Harbin (TDI): Chinese President Xi Jinping opened the 9th Asian Winter Games in Harbin on Friday night during a festive ceremony celebrating the city’s rich ice and snow culture.
Around 8,000 spectators at the Harbin International Conference, Exhibition and Sports Center burst into cheers as Xi inaugurated the Games in the presence of visiting dignitaries, including International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach.
The opening ceremony reached its climax when 4 torchbearers – two-time Olympic champion and short track speed skater Yang Yang, China’s first male Winter Olympic gold medalist and freestyle skier Han Xiaopeng, Olympic race walk champion Wang Zhen, and Sochi Winter Olympics speed skating champion Zhang Hong – joined by children holding ice lanterns, lit the lilac-shaped cauldron at the opening ceremony’s sub-venue, Harbin Ice and Snow World, the world’s largest ice and snow theme park.
Scheduled from February 7 to 14, the Harbin Games, with the slogan “Dream of Winter, Love among Asia,” represents another major global winter sports event hosted by China following the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022.
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It also marks China’s third time hosting the AWG, following Harbin 1996 and Changchun 2007.
A record 34 nations and regions are competing in games, breaking the previous high record set at the Eighth AWG in Sapporo, Japan in 2017.
More than 1,200 athletes are competing in the ice events in Harbin and snow events in Yabuli, marking an increase from the previous record of 1,147 at the Sapporo AWG.
Timothy Fok Tsun-ting, First Vice President of the Olympic Council of Asia, thanked the Chinese organizers for their joint efforts in bringing the Asian Winter Games back to the city after 29 years.
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“In just eighteen months, you have transformed Harbin into a Winter Wonderland – a wonderful achievement!” Fok said in his speech.
Fok also congratulated China’s remarkable achievements in introducing more than 300 million people to the joy of winter sports in recent years.
