Organizers guarantee Games will be inclusive

Organizers of the Beijing Paralympic Winter Games have pledged to stage an inclusive and accessible event in 2022 to help improve the participation and well-being of disabled people.

Located across three zones in downtown Beijing, the city's Yanqing district and the co-host city of Zhangjiakou, Hebei province, all of the five competition venues for six winter para-sports at the Games were completed by the end of last year, the Beijing 2022 organizing committee said on Tuesday.

Three snow sports venues－the National Alpine Ski Center in Yanqing, and the National Biathlon Center and Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou－underwent tests on their competition courses and barrier-free facilities during a series of domestic competitions last month, according to organizers.

The other two ice venues, the National Aquatics Center and the National Indoor Stadium in Beijing, for wheelchair curling and para-ice hockey, will be evaluated in test runs in April.

Construction and refurbishment of 25 non-competition venues for media operations, ceremonies and accommodation will be completed by August, laying a solid foundation for the 10-day Paralympics to open on March 4, 2022.

"The test events have helped our operational staff gain invaluable practical experience to better run the Games from the perspective of all para-athletes," Yang Jinkui, Beijing 2022's director for the Paralympic Games, said at a media briefing on Tuesday as part of the one-year countdown celebration.

"Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, preparatory work for the Games has been progressing well on all fronts," he added.

Due to international travel restrictions and varying virus prevention protocols in different countries, the organizers of the Games, the International Paralympic Committee, and related winter sports federations had to postpone a series of large-scale test events involving foreign participants until later this year.

Chinese para-athletes' preparations for the event have also been affected by the pandemic with the cancellation of overseas trips to international competitions and some of their foreign coaches locked out of China, according to the sports department of the China Disabled Persons' Federation.

"We have adjusted our training programs and applied stringent antivirus protocols to ensure that we prepare our athletes as much as possible under such circumstances," said Yong Zhijun, the sports department's director of competition and training.

Barrier-free service

With preparations for the Paralympics gaining momentum, Beijing is also renovating barrier-free facilities across the city and promoting education on inclusiveness to increase the level of accessibility, continuing the 2008 Summer Paralympic Games' legacy to help improve the well-being of disabled people.

As a highlight of the work, Beijing 2022 organizers released an illustrated version of barrier-free service guidelines for the Games in September, which detail the renovation of urban infrastructure which will provide greater accessibility during the Games and beyond.

Since November 2019, Beijing has repaired 7,031 sidewalk sections for visually impaired pedestrians and renovated Braille signs at 11,911 bus stops, subway stations and parking lots, according to the city's disabled persons' federation.