Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, February 23 Title: Inside and outside the arena, create history! The International Olympic Committee praised the Beijing Winter Olympics
Xinhua News Agency reporters Ji Ye, Wang Yong, Kong Xiangxin, Yang Fan
The Beijing Winter Olympics came to a successful conclusion, and the International Olympic Committee showed through a series of data that this is a winter Olympic event that has made history both inside and outside the arena.
On the evening of February 20, the closing ceremony of the 24th Winter Olympic Games in Beijing was held at the National Stadium. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Ga
The International Olympic Committee said that in the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, the world's best athletes have dedicated wonderful events, breaking many Winter Olympic games and world records, and inspiring the next generation of Olympians. At the same time, the event also set a number of records: the Winter Olympics with the most extensive digital interaction, the Winter Olympics with the longest broadcast time, and the Winter Olympic Games with the highest ratings at the opening ceremony, which received billions of digital platform interactions, and more than 600 million TV viewers in China alone.
On the evening of February 4, the opening ceremony of the XXIV Winter Olympic Games was held at the Beijing National Stadium. Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Xu photographed
The IOC shared a set of data:
1. Sports competitions
19 competition days;
2897 athlete quotas, 7 major events, 15 sub-events;
109 sub-events, including 12 mixed or open events, 7 new sub-events for women's singles, snowboard obstacle chase mixed groups, freestyle ski men's big jump, freestyle ski women's big jump, freestyle skiing aerial skills mixed group, ski jumping mixed group standard platform, short track speed skating mixed group relay;
On February 5, the Chinese team won the championship in the mixed team relay final of the short track speed skating event at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics held at the Capital Gymnasium. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Ga
Broke 17 Winter Olympic records;
Broke two world records;
29 national and regional Olympic committees won medals;
91 national and regional Olympic committees participated.
Gender balance
The Beijing Winter Olympics is the most gender-balanced: 45% are female athletes and 55% are male athletes;
Of the total 109 sub-events, 46 were female athletes, and of the 7 new sub-events, 2 were women's and 4 were mixed team events;
Female athletes accounted for 53% of all 109 sub-events;
In order to allow female athletes to have more opportunities to appear in front of the broadcast camera, the Beijing Winter Olympics adjusted the competition schedule based on the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics;
For the first time, seven sub-events achieved gender balance, namely: steel frame bobsleigh, bobsleigh (men's and women's single bobsleigh), speed skating, cross-country skiing, alpine skiing, freestyle skiing, snowboarding, which also allowed 10 of the total 15 sub-events of the Winter Olympics to achieve gender balance;
45% of the opening ceremony flag bearers were women, compared to 30% at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics;
73% of national and regional Olympic committees have female flag bearers (female single flag bearers or two flag bearers one male and one female) at the opening ceremony.
On the evening of February 4, the opening ceremony of the XXIV Winter Olympic Games was held at the Beijing National Stadium. This is the Chinese delegation's flag bearers Zhao Dan (bottom left) and Gao Tingyu (bottom right) entering the opening ceremony. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Yang Lei
3. Venues
Beijing became the first city in the world to host both the Summer Olympics and the Winter Olympics;
Three divisions: Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou Division;
12 competition venues, 5 of which are legacy of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
Athletes testing the curling event on April 6, 2021. The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics will transform the National Aquatics Center "Water Cube" into an "Ice Cube" and use it as a venue for curling events. Photo by Peng Ziyang, Xinhua News Agency
Media and retransmission
The media will be divided into three categories, namely registered text and photojournalists, rights holders, and main broadcasters, with a total number of 9388 people;
A total of 1952 registered text and photojournalists, 520 news organizations from 50 national and regional Olympic committees;
24 rights holders (including Olympic Channel), a total of 3607 people;
The main broadcaster, Olympic Broadcasting Service (OBS), has a total of 3,829 people and has produced more than 6,000 hours of video;
More than 660 OBS cameras, more than 1600 microphones.
5. Numbering
During the event, more than 64 million people used olympic websites and apps to follow the Winter Olympics, and the number of followers on Olympic social media platforms increased by more than 10 million;
Innovative digital platform collaborations led to widespread participation, with YouTube Olympic Channel having 58% more viewers than the PyeongChang Winter Olympics and more than 2.1 billion video views on the #OlympicSpirit hashtag on TikTok;
Fans sent 47 million virtual cheers to the Olympians they supported on the Olympic website.
6. Legacy
According to China's National Bureau of Statistics, the number of participants in ice and snow sports in China has reached 346 million;
In Beijing in 2021 alone, 26,000 people will be trained to become winter sports instructors;
China currently has nearly 2,000 ice and snow venues;
Tourists ski at the night ski slopes of Aoshan Ski Resort on Feb. 14 (drone photo). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Shao Rui
In the 2020-2021 snow season, China's ice and snow tourism revenue exceeded 390 billion yuan;
In 2019, Zhangjiakou welcomed 86 million tourists, with revenue of more than 100 billion yuan, an increase of more than 20% over 2018;
In Yanqing, between 2015 and 2019, the preparations for the Winter Olympics led to an increase in per capita disposable income by more than 35%;
More than 1 million people have applied to volunteer for the Winter Olympics, about 19,000 people have been selected to participate in volunteering for the Winter Olympics, and all venues of the Beijing Winter Olympics have estate planning to ensure multi-purpose use throughout the year after the Games.
Volunteers arrive at the National Alpine Ski Center on January 28. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Chenlin
7. Education
By the end of 2021, more than 2,500 primary and secondary schools in China will include Olympic and Paralympic education and winter sports in their curricula;
Since 2019, 200,000 children in Beijing have learned Olympic and Paralympic values.
8. Sustainability
The Beijing Winter Olympics are expected to be carbon neutral;
Five 2008 Olympic venues were reused;
For the first time in the Olympics, all venues at the Beijing Winter Olympics were powered by 100% renewable energy;
All new venues are subject to new green building standards;
The CO2 refrigeration system was used for the first time in China and the Olympic Games, and the technology was adopted by four ice venues, significantly reducing carbon emissions and energy consumption;
100% of passenger cars and 84.9% of all vehicles are fuel-efficient vehicles, fueled by hydrogen, electric, natural gas and hybrid;
On January 17, a hydrogen-fueled new energy vehicle drove on a road in Beijing's Yanqing District. Xinhua News Agency reporter Ren Chao photographed
Carbon offset measures include afforestation projects in Beijing and Zhangjiakou, where 47,333 hectares and 33,000 hectares of forest green space have been planted in Beijing and Zhangjiakou since 2014, respectively.