Interview: FIS Secretary General welcomes more Chinese participants in snow sports

"So exciting! Wonderful! Great news!" Sarah Lewis, Secretary General of the International Ski Federation (FIS), acclaimed when she referred to the surprise medals won by Chinese athletes at the ongoing Winter Youth Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway.

The breakthroughs made by Chinese young athletes in cross country skiing and biathlon, disciplines traditionally dominated by western players, were a reflection of the Chinese efforts to upgrade the snow sport level to greet the Winter Olympic Games 2022 to be held in Beijing.

"This is going to stimulate more interest," Lewis said in an interview with Xinhua when she attended a pre-world championship event in Lahti, central Finland on Friday.

She said the many winter sport associations from all over the world will be keen to support and help the emerging Chinese teams.

JUST STARTING

"Things are starting," said Lewis.

Besides the preparation work to ensure the venues in place and structures in perfect conditions, a key factor to make a major event like the Winter Olympics successful is to have wonderful native athletes performing, Lewis noted.

This will attract more spectators, arouse a great interest in the media, and thus create better atmosphere and promote the culture of winter sports.

But China has to accomplish it from scratch.

While having achieved good results in ice skating, Chinese athletes have rarely shown strength in disciplines such as cross country skiing, alpine skiing, snowboarding or biathlon.

Lower level competitions had been organized throughout the country for years before things started to accelerate. "Freestyle events are carried out every year at the Bird's Nest ... some snowboarding events also. There is experience in China, but not in all the different events."

"Now it is progressing to the level of the Far East Cup or the Continental Cup, which is underneath the World Cup," Lewis saw it as a positive sign in building up experience.

MORE PARTICIPANTS EXPECTED

After 16-year-old Zhu Zhenyu won a gold medal in biathlon mix relay on Wednesday, he called for more participants in skiing.

Lewis echoed the Chinese medalist, saying that it is also the Federation's goal to encourage more people taking part in the snow sports.

On Jan. 17, Lewis attended a ceremony in China celebrating the fourth World Snow Day and opened the children's snow festival in the country. This year's Snow Day was said to be the most successful ever, with 645 events held in 45 countries and estimated 600,000 people participating.

"You could see how much fun they were having, how much pleasure they were enjoying," Lewis recalled the event in Hebei, China. The festival was carried out simultaneously in some 20 ski areas all over China.

The Chinese government has planned to have 300 million new participants by the year 2022. "This is a tremendous goal, which means there will be a lot of work done from now until 2022," noted Lewis.

China, with its huge population and big desire to develop winter sports, can be a blessing for the world too.

"It is a great thing for the sport to have a new nation like China very active in winter sports," said Lewis. She said it will be a good message for the ski industry and also for ski areas all over the world. Endit