Although according to the winter Paralympic event arrangement, the "Xuefeiyan" National Alpine Ski Center only held an award ceremony in the venue on the last competition day, but in order to perfectly present the final award and let the award-winning athletes fully enjoy the highest moment, the "Xuefeiyan" award team has been planning for a long time.
"It is difficult to hold the award ceremony in the venue, it is necessary to temporarily lay a barrier-free passage on the snow, carry the podium to the venue, prepare the national flag of the winners, etc., and more importantly, in order not to affect the normal progress of the competition, all of the above work needs to be prepared within 15 minutes after the completion of the competition, so the time is very tight and the pressure is very high." Dong Xiangyang, award manager of the Yanqing venue group operation team, said.
According to reports, in order to ensure the smooth passage of the final day standing, sitting and visually impaired winners, the podium must be larger and heavier, and the upper and lower ramps are installed, and at the same time, the barrier-free passage and the podium must be seamless throughout the process, which adds a lot of difficulty to the preparation work. "In addition, in order to practice the concept of frugality in running the Olympic Games, the award team chose to reuse the barrier-free access to the racing area that ended the race early, which required dismantling the facilities from the racing area and then transporting them to the competition area to build, which greatly increased the workload, but avoided material waste and saved money, which we thought was worth it." Dong Xiangyang said.
It is also understood that although during the Winter Paralympic Games, most of the award ceremonies of "Xuefeiyan" were held in the Yanqing Awards Plaza, known as the "Snow Crystal Palace", the venue still needs to hold a performance announcement ceremony after each game, which is also a heavy responsibility for the award team. Because compared with the 11 gold medals produced by the Winter Olympics, the "Snow Flying Swallow" will produce 30 gold medals during the Winter Paralympic Games, and the results announcement will be held after each competition, and the preparation time is less than 1 minute.
"Before the ceremony, we have to find the winners and inform them of the next process, and then the athletes will be safely brought to the snow surface of the field in order, and after announcing the winning results, we must also send the invitation to the award ceremony and the golden snow Rongrong, etc., so on each competition day of the Winter Paralympic Games, everyone on the award team must always be in a tense and focused state," Dong Xiangyang admitted, "Especially on several competition days, 6 competitions are held every day, and the results must be announced after the game." Our support staff arrived at the venue at 5 a.m. and put in all the preparations, and then spent the day on the sidelines. ”
But it is also the rich experience that makes the award team full of confidence in the "final battle". "Recently the temperature has risen, the snow surface has become softer, in order to protect the track, our personnel should reduce the frequency of the ski track as much as possible, so the last award ceremony only held a full-factor rehearsal," Dong Xiangyang stressed, "At that time, the IPC (International Paralympic Committee) experts gave the evaluation that 'it is very rare to achieve such a perfect effect in such a short period of time', and we also firmly believe that through a perfect award ceremony, the athletes can enjoy the glory and also draw a satisfactory end to Xuefeiyan's Winter Paralympic Games." ”
Courtesy of the National Alpine SkiIng Center Awards team
Source: Winter Paralympic Games Proceedings | Author Xiao Wei Zhang Lan
Edited by Ye Xiaoyan
Process Editor Wu Yue