China Daily won a gold award of the Olympic Golden Rings Awards

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced the winners of this year's prestigious Olympic Golden Rings awards during a ceremony at Olympic House, honoring the best broadcast coverage of the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022. China Daily has been awarded a gold award in the Best Social Media and Fan Engagement category, for it's coverage on a fan-made music video by British songwriter/producer and Beijing-resident Bill Neenan.

In late 2021, Bill Neenan approached China Daily reporter Nathan Williams to help shoot and direct a music video for his song "Jia You". With a shoestring budget of 50RMB ($10 dollars) for props, Nathan and Scotland-born cinematographer Morag Hobbs set about making a home-made music video to bring the spirit of the song to life. What later followed was a short "making-of" documentary that explained the inspiration of the song and why "Jia You" was such an important message of international cooperation and Olympic values.

"Delighted that the music video of my song 'Jia You!' directed by Nathan Williams, together with the China Daily 'making of' video, won a Gold medal at the International Olympic Committee's Olympic Golden Rings Awards last night in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Congratulations to the talented people who helped make it happen: Nathan Williams, director; Morag Hobbs, cinematographer; John Thompson/MoonSound Productions, mixing and mastering; Wang Hao, Ke Rongyi, He Na, documentary producers; Stephanie Stone, documentary presenter; actors Cindy Zhang Lønning and Richard Tse; singers Chu Qiao and Jade Lin.

"Thank you so much for your talent and generosity," said Neenan, songwriter and music producer.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced the winners of the prestigious award for the best broadcast coverage of the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 on Nov 30 Central European Time (CET) in Lausanne, Switzerland. Awards were presented across ten categories at the Olympic House, the headquarters of the IOC in Lausanne, for Best Athlete Profile; Best Example of Equality and Inclusion; Best Olympic Feature and Documentary; Best Innovation and Set Design; Best Olympic Programme; Best Host Production; Best On-Air Promotion; Best Social Media and Fan Engagement and Most Sustainable Operation.

In the early hours of Thursday morning, Dec 1,Beijing Time, China Daily reporter Nathan Williams was linked in to the International Olympic Committee's Golden Rings Award 2022, joined by Bill Neenan to hear the results. "It's an incredible honor to win something that recognizes the international ethos of what the Olympics represents; celebrating China Daily's coverage of the Olympics is a great reminder of the values of excellence that is shared around the world and unites us all," said Nathan Williams.