Shanghai to be host city for Olympic qualification tournament

Shanghai will be one of the host cities for holding the Olympic qualification tournament, according to local officials Tuesday.

The Olympic qualification races for Freestyle BMX, skateboarding, breakdancing and sport climbing will be held from May 16 to 19, 2024 at the Huangpu riverfront in Shanghai, said Xie Dong, vice-mayor of Shanghai, during the press conference on Tuesday.

"The event will promote Shanghai's international sporting exchange, further promoting the city as an international metropolis," Xie said.

Shanghai will continue to organize new events along the riverfront. The Shanghai leg of the FISE World Series, a worldwide extreme sports tour, will be held on the west bank of the river in October 2024.

Shanghai plans to originate a cycling race in September 2024, with about 22 teams from all over the world invited to compete in the professional category, while an amateur category will be set up to provide cycling enthusiasts with a platform for the races.

This year, a total of 121 major international and domestic events have been and will be held in Shanghai, 19 of which will take place in October.

The municipal government issued the Outline for the Construction of Shanghai World Famous Sports City in November 2020, proposing to basically build Shanghai into a world-famous sports city by 2025, advance to a higher level by 2035, and complete the project by 2050.

The idea of "fitness everywhere, fitness for all, and fitness every day" sums up the objective of creating a higher-level national fitness service system, said Xu Bin, director of the Shanghai sports bureau.

Shanghai has proposed that there will be 35 sports and fitness organizations for every 10,000 people, 57 percent of people consistently engaging in physical activities and 98 percent of individuals being physically fit enough to meet national standards in the city by 2035.

"These indicators represent both our commitment to and confidence in the development of Shanghai's fitness," said Xu.

Shanghai ranks among the top cities in the nation with 29.6 sports and fitness groups per 10,000 residents. The city has also been a front-runner in the previous four national physique monitoring, Xie said.

There are currently 48,176 registered youth athletes in Shanghai, and about 200,000 teenagers in the city participate in sports activities every year.

Zheng Zheng contributed to this story.