China-Singapore Times: "The City of The Two Olympics" pays tribute to the past and to the future

(Beijing Winter Olympics) China-Singapore Times: "The City of the Two Olympics" pays tribute to the past and to the future

Beijing, 4 Feb (China News Service) -- Title: "The City of the Two Olympics" Respects the Past and Brings The Future to the Future

China News Service reporter Wang Zumin

From 2008 to 2022, from summer to winter, from the "Bird's Nest" bloom and back to the "Bird's Nest" - in the two clusters of Olympic fires across time and space, Beijing completed the world's first "Double Olympic City" certification.

Beijing, January 30, rehearsal for the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics was held, and fireworks bloomed over the bird's nest. Image source: People's Vision

The Olympic signs scattered throughout Beijing and the festive atmosphere that linger in the streets and alleys are China's response to the Olympic vision of a hundred years ago.

At the beginning of the last century, the Chinese people in the background of weakness and poverty asked helplessly: When will China participate in the Olympic Games? When will I win gold at the Olympics? When will the Olympics be held?

From 1932, when Liu Changchun became the first Chinese to appear on the Olympic stage, to Xu Haifeng winning the first Olympic gold medal for China in 1984, to Beijing winning the right to host the 2008 Olympic Games, China has spent nearly a hundred years to give a complete answer to the "Three Olympic Questions". Today, the grand unveiling of the Beijing Winter Olympics is a perfect "continuation" of China's answer sheet.

"The City of The Two Olympics", no ancients. This "perfection" lies in the fact that from the backward to the leader, China has completed its counterattack in the modern Olympic movement; it lies in the fact that the former "sick man of East Asia" has developed into a sports power that has attracted worldwide attention and has become an indispensable part of the Olympic family; and even more lies in the fact that when the ancestors of more than a hundred years ago issued the "Three Olympic Questions", they could not imagine that the Future Olympic Games could form such a deep "relationship" with China.

When China restored its legal seats on the International Olympic Committee in 1979, the curtain of reform and opening up had just opened, and the history of New China's Olympic conquest was also an important part of China's reform and opening up. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Olympic Arena became an important stage to showcase China's image and enhance the confidence of the Chinese people.

With the overall improvement of China's comprehensive national strength, the bid to host the Olympic Games has become a landmark milestone in China's further development, and has built a bridge between China and the world in both directions.

From the successful bid for the 2001 Beijing Olympic Games to the successful holding of the 2008 Olympic Games, every day in the past 7 years, Beijing has quietly changed. From infrastructure to urban environments, from venue construction to road traffic, from communication systems to air quality, from more professional and more humane services to a more peaceful and inclusive mindset... While retaining the charm of the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties, Beijing has completed its magnificent transformation into an international metropolis.

More than 4 billion viewers around the world have corrected their misconceptions about China through live television, marveling at the once mysterious Eastern power that has more than "kung fu" and "food".

And when the calendar is turned to 2022, the Olympic Games and China are even more intertwined. "Give China 16 days, pay back the world 5,000 years", while the Olympic Games have made profound changes in China, China has also enriched the Olympic spirit and cultural connotation, and has made great contributions to the balanced and sustainable development of the Olympic Movement in the world.

This "answer sheet" is China's legacy to the future.

For the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the future is here. China's development spectacle with its successful bid for the Olympic Games as its fulcrum, and the dream of a sports power that is gradually becoming a reality, are exactly the future that people had originally dreamed of.

In order to commemorate the success of the Beijing Olympic Games, since 2009, August 8 has become China's "National Fitness Day", and sports and health are becoming the genes of a country that will further change the way everyone here lives.

In 2015, Beijing successfully won the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, and another blueprint for the future was also unfolded.

Before 2015, nearly 1/3 of China's ice and snow items were in the development gap. Since 2015, China has newly established more than 20 small national teams, improving the territory of the Winter Olympics, and at the Beijing Winter Olympics, it has achieved full coverage of 7 major events and 15 sub-events, and China's ice and snow sports have ushered in unprecedented development opportunities.

By October 2021, China has achieved the goal of "bringing 300 million people to participate in ice and snow sports", and the number of participants in ice and snow sports in the country has reached 346 million.

IOC President Bach said that only in China can such a vision be realized, "it can be said that a new era has been opened." He said that this will greatly change the world's winter sports map and drive the development of the global winter sports industry.

In this blueprint, the Winter Olympics also go far beyond competitive sports. Since the beginning of the listing of Zhangjiakou as a host city, the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei has been one of the key points. As China embarks on a new journey of the second centenary goal, promoting ice and snow sports to achieve a new leap forward has become an important part of the country's high-quality development...

The Olympic Games change China, and china is also needed; the "City of The Double Olympic Games" is the first in the world and also belongs to the world.

February 4 is the first of the 24 solar terms of the Chinese lunar calendar, "Li Chun", which is the beginning of the recovery of all things and the future. The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics opened on this day, and also opened a new chapter. In this chapter, China and the world, "together to the future"! (End)