BEIJING / SHENYANG -- International test events for the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games will start Friday.
About 2,000 athletes, team officials and other personnel from China and overseas are expected to participate in 10 international competitions, in sports such as ski jumping, that will last through the end of this year. The organizing committee has said it will adopt a "closed-loop" bubble system during the test events to prevent athletes and other Games-related people from interacting with people outside the bubble, as part of measures against the novel coronavirus.
The committee aims to identify relevant issues through the test events, in preparation for the Games to be held in February and March.
The National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing, where speed skating competitions will start Friday, is surrounded by fences. Security guards were standing at an entrance to the venue, and equipment had been installed at a gate to check accreditation passes. A signboard calls for people to adhere to the rules, such as wearing a mask and keeping one meter away from others.
"It's natural to implement strict measures," a Games-related official said.
The test events will be held in Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou, where competitions for the Beijing Games are scheduled to take place. The organizing committee plans to allow spectators living on the Chinese mainland to attend some of the test events.
The bubble system is intended to restrict athletes and other Games participants to moving between competition venues and accommodation facilities. The organizing committee dispatched about 30 personnel to the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics to observe how it handled inspections and other operations.
During the Tokyo Games, some Games-related people were seen walking side by side with ordinary people at an airport after their arrival. One issue for the Beijing Games organizing committee will be whether it can thoroughly control the activities of athletes and other participants.
"The test events provide us with a last opportunity to check all factors in preparations," Yao Hui, the venue management director for the Beijing Games, said at a press conference on Monday. "We'll identify all the problems and improve our measures against the coronavirus."
The cumulative number of people infected with the virus in mainland China is over 96,000, which is lower than Japan with about 1.7 million cases and South Korea with about 320,000. The administration of Chinese President Xi Jinping has managed to almost completely stop the spread of the virus through such measures as strictly quarantining people who enter the country, so Beijing apparently wants to prevent the virus from coming into the country.
Its concern can also be attributed to the fact that Chinese-made vaccines are believed to be less effective against the delta coronavirus variant, which was first discovered in India and has spread across the globe.
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