High praise

"They are all professional at the maximum level. The result is to see only the happy smiling faces of the athletes at the end of each run. That's the most important thing."

Normunds Kotans, a former Latvian bobsledder turned technical official, was highly impressed by the newly built National Sliding Center in Yanqing after monitoring runs in women's monobob.

"From a number of different perspectives, Yanqing sliding center is the greatest venue I have been to and worked at. There are a lot of advantages here," said Kotans.

"There are very good facilities for athletes. Everything is very thought through for the athletes. So I'm sure that everyone who will come here will really enjoy this venue."