Alpine ski open gets a running start

Sina Sports, China’s premier online sport content provider under internet giant Sina Group, will kick off the Sina Cup Alpine Ski Open from November this year as part of the "300 Million People on Ice" national campaign.

The IP sports events on ice and snow, covering 13 provinces across the country and nearly 30 snow parks, will end in March 2019.

Wei Jianglei, senior vice-president of Sina Group and general manager of Sina Sports, said Sina Sports creates influential sports events to attract more people to ice and snow sports, and to improve the general physical fitness of the Chinese population.

The event will gather excellent alpine skiers from all over the country, and is expected to have nearly 50,000 participants. In order to cultivate young people's interest in alpine skiing, the event will also cooperate with the General Administration of Sport of China to hold public welfare activities.

In addition to the domestic race course, the event will expand to Norway and Austria, and domestic players will have the opportunity to work with Norwegian skiers and be trained with expertise from Norwegian ski institutes.

Alpine skiing is one of the most representative events among the 15 in the Winter Olympics, combining speed and technique. However, due to environmental and facility limitations, the sport had a late start in China and is still a niche activity.