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British companies actively engage in Beijing Winter Olympics

Editor’s note: The Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games are drawing near, putting the city into the spotlight once more. What do people worldwide expect of the Games? What are their stories about Beijing 2008 and Beijing 2022? GDToday and Nanfang Daily are co-presenting a series of reports to bring you “Global Takes on Beijing 2022”.

“I hope I would be able to watch the Beijing Winter Olympics in person, especially the ice hockey,” said Julian Fisher, Vice Chair of the British Chamber of Commerce in China, “It will be great if the Team GB (British Olympic team) could win at least one gold medal. This might seem like a very achievable goal but we’re not historically very good at winter sports.”

Julian Fisher has lived and worked in Beijing for 16 years. He is looking forward to watching another Olympics in this city he calls home. During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he managed to obtain tickets to a range of competitions including beach volleyball and field hockey. “It was an amazing Olympics and a wonderful year,” he recalled.

Apart from the competitions, Julian highlighted that some British companies are also active participants in the Winter Olympics this year.


Julian Fisher (Photo provided to Newsgd.com)

British companies in Winter Olympics

Speaking of winter sports, Julian believes curling, skeleton, and ski jumping are the sports “on everyone’s radar” in the UK. In fact, curling originated in the country like many other sports such as golf and cricket.

“Every single Olympic curling stone comes from this little island off the coast of Scotland, called Ailsa Craig,” Julian explained. The now-uninhabited island possesses exclusively 3 types of granite, which are the best resources of curling stones. And Kays of Scotland is the only manufacturer that “turns the island’s granite into curling stones”.

According to the recently released schedule, the curling competition will be the first to take place in the Beijing Winter Olympics. It will start at 8:05 pm local time on February 2, two days before the opening ceremony.

British Airways is another British enterprise that actively engages in this year’s Winter Olympics, as Julian explained. It has been the official airline partner to the British Olympic and Paralympic teams since Beijing 2008. In the coming Winter Olympics, it will fly the teams to and from Beijing.

Winter sports boosted in China by Winter Olympics

With an ambition to engage 300 million Chinese people in winter sports, the Winter Olympics also facilitate the popularization of winter sports across China.

The statistics from China Tourism Academy shows that a record 224 million Chinese people participated during the 2018-19 winter season, exceeding 200 million for the first time in history.

Julian believes the Winter Olympics will boost the development of winter games in China as more related sport stadiums have been built in the country.

Julian has been to Thaiwoo ski resort in Hebei, China and was impressed by the fine services and facilities in the resort. He hopes the upcoming Winter Olympics will leave a “legacy” in China and develop a winter sports culture that can grow long into the future.


Author | Jiang Chang (intern), Lydia Liu

Reporter | Zhao Xiaona, Wang Shikun

Editor | Steven, Jasmine, Jerry

Planner | Huang Can

Coordinator | Liu Jiangtao, Hu Nianfei

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