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‍‍When the IOC President, Thomas Bach, announced that Beijing won the bid for the 2022 Olympic Games, Beijing became the focus of the world once again. 

Liu Jingming, vice head of Beijing Olympic City Development Association, pointed out that hosting the 2022 Olympic Games would surely boost the sports industry. Last year, the State Council clearly put forward in Several Opinions on Speeding up Development of Sports Industry and Promoting Sports Consumption that the sports industry should amount to 5000 billion yuan by 2025. “Winter sports are an important part of the sports industry. Experts predict that the 2022 Olympic Games will generate output value worth 300 billion yuan, contributing a lot to the national economic development,” Liu said.

“China will strive to make people participating in winter sports increase to 300 million people by 2022,” Zhao Yinggang, Director of China Winter Sports Administration Center, said.

As surveyed, in western developed countries, people participating in skiing make up 30 percent of the whole population while in Beijing where the infrastructure is better than most cities in China, the proportion is less than 5 percent. “By grasping the opportunities the 2022 Olympic Games brings about, we can make winter sports that is mostly engaged by professional athletes become popular among the whole nation,” Fan Jun, chairman of Beijing Century Star Skating Club told reporters.‍‍

Source: people.cn