Crews clear the track for snow on Feb. 13. Photo by Jiang Yushi, a reporter of this newspaper
On February 13, staff cleaned and maintained the slope obstacle course. Global Times reporter Cui Meng photographed
On the morning of February 13, the snow in the Zhangjiakou area of the Beijing Winter Olympics turned heavier. The Women's Steeplechase Qualification Tournament for Freestyle Skiing, which was scheduled to take place that morning, was postponed to the morning of the 14th. Nearly 30 athletes will compete in the event, including freestyle ski women's big jump champion Gu Ailing and teammate Yang Shuorui. The freestyle ski women's aerial skills qualification tournament scheduled for the 13th, the freestyle ski slope slalom women's final and the men's qualifier on the 15th will be postponed by one day.
Yang Shu'an, vice chairman of the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee, said at a press conference on the morning of the 13th: "At 5 o'clock this morning, the Zhangjiakou Division has organized thousands of staff to go to the venue to clean up the floating snow, but because the snow is too large and too urgent, it does not meet the requirements of the competition for visibility and ensures the safety of athletes, so today's competition will be postponed." ”
The low visibility after the snowfall, which affected the eyes of the players, was the main reason for the postponement of the day's competition. According to Shu Wen, deputy director of logistics of the Genting Stadium Group, there are multiple prop areas in the slope obstacle course venue, and the athletes have a high starting height, and if the vision is poor, there will be safety hazards when landing. In addition, the heating up when snow falls will affect the snow temperature and snow quality of the track, and athletes need to adjust their snowboards accordingly. The addition of snow will make the surface of the track soft and friction increase, affecting the players' performance. The men's downhill skiing competition at the Beijing Winter Olympics was also postponed by one day due to windy weather.
In the history of the Winter Olympics, it is also more common to postpone or cancel competitions due to weather influences: at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, warm weather and rains reschedule many snow sports competitions; at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, relatively high temperatures led to thick fog in the mountains, affecting biathlon and snowboarding; and at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, strong winds of more than 60 kilometers per hour made ski jumping and snowboarding competitions can only be rescheduled.
The change of the schedule is not a one-sided statement, but the result of multi-party discussion and judgment. According to the relevant regulations of the International Ski Federation, the team of referees has the right to interrupt, cancel or postpone the competition, and the re-set competition time cannot conflict with other competitions. Zhao Weidong, a spokesman for the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee, said venue staff would submit meteorological data to experts from international sports federations to decide whether to change the schedule. Under extreme weather conditions, the Beijing Winter Olympic Organizing Committee will work closely with stakeholders such as the International Olympic Committee, the International Federation of Individual Sports and the Olympic Broadcasting Service Company to start the procedures for changing the competition schedule in a timely manner.
Shu Wen said that the Genting stadium group launched an emergency plan on the 11th, and in the past two days, it was also equipped with 1,300 emergency teams to manually remove snow, 16 ice shoveling and snow removal machinery, and 50 snow blowers to clear the snow overnight to ensure the normal operation of the venue.
People's Daily ( 2022-02-14 09 edition)