Cold sports heating up in Zhangjiakou

Students from Xuanhua No 2 Middle School in Xuanhua district of Zhangjiakou, Hebei province, take a picture together after completing a citywide winter sports game during the 2019-20 snow season. [Provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

With the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympic Winter Games drawing near, co-host city Zhangjiakou, Hebei province, is creating a sensation among the younger generation.

As of the end of June, the winter sports craze had extended to all the city's primary and secondary schools, characterized by Olympic knowledge among students, the city's bureau of education said.

"Each of the city's 600 primary and secondary schools has launched educational courses about the history of the Games and other details," said Zhao Deyong, an official in the city's education bureau.

For practice, students will go to a ski resort to learn how to play properly in snow and ice, while in summer they participate in activities related to winter but without the snow and ice — roller-skating and land-curling, for example — Zhao said, adding that the activities have become a regular part of schools' physical education classes.

Students from Xuanhua No 2 Middle School in Xuanhua district of Zhangjiakou, Hebei province, learn skateboarding from a foreign instructor. [Provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Since China's successful bid in 2015 to host the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, Zhangjiakou has energetically taken up the task of promoting winter sports to the young.

Before 2015, there were no Olympic education courses in schools, no teachers and no coaches, Zhao said, "but great efforts have been made to change the situation in recent years."

The city's education bureau pulled experts together to write a book in 2015 — Olympic Education Reader for Primary and Secondary Schools — which is used in schools.

The city boasts more than 100 schools that are specialized in teaching ice and snow sports or focused on Olympic knowledge. The number is nearly equal to that of Beijing, Zhangjiakou Daily reported.

Various winter sports activities and games have been organized for primary and secondary school students for several consecutive years in which more than 400,000 students have been involved, the bureau said.