Lausanne, Switzerland, January 20, 2020: The International Olympic Committee (www.olympic.org) looks ahead to the next Olympic Winter Games and speaks to one of the star performers at the Winter Youth Olympic Games about her expectations for Beijing 2022.
“Beijing 2022 is a huge opportunity because a lot of people in China are turning their attention to sports that they didn’t know existed before,” said Chinese freestyle skier Eileen Gu Ailing, gold medallist in the women’s halfpipe and silver medallist in the women’s slopestyle at Lausanne 2020.
“Freestyle skiing is a new sport and people are only just learning about it. You can really see the growth of winter sports in China. In the beginning I knew everyone in the ski community; there were about 50 people. Nowadays there are hundreds of thousands of people. The rate at which it’s growing is incredible.”
Beijing 2022 will host seven new winter sport events:
*women’s monobob,
*men’s and women’s freestyle skiing big air,
*mixed team events for freestyle skiing aerials, ski jumping and snowboard cross
*mixed relay in short track speed skating.
Following the trend of the gender-equal YOG in Lausanne, Beijing 2022 is also set to be the most gender-balanced Winter Games yet – 45.44 per cent of the athletes are expected to be women, and more women’s events have been scheduled than ever before.
Given her success in Lausanne, Gu is likely to be regarded as one of China’s most prominent female athletes in Beijing 2022 – a platform that can encourage even more girls and young women in the country to take up winter sports.
"I think it’s important for them to have a role model to look up to but also have someone who really loves sport,” said Gu, a 16-year-old part-time fashion model who was born in Beijing and now attends high school in San Francisco.
“I want to tell people to get on the snow because it’s healthy and fun; whether you’re with friends or pushing yourself to do your best, there really is no feeling like it.
“I want to introduce more Chinese girls to Olympic sports or extreme sports so that they can find their own reference points. Winter sport has so much room for growth in China.”