China: Olympic athletes praise Beijing 2022 venues

 

The interior view of the National Speed Skating Oval, locally known as the "Ice Ribbon", in Beijing. [WEI XIAOHAO/CHINA DAILY]

Britteny Cox, Australian freestyle moguls skier

"I was amazed at the training facility. The course was impeccable, and it was basically a dream course to ski. We only had an hour of training, and I just tried to fit in as many runs as I possibly could because I was having so much fun out there."

Nike Page, United States freestyle moguls skier

"We never see a course that's this perfectly built that often. There's so much time and energy that went into building a pretty and pristine course that we got honored. It's nice to go out there and light it up because it's so well built."

Jennifer Dodds, Great Britain curling athlete

"I like how you still have the small bits of Beijing 2008 - you have the diving boards behind the screens and stuff like that. It's nice that you can see the summer Olympics and the Winter Olympics in the same building - that's really cool. I remember watching in 2008, Rebecca Adlington winning her two gold medals for Great Britain, so there's definitely history in this building."

Victoria Persinger, United States curling athlete

"It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. It's going to be such an honor to play in that building.

"To pull up to that venue yesterday was one of the coolest things. The architecture on that building is one of a kind, and of course we're thinking about American Olympic history as we're pulling up there.

"I love to see these venues be re-used like this, utilizing what's already there. Just walking in the building, you have a little essence of (swimming) pool everywhere, there's a floor drain and tiles, and big mosaic of a koi fish in our dressing room, you can definitely tell it was once a pool."

Sven Thorgren, Swedish snowboard slopestyle athlete

"It was way better than I expected after having seen the course. It's way steeper and bigger than I thought. So I'm very pleased with it, especially with the snow. Even though it's very cold, the snow is grippy but not icy, and feels like Colorado's snow. It's good for us."

Source : China Daily 

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