At 7:19 on February 4, 2022, Beijing ushered in the first rays of early morning sunshine. In more than ten hours, the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics will be held at the "Bird's Nest" of the National Stadium.
The covenant of ice and snow, meet as scheduled. From the Summer Olympics to the Winter Olympics, this is nearly 14 years later, and the eyes of the world are once again focused on here because of the Olympic Games. The fire of the Winter Olympics lights up Beijing, how will history write this day?
Data map: January 30, Beijing, the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics was held in rehearsal, and fireworks bloomed over the bird's nest. Image source: Visual China
This day is the dream day of Chinese ice and snow athletes.
Earlier, Luo Zhihuan, an 81-year-old former world champion in speed skating, lamented after completing the Beijing Winter Olympic Torch Relay that he had participated in the World Speed Skating Championships 6 times, but had never participated in the Olympic Games, and now "this dream is finally over."
On February 2, Luo Zhihuan, the first torchbearer and China's first speed skating world champion, was in the torch relay. Photo by Li Chun, a reporter from China News Service
In 1963, at the 57th World Men's Speed Skating Championships, Luo Zhihuan won the men's 1500 meters and broke the world record, becoming China's first winter sports world champion.
This "champion" has brought China's ice and snow sports into the international vision.
In the past 60 years, China's winter projects have been continuously enriched with reserve talents. Whether it is "veterans" Wu Dajing, Sui Wenjing, Han Cong, Jia Zongyang, or "newcomers" Gu Ailing, Ning Zhongyan, Su Yiming, they will carry the winter Olympic dream of generations of ice and snowmen to fight hard in the 2022 Winter Olympics and challenge their professional peaks.
This day is a day when the ice and snow sports witness the "miracle".
More than six years ago, when IOC President Bach announced that the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics belonged to Beijing, Lang Enge, a villager in Zhangshanying Town, Yanqing, Beijing, was still holding a sheep whip. More than six years later, he is holding the torch of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
In 2017, Lang Enge formed the Yanqing Haituo Farmers Ski Team, which not only turned his hobby into a profession, but also taught more people to ski with the villagers and participated in the service guarantee of the Winter Olympics, with a total of tens of thousands of training times.
Time has changed more than the life of Lang Enge alone. According to statistics, more than 1,400 people in Yanqing eat "ice and snow rice", and 1 in every 5 people in Chongli District of Zhangjiakou City is engaged in ice and snow-related work. Today, the number of people participating in ice and snow sports in China has reached 346 million.
China's solemn commitment to the international community, "bringing 300 million people to ice and snow sports", is turning from a vision into a reality.
This day carries the ardent expectations of Beijing as the "City of the Two Olympics".
In 2015, when the Beijing Winter Olympic bid delegation made its final statement to the IOC, Yao Ming, as an image ambassador, said: "At the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, as a member of the Chinese national basketball team, I participated in the competition at the Wukesong Gymnasium... I look forward to witnessing a new chapter in the Olympic journey at the snow-covered Wukesong Stadium. ”
Today, Wukesong Stadium can achieve "ice basket conversion" within 6 hours, "water cube" into "ice cube", and 11 of the 13 venues in Beijing are Summer Olympic heritage. And Yao Ming also has a new title - "Double Olympic Torchbearer".
From 2008 to 2022, countless people have witnessed and participated in the growth of the "City of The Two Olympics".
Li Jiulin, chief engineer of the "Ice Ribbon" of the National Speed Skating Hall, was also the chief engineer of the "Bird's Nest" of the National Stadium. Li Nan, the first disabled volunteer to successfully register for the Beijing Winter Olympics, participated in Olympic volunteer service in 2008. Li Rui, a neurosurgeon at the China-Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing, appeared on the Winter Olympic track as a ski doctor 14 years later...
From the Summer Olympics to the Winter Olympics, there is a continuous line of innovation, and what remains unchanged is the enthusiasm of Chinese for the Olympic Games.
In 2022, Beijing is making every effort to write the "green, shared, open and clean" Winter Olympics answer sheet, and strives to dedicate a wonderful, extraordinary and outstanding Olympic event to the world.
This day contains a good opportunity for the world to know each other more.
Zhang Yimou, general director of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, once revealed that compared with the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the biggest difference in the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics is that the perspective of narration has changed from "I" to "we".
"The opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games pays more attention to letting more people understand traditional Chinese culture, while the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics is to talk about the spirit and concept shared by all mankind and the community of human destiny." This reflects cultural self-confidence, together to the future, is 'we' together to the future. ”
This goes hand in hand with the addition of the Olympic motto, "More Unity.". As some commentators have pointed out, when athletes from different countries and cultures overcome the epidemic to participate, the Olympic Games can achieve its most important significance, that is, "bringing the world together".
To reunite the world under the Olympic flag, China has made unimaginable efforts. Brick by brick, step by step, especially in the face of the challenge of the epidemic, the preparations for the Beijing Winter Olympics are still steadily advancing, and even Bach can't help but sigh that "this is almost a miracle".
Dutch speed skater Kroll also said a few days ago that if only one country (region) can (in this situation) host the Winter Olympics, it must be China, "we should be glad that the Winter Olympics will be held here."
February 4, 2022, is also the first lunar festival day of the year - Lichun Day. Winter is coming to an end, and spring is budding. For Chinese, it means a new beginning, a new hope.
In another ten hours, the Olympic flame will be lit again at the "Bird's Nest". I believe that this is the fire of friendship, but also the fire of hope.
Column Editor-in-Chief: Gu Wanquan Text Editor: Dong Siyun Title Image Source: Xinhua News Agency Photo Editor: Xu Jiamin
Source: Author: China News Network