The site for the ski and snow freestyle events, located in the middle of an old industrial complex in the western suburbs of Beijing, causes outrage among many spectators. The organizers highlight the successful conversion of the territory, transformed into a “green and ecological” leisure park.
For its big Olympic baptism, the “Big air” was playing big in Beijing. Sold as one of the new attractions of the winter fortnight by an Olympic Committee anxious to federate a new fringe of spectators, the ski and snow freestyle event had to succeed at its Games, driven by its assets: a huge springboard, spectacle, adversity and a good dose of suspense for the medal. Contract so far respected, with the crazy scenario of the women’s freestyle final in the climax, and a first Chinese gold medal to the key.
The acrobatics of Eileen Gu, Tess Ledeux et al. have seduced many. But they have been overshadowed in part by a controversy that has been widely reported on social networks: the site of the competition, unpacked by Chinese organizers in the middle of an industrial wasteland on the western outskirts of Beijing.
A juxtaposition of photos very repeated on the canvas shows an off-piste with the air of dystopian scenery, ideal to shoot a remake of the franchise “Mad max”, quips those who denounce the ecological absurdity of such a choice. “A joke,” “a shame,” “skiing at a nuclear power plant! ?», can be read among other disillusioned comments.
Behind the launch pad of the springboard, which rises to a height of 60 meters, it is impossible not to linger on this greyish expanse where chimneys, blast furnaces and cooling towers mingle, remnants of a gigantic former industrial complex on which China and the IOC thought it a good bet.
Rehabilitation
About fifteen years earlier, the place, which stretches on the shore of Lake Qunming, was the prerogative of the Shougang Group, a huge private steel company. A real flagship of the Chinese industry: as of 2020, it was one of the ten largest producers of steel by tonnage in the country. The giant factory, emblematic of Beijing, was among the largest employers in the capital and its surroundings. Among the most polluting sites, too.
Before the 2008 Olympic Games, several government-initiated economic restructuring and pollution control initiatives forced the group to partially shut down, before moving in 2010 to Caofeidian in neighboring Hebei province.
The local authorities for a time left the site deserted, before rehabilitating it over the years into a vast leisure park – “Shougang Park” – while maintaining its steel industry experience. The city of Beijing considers the site to be a “green and ecological demonstration zone”, which might swarm into other declining territories.
It is in this context that China has received the approval of the IOC to plan the 2022 edition of the Winter Games. The organizers therefore considered it appropriate to install there what is to date the first and only permanent “Big air” site. Too bad if there is a lack of a simulacrum of mountain scenery to give the illusion of being in an altitude resort.
The organizers defend themselves by highlighting the “successful conversion” of the place, in the process of accommodating a complex of office buildings, a museum, a shopping center, cafes as well as a water park. And sports facilities, then. In addition to the springboard, several adjacent historical buildings have been integrated into the Olympic adventure: the training centers have been erected in the middle of the old furnaces, while an old iron ore storage tower currently houses the Beijing 2022 headquarters, which touts the reduced investments of the process, in contrast to other projects created from scratch.
However, in terms of image, the contrast of the site, accentuated by artificial snow, may remain as a good thorn in the side of China and the IOC. Especially since the site of the “Big air” is not the only one to be vilified by opinion. The one in Yanqing, where the alpine skiing events are held at an altitude of 484 m, has been strongly criticized for its location in the heart of the Songshan National Nature Reserve, founded in 1985 to protect its dense forests and meadows.
