As Italy hosts the Winter Olympics, China’s rise in ice and snow sports gives event added strength

As yet another Winter Olympics raised its curtain in Italy, the surging global anticipation for the ice and snow sports extravaganza owes a fair share of credit to the Games’ previous host, China.

Thanks to the promotion of winter sports in China leading up to Beijing 2022 and beyond, the Milano-Cortina 2026 edition, which opened at Milan’s iconic San Siro Stadium on Feb 6, has a huge new fan base tuning in to the 19-day celebration of athletic feats and friendship, with winter sports in general having engaged with at least 346 million new participants from China, a goal confirmed by official statistics in October 2021, and still counting.

Just check the bustling scenes of ski resorts across the Chinese capital and it is quite obvious that the legacy of Beijing 2022 remains very much alive.

Despite temperatures plummeting below zero, the bustling scenes at the National Alpine Ski Center in northwest Beijing’s Yanqing district, an official competition venue for the 2022 Games, boded well for a robust business season, with skiers and snowboarders queuing up at the gondola station from about 9 am on Jan 31, and all three parking lots at the foot of the resort already full before lunchtime.

Just midway through the 2025-26 winter, the number of customers visiting the center has increased by about 50 percent compared with the same period last year, with the total number estimated to well surpass last season’s record of 200,000, according to deputy general manager Chen Hongyan.

“We are expecting much more during Spring Festival, and to have the Olympics overlapping with the holidays is for sure a bonus for business,” said Chen.

Highlighted by similar examples at mountain resorts and skating rinks across the country, the strong pace of growth in China’s winter sports sector, which is targeting a total market value of 1.5 trillion yuan ($216 billion) by the end of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period, according to a State Council (China’s Cabinet) guideline issued in November 2024, has gone beyond some of the boldest predictions made before Beijing 2022.

These assets are paying dividends just as envisioned by President Xi Jinping, who has personally devised, planned and advanced China’s winter sports promotion since the bidding phase of Beijing 2022, as a boost for mass fitness and a new driver for economic growth.

International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry is among the admirers of China’s innovative way of promoting the ice and snow sports industry overseen by Xi, whom she described as an “older brother” when talking about sports with her during their first official meeting at the 15th Chinese National Games, in Guangzhou, in November.

“He was just so warm and so genuine when he spoke about sports, you can just see the passion,” Coventry, the IOC’s first-ever female leader, elected in March 2025, told China Media Group.

“It was really wonderful to see him talk with such conviction about how sport can help drive economy and community,” said Coventry, a 42-year-old retired Olympic champion swimmer representing Zimbabwe.

Citing the surprise of revisiting her triumphant pool at Beijing’s National Aquatics Center for curling events at the 2022 Winter Games, Coventry, who defended her Olympic gold in the 200m backstroke at the 2008 Beijing Summer Games, hailed China’s innovative practice of promoting winter sports as a solution worthy of learning by the world.

“To see venues being used in a multipurpose way between summer and winter sports, where I think a lot of people wonder how do you do that, it’s just showing a different level of sustainability and a huge legacy, so there is so much we, as an entire movement, can learn from China,” she said.

With China’s 126-athlete delegation primed to maintain its medal-laden performance at Milano-Cortina 2026, a new wave of interest in winter sports is expected to sweep across the country, driven by exposure at the elite level, said experts.

Four years after making the country proud by winning a record nine gold medals in Beijing, the Chinese winter sports delegation is going all out to compete for its best-ever medal haul at an overseas edition of the Games.

The team is competing in 91 of the 116 medal events across 16 sports disciplines in Italy, with huge attention focused on the gold defense of China’s star athletes, such as freestyle skier Gu Ailing in the women’s half-pipe, snowboarding phenom Su Yiming in the men’s big air, and speed skater Gao Tingyu in the men’s 500m.

The Winter Olympics come as the pinnacle of a busy international season, which has seen six legs of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation World Cup series and three International Skating Union meets held in China since September.

With more Chinese champions to be crowned and more international events to be held, the revenue of the country’s increasing number of winter sports resorts and facilities is expected to continue growing.

“Ice and snow sports and relevant leisure activities have become the most trending, and the fastest-growing, events among all outdoor sports. The Olympics are definitely going to galvanize on that boom,” said Yang Xuedong, director of the sports economy department of the General Administration of Sport of China.

According to Huo Jianjun, director-general of the China Tourist Attractions Association, winter sports tourism is predicted to generate an estimated total revenue of 630 billion yuan from ticketing, accommodation, catering and other relevant services by the end of the 2025-26 season.

China’s technological progress is also pushing winter sports to break seasonal and geographic boundaries, with new solutions diversifying business offerings at both indoor and outdoor venues, said Hao Lishun, an official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. 

Contact the writers at sunxiaochen@chinadaily.com.cn