GOALS IN SIGHT AS CHINA LACES UP ITS SKATES

Ahead of 2022 Winter Olympics, ice hockey's profile growing along with increasing fan base

Despite the oppressive heat outside the winter sports facility, the ice rink at the Aozhong Sports Center in northeast Beijing was bustling with children hoping to learn the finer points of ice hockey during a summer camp.

If not for their parents yelling out encouragement in Chinese, the scene at the rink could just as well have been a youth ice hockey scrimmage in North America as the children's shouts, the coaches barking out instructions in English, and the sounds of skates cutting across the frozen surface echoed throughout the vast venue.