the number of appearances of the players to ensure the fairness of the competition.
At the same time, construction began on some temporary buildings. For journalists from all over the world, the most important venue is the temporary Mountain News Centre. In the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, alpine skiing and other competition venues have built temporary news centers to facilitate the work of media reporters, most of which adopt the method of air model, which is also for the convenience of disassembly after the game. The Yanqing Alpine SkiIng Stadium also adopts the method of building a temporary mountain news center, but it is not a gas model, but a temporary building with a more environmentally friendly and high standard, which is also easy to dismantle after the race. Alpine downhill, also known as alpine downhill, and super big slalom, belongs to the alpine ski racing project, the big slalom and slalom belong to the competitive project, so there are two mountain news centers in the racing class and the competitive class, in the two mountain news centers have media work facilities, 5G network is also unimpeded, to ensure the work of journalists around the world.
▲At the National Alpine Ski Center, the track, cable car, and snow paint a beautiful snow scene in the Winter Olympic Area.
The "diamond in the crown" will remain in Yanqing forever
Known as the "diamond in the crown", alpine skiing is one of the most spectacular Winter Olympic events.
Alpine skiing originated in Europe, also known as Alpine skiing, it combines speed and skill perfectly, showing the essence and charm of skiing. At the Fourth Winter Olympics in 1936, alpine skiing was listed as a Winter Olympic event for the first time. The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Alpine Skiing Competition was held at the "Xuefeiyan" National Alpine Ski Center in Yanqing Division, with a total of 11 gold medals, namely men's and women's downhill, men's and women's super slalom, men's and women's big slalom, men's and women's slalom, men's and women's all-around and team competitions. The vertical drop in the downhill competition, men usually reach more than 800 meters, women above 450 meters, slalom, large slalom, super large slalom vertical drop from 150 meters to 650 meters, with a flag gate in the middle, different projects, flag gate settings are also different.
The National Alpine Ski Center is located in the north area of the core area of Yanqing, its highest point of 2198 meters is the first altitude of all the venues of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, the first and only alpine skiing competition venue in China that meets the standards of the Winter Olympics, and it is also one of the most difficult alpine ski tracks in the world today, with a total area of 432.4 hectares, a total length of 21 kilometers, a total of 7 ski tracks, of which 3 are competition tracks, 4 are training tracks, the total length of the track is 9.2 kilometers, and the vertical drop is about 900 meters.
Yanqing Is one of the competition areas with the shortest construction period, the greatest construction difficulty and the highest construction standards in the history of the construction of Winter Olympic venues. The vast number of builders have overcome difficulties, and in this "four noes" mountainous area that once had no roads, no water, no electricity, and no communications, the first alpine skiing track in China that meets the Olympic standards has been built, and the "Snow Flying Swallow" will be permanently retained after the Winter Olympics.
In the future, the world's top alpine skiing competition will be held here, and it will also be built into a mountain sports and leisure park, which can carry out outdoor projects such as mountain biking, rock climbing, hiking, and grass skiing in spring, summer and autumn, and become an outdoor sports experience base and leisure tourism resort. The ecological restoration of Yanqing Race Area has been fully completed, entering the stage of beautification, optimization and refinement, and vividly practicing the concept of "green Olympic Games", especially the National Alpine Ski Center is a classic of "green Olympic Games".
For more information, stay tuned to the Winter Olympics.
Source Client The Winter Olympics | Journalist Kong Ning
Editor: Han Ye
Process Editor Tai Shaofeng