Program stokes winter sports fervor in schools

As Beijing prepares the 2022 Winter Olympics, local authorities have rolled out a series of winter activity programs to promote mass sports in schools and communities.

The Beijing Education Commission, the Beijing Bureau of Sports and the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games recently released a policy calling on primary and secondary schools across the city to incorporate the Winter Olympics into their curricula, with at least three classes a month.

The policy encourages the schools to cooperate with social sporting institutions to offer winter sports programs. Special schools are also incentivized to offer suitable related training to students with disabilities. Training programs to improve teachers' skills at various winter sports, such as skating and skiing, are also included in the policy.

The guideline calls on the city's education departments to increase investment in winter sports projects and improve the mechanism to purchase public services.

The primary and secondary students are encouraged to add personnel, improve technology and spend more on Olympic education and winter sports.

A winter sports center in Shijingshan district opened last year to allow students and residents to take part in such activities at any time of the year. The center also serves as an educational hub for the primary and secondary school students, offering winter sports training including skiing, ice hockey and curling.

As of June 2017, Beijing had designated 52 schools featuring winter sports education in 16 districts, aimed at normalizing winter sports education including floorball - a type of hockey - and ice skating. Plans call for the number of participating schools to grow to 100 this year, local officials said.

In recent years, nearly 140,000 students in Beijing have taken part in skiing and skating and schools from districts including Dongcheng, Haidian and Pinggu have also set up related courses, according to an official of the Beijing Education Commission.

By 2021, Beijing is expected to designate an additional 200 pilot schools for the Winter Olympics education, according to the guideline.

At the same time, the enthusiasm for winter sports inspired by the Olympics has expanded to local communities.

One example of the efforts is a Winter Olympics promotional event targeted at communities. Launched by the sports bureau of Chaoyang district, it is aimed at promoting mass sports and boosting interest in the Winter Olympic Games.

A first event took place at the Olympic Forest Park in mid-April; the second took place at the Beixiaohe Park in June.

The events will run throughout the year, with 50 such activities planned. The campaign will serve to improve people's quality of life and increase the Winter Olympics awareness through various activities including introducing winter sports projects to communities, villages and public gathering places, according to organizers.

More than 10,000 people are expected to participate in the event, they added.

liangkaiyan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 07/31/2018 page7)