Here’s How China Repurposed 2008 Summer Olympic Venues For The Winter Games (Photos)

Topline

Beijing is the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics, and China has revamped many of the venues from the 2008 Games for the 2022 competitions – here’s how organizers did it.

Key Facts

The Olympic Stadium in Beijing – better known as the “Bird’s Nest” – will host the opening and closing ceremonies this month as it did for the 2008 Games, though this time around it will not host any athletic competitions. 

“The Water Cube,” or The National Aquatics Center, which was used for swimming events in 2008, has been revamped as the “Ice Cube” and will host curling matches.

The Beijing National Indoor Stadium and Wu Ke Song Sports Center – which in 2008 hosted trampoline and gymnastics competitions and basketball, respectively – will host the 2022 Games’ ice hockey matches.

The Capital Indoor Stadium, where volleyball teams competed in in 2008, has been repurposed for figure skating and short track speed skating in 2022.

Three new Olympic Villages – in northern Beijing, and at the satellite sites in Yanqing and Zhangjiakou – were constructed to house athletes and officials (accommodation from the 2008 Games had already been sold on the private market.)

The only major new indoor venue built for the Winter Olympics is the National Speed Skating Oval, nicknamed the “Ice Ribbon,” that was built on the previous site of the archery and hockey venues of the 2008 Games (China built new outdoor venues for skeleton, luge and alpine skiing in Yanqing and sites for skiing, snowboarding and biathlon in Zhangjiakou).

What To Watch For

After the Games end, the Olympic Village in Beijing will be converted into apartments – like the housing from 2008 – while the satellite sites in Yanqing and Zhangjiakou will be renovated into hotels, apartments and other businesses to support a push to turn the region into a winter sports destination. 

Big Number

$3.9 billion. That’s how much the 2022 Winter Games will cost, according to China, which would make the competition one of the cheapest in Olympic history. However, an Insider investigation placed the price tag in excess of $38.5 billion.

Key Background

The opening ceremony on Friday will kick off just more than two weeks of winter sport competitions amid controversy. A number of countries are staging diplomatic boycotts of the Games over China’s human rights track record – particularly regarding the country’s treatment of the Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities – including the U.S., Japan, the Netherlands, and Denmark. Some 46% of Americans say they support the diplomatic boycott, according to a poll released Tuesday. A handful of athletes have already been pulled from competition after testing positive for coronavirus.

Further Reading

10 Things You Didn’t Know, Or Forgot, About The Beijing Olympics That Have Nothing To Do With Triple Axels (Forbes)

Poll Finds 46% Of Americans Support Diplomatic Boycott Of Beijing Olympics (Forbes)

Olympic Covid Pullouts: Russian Biathlete, Skeleton Athletes Latest To Be Out. Here’s The Full List. (Forbes)

Shaun White And Other Olympians Show Off Olympic Swag On Social Media (Forbes)

Here’s What Happens To Olympic Villages After The Games End (Forbes)