Fabric of success: Sportswear tech powers nation's Olympians

Another winter sports veteran impressed by how technology will power Chinese athletes at Beijing 2022 is Ye Qiaobo－the speed skater who won China's first ever Winter Olympics medal, a silver, at the 1992 Games in Albertville, France.

"Since retiring, I've been working in the winter sports sector and sportswear development has always been a focus. So, I've expanded my knowledge learning about the sportswear that Team China athletes will use at the Beijing Winter Olympics," Ye said at Friday's launch.

"For example, the sportswear for the curling team uses high-resilience materials and can repel static electricity, which can affect the action on the ice. And in terms of the skeleton, the outfits are customized to each athlete's body shape and racing style. All these technologies were almost unthinkable back in my day.

"I'm looking forward to the Beijing Winter Olympics. I will pay particular attention to speed skating. In terms of the current generation of athletes, I am expecting big things from young stars such as Gao Tingyu, Wu Dajing, Ren Ziwei and Gu Ailing. They all have great potential and talent."

Star artistic gymnast Zou Jingyuan, who won gold at last year's Tokyo Olympics, was also a guest at Friday's launch, and wished all China's winter sports aces the best of luck.

"After seeing the Winter Olympics podium uniform for the first time, it feels very similar to our uniform at the Tokyo Games. But upon closer inspection, it's easy to identify the differences," said Zou.

"As an artistic gymnast, I like winter sports that require great physical skill, such as figure skating and freestyle skiing."

Anta also produced Team China's podium uniform at the Tokyo Olympics, with both the Summer and Winter Games designs the brainchild of Oscar-winning art director Ye Jintian, aka Tim Yip.

"The design for the podium uniform is inspired by traditional Chinese culture. As the host nation, we will welcome friends from across the globe to the Beijing Winter Olympics. So this will be a great chance for us to showcase Chinese culture and the latest sports technology to the world," said the designer.

"At the very beginning, we came up with an overall plan to design the two podium uniforms. We wanted to have the same philosophy for the uniforms at the Summer and Winter Games.

"Hosting the Winter Olympics is very significant for us. I believe the Beijing Winter Games will be really special, and I wish the best of luck to our athletes and hope they shine and make breakthroughs."