Beijing, Feb. 3 (BNA): Chinese President Xi Jinping said today, Thursday, that the Beijing Olympics, which will officially open on Friday, will be streamlined, safe and wonderful, as the President of the International Olympic Committee denounced the ghosts of the province “that raise their ugly heads again.”
Addressing the IOC session in the capital via a short video message, Xi said China has played an active role in the Olympic movement since the 2008 Summer Olympics.
For these Winter Games, China has participated 300 million Chinese in winter sports as promised, he said.
“From ‘One World, One Dream’ in 2008 to ‘Together for a Common Future’ in 2022, China has played an active role in the Olympic movement and has consistently championed the Olympic spirit,” he said.
“The Winter Olympics will open tomorrow night. The world is turning its attention to China and China is ready. We will do our best to bring a simple, safe and wonderful Games to the world.”
The Chinese capital will become the first city to host the Summer and Winter Olympics.
IOC President Thomas Bach has repeatedly defended his organization’s choice of the 2022 Olympics, saying the IOC is neither a political body nor its mandate to influence laws in sovereign nations.
On Thursday, he said that in the two years leading up to the Beijing Olympics, he saw “dark clouds of the increasingly politicized sport on the horizon,” according to Reuters.
“We’ve also seen that in the minds of some people the county ghosts of the past were raising their ugly heads again,” Bach said.
The 1976, 1980, and 1984 Olympics were subject to boycotts of nations during the Cold War era, severely affecting the event’s universality and its finances.
“This is why we are working even harder to communicate this unified mission of the Olympic Games to as many leaders and decision-makers as possible,” Bach said.
He also referred to what he described as the major business opportunities created by these games, which are expected to change the global winter sports industry.
“Today we can say that China is a country for winter sports. That is why Beijing 2022 will be the beginning of a new era for global winter sports,” Bach said.
He estimated China’s winter sports industry to be worth $150 billion by 2025.
“From this phenomenal growth, the worldwide winter sports industry will benefit,” Bach said.
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