Ramping up Olympic preparations

Steep learning curve

Maintaining the new venue, which stands 164 meters long and 60 meters tall, will be no easy task.

"To ensure the new venue meets all the requirements, we have been communicating with experts from the IOC, the FIS and the Beijing 2022 Winter Games organizing committee," said Shougang slope official Liu Yuchuan.

"We have collected in-depth analysis on the design of the slope, in terms of all the systems such as protection, lighting and snow preservation. Now the new venue is capable of hosting top-level international events."

Last week's World Cup meet was the first time the new venue, which seats 6,000 spectators, has staged a competition.

"We have used this meet as a chance to train our team and test all the equipment," added Liu. "We asked our team to run this tournament just like the Olympics. We will keep improving and gaining more experience in the coming years to guarantee the quality of the 2022 Games.

"This is a permanent slope that will keep operating even after the Olympics. At the very beginning, we had to consider that it will be used for other winter sports apart from Big Air. It will also be used for national team training.

"We will also explore its business value, such as hosting entertainment activities like music concerts and other extreme sports events like skateboarding and BMX."

With temperatures not quite cold enough last week, Shougang's snowmakers were among the busiest workers at the meet.

"The detachable ramp at the Bird's Nest, which was used in previous years, needed 2,000 cubic meters of snow, but the permanent slope at Shougang needs 6,000－three times as much," said Liu Shuang of the snowmaking team.

"It's more difficult for us given the temperature of Beijing. The original plan was to finish the work in six days and in the end we just had three days to finish. The addition of freeski this year required us to make more snow."