Beijing build-up back on track

2022 Winter Games organizers expertly negotiating virus-related setbacks as anticipation levels grow

Despite being affected by the ongoing coronavirus crisis, China's preparations for the 2022 Winter Olympics keep gaining momentum as excitement builds less than two years out from the Games.

Even with the delayed Tokyo Summer Olympics looming large over all proximate sporting events, organizers of the 2022 Beijing Games are cautiously pushing ahead with preparatory work at a time when global sports are taking a heavy hit from the pandemic.

Beijing's build-up received another boost on Sunday when the International Skating Union confirmed that the 2021 World Speed Skating Championships will be held at the newly built National Speed Skating Oval in the Chinese capital as a test event for the Winter Games.

Scheduled for Feb 25-28 next year, the speed skating worlds will unveil the new venue－the first of its kind in China－to a global audience.

Construction of the arena's main structure was completed in late December. With work resuming in early March under strict virus prevention measures, all the venue's major installations－including 22 light strands surrounding its exterior and an advanced ice-making system－have been finished and tested.

The venue, which is situated on the former archery competition site of the 2008 Beijing Summer Games, is expected to be finished ahead of an original June deadline.

After putting construction on hold at certain sites during the peak of the outbreak in China, preparation work is now back on track at all the Games' 26 venues in downtown Beijing, its northwest Yanqing district and co-host Zhangjiakou in Hebei province.

All the work is scheduled to be finished by the end of this year in time for the 2020-21 winter sports season, when a series of official test events will be staged across the three zones.