China and Germany talk about winter sport
The 7th Sino-German Sport Symposium is currently being held at Shanghai University of Sport.
As China will host the Olympic Winter Games in 2022 in Beijing, participants from China and Germany introduced the conditions of development and facilities for winter sports in their own countries, to help explore opportunities for cooperation.
Chen Yan, an official at China’s General Administration of Sport, said winter sport was a key topic for this year’s event and China could learn much from Germany on the topic.
“China is young when it comes to winter sport,” said Chen. “We have some outstanding games, such as short track speed skating, but winter sport has seven categories of games and we are still absent in many, such as those using the sleigh.”
“But Germany is strong in the field and they won six gold medals in the Sochi 2014 Winter Games,” she added. “So we can have deeper communication with Germany in athlete cultivation, venue management, market development, popularization of the games and other aspects of winter sport.”
Karl Quade, the head of Division International Sport Affairs of the German Federal Ministry of Interior, also pointed out that there could be a big improvement in China in terms of winter sport.
He said China had some outstanding athletes on ice but not so many top athletes on snow, such as ski jumping.
“Also, there is not that much knowledge in China of the organization of such events,” he added. “Therefore, not only with Germany, but also in cooperation with other countries, I’d like to see China improve its winter sport. There are so many people in China — they should discover winter sport, it’s a nice area."
Since 2009, the symposium has been held six times, with participants talking about topics including sport administration, related law and regulations, sport medicine, sport facilities and the psychology of athletes.
Chen Yan, an official at China’s General Administration of Sport, speaks at the symposium.
