Athletes are all smiling and praising quality of Beijing 2022, says IOC official

Special: 2022 Winter Olympics

The Beijing 2022 organizers should really be commended and what has been done is incredible, said Christophe Dubi, Olympic Games Executive Director of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) during an exclusive interview on Sunday.

ALWAYS A SATISFACTION

Dubi introduced that the IOC president Thomas Bach used to have a very important meeting every morning to go through Games coordination, but he called it off just a few days ago, which, as Dubi explained, is "very rare."

"Because we had details that could be worked upon," he added. "The operations were very successful from the very beginning."

"This says a lot about the quality of the organization, the attention to the details," said Dubi. "But in particular, the organizers are doing everything to support the athletes."

"No athletes have said anything critical. On the contrary, they are all smiling and praising the quality of the venues, the quality of the organization, the quality of the accommodation and the food. When the athletes are satisfied, you cannot expect anything more," he said.

As the competition zones started to see extreme weather conditions starting on Saturday, Dubi expressed his confidence in Beijing 2022 to still manage the smooth operations of the Games.

"You have the most advanced weather forecasting system, great operators teaming up with the International Federations and the media, whatever the weather throws at us, we're going to meet the challenge."

As China bid for the rights to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, Dubi had a chance to visit China with the evaluation commission. "I never expected that you would go over and above," Dubi recalled the moment when he was told that the Beijing and Zhangjiakou competition zones would repurpose some existing venues for Beijing 2022.

Dubi went on with the natural CO2 refrigeration systems being used at four Beijing 2022 ice venues as it is "far better than anything we had previously," as well as methods used in the Yanqing competition zone, which "will set up the new standard for the future, including in more traditional winter countries."

NEVER A DOUBT

When being asked if there was a moment of concern about the rescheduling of Beijing 2022, Dubi said "no" without any hesitation.

"When we took the decision to postpone Tokyo, life was suspended. Everybody was confined at home, everything stopped including sports.

Then throughout the summer of 2020, sports resumed, a number of competitions were organized under different circumstances. And we started to see it's possible to host an event on a smaller scale. And then we learned a lot from Tokyo."

"But without the concern of any postponement or big impact, we've never ever had any doubt that it (Beijing 2022) would be delivered," Dubi said.

Dubi also admitted that the degree of sophistication to deliver the Games amid COVID-19 from an operational standpoint as it would already require hundreds of policies and procedures under normal circumstances, not to mention the pandemic.

"We have to understand all the complexity from the administration to come to China and then operate in the closed-loop," Dubi said. "All of this is immensely complicated."

As some have claimed that it is impossible to experience Beijing and China in a closed-loop, Dubi shared a different point of view.

"The number one objective was to hold the Games in a safe way, and the closed-loop is delivering exactly that," he said. "And we are interacting with the citizen of Beijing through the volunteers, the organizing committee and the technical officials. It's an experience of the Olympic Games in times of COVID-19. But number one, everybody is safe."

After China's successful bid on the 2008 Summer Olympics, Dubi has witnessed China's increasing winter sports population and growing winter sports industry through his visits to China in the past few years.

"What amazed me at the time and continue to amaze me today is the dynamism, the incredible will of China and Beijing as a city to develop itself to constantly strive for improvement," Dubi noted.

"I can imagine that after the success of 2008 and 2022 [Olympic Games], China will continue to be incredibly successful."