It will be four days and one year before the opening of the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, China next year.
As the infection of the new coronavirus continues to spread, the test tournaments scheduled at the actual venue of the tournament have been canceled one after another, and the outlook for future international tournaments is uncertain, forcing players to make difficult adjustments. I am.
The Beijing Olympics will be the first Winter Olympic Games to be held in China, with seven competitions and 109 events, the most in history, for 17 days from February 4th to 20th next year.
Beijing was hosting the Summer Olympic Games in 2008, and this is the first time in history that the Summer and Winter Olympic Games will be held.
According to the Games Organizing Committee, the development of competition venues and related facilities is proceeding smoothly, but the test competition, which was scheduled to be held locally before the competition, was affected by the worldwide spread of the new coronavirus. All have not been implemented.
Of these, in figure skating, the Grand Prix Final, which was scheduled to be held in Beijing last December with the world's top players, has been cancelled.
In addition, the four continents championship scheduled to be held in Australia has also been canceled, and Hanyu said in an interview after the All Japan Championship held in December last year, "The Tokyo Olympics are still there. My personal opinion is that it's not the case when you're thinking about the Winter Olympics when it's not being held. For me, the Olympics are the ultimate goal, but there are so many people thinking about various things and giving various opinions. In the meantime, we are shutting down toward that point, "he said, revealing that he is confused by the current situation where the future is uncertain.
Even in competitions other than figure skating, international competitions have been canceled or postponed one after another, making it difficult for athletes and related parties to make adjustments and strengthening in anticipation of the Olympic Games one year ahead, making it a preseason that has never been experienced before. ..
Test tournament canceled Impact of immigration restrictions on China due to spread of corona infection
Regarding the tournament that was scheduled to be held as a test tournament for the Beijing Olympics, each competition group has restrictions on entry into China due to the spread of the new coronavirus infection, and the situation will continue to be uncertain. I decided to cancel.
In the ski competition, the snowboarding and freestyle world championships scheduled for this month, and the jumps, Nordic combined skiing, cross-country skiing, and Alpine World Cup scheduled for next month have all been canceled at the actual venues. It was.
In speed skating, the world championship that was scheduled to be held in Beijing as a test tournament has been changed to be held in the Netherlands.
The Japan Skating Federation has decided not to dispatch Japanese athletes due to the ongoing spread of infection in this world championship and the fact that it is not a tournament that requires a representative frame for the Olympic Games.
The maintenance status of the venue
The Beijing Olympics and Paralympics will be held in a total of 12 competition venues in three areas: Beijing, the capital of China, Yanqing on the outskirts of Beijing, and Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, which is adjacent to Beijing.
According to state media, all venues were completed by the end of last year.
Many of the venues in Beijing, where skating competitions are mainly held, are reusing the competition facilities and sites used in the 2008 summer competition.
Of these, the "National Speed Skating Hall" was built on the site of the hockey and archery venues for the summer tournament.
The area of the link is 12,000 square meters, and ice making work began last month.
In addition, the "National Aquatics Center", commonly known as the "Water Cube", which was the venue for swimming, has been renovated into a curling venue and is called the "Ice Cube". It is used as.
Meanwhile, skiing and sledding were held in Yanqing and Zhangjiakou, and high-speed trains were set up from Beijing to each venue.
During the tournament, there are three Olympic Villages where athletes will stay. Of these, the Olympic Village in Beijing, which was unveiled last month, has completed the construction of the building in the residential area and is undergoing finishing interior work.
Xi Jinping Jintao last month, visited such as these venues, following the visited the adjustment of the players towards the construction status and convention facilities, IOC = talks on the phone with the International Olympic Committee of Bach chairman "Preparing I believe that the Olympics will be successful as planned, "he said, showing confidence in the success of the Games.
Government-led promotion of winter sports
Compared to summer sports such as table tennis, gymnastics, and badminton, which are popular and capable, winter sports have a smaller competitive population, and only one gold medal was won at the last PyeongChang Olympics.
Under these circumstances, Xi Jinping Jintao 2015 was decided to be held in the Beijing tournament, announced a target to increase to 300 million people a winter sports enthusiast, we are the promotion, such as skiing and skating in the government-led.
When he visited the competition venue last month, he said, "Construction of a'physical education powerhouse'is an important goal for building a socialist modernized nation." In winter, looking ahead to 2049, the 100th anniversary of China's founding. He emphasized the idea of aiming for the dramatic development of sports in Japan.
As President Xi, the aim is to discover and train athletes who can play an active role in international competitions by expanding the base of the competition, which will lead to the rise of national prestige and the creation of new industries.
In China, infrastructure development for winter sports is progressing rapidly, and the number of ski resorts in the country, which was only 50 in 2000, has increased to 770.
The economic effect is also great, and government-affiliated think tanks forecast that tourism revenue from leisure travelers who enjoy winter sports will exceed RMB390 billion, or JPY 6.3 trillion in Japanese yen this season.
At ski resorts in the suburbs of Beijing, a large number of skiers visited this weekend as concerns about the transmission of the new coronavirus continued, and a man who has been skiing for three years said, "Skiing is the current trend." I did.
In addition, sales of skis and other items are also increasing, so the manager of a ski equipment store in Beijing said, "Sales have clearly increased for about five or six years. The heat of the Olympics has increased, and my tools There are many enthusiasts who want to have a ski. "
Concerns are operational
While infrastructure development such as competition venues is progressing toward the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics, the management aspect is of concern to the people involved in the Games.
This is because the test competitions for skiing and skating, which were scheduled to be held at the actual venue from the end of last year to next month, were canceled or postponed one after another due to the influence of the new coronavirus.
The Organizing Committee and others are considering holding a test tournament in which only Chinese athletes participate, but one year has been lost due to the loss of valuable opportunities to confirm the procedure for running the international tournament and to verify the issues. There are concerns about the smooth operation of the production later.
Organizing Committee Liu Xinghua told NHK, "I would like to have foreign players come to China and test as long as the infection situation improves."
In addition, the Organizing Committee is concerned that if the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics scheduled for the summer cannot be opened due to the influence of the new Corona, it may affect the holding of the Beijing Games about half a year later. Mr. Liu said, "I hope that the Tokyo Games will be held as scheduled and that we will be able to hold them smoothly."
What is the status of infection in the new corona Beijing?
China has said that it has suppressed the spread of the new coronavirus ahead of other countries, but last month more than 2000 people were confirmed to be infected in the domestic market, the highest level since March last year. There were signs of re-spreading the infection.
Especially in the capital city of Beijing, people infected with the mutant virus found in the United Kingdom have been confirmed, and the infection has spread to Hebei Province, where the competition venue is located, and the authorities have been busy with large-scale PCR tests. It was.
At one point, the number of infected people in Japan exceeded 100 per day, but it has been gradually decreasing since last week.
In China, homecoming is already in full swing in various parts of the country before the long holidays that coincide with the Chinese New Year's "Chinese New Year" begin on the 11th of this month, and a total of more than 1.1 billion people are expected to move.
The Chinese government is increasing vigilance to prevent further spread of the infection, such as requiring people returning to rural areas to carry out PCR tests and calling on them not to return home as much as possible.
Official merchandise stores will gradually increase
With the opening of the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics a year away, more and more stores are selling official merchandise for the Games in Beijing.
The store in a Japanese supermarket near the competition venue has a 40-square-meter space with various official goods such as stationery, clothing, and badges.
Among them, the mascots of the tournament, "Bin Dundun" with a panda motif and "Shue Ron Ron" with a red lantern as a motif, and related products were also picked up by children. It was.
Satoshi Nagata, the president of Beijing Ito-Yokado, where the official merchandise store is located, said, "Families and merchandise lovers visit mainly on weekends. Limited items such as commemorative medals are popular."
Voices of opposition from human rights groups and the US Congress
Opposition to the next Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, has been raised by human rights groups and parts of the United States who are concerned about the human rights situation in China.
Of these, 180 human rights groups around the world calling for improvements in the human rights situation surrounding China's Tibet and Uighur have jointly published an open letter to the governments of each country, saying, "The role of showing opposition to China's human rights violations. Unless each country boycotts the Olympics, it will show that it supports the dictatorship of the Communist Party of China and tolerates human rights issues, "he called for the boycott.
Also, on the 2nd in the US Congress, seven Republican senators submitted a resolution against hosting the Olympic Games in China.
The resolution states, "Unless the Chinese government significantly improves the basic human rights situation surrounding religion and speech, the IOC = International Olympic Committee needs to reconsider the host country of the Olympic Games next winter." Senator Scott, who submitted the resolution, said in a statement that "it should not be held in the country with the worst human rights abuses in the world."