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Beijing ice sports venue to operate at one-fifth capacity during Winter Olympics

Beijing ice sports venue to operate at one-fifth capacity during Winter Olympics
November 12, 2021

Beijing’s landmark ‘Ice Cube’ venue will likely run at around one-fifth spectator capacity during the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, according to the venue’s manager.

Developed as the main aquatic sports venue for Beijing’s staging of the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2008, and widely known as the ‘Water Cube’, the venue has been repurposed to host curling as a 4,600-seat arena for Beijing 2022.

While Chinese Games officials advised in September that only Chinese residents will be able to attend Games’ event, ticketing details have yet to be released, and there has not previously been any indication of what capacities will be allowed at venues.

However, speaking to China’s Global Times newspaper this week, Yang Qiyong, General Manager of the venue, advised “for the Winter Olympic curling events in the main competition area in the Ice Cube, attendance is expected to be no more than 1,000 people.”

With Beijing Games organisers having sought to repurpose existing venues to reduce the cost of hosting the Winter Olympics and Paralympics, the Water Cube has been adapted  with “traditional Chinese wisdom” to retain the Summer Olympic memories, according to Sun Weihua, Head of the Curling Renovation Project at the venue.

Also speaking to the Global Times, Sun advised “the International Olympic Committee initially suggested that we fill in the main pool and turn it into an ice rink. But given that the pool has captured the memories of many athletes and spectators over the years, we wanted to keep it.”

Sun said the venue is now the only such facility in the world that can switch “between water and ice”, with its pool and ice rink able to be swapped over in 19 days.

The venue became the first to be completed for the Winter Games when renovations were completed in November 2020.

Following the Winter Games, the arena will rotate through the year serving the general public according to the summer and winter sports seasons.

The Winter Olympics are being held from 4th to 20th February while the Winter Paralympics run from 4th to 13th March.

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