Germany's "Der Spiegel Weekly" recently published an article praising the Shougang Big Jump as an architectural model for the Winter Olympics, comparable to "Industrial Disneyland", and believes that the use of abandoned industrial parks to develop winter sports is a reasonable, appropriate and sustainable approach.
On February 9, the Beijing Winter Olympics freestyle skiing men's big jumping competition was held in Beijing Shougang Ski Jump. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Huang Zongzhi
Der Spiegel recently published an article titled "Sports Facilities in the Beijing Industrial Park: The Home of the Olympics," saying that ski photos with cooling towers and steel facilities as the background may feel "as if something is wrong" to some people, but in fact, this is the most suitable place for the Olympic movement.
The article said that in the process of industrialization of the international Olympic movement, Shougang's big jump platform is in line with this trend, and the integration of abandoned industrial parks is reshaped into a new business format. Although packaging the arena in an industrial landscape may seem surreal, there has long been no steel production and has been transformed into an "Industrial Disneyland."
The article believes that compared with those sports facilities that pretend to be integrated into nature, the landscape of the Shougang Big Jump is more sincere and realistic. If you choose between a forest and a cooling tower to build a big jump, the answer is unquestionable, not even hesitant.
In response to the Western media's criticism of the Beijing Winter Olympics in terms of environmental protection, the article said that those who believe that the Shougang big jump platform cannot reflect the characteristics of winter sports is extremely wrong, and it is precisely the current Winter Olympic venue that best reflects the appropriate concept.
Sweden's Henrik Haroutt competes in the men's big jump in freestyle skiing on Feb. 9. Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Xu photographed
The article also satirizes the "double standards" and "colored glasses" that exist in Western public opinion: "If such Olympic facilities appear in Western cities, such as London, Munich or Milan, the media comments are probably like this - look how cool it is, showing the concept of industrial romanticism." ”
The German company "Snow Star" was involved in the design and construction of the Shougang Big Jump and genting Ski Park Slope Obstacle Course. Dirk Scheumann, head of the "Snow Star" company, said in an interview with the German "Süddeutsche Zeitung" a few days ago that to this day, he still clearly remembers the surprise and excitement when he first received the idea of designing and building a permanent big jumping platform.
"It's hard to believe we ended up turning this idea into reality. I love working with the Chinese team, they're very professional and very serious and organized even on small things. The Chinese team has a strong learning ability and learns very quickly in many technical aspects. Scheumann said.
Reporter | Liu Yang