Igor and Bojan take a souvenir at the Winter Olympics. (Courtesy of the interviewee)
Igor works on snowmaking. (Courtesy of the interviewee)
Two Croatian snowmakers commemorate the occasion at the main peak of Haituo Mountain. (Courtesy of the interviewee)
International Online Report (reporters Yushi and Ivitsa Coleman): Igor Zhiliak and Bojan Dimovich are two FIS SNOWmakers from Croatia. During the preparation and holding of the Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, together with colleagues from many countries, they were responsible for snowmaking and maintenance of the ski slopes in Yanqing. In 2019, Igor came to Yanqing for the first time, and according to his words, he was already "old Beijing".
The team is great Chinese colleagues are diligent and studious
Both Igor and Bojan are very experienced snowmakers. Igor is also the head of the country's most famous ski resort, Slieme in Croatia. This ski resort was once the place of enlightenment for many croatian skiers.
Since 2019, although the work in Yanqing Division has been intermittent due to various factors, the work of the two Croatian snowmakers in the past three years has made the two Croatian snowmakers very satisfied. In addition to Croatia, their team also brings together professionals from Sweden, Spain, Andorra, Slovenia and other countries.
"Overall, everything is great, there are 12 Chinese colleagues in the team, they are very good, love their work, open-minded and eager to learn, have been working with us, humbly learn snowmaking techniques from us, I believe that next snow season they will be able to complete the snowmaking work independently, the International Snow Federation will recognize them." Igor said.
Snowmaking at the Beijing Winter Olympics is in line with norms Some media fabricated it for no reason
The preparation and hosting of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games has been well received by the International Olympic Committee and other parties. As professional professionals, Igor and Bojan care deeply about what athletes and coaches say about their work. "We've talked to athletes and coaches from the U.S., Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, and everybody is very happy with the track and the quality of the snow, they say, they think it's moderately hard, there's no icing, and they're going to get athletes to finish with quality," they say. Overall, the reviews were very positive, they thanked all our staff, saying that the pistes were good both in appearance and in terms of craftsmanship, as well as the feelings of the athletes. ”
But there was also some harsh noise in the friendly and praise, including questions about the "artificial snowmaking" at the Beijing Winter Olympics. Igor and Bojan refuted the question of their own profession: "Some foreign media wrote about the relevant content without any logic, in my opinion is a kind of hype, here we only use water, the water is in accordance with the norms, and they do not use any of the chemical agents they say." I worked here on the first day of snowmaking from here, and we never planned or talked about using this method, it was all about using water to create snow, which would melt in the spring, and it would add some humidity to the air, make the environment fresher, and it would certainly be more beautiful than before. ”
This is China's home, bring your family to see it later
Up to now, Igor and Bojan have been working in China for more than 5 consecutive months. During this period, due to tight work, long distances and closed-loop measures, the two were only able to "go into the city" to see Beijing occasionally.
"Beijing is so beautiful, it's a metropolis, but we're so busy at work that we can't go through every attraction, we only see the most famous ones, such as the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Tiananmen, and we also tasted Peking duck." Igor said. Bo Yang felt that seeing "the scenes of people's lives in ancient times" in the Forbidden City made the deepest impression."
Next, Igor and Bojan will continue to work for the Beijing Winter Paralympic Games. According to the arrangement, they will end their work within the closed loop on March 14 and board a flight back to Croatia.
Bo Yang said that he is indeed a little homesick: "Fortunately, now that the technology is developed, we use WeChat video chat with our families every day, and they are also very concerned about our work in the Winter Olympics." ”
However, both snowmakers invariably hope to come back in the future: "It can be said that this is our home in China, and we hope that we can come back to help when Beijing holds another large ski event in the future." ”
"I hope that in a year or two, we will bring our children back, show them where we worked for the Beijing Winter Olympics, and take them to visit the scenic spots and monuments of Beijing." Bojan said.