Hosting of event to entail higher national level of winter sports, says president

President Xi Jinping has stressed the importance of enabling greater public participation in winter sports, saying he is fully confident of the Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games' success.

Speaking during an inspection tour of the preparatory work for the Games on Monday－the fourth tour in the past four years－Xi reiterated the importance of promoting winter sports as part of a broader push to develop the nation into a global sporting power.

The foundation of building a sporting powerhouse lies in mass-participation sports and China's hosting of the Games should entail a higher national level of winter sports, especially snow sports, said Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

Xi visited the Capital Gymnasium－the venue for skating events－in Beijing's Haidian district, where he spoke with athletes and coaches of China's national figure skating and short-track speedskating teams.