On March 28th, the Chinese Freestyle Skiing Aerials national team and the Chinese Snowboard Halfpipe national team press meeting was held in Beijing. CITIC Guoan who were also present, are reported to have signed a strategic collaboration agreement with the two teams last month. 

The partnership between Guoan and the two teams is considered to be an initiative to realize a strategic collaborative framework agreement reached between the China Winter Sports Management Center, Chinese Ski Association and CITIC Guoan Group, formulated at the beginning of 2018. The strategic collaborative framework agreement is also seen as an effort by CITIC Guoan to assist with the development of Chinese snow sports with guidance from relevant authorities.  

Under the new partnership, Guoan will provide money to support the two national teams to enable better training conditions and also to provide career planning services for the athletes. The aim is to help achieve better results at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games. 

The Chinese Freestyle Skiing Aerials and Snowboard Halfpipe national teams were regarded as the two best-performing disciplines at the recent PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games in South Korea. The Freestyle Skiing Aerials team won two silver medals and one bronze medal while the Snowboard Halfpipe national team marked their first ever Olympic medal with silver in this sport for China. 

According to the Beijing Daily, Guoan President Li Shilin stated that the company would give CNY2m (USD317,884) to the two teams to reward their good performances in PyeongChang. 

The partnership is considered by Executive Deputy Director Mr Ding Dong of the China Winter Sports Management Center as a pioneer in developing Chinese snow sports under guidance from the government and support from society. 

CITIC Guoan Group is a subsidiary of CITIC Group. Up to 2017 the total assets of Guoan Group was CNY200bn (USD3.18m). 

Source: Tencent

Proofread by Raymond Fitzpatrick